i'm tired

my oh my, we have had a hectic week. hectic can be good and bad, you know. my sister (that brilliant one) and her girls are in town, which has been a blast. cherry hill one day, raging waters another...going to the fountains at gateway, the church history museum and a movie is on the calendar for tomorrow. we also have had mike's family in town for a nephew's wedding. throw on top of that the fact that mike has been swamped at work, trying to get ready to leave town on a river trip, searching everywhere for clothes to wear for family pictures next week, going to the bountiful farmer's market and spending way too much money on pvc pipe toys for the boys, having only one car because we still haven't bought a replacement vehicle for mike...well, things have been hectic. one night mike had to go back to work and didn't get home until almost 3am. gratefully, the wedding is over, family is still here (which is fun), mike made it on the river trip and will come home in time for family pictures, which will be fabulous because everyone finally has something to wear. whew. i have no pictures to post because mike has my camera on said river trip. i told him i wanted to download the pics i had taken before he left. well, that didn't happen and i am hoping that my camera makes it home safe so i don't lose this past week's photos.

this next week should be slightly less hectic, but still full. movie tomorrow, swimming on tuesday, family pictures wednesday, family leaving thursday or friday, 4th of july celebrations, hopefully finding a car to buy, mike getting home from his trip, new windows being installed (more on that later, i'm sure), and maybe then i'll find time to vacuum my basement? summer is fabulous. i always think that it will be the time to relax and soak in all the sunshine. i'm soaking in plenty of sunshine, but the relaxing hasn't happened yet. perhaps i'll find time for that in a few weeks.

tub time

i don't know about your kiddos, but mine LOVE the tub. and they are finally figuring out how to play together in that big 'ol bath of water. luke's got quite the skills if you ask me. the other night i heard splashing and giggling and squealing and other crazy sounds coming from the bathroom. usually i would have stormed in there and told them to stop splashing and making a mess of my newly cleaned bathroom. not this night. i went to take a look and found the funniest scene. they were laughing hysterically which made me start to laugh. i went and grabbed the camera and captured the moment. it's times like these that i love. times when we are all laughing and realizing that who cares if there is a lake on the bathroom floor? so what if i have to wash 3 more towels tomorrow from mopping up said lake. does it really matter? the boys were having fun. lots of fun. and i am learning to let things like this happen...let them have fun in their mischievious ways. no harm done...just a little water. it was fun to see them interacting like this and even more fun to join in the laughter. i am thankful for boys who help me to relax and take a step back and just enjoy the moment. laundry and lakes in the bathroom can wait.

it finally happened!

because most of you know i am the enrichment leader in my ward and know a bit of what has gone into this event, i thought i had better share some pictures and commentary on the whole deal. it all started the middle of may. i was thinking to myself...i know we have an enrichment night scheduled soon...i'm pretty sure it's sometime in june. i better check. sure enough. june 4th was the scheduled day. i had 2 weeks to pull together something for the entire ward relief society. hmmm. i turned to simple natural resources. we'll have a summer garden party! i quickly pulled a committee together, had invitations made and delivered, got some fun ideas for food and googled a few decor options. this would be fabulous and easy! i got everything ready, made decorations, planned a menu, yada yada yada. we were ready. well, the weather decided to storm on june 4th. we moved it to june 11th - again, storm in the forecast. here we are, june 21st, the first day of summer and it went off without a hitch...amazing! finally!

here are a few pictures of the food, decorations, etc. i got called martha more than once and some people were amazed at my cupcake skills. well, i'm not martha and i'm no culinary genius...i just copy others creative ideas and voila! it sure makes me look good! an extra thanks goes out to those who, at the last minute, dropped what they had and helped put sandwiches together and make this all happen. another thank you to season's four landscape guru tony lawson for coming and sharing landscape and gardening tips. i think we could have listened to ideas and tips all day long! and a big thanks to a good friend for letting us hold our party in her beautiful backyard. it was grand.

in addition to tony's gig, we had each person bring a brown paper bag with something that shared a little bit of who they are. these were done secretly so nobody knew whos bag was whos. we spent some time opening the bags and guessing who it was...fun little get to know you game. it was fun to learn about who loves watermelon, who is obsessed with planning and time, somebody who loves to read, another who loves quilting.

ok - so that was a lot of pictures. next time maybe i'll figure out how to put together one of those collage deal-e-os. overall it was a wonderul summer garden party and i am glad we finally got to make it happen!

does this seem backwards to anyone else? maybe it's just me.

that luke is one tough kid!

