pirate park playtime

afternoon off

we all LOVE half-days at school. even though it is really only a few hours difference, it always feels like a holiday! with our zoo passes we were able to go to the aquarium free this month so we took off to meet some old friends that are now homeschooling! wyatt was so excited to see his buddy he could not sleep! the kids all had a great time and then it was back to our neck of the woods for friday night family dinner with gommy, cappy bobby, and heather's group! the kids had a great day. then wyatt stayed up until 11pm to watch a movie! whew! what an afternoon!

a mermaid's tale

grace was mesmerized by the mermaid show at the aquarium. she was even able to get to meet one! the boys---well not as interested---they spent the show playing their videogames! grace was so cute waving at them! she was SHOCKED!

morning

we have a great window in our stairwell. it is a perfect view of the morning sky when coming down when we wake up. here is the dewed panes and the perfect clouded sky with all the colors of morning!

sound the alarms

it has been since before wyatt was born that i NEEDED to set an alarm. if ever i needed to get up early, it really was never before 7am which is when i get up anyway. well, things have changed now due to school hours and i am afraid they have changed for good...or at least until all the kids are through highschool. now, not only did i have to pull out the alarm clock and set it up, but i have a horrible habit of anticipating an alarm when set so i am up all night waiting and watching. i never make it to the set time, instead i always jump up minutes before to turn it off. there is just something so unsettling about waking up to noise!! i would much rather awake to quiet i guess. so instead of allowing more sleep, the alarm clock in essence takes mine away. here's to early mornings!

construction dog

1. paint on back fur from leaning up against freshly painted walls

2. wood glue on paw from stepping in kitchen while laying floors

3. lacquer on entire fur from walking then lying on freshly varnished floor

poor puppy! not that she minds :)

apples up on top

in preparation for our october trip to nc to pick apples and pumpkins, grace and i are talking about apples. here she is with her own apples up on top. we had fun balancing and playing games. the apple, needless to say, did not win!

white

i just love white plates and bowls on open shelving in a kitchen. thus, i am on the search for a good set of everyday china that has a simple and classic look. here are some options so far:

this bowl set is under $20 for all 6. these will be a must buy!

this is option 1. i think they are so sweet and delicate, however maybe a little too soft for our arts and craft style. option 2: i would love to find a set that has the same ribbed pattern as our sink. this is the closest i can find so far. not quite simple enough for my taste, but very pretty too.

kitchen progress

over the weekend the kids and i tackled painting the kitchen---montgomery white for the walls. owen, as always, loves to jump in and help with everything! grace wanted to help too, however with her i needed to be a bit more reserved with giving her the brush or roller.
here are the finished walls on sunday (sans crown moldings)

and here is today with the newly finished floors todd finished up yesterday!

cabinets next week!! YEAH!

thanks...

to my mom for my adorable new lunch bag!

grace's favorite disney rides

since the day was ALL ABOUT grace, i let her pick the rides and the order in which we did them, (even if it meant trekking all across magic kingdom back and forth). the first ride she chose was it's a small world and it was her top favorite. she sat straight up with her hands on her knees mesmerized. she LOVED all the animals and the singing children. she was amazed the entire time. she brought tears to my eyes...still does thinking about it!

so #1 it's a small world

#2 carousel---of course since it has horses (normally is #1, but hard for one horse to compete with hundreds of singing child-like animated dolls)

#3-dumbo, but the dumbo pic did not compare to this one from it's a small world so i am picturing it twice (just because this picture makes me laugh!!!!!)

how cute is she? she cannot even contain her excitement!

princess cake or...

grace loves broccoli! she can eat an entire bag A DAY! she loves it so much that when asked what kind of cake she hoped to have for her birthday, she said "i want a broccoli cake...yummy!" well, a few days later, i saw an ad with just that...a broccoli cake! go figure. well she did have broccoli for her birthday (not in cake form though), but her princess cake was simply wonderful! she just loved it!

my jaw dropped like pelosi's

i have to say, my jaw truly DROPPED to the floor last night when rep. joe wilson yelled out to pres. obama during his speech "you lie!" i feel that it is very sad that a grown man representing so many could be so disrespectful. leaders, though within rights to disagree, should act in a way that inspires others to constructively work out differences of opinions in efforts to see progress. i would like to think that this is not representative of the republican party, but a sole man acting alone in a childish, angry way. i love how pres. obama kept his cool and how joe biden just shook his head.

