looks like fun!

my mother in law told me about this ride-0n a while back. it's a PlasmaCar by PlaSmart. it looks like fun! i guess you can get it going pretty fast and it's good for getting kids out there and moving! it has won some toy awards too!

slow down

well, i unexpectedly disappeared for a while. life just got busy. the boys started swim lessons last week-every morning for 2 weeks. so mornings were busy making sure we were ready and out the door on time. then last week was end of month for loan closings so i was busy with that-not as busy as i would have liked. i think interest rates are creeping up so it is slowing down a bit. i also just feel like the summer is slipping away from me. it's just too short. i don't feel like i get to spend the time i want to with my kids. i just want to have those slow days were we wake up and feel like going somewhere and go but there is just so much that seems to be demanding my attention. i have two very demanding callings at church and my job-even though it isn't a regular thing, and then things i want to do like get together with friends. but they all seem to pull me away. i guess that is life and the key is to learn how to balance it and how to say no and how not to feel guilty when you say no or don't call the friend you said you would.

lunch is served!

this is what happened at lunch today. thing 2 really wanted to fix lunch. he chose mac 'n cheese and hot chocolate-mint hot chocolate to be exact! with some supervision-as it involved the stove, he prepared and served lunch for all of us! it was hard to watch the mess be created and not get after him to be careful, but i stepped back and reminded myself that it can be cleaned up! as their great grandma always said "the bigger the mess the better the food!"
************************ lunch is served!*********************

our garden

our butterfly garden is starting to bloom some more. i think the spot i picked is more shade than i expected so they may be blooming a bit later than they are expected to but i am excited to see the flowers coming in.

this is our butterfly bush. you can see on the right where it is starting to bloom.
i think it will be beautiful once all the shoots have bloomed!

this is another one of my favorites-called lantana the red is the tiddley winks red and the pink is the patriot classic passion. they were tiny little plants when i bought them but i love how they have spread and how large the leaves have gotten. i also like the variation in colors in the flowers. this is an annual so i hope it leaves plenty of seeds so they come back next year on their own.

this is our baptisia. it seems to be doing really well except that it is supposed to get some really pretty purple flower shoots on it. i'm still waiting for signs of those but the plant looks strong and healthy! this is the white swan cone flower or a strand of echinacea. it doesn't seem to look so good. it blooms but they seem to die really quickly so it never really looks pretty! it's dropping it's seeds though so hopefully next year i'll have more and they will look better.
this is one of our yarrow's. it gets little yellow flowers on it but this too seems to come and go quickly. they keep coming but dying quickly. we will see!
these were thing 1's pick. they didn't have a tag so i'm not sure what they are but i like them. they continue to bloom and i like the greenery.

this is our toad habitat. it is just a pot turned on it's side and dug into the ground half way. they are supposed to be good for the garden so we wanted to invite them to stay. plus the boys would have a ball finding them. i read about the toad abode here.

cleaning made easy

i got my favorite little vacuum replaced! it's the shark cordless vacuum and i love it! it makes it so easy to keep my floors tidy! no cords! i just run around with this as i'm herding kids or straightening the house. it works great. now i just need to find a mop that is as quick and easy to use!

good find

i've used many of the "baby blocks" but found that they were still stinging thing3's eyes. no matter how careful i tried to be she ended up crying and complaining. i found and tried this baby tear free sunscreen by banana boat and haven't had trouble with the eyes since.

no more naps!

thing3 had a nap yesterday afternoon and oh boy did i pay for that! last night we could not get her to go to bed! the dad and i headed to bed around 10:30-normal for us- and she was still sitting on her bed reading having a good ol' time! then she wanted to come to bed with us then she wanted to go to her own bed then she came back in, then she went to her own bed then we heard a lot of rustling and found her in the boys room passing out books. she was laying books on top of them and playing with their toys. i hate giving up the nap but i think i need her to go to bed at night more than i need her to nap.

beautiful things

this is my neighbors tree that i love. it's huge and i love the shape of it and the trunk is so thick!

it seems wrong to put the next thing with the last and call them both beautiful but they are in there own ways! i want this phone.

i of course like how it looks but i also want it for its functionality! i have a cell phone and i also use a palm pda which i greatly depend on. so anyway i would love to combine my phone and pda and have access to my email and have a camera and only carry one beautiful gadget around.

the expense of it would be justified. on the side i am a notary signing agent and the nature of that jobs makes my cell phone and email vital! having access to my email while away from my desk would give me much more time. i spend a lot of time waiting for documents and if i could check my email anytime i could be running errands or watching my sons baseball games. soon hopefully!

oh yeah, and you can load navigational software which would be so helpful! i drive all over the place for my job!

good read

several people have been talking about the good books they have been reading. personally i don't have a book going on right now but last summer i read a great book! Goose Girl by Shannon Hale!
i loved it! like i said in my profile, i love juvenile literature! it was just such a good read! i actually didn't want to keep reading because i didn't want it to end! i need to find another good one like this!

summer projects

first project completed! we installed this new front door this spring. it was raw wood so we needed to paint it. finally with baseball season over i found some time and got it painted. I love it! the door that was there had a dated diamond in the middle of it and it was so warped we couldn't use it.

