St. Patty's Day and beyond...

I have to laugh at myself that here it is, Easter night, and I'm updating about St. Patrick's Day events! My good friend Sachia commented recently that my blog updates could be characterized as "slow, but steady." Yes, I guess that would be the perfect description. It doesn't help that our little Mac is getting up there in age (3 or 4 years maybe?) and slowing down a bit, which makes iPhoto and updates not as quick as I'd like them to be. But here we are still...

All things green for St. Patrick's Day, including breakfast...green milk and pancakes. For all the millions and millions and millions and millions of tough things that come along with having a 5, 3 and 1 year old, one of the best parts is how exciting every holiday is. Add a little green coloring to a basic glass of milk, and the entire morning is awesome.

We partied, Irish-style, with some good friends from Church, and chowed on corned beef, cabbage and potatoes...I never knew how good corned beef was...

Charlie may be all boy, but he enjoys a good Little People dollhouse play session...he sat like this for a long time, opening and closing the playhouse door and arranging the family...

We've been furnishing and re-furnishing most of our house over the last few months, and on a recent Saturday we had 3 separate people come into the house for various reasons and ask, "so are you moving in or moving out?" Neither, but that's certainly what it looks like. Luckily we are not sleeping on floor...I am also saying good bye to all shades of brown paint in my house...GOOD BYE! The side wall is still primer from the closet, so hopefully this week will bring time to finish painting the master...

Our apricot tree is blooming again...trees without leaves really just aren't that pretty, and it gets LONG staring at bare trees for the few months that we actually have winter here...the kids love to swing on this rope although we now have a tire swing hanging in that same spot that we just put up this weekend. I have a very real fear that the tire swing may bring the end of the apricot tree...I hope not. I tell myself that a kid swinging on a rope tied to a branch isn't any heavier than a kid on a tire swing hanging from a branch, but Lauren is just so aggressive with her spinning--it makes me ill to watch, but she doesn't seem to mind...

The dirt patch in the bottom right corner is where we pulled out grass to plant a garden...Andy and the girls did that this weekend...it's our first time really planting a garden--we did zero research and very little soil preparation, so hopefully the garden gods will smile on us and give us some carrots...

A recent impulse buy--a new sand box. We love it, but honestly, this is not for the neat freak out there...with it comes sand...EVERYWHERE. I consider myself a pretty clean house wife, but I realized quite quickly that I had to let go of some of that when I chose to buy this...the entire backyard is gritty with sand, as is my kitchen floor. And I can't count how many piles of sand I've already vacuumed off the carpet because Charlie walked in with a bucket of sand and dumped it out. But seriously, the kids love it, especially the little boy in the photo. We just bought a new swing set and realized that it, too, comes with a sand box...do I exponentially compound my problem and have 2 sand piles in my backyard? Jury is still out...TBD

We recently found ourselves with 2 huge cardboard boxes, and each girl claimed one...tons and tons of fun...

I love post-dinner popsicles and ice cream cones, and so do the kids...

One month later...

...I'm updating the blog again. It's been exactly one month...too long.

Kate--never without an instrument...

I love kindergarten projects--Happy Valentine's Day!

The 100th day of school--a very big deal in Kindergaten. She was excited, she just didn't show it for the camera.



Growing up too fast this one...

A New Closet...

Besides re-building the hallway, re-building our closet was the other remodeling project that has topped our to-do list for the past year and a half. The closet was too small in comparison to the size of the bedroom, the bi-fold doors were constantly falling off, and it was an all-around poor excuse for a do-it-yourself job by one of the previous homeowners.

The bathroom and closet on the right side...someone put green carpet in the closet, not sure why. We extended the bathroom wall all the way across and cut a door through the bathroom wall where the brown towels are hanging to make it a walk-in closet...




We've had quite a bit of construction going on, and Charlie has been in heaven. He is definitely a tools boy...he'd stand there and stare until someone told him to move.

We also put an actual door frame and molding around this door and 2 other doorways in the house...

Looking into the new walk-in closet from the bathroom...the brown towels used to hang here. The master bedroom is on the left.

Fully functional and wonderful--the painting isn't done, and the carpet needs help, but much, much better.

Officially a Daisy

I always wanted to be a Brownie Girl Scout. I remember being in elementary school and seeing the little girls meeting around the green lunch table outside the cafeteria after school in their brownie uniforms. I didn't really know what they were doing, but I wanted to be them. I love seeing Lauren is girl scouts, and she loves it. What a fantastic program--each week she goes to her troop meeting, learns new skills and talks about being a better citizen, earns a patch, and best of all--she sells cookies. This was her Daisy investiture--the official taking of the Girl Scout oath and the process to becoming a certified girl scout...




There was music playing and the girls were all dancing around...not sure why only Lauren looks like she's in a world of her own.

And Kate will never be on the side lines when music and dancing is going on...

The friendship circle...

Our New Tree

I never used to think about how a tree ended up in someone's yard. I guess I just assumed it happened on its own. I now know differently. We've wanted a big shade tree in our front yard since we moved in. It was quite the process to pick out a tree that would be friendly to Lauren's tree allergies--not an easy or short process. But finally, I settled on a flowering Cleveland Pear tree, and had it planted in the front. Hopefully, in time, it'll provide the needed respite from the hot, front porch sun. In 20 years from now I'll be able to drive by this house and point to the big beautiful tree in the front yard and know that we planted it...guess that's how trees get planted.

Kate at school

I don't post much about Kate in preschool because Lauren's kindergarten activities seem to take the spotlight more often...but Kate loves going to school, is doing so well, couldn't care less when I walk out the door, talks about her teachers and cute little friends all the time, and sings her Bible songs everyday, complete with the hand motions. She had her bike-a-thon last week, and I took the opportunity to snap a few pics of her in the classroom, and then out with her classmates...


She looks so grown up to me in this picture. Kate is our budding musician--she collects drumsticks (pencils, wooden spoons, other kitchen utensils) all day long and beats on whatever drum she can find. She dances and skips down the sidewalk or through a store, much to the amusement of those around her. She really can be quite happy-go-lucky and is extremely tender-hearted--quick to break down if she gets in trouble or has been offended...she's a good girl.

She had so much fun riding her bike around and around and around. She's quite coordinated and athletic and is very capable of going on bike rides all over town, and rides to the park on a regular basis...