Keely and Ryan were on spring break last week, so I wasn’t here much. On top of that, my blog was hacked and shut down. I think it’s all back to normal now. We had a few nice outings together and the weather was pretty good. We did some beach combing and found some nature treasures.
Then we did some thrifting and flea marketing and found some vintage treasures.
I also finally tackled the make-your-own-chalkboard-paint wall in the kitchen.
It worked! It was really easy too. Now, I’m making my own wall paper on it. It’s circles this week. Ryan’s like, “Why did you draw circles all over it again? I don’t get it.”
April 16, 2012
We’ve had beautiful weather here, so Easter was perfect. The kids colored eggs, got giant filled baskets, had an Easter egg hunt, and a grandparent visit. A good day for them.
Last year I came up with a color coded Easter egg hunt and continued it this year at their request. These two are obsessed with fairness and boy can they fight. The hunt would have been ruined had I not intervened with this over protective, meddling, helicopter parenting, coddling, somewhat ridiculous solution.
Milo only finds/gets the blue and green eggs and Keely only gets the pink and purple eggs. That way they are not screeching and tackling each other whenever an egg is spotted. Also, they will get the same number of eggs, so no one feels like a big ‘ole hunting loser with sad basket of 2 eggs while the bigger kid has 84,000 and is laughing maniacally at their wonderful luck. It works beautifully and makes for a much more feel good time. Yay! Judge me if you must, but we will continue this tradition for.evaaaah.
April 10, 2012
Our bunny ears are getting much use around here this year. Milo even wore them out in public on his own, which is totally not like him at all. Mr. Pig keeps them safe when they aren’t in human use.
I dug out all our plastic Easter junk from the attic and put it in a basket yesterday and it was like Christmas. The kids were so entertained with this stuff because it has been away all year.
I also printed out a bunch of different “How to Draw a Bunny” pages for them and they have no interest at all in them, so I just framed up a few for myself to look at. This one is from here.
April 4, 2012
Milo said we needed a picture of his room on here too, so here it is. I’ve been in spring cleaning overdrive around here. I’ve got a mound of trash bags full and ready for donation. I spruced up Milo and Keely’s room too. We made Milo a little work desk. He likes to draw us pictures and write his name and our names, so he has a clean little space to do that in his room now. He just loves the L that I made out of a branch for him.
He is also all about birds right now and we’ve got plenty of them in yard lately. We lowered his little flying bird in his room so he can reach it now. I love fixing up my kid’s rooms.
April 3, 2012
Our Silver Maple is heavy with whirlybirds and they are flying around like crazy. Milo is in love with them and when he saw them starting to fall, he ran inside to grab a container and proclaimed he must gather them for his collection! He spent so much time bent over in the grass collecting the little seeds. Every time he opened the lid the wind would blow and some would fly away. He would scurry around trying to save them. Only occasionally did he moan with frustration, but he kept at it.
He filled up two containers with them. Such patience he had. I love that boy. He loves nature and collections.
Each time he goes outside, rocks from our gravel pit catch his eye and he picks out a few “diamonds” to bring in to me. I have quite a few collections of them around the house. Sweet boy.
April 2, 2012
Sooooo, I was thinking I might “shop for” customers. Ya know if there was something you were looking for but haven’t been able to find it or didn’t have the time to dig around in flea markets? You could drop me an email and let me know. Give me a price you’d like to pay for it and then I’d keep my eye out. So, let me know if there’s something vintage that you have been dreaming about. It just might turn up. 
March 28, 2012
You cute little guy. You seem to grow before my eyes now. Each time I look at you I just can’t believe how big you are. You are shining more and more each week. You’ve got spunk and preferences and silliness and sweetness all wrapped up in your yummy little self.
You often come over to us and wrap an arm around us for leg hug or flop against us for a quick cuddle. We all freeze and take you in when the moment comes. Even the siblings now how sweet those times are. Sometimes you are very still and we get to cuddle and rub your skin or just breath you in and that is wonderful.
You love getting into drawers and cabinets. I can’t believe the quickness of your disasters. You try to reach into anything that looks interesting. I put a few latches on a couple of cabinets, but mostly we just have to let this stage pass. You spend most of your day toddling around opening up things finding interesting items carrying them around banging on things and then pushing your wagon around.
You love to say uh-oh. It usually follows you throwing things where they shouldn’t be repeatedly. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. AAAAAAAH-ooooooooooh. You think you are funny. You also clap a lot and say, “Yay!” You love music too. You drop everything to find the source of it and listen to it. You’ll do a little swaying dance too. You hum songs that you know and will listen to any tune that comes your way. You prefer women’s voices. You do not like to be sung to though. I try lullabies with you, but you won’t have it. You fight against nap time almost every day. You scream and protest no matter how tired you are, no matter what time I try to help you to sleep-earlier, later- you just must protest loudly. I won’t miss that passing. You love to find noisy objects to bang on other noisy objects too. You watch our faces as you do it.
You still love climbing on people. If you see a body on the floor, you are ON it. Usually, you lay across our heads. You love to pet Milo’s hair now. He loves that. You’re very gentle about it too.
