A day at the races

On Saturday Jory and I took the kids to Nelson Ledges Road Course over in NE Ohio. My friend Cathy and her dad were both driving so we went to watch, and hang out with the pit crew. The girls had fun playing with Cathy’s kids (Hope and Ben) Alex actually watched quite a bit of the racing, and Jory made himself right at home with Cathy’s family and crew – playing with all the kids and “helping” the pit crew. So we had a very fun time and we can definitely see ourselves at more races in the future.
Jory “helping” the crew

The smile says it all…

New Room

The girls new room is coming along nicely. My mom and I sat down this week with her fabric bins and pulled out this color palette that is loosely based on some artwork that I had. We found the perfect fabric at JoAnn’s to make their new bedding with. All that’s left now is curtains, and we’re good.

The parachute pics

So we managed to get out yesterday and play with the parachute I borrowed from the church. I was worried that it wouldn't be that fun with only 4 of us. Clearly I was wrong.

Enjoy!

Ps. I snapped a pic of the girls in their new room, so you could savor the pink-ness. Sadly my photo editing program won't let me resize it. Oh well. You'll just have to tune in later to see if I managed to sweet talk Adobe into fixing my photo for me...

More insane summer adventures

It wouldn’t be summer without its share of insanity now would it? So here’s a peak inside this weeks insanity.
My mom’s cherry tree has put out a bumper crop of cherries again this year. So we’ve made several excuses to go visit so we can steal some – I mean, help with the harvest. I have enough cherries in my freezer to last all winter, but sadly am contemplating my next date with the tree. It also means I have enough to share. Let me know if you want some.
So I mentioned that we bought bunk beds for the girls. Which means that I’m sucked into this process called “make the room look great in anticipation for the new bed”. Starting with new paint. Pink - melted strawberry ice cream meets pepto bismal – pink. Jory hates it. (I can’t honestly say that I’m surprised, being raised with 2 brothers, he’s just not that crazy about all things girly). Anyway. Since I have a while until the beds actually arrive, I have time to think about what else to do with the room. New curtains, new pics for the walls, bedding. Sigh. Trying to think of something cute but not too in-your-face-little-girl-ish. No Strawberry Shortcake (sorry Louisa) or Barbie or princess (gag). Thinking about pairing the pink with something sandy colored, ecru, maybe a touch of cool blue… Maybe a little bit of vintage fabrics… I have time to think.
I got to baby sit over the weekend. Okay Eva’s pushing 2 ½ so she’s not exactly a baby, but she was still cute. She followed the big kids around, and they watched over her. So sweet. So fun to remember “being little” and appreciate how far we have come. So glad to give her back when the day was done. Yes, my friends as much fun as it is to snuggle cute sleepy little ones, I am so glad to be through with that stage. Independence is a marvelous thing.
P.S - I finally managed to track down a parachute for the photo wall project that I’ve been working on at the church. I even managed to bring it home with me so I could get in some “extra practice”. So watch out for pics of happy kids with a big parachute that might make their way over here if I ever get my act together.

So much fun

The last few days have been rather packed in our house. Let’s see if I can remember all things fun.
Louisa has returned from her first camping trip with Grandma. She went with my mom to southern Ohio to camp in the Hocking Hills region, then continued on to my grandmother’s house in West Virginia for a little visit and a bridal shower. She apparently had a great time, because she keeps spouting random memories and rules about camping.
While she was gone, Jory and I took the other two to Ann Arbor, MI for a little shopping. We picked out some new bunk beds for the girls at the Ethan Allen gallery, then hit up the Archiver’s (scrapbooking), Motor City Harley Davidson, and of course the Ikea. It was slightly odd to have a fun family outing without Louisa. Hopefully she’ll like the beds we picked out.
Yesterday I took the kids to Columbus to visit my college pal Cathy and her kids. We hadn’t gotten together since college, so it was wonderful to catch up while our kids played. We had so much fun. The kids got along famously (big surprise) and we chatted about anything and everything. We already planned our next two play dates – one of Cathy’s car races in late June and of course a joint birthday party for Hope and Alex at the lake.

It’s summer!

Summer has officially arrived in our neck of the woods. 2 weeks ago it was in the mid 60’s. Today it is currently around 90. It’s about time! We’re ready to start enjoying our favorite summer time activities.
I had a nice little girl’s weekend this weekend. My mom and I met some of our scrapbooking buddies at the lake (with NO KIDS) and we plugged away on our scrapbooks. Mine is sadly out of date and one of my goals for the summer is to be caught up through February by the time I have to start school again.
We’re still working on our garden. My first big project for the summer is nearly complete. I turned a “problem area” of my yard – an area that had a few flowers and a bunch of weeds that were hard to mow - into a proper garden with a brick divider, mulch, a few new plants and best of all – no weeds! I’m still waiting on some lamb’s ear that my mom promised me in order to pronounce the area “done for now”. One of these days I’ll go out and take some pictures.
Last Friday was Alex’s end of the year program with his group of friends from Capable Kids. It was fun to see the fruits of all their hard work. We got to see a slide show with pictures from all the little classes, and see some of their little art projects. Then each class preformed a few songs.
Oh and I almost forgot. I have a new nephew. Jason, Vangie, and Levi are thrilled to welcome little Victor Lance into their family. He was born on Saturday, and is apparently doing just fine.

Stuff and a kid funny.

First off before I forget, happy anniversary to my sweet husband! Today is our 7 year anniversary. I love you!
Anyway. We had a good weekend. We went to the lake and visited with our dear friend Cathy, who was in from Illinois. It was not quite warm enough to be outside, so we kept our selves entertained with the normal lake games (aka beanie baby fights), and a trip to the outlet mall (which was dangerous as always).
The girls have had their eyes on the garden this spring. They have taken a particular interest in all things blooming, and what is about to bloom. Every time we step out into the yard, they always run to check on the progress on the buds of our irises and the roses (which finally sprung forth this morning – yippee!).
I may have mentioned the diaper issue before, but our girls have had the worst luck with staying dry at night. Nearly 20 months after they gave up diapers during the day neither girl could stay dry for more than 2 nights in a row. Not sure what’s up with that. Anyway. Louisa has finally managed to break free. She has completed 10 dry nights in a row, which means that she gets to go camping with Grandma. Even though I think she may have had an accident in the night. Annie on the other hand has not had more than one or two since we got back from vacation 2 weeks ago.
Something kind of cool. Last week I got an email from a friend at church who needed photographs of happy kids wearing cheerful clothes to decorate the new children’s ministry wing at church. She asked if I could snap off a few of my kids to hang up. I plan to try and get a few shots of some of our little (and big) friends from church to round out the collection. Hopefully I can share those when we’ve figured out which ones will go up. (If not, I suppose you’ll just have to go in and see them yourself!)
And I almost forgot the funny. When talking to Cathy about our garden, I was trying to get the girls to tell her what we had growing. I prompted the girls with “it starts with an I…”(meaning iris). Annie pipes up “I know Mommy! An Ipod!”