Concert Time!

Dad and I did something fun on Friday night, something we rarely get to do! We went to a concert, WOOHOO! It was in Philadelphia, so we didn't get home until about 2am that night. But we had a great time seeing NINE INCH NAILS! My darn camera was frozen (it freezes and doesn't work for long periods of time) the whole day and I couldn't get one freaking picture!!!! BUT, dad bought us cool NIN t-shirts!

We dined that night before the concert at Capital Grill, I took half my steak home because I was too full! Dad fed it to Loki when we got home! What a lucky dog to get some of the most expensive steak you can get. Now his normal puppy food just doesn't do it for him. he's getting very picky.

Tomorrow is Labor Day. Dad is golfing in the am and then will be home the rest of the day. Hmmm, what fun things should we do?! We have no plans... except fit a nap in somewhere probably! (we are big on napping at this house!). Pinky naps everyday still for several hours. Dad and I both would sleep every afternoon if we could... on weekends we DO! Belle, not so much, mostly because now that she shares a room neither one of them would fall asleep and also because believe it or not she is CRANKY when she wakes up. Unlike most people of whom a nap rejuvenates them, Belle becomes completely the opposite of that... it's bad! So, while the rest of the house naps, she usually will watch cartoons downstairs.

Tomorrow is also the girls' last day of summer. We're starting school on Tuesday, Belle is actually super excited! As am I. So, the next post I have will be how that goes. Wish me luck!

Crafts, crafts and more crafts!!

Today I did some of the wall art for the girls' room. It's a Pottery Barn knockoff which looked easy on another blog I saw. But it was actually fairly hard. I am NOT creative in any way! And even this simple project took me several hours, it was fun though! Belle helped out some. These retail for like 35.00 each from the Pottery Barn website (yeah, they look alot more cute then mine... but mine are still cool!)

I started out with a blank white canvas (6 of them).


Then I painted them different pastel colors as a base.


Then I cut out fabric from Pinkys old crib bedding (I LOVED the pattern), and mod podged it onto the painted canvas!


Here's Belle holding some of them up.


I had alot of extra fabric so I decided to revamp my daily planner! It used to be this bright green plastic...


But as you can now see, it is now super adorable!

This is what my kitchen looked like all afternoon while I was doing this!


All I have to say is... MOD PODGE IS COOL STUFF!

First Day of school...

for local schools started today! All of Elle's friends on our street are all at school today. WE'LL be starting school this coming Monday though. I've finished painting the school room and the bedroom, so the only thing I have left to do is put it all back together!! I'm excited to organize it and make it cute. While, I still don't have ALL her curriculum, I have alot of it and I have enough to start us going until I order the rest! We have a FUN year ahead of us and all three of us are anxious to get started.

Here's the schedule we will follow this year. They are basically the same things everyday except we're doing two days of science in a row and then two days of history in a row. Also on Thursday we go to a homeschool co-op in the morning and on Friday we are doing field trips with a homeschool field trip group. As if that's not enough, Belle and Pinky have soccer every Monday night and Elle has swimming every Tuesday and Thurday night!

MONDAY
math
reading
grammar
spelling
writing
science

TUESDAY
math
reading
grammar
spelling
writing
science

WEDNESDAY
math
reading
grammar
spelling
writing
history

THURSDAY
math
reading
grammar
spelling
writing
history

FRIDAY
field trip day


So, onto other news... Loki was neutered yesterday! I thought it was a simple procedure where he just got the big 'V'. But they actually castrated him! Poor dog! He's on pain meds right now sleeping away!

Alright, I've got to run. I have alot more to get done before the day is over!

