thomas's new wheels

This is Thomas's new bike that we got for him today. He had definatley outgrown his other bike and was ready for a bigger one. I think he's probably lost count how many times he has rode it around the lake since we brought it home. That's pretty good exercise as 1 lap around the lake is almost a 1/2 mile!

Elle was thrilled to be getting Thomas's small bike for her own. She thinks it is the coolest bike since it has hand breaks and hers didn't. Scott lowered the seat for her when he got home and she's been pedaling as hard as she can to try to keep up with her big brother! After her first lap around the lake she came up to me and said, "Mommy I had tears in my eyes while I was riding around the lake." I thought she was going to say that she was sad it didn't have any pink on it but instead she said, "I'm just so happy to have a new bike!".

ava's first icecream cone

She liked it! :)

flower love

My Sweetie surprised me with pink tulips and roses when he got home on Friday. He's the best!

And Elle picked me these cute little purple flowers today. They grow wild in the woods around our house. She had fun searching for them among the dead leaves and filling up her bucket with them.

tommy's big catch

Scott took the kids fishing tonight off our dock for the first time tonight. After only about 10 minutes Thomas had this on the line! He was pretty excited!

Elle's little Barbie pole didn't catch anything for her. Next time!

words i never thought i'd hear myself say...

To Ava today, after pulling a tiny piece of paper out of her mouth - "Everything on the floor is not a buffet!"

I laughed after I said it realizing how ridiculous it sounded. :) Seriously though, the child puts EVERYTHING into her mouth. Grass blades, dirt, fuzz , leftover crumbs under the chairs.....whatever she happens to find. I really do try to keep the floors clean but she always manages to find the things that I miss.

my baby's walking

works for me wednesday: coffee filters for cleaning glass

My tip for this week is to use coffee filters to clean your windows and mirrors. They're lint-free, not as messy as newspaper, and cheap. I use 2 of them layered together and they work great!

Check out Rock's In My Dryer for lots more tips!

luke skywalker wannabe

Thomas and Elle are still nuts about Star Wars here. This is how I found Thomas when I came downstairs yesterday morning. There were all kinds of lightsaber tricks and sounds going on with that sword! I sure do love this little Jedi! :)

this bag is finally finished!

This morning while the kids were doing their schoolwork I finished sewing the lining in this felted bag I made quite awhile ago. It is finally completely done and ready to be used! There are plenty of mistakes with it as this was my first project to try felting and sewing knitted seams. The felting part turned out ok, the seams....not so much!

spring cleaning.....outside!

Last night we had our first thunderstorm of the year. It rained for part of the morning and then got pretty nice out. Thomas and I spent some time clearing leaves out of my flower/herb garden by the garage and cutting back the dead growth from last summer. I am so happy that most things have came back! Each year I plant a handful of new types of perennials to grow to see if they will actually make it through a long, cold, Minnesota winter. It's always exciting to pull back the damp leaves in the spring and find new life under them!

I got out my gardening books this afternoon and did some reading. I am new to gardening and these books are excellent to help me know when and what I should be doing with my plants throughout the year. This spring several of my plants need divided which is something that I have never done before. I hope to get to that this next week after the kids and I have cleaned up the rest of the flower beds.

We are conveniently studying plants in science right now so all of this gardening fits so nicely into our school day.....it's hands-on learning! :)

spring and sewing

We have been out enjoying the beautiful spring weather this week with my mom and sisters. Yesterday from lunch until late afternoon was spent outside with the kids having jump rope contests, a race around the lake, laying out on a blanket in the sun with my sister visiting and looking at magazines, and Elle planting flowers and seeds with Grandma.

Today Elle has been running a fever so we've stayed inside and she's watched movies while I sewed up this adorable twirly skirt that Erin at House on Hill Road designed and generously made a tutorial for on her blog. (Thank you Erin!) I wish that I could've took her picture in it. I just love this fabric. It has apples, cherries, and strawberries on it....so cheery looking and perfect for summer.

My hubby will be home in a couple of hours after being gone since Tuesday and I can't wait! I've got a messy kitchen that needs some attention before then. Too much sewing and not enough cleaning today! :)

works for me wednesday: treasure boxes

Treasure boxes are my solution for controlling clutter in my kids rooms. My kids are savers. They want to save every hotel key and airline ticket stub Daddy gives them when he travels, Sunday school papers, cereal box toys.....the list goes on, everything is a treasure to them! The latest thing was the foil off of some of the chocolates from Easter that had pictures of cute bunnies. Where to put all of these things was a real issue until I bought a couple of under the bed storage boxes. They now put all of the things that they want to save but that don't have a specific home in their rooms in these boxes. When they get full they will go through them and get rid of anything that is no longer special to them to make room for new stuff. This solution works for them and for their 'thrower awayer' mama! :)

For more tips visit Rock in My Dryer!

sunny sunday afternoon

Aaaahhh....this is me, blogging in the warm SUNSHINE! :) It is gorgeous out this afternoon. Hopefully that frozen lake in the background thaws this week! Thomas and Elle have been riding bikes, jumping rope, playing trucks and tractors in the dirt and now they are building a pond (which of course means they are getting good and dirty!).

