Tuesday, September 30, 2014

A Little Catch Up and A Little About Today

I think I’m back from my blogging break, but I don’t know for sure, life has been so busy I’ve barely got energy to write about it at night!

We had a nice weekend at home for the most part. The only thing we did besides hang out at home was go to a friends house for dinner. Tony, myself and the kids (Zoe and Brandon too) all went over to my friend Mel’s house for crab legs and cream of crab soup. Of course everyone brought something to share, but the legs and soup were all we really needed; they were sooo good! We talked and watched the kids play with the dogs and hung out and it was a nice time.

We were all back to the grind yesterday morning and haven’t stopped yet.

Today was nice though because the two little kids and I didn’t have much on our agenda. We got up slowly (compared to M/W/F when there is preschool to get to) and decided last minute to go to story time at the library. Harper just loves story time and he is so well behaved the entire time. Dakota does really well too, but it’s a bit overwhelming for her since there are so many people.

When we got home Harper asked if we could go on a walk and pick out some leaves. I thought that was a great idea so I gave them each a plastic bag and we went out to gather fall leaves.

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We found LOTS of leaves and even a few flowers. Dakota was happy to find a “blow flower”! She’s still learning how to blow the seeds off without getting a mouth full though. :)

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We made it all the way down to the park where they went down the slide a few billion times before we headed back home for lunch.

See that little speck in the picture below? That Dakota running like hell to the park…she wanted to be first! She beat Harper by a landslide because he was still picking leaves, but don’t tell her that!

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While I made lunch, mac and cheese by request, the two of them sat and looked at books. I love when they climb in a chair together and “read”.

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Thursday, September 25, 2014

Lazy, Rainy Day

Today is Rosh Hashanah and for my kids, that means a day off of school.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t the best day to have off because it rained and rained all day. It meant we were all stuck inside for the day, but it ended up being a pretty good day anyways.

Landon was able to get all of his homework done without the pressure of hurrying so that he could get outside to play. He got to lounge around and play with the little kids and even fit in some time on a computer game.

The little kids and I kept busy with toys and games for most of the morning and when it seemed that they were getting bored, we did some art. Harper practiced using his scissors and I let them both go to town with a bottle of glue and some glitter. It was messy, but it was fun!

After lunch the two little kids and I had some quiet time doing puzzles and looking at books while Landon did his 1/2 hour of reading for school. Dakota pulled out a book that makes all sorts of animal sounds and was being quite silly showing me her version of those sounds. Thank goodness for video!

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

The “Me Box”

I was the parent volunteer at Harper’s school today and what a fun day! The kids always say and do the funniest things. The other mom and I couldn’t help but laugh.

The teacher put a math problem on the board: 5 + 2 = ? She asked the kids to read it to her, making sure they knew the words “plus”, “equals” and “question mark”. Well, when she asked the kids what the “?” was Harper informed her that it wasn’t a question mark but a “mystery”! He’s just cute like that.

Also, when the kids were all saying good morning to the teacher, something they do individually, one of the kids kind of squeaked out his hello. Afterwards, Harper turned to me and said “He’s just so cute!”. Haha! The boys mom and I cracked up laughing!

Each kid in the class was signed up for a day to bring in a “me box”. It’s just a box full of things that the kid likes, things that make them individuals. I signed him up for today because I knew I’d be there and I wanted to see his first ever presentation! Smile So glad I did!

It’s kind of a long video, but it’s cute! And his teacher is just the sweetest!

Monday, September 22, 2014

Life Is Good (Scrapbook Page)

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This was a photo from the last trip Zoe and I took with the kids to the river this year. Zoe had been wanting to show us the waterfall and that day we finally made the hike. It was worth it and I’m glad Zoe was there to show us the way.

Sunday, September 21, 2014

Johnny Appleseed Festival

After apple picking, we headed over to the other part of the farm where they were holding a Johnny Appleseed Festival. When we first got there we browsed through the store where they sold fresh baked pies, apple cider, fresh eggs and other farm fresh goodies. There were tons of pumpkins, gourds and mums as well.

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When we went back outside we found a bunch of fun things set up for families to do. It was really geared for young children, but we all had a good time.

There was a maze, old tractor tires for climbing on, a tractor train ride, gem mining, some burlap sacks for sliding down a hill, some farm animals and a hayride. We were busy.

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Oh, and there were these little duck races. Cute!

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After we’d had all the fun we could stand, we grabbed ourselves some lunch and sat at picnic tables and ate while we listened to live bluegrass. It was a fun way to spend our Saturday and I hope we’ll get to go back next year!

Apple Picking Day

Yesterday morning, Tony the kids and I drove out to Parkville to go apple picking. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do yet hadn’t, until now.

We were pleasantly surprised to find that not only were we able to pick apples, but peaches too! It was so much fun!

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We ended up picking 2 different types of apples and both white and yellow peaches. As soon as we’d paid, Harper began asking if he could eat one. I, of course, let him and he couldn’t have been happier! He chose the biggest white peach that we picked and he nearly finished the entire thing! Landon had an apple and Dakota tasted a yellow peach, which Tony then finished. I finished Harper’s and tasted everyone else’s! Everyone agreed that the best fruit was fruit we’d picked ourselves!

