our latest project, baseball, worlds of fun

Another weekend has gone by and it went by too fast like always!  The majority of our weekend was filled with our latest project....building a fence!  We decided it was time to get a fence around here, especially with a new puppy.  Ryan wanted to do it himself, we seem to be quite the "do-it-yourselfers" lately (I don't know if it's always by my choice ;).  Anyways, we started last weekend while my family was here...worked almost every night last week...and spent all our free time working on it this weekend.  It is just only about halfway done, but it actually looks like a fence now!  We have the whole back side done and are working down the side now of our yard.  It's quite a job, but we don't do small around here :).

{Digging the holes for the post...the slowest part of the project}

{Since only one little side of our yard has a fence from another neighbor it's quite a bit of fence that we needed to put up}

{Yeah finally looking like a fence!!!}

{How can you not L O V E helpers who look like this!!!}

{Love it}

{Adding a fence drastically changes the view, but it feels like we just added a new room to our house!}

I will update you when the project is all done!

What else did we do this weekend?

A little baseball!  We are now into baseball season with Avery!  He had his first game Saturday!  We are in coach pitch baseball so this is like big time stuff :).  He did hit the ball and get on base for his first game (well you always get to get on base for every time up no matter if you hit or not at this age ;).

{I may be biased, but I think he is quite a handsome baseball player!}

Then if that wasn't enough for one weekend we also went to World's of Fun!  Every year Garmin has a private event there for all of it's employees (I think I have mentioned before what a great employer they are!) so we get to make a yearly trip there.  It was a lot of fun and we spent most of the time in Planet Snoopy!  The only downside was that Ellie apparently is ONLY 35" tall and some of the kiddo rides you had to be 36" tall...but she was fine after being able to go do her own thing while the boys did the "bigger" rides!

Can't wait to go back next year when Ellie is OVER 36"!

a daily summer schedule...to keep me sane!

Summer is a week away for us now {that's Avery's last day of kindergarten :(}.  An unplanned schedule with a 6, 4, and 2 year old scares me a bit!  

We do have our pool passes, zoo membership, baseball season, and endless ideas of things to do for the summer, but without a plan in place beforehand there can be A LOT of hours in the day, especially since 2 sometimes 3 kiddos don't nap and the sun stays up for so long everyday!  I am probably a little bit of an extreme organizer so here is my plan for summer, which I completely stole the idea from here.

Monday - Make something Monday.

{Try a new recipe, craft, build something}

Tuesday - Thinking Tuesday.

{Stroytime in the park, science experiments, book of the day}

Wednesday - Wet & Wild Wednesday.

{Swimming, sprinklers, water guns}

Thursday - Take a Trip Thursday.

{Movie, museum, zoo, park, outing}

Friday - Fresh & Fun Friday.

{Kids' choice day or try out new ideas}

Now this list will probably be tweaked and it is as flexible as it needs be.  It doesn't mean that we won't go swimming just because it isn't Wednesday either or that we can't go to the park on a Monday.  This just gives us some structure for our morning time activities and afternoons are more open ended around here after rest/naps.  

Here's some ideas for each day that we can choose from and I will be adding more later:

Make something Monday:
Frozen yogurt berries
Frozen yogurt covered bananas
Fresh fruit pops
Sand cups
Hula Hoop Croquet
Yard Twister
Make a lemonade stand
Make homemade ice cream
Make snow cones
50 Summer craft ideas

Thinking Tuesday:
Storytime in the park
Soap clouds
Fizzy Sidewalk Paint
Work on bug scrapbook
Treasure Hunt
Reading party
Make a robot
Write ABCs with licorice

Wet & Wild Wednesday:
Spray Park
Sponge Bombs
PVC Sprinkler
Water balloon fight
Water slide
Bubbles
Glow sticks in the bathtub

Take a trip Thursday:
Blueberry picking
Zoo
Deanna Rose
Kid's summer movies
Kid's free summer bowling
Hike
Parks
Picnic
Farmer's Market

Fresh & Fun Friday:
*  Kids get to choose what they want to do from above lists or these lists:
http://www.stay-a-stay-at-home-mom.com/fun-cheap-things-to-do.html
http://teachmama.com/quick-trick-fun-sticks-150-things-for-kids-to-do/

Who wants to join in on our fun with us?!

the weekend: last soccer game, s'mores, Mother's Day 5k

Apparently, we like to pack every second of our weekends around here because they always seem to be crazy busy...especially when the weather is nice, but I guess I wouldn't have it any other way!

