Summertime, Summertime, Sum-Sum-Summertime

So school is out and we officially have a 7th grader, 1st grader and Kindergartner in the house. I was so ready for the school year to be over. It has been a very challenging year with 3 kids in school and everything that having children entails...and then some. I am sure my kids' teachers were feeling about the same way with the school year.

We eased into the summer by not doing much of anything this weekend. We did some yard work, hit some tag sales, went to church and met my parents for lunch. I didn't do all of the digging, weeding and involuntary tree removal that I wanted to because of the rain, but I did get to some of that. And I am so grateful for the rain. It made weeding that much easier and the rain cleaned the air around our home.

This weekend we wanted to try to make a cool (literally) breakfast treat - Yogurt Popsicles with Strawberries and Kiwi - but we ran into a snag. The 4-popsicle mold we have is missing the tops/sticks and our local Walmart did not have ANY popsicle molds. Aubri and I checked last night....3x. We were at Walmart an extra hour scouring each aisle. It was disheartening, but we improvised.



We got these cute little 4 oz jars that would be perfect for freezing baby food and used them to make the yogurt popsicles. We also got the complimentary dried herb jars too. Aren't they adorable?



This morning I had to run the jars under warm water to loosen the yogurt first.

Waiting Patiently

But it was worth the wait. Next time we will actually use popsicle sticks if we can find them. And we might have to get more of those cute jars.

Today we hung out at home. I watched 12 Years a Slave for the second time (with last night being the first) with Emi and Scott before I got busy cooking beef for the Tavern Sandwiches and hot dogs for a late lunch with his family. What a powerful movie! Out of all of the Oscar winners, this movie has been my favorite with Blue Jasmine being a close second. I did not love Dallas Buyer's Club, and American Hustle and Gravity were all okay. Maybe there was too much hype for those last three. Note: I haven't seen all of the Oscar winners and I am not a professional movie critic. When I watched Blue Jasmine, I was sick in bed on my birthday and Scott picked up that movie and some Nasacort and chocolate. I had no preconceived notions about the movie, I went in cold. Anywho...

After the family had eaten and we were hanging out around the pool, I decided to chillax a little and soaked up a little Vitamin D to last me through the week when I am a desk jockey.

Shameless Overexposed Selfie

The water is still a little too cold for me but the Little Ones didn't seem to mind. They swam for about four hours this afternoon, emerging pruny-fingered, blue-lipped and against their wills....



It's official, folks. Scott and I just saw the first fire flies (a.k.a. lightning bugs) of the season. It's summer!!!

Do you have any big time goals for this summer?

I have too many to list but a couple that I really want to accomplish are:

1. To become a runner again.
2. Family bike rides around campus. (This should be doable now that Aubri can ride unassisted).
3. Learn to play a musical instrument (The sitar is calling for me but it may end up being the piano, guitar or mandolin as that is what is currently available in my household.)
4. Grow something to fruition. (The almonds aren't looking so hot right now.)
5. Teach David and Aubri to proficiently read. 
6. Regular date night with the hubs.
7. Clean out the garage and host a garage sale.
8. Install iron/metal driveway gate.
9. Transform the back driveway.
10. Attend as many free outdoor concerts as we can.

(Ok, well I guess there weren't too many to list because that up there looks like a list to me.)

Tag Sale Finds

Today after we renewed our Driver's Licenses (*shiver*) and dropped off 2 children at the mall, we had some time to kill so we drove around checking out local tag sales. The Little Ones scored the best deals because they continuously got free stuff from the hosts of the sales.  I think it's the curly hair. 

At the first sale, I spent 50 cents and scored some mini roses that will come in handy for the next Derby Party and She's Come Undone.  

Not Too Bad

At the next sale, I spent a little more, $2.50 but I was really taken by these hand made pot holders.  And for 50 cents, Nature Girl sounded like a good investment. That is less that what I might spend on overdue fees.

Pot Holders and Nature Girl

We hit a couple of sales that didn't really have anything that we needed and were good times to show the Little Ones that we needn't buy something just because it was cheap or there. They had their own money so they were jonesing to spend it on just about anything so we had to talk them out of a couple of impulse buys.

I got Aubri a cute shirt and myself 2 pair of earrings at the next sale.

$1.50 Haul

One woman even had  a sign on her garage with "Our CRAP Could Be YOUR CRAP". Yeah, I bought a bin of her crap for 75 cents. I only wanted the cool rain poncho but there were also some unused paper clips, a gift bag, luggage tags and 2 set of cute little plain note cards in there.

Bin o' Crap

And the last sale we hit, I bought some faux pearls to go with some earrings I already have and a bead necklace that looked like I might be able to polish it to it's former glory... We'll see.

Junk Jewelry

I had a limit of $30 to spend all morning at the sales and I am happy to report that I came home with $21.75.

Memorial Recap

First things first:the turtle came back and he was curious about the chickens. He tried to get into their run...Grass is greener?



Emi and I were able to hit up a few of the local garage sales and snagged a few good deals:

• We got David a metal toolbox for $2. He's informed me that he wants to paint it blue! That's my boy! We want to pick up real tools for him to add to his toolbox over the years...no more stinkin' plastic tools!

• I got a baby aqua trench coat for $1! The trench coat matches a cool dress I got from Athleta a few years ago... don'tcha think? Not a clear or good picture, but you get the idea. Now I just need some cute shoes...

• Emi bought a mini Christmas tree (the perfect size for our unmatched earring project) for 25 cents!

• And I got a replacement picnic blanket for $1. (I left my cool maroon/star zip up blanket at the soccer fields a couple of seasons ago) (no picture yet as I've already washed it and thrown it in the back of the Disco)

I updated (finally!) my high school alumni website with a few items that were pending. And I also back posted some blog entries from 2005-2007 that were stored in the confines of my CoffeeCup blogging software. Along those lines I found some old lake party pictures and ski trip photos (Keystone 2007) that were embedded into web pages on my site and posted them to my flickr. Lots of sorting and publishing but I wanted to do that for completeness.

We opened up the pool this weekend and hosted a Memorial Day gathering for family and friends. It was a nice, relaxing day full of swimming and cheese balls!

Stay-cation

Heard that term this morning straight from Matt Lauer's mouth and instantly appreciated its meaning -- your "vacay" involves staying at home this Memorial Day weekend. That was what I am all about this weekend. Going into "Teflon" mode deflecting any crap flung my way in order to Max the Relax. Yes, we have the airshow to deal with and all the noise that comes with, and housecleaning and yard work on Saturday, plus the cooking for our guests on Sunday and Monday, but AFTER that prep work, I am parking myself BY THE POOL until work comes Tuesday morning...

Memorial Day 2005

We played at the lake today and then went to see Madagascar at the movies. This was Emi's second movie and she enjoyed it, but we felt a little disappointed because of all of the hype about the movie. I guess they can't all be as good as Shrek II or The Incredibles..... Emi laughed out loud at the cute parts and when she had to go potty, she asked if we had a "mokey retrol" (remote control) so that we could pause the movie...sweet silly girl!