Happy June!

Early June is always exciting and busy in our household...it's the end of the school year, our wedding anniversary and Father's Day all wrapped into a couple short weeks!  I feel so lucky to have married my sweet Bill who still makes me crazy happy!  Since a vacation without kiddos is no where in our near future, I decided to surprise Bill and bring the vacation to us in the form of a live lobster dinner that came all the way from Maine, one of our B.C. (before children) vacation destinations together.  It was a night to remember!  (I ordered the Nor'easter special from Lobster Gram and it was fantastic and included mussels, chowder, lobster, dessert tarts and all the tools and condiments needed!)

Charm celebrated his last day of preschool and is off to Pre-K next year!

 

Lucky had a wonderful year in Kindergarten and is off to 1st grade next year!

We made chocolate chip cookies on the first day of school, and decided to make them again for the last day of school.  Charm did nearly all the measuring and mixing himself!  We used this recipe which is a favorite.  These cookies never last long.

 Bug hunting brothers:

Lucky and Charm were seriously entertained by the window washers we hired recently:

And Bill and I were seriously impressed by the deck staining job we also hired out a couple weeks ago:

 And soccer. The joys of every night soccer:)!

We also enjoyed a wonderful visit from Oma this week.  I don't have pictures because my camera is full, but we had a blast.  We picked her up from the airport and headed straight to IKEA!  We took her to soccer games and practices and she helped me so much around the house with our never ending mountain of laundry and to help with Clover so I could get a little work done around the house!  It was such a fun visit, and I so appreciated all her help.  It was hard for all of us to say goodbye.

And Happy Father's Day to Pa and Bill and Ron!  You guys are the best!  I'm so lucky to have you all in my life!

And with that, here are a few things worth sharing:

This phone case continues to be a major conversation starter for me.  I ordered it for Easter and because Jess from New Girl has a red version, but I haven't changed it back to my normal case yet.  The ears make my phone easier to find!!

I'm not sure if a cuter dog exists than this one.  (It reminds me so much of this childhood toy my brother and I 'shared' growing up.  LeMutt is currently living in Charm's room.) We have a bit of dog fever in this house, not that we're close to getting a dog anytime soon, but we love playing the name game: Harold, Riggins, Stella and Sue are all contenders:).

Growing up, we owned five beta movies that we watched about a million times each: The Secret Garden, The Dark Crystal, Herbie Goes Bananas, New Babes in Toyland and Dumbo.  I just purchased this one after an Amazon price drop, and I can't wait to make some popcorn and take a trip back in time while I watch it with my kids.  I wonder if Lambert the Sheepish Lion will play before Dumbo like our old Beta version.

This game looks like so much fun!  We ordered it for a birthday party, but may have to put it on our Christmas list this year too.

Have a fantastic week!!

Adios to May 2014!

Another week flew by!  We fixed a car, sold a car, attended a graduation party, a birthday party and a flea market too.  Lucky announced she has the same neck (?) as Clover, and scored 15 goals at her soccer game.  Charm made his bed every morning this week, after cock a doodle do-ing to wake us up.  He must have read about bed making in a book, because he's the only one in our house that does it:).

  Enjoy some pictures:

Daddy's Helper!!

 Lucky's First Sleepover!

(Picture from T.O.)

Clover is 5 months!

And here are some random things/thoughts/ideas for you:

Clover is really enjoying this lately.

Now that most of my favorite shows have ended for the season (Bye Nashville, New Girl, The Mindy Project, Hart of Dixie, and About a Boy), I've started watching this series on Amazon Prime.  I'm hooked, and now I'm itching to take a fall vacation in Texas just to attend a high school football game to see what it's really like:).

I've started reading this book for book club this month.  So far, so good.

I stumbled on this link which contains teacher gift ideas written by a teacher.  We will be doing #1 and #2 this year!

This hair straightener is amazing.  It heats up fast and does a great job on my crazy post-pregnancy hair.

And with that, I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

TGIF!!

Is it just me or is May flying by at an alarming rate?  There are only 9 school days left.  What??  The last few weeks have been crazy in our house with a garage sale and baptism plopped into one weekend, and the ensuing recovery and get 'back to normal' period that followed.  The next couple weeks are sure to be busy as well with parties, soccer and the end of the school year.  I keep telling myself I'll eventually find time to finish Clover's nursery:), but part of me wants to call it done now, regardless of the empty picture frames and missing crib skirt.  We are in a season of our life where time is our limiting factor in everything we do, which means we will be tackling fewer projects ourselves and hiring more work around our house....and I'm still trying to get used to that idea:).

Regardless, here are a boat load of pictures from the last few weeks:

Clover smiled at the perfect times during his baptism.  He had just been introduced as a baptized Christian when this picture was taken, and he smiled earlier when water was being poured on him.  He loved it!!

The Godmother

 The Godfather:

We discovered earlier this spring that Lucky and Charm had both outgrown their old bikes, so since birthdays and Christmas were not on the horizon, we decided they each needed to earn roughly half the cost of their new bikes (Lucky ended up earning over half of the cost of her bike, and Charm earned a little less than half the cost of his bike.)  They did tasks around the house in preparation for our garage sale and kept careful track of their money earned with a tally that was on our refrigerator.  It worked out well for us all, as Bill and I sure needed some extra help garage sale prepping this year!

  Who needs a big house when there's this much love?

And here are some random things/thoughts/etc for you:

Have you seen this Thai advertisement?  I just love it.

Purging toys before the big garage sale is usually rewarded by a couple new surprises in our house for Lucky and Charm.  I ordered this kit and it was a HUGE hit with Lucky.  Now I need to do a little electricity refresher course so I can explain it all:).  And Charm really enjoyed this sand, which I picked up at Michael's with a coupon.  Both of these products I could spend hours playing with myself.  A win for everyone!

I'm seriously considering this technique for introducing solid foods to Clover.  Has anyone tried it?  Tips?

Or have you listened to this song by Minnesota Native Molly Kate Kestner?  So beautiful.

And I'm dreaming of an outdoor shade structure these days.  Something like this would work well!

That is it for now.  Have a wonderful weekend!!

It's Already Friday?

This week seriously flew by at warp speed.  I'm not sure where the time went, but it was an emotional week to say the least, and it was filled with highs and lows and way too much rain.  We attended a funeral and celebrated a birthday in the same day.  We dealt with family drama, and then had fun at a school carnival.  We caught colds, and we watched Charm in his preschool musical performance.  It was a whirlwind, and at the end of the week all I can do is say thanks for each day we've been given, say prayers for those that are grieving or hurting or ill, and say 'I love you' to all those I hold dear.

I told Charm to put bunny ears on Clover.  Apparently, it's a new concept!:)

Another tooth bites the dust!  When she looked under her pillow in the morning, she announced: The Tooth Fairy made a mess!  (Glitter Everywhere!)

Charm and his best friend on their performance day! 

My laundry helper!

Carnival Fun!

Lucky got this rocking horse when she turned one.  She's growing up so fast, and now the horse is headed to our garage sale to be loved by another little girl!

Have a wonderful weekend, and be sure to give your loved ones extra hugs and kisses tonight!