Chores

Every couple weeks I wash a pile of cleaning rags, and Parker has learned to fold them. I give her a choice of either money for her piggy bank or a little toy or gift I've stashed away. On this day she got something she's been asking for for a long time.....her very own clipboard. I guess she gets the love of office supply gene from my side of the family.

artwork

Have I posted this yet? They all start to look the same after a while. This is a self portrait Parker did. She's wearing a skirt and a shirt, and has several bows in her hair.

Wildlife Encroachment

Here's the view from my backyard today, once in the morning, once in the afternoon. This morning there was a possum poking around. He's the white dot on the middle right. I think he lives under our deck. If anyone has any tips on how to lure him to the highway, please respond.

(and doesn't our Oak Leaf Hydrangea look great? White blooms and leaves in the foreground)


And this afternoon we were visited by a pack of ducks. It's one mom and 3 males. Should I name her Holly, Allie or Courtenay?

Build your own burrito

Here's the latest in "I can do it myself!": Parker can build her own burrito. She listed off the ingredients she wanted on it (chicken - she got ground turkey, rice and beans) and had me heat it all up, then she assembled it herself. And the best part....she ate it! She's done it two nights in a row ...last night was fish tacos, tonight was turkey tacos. Very inventive, I know.

Weather related

There were tornadoes hopscotching around apparently, but they were south of us. We did get 1" of rain very quickly though and the storm sirens were going off for a while. Just thought I'd update.

Grocery List

Here's a little slice of my day, in the form of my grocery list after Parker is done with it. She rides along in the shopping cart with the clip board and crosses things off when I tell her. She also added "goldfish", and all the hearts and 'sparkles' (dots and astriks) The doodles are really her trying to write the number 3.

Yard updates part LAST

Here are the last of the pictures of the stonework.

Back patio before:



Back patio after:

And from another view:

I probably should have waited until we had everything back in place and all the stray weekend yard tools put away to take this picture, but we might still be waiting. We are VERY pleased with how the flagstone turned out - way better than the pebbles in concrete that was there before. Parker is a big fan too, since it's much nicer on bare feet.

Yard updates part3

Here are some pictures of the new walkway and the front beds. I don't have 'before' pictures of that because it was such a last minute decision.

New Walkway After:

Paula and Jack, I swear we aren't copying you. Our landscape plans really did call for a walkway like this!

Front view After:

We're really happy with all of it. And except for adding a few plants, getting the beds in shape for spring and summer, and giving the grass a little TLC, we are DONE with the yard improvements finally. That's the good news, the bad news is that we need to start on the interior next.

Yard updates part2

Here are the before/afters. It a much more dramatic difference up close, but these are the only pics I have right now.

Back of house Before:

Back of house After:

Green edging is gone, and the flowerbed on the right was extended to wrap around the corner of the house.

Back beds Before:

Back Beds After:

There is also flagstone in the center of the beds, replacing the brick. When it rains, the area in between the beds is a river.

Side Flowerbed Before:

Side flowerbed After:

(this is the view from the kitchen window) Green edging and crumbling brick are gone. We still need to get some seasonal color going out here.

Yard updates part1

I have so much to update, yardwise, it's going to take multiple posts. A couple weeks ago, our friends had some stone work done at their house, and were very happy with the contractor. We had planned to have some flowerbeds redone this season, so we had him come for an estimate. One thing led to another, and before we knew it, we were covered up with stone masons. Originally we were just going to replace the crumbling brick around the flower beds. But while they were already here (a phrase we repeated often before we were through) we decided to have flagstone put on the patio too. And a front walkway added. And stone around the front flowerbeds too (to match the back). I was a huge mess for a few days, but they did a great job, and it looks way better than we thought it could. Even the area where our trashcans live got a makeover, and is no longer an embarrassment. Here are some pictures in progress:

These guys showed up early and left late. This was the first morning, before I was fully awake, the patio was nearly complete.

We got huge thick flagstone pieces to connect the front walk to the driveway. It might seem like a strange place for it, but it's so handy. Plus it was on our landscape plans, and who are we to second-guess the professionals?

I'll do before/after pics in another post.

Attack of the killer moths

I got this picture tonight of a Hummingbird Moth . It looks like a tiny hummingbird, but with antenna. And very very creepy!

Ceramic Egg follow-up

Here are the ceramic eggs that we made during the little Easter lunch. They turned out great! I hope we can do this every year.

No comment on the gigantic bow Parker is wearing, I have buyers remorse.

Rough day in FairyLand

Parker would be so mad if she knew I was posting this...and understood what 'posting' meant. She was pretty annoyed when I took the picture too (with my phone...I didn't rush in the house and grab my camera when she burst into tears). She was having a big meltdown and sometimes when she melts down there's really nothing else to do or say except "say cheese" and snap a picture.

