Sing, Sing a Song Saturday

I started doing what I call Sing, Sing a Song Saturday.  I'm going to post one song on Saturdays that the boys or I like. 

The song may be part of a movie, a kid's video or just a song we like. I'll try and include why we like it and/or the history of the song/singer.

This week I'm doing a repost. I posted these artists long before I started doing Sing, Sing a Song Saturday. It's not really introducing anyone you don't really know already; like I usually do.

I was reminded of a commercial that really hit a cord with me. Our school showed the top commercials that won CLIO awards. CLIO awards are the top commercials throughout the world. The video I'm about to show you was one of the winners. It was only shown online, not on TV. Chipotle chose to use the song The Scientist sang by Willie Nelson for their award winning commercial. I'm sure many of you have seen this, but did you know it was a CLIO award winner?

The Scientist By Willie Nelson

I love when a song can be taken, and the whole meaning can be changed. Here is Coldplays version of the same song.

The Scientist By Coldplay

Or there's the YouTube stars that covered the same song, Jorge and Alexa Narvaez. Even though the girl can't sing perfectly, she belts it and has a great time doing so! Maybe having fun is what singing should be about anyway.

The Scientist Jorge and Alexa Narvaez

Someone Likes to Read the Funnies

I've been taking the funny section out of the newspaper, and putting them in the car for Mica to read. He loves to read, while we are driving. He often reads them out loud, so Isaak can hear.

Do you read the paper? I read Sundays, but I don't have the time to read the paper everyday.

Wal-Mart?! What Are Your Thoughts?

First of all I'm not here to tell you what to think, nor am I here to judge. I just want to know your opinion. I'm going to put forth two views on one situation, and see what you think.

Wal-Mart is under the spot light once again. I read this article this morning. Reading online is like reading the newspaper to me these days.

To sum it up, if you don't want to read the article, Wal-Mart is in the hot seat because Washington wants larger retail stores to pay their workers more than minimum wage. Minimum wage is $8.25 and Wal-Mart would have to pay their workers $12.50. Wal-Mart of course doesn't like this, and threatened to shrink their blueprints in Washington, DC. Of course there is more to the article. Read it if you want to understand it more.

Wal-Mart is known to be kind of crappy to their workers. In some smaller places, they open up jobs and are sometime the only place to go to shop. What's a person to do?

Two different sides of the coin: 
I strongly believe there there are always two sides to one coin. I'm a middle child, what else can I say?

Side One For Wal-Mart: They are many people's only option of shopping. If you take away stores and production, that would make it hard for many to shop. Food is known to be less money at Wal-Mart. They are cheaper to shop at in some regards. From my limited retail experience I know that things are marked up, and other items are dropped down in cost everywhere you go. Since they are a strong retail store, they do employee a lot of people. So what they are big; should they be penalized for being large? The big guys did work up to that status. Why should they be required to pay their workers more than anywhere else?

Side Two Against Wal-Mart: If it's only the DC area that they would stop building plans, I'm pretty sure people there would be ok with shopping at other places. Wal-Mart needs to be taught a lesson. There are many stores that do great money wise, and treat their workers well. Take Costco as an example; they treat their workers really well, and their business is doing really well. Cashiers start out at $10 an hour. After 4 years the average cashier makes $44,000 plus bonuses. They are treated more like a union. Their workers seem happy, and work fast. Maybe Wal-Mart should change their ways. 

With all that said, I rarely shop at Wal-Mart. I shop at Costco way more. I have options to shop where I live. In fact I got a gift card for Wal-Mart at Christmas from my boss man, and I just recently used it up. I am highly annoyed with the fact that two of my favorite stores have been taken over by Wal-Mart grocery stores! Borders went down a long time ago. One is a Wal-Mart now. Hobby Lobby right by my work was bulldozed to the ground. A Wal-Mart went up in its place. I'm sad about that. 

Here's a documentary that talks about Wal-Mart and view points about them.

So what are your thoughts. Again I'm not here to tell you how to think, or judge you. I'm just curious on others views. 

Day Camp

Mica's been going to Hummel Park day camp. I wish I had pictures, but it's his camp, not mine.