It has been a pretty quiet, uneventful weekend around here. Ava Mae is getting a couple more teeth right now and is very fussy and has wanted to be held a lot. I remember hardly noticing when Thomas and Elle were teething but Ava gets real cranky and needs a little tylenol and orajel to make it better. Scott has had to work this weekend as there is so much going on at work right now. He also has to travel 3 of the next 4 weeks. It's been a couple of weeks since his last trip and it's been so nice to have him home! My mom and sisters are coming up this week though so it will go quickly.

Well, this warm sunshine is making me sleepy so I'm going to shut my laptop, close my eyes and listen to the birds sing and my children play. Love these kinds of moments...

thrifting find

I noticed this little table outside of a second hand shop that I drive by every time that I go to town and thought it would be perfect for the kid's playhouse. So today we stopped in and bought it. I covered it with this happy oilcloth that I picked up a few weeks ago and I love the way it looks! Now, I'm going to be keeping an eye out for a couple of mismatched kid size chairs that I can paint and distress to go with it!

I am really looking forward to the weather warming up so that we can work on this playhouse. I want to make shelves between the 2x4's and then paint it inside. Maybe do something fun on the floor and sew some curtains for the little windows. Outside we need to finish the railing on the steps and little porch area then stain it to match. Oh, and make a door! Maybe a couple of window boxes with fake flowers in them and.......the list could go on and on! :)

signs of spring

We are starting to warm up here in Minnesota and I couldn't be happier about it! We were supposed to get a few more inches of snow this week but thankfully we didn't. This afternoon was the warmest we have been in quite awhile (44 degrees!) so I went for a walk with Ava, and Thomas and Elle rode their bikes. We also spent a little time moving away the leaves to see if there were any surprises under there and look what we found -


There was sedum, yarrow, silver mound, rhubarb, hens and chicks, tulips and peonies all starting to come to life!

"Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory." -Isaiah 6:3

birthday girl

Here are a few pictures of the birthday girl enjoying her blueberry muffin. We still have lots of dessert from Easter so I decided muffins would be a better choice than a cake this year. She thought they were yummy!

has it been a year already?

Today our sweet little Ava turns one! My, how the time flies! Happy Birthday Precious!

works for me wednesday: laundry room shelf

My hubby built me this nifty shelf for my laundry room. He made it out of scrap wood we had laying around here after we built. The design is pretty clever as it is a hollow box that just rests upon a board that is screwed to the wall. It makes my laundry room that much more functional since I have more working space to place things when I fold clothes, it keeps things from falling behind the washer and dryer but yet it keeps the water and gas controls easily accessible since it can just be pulled away from the wall. It works for me!

For more handy dandy tips visit Rocks in My Dryer!

bye bye bottles, hello sippy cup

Ava got a new sippy cup in her Easter basket yesterday and she likes it! I'm kinda going to miss the bottle a little bit I have to say. I love to see her big eyes looking up at me while she's drinking her milk and her chubby little hands trying to pull at my hair. She's just growing up too quickly! Doesn't she look like such a big girl in these pictures?!

She's really getting spunky and silly! She's been trying to walk a lot this weekend. So far she's been able to take 7 steps before falling.

This morning I decided that it's time to pick up a few locks for the kitchen cabinet doors after I found her in the middle of the kitchen floor with coffee grounds everywhere! I'd only left her for a couple of minutes and she wasn't even in the kitchen then. Her mommy's not looking radar must have went off though and she went to the number one no-no, the trash can, and pulled out the coffee filter on top with yesterdays coffee grounds in it that I had just thrown away!

I always wonder how a little person can make such big messes but if you just sit and watch her she's like a little tornado. She loves to empty things out and then move on to the next thing. If she spots a basket of clothes she'll throw out every article of clothing in that basket piece by piece. If the movie drawer gets left open, pretty soon every single dvd is going to be laying in a pile right beside it. The sock drawer, the book shelf, everything! She definately keeps life interesting around here and keeps me on my toes. I've been trying to show her that it's fun to put everything back in the baskets, boxes and drawers but she's not convinced of it yet. :)

happy easter!