My parents, my aunt, uncle, and cousin came up this weekend to participate in a Mother's Day 5k...more about that in a second, but first we started the weekend off with Avery's last soccer game for the season {actually there is one more left, but we can't go to it}.  Avery did awesome again...I think he likes performing in front of a large crowd :).

{He likes to tell me how he has more medals than me ;)}

We then took the doggies {we had 4 here over the weekend...Bella, Opie, Annie, and Rusty...quite a dog party!} to the dog park and ate dinner at the park {I guess didn't take any pictures of this...}.

Then we came back home for some s'mores!  Yummy!

On Sunday, Mother's Day morning, the girls {my mom, aunt, cousin, sister, and Ellie} all got up really early to participate in a Mother's Day 5k with some very special moms from my MOPS group.  This was my first 5k to walk and it was very fun and relaxing.  I am very proud of my mom and aunt who completed their first ever 5k!  Way to go!  I also got Ellie out of the stroller and she ran in through the finish line with me :).  You should have saw her little legs going she was very excited and they gave her her own medal after we crossed the finish line!  {I hope the race people got a picture of it!}  Their is already plans to do it again next year...maybe with a costume of sorts ;).  It was great to complete a 5k with family!

{Moms and daughters <3}

{The whole group...yes, Ellie is the one in the double stroller refusing to look at the camera!}

{I guess I check my watch all the time...even when walking :)}

{Looking good at 3 miles!}

{Ellie and me with our medals...she wanted to claim mine as hers too!}

Ryan also started on ANOTHER house project this weekend...I will blog about it later, but apparently we like to go big around here and do everything ourselves...I can't wait until this one is done!

go Sporting!

We got the chance to go to a real "big boy" soccer game last night with some friends.  Since both the boys are playing soccer now it was fun to watch how the professionals play.  They asked a ton of questions and really got into cheering them on!  I think Ellie just enjoyed the cheering :).  They were amazed how there were no points the whole game into the last few minutes...when the other team finally scored a goal :(.  I think soccer is so different from a baseball game...it is much faster and you are always on the edge of your seat wondering if they are going to get a goal...I wonder if more food and drinks are sold at baseball games than soccer games because there is more "down time"...hmmm...  A great night!  Go Sporting!

 

 



Snow, park, orange roar tigers, pizza, and flowers :)...

What else has been going on around here?

We had snow...yes it is May and the ground was covered in snow...unbelievable!  I am just glad that it is gone now!!

Between the crummy weather we have also had some gorgeous days lately and finally some playtime at the park in with friends!

{Future gymnasts ;)}

{Bugs are super fascinating!}

Evan has also started soccer!  He was a little unsure at first, but he is starting to really enjoy it.  Especially, being able to run faster than his coach :).  The 3-5 year olds are pretty entertaining watching...way different then the kindergarteners.  I can't wait to they play an actual "game"!  It should be fun!

{Go Orange Roar Tigers!!!  Yes, that is their team name :)...what else would you expect?!}

{Can you say cheeeeeeeeeeeese?}

Daddy had to go out of town for a night for work so we ate pizza downstairs and played card games while we watched the snow!

We've also have bought lots of flowers and our vegetable garden is beginning to grow!  Yay!

baby Bella

We are in love!  After losing our Hippo last week, we knew we had to NOT find a replacement...rather a another family member to love.  After a visit to a local pet store we fell in love with this little 2 month old pug whom we named Bella {no I didn't think about the reference to Twilight, which my sister reminded me of :)}.  When we were first playing with her at the store she seemed like a little ornery thing and she kept biting at our pant legs..however she soon calmed down and fell asleep in our laps with her little snores.  She was just precious.  We decided to take the leap back into the puppy world...this time with three kiddos in tow.  Since bringing her home yesterday afternoon she has been wonderful...yes a few accidents in the house and a few nips at the legs or Evan's toes :)...but she has been doing really well with potty training and plays well with the superheroes and princess {the most important part!}.  So yes, we are back into the potty training world {I find potty training puppies is not really that much different from kids}, but I think the happiness my kiddos have found with their new puppy to be worth it!  Evan has been so good with her and is completely in love {he even thinks Bella looks like him ;)}, Avery has started to really take to her more then any dog in the past and he was just letting Bella sleep on his lap...unheard of, and Ellie...well she has been the rough one and we are still working with her on not just picking Bella up by her legs and she keeps accidentally calling her Hippo, but she seems very excited about the new doggy too!  Welcome to the family our sweet baby Bella!