Long Weekend

I hope everyone enjoyed their long weekend!  Besides working on getting things done around the house we spent ours mostly adventuring.   We found a great new park with its own natural spring so I took it as a sign that it was time to finally make nut boats with all the shells I saved from our nut garland :)

I think the boys' favorite part was holding the candles and dripping the wax into the boats--well David's favorite part anyway.  Henry did one nut and then got "tired" which is Henry speak for "I don't want to do this anymore and if you try to make me I'll collapse in a heap on the floor and pretend to be dead."

They were really easy to make and turned out super cute.......

Out of twenty-two boats only one made it through the tumbling rapids and kelp forests to the freedom of the open water.    Side-note, nut boats flung off of a bridge will most likely immediately capsize--who knew?

We didn't see the snake warning until after we were finished......

Poor John was relegated to the stroller while we all played in the stream.  We did eventually free him though so he could stretch his legs....you know, once we were safely away from the water hazards and the snakes.  He was pretty excited.

Don't be fooled by that gummy grin---this little man is about to turn one.......in other news, we're thinking of renaming him Toothless.

On Getting Things Done

At any given time I've got a lot of plans for things to do around the house percolating in my brain.  A lot of plans.  Unfortunately for my lets get it done now husband, I like to think about things and then think about them some more and then once I think I've finally decided on a plan I give it one more night juuuuust to be sure.....because you know, if you can't do something perfectly right the first time why bother doing it at all?  No?  Is that not how well adjusted grown-ups do things?

One of my resolutions for this year is to stop planning already and to just get things done, even if they aren't perfect and things need tweaking later....that's probably not that exciting of a resolution but it's an uphill battle for me!  I'm really good at making plans and really bad at putting them in action.

Well anyway, I found this typesetter tray at a flea market last summer for five dollars and it's been sitting in the garage ever since, waiting for me to decide on its future (most perfect) location and purpose.  I almost gave it over to the boys to house their growing collection of lego minifigures but in the end I wanted it for myself :)

Task 1 on the Getting Things Done in 2014 List:  Our new nature treasures display......

The boys worked together to fill it in with all their treasures......which also allowed me to work on my other resolution of not inflicting my will on my minions when it comes to needing things done the 'right' way so long as things just get done.  This goes for children's bed making and laundry folding efforts as well.......

These aren't technically all the boys' treasures.  That rock up top is something I picked up when I was about five and living in California.  I found it while walking from my house to the Burger King to get my very favorite thing in the world at the time--a soggy chicken sandwich eaten in a mock circus train---mmmmm......fine dining.   I remember being really disappointed when everyone agreed that my treasure was not in fact a real hunk of diamond and not valuable in the least.  But I've managed to carry it around for the last twenty-six years so I guess it had value to me :)

Henry's been busy rearranging nature treasures all afternoon and Chris is taking bets on how long it will take for the baby to crawl up on those boxes and send the whole thing to its doom.  His current favorite thing to do is to climb on top of the boxes and then scream for someone to get him down because he's stuck and then repeat the process elevendy-billion times a day so the odds do seem to be against me........

I'm sure none of my children would never be so naughty as that though.

Getting things done sure does feels good :)

On Class Notes

After receiving the latest edition of the Notre Dame Magazine--aka the free magazine which if it was up to me would have been spite-canceled long ago along with a letter to the editor that would have read something along the lines of "Really?  Really Notre Dame Magazine?  This is what you decided to publish in your Catholic university's magazine?" except of course more scathing and eloquent, but I digress--Chris and I were talking about how we should really send in an update about all of his amazing class notes-worthy career accomplishments.  The alumni updates section is the reason I'm not allowed to spite-cancel our subscription btw.

Well, it got me thinking of what my class notes update might look like, you know, other than the obligatory "I birthed a baby....again!"  Of course, mine don't go to the Notre Dame Magazine, I decided to spend my collegiate years in universities that were both much warmer and have magazines much less offensive to my Catholic sensibilities--mostly because they don't purport to actually be Catholic :)

FYI these pictures are completely unrelated to this post.....

I'm thinking something along the lines of this............

Cristina (Kazleman) Reintjes '05 left her position as wife of a law school student to move up to the more prestigious position of wife of a Navy JAG.  She looks forward to the challenges this new role offers and the opportunity to see the world and occasionally her husband.  Cristina was awarded the distinction of "Best Mom In the World" by her precious middle-born son, however the title was quickly rescinded by her generally crankier first-born and replaced with "Worst Mom Ever" for "ruining all my fun."  Cristina has published literally dozens of blog posts that are not all that interesting or thought provoking however three out of four sets of grandparents agree that they "really enjoy seeing so many pictures of their grandchildren" but "could really do without all of those distracting blog link ups."


I don't know.....too wordy?  I'd hate to look like I was tooting my own horn.  Maybe I'll just wait for the next birth announcement instead.......

......unrelated but cute right?   :)

{p,h,f,r} The Sofas and Star Wars Edition

{pretty} & {real}

So, we've been going back and forth (and by we I of course mean mostly me) over whether to save up to buy a new really nice made-in-America- of-beautiful-leather couch or to just get something now in the more cheap-but-not-hideous-price range to replace our six year old, bought it used for a song (thanks again aunt Julia!), past it's prime couch.  In the end we went with the IKEA Extorp for it's extreme cheapness, complete washability, and the knowledge that if our military movers crack it in half we won't be devastated.

It's pretty and real because you have to look under all the blankets to see the pretty--but this is what it really looks like covered with all the blankets/quilts that we own that kind of go with our living room.  The whole thing is slipcovered and washable but I'd rather not strip the entire couch once a week so.......blankets it is.  In our tinyhouse the couch is only five steps away from our kitchen table so it really doesn't stand a chance against runaway sticky fingered munchkins on its own.

But since it came from IKEA the best part is (according the the children).........

{happy}

we combined the boys' new found love of all things Star Wars with their other love of demanding that their mother construct ridiculous things out of cardboard and made this.  They actually asked for an X-wing starfighter but mamma didn't have enough time/patience/oatmeal canisters for all of that.  Yay for generic space ships!

I gave each of the big boys a control panel print out to color in and David got pretty fancy with his.  He crossed out all the buttons having anything to do with "slow" or "reverse" so that now his spaceship has only one speed and direction--super fast and full speed ahead.  Which pretty much sums up his entire personality.

{funny}

So both the boys are currently obsessed with Star Wars after our friends gave us a boxed set of Episodes 4,5,and 6...you know, the good ones ;)

Henry has been taking every opportunity to declare that when he grows up he is going to be a Jedi with a real lightsaber.  He picks up pretty much anything and pretends it's a lightsaber now including kitchen utensils:

Henry:  Mom! [dejected]  My lightsaber turned back into a....a.....whisk.  [insert upturned pathetic face here]
Me:  I'm not buying you a lightsaber two weeks after Christmas.
Henry:  slowly walks away with whisk hanging sadly by his side

In my defense I offered to make the boys lightsabers by painting wrapping paper tubes and making handles with duct tape but my idea was met with offended stares and crickets chirping.

Oh well, they're having fun enough even without store bought weaponry.

I love that the spaceship lets all three boys play the same game.....well actually the baby's alternating at playing keep away with his cracker and snatch the glasses off my brother's face--two of his all time favorites.....

....and I'm not sure what Henry was saying while I took this one but I just love John Michael's expression :)

Anyway....I've promised the boys we can move the spaceship into their room tomorrow so they can have a sleepover in it because they were begging and it's on it's last leg and also--I'd like to get it out of the living room....


And don't forget to catch more contentment over at Like Mother, Like Daughter!