NOVEMBER 19, 2012: "SPRING CLEANING" IN THE FALL

"SPRING CLEANING" IN THE FALL

Nov. 19, 2012

With the changes that have happened in our family and with our 4 kids coming home from BYU for Thanksgiving and with our issue with pantry moths, it was time to clean out, throw out and organize!

I really didn't ever completely move in and organize when we moved to Arkansas 7 years ago, so it was  long overdue.

I first called Vernon and asked his support to do a drastic "gutting out" of our junk and stuff that was weighing us down.  He said, "Go!"  Later, he did admit that he didn't expect such a drastic overhaul, but in the end he is happy!

I started with the pantry, moved to the basement food storage room, then hit my office upstairs and then went floor by floor to put things in place.  It took about 10 days of constant hard work, but oh it feels so good to be more organized and free of clutter!

My mother requested pictures of my piles of garbage and "give aways."  I filled and hauled at least 20 garbage bags of stuff out of the house!

I feel so good!

This picture gives you an idea of how every shelf and every room in my house looked -- stacked and stuffed and a disaster.

 

This was our poor dining room for several days

Rebecca, Rachel and Michael helped me clear out the food storage room and we found our shelves!  Our shelves were a big wimpy, so we used "Girl Power" and we reinforced them and made them tough enough for food storage for a big family!

 Rachel learns to use the power tools!

Mason is a big helper and keeps us smiling -- 

he likes the maze of the packed basement!

More pictures of all our stuff piled everywhere!

Michael, our friend, helped me move the food storage buckets!

They were heavy!!  Then after the room was finished, he helped us 

go through every bucket to check for bug damage and we reorganized them in the pantry.  He counted over 200 buckets that were moved, sorted and moved again!  That was a lot of work!

Dad comes to inspect our work!!!!

Rebecca was the diligent painter!!  She did at least half the painting!!

Rachel liked playing "Bunking Bronco" on the ladder!

She was a hard worker, too!

Mason had fun trying on costumes that we found!

This was the fun part!!! Filling the shelves in an organized pattern!

Strategy -- put in the most important things first and then when it is full, you are done.  Throw the rest away. :)

 Next came my upstairs office!

It took me 3+ hours to haul everything out of there!  Our bedroom

was packed.   

 Our bathroom was packed.

 

  

     The hallway was packed.

 It was a good thing Vernon was out of town to spare him the pain!

Here are pictures at my mother's request .....

First, the "give away" pile that Vernon is taking to Goodwill for me this afternoon!

Second, is the garbage pile that is patiently awaiting garbage day on Wednesday!  It will be quite a surprise for the garbage folks!

Come back to my next post and see the results!!!

 

NOVEMBER 17, 2012: BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

NOVEMBER 17, 2012

A highlight of this fall was knowing that Arts Live Theatre would be putting on Beauty and the Beast!  Even better was when Benjamin and Bethany both got in the cast!!!  What fun this has been for them!

Thank you Dad for taking to so, so many rehearsals at night!!!

And YAHOO! for Joseph now driving so he could drive to final rehearsals and shows!

Joseph worked as one of the stage managers, he ran the curtain, and helped move large sets. 

The Richardson stars of Beauty and the Beast

Bethan (villager), Joseph (curtain man), and Benjamin (Lumierre)

 Benjamin was also the "Baker" in the opening scene.  

He had lines with Belle and then said, "Marie! The Bagettes!  Hurry Up!"

What was really funny is that the girl who he calls this to 

is really named Marie!!!!

 Bethany had a couple of solo/duet parts in the opening number, too!

She was also the official "rose mover" through out the show!

She is always given important backstage helping jobs because

she is so reliable!!

    

 Benjamin, the baker, is selling his bread.

 Lumierre (Benjamin) is rattling off the dialogue for the beginning

of his big solo of "Be Our Guest."

  

 Benjamin sings and dances with the wardrobe and "Babette" the duster

 

Benjamin waiting for a scene to regroup

Bethany fun to watch! Her acting has really improved over the past few shows!

This scene is from the tavern scene with Gaston.

  Another "Be Our Guest" scene

 Benjamin now has flames!

This scene is after the fight at the castle and Lumierre says,

"Well, it looks like we've won!"

Come visit us and we will have Benjamin sing for you, Bethany dance, and Joseph run sound and pull open the curtains!

