A Few Shots from Last Weekend

Last Sunday, we went out to take some shots that would hopefully be good enough to put on our Christmas card this year. We didn't get any that we liked. It was windy and the kids were getting impatient.

Ryan has his eyes closed here.


Kathryn is not a happy camper!



A little too windy!

I did manage to capture a few good shots!

Then we headed out to get something to eat. We headed out to TGIF. We all had delicious food and the kids shared a yummy dessert!

Monday

Today was a busy but productive day. I was able to mop all the floors, do my laundry (but not put the clothes away), do some spring cleaning in the dining room and kitchen, and help with homework! I'm tuckered out, but it's a good tired. Now watch, tomorrow will end up being a slacker day and I won't get anything done. But since I've put that out there, I'll have to make sure I stick with my schedule.

This past weekend, Emily went to her first non-relative birthday party. Her friend from school, Katya, invited her to her princess birthday party. All the girls were to dress as their favorite princess so Emily went as Cinderella. I should have taken her picture, but I just wasn't thinking. All the little princesses looked so cute. There was even a real princess. Yes, Sleeping Beauty came and played with the girls. They played games, had face paintings and even story time. Emily was very enthralled.

This week, I plan on continuing with spring cleaning. The weather is supposed to be in the 70's all week, so that will put me in cleaning mode. Oh yeah, I'm also preparing my kitchen to be painted this weekend. My two girlfriends and I have decided that instead of giving each other birthday presents this year, we are going to help each other with some cleaning/organizational job that is needed at our homes. Since my birthday was in February, I'm first. I wanted help in painting my kitchen cabinets. But my one friend just loves painting and wants to do the whole kitchen! It's a small kitchen but still, I'm not sure the whole thing can be finished in a few hours. One of the walls has wallpaper from when we first moved in,14 years ago!! I tried peeling a little off today to see if it would be easy. It wasn't too bad, but underneath was another layer of a different pattern. That one looked real vintage. It was bright yellow with a bunch of red cherries or raspberries or something like that. It must have gone real well with our yellow tile, during the 50's( I can't wait to change that)! Maybe I should just leave that yellow wallpaper and turn my kitchen retro! It would save money in getting new counters! HA! HA!

I'm off to bed now as my mind is starting to turn to mush. Time to unwind and say goodnight prayers. May everyone have a blessed day!

Saturday

I hope everyone is having a good start to their weekend! We are having some rainy weather, which I am enjoying. It's expected to last the whole weekend. The lawn and plants are loving the freshness that only the rain can bring. The air smells fresh, too!

Steve took the kids to do some grocery shopping. He is braver than I am. I wouldn't take all three kids to the store! Although Kathryn is no sweat, when Ryan and Emily are together, you never know how things will go! They always seem to find something to argue about, and then they get to yelling at each other. I am never at a loss for teachable moments. One of my daily prayers is to be able to reach them and teach them about how we are to act with each other. Sometimes it doesn't seem to be getting through, but I don't give up.

While Steve is out doing the hard work, I'm here blogging away! Actually, I stayed home to get a little rest. I seem to be getting the same cold that Steve had. My sore throat is gone, but now my nose is a little stuffy and my body just feels like it's battling a cold.

My plans for the rest of the weekend besides resting when I can:

Work on some crochet projects that I have lined up.
Catch up on laundry.
Make my menu plan for the week.

We'll also try to make it the open house at the kids school. This is mainly for new students, but since Emily will be starting Kindergarten in the fall, we thought she'd like to see what her class would look like. Kathryn and Ryan could also take a peek at next years classrooms, too.

Right now, I'm going to rest and watch the episode of Lost that I missed this week but recorded on the DVR.

Have a nice weekend!

Yea! The Tooth Came Out!

Ryan finally lost his other front tooth! He looks so cute! This one was a stubborn one, but he was persistent, and finally pulled it out.

And he also got a haircut! Due to our busy schedule, he was way overdue for one. Today was early dismissal, so I was able to take him today.