Searching for Princesses!

today was truly a magical day. since grace was on an off-year for parties (we alternate with the 3 kids, one year on with a large party and then the next a small celebration), i decided to take advantage of disney's offer to come free on your birthday! we typically go as a family and do the same route of rides---buzz lightyear, space rides, car rides, roller coaster rides, throw in small world for grace, more roller coasters, tom sawyer island, the jungle cruise, haunted mansion, and swiss family robinson tree house. this time it was nothing of the sort...it was all about grace...which is all about the princesses on a day like this. we scoured the park for each and every one. we finished the last hour finding jasmine (2nd to last in line before she was closing for the day). we really had heard we would not be able to find snow white, though, since she is really just in the parades. but, grace had me keep asking...employee after employee. then, we asked one more. she said if we were lucky, at one time during the day (unsure when), snow white could be found in a little nook of a place near the front entrance. we decided to head that way. we arrived at the main street circle and i saw no one there. however, we did see pluto and grace was happy to get his autograph, though still wanting to reach her goal of them all. in line for pluto, i saw something in the distance...a small glimpse of snow white's gown. i said, "grace i think i see her." so we left our line for pluto and dashed over. it WAS her!!! we were thrilled! we got in the small line and an employee came up to us...please don't be closed, please don't be closed. he said "we were closed, however i will let ONE last one in!" YEAH!!! so we got them all. we probably will never again have a day where we can just go, the two of us girls, on a complete day long princess hunt, but that is okay. today was irreplaceable and magical. it is filled with memories i will hold onto forever. i am so glad i was able to spend the day with my birthday girl and to see her happy to the core. every breath was in awe and every glance was full of wonder. on the boat ride home to the car, she looked at me and said "hmmm, i don't feel four?" stay young sweet girl! at 7:16 pm...you are four!

...and woke up a 4-year old

she fell asleep a 3 year old...

and with one last goodnight kiss as a 3-year old child, my baby girl fell asleep. sweet dreams my love.

teaching to the whole child

hot and not-hot

when you have children, you truly learn (or should i say relearn) something new everyday. over the weekend i was helping wyatt with his heat transfer science homework. he is studying the effects of the earth's core heat on plate tectonics...words such as convection, radiation, and conduction were ones that i heard in my college level geology class at uf. however, i do not remember learning the concept that there is no cold...only the absence of heat (and if i learned this seemingly basic concept, it never was presented to me in a memorable way as i apparently have forgotten it). so my new sink faucet, pictured here and soon to be in our kitchen, should read "hot" and "not-hot" instead of "hot" and "cold." can't wait to see how the next lesson impacts our home. maybe there is a continuum of housework i am unfamiliar with...like my house often is "the absence of clean" and laundry "lacking completed particles."

kylie's dance party

new house for us?

so grace's birthday is coming up next week and i would like to get her something that is more purposeful than just an assortment of various little toys. this house is on sale at walmart so i am considering it for her. do you think she will outgrow it too fast? will it just end up being a home for spiders? not too sure just yet.

"is this my cup?"

gone are the days of searching for your drink and going from person to person asking the seemingly unanswerable question of "is this one mine?" did you notice that no one ever is too sure of their answer? so for a person like me that gets a major case of the heeby jeeby's when considering sharing a drink with a random person, here is solo's newest product that allows people to scrape their names onto a labeled cup. guess it is the version of "wine glass jewelry" for kids and mommies.