These three are part ferret, apparently.

Piper is our sweetheart baby who turns 5 today! 

 

Here’s our traditional wrapping paper we made—Dwayne drew it from her favorite “I Can Read” book, The Dragon Egg. Totally cute, huh?

 

To prolong us staying in bed a few more minutes, we let her unwrap her presents in our room.

 

That afternoon, we went to the zoo.  My goal was to get one picture of all three kids.  I mean, one good picture of all three kids.

This was the closest I got.  Should have combed Piper’s hair.

But a special treat was in store for us—the lion cubs were out!  They were born in November, and they just started going out 2 weeks ago.  We got to watch all four play and frolic.

 

All the best tree climbers wear this to scale branches.

 

This is my friend, Jen.  She does triathlons and reads more books than I do.  Her church had their winter retreat outside of Leavenworth, and Jen invited us along for some time in the snow.

 

I’ve got lots of pictures that I want to record for my own memory—consider yourself warned!

 

The bell reminds us to come in and eat!  And maybe play a game or two…

 

…before going on a hike to find the really good sled runs.  It’s called the gravel pit, which I imagine makes more sense in the summer.  In February, it should be referred to as “Scream Like a Girl” run.

 

My little mountain goats.

 

Jen is the only one who made it down with out crashing each time.  The kids were by far safest in her lap!

 

That body would be Dwayne, after Screaming Like a Girl.

 

Sled? Sled?  Who needs a sled when you are wearing snow pants!!

 

Wesley is totally tuckered out for the ride home!

 

Luckily, a hot chocolate tea party was waiting for some worn out kids.

 

Thanks for the great day, Jen and Good Shepherd!

…but he will sleep with anyone.  Just let him snuggle and he will beg to sleep with you. Only one pillow necessary.

Piper’s and Wesley’s birthdays are a month apart and they are young enough that I was able to throw one party for them this year.  In fact, being the younger kids with winter birthdays, they’ve only had family and playgroup parties.  So this year, I decided to go big and throw them a joint birthday party at Jump Planet with all the kids they actually know and play with, which  means play group, neighbors, and church (many of the kids from friendships Dwayne and I have had before anyone of us were dating each other—so cool our friends’ kids are our kids’ friends!)

So happy birthday, my beloved children.

 

 

And our official non-cake eater!  Isn’t she darling? 

My neighbor gave me the best compliment:  “Wow, the kids exercised for an hour, ate a really healthy dinner, and now don’t want to leave because they are reading books.  That’s a good party!”  I blushed and stammered and beamed.

A few weeks ago, Kyla’s Daisy troop went to our local fire station for a tour.  I loved it!  Okay, the kids did, too, but it was seriously awesome, even when the handsomest of the fire fighters left on a call. 

Isn’t it cool how they leave their boots inside their pants, all ready to put on in mere seconds?  I think I want to do this.

 

 

I wish Wesley would have sat in the engine for a picture, but that boy can be adamant, especially at 2pm and he’s sleepy.

 

 

What a great Girl Scout Experience!

Wesley inherited a nursery that was decorated before we even knew that Kyla was a girl.  For his third birthday, I wanted to give him a big kid room and really clear out all the baby stuff.

I forgot to take pictures but I trolled old posts to find a few glimpses of the baked scone-and-sage-green room with sagier trim.   

 

This was the last room with a popcorn ceiling and it’s days were numbered. After all, I had scrapped, retextured, and repainted 5 (5!!) separate popcorn ceilings in our home and this one was the smallest.

 

I don’t know what went wrong. 

I started on a Thursday night and planned that the ceiling and all the walls, and most of the trim work would be done by end of Sunday. 

 

I was still working on the 3rd ceiling re-do on Tuesday.  Papa Jim had to be called in and his only suggestion was to mud the damn thing and start again.  It was the absolutely worst idea out there, except all the ones I came up with.  I mudded, sanded, mudded, sanded, sanded, primed, textured, touched up, primed, then painted first and second coat.  Was I happy?  Not with myself.  But, for being more work that all the other ceilings combined, it turned out the best.  Which means exactly this:  You will never, never notice the ceiling in that room.  A perfect ceiling (outside of the Sistine Chapel, of course)is a non-entity. 

I had noodled on the new color for a month or so, wavering between the blue or green family.  Wesley wanted all the colors he saw in the paint chip aisle.  But finally he began insisting on a red room and the light bulb lit up.  I love red!  And a bright, cheerful red would be just the right…accent.  I found a brownish linen color that made a good neutral background for dinosaurs and then did floor and ceiling trim in fire engine red.  And the dinosaur lamp and bedding set I found (used, of course) each had the same primary red in them. 

This

 

became this (SIL Julie made the kids each their own growth chart. Isn’t this one cool?)

I have since cleaned up the closet (no more empty paint cans, etc) but his small room really opened up once his dresser was put into the “wardrobe area”.  I’ll keep the doors off for now, but I think I would like to add trim around the closet to make it pop.

 

I searched for weeks for a play rug on craigslist and what found was outrageous—$40 to $200!  Then I found out that Ikea sells them for $14.95.  I sucked it up and bought it new.  It’s been a hit for the kids AND it hides the spot where Wesley emptied out the acid wart medicine last year.

My best find, though, was this bookshelf.  Ikea, again, but off craigslist for $80.  Not exactly a steal, but a fantastic accessory! 

And because there were so many straight lines in the room, I wanted to add some curves.  I took part of an 1/8” plywood board leftover from a flooring project at the cabin and made it into this chalkboard blob.

 

 

There is only one thing hanging on his wall so far—a cut out from the birthday wrapping paper Dwayne drew for him.  Cute, huh?

 

I have just a few things I want to add:  we have a bedframe down in the garage that I’ve been saving for Wesley’s big kid bed since he was born but haven’t dragged it out yet.  The blue blinds that are splattered with oil-based texture and have several permanently bent slats really, really need to go.   And those bare walls are just waiting for some din0 decals or posters or something.  I’ll be looking around…

Thanks for stopping by!

Last week, a few bugs hit our household.  We’ve all been down with something or other for the last eight days.  Our world usually follows  a pattern—Daddy gets the sickest, Mama gets the least, and the kids all get something in between.  It was going like this for the first several days, then Mama Got Sick.

This  is what I looked like by the end of Day 3.  I had lost 10 pounds, which sounds great but not           really a good look on me.  Scrawny and weak, nauseous and green, hair unkempt, frizzy and gray-streaked, wrinkles and zits (genetics gave me a great metabolism but lousy skin), I crawled between bed and couch and bathroom. 

 

 

 

Actually, this is what I really looked like, at least to my children. (That’s a target, not a graphic picture of my insides.)

Here’s my parenting philosophy addendum:  I am my kids’ target. 

I am a busy, active mom.  I flit here and there and do this project and clean that mess and take that out and put this away.  Not intentionally, I have become a perpetual moving target.  When I stop moving—for three days—I am a sitting duck and my children can’t help themselves.  They pile on, elbows in my gut, knees pinning my hair, wanting to read, to play, to talk, to sing, to beg a video (or five).  Or to take their half out of the middle of my pillow, wiping yellow snot on my cheek or bedding. Finally, they had a mama who they could catch at any time with no great effort on their part. 

I could either feel guilty about this (but why bother?  I’m a good mom and they get plenty of attention) or realize that I need to get my strength back so I can start running from them again!  I think we all better for the exercise!