The garden of Eden... almost

I have really enjoyed doing a garden this year. I've never done one before in my life. Dad made an awesome garden for me to use when he built our patio in the back yard last summer. It seems like the perfect thing to do! While I've enjoyed it... it hasn't been too successful! Of the 4 things I planted, only ONE has made it! I started out with tomatoes, beans, chives and flowers... only the tomatoes have lived, and they aren't even ripe yet! (although they ARE close, and when they are, I'll pounce on them!) I've learned alot and will continue to work at it until I have a thriving garden. (hopefully that will be this spring). Follow me to the front yard, and we need some major help! We have a spot for flowers, but the kids and the dog really enjoy digging there and playing, so we haven't seen too diligent about keeping it full of pretty flowers. But dad brought back several pretty ones this weekend to plant there. The kids and I attempted it this morning. Here they are with the flowers all ready and eager to help! I tilled the dirt first to loosen up the ground because the dirt here is mostly clay and rocks, and it's near impossible to dig a hole. (at least it is for me! Dad seems to be able to just fine... because he's a big strong man!) Here is Pinky helping me till...
loki isn't that helpful when he plops down practically ON the flowers! I did as much as I could do and the rest Dad will have to try when he gets home. I did pretty good though, I got 5 of the 8 planted and pulled all the weeds! So, success for us today!

Good Weekend

Do you ever have weekends where you feel just absolutely lazy and watched t.v the whole time and wished you would have accomplished SOMETHING instead of nothing, or wish you would have at the very least showered?? Well...this was definitely NOT that kind of a weekend! We got alot done, we were active, we even managed to make it to church this week! I feel like Loki got more exercise this weekend then he's ever gotten before. Lucky dog. Geez, you'd think we loved him or something!

Belle lost her 6th tooth and got yet another 5 dollars from the tooth fairy. When I was a kid it was a dollar! She was also 'spotlighted' at church for choosing the right! YAY Belle! Pinky experienced for the first time swinging upside down on the monkey bars. Oh man, she loved that! I even tried it, but after 2 seconds of blood rushing and pooling in my brain I had to stop. Yet super Pinky was able to stay like that for a LONG time and screamed when I tried to lift her back up.

Dad and I saw Tropic Thunder last night. It was SOOOOO funny! I'm not one to watch movies more then once, but this one I would like to see again. I literally laughed through the whole thing! I highly recommend it!!

I don't think I cooked one time this whole weekend. We literally ate out every meal of every day, LOL! It's a bad habit, but oh so convenient!

So, all in all it was a fun weekend and as protocol dictates on Sunday nights, I mourn the ending of it all. Now it's back to to getting up at the crack of dawn, doing laundry, making meals, scheduling appt., breaking up sibling fights, all that usual good stuff! Oh yeah... continue painting! (I swear I'm about done and will shortly have photos to share) You'll be in awe at how AWESOME of an interior decorator I am, I bet you never knew I had such a hidden talent. It's okay, I just discovered it myself. Or if I'm being a realist... then it's really just a desperate mom trying to make her kids' rooms' as cute as I possibly can in the little time I have HOPING that her kids will love it! Either way, I AM having fun coming up ideas for it. it's the execution that I have the problem with! But I promise you this weekend I will be done!
FINISH ROOMS OR BUST!

Till next time...

Another day in the life of me

I meant to get up at 4:45, I really did! Since coming back from vacation it has been impossible for me to resume my routine of going to the gym. I went yesterday for the first time in two weeks. I was good to go back! But I could tell I was dragging because it had been a while.

I pride myself on going pretty diligently every day for the past two years... so WHY can't I seem to get my butt out of bed these past two weeks? School will be starting soon and I NEED to establish my routine again. My days ran alot smoother when I got us and worked out before the house was awake.

Speaking of school, I have so much to do still! I only have ordered half of Belles ciriculum. I have her grammer, lanquage arts, reading, writing and history all ready. I still have to get her math (including manipulatives), spelling and science. I am PUMPED for this coming year, we have a jam packed year of super fun stuff!

As of right now though, we have nowhere to do any of it. The project I've assigned myself this summer is to paint Belle's room then move BOTH girls into it. Then paint Pinky's old room and convert it into the 'school' room. I've taken several 'before pics' and when I'm done, I'll post the before and afters! Right now I'm done painting Belle's room, but I still have to move all the furniture and paint the other room... then move more furniture. It seems never ending. Boy, will I be glad when this is done!

The weather has been so nice out, I think after I post this I'll take the kids out before I hunker down for the rest of the day and rearrange furniture, forcing them to watch Spongebob all afternoon (although they don't mind at all!)