next project to be done-I found these planter boxes at the christmas tree shop for a steal!(love that store!) they were on clearance! I want to use them as window boxes on the front of my house. I need to find just the right brace for them so if you know a good place to get any i would love to hear about it. i have asked lainakay too because she is a shopper and can find anything for a great price-i'm not so good at internet shopping!

i found these chairs next to someones trash-that's how we do it out here, we put our stuff we don't want out to the street and whoever wants it takes it! i love these chairs. i'm going to strip and sand them and then paint them. any ideas for colors? my house is green with white trim. (color sample below)

i was just planning on painting them white but am open for ideas!

the next project will require much more of my husbands help and a bit of my fathers-he has all the tools! i found these in the sturbridge yankee workshop catalog the other day.

i have been looking for some kind of system for backpacks and jackets and all the junk that comes in. i think these would work but for $250 EACH i think i can build them. then i can adjust the measurements too. i want them wide enough so a backpack fits easily inside without being jammed or sticking out! and looking at them they are very simple construction. my husband should be able to do most of the work and then i can paint them.

i think i will be pretty busy for a while!

rumors

i heard a rumor that my new neighbors are just flipping the house-interesting! we will have to see!

butterflies!

while i was finishing the last post i saw a butterfly fluttering outside my window!

this is exciting because this past spring the things and i started a butterfly garden in our back yard.

it is growing and has filled in quite a bit since this photo (sorry about the shadows)and we plan on adding to it each year till it fills the space. we have been hoping for some butterflies. hopefully this is the first of many!

been busy

okay, so quick update as i have been absent for a while.

the 4th wasn't so good-it was rainy and cold! lainakay came up to visit with the kids. that was fun. she stayed till the 5th and that day was really good weather. we took the kids to the local "beach".

then on saturday my mom-in-law arrived. we had a really good time with her here. she wasn't here for long but we all had fun. thing 3 said last night "where's my grammy?" too cute. she is just now old enough to really remember her. the dad took a day off and we all went to a water park.

*****************************the boys at the end of the day

thing 3 sacked out towards the end of the day

******************************************************thing2 coming out of the tube

thing 1 swimming

thanks grandma for a fun day!

new neighbors

my next door neighbors are moving. makes me a bit nervous wondering what our new neighbors will be like. closing day is friday so i'll know soon enough! too late to put up a fence!

how'd it fit?

oh yeah, the swim suit from sassymia. i like the swim suit a lot but still liked the fit from my suit last year much better-can't wear it though because when i took it out of the drawer this year the elastic fell apart! i only had it for one year! i just felt like the bottoms on my my old suit were more flattering-i don't know if stacy and clinton would agree. the new one is a fun cute pattern and will do but still not in love with the fit!

down and dirty!

so my mother in law called while we were at the cape and said she is coming to visit! we are very excited but this means that i will be spending the week doing all the deep cleaning my house has been longing for! it is always a good thing when someone comes to visit because all the nooks and crannies i have ignored become obvious to me.
yesterday i scrubbed the walls down the stairs to the playroom-could not believe how dirty they were! the playroom is the one room we have not done anything to since we moved in two years ago-oh the bathroom too. so i just didn't realize that the junk on the walls came off! every time thing 3 looks down the stairs she says "it's clean, it's clean". anyway, i also scrubbed out my fridge-that feels so good.
today i think we will do some dusting and stuff like that. i don't know about you but when i clean like this it always seems to get worse before it gets better. right now my house is pretty much turned upside down but it is all part of the process-right? one thing that is frustrating is that my favorite little vacuum is broken. it is the shark cordless vacuum and i can't live without it! i have all hard floors throughout my house and so i just run around with this thing everyday-or did run around with it. now it is broken and it is so much more of a chore to get out the broom and dust pan and be sure the things don't step in my piles before i get them swept up! i need to buy a new one. well, happy cleaning to me!-i am definitely back from vacation!

back to reality

so we are back from the cape. we had a great time-the things want to move there-can't blame them though. the picture above was a view from the boat on our way out for a whale watch. which was awesome-loved it! it was just amazing to see those awesome animals swimming around and so close to the boat. Thing 1 is an animal lover-always has been so he was really into it. i hope he becomes a whale watch tour guide so i can go whale watching all the time-or i'll just have to buy my own boat so i can sit out there and watch them whenever i want to and not fight the crowds on the boat trying to see!

thing 1 and thing 2 spent most of their time body boarding

thing 3 played in the sand-she didn't like the water

most of the time we found her plowing through the sand with her head-unfortunately we did not get any pictures of this. she was like a little ostrich. we have no idea why she was doing this but she seemed to enjoy it- and then sometimes we would find her with her face pressed into the sand-crazy girl!

the dad had a blast with his snorkle gear he chose for himself for fathers day -he kept bringing us fun treasures off the ocean floor including a huge horseshoe crab! i enjoyed sitting quietly in the sun watching everyone have a good time!

we had a great time-can't wait to go back!

thanks,thanks,thanks!

thanks lainakay for the cute "things"! hopefully i can learn how to do all the cute stuff like you do. that is part of the fun but it seems so foreign to me right now!