Jenga

Early this morning I heard some commotion outside.  I was working from home and looked out to the backyard to see that we had some visitors :-)  OMG!!!!!  They're here!  They're here!

 

Let the game of Rock Jenga begin!

It may appear that as one guy is doing all of the work, the other three guys are just standing around.  Let me tell you that that is exactly what I thought was going on when I first looked outside too.  But I stayed long enough to watch to see that each guy clearly had a role.  One guy dug dirt and leveled the ground.  One guy scanned the available rocks and directed the driver to the next rock to use.  The other guy helped the driver get the rock on the lift and helped apply pressure as it was put gently into place.  Once the rock was set down, the three guys would lean on it and secure it. They were pretty picky about whether or not the rock that was just set down would be able to stay and multiple times they decided that they needed to move one out and try another one in it's place.  Pretty impressive for what appeared to be a bunch of teenagers ;-)

Looking forward to seeing how this wall comes together!

One step closer to grass!!!

Tooth Doctor Day

 Today the girls had dentist appointments.  I have not been good about bringing them every 6 months and I vow to get better.  Hannah went first.  She was a tiny bit nervous but you would have never known the way she jumped right up and opened her mouth.  Hailey was nervous and at one point tried to talk me into letting her skip it this time. At the end, they both agreed it was no big deal and we left with no cavities! Whew!  I would have never let myself live that one down....

Special Delivery....all the way out to the island?!

We got a special delivery today!  Lots and lots of rocks!  Looks like this maybe the week that we start to see this project come alive!!!!!  We can't wait. One step closer to a yard.  One step closer to grass and one step closer to no more dirt piles!  At least until we start getting some neighbors.

I was hanging out on the porch tonight when all of a sudden Hailey came tearing around the corner with Zoe, the neighbor's dog.  They were going for a walk.  Pretty impressed that they trust her to manage her on the leash- although Zoe is a little peanut so Hailey should be able to handle it :-)

Mary sent me a text tonight telling me to come over up to her room.  She was in her bedroom office listening to the kids play in the backyard.  They were playing Survivor.

They had split into teams and were making up challenges.  They each had a 'camp' set up.

At one point the competition got a little too serious and they started arguing.  Some of the kids were getting pretty upset and others were trying to keep the peace.  Mary and I both felt sort of bad sitting upstairs listening to it all however as she reminded me a few times, they needed to work it out.  And after all, nobody was really being malicious.  Eventually Joe made his way out and after a pep talk and a team cheer, the kids were back to their game.  Our neighbor, George who is 13, did a great job talking to the kids about how they should treat each other and kept trying to redirect them when they would start bickering again.
He's such a great kid and our kids are lucky to have a teenager like him to look up to.

Balloon Wishes

We took the kids on another picnic today.  This time to Minnehaha Falls.  It's been years since I have been there but yet everything was super familiar once we were there.

We found a picnic table and sat down to eat first.  After lunch the boys played soccer for a bit.

We brought the confetti balloons from the shower and each of the kids tied a wish to the end of one of the balloons.  Once the wishes were tied, they stood together, counted down and then released them into the sky.  They enjoyed watching them float into the sky getting higher and higher, smaller and smaller.

I had forgotten how cool that was to watch a balloon take off into the sky.  I always wonder how far they go and what happens to them once they are done floating?  Do they ever land?  Does anyone ever really find these balloons or do they just disappear?

  

 Once we could no longer see any sign of the balloons we made our way to the falls.

At the bottom of the falls and around the corner we found a spot to soak our feet and throw rocks.

Grandma Chris drove out to meet us here for a bit too!

The kids had so much fun just standing in the water throwing rocks.  I think we need to add this to our list of picnic locations summer-must-do. 

Soon to be Mrs. Bonus Baby

We met with the landscaper a while back.  We told him about this party today and had hoped that our grass would have been here by now.  No such luck for us.  Jim the landscaper had made his way over here to try to get the yard flattened out and had told Brian that he was trying to make things look good for the party since he felt bad that the yard wasn't ready by now.  He started to dig out the hill and did smooth things out a little bit in the front yard.  Not grass but nothing we can do about it.

