I'm like a Kid in a Candyshop!

...Or better yet..."a Mommy with new curriculum." (But printed out, that doesn't sound nearly as exciting as candy, now does it?!) The "box man" brought lovely brown boxes brimming with new curriculum this week! I am soooo excited!! I guess this is what the summer is for...to plan and prepare and hype oneself up for the upcoming school year. Hhmmm, catch up with me in a few months and I will let you know how it's going. :)

But for now, I'm excited and having fun looking through all of our first-grade stuff!

And by the way, have you seen this Summer Reading Program by Barnes & Noble? Pretty neat, I think we will have to participate! We already participate in our libraries summer reading program. Which just amounts to me getting writer's cramp from scribing every last book I've read to my children, and our children coming home with (junky) prizes from the library! Although, they have won books and t-shirts. And I'm hoping that one of these years, we'll win the grandprize laptop. I should hope, after all of the writing I have done! Hopefully, Lily can takeover the scribing end of things from now on! :)

You're not safe from surprise, until you're dead!

Wow, lo and behold, I am an Anne-expert! I guess I should have expected to become "something" after immersing myself in "Anne" for so long!! :)

How about you?

You know Anne very well! Good job :)
Take this quiz!

Busted

We are totally busted. She has found the candy stash and she's actually tall enough to reach it.

Not good.

Not good at all.

The "Short" List

Here is the short list of what I have been up to lately:

- Attending our first Homeschool Conference - This was lots of fun! Scott took off work and we had a great day together. We attended a few workshops and perused curriculum and assorted new and used books. It was "drool city" in the book-department, let me tell you! I was adding title after title to my "wish list." Very dangerous. Scott was involved in picking out our first grade curriculum for Lily, for which I was grateful. Overall the day was loads of fun...and information...I think my head was spinning off its axis and my eyes were popping out by the time we got home.

- Decluttering our house (aka Simplifying our Life) - This task has been ongoing, in high gear, for several months now, and I think is coming to a close shortly, with intermittent follow-up ALWAYS necessary, of course! You would be amazed at the sheer volume of STUFF that we have gotten rid of. Where did it all come from??? Why were we hanging onto it??? Clutter makes me not be able to think clearly.

- Organizing our Life :) - I *heart* organizing! (as you well know, by now) It really has become my passion lately. Almost no square inch of this house is out of my reach when it comes to organizing. Ah, a well organized counter, drawer, cabinet....what a blissful feeling.

- Getting Rid of our Junk - The prime avenues here are:

1. Selling on ebay
2. Goodwill
3. The consignment store (making a "mega" stop there tomorrow)
4. The trashman (poor guy)

All of these avenues tend to be time-consuming. I really want this stuff G-O-N-E before we start school again.

- May I add "Loving my PDA" to the list? I am surprised, in just one month's time, how much less paper we have laying around. It really has been a revolution in the micro-organizing arena of our household. And I am completely hooked. I use it for everything and take it everywhere. Really, what did I do before I had it? Here is where she sits overnight.


This handy little organizer has helped me keep my stamps, address labels, gift cards, store coupons, and calculator visible, handy, and off of my countertop...as well as provide a place for my pretty, little PDA. :)

- And lastly, I suppose that I should 'fess up and say that we have been Eating way too much take-out while Mommy has been preoccupied with organizing the homestead. This was evidenced by my sweet daughter's comment the other night after we ate at our local pizza parlor. "Mommy, Tony's has done sooo much for us! How will we EVER thank them??" :) I'm hanging my guilty head in shame. I need to jump back on the grilling-bandwagon.

vin·tage (vĭn'tĭj)

The above word was used in an ebay listing to describe a baby doll similar to one that I played with as a child. My first thought was, "Hello?! I'm still in my 20's!" :)

Upon further investigation, the word "vintage" means (among other things dealing with "strong drink"):

-Representing the high quality of a past time:
-Old-fashioned or obsolete:
-A group or collection of people or things sharing certain characteristics
-A year or period of origin:
-Characterized by excellence, maturity, and enduring appeal; classic
-Old or outmoded
-Of the most distinctive
-Being the best of its kind:

I am a little ruffled by the "old-fashioned, outmoded, obsolete" characterizations. And since we are talking about a "past time"/"period of origin" (the early 80's, thankyouverymuch) I'm choosing to ignore those descriptions and focus on "the most distinctive, being the best of its kind, excellence, enduring appeal, and classic" nature of my "vintage toy."