Here on this link for more pictures of our kiddos:
Beauty and the Beast pix of Richardson Kiddos 

 

  

"SALAD": new card game for the holidays

"SALAD"

A New Card Game

Our friends taught us a new card game that the kids love!
I didn't want to lose the directions, so I posted this on my "FILE CABINET" blog and thought I would share it here, too.

I'm looking forward to playing games with our kids this Thanksgiving Holiday!

SUPPLIES:

1 or 2 decks of face cards -- depending on how many players

Pencil and paper to keep score

OBJECT OF THE GAME:

To score the LEAST number of points possible and have the lowest score at the end of the 6 rounds.

RULES:

Deal all the cards out to the players.  If the cards don't deal evenly, take out low numbered cards that ARE NOT hearts.  Each player should have the same number of cards.

Whatever suit is laid down by the first player of the trick, is the controlling suit.  All other suits have no power.  The highest number of the suit that is played first, or the suit that is "led", is the winner of the trick.

HOW TO PLAY:

Person to the left of the dealer starts.  They lay down a card and each person then takes a turn going around the circle until each player has laid down 1 card.  The person who has the highest number card of the suit that was laid down by the first player "wins" the trick. 

A trick is a round of cards laid by going around the circle once.

Whoever won the "trick" will start and lay down the first card of the next "trick."  

Continue play in this manner until all cards are played.  That will complete round #1.  Score points, shuffle cards and re-deal for round #2.

There will be 6 rounds total to complete the game.

SCORING:

Each round scores differently.  Below are the points awarded for each round. 

Round #1:  Each trick is worth 10 points (if you win 3 tricks, you score 30 points.)

Round #2: Each heart is worth 10 points

Round #3: Each Queen is worth 25 points

Round #4: King of Spades is worth 100 points

Round #5: The winner of the LAST trick scores 100 points

Round #6: All scoring for Rounds 1-5 are counted in this last round

WINNING THE GAME:

The person with the LOWEST score at the end of 6 rounds wins the game!

NOVEMBER 2, 2012 -- OUR TALENTED SEAMSTRESS

OUR TALENTED SEAMSTRESS

November 2, 2012

I have to brag about my Rachel!  She is such a clever and creative girl.  The things that she has made through the years and helped other kids made are just amazing.

 A couple of days ago, she made these lovely matching coats and outfit

for her dolls!!!

I was so impressed!  She used scrap felt and the glue gun!!

With that sort of talent, I knew just who to go to when Benjamin said, "Mom, I need a dolphin fin to go on my unicorn for a science assignment visual but I don't want it to be permanent."  Hmmm.  I called the amazing seamstress that lives under the same roof..... "Rachel!!!!!"

Yesterday morning, after a short lesson on threading the sewing machine, she took some scrap felt and "Viola!"  Benjamin had his "Parwal" that he needed for his project on mutation in science.  I'm sure it was partly inspired by "Dolphin Tale."

Well, today Rachel was flying away at the sewing machine and later when she came out I was astounded!!!!  She had made this very sleek and stylish coat for her American Girl Doll!! There are cuffs and collars, too!

The picture does not do it justice!  It has three bands across the front that button and the right side of the band is sewn with a square shape that makes it look very professional!!!  I am just so impressed!  

I will be getting this girl sewing all winter long!!!!

It will be fun to see what she makes next!!!!

NOVEMBER 1, 2012: MOM'S SCHOOL

MOM'S SCHOOL WITH MASON

November 1, 2012:

Mason is growing up so fast!  We are working our letters and letter sounds and he is just starting to sound out words!  Thanks to fun ideas from Pinterest, we are playing some fun games to learn to read!

We made this game from plastic spoons to match up the upper and lower case letters!  The capital letters written on the top of white spoons and the lower case letters are written on the lower part of the clear spoons.  When you match them, you stack them and see the letters together!  

www.starfall.com  is one of my favorite websites that Mason has 

learned so, so much from!!!  I have been using this site with my kiddos for over 15 years and it just keeps getting better!!! Mason has learned his letter sounds so quickly by playing the games on that site to reinforce what we do!
 They now also have math games!!

Mason likes to be silly!!!

We also love "Boggle Jr." that I purchased 20 years ago!

Mason is spelling the words and sounding them out!

We don't use the timer, we just have fun looking for letters and spelling them.