Last but not least... today is Pinky's actual BIRTHDAY! Three years ago today I was having my baby shower (very uncomfortably and in pain). It ended at noon, and I went strait to the hospital because I was in so much pain. I had a non-stress test which showed the baby in distress, so they induced me right then. But because I was having pre term labor for months prior to that, she practically fell out because I didn't have far to go before it was 'time'. So, I got to the hospital about 12:30pm and she was born at 3:13pm! HAPPY BIRTHDAY PINKY!

THEN



NOW

Pinky's turns 3

Well, her party was a success. It was a BEAUTIFUL day! High 80's! There were alot of people and LOTS of food. We had a bbq at a beach near our house. We snagged a picnic table and grill right next to the beach and near the playground as well. It just couldn't have gone better! We got there and set up about 10:30, and didn't get home until 5pm!! Instead of the traditional birthday cake (which nobody in our family likes), I made a rice krispy cake! Multi layered even! I whipped it up that morning and everyone oooed and aahed over it. Here's my mom and Belle hanging out! A video of Pinky in the water!

Belle mastering the monkey bars! After the long morning of family, friends and food and after everyone had gome home we decided to rent a canoe. Paddling is very hard, and while it was very fun, it reaffirmed that it is in fact a SALIBOAT I want to buy and not a canoe.

Educational experience

Okay, so I TRY to incorporate a little education into our 'fun' activities. So they learn without realizing it (sneaky, I know, LOL!)
Our house backs up to a big lake here so we often go play down there. Today was one of those days. I had some leftover chocolate cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory last night and both the kids wanted some today. So, I packed it up along with a blanket and we headed for the lake!

For the hidden educational part, I made them describe stuff around them before they had a bite. I had to explain what the word 'describe' meant, and then they went crazy with it because they wanted cheesecake. Belle would descibe stuff and Pinky would just say exactly what Belle had said (she's still a bit young for doing it herself). But togather they polished off the dessert... pinky was a little obsessive about it...





The girls really use their imaginations when we come down here and could easily spend all afternoon playing. I love nature! it's a great learning tool!

LOKI

Here are a few pictures of Loki when he got him, he was teeny and weighed only 8 pounds! he's 5 months now and weighs about 40. He's a pure breed German Shepard, so he's still got alot of growing to do! I keep telling Dad when he's full grown, we'll need to buy a bigger house!

THEN

NOW

Still painting...

For the past few days, I've been painting Belle's room. I HATE painting, but it needs to be done because we are moving N into that room so they will share a room for the time being. It looked cute before (I painted it a few years ago), but I was ready for a change and knew that now was my chance because once Pinky moves in, it would be too crowed to paint! I took before pictures to show you all when I'm done!


Here is a video of Pinky singing the ABC's on Elle's guitar. This was done right before I kicked them out to start painting. Notice little miss bossy in the video, LOL!

Today is SOOOO beautiful outside, it feels like Autumn. Compared to the heat and humidity that we are used to in August, this is an awesome change. I think we will be outside alot today.

Crazy morning!

Good grief, both my girls got up on the wrong side of the bed today! They've been up for several hours and all they've done is yell... no, SCREAM and hit eachother. I finally stuck them in their rooms. They are normally so cute! At least the dog is acting normal, LOL!

I stayed up super late last night reading Breaking Dawn... I'm not done yet but that's okay because now I have something to do TONIGHT! I love it so far. I'm an Edward fan, although I like Jacob as well. I actually know what happened throughout the whole book, but I'm still intent on reading it through.

Okay... I better go get the kids and have a 'talk' now. Hopefully they'll simmer down. I have a long day of prepping bug's room for painting ahead of me.

Later!

First post

I supposse I should start off with a bang, since this is the first post on my first blog ever! I mainly have this to keep family and friends 'close' who live far away... and there are alot of you!

We took the family on vacation last week to the Outer Banks. For those of you who don't live on the eat coast adn have no clue what that is, it's an island of beaches along the N. Carolina border. We go every year and rent a beach house for a week and PLAY!!! This year Dad's family had a reunion of sorts there and so we had all the inlaws and cousins there too. It was VERY fun and we weren't ready to come home after the week was over!

The girls and I learned how to snorkel and Boogie board (Dad can already do those things and helped us learn). Now I'm hooked! We also took sailing lessons and are now ready to buy a sail boat!

We're back now and resuming normal life... counting down the day until California in October!!!! WOOHOO!