Sun & Sand

Thursday afternoon it warmed up here a bit. FINALLY!! The temp on my car read 51 degrees at one point.  It felt so good and made me think spring might be here soon.  It also made me want to drink a beer.  What is it about warm weather and a nice cold beer?? Or is that just me?

I was at the mall today which is full of spring and summer clothes. It made me that much more anxious for warm weather.  It will be nice dressing the girls in sundresses and sandals instead of coats and boots.

A warm up, flip flops, swimsuits and sundresses made me start day dreaming of our trip to the sunny beaches of Mexico later this year.  I can almost feel the sand under my feet, the sun on my face and a drink in my hand.  Then I hear a child yelling for me and I am brought back to reality. The kids are going on vacation with us. The chances of my dreams of relaxing on the beach all day and sipping on a fruity drink will probably not come true. Rather it will be me catching them while they jump in the pool, chasing them down the beach and playing referee to who gets what sand pail. I really can't wait!! There's a lot of time and things going on between now and the trip, I will have to settle for dreams of this until then:

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A picture of Greta from the last time we were in Mexico. I forgot how many rolls and she had!! Love it!

Never Never

The other day I overheard Greta telling Matilda the following:

Tillie don't hit or bite me.
Never Never hit or bite.
It makes me sad.
I will never never play with you again.

Ok Miss Greta P, you should listen to your own advice. This is coming from the child who struggles with a hitting/pushing/biting problem. If her sister had the same attitude she would of stopped playing with you when she was about 2 weeks old!!  You are lucky she is a bit more forgiving.

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We've had a few incidents during Greta's gymnastics class where she has pushed or hit.  Yes, I am the mother of a kid that the other parents fear. My child comes near their kids, they pull them a little closer. She can be the sweetest little thing on minute and a toddler bully the next. We are working on it.  She has actually been really good the last few weeks.  We always give her the speech before class that she is not to touch the other kids and to be really nice.  After last weeks class she proudly announced to me:

Mom I be really really nice to the boys.

Yes dear, you were nice to the boys and I am so proud of you. I am okay with this statement at the age of 2, maybe not so much at 16. She was so proud.

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Matilda made the cool name list.

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Matilda carefully gathered every piece of clothing she could find out of their rooms and piled them up in the hallway.  She threw a huge fit when Greta knocked her pile over. I don't blame her, she worked hard on it.

Greta packed her back pack (pack pack, as she calls it) with books and told us she was going to school.

And a couple of Matilda being her cute self.

Poor Minnie

Poor Minnie the minivan has had a rough week.  She started last weekend off by a deer running into her.  Now her driver side door does not open without a little extra force and a loud cracking noise.  Monday she managed to get stuck in the mud. If it wasn't for a group of very kind men who pulled over to help she may still be there.  Tuesday she didn't get to leave the garage because of a snow storm. Wednesday all she wanted to do was get out for a bit...she didn't even make it out of the driveway before getting stuck in a snow drift.  Poor Minnie. And I thought I needed a vacation.  Lets hope what is left of this week improves.

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I really couldn't write a whole post about the minivan so here is a dump of my recent phone photos (including Minnie stuck in the snow).

Cousins, Snow & Fun

I haven't been very good about getting the camera out lately so I made an attempt the past week to get some photos of the girls.   We have had our fair share of snow this past week, while I am ready for the snow to be done and spring to come the girls have enjoyed it.  You also won't hear me complain too much about a snow day at home.

Did we make that mess???

Evening Out & Music

I had an unexpected evening out minus the kids (and husband, who kindly let me go while he stayed home).  My parents, sister and her husband had concert tickets at a local theatre.  My dad ended up being sick therefore I was called in for backup. It was a tough job but someone had to do it. I left poor hubby home with two overly–tired-missed-their-naps kids.   I had no idea what concert I was going to so I was pleasantly surprised when I REALLY enjoyed the music.   I had originally thought I was going to blog today about when I am without my kids I still end up thinking about them and probably talking about them way to much. While listening to the opening artist I started thinking about things I hope for my girls as they grow up.  But, I decided that was too deep for a Monday blog post.  Instead I will share some of the pictures of the evening. I am better at pictures than words anyway :) 

The band who doesn't have faces in the photo is actually Robert Earl Keen and my family members are not really crazy people with red eyes :)!!!