Easter happenings

It's a gray day in our half acre woods...we woke up to thunderstorms this morning. Good thing the Easter Bunny left Parker's basket of loot on the patio. He left her the standard stuff....a stuffed animal, assorted candy, etc. Her favorites so far are the Polly Pocket Princess dolls. Apparently they're pretty progressive for princesses, since she's about to take them for a soak in her Polly Pocket Hot Tub.

Since today's weather is damp and yuck, I'm glad we frontloaded our Easter activities. Kids were off school on Friday, so I had some friends over for egg dying and lunch. We glazed ceramic eggs, dyed easter eggs and had a lunch with seperate tables for moms and kids.

Outdoor egg dying

Holly in an egg glazing trance.....

Kids lunch table....

Mom's lunch table. I caught Allie with her eyes shut, sorry Allie!

We had roasted veggie and goat cheese sandwiches, cucumber/tomato salad, and a mixed greens salad, fruity iced tea, and fizzy wine.
Afterward the moms hung around and visited while the kids played. It was a great way to burn a non-school day.
I wrongly assumed that Parker would be an exhausted tv zombie the rest of the day, but she just kept going. After all the friends left, she jumped on her trampoline for an hour. I was able to get her off the trampoline by suggesting a bike ride. She can peddle UPHILL now without assistance. She's getting stronger and stronger.
I got her off her bike by suggesting an "easter bath"....a bath in the big bathtub, with bubbles and plastic easter eggs thrown in. I drug a bean bag chair in the bathroom with my laptop and surfed the web while she played. She's thrilled with the idea of a holiday bath, and has planned one for all major holidays in the future.
I got her out of the bathtub with the suggestion of making pizza and watching the Dancing With the Stars that I had taped. Bob had to work late friday night, so we were on our own for dinner.
Parker had the idea to sit on the kitchen barstools while we ate, so we did. She loves all the glitz and glamour of DWTS and asks of the girls wearing light dresses "I wonder if that's her wedding dress?". We watch the dances, and then fast forward right to the scores. She has no interest in the judges comments (thank goodness).

Parker also attended the neighborhood easter egg 'hunt'...where they scatter plastic eggs filled with treats out on a field and the kids stampede to get them. She went with her friend Ava, and I'll post pictures of that when I recieve them.

Easter Question

I could google this, but I'd rather get personalized answers. An article in the Dallas Morning News about eggs got me thinking.....what are the German easter traditions? Same as we do here, or different?

Sous-chef

This 'helping' in the kitchen thing is getting better and better. Parker volunteered to help peel shrimp (really just remove the tails) and she did a great job! I got her all set up, and she was able to do it all by herself.
She's also becoming quite skilled at folding towels and dishclothes....but she recognizes that those are a chore, and she requires compensation.
I wonder at what age it will be safe to 'let' her chop onion. THAT will be a great day.

kickball

One of the greatest things about daylight savings time, and about living here, is the impromptu games that erupt in the evenings. Usually it's a bike and scooter rally in the cul de sac, but this day it was kick ball. The kids stay out a little later than normal, and the grownups stand around and chat. Fun times.
The girl in the black shirt has hit that golden age where she's nearly old enough to babysit, and enjoys supervising younger kids, but before she turns into a teenager with a social life. She led the kick ball game. It was very organized....they would sit down in line to kick (where the boy in blue is) and there are existing rules for pitching to and throwing at the little kids. Parker has NEVER shown any interest in playing, but this night, she tried it, and loved it. She kicked the ball and got on base many times. That's her in the drk blue dress under the tree (on 1st). Hopefully this will be one of many fun spring/summer evenings to follow.

Recent artwork

This is a picture parker drew today at school. They've been talking about weather, and this is supposed to represent the weather. She pointed out that the colored dots on the side represent the different weather extremes...good, bad, terrible, etc. Maybe it's a code like the radar uses? She is full of information about lightening and thunder and how to be safe in bad weather.
Speaking of weather, there was bad weather in our area last night, but it missed us. Good thing...they were showing people on the news holding baseball sized hail.

Garden Party

This past weekend we had a "garden party", which was really "garden box building party"...but Garden party sounded more fun and spring-like. Holly and Allie, and their husbands and their kids all came over on saturday, and then men built planters to be used for raised bed gardens and the woman and children sat outside and visited and played and enjoyed the perfect weather.

Building in progress

After the building was complete, we had a potluck dinner, with grilled chicken sausage (grilled by Allie), mango salsa (Holly), beans, coucous salad and deviled eggs. Holly takes deviled eggs everywhere she goes. I guess that's why she's invited to a lot of stuff.
The kids had their own table set up (a cardboard box w/ a table cloth), but they had already run off to play more when I did this picture.

The completed boxes. (They won't always live in the driveway, we're moving them this weekend.)

I didn't get many good pictures of the kids playing together (maybe someone will forward some to me), but they all had a great time and were worn out by evening. Isn't that the best part of a Garden Party?