2013 …………………….. and ……………………. 2014
Writing about all the big & little things
Category: Family (Page 11 of 26)
I had an idea the other morning. It was really hot (not even mid morning yet) and I was looking down off of our deck watching the kids play in the grass. Suddenly it struck me how cool it would be to hold the sprinkler off of the deck and spray the kids. Then it occurred to me that it would be EVEN cooler if I could just attach the sprinkler to the deck so I wouldn’t have to hold it! So, after a little creative “strapping” we had our new fun invention. Chloe exclaimed what a cool mom I was. 🙂
Mom’s Way…
Then Tim came home from worship team practice and took one look and said, “Wow! Someone is a fun Mom!” (“I know, right?!”) Then he paused and looked at it a little more and said. “I have an even better idea.”
So, a couple hours later and a trip to Lowe’s…. here was Tim’s creation.
Dad’s Way…
Yes, I’ll willingly admit his idea is a bit more awesome than mine. But I’ll take credit for inspiring his idea. 😉 Either way, we’ve been having loads of fun. Oh, and our grass is happy and greener now too!
This week I finally got two of my “summer-to-do-list” activities done. I really wanted to get to the beach and to Como zoo, and we did it!
On Thursday morning we loaded up and met the Baker’s at a beautiful sand beach over by their house and spent the morning lounging in the sand and watching the kids play in the water. It was the perfect morning–no too hot, but nice and sunny. Chloe and Josiah were both so excited to go that they had a hard time falling asleep the night before and then they were up and had their swim suites on before I was even awake. 🙂
Then today we met up with the Tindall’s (friends of ours from church) at Como zoo. It was already buzzing with activity, even though we got there just before it opened. We loaded up and walked leisurely through the exhibits (the Polar bear was my favorite, the Tiger was Josiah’s and the giraffe was Chloe’s). Then we made our way back to our cars which we had strategically parked next to the playground and picnic tables, to enjoy lunch and a little fun time.
I’m so happy to finally done something “summery!”
So excited to be at the beach!!!
Josiah using the kickboard
6 kids are really hard to get situated on one tiny gorilla…
well, here’s a picture with 5 of the 6… haha!
Josiah exploring one of the computer stations at the zoo
the two little boys rode in the stroller. That made it much easier to keep them corralled…
our traditional turtle picture. I’ll have to pull up a side by side comparison soon…
riding the giraffe’s!
Showing off his MUSTACHE cupcakes. 😉 Yes, he picked that out.
So, excited to blow out his candle!
This is a picture of the 3 little girl cousins looking “inconspicuous” trying to hide Josiah’s big present behind them. Haha! This cracks me up!
Here is Josiah finding out what was under the blanket! It’s a new train table!!!! Thank you Aunties & Uncles and Grandma Patsy!
It’s really cool. And he LOVES IT. 🙂
And, of course, his Birthday wasn’t complete without getting more underwear!
Homemade Popsicles
Yummmmm, but cold!
Look! They even have a little drink spout built in… 🙂
Happy face!
The kids and I made a quick trip over to WI to visit my folks as well as help them make a little progress on the rental they are fixing up. They are planning to rent it out on July 1st which doesn’t give them a lot of time to finish up all the details. So, we worked on finishing lots of projects–window trim, floor trim, laying carpet and linoleum, installing electrical outlet covers, etc. It was fun–and the kids had such a great time playing with both Nana & Bumpa. 🙂
I forgot to take pictures of the inside of the house (grrrrr… I remember going to find my camera to do just that, and somehow I got distracted and didn’t come back to take pictures later… oh well…) but I did give the camera to Chloe for a little bit and she took some really nice pictures. It’s so much fun to see a kid’s perspective. Here are a few of the pictures that she took:
Then here are a couple others Mom and I took…
So, it’s rained a lot lately. A. LOT. And last night was the night that put the streams and storm drains right over the top of what they could handle. If you’ve been to our house, you know that our back yard bumps up to a more major street called Independence. This morning it was no longer a street but a rushing river–completely submerged. There was a point in the day that we were actually barricaded on our street because all the connecting streets were flooded. Really flooded. Tim went out mid morning and took this video….
Let’s just say that those cars didn’t go anywhere for quite some time…
We really don’t need any more rain.
“HAPPY LATE FATHER’S DAY!” 🙂 Yeah, I’m a bit behind the ball… but I’m extra thankful for my Dad and for Tim. I love you both!
I forgot to post the past couple of days because we have been so busy having summer fun! I’ve decided that I really want to try and be more proactive at trying new things and doing crafts I’ve always said “I’ll do when I have more time…” So, if you’re familiar with Pinterest, I’ve decided to try and to a Pin-A-Day. Or thereabouts. If I miss a day I’ll maybe try and do an extra pin the next day. But this could be ANYTHING–just something that I saw somewhere on the internet and said, “Huh, that’s fun. I want to try that.”
For example I tried this….
…. years ago and I still use it to this day. It’s very handy. I use it on the top of my mini chocolate chips that I put in the kids pancakes. It works like a charm. And I found that idea on Pinterest.
Oh, yeah! And the Time Out / Glitter bottles! I found that idea on there too! Remember?
Anyway that’s what I’ve been up to. You can follow along with my Pinterest things on the right-hand side link “100 Pinterest Attempts” and if something is very monumental, I’ll post about it here. 🙂 (Or if there is a certain item you want me to post on, just ask!)
Today I want to highlight two skirts that I made for Chloe over the weekend. Keep in mind, I’ve never sewed a skirt for Chloe. And I’ve never done a skirt with an elastic waistband attached directly to the skirt. It was tricky business! Well, it probably would have been easier if I had actually read the directions, or had directions. Yeah, this crazy lady decided to just “make it on a whim!” So, all that considered… I think it turned out well. And Chloe thinks it’s the bomb, so that’s really all that matters. 😉
Skirt One. Made this from scratch.
Skirt Two. Sewed this together, but the fabric already had the elastic waist band attached… 🙂
I love this picture of the girl cousins playing cards at the wedding reception.
We went to Tim’s cousin’s wedding this past weekend and at the reception afterwards there was a popcorn buffet and cards at the tables. It was so much fun!
Well, we’ve been having a smashingly great week off of teaching. The only unfortunate part is that Tim has been working late every night this week to try and get ahead on a side job–so he’s getting home just in time to tuck the kids in bed. But it makes sense to have him do it this week since I don’t have any lessons and it will help get him ahead so hopefully he won’t have to work every weekend through July.
But the kids and I are having a great time.
So far we’ve enjoyed time in the sprinkler, going on morning runs, lying around in the hammock, cleaning the house, watching movies, going garage sale-ing, making homemade goldfish crackers, randomly watching our church friends kids so she could get a nap, reading Harry Potter, making monster cookies, and learning all about dragonflies.
About that last one… Apparently we moved to a location where there are a lot–I mean A LOT– of dragonflies. So, I’ve been working very hard to educate Chloe about them and show her pictures to be sure she’s not afraid of them. It doesn’t do us any good to have a wonderful large backyard if she’s too afraid to go outside!
I took a video on my phone–let me see if I can upload it here…
Okay, you should be able to click on that and it will take you to the video. It’s pretty low quality since it was on my phone, but if you look really closely you can see them flying around like crazy. It actually looks kind of like the specs that appear on old movies when you’re watching it, but all of those specs are actually dragonflies. There are a lot.
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