Day 146 -- Vacuum tricks

Our central vacuum hose and tools have been the favorite toy for a couple of weeks now. Little John has to have it out of the closet every day. They've taken to experimenting and creating new little games with all the pieces. UGH! What's wrong with all the toys in the basement!

Day 144 -- Ladybug Hoedown

Maddie and her Kindergarten class had a special performance tonight -- they did all the songs and plays for the parents that they had performed throughout the year. She was a superstar! No only does she tower above all the other kids, but she was singing, dancing and acting her heart out! It was really fun to see her shine. Her teacher (pictured above) is awesome -- one in a million!

Day 143 -- Again with the cookie dough

We are making cookies constantly for all the parties and year-end celebrations happening here. Little John figured out that the big white bowl holds the prize and he wasn't letting Maddie get away with it all by herself. He's onto us now!

Day 141 -- The Harvest

This is lettuce and spinach from the garden. You can't even tell I took anything out! It's growing like crazy! We had to give some away because we couldn't eat it all.

Here is a picture of the garden at three weeks after planting:

Day 140 -- Camporee

Maddie and her fellow girl scouts had camporee today. It was fun but very tiring. All of the projects and lessons were on cooking outdoors. It was a little overwhelming for 5 and 6-year-old girls. But, they had a great time and really enjoyed feeling like part of the older crowd.

Day 139 -- Chatty Child

We are deep in the phone phase. It is now John's personal property and no one else is allowed to hold it. He walks around talking babble into the phone and waiting for responses. He's always trying to have us call people so that he can have a chance to chat.

Day 138 -- Sad eye

Maddie came begging tonight that I would stop working on projects and come snuggle with her so she could fall asleep. She really has a hard time giving in to sleep. I realized that I probably don't have too much longer until she won't want to even see me, let alone snuggle. So, I put my projects away and snuggled my little girl. I'll hold on as long as she'll let me!

Day 137 -- Cookie Dough

Little John had his first taste of cookie dough today. He walked around the house with that spoon like it was the Olympic Torch. I think he was happy to finally be a member of the tasting club.

Day 135 -- We live in Mayberry

Remember the good ol' town of Mayberry??? They changed it's name to Old Lyme. It's amazing. People walk around town with their fishing poles, whistling a happy tune on the way to the town fishing hole. OK, I exaggerated a little. They don't walk, they drive.

We had a Memorial Day parade and the entire town lined the streets. It was complete with two prayers, a 21-gun salute, taps and a 5th grade essay contest. Maddie got to march in the parade because she's a Daisy scout. Our troop was about the fourth group in the parade. All the crowd would stand and cheer and call out to the daisies as they walked by -- so much fun! Maddie loved it. She claims it is one of the best days ever in her whole life.
This was at the very end -- great job walking girls!!!

Day 134 -- Playing with food

This is the best stage ever!!! Won't sit in a high chair, but loves to play with his food. I've completely given up on cleaning the floor.

Day 133 -- Cherry Coke

We love cherry coke. We take caffeine free coke and add a totally unreasonable amount of maraschino cherry juice and cherries to it. Then, when you finish the drink you get to eat all of the cherries. I'm the only one in my household that can tie the stem in a knot inside my mouth. We all had fun trying tonight -- Maddie ended up pretending to be a walrus.

Day 132 -- Water

The kids played in the water for the first time this year. They were out there for about 2 hours just living it up. The favorite part is of course, playing with the hose. The grass looks great though -- all that watering!

Day 131 -- The Kindergarten Zoo Trip

I got to be a chaperon for Maddie's Kindergarten day at the zoo. I had her good friends Emma and Daniel to take around with me. John tagged along. He was really content in the stroller all day. I had handed him a water bottle early on, and he just sat drinking it for hours. While the older kids kept complaining that it was too hot, John just sat happily. It wasn't until I unloaded him to go back into the car that I discovered he had been sucking the water up the straw and then spitting it all over himself to stay cool. He was drenched! No wonder he was happy -- he was the only one that wasn't falling over from the heat!

We loved watching the giraffe eat -- he was just a few feet away.

By the end of the day I couldn't get Maddie to look at the camera. She was too busy watching all of her friends.

We ended up having a great time -- I'm really glad I got to go with them and be a part of such a fun field trip.

129 -- The Backyard

We've been spending a lot of time in the backyard. It's fun to have the kids playing on the swing set and enjoying one another for hours back there. I've even started leaving John while I go inside to work on dinner -- he's loving the freedom!

Day 126 -- Bubbles

Maddie had her heart set on blowing bubbles outside on Saturday afternoon. After hunting high and low for our Pottery Barn fish, we finally found it in the hall closet and headed outside. The kids were so cute, I had a fun time taking pictures of them.

Day 125 -- Tug-o-war

OK, so this really happened on Saturday while we were doing our chores, but I forgot to take a picture on Friday. Jared was vaccuming the dining room and John kept trying to wrestle the hose away from his dad. He thinks he is the funniest thing walking. He makes us laugh quite a bit, that's for sure!