All dressed up for church.

An easter egg hunt out in the cold and snow.

Easter dinner -

Baked Virginia Ham
Parmesan Smashed Potatoes
String Beans with Shallots
Cardamom Bread Braid

Easter desserts -

Cherry Cheesecake Dessert
Dirt Cake (chocolate pudding layered between oreo cookie crumbs)

dying easter eggs

party dress

I've started on the knitted dresses for Elle and Ava that I mentioned a few days ago. The bag that I was working on is almost done. All that is left is to hand sew the lining in it and then I'll post a picture.

I am really loving the pink mercerized cotton yarn I chose for these dresses. It's fun to work on something girly and dainty for a change. The floral fabric is going to be the skirt part of the dress. I can picture them wearing them already!

wfmw: the car edition

The theme for this week's Works for Me Wednesday is how to make life easier on the go. I almost always have all 3 children in tow with me every time I run errands so I am looking forward to picking up some more tips to make going out with them easier! Here is a listing of things that I have found work for me when out and about or when we are making the long 10 1/2 hour drive to Grandpa and Grandma's house.

- Teach your older child to help the younger ones get buckled up into their seats.This saves me so much time! I drive around a suburban and the two older kids love to sit in the back seat so they just climb in back there, Thomas buckles up Elle and all I have to do is buckle the baby into her seat in the middle and off we go.

- Books on CD. We love to listen to these while we run around town. Many good ones can probably be found at your local library.

- Keep a box of kleenex in the back by the kids. This keep you from frantically searching for one while you are driving down the road after one of your kids sneezes!

- Have your kids vacuum and clean out the vehicle! My older 2 children are 7 and 5 years old. They were wanting to do chores a couple of weeks ago to earn some money to use at the Mommy Store but I was running out of ideas for them to do when I remembered that they had recently ate Chex mix in the back of the vehicle and crumbs were everywhere. I told them they could each earn a chip if they vacuumed and cleaned out the suburban. Thomas got out the shop vac and got busy vacuuming and Elle wiped off the seats. They did a pretty good job and thought it was fun too!

- For those long car rides, having a DVD player in our vehicle has saved many tears and many "Are we there yets?"! When we take long trips I usually pack a couple of their favorite videos but also like to surprise them with a new one part way into the trip that I either bought or rented from the video store.

- And along the lines of the DVD player in the vehicle be sure to keep extra batteries in the vehicle for the wireless headphones that way you don't have to end up listening to Veggie Tales along with the kids too!

- Vehicle Bingo is a fun game to play on long trips. I remember playing it when I was younger on family vacations. You can make your own bingo cards with things that you might see along the way on your trip and the first person to find 5 in a row on their card can win a little prize you brought along. I found this link to a pdf file of an already made bingo card for younger children that is a simplified version.

Well, that is all that I can think of for now. It's time to go over to Rocks in My Dryer now to read the rest of the tips!

Update! -
I thought of this tip after I'd already published this post. Always keep a spare house key in your vehicle! I learned the value of this a month or so ago. The door from our garage into our house has one of those locks on it that you push in on the knob along with a dead bolt. The problem with it is that the button thing can get pushed in on the knob (by young children!) and you can still turn the knob from the inside and have no idea that it is locked until you try to go back into the house after the door has been closed. Having a spare key in the vehicle will always allow you to get back in! I've tried hiding one outside too but that one has gone missing (I suspect by little hands again). I've learned to have a back up plan for my back up plan!

the forcast for today is...

SNOW! 5-9 inches total accumulation by tonight. Is it really April 3rd??

Update:
We just got done watching the news and the official snowfall for our area is 7.5 inches today. It's going to stay around for awhile too as we are not going to have temps above freezing until Easter Sunday when we will get up to almost 40 degrees. It will be an easter egg hunt in the snow this year I guess. :(

more snow?

I took this picture of Ava after church yesterday. It's been fun to pick up a few spring things for the kids. She looked so sweet in this cute little yellow shirt and poofy skirt to match. I bought her a pair of sandals but she doesn't like them one bit. She cries when they are on and acts like they have her glued to the floor. It's pretty funny!

We'll have to keep the sandals in the drawer for a few more days anyway because a winter storm watch takes affect tonight through tomorrow evening. We might be getting 2 - 4 inches of snow. I read several blogs that are already posting pictures of blooming flowers and talking of warm weather. I'm jealous! The lakes are still covered with ice here, there are a few piles of snow in the shady areas yet, and the flowers are in hiding. Just a couple more weeks and I should see my tulips start peeking out!