Music has you very interested. You hum songs that you know and will listen to any tune that comes your way. You prefer women’s voices. You do not like to be sung to though. I try lullabies with you, but you won’t have it. You fight against naptime almost every day. You scream and protest no matter how tired you are, no matter what time I try to help you to sleep-earlier, later- you just must protest loudly. I won’t miss that passing.
We adore you Lucas. You make us all smile with you sweetness and all your little ways.
March 27, 2012
I finally finished the star pillows set. They are well loved by all the children. The biggest one turned out ginormous! It’s like a monster starfish.
Now pillows are great for laying on, but the boys mostly carry them and throw them around. That big one is bigger than Lucas, but he sure tries to fling it.
Look at that ugh! face.
March 26, 2012
Keely you are 8 1/2 now. You are in third grade. You love all the social-ness of school, but not so much the work. You have friends and seem to be liked by most of your peers. You try very hard to not ever get in trouble at school. Math is still a big struggle for you, but you really are working at it. You have a hard time going to school on Mondays and after breaks, but during the week you are alright. You are even good about getting your homework done.
You get very caught up in the who has what and what other kids get to do or have, if it is different from you. You want to be like everyone else-wear their clothes, watch their shows, say the things they say. We keep trying to convince you to just be you. You’ve got great style and a really fun personality. When you are in a good mood, you shine. You are silly and giggly. You are also witty and smart.
School has brought us lots of germs and sickness this school year. You are sick every other week! It’s ridiculous. Being sick seems to just be the way of life for you lately-colds and stomach bugs. It is really starting to get to you. I can’t blame you either. My poor girl.
When you aren’t sick, you love to eat. You eat dinner and then you eat two more dinners after that. You eat from the time you get home from school until you go upstairs to bed. You couldn’t be any thinner though. You’re like a string bean. Tall and lean. You still have a crazy sweet tooth too. You’d love to carry a bag filled with candy around with you all day. You bring a lunch to school every day and complain that I don’t give you enough food. You are pretty picky about what you’ll eat in it though. I pack you a note and a small treat every day too.
Milo and you get along half the time and the other half of the time you tease him or try to get him upset. I think you try out the bullying you see at school on him. You usually apologize later. Other times, you love him and laugh at all the funny things he does. He wants to be your friend, but his feelings get really easily hurt by you. Lucas adores you. He even says your name. You love to carry him around and make him laugh. You don’t want him to get bigger. He’s your little doll now.
You’ve been really sweet to Caribou lately. Cuddling with him and taking care of him. He loves to curl up next to you whenever you sit down. He follows you around to see when you’ll end up at, so he can join you. It’s sweet. He’s a grumpy, old man now, so it is good that you are caring for him.
I can’t hardly take any photos of you because you always make goofy faces at me. Ah well. You at age 8 I guess. You don’t really play with any toys now. I guess you are too big for that. It is sad that those young ages are over already. You do still have a zoo of stuffed animals. You are scared of ghost and monsters and having trouble going to sleep at night. You have your millions of animals to keep you safe and a few night lights.
You love to sing still and your voice is really very pretty. You still like to read a lot. At night, we’ve started watching Little House on the Prairie and you love all the drama between Laura and Nellie. You get so excited and roll with laughter at their antics. I think you wish you could act out the way they do when some one bullies them. You live vicariously. No one ( and no animal) is ever allowed to get hurt or die in any book or show or you will fall to pieces in tears and refuse to read or watch it ever again. That sensitivity still remains.
I don’t get to spend very much time with you between school and the boys. It’s kind of sad. I only get to really talk to you at night before bed. I hope this summer we can have some nice time together. You are growing up so fast. We already have glimmers of the handful of a teenager that you’ll be. I must make time to enjoy the little girl you while I can. I love you Keely. You are always my baby girl
March 25, 2012
I decided I’d pretend like I knew how to paint yesterday. It didn’t turn out too bad. I may try another next week. Spring is here for sure now. There is pollen covering every surface. Ryan came home last night and said, “What, do we now live in Pollenesia?”
We just finished up watching Downton Abbey and now it’s just over? We have to wait until September for more? What the what what? What do we watch now with our one hour of t.v. time? Lucas loves the intro. music to the show and will drop everything to come and see and hear it. He also hums along with it. I can’t stand the extremeness of that cuteness. But seriously, what can we watch now? Any suggestions out there?
I was looking for some new recipes and then came across some reference to New York Style Salad. What is this? I must know more info. I love salads. So I ended up at the Pioneer Woman’s site and read her description and now I am obsessed with having myself a big ‘ole salad party. And why can’t we have a salad restaurant in our city? These vegetarians have a hard time getting some decent “fast” food when we’d like to.
Also, have you seen the little video where it’s all snippets of movies that are pieced together to sing some of Lionel Richies, “Hello”. How long did that take? Speaking of Lionel, this poster still cracks me up. It is making my eyes water right now. I need help. I don’t even know why it makes me laugh so much.
March 23, 2012
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