He calls it, "Humble Park", which makes me smile.

Each day this week he's come home very wet and yesterday wet and muddy. They mentioned to dress your kids in their worst clothing. We have, minus the first day when he wanted to wear his camp shirt. Luckily that day was just wet, not muddy.

Yesterday he was so muddy! His green, blue and white shorts were washed, and are now green, blue and tan shorts. Lucky for me I like the tan better than the white. His white socks are tan as well. I don't blame the detergent! If you would have seen his clothing, you wouldn't blame the detergent either. He has crappy shirts, but we're lacking in the crappy shorts and shoes department. I didn't mind that his shorts changed color, but I'm tired of washing his shoes. Unlacing and lacing shoes is a pain in the butt! All of Mica's shoes are bought new and handed down to Isaak (if they are still in good condition).

Today Mica put on a brand spanking new t-shirt and shorts. I made him go change into the washed shorts he wore yesterday and shirt he wore 2 days ago. He pouted and said, "Mom we're not going on the mud slide today!" I said, "Mica you've been wet every day this week. You are NOT wearing a new shirt and nice shorts!"

He's drunk tired every day. In the evenings I tell him to go do something, and he walks into a different room to go do it.

I talked with him last night and said, "Mica you said camp was really fun! Do you sit with your Cousin Evan on the bus?"  Mica smiled and said, "Mom that camp makes me so tired I fall asleep on the bus. I don't talk to anyone." I said, "Do you snore on the bus?" He said, "I feel like snoring."

You know what? He loved the mud slide, he enjoys the hikes, and he thinks archery is fun!

I guess the day camp is doing it's job. Mica is having a blast and he's wore out at the end of the day.

WW: Mica {Linky}

We stopped off in a rock shop on our trip to South Dakota. Our son Mica saw his name.

What is Mica anyway? It's a shiny silicate mineral with a layered structure, found as minute scales in granite and other rocks, or as crystals.

If you have a moment I have a giveaway up for a HomeRight Steam Machine. It does a great job! Check out how it cleaned my oven door after a fire!

Dentist Birthday Party??!!??

Mica asked us, "Mom, Dad, can I have my friend birthday at the dentist office this year."
Daddy and I looked at each other like we were both thinking, "?????????" 
Daddy asked, "Why do you want to have it at the dentist office?"
Mica said, "Because it's fun there!"
I wouldn't exactly call our dentist office fun. It's dated in it's decor, is a family dentist office, not a kid dentist office.
Daddy and I both said, "No."
Mica had that whine look on his face and said, "Why?"
Daddy said, "Because they don't offer parties at the Dentist office."
Mica said, "Fine! Maybe I can have it in the lobby then!"
That's where the big fish tank is.
Daddy said, "No you can not have a birthday party at the dentist office. No one can go in to get their teeth cleaned if you and your friends are all hanging out at the lobby. Plus they don't offer kid's birthday parties there."

What a strange request.

Do you like going to the dentist? I find it to be just one of those things I have to do. I don't particularly like it.

Home Depot Clinic and Lakeshore Craft

On Saturday I decided to have the boys check out the clinic at Home Depot. It isn't as organized as the Lowes Clinic one. It's still fun, and free.

They not only build what they are making, they paint it to. This is good and bad. It's fun that they get to give their project some color! It's too bad they don't have wet wipes sitting there to use. *Note to self, next time I'll have to buy and bring some. I hate that they throw away all their foam brushes. I know they are designed to throw out, but I use mine over and over again!

They get a little pin instead of a badge. The pins are cute, except Mica's already popped off. We have no clue where it went. Oh well.

Only Mica would let me take a picture. Isaak kept hiding behind flower pots. It was a car from the movie Despicable Me 2. Mica made his blue. He always want to make his exactly like it looks on the packaging. Isaak could care less what it looks like on the packaging. His car was green and his stickers would have gone anywhere if I hadn't put them on. Mica gets really annoyed when Isaak doesn't follow the exact directions. I told Mica, "They wouldn't have multiple colors of paint out if they only wanted the cars to be blue." He seemed satisfied with what I said, and left Isaak alone.