Robert Earl Keen (who wrote this song) was a lot of fun to listen as well as the opening artist by the name of Andrea Davidson. You can check her out on you tube. I would definitely like to see her in concert again. 

An unexpected night out that included Mexican food, margaritas, music and finishing up at George's was just what I needed before a long work week ahead. 

Happy Birthday Frances!!

My two sisters and I were all pregnant at the same time and had our three little girls within months of one another. I love that we were pregnant together. It was so perfect when we all had girls. Matilda, Frances and Lou.  My sisters are my best friends and I can only imagine the friendship and bond that will form between our little girls. It will be fun to watch them grow up together. I sometimes have flashes of them as teenagers and college students and I start to panic! Oh the trouble they will probably cause. But for now I will cherish their sweet innocence.

I think these are the only two pictures of all of us together when we were pregnant. I was only a couple days away from having Matilda. 

Here are are the pictures from Frances 1st Birthday party.

We attempted to do a picture of all the cousins together (minus Greta who refused to join the group). It's hard to get them all to look in the same direction. These pictures make me smile.

Crafty! Me?

Yes. I got crafty. The most crafty I have been since elementary school.  I decided to take some of my recent photo prints and put them onto wood for the girl's rooms.  It was a pretty simple project but still a big deal for me. I got the idea from Pinterest.  You can find lots of examples on there (I used this one) or you can attempt to follow my steps below. I suggest you follow mine as I am pretty sure I am the only one out there that included beer. Follow along, you won't regret it. 

Stuff Needed: Block of wood, mod podge, spray paint, a foam brush and 3-4 bottles of beer of your choice. The wood I used was MDF 3/4" thick boards from Mens-nards. 

Stuff needed (minus the beer).

Step 1: Cut wood into size needed. I made them the same size as my photo or you can make them a little bigger if you want a border. I had my handy dandy dad cut them into a 16x20 and 12x12.

Step 2: Paint your wood. I let my husband spray paint them black for me (He wanted to feel important and in on the project).

Great spray paint job by hubby. 

Step 3: Drink a beer and let the paint dry. 

Step 4:  Brush mod podge on the wood and on the back of the picture to glue it down. Once I had the picture on the wood, I used a towel to press it down (trying to avoid finger prints).  

Side Note: If you are like me and had no idea what mod podge is you can find it at any craft store or amazon has it online. I bought mine at hobby lobby. 

Mod Podge on the wood to glue the photo down. 

Step 5: Grab another beer and let the picture dry onto the wood. (About 20 minutes or until your beer is gone).

Step 6:  Brush a thin layer of mod podge onto the picture. Freak out because your picture is now white. Relax, take a drink of your beer, it dries clear.  I tried to brush it down and across to give it a canvas like look. I apologize for not getting a picture of this step because my hubby and I were arguing about whether I was doing it right. We work so well together ;). I admit this is the step I could use some practice on as I was a little unsure on how much mod podge to use. Also not sure if a foam brush is the best tool, but it worked and turned out great in the end.  Optional 3rd beer here while you wait for the mod podge to dry. I really shouldn't don't want to promote binge drinking, use your head folks!

Step 7: Hang your pictures. We use the velcro strips as to not put holes in the wall. They work great.

Step 8: Drink your last beer to celebrate a job well done!

The finished project over the baby crib. The sign I bought from Etsy here.

This sign is from the same Etsy store.

Wow, a post about wood and beer. Doesn't get much better than that! I even managed to talk about both while posting a crafty thingy.  Nice.