Christmas Beach Party and Evening Sand Castles

Last week was 182 days till Christmas, exactly half way to that special day.

Naturally that means it was time to have a party. On Thursday some of our friends came over and we had a Beach Christmas party.

I only managed to take one picture before the party because once everyone got there we were having too much fun and I forgot to take more.

This is a picture of our center piece. Rosie picked out leas for every one and we put Christmas bows on boxes of Skittles to give everyone for a Half Christmas gift.

Then we played outside at our "beach" and ate homemade peppermint ice cream.

After everyone left I took some pictures of the kids, who had not had enough "beach" time, playing in their new sand box.

Remember that awesome pink chair I bought myself? 

I got a bunch more.

I like how the circle of chairs and citronella yard candles look like a birthday cake in the middle of our yard.

Is there anything cuter than naked babies playing outside? 

She works contently and concentrates so hard on her work.

  We ended up playing in the sandbox until well after dark with just the light from our yard candles and the fire flies.

It was so much fun and a perfect end to a really fun Christmas party.

 I love being outside with my little munchkins and I look forward to a wonderful Summer at our beach with them.

 If you come to visit we have a chair for you now, and we may even have some homemade ice cream.

Crazy Catholics.... and the fun we have

On June 1st, our church held their first annual “Eucharistic Procession” to celebrate the ancient Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ, historically known as Corpus Christi.

This Feast day has been celebrated by Catholics worldwide since the 11th century.

The word “Eucharist” comes from a Greek word which means gratitude or thanksgiving and is one of the names for Holy Communion, the bread and wine which become the Body and Blood of Christ at every Mass.

 A Eucharistic Procession takes one of those pieces of bread, or Christ’s Body, and makes Him the center of the event.

Our procession went down Highway 70, the center of our town, and it was recently mentioned in the Tennessee Register.

The bottom picture in the article of Father Michael carrying the Eucharist down the center of two was taken by William.

So what are those crazy Catholics going to do next?

Well since you asked, at Noon Eastern time churches across the United States are going to ring their bells on the 4th of July to celebrate religious freedom.

Let Freedom Ring, and all that...

Happy Half Christmas!

And thank you to my wonderful husband who gave this cinnamon lotion as a half Christmas gift. Isn't he fantastic!
And thank you to my in laws who gave me the gift card that bought this Christmas via (instant coffee) that I finally finished today. The box made a great toy.

Happy First Day of Summer!

Well Summer is finally, officially, here.
And what better way to send  the first day of Summer than playing at the beach and drinking ice coffee?

(don't worry. The kids' ice coffee was made with Ensure instead of coffee)

The kids were especially happy to have Daddy home to play with them and have picnic lunch with them....

at least until the plumber showed up and then Daddy had to go get covered in poop.
For which I am very very grateful. It's so nice to be able to flush the toilets again.

And now we're off to Mexican food... now that Daddy smells like a human again. And then back out to the sand pit!!

Sandy Shores

Our beach is now complete.

Fun in the Sun -- Photo dump

When I post during the day it's usually from the iPad. I like that I can take pictures with and post from the same divice. But I don't have any control over the layout of the posts, which I don't like, and the camera on the iPad isn't the greatest. But at least things get posted...so I guess that's good.

Today at our "beach day" in the back yard I pulled out the real camera and had way too much fun taking pictures of my adorable munchkins.

It's really late and I need to go nurse Obi so I'm just going to post these and let you see how much fun they had playing in the back yard.

oh... and I fought these things today. They were trying to take over the feed shed and wouldn't let me in. I sprayed poison at them and ran very very fast.  I looked very silly but I think I won.

Mama's Chair

Did you have a "Mommy's chair" and "Daddy's chair" when you were growing up? A chair that was mostly reserved for Mommy or Daddy when they were home or during family movie nights? We did.

We still do actually. Except now we have Papa's chair and Nana's chair. And then we have my wonderful rocking chair which of course is Mommy's chair.
We don't seem to have a Daddy's chair though.

So inside the house is Mommy's chair but outside we only have this one grey camping chair that I hate. We used to have more but they got put away for winter and have never been seen again.
The grey chair had this lip that cuts off the circulation to the back of your legs, and it's covered in spider webs. It's also fabric so if you hose it off to get rid of the spiders you then have to sit in a soaking wet chair. It is also ridiculously difficult to get out of if you are pregnant (which i am not currently).
It is not my favorite chair.
Plus there is only one so only one person gets to sit.

Today while shopping for our back yard beach I got my self a "Mommy's chair" for outside.
It's plastic so it can be hosed down and dried off. Also, it seems hard for spiders to crawl up (several have tried already and I watch with satisfaction as they slid off).
It's comfortable enough to take a nap in.
And best of all, it's pink.

Back Yard Beach

Today Rosie said she wanted to go to the beach that didn't have any sharks or jelly fish.

She's never been to the beach before but she watches Octonauts (http://www.octonauts.com/) and she learns about the ocean and its creatures.

Anyway, a quick trip to Dollar General and we have our own private beach. And it seems to be quite a hit.

Tomorrow we'll add sand

Mushroom fun

$11 and quite a lot of my own hot air equals hours of summer fun. Just wait till tomorrow when I put water in it!

Getting Stuff Done

First of all, I got "in trouble" for never posting on the blog. Which is why I'm posting like crazy these days... also, When my in-laws asked me what we've been up to lately I said "not much" but in the same conversation said I was too busy to blog. So which is it?

Well both... but the kids are growing up way too fast and we do run around and do interesting things... like spending all day at the car dealership getting the car worked on... that I just need to write about it and post more pictures. Actually I need to remember to take more pictures.

So here we are, Blogging again....

So today I really wanted to get things done around the house. But Obadiah was being fussy and needy and just wanted to be held. Poor thing. I started to get frustrated and then I remembered the Ergo!

Rosie lived in the Ergo when she was Obi's age, but Obi is just so much more mobile than Rosie was that I just forgot about it. Until today.
So this is how we are getting things done today.

Rosie always hated being on my back. She wanted to be cuddled and held on the front. Obi likes it on the back though. He can watch what I'm doing and then can take a nap back there while I do the dishes.

This is fantastic. I'm off to do the dishes...

Camera Fun

This morning the kids and I were playing with the camera on the Desktop computer.

We had a lot of fun taking way too many pictures of our selves. OH the silly things we do when we are trying to entertain our selves. 

 I'm kind of in love with my new lipstick I got for my birthday from Sephora. It's the color Mulberry by BITE (for the girls out there). Today I am wearing it nice and dark but it can go on as a light summer pink too if I put a bit of lip gloss on before it.


Also, Isn't my sweet girl such a sweetie? she gives the very best hugs. I do so love it when she's in a huggie mood.

Princess dress up

Rosie is very imaginative and likes to play dress up. She also likes Mommy to play dress up with her.

Father's Day food

With a Father as amazing as William it's important and fun to go all out for Father's Day.

After cards and presents, William mowed the lawn and planted the garden and fixed the plumbing (these were things he wanted to do) while Rosie and I made cupcakes.

After our pre-dinner cupcakes we had a lovely steak dinner and then banana splits for post dinner dessert.

I'm not sure who was more happy, William or Rosie.

Boston Cream cupcakes

It's not pretty but it does taste good.

Our Father's Day pre-dinner dessert

Happy Father's Day