After that we went to Lakeshore, a learning store. Isaak made a craft whale puppet.

They have a free craft once a week. Mica thought he was too old to make the craft. He also thought he was too old to be in the store. Isn't that kind of attitude supposed to happen in middle school? I agreed with him that many of the learning toys were for ages 3 and up, but they had all kinds of craft things and even had teacher supplies in there. Isaak loved the whale he made.

First Day of a Week Long Day Camp

This is the first year Mica's old enough to start going to camps. Next year he'll be old enough for even more. We signed him up for Hummel Park Day Camp. He's super excited! He picked out the camp fire shirt I made him. Then he's been walking around with his backpack on for the last half hour. It's stocked with tissues, bottled water and sunscreen.

I think I'd be nervous for him if he was going by himself. He'll at least have his cousin Evan with him. Evan went last year, so he knows the ropes.


Aunt Terra said, "Expect Mica to come home dirty, tired and happy." 

They go hiking, participate in nature identification (know that poison ivy), archery, arts and crafts, outdoor cooking, wilderness skills (move over Russel from the movie Up!), water and mud activities, camp songs, they make a skit for the parents and family to see on Friday, and much more. Luckily each group has two counselors 18 years and older. He takes a bus to and from the camp. The bus ride will be new for him. Right now Mica only takes a bus on field trips at school.

My guess is, is that Isaak will miss Mica dearly this week. They will appreciate each other more next week.

Did you ever go to camp when you were a kid?

Bookworm

Mica is bound and determined to win a Kindle Fire. The local library has a reading program puts kids names into a drawing to win a Kindle Fire if they read 25 + books. I had to explain to Mica that he won't automatically win a Kindle Fire for reading 25 books. Then I went into what a drawing is. Mica's well on his way to reading 25 + books. I think he's read 20. Every four days we take seven more chapter books back to the library to check out seven more. We check Isaak out about five books.

This book really does have words on the page. It looks blank.

In one hour Mica  was done with yet another chapter book. He's lovin' the Magic Treehouse series. Daddy tries to get him to pick something else that is nonfiction. I try and get him to pick out just anything else. I'm not against that series. It's just that the library only has so many Magic Treehouse books on their shelves.

At Barnes and Noble they have a summer journal program. Theirs is something like 15 books. The child has to write the name of the book, the author, who they think would like the book and why. Mica did that to. They turn it in to get a free book. I like that program, but they need to have more writing space on their journal form for younger kids.

On Mica's age level there were pretty easy books. I made him go up to fourth grade reading books for the free one. I think he could of gone up even further.

Mica got upset with me because he wanted a Lego book, but I knew he'd FLY through it. I said, "Mica if you want to get easier books at the library that's fine. You don't own those. They will help you with your vocabulary (even though he has strong vocabulary). I can even take you back to the bookstore, so you can read easier books here. But you need to challenge yourself by getting some harder books. He ended up getting How to Train Your Dragon. He read the first chapter in the car ride home. It's harder, but not too hard.

I hope Isaak likes to read as much as Mica does. Isaak's never liked being read to as much as Mica. Mica even liked being read to when he was in the hospital at 7 months. We were there for nearly 2 weeks with a staph infection in the neck. It was the Exersaucer, or reading that kept him occupied. He sat there in my lap and let me read to him.

Prickly Pear Syrup and Buttermilk Waffles

One of the things we got when we were on vacation was Prickly Pear Syrup.

It's pretty good! I like it, but I hate the font on the packaging.

Buttermilk Waffles:

• Preheat waffle maker.
• Mix dry ingredients together.
• Mix wet ingredients together.
• Making you own Buttermilk: We rarely have Buttermilk on hand, so I often make our own. It's 1/2 a tablespoon of lemon juice to one cup of milk. In this case I just used one tablespoon of lemon juice even though it was not two full cups of milk. Let it sit for 5 minutes before you mix it in. You can use plain Greek yogurt instead of milk. The really running stuff that sits on top of yogurt sometimes is great to use to make Buttermilk.

We had spinach leaves, an egg, and a banana with our breakfast. Mica kept sneaking more waffles.