In just a few short weeks our Bonus Baby will be marrying the man of her dreams!

Today we held a shower for her at our house.

We ordered bread bowls from Panera and had Chicken Wild Rice Soup and Olive Garden style salad-it was delicious.  Kim made a candy bouquet which was probably the cutest thing I had ever seen.

Kim had also made candy sushi, Kari made cucumber sandwiches and I had made some garbage bag snack mix.  Jennie brought confetti balloons.  

We had printed a bunch of small pictures of Kristin and Bobby and hung them on pendants.  They looked really cute hanging from the fireplace and other random places.  

We played a few games including the celebrity face on the bride game, guess the bride's age (bonus points if you could tell which twin she was) and we tried out a new game- Bridal Bingo.  

 

During the shower we had looked out the window and saw Hailey on top of the dirt pile wearing a white dress. HA HA HA HA.  This kid. Never a dull moment with her.

Most people inside were freaking out until they saw that I could have cared less.  It's only a dress and she was having way too much fun.  Have at it girl :-)

 

 

Productive Day

We had a productive day here today.

Brian cleaned the windows outside (well, at least the ones that he could reach).  You can also see that our yard is still dirt which means those clean windows will be dirty again after a few windy days.

Put some more holes in the walls today!  (I am getting so brave!)

The new paintings the girls did look so good and have filled in the space just perfectly.

I also hung up two pictures in the girls bathroom.  I framed some of grandma's old jewelry and it is the perfect addition to their bathroom.

I also finished my most favorite project yet!

Jenny McMahon showed me a picture of a family wall she made by modge podging photos to canvas.  It looked amazing so I needed to try it myself. 

I had bought that heart picture in the middle before we moved in the house and have been waiting to find the perfect way to use it.  This is exactly what I was looking for!

This turned out so perfect and I could not be happier. 

Tonight we were cleaning up and getting ready for Kristin's shower tomorrow when Hailey decided that her and Jacob should watch a little show in the driveway.  They are so cute.

Pool Party of 5

We all went over to Kristin's today for a pool party.   It's hard not to be jealous of this pool.  It's so private and perfect.  I know it's a ton of work to have a pool and I am sure it would give me a heart attack if we had one but it sure was pretty cool today to have our own private pool party while listening to tunes and eating snacks.  The water was pretty cold but within a few minutes it didn't seem to bother the kids much.

 

 

 Kristin got some pretty good pictures today that captured these personalities so well!

None of the other grown ups were brave enough to get into the cold pool so lucky Kristin got to enjoy these kids all by herself.

Hailey and Tin were playing Dolphin.  He was pretending to be a dolphin and would swim up to the side of the pool where Hailey would be waiting with cheese puffs.  He would get his snack then turn to swim away for a few minutes then he'd come back for more.

Back at it

My little painters are back at it.

We found some blank wall space on their 'art wall' in loft so we got some new canvas for them to work on.

Hailey's plan is to paint a picture of a playground and Hannah is drawing a special picture for me.

We also had Redman's come out today to quote us on a Vertiglide shade for the sliding door.  We found a Hunter Douglas fabric I really liked although not sure it's going to happen since the cost of the Vertglide was $1300.  Yikes!  Maybe I will just hang a sheet.

All About Kristin

Today was a day all about Kristin!

I started working on her flowers today and then we met the family at MadCapper to visit her at work.

Of course (to keep a perfect score) I burned myself while working on the flowers.  Those hot glue guns get me everytime.  Ouch.

Before dinner we went to the candy store down the block and picked up a few bags of treats :-)

Hannah showing off the Reserved sign.  

Agustin has some mad drawing skillz.  He just whipped these guys up while hanging out waiting for his food.  Have I mentioned lately how much I adore this kids imagination?!

Hailey ordered spaghetti tonight- it was weird.  She is my chicken nugget kid and very very rarely chooses anything else.  The only other thing she ever considers is a corn dog or hot dog.  Not sure why she went with this tonight but she must have been in the mood for it because when it arrived she was still excited about it and actually made a good dent.

Hailey wanted to leave Kristin a little love note on the receipt :-)

Love these kids.  Love how much they enjoy each other's company.  Love how many people they have in their lives that love them so much.