Tomorrow, more soccer and a baseball game. Emily will play her last game for the season and then have the team pizza party. She's looking forward to that. Kathryn has two games that will end her regular season. However, she has a tournament to get ready for, then playoffs. This feels like the season that will never end! Ryan will also have a game tomorrow. Then one more next weekend, then he's done too...yippee!

Have a nice weekend, everyone!

Friday

Today I was able to accomplish quite a bit. Emily was in school, so I got to work and had to do it quick. I did my laundry and even got the clothes put away. Usually, I do the laundry and the clean clothes stay in a basket for a LONG time! We end up pulling the clothes out of the basket, doing a quick ironing job and putting them on. Doesn't make for stress-free living, but what can I say, we are definitely not always a smooth running machine here. So, I was quite pleased that the clothes were put away. Little things like that give me satisfaction.

I thought I was going to have a major chore today. Yesterday, Emily had soccer practice, but I could only find one soccer shoe. I could not find the other one, so she just had to wear her regular tennis shoes. For practice that is OK but not for the real game, which is tomorrow. So I had to tackle the BIG job of cleaning out her closet and soon. There is so much junk in there, I was ready with the trash bags because I knew I would be finding lots of things to just toss. I emptied out the shoe rack (more like a crate), put aside some shoes that don't fit her anymore, but no missing soccer shoe. I pulled out all her stuffed animals, and lo and behold, there is her missing shoe! It was buried under the pile of stuffed animals. I was so glad I didn't have to dig further into the closet. I cleaned out half of her closet and decided to do the rest next week. Lots of stuff will get tossed or stored in the garage. There is just too much in that closet.

I finally got my recent pictures uploaded onto the computer. I'll have to post some pictures on another post. I have a few from last weekend's marathon of games. It was a little hectic, but not as bad as I thought it would be. Ryan and I did manage to see Kathryn's game and he wasn't too tired. I still don't like the three games in one day, but I suppose we'd manage.

Emily's team would have won if score was kept. There is no official score keeping. They just go out there to have some fun. Emily scored 4 goals, and all for her team, not for the other team like she did the week before, LOL! Kathryn's team won, I don't remember the score, but it was a shutout.....I think. Ryan's team lost.

This weekend is another round of games, two on Saturday and one on Sunday.

My two DVD rentals for this weekend are: Love is a Choice (the life of St. Gianna Beretta Molla) and Gumby Essentials (sure to bring back lots of memories).

Have a wonderful weekend!

A Trip to the Wild Animal Park

We had a wonderful trip to the Wild Animal Park this past weekend. The weather was great and everyone enjoyed themselves.

Emily and Kathryn enjoyed trying on the masks.

Here's a momma giraffe with her baby!

Some lionesses lounging around.

Rhinos are much bigger than I thought!

Kathryn got a beautiful flower painted on her face.

We had a wonderful time. I'm sure we'll be back again!

Tournament Weekend

Kathryn is playing in her first soccer tournament this weekend and we are all excited. It's going to be hot over here but where she's playing is real close to the beach so we should have nice cool breezes.

Kathryn will be playing two games today and in between I need to take Ryan for a haircut. I've delayed it so many times already that he really couldn't go much longer without him starting to look too unkempt.

This past week has been mostly spent doing some spring cleaning of our patio. The weather has been very warm so I've hosed down the patio, cleaned windows, dusted cobwebs, beat out some old mats and just did some sprucing up. While out there, I'm sure finding a lot of those black beetles I mentioned before. I think I'm kind of getting used to them now. I'm not so freaked out.

Well, I'm off to the tournament. I hope I can take some decent pictures to post later.
I'll leave with this link for a free Fruitista Freeze from Taco Bell if you like that type of food. It looks delicious, especially on a nice warm day!

Weekend Update (the previous one - hee hee)

Aside from the usual sporting activities, we (the whole family) made a trip to a nice library in the city next to us. It's a nice, new huge one. The kids had a ball. They have a wonderful children's section with lots of computers and even a few for younger kids that are already loaded with learning programs. Even 3 yr old Emily could play some toddler games and listen to stories. There were a couple of tables with wooden puzzles that little ones like to play with. Plenty of kids DVD's, CD's, and books on tape/CD. And of course, a wonderful section of books! I would have loved this when I was a kid!