infestation

i believe we have an infestation on our hands. actually, it's in my flower garden. the demon = snails. here were the first signs:

flowers completely stripped. i mean, there is an entire section of flowers that just completely disappeared! completely gone. and then there was the not so delicate lacework patterns in the leaves of my hollyhocks...this is out of control. i called the local garden center and asked them what to do. they told me to pull as many snails off of the plants as i could and get some snail bait. here's the problem. the majority of snail bait is lethal to animals and i don't think my boys would be very happy if i put annie dog at risk for a few pesky snails! the garden center told me about a snail bait called sluggo...and it's safe for pets. we jumped in the car and went to get sluggo. then max and jake and i set out to remove as many snails as we could.

the searching was easy...they were EVERYWHERE!

do you see how many snails there are?? it's insanity i tell you. we got as many as we could find and a rough count was...get this...96. WHAT?! these disgusting slugs are eating my flowers and plants and destroying my garden!! gross. we did the only thing we could...salted the little buggers and left them for dead.problem solved? here's the kicker. the next morning i went to check out our progress and see if we had any stowaway's that somehow got missed. i found 32 more...in just a few minutes. what's the deal? over the past 2 days i think our total is up around the 150 mark and growing. not as many, mind you. but at almost any given time i can find 2 or 3 just hanging out...munching on my plants. i hope the sluggo does it's job and that sometime this year i'll have flowers to enjoy. (i went and replanted the missing area...keeping my fingers crossed!)

happy dad's day

mike is a fabulous dad. his boys love him and i love him. mike has always always always wanted a horse. so when the chance to "take" a horse from a friend came up, mike was giddy. if you know me very well you know that i really really really don't like horses. it could be something to do with the allergy i have for the animals. i can't be around a person who has been around a horse. i get all puffy and sneezy and stuffy. it's yucky. mike came and told me of the opportunity to get ricky (that's the horse)...you should have seen the look in his eyes. kid in a candy store? even better. how could i say no to that? fulfill a lifelong dream and not have to pay anything up front? happy father's day mike.

why mike's a great dad:

*he's still just one of the boys.

*loves to get down on the ground and roll around

*let his boys clobber him in a water fight last night

*takes his family fishing, camping, and now, riding

*has those tough talks...

*is a great example of service

*loves me

*teaches honesty, integrity and respect by the way he lives

*is a really hard worker

*plays really hard too

*makes memories with his boys

*always up for a new adventure

i love you mike. thank you for being such a great dad!

wahoo kangaroo zoo

so, have you heard of this place? it's oh so fun! given that the weather is typical for march - yes it's june, but somebody forgot to put in the order for sunshine - we decided to go for a little bit of indoor play today. i heard about this place somewhere along the way...and decided to give it a try.

the slides were huge and max & luke loved jumping all over the place!!! the idea is that kids can run and jump and play and get all of that energy out while mom stands back and watches them have a grand old time.

luke, the caged child.

luke was near the end of his limit and turned to the stools for entertainment. what a kid.

i do recommend it. it was fabulous.

NOOOOOO!

it cannot be true...cannot be happening. i am afraid that luke is trying to get rid of taking a nap. what!?! he's only 19 months old. i should have at least 6 more months of good napping afternoons, right? i mean, max was 2 before he ditched the napping deal. luke has something up his sleeve. today is the second day in a row of his refusal to sleep away the afternoon. i would love a reason to lay down in a dark room for a few hours and snooze...why can't he see it that way? maybe because he knows max is home and playing and having much more fun. he can't stand to miss out. oh luke. i guess i should remember how well he sleeps at night and be grateful for that. don't get me wrong, i'm not totally convinced of the no-nap deal. we'll give it another shot tomorrow.

edit***maybe i spoke a bit too soon. shortly after posting the above riff raff about no naps, luke was found downstairs whining. he walked me into his room and reached for his bed. how's that for turning over a new leaf!? i am thrilled he is now soundly resting. too bad i'll have to wake him to go get mike from the airport. at least he'll have more of a nap than he did yesterday. yay.

summer's here...

...and max is bored. well, maybe not bored, but needing some structure, something to do. ok, so maybe its mom that needs something for max to do. yesterday was his first day of summer...officially the first day he would normally have gone to preschool and didn't. the first day i began thinking, "what am i going to do all day? what is max going to do?" i am pretty amazing and turned to that brilliant sister of mine. she suggested getting a workbook. you know, so max could keep up on his colors, numbers, letters, shapes, all the stuff he just learned in preschool. also to give him some structure and homework and something to do. cuz you know, at 4 years old, homework is still pretty fun! we picked this up today:

we got home from the store, had some lunch, put luke down for a nap and max immediately turned to his workbook. we opened it up and found some pages for him to color and trace and match. wow. he spent the better part of an hour working at his coloring and was having such a great time! maybe this will help him retain some of his new knowledge while allowing me to get a few things done. thanks marisa for the good mommy tip.