Wednesday

I love how the age difference in kids doesn't matter much.

Here's Sophia (5) Henry (3) Jude (9)

(cousins)

They were best buddies this weekend.
So cute to watch!

We got to spend some good time with this super sweetness of a boy, Simon. I was looking forward to seeing he and Harper play together, but they really didn't even notice each other. Maybe next time? (We're in the very early stages of thinking about going back to WA this fall/winter!)

A shot of us girls. My mother-in-law had 3 boys very close in age.

Sounds like things were very crazy (in a good way) growing up in their house.

But now she has 3 daughters and 3 granddaughters!

And that will have to be all. Silly blog is taking forever to upload photos and I'm losing patience.

We have another fun week planned and we'll get to see my side of the family and more of RJ's side of the family. Fun!!

Hope you are all having a great week so far! This weather is absolutely gorgeous, huh??

Summer Fun

We got our pool out a couple of weeks ago for the first time and had a blast! This was Harper's first experience with our mini "aquatic center".

She liked it okay.

Until she got caught in the middle of the splashes.

And then she was outta there.

We had a lovely weekend up in Minnesota with RJ's family. We haven't all been together in 1 1/2 years! Henry and Harper had so much fun with all our his cousins and us adults had fun playing games and laughing at the kids.

(pictures to come)

I know this is probably silly, but I have a new love for watermelon.

My sister-in-law showed me a new way to cut it, and seriously it's just the most genius idea ever.

Am I the only one who's never seen this before??

Cut the watermelon in half, and then keep cutting all the way across:

Turn the cutting board, cut in half, and again, cut all the way across.

Viola! Matchstick watermelon! It's still messy, but not quite as messy.
And something about it makes it taste even better. If that's even possible.

If you get over to Target, they are $2.99 right now for a whole watermelon.

I'm considering some ch-ch-ch-changes with my blog.

Stay tuned.

Hope you are all having a loverly Monday!

Friday

VBS is over! We had a great week and I was pleasantly surpised to see that all the 4-6 yr olds that I was helping with did better everyday when I was expecting the opposite. It was a lot of fun!

But my poor kiddos. Early mornings, long mornings, big naps, and over and over. I knew Henry had had it when he wouldn't let me leave his side this morning. I knew we shouldn't stay around church to eat lunch, but who can resist pizza? I knew letting him eat all that candy wasn't the best idea. I figured him having an enormous temper tantrum at church would be really embarrassing and I now know it's true. Can we just forget that happened?
It was the kind where he was gagging because he was screaming so much.
 I've got a headache!
And I'm exhausted!!
And I'm glad RJ will be home soon!!!

Now that VBS and all the preparing is over....I feel like I can officially say
Let summer begin!
Yee Haw!

Crafts

Henry saw me do lots of painting the last couple of weeks and has begged and begged to do some artsy stuff himself. So on a lovely day last week we just colored outside and then I finally set aside some time during one of Harper's naps last week to let him paint.

He loves painting! Sadly, I don't let him do it near enough. Do any of you moms have a hard time watching your child do a project and not get in there and "help" them do it the "right" way? I have gotten much better at just letting him paint however he wants to and mix the colors however he wants to, even if it means a plate full of pretty colors becoming a mixed up mess of ugly brown. I think it's best to just let them experiment and make a (beautiful) mess on the paper! Isn't Henry's art beautiful right below our fake Van Gogh?

I was able to go the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam 4 times while I was in the Netherlands. Such a cool place!! Seriously, wowzers. And now I get to hang my 3 yr old's little paintings next to a Van Gogh. Ahh....a full circle moment. (yes, I seriously just said that. I know!)

Ponytails and Steps

I got Harper's hair in a pony tail for the first time yesterday. And my, oh my!, was it cute.

We've had a busy couple of weeks over here. I had the privilege of doing a lot of the decorations for our VBS so the kids spent a lot of time at church playing, taking naps, and at home with their daddy while I painted, painted, painted. It ended up being a lot of fun and in a way I miss having that alone time to paint. It was nice. VBS started yesterday and Henry is having a blast. Poor Harper starts crying a little sooner every day when she sees the nursery, but once I leave she does well. Or so they tell me.

