A friend of my mothers made both of my children beautiful quilts, out of the kindness of her heart... just because.  They were amazing, big, bright, thick quilts, both of which had inscriptions sewn onto them along with each of the kid's names and the date.  I truly was speechless that she had done this for them out of the blue.  I am certain that each quilt took her no less than 40 to 50 hours of work.  I asked the kids to sit down and each write her a little thank you letter to include in my thank you card to her.  Both did so without any complaints and without any prompting from me.  Kaiden's was sweet and stated how grateful she was and how pretty the quilt was.  Ashton's letter made me chuckle, it was so damn cute...

I think I am going to start requiring Ashton to write me thank you notes every time I do something for him, just so that I can chuckle every time I get one.

Cleatus LOVES LOVES LOVES when his daddy builds him a fire!  He sits hanging off the back of his bed the entire time the fire is burning. SPOILED BASSET!

About two months ago, Kaiden had to work on a Science Fair Project.  In fact, all the kids in the school, grades 6 through 8, had to complete Science Fair Projects.  Kaiden chose to experiment with plants, light and water.  She was going to see if different types of light had an affect on how plants absorbed water.  She set up three different groups of white carnations, one in sunlight, one in incandescent light and one in complete dark.  Each group was put in water colored with red food dye, so that we could monitor the flowers changing color and see if any of them did it faster than the others based on the light source.  We monitored for almost a week, took progress photos, etc.  Then we built her tri-fold presentation.

She had predicted that the flowers in natural light would change color fastest, soaking up the water faster, since natural light was the best source of light for them.  We were wrong.  It turned out that they ALL soaked up the water in the exact same amount of time.  Apparently it did not matter what type of light was shining on them, if a plant is thirsty, it is thirsty... period.

Kaiden came home from school a week after turning it in and was excited becuase her project was picked to be IN the Science Fair. Apparently, everyone had to turn one in, but then only some were picked to be entered into the fair and judged.  Kaiden was one of two in her class.  She was happy.  Today, she came home with a ribbon and a certificate - the Science Fair had taken place and Kaiden took 2nd Place in the Botony category. 

I felt like this was a win for BOTH of us, since I helped. Seriously... I am doing a THOUSAND TIMES better in school this time around.  I am very proud of myself (and Kaiden).