2014 Week 12

St Patrick's Day.  The Leprechaun's left the kids a few treasures, moved a few things around in the living room and dyed the milk green.

One year since the pup became ours - and she couldn't be more loved by those two kiddos. (St Patrick's Day 2014)

Rainy Monday night at dance

Perfect way to start the spring season - 4 mile hike (with lots and lots of stairs!) in fantastic weather. — at Raven Rock State Park.

Finished reupholstering the chair!  Very happy with it.

FB status from 3/22  My little guy is up early (well typical wake up time for a school day - why does no one ever sleep in in this house?) and cuddly. He smells like dirt and little boy sweat lol. I guess I need to make double sure he showers today

Sam spent the day putting in shelves in the garage for not one, but two of our neighbor friends.  This was followed by an impromptu BBQ with all three families.  Best of both worlds - super productive (and made a little spare cash) followed by lots of laughs with friends.

Time for some family fun.  We got to the bowling alley before it opened, so we went to Sonic for milkshakes.  It was a bit cold for ice cream, but still fun.

Both kids are getting pretty good at bowling.  I completely lost to both of them.

2014 Week 11

I'm short on photos this week.  Just kind of put my head down and worked my way through the week.

I snapped this one on laundry day.  Kaitlyn made her that blanket and she's in love with it.  I tossed it over the rail on my way up the stairs and came back down to find she had immediately moved to snuggle with it.

 Our first spring flower!  Only one this week but I can see a lot more shoots from the other bulbs.

And wonder of wonders - I finally started to tackle the chair reupholstery project I've been intending to do for almost a year now.  Bambi was a great help (you do sense the sarcasm, right?)

2014 Week 10

 Photos from my hike Thursday with Becky.  It was really cold (I even wore a hat!  And I NEVER wear hats) but it felt great to be outside.

 Just finished a workout!  Not a beautiful photo, but what can you expect after a hard workout?  Julie and I have been on a roll with the exercising and pretty happy with ourselves for it.

Taking a little extra care of myself this week.  Last weekend Kaitlyn and I got our hair cut and then Sunday Jeannette came over and helped me color mine.

 Kate and I also took the time to put on our new nail wraps.

 This comic perfectly describes the weather we've been having since January.  Snow days followed by days warm enough for the kids to dig out their shorts and play outside all day.  Craziness.

Had to take this photo.  Tyler woke up at his usual time and came downstairs but decided he was tired and went back to bed.

 Oh yeah - and we lit a fire Saturday.  One of our favorite ways to eat outside.  And a great way to get rid of our piles of scrap wood.

 Mmmmm smores!  Especially our latest version using Thin Mint cookies!

Eventually we had to put the dog on her long rope because she kept getting too close to the fire and singed a couple of hairs on her tail.

2014 Week 9

Photos in no particular order this week

 The kids came home from school to find this disaster in the playroom.  I had tackled a "quick" reorganization in both storage closets.  No worries, by the end of the day everything was back in place and looking better than before.

 On the good weather days the kids have been spending a lot of time on their roller skates outside.  I love that they enjoy being active and outdoors.

And what did I find when I cleaned out the storage rooms?  A lot of photos and unfinished decorative projects that hadn't made it on the walls.  It got me motivated to get some up and displayed.  Tyler's room now looks great and I added a few photos in my room too.

 Typical breakfast for me lately - green smoothie.

 Chore time!  Tyler can't get enough of his music lately and wears his headphones constantly.

 

 New routine of going hiking every Thursday with a friend at Raven Rock.  Today we went past the Overlook.  The river is really high (and muddy) right now.

Errand with the family.

 

Oh and we also signed up for the Color Run taking place in May!  We're going to all run it this time.

2014 Week 5

 Bambi turned one year old!  She definitely doesn't look like a puppy anymore, even though most of the time she acts like one.  We're all happy to have her, obviously.  We celebrated her birthday with a quick photo and a new puzzle treat toy.  I assume she's one happy pup.

 Snow Days!  I say this with both amusement and frustration.  Snow isn't new to us, but it sure is an Event in North Carolina.  They were predicting snow for Tuesday night, so of course the school decided that letting out early wasn't good enough, they had to skip school entirely on Tuesday.  And it didn't snow until well after dark.  Urgh.  This is what we woke up to Tuesday morning though.  About 3" of new snow and the sun shining.

 The kids could hardly wait to get out in it.  It almost felt like Christmas.  They were up early and anxiously looking out the window until the sun was up and I finally let them bundle up (in our less-than adequate snow gear) and head outside to make snow angels and throw snowballs.

 Thank goodness for that dog.  When the rest of us were tired of the snow she was still happily letting Tyler throw snowballs at her and chase her around the back yard.

That's pretty much what we did for the next THREE days.  Yes, they cancelled school not only on Tuesday and Wednesday, but Thursday and Friday as well.  Sam got most of that time off, also.  And no, we didn't get any additional snow.

The kids would play outside until their fingers were cold, come inside to warm up and play in the playroom, then eventually head back out to get cold and wet all over again.

 We've also been trying to make use of the our neighborhood gym to get us all a little active and headed down there to work out a couple of times.

 Then by Sunday, complete reversal of the weather.  Snow was all gone and it was warm enough to go without jackets.

 Let's see - what else is noteworthy from the week?  I've been trying to get everyone in more healthy habits this month.  In an effort to boost the nutrition I've added in daily protein shakes for the kids and they love it.  Usually Kaitlyn or I make them, but Tyler has started to want to be more independent and is learning how to do it himself.

 There's usually projects and messes underway in our garage.  Over the weekend we did another big build day for drying racks.  And for the first time I let Kaitlyn help me out a little bit sanding countdown blocks.