Mother's Day Memories

A beautiful bracelet and letter Austin made me at school.

2 wooden spoons the girls made for me at preschool - first thing I remembered was my mom threatening my sister and I with the "wooden spoon." I'm positive we deserved it.

A yummy breakfast James made specially for me.

Remembering today is the 3rd anniversary of James' mother's death. Thinking how precious life is.

Being woken up to 3 kids screaming "Happy Mother's Day!"

Austin trying to convince me that I want Denny's for dinner.

Feeling incredibly blessed to have my kiddos (and James). I wouldn't trade it for anything.


Happy Mother's Day to my mom and to all mothers out there!

Show Us Where You Live

One of my favorite bloggers, Kelly, is doing a neat thing called Show Us Where You Live Friday. You basically take tours of other bloggers' homes, each Friday spotlights a different room. I think it's a neat idea. I love seeing how people decorate their homes and getting ideas, especially since I have virtually no decorating skills whatsoever. I speak the truth - which is why I didn't participate in last week's kitchen edition. Some people get the creative genes (decorating, artwork, scrapbooking, etc.), I did not. But if you ever need someone to formulate, balance, equate, reconcile - then I am definitely your gal. Another reason I'm glad Kelly is doing this - I can use all the ideas I can get!

This week is the living room. This is my "most presentable" room in our house so I thought I'd participate. If you go to any other blog entries beyond this, you might get a chance to see our bright orange game room. What were we thinking? Oh, I know. We lived here for about 5 years with the builder's neutral colors and when we finally had a chance to pick our own colors, we went a little overboard. :) The swatch said "Kid's Play Orange," and a better name for it would be "Wow It's Halloween All Year Orange." One day we'll fix it.

View from the front door. You'll notice lots and lots of tile. Works for some people, but the grout drives us nuts. Eventually I would love to upgrade to hardwoods.


View from the breakfast room. The nook was made for a TV (but we have enough TVs in our house). Eventually I would like to put a desk and some shelving in.

I love these pictures of Austin, our kindergartener who's growing up way too fast.

Thanks Kelly for doing this! If you'd like to see other entries go to her blog, http://www.kellyskornerblog.com.

Pictionary

I can't draw worth... well you know. James can draw, it just comes with his occupation I suppose. That's where Austin got it from.

Abby: "Austin, my best friend, where are you? Draw for me."

Abby: "It's a snake"
"No."

"It's a bird."
"No. It lives in the ocean."

"It's a seal."
"No."
"It's a shark."
"No."

"It's a dolphin."
"Kind of."

Austin: "It's the Miami Dolphins."
Abby: "Take some lessons."

Oops, actually she said "congratulations," Austin explained. I thought it was funnier when she told him to take some lessons.

Zoo-pendous Idea

I am either the coolest or the worst mom ever. I allowed Austin to stay at home on Friday. He had a sty, which I know is not the worst thing ever, but when he gets them his eye all swells up. It was all bloody and looked pretty nasty, but he was feeling fine. It didn't help that some kid at an elementary school not even 5 miles from us got the dreaded swine flu (and so many schools are closing around us). So we stayed at home and practiced reading went to the zoo. I just hope his kindergarten teacher isn't reading this. To justify it, we did learn several things. Did you know meerkats eat poisonous scorpions - thank goodness for those little creatures. Or that African wild dogs only have 4 toes on their forelegs? Or there are over 200 species of jellyfish?

We certainly didn't.

Do you think he would have learned that on Friday in kinder? Now that I think of it, I think I may have done a great service to our son. Right?

I'm trying a new collage thing... not sure if I like it or not. Austin took the majority of these.

Lip Gloss

Girls love their lip gloss. Especially Princesses.

And if you look real close, dogs must love lip gloss too. It could be worse.