Playground is done! (almost...)

After three long days, Rob and Dad got the playground into "playable" condition! LOL

Isn't she just sooo sweet?

The glider. On the box it says "promotes teamwork and socialization". ROFL!!

View from Heidi's bedroom window.

As you can see, the playset literally takes up the entire width of the yard, and almost half of the length!! Notice the smaller pile of wood? I'm so thrilled...Rob sold a whole ton of it to a friend from church, and that one stack there is all we have left. Yay!

Stuff still left to do:
1. Build the roof on the fort part.
2. Install a knotted rope for them to climb.
3. Install a pulley with attached bucket, so they can send things up and down to each other.
4. Get some mulch so they can stop playing in the dirt!!
5. Move sandbox to underneath the fort.

Here's my first layout featuring the playset:

Credits: Play by Heather Roselli, available at The Digi Chick; arrows by Jessica Bolton, circle doodle by Heather Ann Designs, font is Mish

Yes, that is me in the middle there, in the brown shirt. That slide is the most hideous thing ever! It's very fast and has a bump in the middle, which I find quite painful. I've gone down a few times to humor the girls, and now I'm DONE! Besides, my rear end wasn't designed for that slide...or maybe, the slide wasn't designed for my rear end...

Needless to say, this new activity creates the need for baths every night now. Sigh. And, they are begging to be pushed "really really high". I thought this was supposed to occupy them! Ha!

Okay, time to make some spaghetti for supper. Happy Monday!

Project: Playset

Phase 1


This thing is pretty honking huge! The girls are going to love it. :-)

We also got rid of about half of our huge pile of firewood...yay!

Today I am catching up on laundry, cleaning my kitchen floor (yuck!) and putting some more clothes in the attic while the guys keep working and my Mom has the kids. Should be a productive day.

Killin' time

Guess what?

You Passed 8th Grade Math

Congratulations, you got 9/10 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Math?

You Really Know Your State Capitols

You Got 18 State Capitols Correct You're either a geography buff... or you have an excellent memory.

Do You Know Your State Capitols?

Your IQ Is 110

Your Logical Intelligence is Below Average Your Verbal Intelligence is Genius Your Mathematical Intelligence is Average Your General Knowledge is Above Average

A Quick and Dirty IQ Test

Americana

I was hardly on the computer this weekend, because we were doing lots of family activities. Saturday we went to the Cherry Festival in nearby Whitehouse. They do this every year and it's your typical Midwest, small town festival. They have a parade with a band, fire trucks (and lots of loud sirens!), tractors, cute little cars, and even camels!

There is something completely overwhelming and touching about watching a small town parade. For a brief moment, everyone comes together and gets along, enjoying the simple pleasures of life. Every time I go to a parade like this, I actually tear up! But then I'd weird like that. I also tear up at the first high school football game every fall, watching the marching band come out onto the field to their cadence. Ah, the good old days...but, I digress.

I need to add more to this layout, but I'm stuck, so I posted it anyway. Notice how I used the tag to strategically cover my butt! ROFL!! That is one of the worst photos of me ever. I think you can see every bump and bulge. Note to self: burn that outfit!!

Sunday we drove up to Great Lakes Crossing in Pontiac, Michigan (about 1.5 hours from here) for Rob's birthday. He wanted to take the girls to the Rainforest Cafe, and it was a great choice! They absolutely loved it. Their non-stop chattering all through lunch was really funny. We let them each pick out one thing from the gift shop, and they both chose little kitties. Now, they could have had something different and exotic, but no, kitties. They carried them all through the mall, making them meow. They just crack me up.

Yesterday we did a bedroom clean out in the morning, and then we met some friends at a playground after lunch. A trip to Target set me back about $38, even though I went in to look for a birthday gift for Rob and couldn't find it! I got a new strawberry tablecloth with some red vinyl placemats...very summery and bright, along with some supplies for S'mores, and Uncle Sam hat for Rob to wear on the 4th, patriotic socks for the girls and a couple other odds and ends.

A couple of blog prompts from Stephani at KB and Friends...

What do you consider to be the ultimate snack food?
I can only choose one? Oh man! I guess I'd say cereal, because that can cover many different kinds. You can eat it dry, or with milk for something more substantial. And what kid doesn't like dry Cheerios? ;-)

Name a hobby that you’ve tried but eventually gave up for some reason.
I used to do counted cross-stitch when I was a kid, around 4th-6th grade. It was fun, and I learned from my mom. Once I got involved with music/band/junior high, I just didn't have time anymore. Now, I don't know if I'd have the patience! LOL

Have a great day!