In other news: Harper is getting better and better at walking! She's almost losing her last bit of baby-ness and it makes me sad, but it's so fun watching her grow.

And practice!

We've had lots of fun, busy days this past week. The kids are worn out...and I'm hoping they'll be taking a looooong nap.

 Fingers crossed.

Happy Tuesday!

Race Day

RJ ran the Dam to Dam race on Saturday.We liked calling it the Dang'it to Dang'it.  It started off to be a really rainy day so I didn't think the kids and I would go see him, but it cleared up and we made it! My 3 runners made me so proud.

 We had signed the kids up for little races too. It was so cute. Henry was very excited about his *new "running" shoes.

*garage sale, of course

Showing off his sweet tattoo.

Speaking of, how do you ge these things off? Harper wore a pretty little dress yesterday and sported the tattoo on her little arm.

I'm really not digging this photo of me. (Hello double chin... and triple chin)

But we met up with a friend of mine who has a little girl a couple of weeks older than Harper. They "ran" too. Question: Harper's hair is totally like mine right? Because somtimes it's just brown. But other times it's so very strawberry blond. What do you think?

Hope you are all having a good Monday!!

(early) Morning (not-so) Glory

For the past 3 weeks or so, Henry has been getting up earlier and earlier. And when I say earlier, I mean if he makes it until 6:00, he's sleeping in. 6:00. A lot of days it's been 5:30/5:45 and then he walks into our room to inform us it's morning. It's exhausting! A lot of days RJ is up at that time anyways running or what not and it's been good for me because I've been getting up to go for walks also. Some days we have enough time to tag team our walks/runs before RJ leaves for work at 7:00. Days seem so long when they start so early though. We do 7:00 bedtimes and if we push it back it doesn't change the time he wakes up and in fact often makes his awake time earlier. Fancy how that works, huh? He sleeps with a sound machine. I put our dark curtains in his room hoping to keep the early morning sun out. Really, he's always been an early riser...it's just been extreme lately. I know we should make him go back to his room, but then there's lot of crying and yelling and then Harper wakes up and then we're ALL up and not happy. Oy. But, I know we will miss this not so pleasant start to our day someday. Someday.

He's also always been a momma's boy. I really do love it 90% of the time. The other 10% of the time I'm craving some space. Lately he has become borderline obsessed with me. Constantly wants to cuddle, be held, sit on my lap, touch my face, and on and on and on. But I know I will miss it someday.

He's also always been a talker. Seriously, this boy can talk non-stop all day long. His newest form of talking is asking, "but what will happen if...." in response to everything we say. "But what will happen if I don't buckle in". "But what will happen if I don't take a nap." "But what will happen if I don't listen and obey".  It kind of drives us crazy, but I know we'll miss it someday.

He's also always loved to have books read to him. Lately we've been going through a lot of books during the day with him sitting on my lap. I know I'll miss that someday. A lot.

There. I had to write that out. Something sweet to get me through this day.
Because it's really only 8:30?!?

It's a good thing....

RJ has a lot of opportunities to voluteer for some fun things through his job. Today, he is "working" at the Principal Charity Classic. It also happens to be the celebrity day.

This girl will be there:

Man, it's a good thing I'm letting my gorgeous dark hair grow long. Wait. What's that? I just got my strawberry blond hair cut boy-short?

Well, let's just say it's a good thing he loves me so much.

The weekend

First of all, we celebrated our 7th anniversary on Memorial Day!

I feel so blessed to be able to spend my life with him, and every year just keeps getting better.

He's the best!

And for the rest of the weekend:
We played and played.
I hit an awesome cheap vintage clothing garage sale.
(pictures to come)
And we had a lot of fun with some of our church family.
We spent a big chunk of Memorial Day outdoors:

Riding cars and having races:

I tried to get a shot of Harper's eye lashes. She got them from her daddy.

I love it.

If you walk a few blocks from our neighborhood and cross south of "fancy street" there are some amazing fancy houses. Our favorite park is also over there and it's usually empty. We played and relaxed and enjoyed the beautiful weather. It was such a great day!

Hope you are all having a great start to your week!