Day 124 -- Coat Collection

Our Daisy troop gathered coats for the last 6 weeks for charity. All in all, there are about 12 large garbage bags full of coats for the needy. Nice job girls!

Day 123 -- Another sick friend

I love cheese bread. I'm sorry that my friends get sick, but my family gets so excited when they hear we're taking food to someone under the weather. They know the other family will almost always get cheese bread. My family gets the leftovers. Yum!

If you're interested, I've put together an easier way to make it.

Day 122 -- Jared's Back!!

Jared spent the last few days in Seattle at an immunology conference.

Here he is atop the Space Needle.A view from below.
Jared presented a poster.

He toured the city blocks surrounding Pike's Market and the marina there.This was the view from his hotel room. Lucky guy!

Day 121 -- Planting Seeds

After putting John down for his nap I went outside armed with all my gardening equipment -- foxy pink gardening shoes, a trowel, gloves, the phone, thermometer, a pen, baby monitor, garden diagram, baby spoon, garden markers, warm water and pre-soaked seeds.

I had a fun time out there planting the remaining boxes with seeds. I decided that we'd try a mix of transplants from the nursery and seeds and monitor which does best. Right now, we just need to wait about 2 weeks and then we should see progress!

Day 120 -- Wearing them out

There are going to be so many pictures of John at the beach this year. I can just feel it. He was so happy being back in the dirt. He made a cute little rock collection and sometimes laid down and just rubbed his head around in it. What a little pig!

I took the kids for a walk on the boardwalk and down on the sand to wear them out. I needed peace, quiet and sleep.

Day 119 -- A real garden

We actually have a real garden!! YAHOOOOOO! Maddie helped me to plant all the transplants(while John was napping) and then water them. We had a really good time doing it. Next week I'll plant the seeds.

Day 118 -- Happy and sad

Little John loves dirt. He was so happy playing in the garden with the shovel and the bucket. One problem -- that's my special dirt that Jared adn I spent an afternoon creating. It's weed and pest free. John started trying to add weeds and other such nonsense to my perfect dirt. He also started taking it out of the garden -- I only noticed it when I took the picture and saw it disappearing. So, we had to take John out of the garden.

Such a pitiful face! He was so mad! He didn't stop screaming until he was undressed and I started the water for his bath. He was yanking at our animal proof doors -- they are NOT kid proof. He had unlatched the bottom hook and was trying to pry it open. UGH! I had planned on working on the garden while he played on the swings. Now it's gardening during nap time.

Day 117 -- It has been moved

We finally got the garden out where it belongs. Now it's time to make it a real garden! Stay tuned -- dirt and plants are on the way!

By the way, if the picture progress seems slow on this garden, have patience with us! It's been an amazing undertaking, but we're getting there.

Day 116 -- Ready to go!

Our garden is ready to grow up -- we're moving it out of the safe quiet garage into the garden today. Luckily, the missionaries are available to help. Jared and I could never get this baby anywhere by ourselves! Next -- making dirt!

Day 115 -- My lunch

This has been my lunch for the last couple of days -- campari tomatoes, potato chips, manchego cheese and maybe a pickle. I love my lunch, especially the tomatoes! I can't wait for the garden to start producing.

Day 114 -- Getting better

In case you're keeping track, yes it looks like this is day three of John wearing the same pajamas. But, it's really only a day and a half -- he has two pair that are exactly the same.

As you can see, my little pianist is feeling a bit better. He seems to be on the mend. Hopefully he'll start sleeping through the night again. We've had weeks and weeks of him waking up and crying from about 1:00 AM to 3:30 or 4:00 AM. I'm so done with it!

Day 113 -- Home Sick

We stayed home from church today for Little John. He woke up with a tinsy fever -- just enough to justify staying home. He's got a cough and is a bit wheezy from the re-flux. All that put together with the Swine Flu craziness, and it just wasn't worth the hassle. Wonderful friends did all the work in Primary, so I had very little responsibility that I was shirking.

John alternated between running around as happy as could be and then climbing into my lap, demanding to be loved and cuddled. It seems his little body can't decide whether to be sick or not.

All I know is that we all really enjoyed the day off. It was much needed!

Day 112 -- Cute Jammies

Little John's been a bit under the weather lately. I ordered him some new clothes from the Children's Place last week. When they arrived and I saw how cute the pajamas were, I just couldn't resist. If I was sick, I'd want to be in those pajamas. So, John got to wear his new jammies all day.

Day 111 -- Freckle Juice

Maddie's class read the book Freckle Juice this week. On Friday, each student brought an ingredient from the recipe for Freckle Juice. After mixing it together, they all got to taste it. If they tasted it, just like in the book, they got Freckles on their faces(the teacher used brown marker). She thought it was great. They all looked so cute with big matching freckles.