Kids and Dirt

Freshly turned dirt = a boy's magnet.

 He has been out in this freshly turned dirt nearly every day. Playing with his trucks and puppy.

 Hannah tolerates it. Plays and enjoys, then comes in for a good hand washing.

We tilled the soil nice and fine and just planted onions in it. Following closely behind- potatoes, melons, squash and more!

I must give an update on our other garden boxes! The peas and lettuces, zinnia's, greenbeans and tomatoes are all doing nicely... except I need some bug spray for those pesky little buggies trying to eat my eggplant...

Love this time of year!

My Birthday and Mother's Day

 My birthday and Mother's Day sort of went past in a blur. It was a busy weekend.

I wore my Mother's Day Cameo Appearance flexi clip that weekend. (http://www.lillarose.biz/SarahElizabeth)

My kids and husband decorated a cake for me and I made a dinner for Mike's grandma (and all of us of course too! ) 

A little someone was waiting for a taste of frosting. ;) 

And my birthday cake filled with 29 candles. I blew them out with one breath. Wonder if I will be able to do this next year when it's 30 candles? Ai ai ai. 

All of the cake and such happened Saturday night. Sunday morning/Mother's Day/My birthday I prepped for the Mother's Day social at our church. Made a vegan Spinach Artichoke dip and a Peppermint Hibiscus Cooler. I picked an armload of pink Azalea's to grace the tables. 

We had a very small group of ladies that came 

And the funniest thing?? We ALL came bedecked in Turquoise. I am not pictured here,but I also was in Turquoise. And of course there was no memo about this. Seriously. It was hilarious!

I felt blessed to share a few hours with these beautiful women. Inside and Out. 

We laughed, prayed, cried and shared together.

And I came home to a messy house and crying clinging kids.

Ah well.. It was quite the weekend. ;)

Hannah's First Piano Recital

One week ago we were sitting in a church not far from our home listening to Hannah play her much practised piano recital piece."Grandmother" was the title of the song.

She played it flawlessly. I was so proud of her!

 She got up from the piano. Gave a little smile and a curtsey and came back to her seat.

 Hannah has been taking lessons from Miss Lacey since August 2012 and is just finishing her Primer book. Big smiles! Big accomplishments!

I can't wait to see where she goes with piano and music and the talents that she has been blessed with.

Friends For a Visit {or 6 kids 2 moms}

Last week (was it last week? the weeks really fly past) we had the privilege to have some friends to our place to stay a few days! My friend Kari and her three kiddos. We had such a blast together! We have three kids and they have 3 kids-plus one more due soon! :)

The kids pretty much spent their hours in the sandbox. Digging to China and making wells, rivers and lakes. While we moms fought to keep the REAL well from dry and lasoed hoses from little boys! 

 We also exchanged recipes. Which of course was really fun because we both were able to collect a bunch of new ideas to try. I've made several of her recipes since she left and have enjoyed every one of them!

 

 When the kids weren't busy outdoors they were busy inside making roads and playing cars and whatever else 3 boys of the same age range can think up to play.

 I loved the picnic tables filled with little ones. They ate outside for lunch and supper. Not sure it saved on the floor much though. We pretty much swept up a bucket of sand off the floors.Haha!! (not that it doesn't happen with just my three though!!!)

 I LOVE this shot of the great shoe pile up. I mean... look at all these shoes!

 We went to the zoo with another friend, Linda and her little boy Gavin and fought our way through crowds of year end school trips. Enjoyed a picnic lunch and the kids all did very well. And I guess the mom's did too. Haha!

And one parting shot to a fantastic but short 2 days:

Missing in Action!

Oh I have been soooo missing in action lately here on my blog!! I have been so super busy it's just not even funny! We've been having alot of fun times too though. :) And I plan on posting about them very soon. :)

The Main Entry Gone Western

For years my main entry way has been graced by our Dining room table's extra chairs.

I know, lovely, right?

I decided it was time for a change and I got to work.

 I emptied this dresser turned changing table of all it's diapers and such that we had used for Rebecca (oh?? did I not mention that she's potty trained?!  Oh dear... better get writing that one down for y'all!)So I emptied this chest out and then I dragged and lifted it out of the girl's room and into the hallway. (which resulted in a terrible back pull that sort of came on the next afternoon. So intense that I almost thought there might be something majorly wrong with me.... good grief! All that over a moved dresser) And I honestly don't know what all these smears and smudges are that are showing up in this picture because I certainly don't see anything like this on the dresser when I am looking at it! Silly flash.

 I gathered things from around the house. The WELCOME letters came from the obvious- my Scrabble game. Which no one will play with me. :( That's what I get for not marrying a speller. Haha!

I took these two horse pictures that are done on stone from some other place in the house that didn't need them, and the sunflowers came from my room and then a collage of old family pictures- wasn't Nathan a cute baby?! And Hannah, just a toddler. Hard to believe that I have a 6 1/2 and a nearly 5 year old on my hands as well as a 2 1/2 year old! The years certainly fly past...

Oh! And I hung a hat that's been flying around the house. Had to tack it somewhere, ya know?

I still need to work on the other side of the hallway... maybe some family pictures hung like I had before (before the major repaint job we did this winter) and Mike is planning on making me a bench.

And I added a large rug in front of the doorway.

Oh it's all fun. I like seeing areas recreated to look all new and fun. It's neat to get my creative juices flowing. See what's around the house to use and compile it all into a new area to look classy.

What's going on in your homes? Any "like new" spots? :) 

Gardening Time

We are entering the gardening season once again.

"To everything there is a season... a time to plant a time to harvest..."

The strawberries are blossoming and strawberry picking season is right around the corner!

 Time to get out and work up that soil!

I started my kids out by pulling up the old Kale plants that wintered over in my garden. (see the garlic plants?! Can't wait to harvest them!)

 They pulled and tugged and got it all out-such a great job for them!

 The seeds came in the mail- I ordered them on "Earth Day" by the way- Haha! For what it's worth, right? And now I am all excited by the brightly colored packages and what I hope will grow from the seeds inside! We will buy tomato and pepper plants and probably some eggplant as well. And any other seeds we will want we'll just pick up at that time. But this is a start!

So here's to breaking up that soil and planting those seeds and all the fun hours of labor ahead. ;) And of course the delicious produce to eat.