Dear Sunday

I love you

and your rain we have been waiting a whole month for

for sleeping in and breakfast in bed

for the excuse to wear my new rain boots 

and plenty of puddles for splashing in

for neighborhood walks and no plans for the day
for hot coffee and the smell of bread baking in the kitchen

for long sleeves and ponchos

for squirrel-watching and heart-hunting

for flower admiring (and maybe a little picking)
for the sun coming out and lovely 70* weather
for our second walk of the day and time for crafting
for cars that get a much-needed wash from the rain
and plans to catch up with a good friend tonight

Yep Sunday, I seriously love you.
Hope you are enjoying your Sunday, too.

BEST DAY EVER!

Did anyone get that my title was a reference to Tangled?

Yeah, so we have seen that movie just a few times but actually it's one I really like a lot, so I don't mind.

Anyway, the kids proclaimed  last Wednesday as the "best day ever" and Wyatt actually said
it was the best day of his life. Love that boy.

Where could we have gone that would elicit such a response you ask? Disney World?

Nope, the St. Louis City Museum...which I honestly think might just be one of the coolest places

 I have ever been, too. Like for real. 

 The St. Louis City Museum is housed in a huge, old shoe factory and consists mostly of 

re-purposed architectural and industrial objects, the building is just amazing.

The outside...

We were at the museum from 10:00-4:00 and took about a half hour break for lunch. If the kids had not been so exhausted we could have left for supper and then came back afterwards, that's how
 much there was still left to see/ do there.

Old-school shoelace factory inside the museum.

Oh man, I really wanted my fortune read but I didn't have any change....next time!

check out that ceiling... so cool!

Hundreds of tunnels, a ten-story slide, and a bunch of other slides too, caves and aquariums and holes literally in the floor that lead you somewhere different every time you go through one,
 seriously a kid's dream.

Oh- and check out this area that was like an indoor skate park, ramps of all sizes the kids could
 just run up and slide down. If only I had one of these in my backyard...oh, the energy that
would be burned off.

The Ewok Village, or at least that's what we called it.
Indoor tree-houses to climb and more tunnels, slides, things to climb up and down and all over.

Yep, BEST DAY EVER.
Oh wait--I just remembered that was the same night that someone pulled the fire alarm,
not once, but twice at our hotel. And we were on the 9th floor.
And the second one was just as we had all fallen asleep. I couldn't find my shoes and Charlotte woke up crying and I had to carry her down all those stairs. I threatened my kids if they ever in their life
pull a fire alarm as a prank I would come hunt them down and they would be sorry.
I don't care if they are in college.
So yeah, besides that... best day ever.

****
happy friday!!!!!

Sunrise and $3 Happiness

Look what I was up to see early this morning, a pink and blue sky and the sun just about

 ready to come up. Then it was up and it was so pretty.

I wish I was up to see the sun rise more often, I really do.

I love a pretty sun rise and maybe even more, a gorgeous sunset.

But, there is something about seeing the sun come up on a new day though, a fresh start

 because Lord knows we all need those. I know I do anyway.

Right now I am sitting out on my front porch while the kids are still in bed sipping my super-hot coffee.

The cicadas are not bad yet and there is a Cardinal that keeps flying up to the porch railing.

I'm not gonna lie, I am also praying in my head,  even while typing;

Please don't let them get up yet, please God, just give me 30  15 minutes of peace and quiet and

 no one asking me for anything. No whining, fighting or wrestling, no asking for food and drinks yet.

 Just 15 minutes.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Yesterday we went to see How To Train Your Dragon, for a mere $1 at the theater.

Can I tell you how much I adore the summer kid's movies? 

$3 for all of us to get in, seriously? Love, love, love me a bargain movie.

The kids really liked the movie, and I did too, which was an added bonus.

We will be there every Thursday morning for the Summer movies, thank you very much.

After the movie yesterday we stopped at the store and I let the kids each get a water gun.
  They could not have been happier. Seriously.

They played with them with a couple of the neighbor boys when we got home and Wyatt

 kept talking about his all day.

After bed last night he came down and told me again how much he loved his water gun and he couldn't believe how cool it was. It is a $3 water gun from Walmart.

I love that my kids are so happy and satisfied with just the smallest things. 

And appreciative.

A good friend of mine left for Guatemala yesterday with her two little ones, ages three and five.

She went there a few months ago on a Mission Trip and now she is back visiting and helping out at an orphanage for a few weeks to see how it would be living there with her little family.

I can't wait to get updates from her while she is there.

People like her make me want to do something more, something bigger with my life, 

if that makes any sense.  I'm not sure what, but...something.

This is Bun-Bun, the bunny that lives in/near our back yard. We see her every single day, our yard and neighbor's yards are pretty thick with bunnies, which is fine by us. Bun-Bun seems pretty tame, she lets us get really close to her and we think there might be something wrong with one of her front paws. 

Today we have no real plans, we might go to a couple rummage sales, I might paint my little

rummage sale book case for the front porch or we might just play with $3 water guns all day. 

Ahhhh.....I got my 15 minutes of quiet time, plus some more.

Now it's time to go make cinnamon rolls for my little ones, I think I am ready for this day to start.

Happy Friday  everyone, hope you have a great weekend!

Ziploc Bag Ice Cream

I can see my grandpa sitting on the back steps outside wearing the same light blue 

colored jean-pants he always wore and a short-sleeved dress shirt. 

He is hand-cranking the ice cream maker, with a big container of salt sitting next to him, 

making homemade ice cream for everyone on a hot Sunday afternoon.

My grandma is in the kitchen wearing an apron and cutting peaches at the counter.

I assume the peaches are for the ice cream but I can't say for sure, my grandma 

was famous for her peach pie. 

I dreamed this the other night, the day the kids and I made the ice cream.  

It was the kind of dream where you wake up and wonder if it really happened or not.

It seemed so real, and I have to say I love the idea of them together somewhere
 making ice cream on a hot Summer day. I have a lot of favorite childhood memories but homemade ice cream at my grandma & grandpa's has to be one of my very favorites.

Anyway, I mentioned the ziploc bag ice cream recipe yesterday so here ya go.

The recipe is from this magazine. 

This makes just enough ice cream for one person, it's not a lot, definitely not the recipe you
would want if you wanted to make very much at all. 

But, it's easy and something the kids really can do. And,  it is actually good ice cream. 

I remember making it at work once when I was still working at school 

and I don't remember ours turning out so good.

Oh, I should tell you that we definitely had to shake our bags for more than five minutes, maybe we are just slow, I don't know. Making the ice cream was on our Summer List so we can check it off now.
Later this week I will share our list with you, the kids were really excited about making it this year.
I'm not big on having a bunch of  things scheduled all the time but I do like having some things
 planned and an idea of some things we hope to do.
I think I might need to add Haircut for Wyatt to that list after looking at these pictures.
 That boy has some crazy, thick hair and like mine it kinda poofs out in the humidity.
And this is why my hair pretty much stays up on top of my head in messy bun all summer long.

If you try make the ice cream I hope it turns out for you, it is delish.
Messy, but good, which is why we ate ours outside.
You should make yourself a bag too because my kids didn't want to share theirs with me at all.
Not even when I reminded them that I did most of the shaking.

This morning I am going to pick up coffee, run a couple of errands and browse the library bookshelves all by myself. I might even listen to Notorious B.I.G. or something else scandalous that I can't
 listen to while the kids are in the car. hahahahahahaaaa.
Happy middle-of-the-week, y'all!

{Patio Art}

This is where we spent Saturday morning.

And most of the day, really.

On the back patio.

Barefoot. Sun shining. 

In and out the back door a hundred times.

In the sandbox, getting cups and cups of water from the rain barrel.

Reading magazines, drinking coffee and eating our lunch outside.

We got out the paints and painted canvases and these pots. 

The kids loved painting the canvases and can't wait for them to be hung.

Sometimes I forget how proud they are of their work when I step back at don't butt in at all, 

not even to mention how they are missing the cardboard and getting the paint all over the patio.

Oh well, the rain will wash it away.

So our pots are painted and dry and ready to be planted in now.

Basil? Lavender? Daisies? Hmmmm.....decisions.

Charlotte's braids were each dipped in paint at least twice I think.

It was a lovely day on the patio.

Happy Monday everyone!

<