Kool-Aide Play Dough

2 1/2 C. Flour
1/2 C. Salt
1 Tbsp. Alum
2 Tbsp. Cooking oil
1 1/2 - 2 C. Hot Water
2 Pkg. un-sweetened Kool-aide

Mix ingredients together and knead until smooth. Put in large Ziploc bag for storage.

Panda Notes:
-Alum is found in alphabetical order on the spice isle!
-Maybe I'm just slow... but ALL the little Kool-aide packets found at the grocery store are Un-sweetened... you got to read the fine print.... haha. yeah, I'm a dork. It's Kool, because it makes the play dough smell good and gives it color!
-I followed directions, using only 1 1/2 cups hot water, and ended up adding about 1 cup flour extra (while kneading)... to make it 'play dough' consistency.

gur...

Last week:

Will got sick
Caitlin got sick

This week:

Brinley got sick

and then...

Mommy got sick.

Our computer also got 'sick' (aka... weirdo virus). Good news, I'm getting a lot done around the house not spending so much time with email, blogger, etc... AND we live next door to a computer wiz!! Thanks David for your help! But we may have to employ you again because the Bad news is that it's still giving us trouble, it's s o s l o w and pop up city... if my pictures and journal were not on that computer I'd totally take a hammer to it... (I'm just grateful Justin still has his laptop! it's just unsafe to bring out when the kids are awake...)

SOOO.....

the only one who's hasn't gotten sick yet is Justin... that's probably because he's been spending all his time on the ROOF.

yup, still roofing.

Shingles were delivered Monday... it's been pretty slow go past few days... but it's coming together... one piece at a time. We'll take pictures.

"Mom, Look We're Zack and Weesey!

... and In case you didn't know who Zack and Weesey are... they are a two headed dragon from Dragon Tales!

Identical!

Random Photos:

These pics were taken over the past few weeks... enjoy.

First Day of Preschool...

(...was actually last Tuesday!) but we've got a lot going on over here... So, ya know. Here they are all ready to go! Will was esp excited to go to school this year!

Drop off: Complete! Now it's just Me, Pepper and Brinners! Hm, What to do first?

Pick up: Two very happy kids!! They even look smarter!

2nd day of school: Will was done with the pictures before we even got started...

"back to school, back to school..."

Roof Update...

It's been a CRAZY week!

Last Thursday we started our Roof Demolition and it's been interesting.

Thought I'd bring ya'll up to speed on what's happened and where we are at...

Thursday and Friday: 3 layers of shingles came off our roof! It was a sight to behold... (O, my poor little garden!)

Justin and his 'cat-like' reflexes... he said that after three days being on a roof he felt like he was a cat... (or I like to think of him as Spider-Man. Mmm. I'm married to Spider-Man! Go Spidie Go!)

The lovely Orange Dumpster. Wow, this picture was taken on Friday morning. It's totally full now!

Saturday: This is the back of the house, with no shingles!! Time for some PLY WOOD baby! Justin also ripped out that mettle box thing on top there... that was for the old swamp cooler... Thank goodness for Central Air!

OK, so this next picture is the "Hole" reason behind the re-roofing project! YEA! The boards literally crumbled into dust as they were taking off the shingles!! No wonder we had some leaking this winter and SOOOO Glad we are fixing it too!

Hole almost fixed!!

Monday: Well our 'Rain Dance' over the weekend worked... (You know, when you wash your car, it always rains... Well, we ripped off our roof and that suddenly brought on these crazy freakish thunder storms...)

Justin was at work Monday afternoon... and looks out the window... HUGE DARK CLOUDS rolling in... He and his dad went to HomeDePot and got like a million tarps to save our house!! Pheww! Love the blue roof? (This is what it must be like roofing in Washington State!)

2 hours later, it stopped raining, and Justin could finally breath again! I love this picture, it just says it all.

Tuesday: it rained... HARD. I was grateful for the Tarps on top of the house... but during the demolition over the weekend we took off the rain gutters... (because we'll be getting new ones!!) Suddenly... I'm realizing the GREAT importance of Rain Gutters...

This was my sad attempt at saving our house from 'the great flood'... i had to dump these all a few times... that's how much rain we got!

Caitlin and Will saw the pool and were like "Yippee, lets get our suits on!!" I was like, "NOOO, we are NOT going out in that wacky storm."

This window well was completely filled with water!

and Today, Wednesday, was SO BEAUTIFUL... no rain, and tomorrow is going to be even better. Roofing Project back on... Can't wait till it's D O N E!

Pure Taco Heaven!!

Want this recipe... Click HERE! and don't for get the homemade Mexican Rice!

Major progress!! Major THANK YOU...

To the volunteer army of (in alphabetical order):

Dad, Damon, David, Jake, Jonny, Linz, Mom, Matt, Miguel, and Steve

THANK YOU!!

We accomplished an enormous amount of work together, and we are so grateful for your willing service and dedicated efforts.

Gents, you easily saved Justin at least 24 man hours of labor tonight, and ladies, you certainly saved the kids from boredom and quite possibly danger... you KNOW they'd have wanted to be nowhere but near the action!!

We know you will be blessed for such a selfless act.

Gratefully,

Justin & Amanda

** What a joy that we completed what we did with no incidents of shingle surfing! Here are a few pics of the action: