So… this is what I’ve been up to lately. Crazy amounts of labor by me. Total cost: $50.

I had a vision. I had a really hard time explaining it to Xtian every time he asked.

“What are you doing?”, he’d say, when he see 2 foot high piles of dirt around the whole patio.
“I don’t understand yet, What are you doing?”, he’d say, when he saw piles of live (dug-up) plants on the lawn and patches of moved sod in spots around the lawn.

I honestly didn’t know how to answer him (which frustrated him to no end). Like I said, I had a vision. I couldn’t articulate how I was going to get there because there were so many steps! Here’s what I did, and the pictures:

Front yard (last year we cut down two trees and removed all the landscaping stones surrounding the trees and one circular planter. So there were 3 partially empty dirt circles in the yard.)

Stage one:
*Move flowers still in the circular beds and level the dirt.
*Mark where walkway will go and dig up sod in those areas.
*Replant the sod in the circular dirt beds.

Stage two:
* cut out TONS of roots that would get in the way of the new planter/walkway.
* buy landscape border divider and put in two rows for the planter/walkway.

Stage three:
* Move stones from around one of the trees to make stepping stones.
* Make 2 trips to get free rock from someone from Craig’s List.
* Put together the walkway.

Stage four:
* Dig up and divide hostas/mums/day lillies and plant in the planters.
* mulch.

(click on the pics to see full views)

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Other front yard stuff:

* The Black Eyed Susans surprised me this year when they came back with babies next to the mailbox!
* The sunflower seeds we planted with my mom in early Spring are now much taller than me!

Back Yard:

Stage one:
* Remove all grass (sod) from where I want walkway and planters.
* Replant in the front bare circular sections.

Stage two:
* Dig 18″ hole around the WHOLE patio!!! My nickname (from our neighbors) is Eerie Canal Girl. There were three two foot by 5 foot piles of dirt around and on the patio.

Stage three:
* Put the dirt back, mixing with Sphagnum

Stage four:
* Put in the landscape border divider.

Stage five:
* Move plants from the front planter (Christian wants to put shrubs up there) and plant the “babies”. We planted tons of seeds into little pots when my mom was out last Spring. 

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The kids just finished their summer camps. Aubrey took an outdoor Adventure Land camp, located at a park. They played on the playground, in the sand with all kinds of sand toys, sidewalk chalk, a huge parachute, did various art projects, sang songs, and listened to stories. I was really nervous that the counselors would call me and tell me Aubrey had an accident and that I needed to come get her. Not one call in two weeks! Totally dry. She’s even sleeping in panties now!

Once, upon picking her up, she was sitting with the counselor and crying. I was handed a yellow slip of paper telling me about her rough day.
*Fell and scraped skin off knee (it was pretty bad). Treatment: ointment and band-aid.
*Boo boo on the finger. Treatment: cleand and band-aid.
*Sand in the eyes. Treatment: Eye flush
She is the most beat-up looking kid I know!

Braeden took Safety Town Camp with two friends. They were all in the same group and they had a lot of fun. They learned about Strangers, the rules of the road, Fire safety, Animal safety, Gun safety, etc. All three kids now make sure that the parents are following all of the rules all of the time. Walking up the street today (right by the gutter, because there wasn’t a sidewalk), a car was coming down the road, and Braeden said, “Mommy!!! Get out of the road NOW!” Olivia, one of the friends, praises her mom when she comes to a complete stop at a stop sign. Fiona, another friend, can’t wait to teach her unborn sister about Stranger Danger.

Their class ended with a graduation ceremony. They got certificates of achievement and prizes from the counselors. I think Braeden was really proud of himself. He received his certificate with running feet and a huge smile. Such a difference from his gymnastics awards two months ago.

We took them to Steak and Shake to celebrate in our own way. Mine were (finally) introduced to a shake. Oh no.

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We had a wonderful Father’s Day weekend. I think this is the most quality time we’ve ever spent together in one day. We started out our day going to The Botanical Gardens. We let the kids run around and climb on all the sculptures. Then they had a blast in the Children’s Playcenter. They came prepared to play in the splash area, and were able to cool down a bit.

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We left to grab lunch and tried a new Mexican restaurant. It was just O.K. Man do we miss California Mexican, especially Los Arroyos!

After naps, we went to the grocery store to get the necessities for a backyard campout! Chocolate and Marshmallows, hot dogs and chips. We had a blast. Braeden told us around 8:00 that he was ready for bed. They told us they were scared of the forest, so we laid down with them for about 20 minutes. When we said we were going to sit by the campfire, they agreed! After a half hour of them talking and giggling and getting up to check if we were still there, Braeden said that he loved camping and wanted to do it again tomorrow night.

10:00 rolled around and these two were still in there playing! Christian went to coax ask them if they wanted to go inside the air conditioning and go to bed in their own beds. They were forced agreed. They were asleep within 5 minutes.

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I hope we can have a lot more days like this!

The other day at a birthday party, one of the dads asked Braeden what his name is. He answered him in his goofy voice that people can barely understand, ”Andrew Braeden”

I told Braeden that when people ask him what his name is, you should tell them what you’d like to be called.

He looked back to the man and said, “Speed Racer!”

Aubrey has been up to a lot too. She is my rough and tumble girl. She is covered from head to toe in bruises and scratches. She cries, but she gets back up and does it again. I love that. She has been in gymnastics this semester too. (They were in the same class). Here is a picture of her receiving her award. She came running to me with the metal around her neck and said, “I’m so proud of myself!” Me too.

Ahhhh…. speaking of rough and tumble: Check this out. This happened yesterday.

Braeden pushed Aubrey. She was standing on her little chair trying to get onto his pirate ship (the couch). The doorbell rang, I opened the first door, she screams, I race over to her, telling the water meter guy to wait a minute. I see a deep wound that was not yet bleeding… wait for the gush… I picked her up, told water dude he has to come back and raced her to the kitchen. I grabbed a paper towel and caught the blood. looked at the wound, gave her the towel to hold. Told B to get his shoes on and get A’s shoes ready for her. I raced upstairs with the Doctor’s exchange on the phone and it took me 4 tries to get my bra on. I COULD NOT FIGURE IT OUT!!! Exchange asked if there was damage to the teeth. Run back downstairs half naked (still no success with the bra). No. They told me to take her to St. John’s Hospital. Run back upstairs, finish getting dressed,  run a dry toothbrush across my coffee teeth, grab 3 breakfast bars (in case we’re in the waiting room forever), put Aubrey’s shoes on, get rain coats on the kids and we were out the door. Whew!

The bleeding had stopped and she was no longer crying. It was a small puncture wound. I thought she hit her face on the coffee table leg, but turns out, she hit the floor and her tooth must have pushed through.
Once in the car, I asked B what he did. (I don’t remember how I knew, but I knew he pushed her.) He explained everything. I didn’t say a word. Just listened. Just as we pulled in to the ER, he apologised to her on his own. “Aubrey, I’m sorry I hurt you.” Very sweet.
The best part of the day was the 3 HOUR nap we all took (but then I was awake until midnight, and up again at 1:30! :rolleyes: )

Here she is in the waiting room:

Here she’s already had the numbing cream and is ready for the stitch. (yup, just one)

 

This is just before she started crying. (First time since she fell). The cold of the popsicle hurt. This is also the first time she has not finished a sweet treat!

She is such a trooper. She didn’t eat much lunch, but was running around and eating english muffin pizza that night! Today she is talking out the side of her mouth and humming a lot to communicate. She still has a pretty nasty wound inside her mouth where the tooth went through, so I’m sure it is still very painful.  She’s not complaining, though!  Her appointment to have the stitch removed is on Tuesday.

Thank you to Tammy and Grandma Puzder for kick-starting me back into blogging! I got both of your messagaes today!

Braeden’s pre-school had a Mother’s Day program this year. I got to spend the day with him doing all the things he’s been doing all year. Playing in the kitchen, reading books, playing with blocks and beads. Working on art projects and putting together a Bible verse book.

The kids had made us cute hats out of HUGE coffee filters and paint. The highlight of the morning was when all the kids sang a bunch of Mother’s Day songs to us in the tune of Christmas songs. After the performance, we ate pink and blue cookies and got to read through the kid’s books they’ve been working on all year. I love the one that tells all about him. Something I didn’t know is his favorite food is pancakes

Braeden has always had seasonal allergies. This year was really bad for him. He was on a total of 5 medications (eyes, nose, antibiotic for an eye infection (from rubbing his eyes so much), Zyrtec and Albuterol which he got to inhale through a nebulizer. He was so good about it. He always has been good about things like that. He pretty much goes with the flow with every situation.

 He just had his Show Day for Gymnastics. He was so excited that I was in the class, the kid could not sit still. He was asked over and over to sit down.  Couldn’t do it. When it was his turn to participate, he was totally excited and I could tell he was very proud of himself. A stage we are revisiting with him is shyness. When it was his turn to go up on the “stage” and receive his metal, he DID NOT want to go. If I can figure out how to put up a video of it I will, but he walked all hunched over like an old man. His arms were dangling, almost touching the ground. He walked up the stairs to the stage and jumped off (He was supposed to stand, have the metal put around his neck and wait for me to take a picture). He was handed his metal and held in the air so I could snap a picture. Everyone was laughing. What a nut.

I have not been following my planned pre-school activities for about a month now. Again, I’m not sure exactly what I’ve been doing that’s kept me so busy, but we haven’t had time. The weather has been warmer, save for today… it’s snowing again *roll eyes*, so we’re getting outside a lot more.

So, for any of you that were following my plans… you’ll have to wait until it gets cold again. Check back in November.

Thanks to some Tinkerbell panties given to Aubrey on her birthday, she is fully potty trained! It’s been one whole week now, and we have not had even ONE accident (knock wood)! She has woken up dry 5 out of 6 naps, and woken up dry 4 out of 6 mornings, so I’m not ready to give up the “sleeping pull-ups” just yet.

We are so proud of her, and I’m SO EXCITED to be diaper free! Woo Hoo! 

When my mom was out, Aubrey picked out some material. I made this dress for her: I ran into some problems, but I improvised and it looks good (I think). 

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A cake I made for my friend’s baby shower (umbrella theme). This was a carrot cake with cream cheese and pineapple icing. It was so yummy. The chunky icing made for good texture to fit in with the *rain* (blue sprinkles and silver shimmer). I used a heart pan and cut the top off, making the bottom of the umbrella. I used that part of the cake to make the handle. I found that I do not like using a cake board without foil. The icing stains the board, and you can’t wipe it up! I didn’t have enough icing to pipe around the bottom of the cake, so I was stuck with the dyed board. Again… oh well!

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I’ve been landscaping. In our yard, that’s a pretty big feat! I’ve been digging up grass, and replanting it in some holes we had. Big holes because trees used to be there. I am planning a walkway and a lot of flower beds. It’s been a lot of work, but I’m welcoming the workout because I have not yet found my motivation to get to the gym regularly.

Last weekend we had Aubrey’s birthday party. About 20 pirates and tinkerbells and all thier parent’s later, I was pooped. I think everyone had a good time, even though it was pretty crowded.

We divided the kids up into two groups. One group stayed inside and painted either a sword or a set of wings. The other group went outside and played Pin The Star on Tinkerbell’s Wand and Hot Potato (with a balloon). Then we switched.

We all went outside for the Tinkerbell pinata and then pizza, then crowded into the kitchen to watch Aubrey blow out her candles. The cake was delicious; there wasn’t a crumb left!

Some people hung around afterward. The kids played on the swingset and ran races. Braeden wanted to run races all by himself so he could win! After dark, we lit a campfire, roasted marshmallows and our neighbor gave the kids tractor rides.

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Aubrey is such a happy little girl. She is a ball of excitement. Almost every gift she opened, she’d say, “Oh. My. Goodnesssss!!!!!”  Here’s a few pictures that captured those moments:

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The cake: I wasn’t happy with it at all, but it was my first attempt at a tier cake (and not an easy design at that!) Oh well. It tasted good!

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