Sunday Play Day

After church on Sunday, we decided to have a picnic at my parents' house so our kids could finally see the new playset. This little monkey climbed all over it before the boys arrived with our food.

We took a quick break when the guys arrived with food from Sonic and enjoyed lunch on the picnic tables. After scarfing it down and taking time to pose for one picture, the kids were off!

Even the big kids couldn't wait to play.

About ten minutes into our playtime, we were up in our fort planning our attack against the pirates [read: the dogs] when guess what we saw heading our way...

...the Jett Monster!!!

As the Commander of our fort, I quickly left base to capture him and put him in jail [read: the mini picnic table], and that's when he was told by his captors that he had to eat lunch before he could escape from jail.

Soon after he was released he was named Navigator of the fort and took orders from Wyatt the Captain.

I wish I could tell you what all happened on the fort that day, but it was hard for me to keep up. I know at one point we were sailing to the Galapagos Islands and we could only eat turtles. And then there was something about Madagascar and at one point we were among the Dutch, which sounds a lot like "pretend to be ducks" but somehow I was the only one that heard it that way.

Anna spent the afternoon becoming best friends with her only girl cousin.

It was such a fun afternoon, but being a kid again is exhausting! And a lot different, too. I already knew I could no longer do the monkeybars, but this time I also found out that it hurts my feet when I jump out of the swing and I probably shouldn't do round-offs anymore. My mom tried to be encouraging by telling me that it "probably wouldn't have hurt if I was wearing tennis shoes instead of flip-flops." I don't think tennis shoes would have kept my leg from coming out of its socket.

I have a friend who blogs about gardening and sometimes about how her dogs like to "help" her in the yard. Do you think this qualifies as Taylor "helping" my mom with her flower beds?

"Who, me?"

And just for fun, I'll leave you with some more pics from the day...

Dinner Theater

Saturday night we sat down to enjoy a nice, normal family dinner. Anna was excited about the porkchops.

Wyatt was ready to dig in to the grilled shrimp.

Me? I was all about the steak.

Doc was excited about all of the meat and the salad too. (Side note: Aunt K, I made the salad you gave me the recipe for. We have it all the time because it is the ONLY salad dressing that Doc will eat. You should feel proud.)

Each of the kids were told they had to eat some spinach leaves. Anna gobbled hers up like they were her favorite food. Wyatt, on the other hand, took a lot of coercing just to get a small piece down.  I bribed him with a super awesome surprise dessert, which got me a response of something like "it better be worth it, or else."

I told him I was shakin-in-my-shoes scared.

And that's how the "Take My Picture of This Emotion" game got started.

Anna showed excitement for the super awesome surprise dessert.

Wyatt was sad about having to eat spinach. (Look closely for the "tears" he added from the bathroom sink.)

Anna had to try out the fake tears too.

"My brother is weird."

"Eureka!"

"Chaaaarge!"

"I just won the lottery but I have to give it to my sister."

Oh, did I mention there were muscle contests too? Don't mess with us...we work out.

After our dinner theater wound down and the dishes were all cleaned, our kitchen bar turned into a soda fountain shop so that I could come up with a super awesome surprise dessert.

You're dying to know what I came up with, aren't you?

Homemade chocolate milkshakes topped with whipped cream, chocolate shavings, and a strawberry garnish.

We decided to have our dessert out on the balcony since it was a nice night.

One pleased little girl...

...and a semi-pleased little boy. (He probably would've preferred just a bowl of strawberries.)

And one happy daddy too.

With our bellies full of chocolate goodness, it did not take much to get everyone into bed that night.

New Playset

What do you do when you have a big area in your backyard that doesn't grow grass...

...plus five grandchildren of varying ages, shapes, and sizes?

Why, you buy one of these, of course!

It arrived at my parents' house on Wednesday, so they decided to have a very last-minute cookout slash birthday party for my brother. Want to know how to torture a five-year-old? Invite him over to play on the new playset before it's been put together. The poor little guy just had to sit and wait.

Although I think it ws torture on my dad too. I really think he wanted to give them a hand instead of just standing and watching.

Jett showed me all of his silly bands while we waited. He has lots of them, but the little stinker traded my favorite pink pig one!

I told him I was going to get him for that so he tried to hide from me. My camera still found him.

And then finally, finally, the playset was ready!!

A really big boy was on this side of the swing...

...and a much smaller boy on the other.

I learned that I apparently don't have any upper body strength because I can no longer do the monkey bars. I'll just have to stick to helping the little people.

When you were little, did you and your friends make "trains" and go down the slide together? My friends and I did. It's a lot harder to do now that I have big-girl hips.  We might've gotten stuck around the first "hump" of the slide.

If your mom takes whatever you just picked up off the ground away from you, it might hurt your feelings.

The playset has a mini picnic table for all the little kids, so my dad built a regular-sized picnic table for all of us bigger people.

I think the birthday boy enjoyed his dinner.

And these two guys enjoyed a good game of cornhole.

