Kay's Cherry Limeade.

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macee's Kindergarten tote.

No backpacks, please...for Kindergaren. Just totes. You can buy them for $5 at Walmart, or order one with the child's name on it through the school for $7.

Mmm, no thanks.

Macee lives across the big road and is going into Kindergarten with Andy this year. We're hoping they both get Ms. Archer. Macee picked they yellow flower interior, and the apples, and pink, and blue, and a flower. So we put it together for the perfect non-boring Kindergarten tote.

Andy is still trying decide if he wants green, skulls, or lobsters. Yeah, I know. He's a kooky kid. I'll show ya when he finally decides.

We're making oilcloth lunch sacks next week. I'll show you that, too. later.

summer fun tip: go in the rain.

We went to the downtown fountains this morning...in the rain. It was by far the wettest fun we've ever had. The only thing better than playing in the rain is playing in giant fountains in the rain. AND...the whole park was ours and ours alone.

Once the sun came out the yellow bus pulled up; this is when we explored the amphitheater, put our feet in the river, and debated if we should go up the sunsphere or not. We opted not, due to stroller constraints and wandering toddlers. Next time.





And this is quite possibly the coolest thing in K-ville.

cool birthday banner.

Look at this cool banner Renee made for 7Gypsies. She adapted the magazine mobile idea in such a cute way! So creative; I love it. Go check out her other cool paper creations.

Thanks for sharing Renee!

summer days, with chocolate.

Yesterday we went to the zoo, early, with Courtney and Mandy. The power was out, and Logan almost fell in the bear pit. Kind of.

Then we picked up Dani from her Ceramics class at the Museum of Art. She made a Loch Ness Monster.

Then we took Andy to Porter's house to swim and sleep over. He wouldn't let me look in his backpack, so I'm a little nervous he is grossly unprepared.

I was reaching my afternoon chocolate withdrawls, so we dipped pretzels. I had tons of chocolate and not enough pretzels, so I dumped in a bag of coconut and pecans, and I ate it.

Then we went to pick up Seth to spend the night with Jake. And Georgia came to get Dani.

So we made dinner. Fajitas and Banana Milkshakes.

Today we're picking up the kids

making oreo truffles for Emma

watching the Strickland kids

and Koa and Leile

designing the Macee bag

staring at my house plans

playing with the hose

dreaming of a pool

laundry

planting wheat grass

calling Sprint

and eating some oreo truffles.

Happy Summer!

rainbow garden.

by Prints Charming for Marcus Brothers.

I like it.

worchestershire.

For when Kacie doesn't make the squad.

golden snitch shirt.

So easy!

• Iron pieces of blue and yellow fabric to some Wonder Under, following Wonder Under instructions.
• Draw the shapes of the snitch and its wings onto the paper backing.
• Cut them out.
• Peel off the paper backing and iron the shapes onto your shirt, following the Wonder Under instructions.
• Now sew around the edges of your snitch with a straight stitch.
• Put some Fray Check right on your stitches so it doesn't fray too much in the wash (this step is optional).

Happy Harry Potter Weekend!

a yellow house.

We've been planning on building a house for about...well...10 years now. We get close, and then decide to rent. We find plans and talk to builders, and then decide to buy. The market, the timing, the details, etc.

But we're close. I can feel it. It's just a matter of selling this house, really. Crossing my fingers.

So I've been looking through the humongo house notebook, finalizing how I want our new house to feel. That's important, to know this before we build it. These are a few pictures I've saved; "the feel".





Yes, that is Superman talking in his kitchen with Lex Luthor. Because ultimately I want the Kent Farm.

I want old, but new. White, but colorful. Bright and open. Practical and totally not put together on purpose.

A drinking fountain on the side porch, double ovens, a huge island and a conversation nook in the kitchen, an herb ledge above the sink, books and pillows, benches, windows windows windows, window seats, a kids craft closet with pipe cleaners and bubble wrap, pictures that make no perfect sense, words on every wall, and a green door. Somewhere. A green door somewhere.

Am I asking too much? Does the dream home really exist? It probably will be a little more practical than painted wood floors and a tiny frigidaire, but not totally put together. A place our kids can tell their kids about.

Hmmm.

And I'm pretty sure I want it to be yellow.



I'm sorry I don't remember where all the pictures came from. If I do remember, it's linked to it's bloggy source.

I can't stop singing Heal the World.

waiting for daddy.

spills.

This is orange juice. An gigantic jug of spilled orange juice.

Hard to look at, but totally clean up-able.

Jake cried and cried and cried and cried, because while he was helping to bring in the groceries, he set the orange juice on the counter, and it fell. He watched it seep out the cracked bottom of the gigantic jug sitting on the floor. And he cried.

Before we cleaned it up, I sighed one of those spill sighs, told Jakey it was okay-he could stop crying and crying and crying, and then I took a picture. Because of this:

When Jakey is 17 and Princess Ahpios breaks up with him for that other guy, and Jake cries and cries and cries and cries...I can show him the orange juice picture.

Remember the spill, Jake? I'll say. There was orange juice everywhere. It took every clean towel we had to soak up that orange juice; and even after that, it took two days of mopping to get rid of the stickiness and three more days of finding orange juice on the curtains and walls and windows. It was a huge mess. You cried and cried and cried and cried.

Then he'll nod. Remembering the dripping citrus smelling beach towels he carried to the laundry room. Then I'll say...

That was a bad spill. You felt pretty rotten. But we cleaned it up, eh? Every spill is clean up-able, Jake. It seems unbearable when you're staring at the never-ending pool of sticky orange juice, but every spill is clean up-able.

And he'll start to get it. But he'll be mad at me because he doesn't want to clean up the spill because he really likes Aphios, and thinks he might even love her, and he really wants to be that stupid other guy, and he just wants to cry and cry and cry and cry.

So we'll get out the towels, and spend two days - or two months cleaning up the sticky mess. And Jake will eventually feel better.

And that's when he'll laugh at the orange juice picture.

Until the next spill.

emersyn.

Good weekend.

We did go bike shopping...we walked into Target, looked at the pricetags, and went home. Good trip.

And we did barbeque, but I was too busy eating yummy yummy food and talking to fun people and counting kids so as to make sure none were lost in the land of color smoke bombs to take pictures. And my hands were permanently glued to 3 pairs of ears during the big firecrackers, so no pictures of those either. Good times.

But I did take pictures of our trip to the zoo. Good weather.


This is me touching a rat. They tried to tell me it was cute. Whatever.
But I touched it anyways so the kids would think I'm cool and not a wuss.

I did not enjoy touching the rat. Bad rat.

Natural Tunnel Park

Last weekend we went to Natural Tunnel in Kingsport, TN with the Real Cruze's. We had a picnic in the park, a short photo session, and then a small hike to the tunnel, which we couldn't go in. So we just looked at it.

Lori and I took Lydia and Kacie down on the chairlift, while the dads were left with 8 kids and a stroller. I felt bad, a little.

This is Lover's Leap. The legend is, an indian warrior and princess from different tribes fell in love but were forbidden to be together so they climbed this ridge and jumped off as the sun rose, hoping they would be together in the afterlife. The kids didn't get it. Why did they jump off? That doesn't make sense! They were crazy. I'm never falling in love! So romantic.

This weekend is bike shopping and barbeque. No tunnels.