I didn't get a chance to take a peek at the adult books, but I'll get around to it when I can get away by myself. Oh yeah, and this library has self-checkout! It's very interesting how I can just lay some books on this square thingie, and through the magic of radio waves (so said the librarian), it can "read" what books I'm checking out and print out all the information on a little receipt! When I return books, I put them in a slot in the wall and a conveyor belt takes them and automatically sorts them into the proper bin for shelving. You can see the whole procedure on a computer screen. I am quite impressed!

My Emily had a tough weekend. On Saturday, she was being pulled in a wagon by Kathryn, in the kitchen no less, and started to get up while it was starting to move and fell out of it, hitting her chin on the floor. I thought she was going to have some broken teeth because all I saw was her face hitting the floor. She made it through with no broken teeth but a badly bruised chin. It got really red, but no skin was cut. Then on Sunday at church, while busily talking with Ryan, she tripped on the steps and hit her forehead on the edge of one of the steps. I could actually hear it making contact. Steve picked her up, she was crying so hard, and right away a big lump appeared right above her eye. Thank God nothing happened to her eye. We kept a real close watch on her to make sure she was acting normal, we asked her questions and she was able to answer them correctly. She was bruised, but again, no major gashes or anything like that. Then, later on that day, she's running (I guess she was feeling good) from the hallway into the living room and falls again, this time right on her tailbone, but thankfully it's only an inconvenience for a minute or two and she's OK. My word, her guardian angel has been working overtime!
I'm just glad I didn't have to make any trips to the emergency room. I would've hated to be placed under a cloud of suspicion because of all her recent injuries!
Now, she's just a little black on her eyelid and mostly has that yellow tinge that comes after some bad bruises.

I finally finished watching Gone With the Wind. I really enjoyed it. I loved the Scarlett character, even though she was so spoiled and selfish. I have the book somewhere in my bookshelf. I'll have to dust it off and read it sometime.
Now it's back to watching The Waltons. I never saw it when it was originally on TV so I've started with Season One. I haven't made up my mind yet about whether I really like it enough to rent the other seasons, but I guess I like it enough to finish this first one.

Regarding my trees, my plan is to first talk with my gardener. Maybe he has some suggestions. Maybe they need more water or some pruning. If he doesn't know, I'll ask at the nursery. Then as my last resort, I'll call the city again. Since the trees are on the parkway and that's considered city property or something like that, they're the ones that would have to do any pruning or tree care taking.

I think you are now all caught up with things going on in my household! Thanks for visiting!

Saturday

Today started out with Kathryn's soccer game. Her team won 4-0 so that was great. Right after that, we headed out to my great-niece's 2yr birthday party. We had a great time even though it was super hot! It was held at a park but thankfully, there was lots of shade. Later, all the kids got to go in the sprinkler they had going. I didn't know there would be one at this park so I didn't bring any change of clothes or towels or anything. But no one cared. It was so hot anyway, they all dried up with the heat pretty fast anyway. They had a blast so that's what counts.

Tomorrow, we are off to the Youth Expo. There will be lots of exhibits from the youth of our county (I think). Kathryn's mission will be on display as well as those of her classmates. Her class had a field trip there yesterday, so she got a sneak preview. She says her mission got first place, but I think actually they all got blue ribbons.



I made a discovery today. I think this summer, we (meaning our area) are going to have an abundance of black beetles. I saw two of them this morning in our garage. Yuck! Then I saw a couple at Kathryn's soccer game. Then I saw one at the party today! I'm not sure if they are stag beetles, but they're big and black. Maybe they're ground beetles? I just hope they don't find a way into the house.

Now, I'm off to watch Gone With the Wind. I've never seen it before and I thought I'd give it a try. Sometimes, nothing beats watching an old classic movie!