So it's safe to say the last-minute cookout was a success and that the new playset is a hit. We've already logged several hours on it this week and I have a feeling there will be lots more logged this summer. There's still lots more work to be done - we plan on framing out the play area with railroad ties and then adding gravel/mulch. And there's also been talk about adding a seesaw.

We would also like to name our "playground" and this is where we need your help.  If you know our last name, that could be used in it. And my parents are called Mimi and Poppy by the grandkids, so those could be used too. Here's what we've come up with so far:

• Poppy's Playground
• Poppy's Play World
• Never Never Land
• S----- Center (last name - I think this sounds more like a mental institute myself.)
• S----- Sunday
• S----- Park

I'm not sure any of these feel right. Does anyone out there have any suggestions?

A Parade of Shoes

Several pairs of new shoes have marched their way into my closet over the last couple of weeks. I can't say I'm sad about it. I love shoes any day of the year, but for some reason I usually go shoe-buying crazy when spring rolls in. I guess my toes just get excited about being out in the fresh air and want some new shoes to wiggle around in. Or maybe it's because my sandals just don't hold up as well as my boots and winter shoes.  It's just not that much fun to pull out an old pair of worn out flip-flops to put on, you know?

So up first, please give a warm welcome to the Madden Girl Whizz Wedge Gladiator Sandal. I purchased these from Macy's. I like that they are gladiators, but don't have a crazy amount of straps wrapping around my feet and legs. And there's a wedge heel so they're comfy and I can dress them up for work.  A win-win.

Found on the same day are these Style and Co. Mulan Wedge Sandals. Not only do these have the comfy wedge heel, but they're also light as a feather. I can barely feel them when I wear them.  I saw these at Macy's too, but the store didn't have my size. I had never ordered from Macy's.com before but I have nothing but good things to say about the experience. I found a coupon online, ordered them on a Sunday afternoon, and they were on my doorstep the following Tuesday.

As I mentioned before, I'm a huge fan of TOMS shoes.  My fourth pair just came in this week and I'm thrilled to add them to my collection. They are even cuter in person than they were online. Yay!

Next up is a pair of Liz Claiborne Minnie Slingbacks in Navy. The picture looks black but trust me, mine are navy. Yes, I realize that these are a little plain and boring, but sometimes you just need a good, sensible pair of heels to wear to work.  And have you ever tried shopping for a pair of non-geriatric looking navy heels? They're nearly impossible to find. These were the very best the stores had to offer, by a landslide. I purchased these at Filene's Basement in New York.

Sometimes you just happen to come across an adorable pair of sandals that you absolutely don't need, but they're just so cute! And comfy! And the price is right! That was the case with these Roxanne Sandals by Yellow Box from Century 21. I guess now I'll just have to go shopping to find an outfit I can wear them with...

I purchased one more pair of shoes while in New York, a pair of dull gold Bandolino peeptoes. I spent about an hour this morning scouring the internet trying to find a picture of them, to no avail. But if you can imagine this pair

and this pair

having a shoe baby, that's kinda what they look like. The color is more like the top picture, but they're not shiny. The heel is like the top picture too, but they have a flower on the toe similar to the bottom picture. These came from Filene's Basement, too.

And, just for good measure, I should add that Doc got some new shoes too.

Chaco flip-flops from Century 21:

Reef flip-flops also from Century 21:

Yawn. Booooring!

So those are the new additions to the closet. You like?

May 9, 2010

So what did we do on our actual anniversary?

We hopped on a plane in New York, ran to Home Depot as soon as we landed, and came home to three boxes full of Euonymous Manhattans. We ordered these for our front yard a couple of weeks ago and of course they were scheduled to arrive the day we left for New York. That's just the way our luck's been going lately.

I was eager to get them planted before the rain came the next day so I sweet talked my yard boy into doing a little work that afternoon.

First he had to dig up the existing shrubs so he could have a clean slate.

After fertilizing the soil, he grabbed the new plants and placed them where he wanted them.

Our neighbor, Will, came out to do a little yardwork too. He borrowed our clippers to cut some things behind the trees that grow beside his house and found what might be the largest weed ever. He's lived in the house for 8 years and said that's probably how long it's been growing!

I'm just glad it wasn't in our yard!

While I watched my handsome yard boy hard at work, out of the corner of my eye I saw something very small move very quickly across our front porch. From all the gasps that came out of me, I think Doc thought I was having a heart attack or something. My eyes finally caught up to what was moving so quickly and I realized it was not a snake. Thank goodness! Instead, it was this little guy.

Still not really what I want hanging out on my front porch, but lizards are better than snakes, right? (That photo above shows how good the zoom on my lens is because you know I wasn't actually that close to it!)

About four hours after landing from New York, Doc had our new shrubs all planted and mulched.  We hope that they'll double in size soon. Ready, set, grow!

I rewarded my yard boy with cupcakes. I had ordered a batch from the caterer that did our wedding as a surprise for him. When I found out we were going to New York I had to ask my dad if he could pick them up for us. I'm pretty sure he didn't mind helping eat them since we were out of town.

And then later that night we finally had a piece of the top layer of our wedding cake.

My mom must have done a great job wrapping it up after the wedding because a year later, it was still pretty tasty!