Dirt, anyone?

Our friends came over for Easter dinner and as soon as dinner was over, the boys headed out to our woods and began working on digging one enormous hole. I think the boys were out for about 4 hours. Justin came in with a blister on his hands, but just put a band-aid and gloves on and went back out.

Aaron calls it their fortress. Justin has offered to babysit the kids. He said he'll just put them in this hole and give them snacks. I'm sure they wouldn't mind.

Here's a picture of the hole they dug under the tree. Not sure what their plans are for the other side. Maybe more holes??

Justin's school demo

Last week Justin's class worked on "how to" assignments. They had to write a paper and tell "how to" do something and then they had to demonstrate it in front of the class. Big surprise: Justin chose food. He chose to make a strawberry trifle for the class. We did a lot of the pre-work the night before and then I brought the ingredients in for his demonstration.

As soon as Justin began, the kids all quieted immediately. He was very confident before he went in and told me he could do it by himself. He did do it by himself, but he seemed a little less confident when he was in front of his class than at home. He did a great job and the class was thrilled that he shared this yummy dessert with everyone.

Painting, painting, and more painting

We've been in our house for over three years and I've been dying to update the whole time, but have been busy having babies and taking care of little ones. Our lives haven't really slowed down, but I can't take these white walls and outdated curtains any longer! I told Aaron that my New Year's resolution was to at least BEGIN updating our home. For anyone who has been to our house, you know what an undertaking this is. This is the reason we have waited three years. (Excuse my loveliness in this picture - my painting clothes are not a pretty sight and I hadn't even showered here after my morning run. Lovely.)

We have a very open floor plan on our main level. This is a picture taken from our Valentine's dinner party. These custom curtains I'm sure were quite lovely when the previous owners had their very formal furniture in here.

We're done painting our first room. The walls weren't too bad - the trim and windows were a huge pain! It was all worth it because I love the warmth it brings to the room.

We still need to buy new curtains and a new light fixture for above the table, but I'm so thrilled with the new color. Another added bonus of the project is we now have clean windows! I'm still trying to decide on a color for our family room, but that's my next project. A special thanks to Aaron's Mom and Dad who came over and helped me finish up the trim work. I'm still hoping for Aaron's help with the painting, although he has been very good about helping me clean up and move things.

Naomi plays Peek-a-boo

Puzzled

Our family loves doing puzzles! We have been busy putting this one together that we got for Christmas. We just leave it up on this table so that we can work on it whenever we have a few extra minutes. We're almost done with this one now and can't wait to glue it together to hang in the basement with the one we did a couple of years ago. My fear when we get down to the last few pieces is always that we will be missing a piece.

The younger kids have trouble with the smaller pieces, but Will put this one together all by himself.

For someone who is such a busy body and has a very limited attention span, Bruce does surprisingly well with puzzles.

Just the girls!

I love my boys, but I have to admit that there's a special bond between a Mom and her girls. After my wild boys Will and Bruce, Madelyn and Naomi have been especially refreshing. Will and Bruce love to run wild and yell whereas Madelyn and Naomi are timid and afraid of about everything. Madelyn loves anything Princess, Dora, or babies. Of course this love of girly things is fostered by their older sister Elizabeth who is so sweet to play with her little sisters and is such a big help! Elizabeth has loved to shop with me since she was about three. She loves to pick out outfits for her and her little sisters. I love these girls!

Beads, beads, beads

Our kids seem to go through spells. Lately, they have been into Perler beads (again). I loathed these for about the first month after I bought them (probably 5 years ago) and they seemed to be all over the floor everyday. Then I realized that even though they create a lot of work for me, they keep the kids occupied for a very long time.

We have quite a collection of their work. We've gone through I don't know how many buckets of these beads over the years, but they still love making new ones. Elizabeth gets online and searches out new ideas all the time. Thank you, Perler beads for many quiet afternoons!