Toodle-loo!

Happy Father's Day...

...to the best Daddy in the world!

We love you!

Love,

Lily, Joey, and Gracie

Mmmm...

See, I told you it was a grill-a-thon here. Ahh, the tastes and smells of summer!

It's a Grill-a-thon over here!

We have been grilling up a storm over here ever since Scott assembled his new grill. (I use the word "his" very loosely.)

Anyhow, we've had burgers, steaks, and Cuban chicken. And pineapple chicken on a stick is on the menu tonight. Plus I have Peruvian pork, kabobs, as well as a roast (to try out the smoker box/chips) in the works. It's just a veritable smorgasbord of chargrilled items. :) Stop by, if you're in the area and hungry!

Secondly, (this is completely unrelated, except that it's food-related, if that makes sense) have you seen this photo essay by Time? It's called "What the World Eats" and I personally, think it's fascinating. I wonder what our week's food would look like all laid out...and I wonder how much it would cost...I can't imagine that it would cost that much. Hhhmmm. Even more interesting is seeing how things vary...or don't vary in different places in the world. Cool!

Thirdly, how about this? Of course, we all know that ads aren't accurate, but still...some of those things look down-right yucky!

And finally, so that I can make my foodie-self feel less food-centric today, here is some linkage to a beautiful media presentation called 500 Years of Women in Art. I've seen it several places and I think I almost like Yo-Yo Ma in the background more than the visual art. Enjoy!

On her way...

...to visit the queen!

Or maybe attend a little girl's birthday party!

The First Day of Summer

Though the solstice may still be eleven days away, the summer has officially begun here. Pop-pop took us all out for a traditional night at our local soft serve ice cream place!

When we were growing up, if my Dad took us kids along while running around town, going to the hardware store, etc, we all knew that we could easily talk him into stopping at an ice cream place on the way home. (Dads are good like that!) It was a great plan...there was an ice cream joint of some kind or another in every direction. We behaved while out and voila!...ice cream cones would be in hand! :)

Now that grandchildren are involved, he doesn't need to be "talked into it"...he calls up and volunteers. And last night was our first visit of the season. We piled the kiddos into wagons and strollers and meandered over there.

Here is a photo of our littlest sweetie commandeering (for the first time) her own ice cream cone!

Thanks Pop-Pop!

The Mommies are Tired...

...but, strangely enough, the children aren't very tired after our action-packed, fun-filled day! Thanks to some free tickets from Scott's office we spent the day with friends and cousins at the Crayola Factory and Canal Museum. Things have really changed there since I visited last. It's much bigger and there are a lot more cool activities for the kids, especially in the Canal Museum. The kids had a blast!

Here is our gaggle of kids

Writing on the walls...what could be better?

The dynamic duo

Three girlfriends

Floating their boats in the canal

Gathering eggs

Playing "house" in the canalboat

Despite the presence of fun trains...

...cranes...

...and small boats...


...the glass ELEVATOR was still the most exciting "exhibit" of the day!!

One last picture to show the status of Joey's feet on any given day!

Enjoy! (I suspect you may eventually see more photos of our day here and here.)

Happy Birthday, Darling!

We had a little "pizza party" for Scott today at lunch! GG celebrated with us and we had a great time! The kids helped me make a yummy fruit pizza in keeping with our pizza theme.

Scott is an amazing husband and an excellent father, leader, son, grandson, and engineer, too! We love you very much!!

Family Fun

We have been having WAY more fun than should be allowed, lately! :)

Last night our little family celebrated the end of our first year of school...and the new first grader among us. :) We played at McDonald's...it was a real smash!

My three cuties

Joey's winning smile

Gracie says, "Back away from my Cold Stone, Mama! I got my own spoon, and I know how to use it!" :)

And then tonight, we celebrated Scott's birthday at my parents with everyone including GG and Michelle and her family. Lots of fun...lots of sweaty kids running everywhere. :) We are seriously outnumbered when we all get together. A thunderstorm cooled off the evening and provided exciting ambiance for our alfresco dinner on the covered deck. As soon as the thunder and lightning stopped, the kids ran around in the yard and got completely soaked...they had so much fun! And we had fun just watching them.

Here was tonight's food. Because really, people, it's all about the food!! :)



And the cake...



And the birthday boy with his Grandmother


And a couple of "tree-climbers"... :)

(By the way...see that big crack running down the tree that the kids are sitting in? It's where the tree got struck by lightning...pretty cool, huh?)