Work Day

I have my work cut out for me today. Mom took the kids (thanks Mom!) for the day so I could work in the house. My project for the day is to completely clean out the sunroom, which is only 16x9, but the girls use it as a playroom and I have my "studio" in there, and you'd be amazed how much stuff can pile up! I'll post before and after photos later on...wish me luck! :-)

Tonight we have the 8th grade banquet for DH's school, and they are having it at the country club where we had our wedding reception. I don't think we've been back in that particular room since (13 years ago), so it will be fun to take a trip down memory lane.

Oops, almost forgot the daily blog prompt:

What are 3 things you would like to put in a time capsule?

1. My laptop (I can't imagine how technology will be different, even 10 years from now)
2. My cell phone (Same as above...will we even need cell phones in the future?)
3. One entire outfit that I wear on a typical day (which right now is capri pants, a short sleeved shirt and sandals or tennis shoes with short socks) and also my glasses :-)

Later chicas!

School's out for summah!

Remember that song? I think I have it right. Well, today was the last day of preschool for the girls. We have the next 8 or so weeks to really hang out and have fun, right?

AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

I sooooo don't want to get bored! I have them signed up for gymnastics and swimming lessons, and they are also taking a week-long Pixies and Princesses class at the Y. I think we'll also check out the summer reading program at the library, and visit the zoo and science museum on a regular basis. No problem, right? LOL

I decided to start joining in on Sempson's Daily Blog Prompt, to get me blogging on a more regular basis. Today the prompt is:

If you could wake up tomorrow with a new talent, what would you want it to be?

This is an easy one...I'd love to be able to dance! You know, kind of like they dance on Dancing with the Stars (only I wouldn't be dressed like that...yikes!). I think dancing is so much fun, but I'm not very good at it. The only dance class I've ever taken was in high school, when I was in the flag corps. We had a dancing only portion of our halftime show, so we all took a group lesson over the summer. I loved it! But my body is, let's just say, not exactly designed for dancing. LOL

I put up a couple of altered projects I've done lately, as I applied to Traci Reed's CT and she's looking for altered artists. I will be adding more in the next day or so, but this is a start anyway.

Bathroom Shelf Project

Simple Altered Clipboard

And here is a quick layout, from our outing on Memorial Day:

Back In Time

Ciao for now!

Atilla the Mom

So it's been a while since I've blogged again...what's new, right? LOL This time I actually have a decent excuse.

The Friday before Memorial Day, Heidi came down with a fever, coughing, sneezing, congestion, etc. This had been going on all week (minus the fever) and I figured it was just a cold or allergies. Saturday Gretchen got the fever too, and we spend the weekend hunkered down, running sick bay. I don't know how other people do it, but in our house, the kids get the couches and I wait on them hand and foot. That's how my mom did it for me, and I know how rotten it feels to be sick, so I want to do the same for them.

By Monday I thought they were on the road to recovery, so we ventured out to a park and did this really cool canal boat ride. The boat is a replica of a canal boat from 1865, and is pulled by mules. The people running it are dressed in period costumes and "acting" as if we all lived in 1865. It was really cute. We even got to go through an actual working lock.




I sent them to school Tuesday, since they didn't have a fever. By Tuesday afternoon, though, the fevers were back and they were both coughing A LOT. Finally Wednesday I took Heidi to the doctor, and it turned out she had PNEUMONIA!! I was shocked! Well, at least we got her some medicine. That night Gretchen's fever went up and she coughed all night, so Thursday am it was her turn at the doctor. She had an ear infection, so it was antibiotics for her too.

We spent the rest of the week trying to recover, missing their school zoo trip and everything. I was able to send them back to school on Tuesday, and they were able to take their birthday treat, so everything worked out okay.

Now, Rob caught the bug. He's home sick today with a fever, coughing and congestion. It's like having another kid! I know he's feeling awful but I am SO DONE with the house being under quarantine! Let's just hope that I don't get it next. I don't have time to be sick!

I better get back to the grind. So far today, I have cut the grass, swept two driveways and the sidewalk in front of our house, done two loads of laundry, fixed all the meals, waited on Rob, watched the girls ride their bikes, baked cupcakes for my MIL's birthday (which is today) and took a short nap while they watched their afternoon show. Sigh.