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Friday, September 19, 2014

Five on Friday

  • After dropping Harper off at preschool this morning, Dakota and I headed to Rolly Pollies for an art class. I thought it might be fun for her and it gives us something to do while Harper’s busy. She enjoyed the art class and I think it’ll be nice to make art without having to clean up the mess afterwards!

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  • It’s been really nice here this week. The weather has been in the mid 70’s and just beautiful. Last night though, when Tony let the dog out for the last time, he said he could see his breath outside! I think it’s just a bit soon for that…
  • The trampoline has been getting some major use this week. We’ve been outside every day and we are spending a huge majority of that time in the backyard. We play on the swing set, and sand box too, but the trampoline has been the hit.
  • Since I do the laundry around here, I noticed that Tony has been wearing the same pants/shirt combo every day for weeks on end. It’s black pants and white shirts for him every single day. So, last Sunday I went through his clothes and put some stuff together for him! Haha! I thought maybe he didn’t wear the colored shirts and khaki pants because he wasn’t sure of what went together. Well, one of the shirts/pants combo’s I put together really stressed him out. I kept waiting to see if he’d wear it and finally, on Thursday, he mustered up the courage. (The shirt is turquoise and I matched it with khaki slacks.) Well, around noon I got a text from him saying that someone had complimented him on his shirt! Unfortunately, it was a guy. HAHAHA! He said he would never wear the shirt again! He makes me laugh!
  • We’ve got yet another busy weekend ahead. Tomorrow we are going to try some apple picking and Sunday we’ll be heading to Six Flags. Happy Weekend!

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

New Blinds

While we were away on vacation this summer, we had our favorite contractor come in and do some work. He replaced our windows, blew new insulation into our attic, added outlets to the garage, fixed our gazebo roof and put a fan with lights and two outlets out there. It was a lot of work and he did a terrific job. We love being able to use the gazebo all the time and it’s REALLY nice being able to open our windows without having to worry that one may fall out of the house or on our head!

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Since we were having electric run outside for the fan, we also had Tom put in a few outlets. He put two in the gazebo and one underneath the deck. I don’t think anyone ever complained of having too many outlets and we certainly have found uses for every single one!

Anyways, the reason I’m even posting about this is because now that we have all these fancy working windows, we decided it was time to get some fancy working blinds as well. I went back to Next Day Blinds because I’ve been really happy with the blinds I bought there before. I knew I wanted to get some room darkening shades for the bedrooms and light filtering for other rooms so when I went to the store all I had to do was choose my colors. Simple.

The blinds were installed yesterday and I couldn’t be happier with them! When you shut the room darkening shades, the rooms are completely dark. Like totally. I imagine this will really help keep the heat out of the bedrooms and it’ll be nice in the summer months when it’s light until 9pm and the kids don’t understand why they’re going to bed so “early”.

This is Harper’s room during the middle of the day with the blinds closed:

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And this is the same time with them open:

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When his curtains are closed on top of the blinds being closed, it is total darkness. It’s great.

Here’s Dakota’s room with one open and one closed:

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Landon’s room and our bathroom aren’t room darkening. Landon’s room doesn’t get the same kind of killer light that the front rooms get so I got him filtering shades, and those kind are in our bathroom as well.

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It’s awesome being able to open the windows and shades during the day again, especially with the gorgeous weather we’ve been having. This house sure is coming together nicely. On to the next thing! :)

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

Busy, Busy Day

I had to drop my van off yesterday because it was due for the 32,000 mile check up. Since I didn’t have a car today the kids and I stayed home and played and played.

We were out in the backyard swinging, sliding, jumping and playing in the sand before 8:30am. The weather was perfect for some outdoor fun and we took advantage of it.

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When they were done outside, around 10:30, we went up to play with play dough for awhile. I brought everything out into the gazebo and it was nice to play in there for a change. Everything is just better when it’s outside!

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It was lunchtime when we finished with the play dough and while they ate, I got stuff ready for us to make banana bread. I got everything measured out and into bowls so that they could concentrate on the parts they like; mixing, pouring, pushing buttons etc. We made two loaves and they were super helpers!

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It was a busy morning, but a fun one too!

Star Spangled Spectacular

Sunday morning we all got up and headed to Baltimore for the Star Spangled Spectacular. The event was going on to celebrate the 200th year of our National Anthem.

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We got down there early to avoid traffic since there was also supposed to be a baseball game. We parked and then immediately jumped on a shuttle to Fort McHenry. We walked around checking things out, watched the soldiers march and then grabbed some lunch.

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We knew that there were naval ships for us to look at but we never could figure out how to get to them. The shuttle service was very unclear and once we’d made it back to the harbor area the last thing we wanted to do was get back on another shuttle to go to the ships, so we missed that part but I did grab a few pictures of the ships that were docked in the harbor area.

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The harbor was so crowded it was hard to get around. I have never seen so many people down there in my entire life! It was craziness. After milling around for awhile we decided to find a spot to sit and wait for the Blue Angels.

We waited and waited and when the show finally began we realized we were much too far away to really see anything. We could see just a bit of what was going on but it wasn’t enough to hold the kids’ attention, so we packed up and headed home for the day.

I was disappointed that we weren’t able to see the Blue Angels a little better because I know that Landon would have loved seeing it. Maybe next time they’re in town we’ll try to find better viewing.

April Fools Pranks

The two little kids made me laugh yesterday morning.  I was upstairs getting things ready for school when I heard them talking about how ...