dessert

Gracie helped me make dessert yesterday...cherry-filled brownie bites with whipped cream!

Yum!

So, Jared, how were they?

what are rainy days made of?

boots

puddles (I love her spunk!)

Play-doh

creativity

games

books and snuggles on the couch

doll houses

Legos

...that's what rainy days are made of.

in the forecast today...

Rain! Glorious rain! What shall we do today?

hmmm...

snuggle on the couch and read library books
bake something special
watch movies
drink hot chocolate with lots of marshmallows
build forts
splash in puddles
make popcorn balls
do puzzles
stay in our jammies

Maybe all of the above?

weekend happenings

One of the first things I heard yesterday was the "click click click" of Lily's plastic high heeled shoes on the hardwood floors. She came into my room wearing her heels, Easter bonnet, Dora backpack and carrying her furry purple purse and fairy wand.

I'm not quite sure what's going on here. I knew they were having a tea party together, but as I glance at the photo, all I can see is dollhouse furniture on the table. This is the first time I've thought to myself, "O.K., they do kind of look like twins." Look at their smiles!

And here's a pictures of the boys at play. I love that they're such good buddies!

my heart melted

Phil had to "dispose of" several of our goldfish this evening. We have only one left. We're just not pet people I guess.

Caleb was crushed. He ran downstairs to find me, tears and all, and could barely get his words out.

"Mommy, the fish are gone. They'll miss my birthday."

We sat down on the steps together and talked for a bit. It was such a sweet moment...Mommy and precious boy in his Super Man cape jammies. I love that my little super hero needs to sit on Mommy's lap from time to time for a good snuggle.

bad news and good news

The bad news is that we just received the assessed value of our home and it's worth $20,000 less than what it was 2 years ago at the time of purchase. The good news is that we're not seeking to sell right now and in the state of Washington we pay taxes on the current value of real property. I'm thinking property taxes for 2010 are looking pretty good right now (if it were possible for taxes to look good, that is)!

Just trying to look on the bright side...

my boys

I love these boys. They've spent the last couple of nights sleeping downstairs in the playroom, because it's been especially warm up in their loft bed. They're so precious as they head down the stairs for the night...like scouts on an adventure.

"C'mon, Caleb. Let's go! Do you have the flashlight?"

Here's what they have stocked up on what they call the shelf:

• a flashlight for hand shadows
• 2 plastic rings for twirling around on their arms when they wake up in the morning

And Caleb brought his stack of High Five magazines for the morning, placed ever so neatly on the floor by the bed.

Where's Phil?

If you like playing Where's Waldo? try playing Where's Phil?

And how would you like to be that guy on the table?

heat wave

We should be playing outside, enjoying the sunshine, but some days we just want to be indoors where it's cool. I'm not sure if we've even hit the 90's yet, but the 80's are just killin' us! Considering the fact that we had snow on our front lawn just last month, we're going to need some time to become acclimated. A few weeks in the 70's would have been helpful. Oh well.

Even our toys want to be indoors. :)

Jared's invention

I love how Jared's mind works. He's always thinking, always creating something useful--just like his Dad!

Today he invented a pulley system to send the girls' dishes up to the playhouse when Mommy says, "Time to clean up the yard and come inside."

And here to demonstrate is the lovely Gracie.

Step 1. Fill the bucket with any items you'd like to send up to the playhouse.

Step 2. Turn the wheel.

Step 3. Unload the bucket and send it down again for the next load.

And here is our inventor, Jared, with a few of his adoring fans!

while the cat's away...

I went out for a bit on Sunday afternoon, and look what I came home to. The back yard had been converted to what Phil called a very cool obstacle course (translation into Mommy language: safety hazards galore--notice the very high "step ladder" in the background). I had to ask about the yellow net contraption in which my kids were tangled. It's a helicopter cargo net, of course! Doesn't everyone have one of those?

O.k., Dad...this isn't fun anymore!

This is one of the things I love about Phil...he's a wonderful father! The kids have so much fun with him. And, who else has a helicopter cargo net stashed away somewhere just for fun?

two by two

Here are a couple of sweet pictures from last week:
Giggly Gracie and Silly Lily

Jared and our friend, Addie, on the swing out back

Caleb and Gracie chatting on our Friday School quilt

stepping stones

The kids and I stopped by Wal Mart this morning on the way home from the library. I wanted them to paint stepping stones leading out to our little bird bath. We found these nice stones for $1.26 each.

Here's my sweet Caleb painting with his left hand. He also used his left hand for the hand print.

The girls did theirs after nap time. As you can see, the sun came out for them.

All done!

how our garden grows

As promised, here are a couple of pictures of our new brick path.

And did I mention already that I'm really sore?

new family members

We finally managed to get over to a pet store to replace the fish that "are in the toilet." Wal Mart fish don't seem to survive at our house. I'm not sure why we didn't go to a pet store in the past. We were able to purchase 6 little goldfish for only $1.20! The kids had a ball in the pet store! Gracie would love to have a pet pig now. She spent most of her time talking to a baby piglet in its pen.

Yes, these fish have names...let's see if I can remember them. Phil named his Charlie, I named mine Daffodil, Jared's is Goldie, Caleb's is Goldfish, Lily's is Mary Purple (named after Mary Ingalls and her favorite color, purple), and Gracie's is Strawberry.