Come Take a Walk with Me...

I promise that if you come "this" way, you won't muddy your shoes or feet or get sucked into the ravine that is in our backyard due to all the rain latey...

In fact, coming "this" way, you won't leave the comforts of...wherever you are looking at your computer screen...

The sun has finally decided to stay awhile and with that, not only are our spirits lifted from the dreariness of the soggy ground, but it means that the garden is happy once again...

So far this year, despite the fact that is has taken me 3 packets of Spinach seeds to actually get it to sprout...AND the fact that I planted WAYYY too many potatoes again...it's looking to be like a great garden for the summer!

Let me introduce you...

Here she is...on the back of our property...six 4 x 12 raised beds of vegetables...

 Well hello there lettuces...so nice to see your big green heads...these are probably my favorite thing about gardening...

 I did  a little bit better this year with thinning them out...but I think I still managed to keep more than we'll be able to eat...

 Our girls LOVE LOVE LOVE Sugar Daddy peas...I love their little curly-cues that climb up the make-shift trellis that Italian Stallion made out of pvc pipe and twine...

 this is the full box of potatoes...and then we have a half box up there in the right top corner of the picture....wayyy too many potatoes...but they are so darn fun to pick...

 Our newly planted and now sprouting zucchini, with cucumber right behind it...the girls are looking forward to zucchini bread this summer!

 Everything in the garden was planted from seed EXCEPT for the peppers and tomatoes this year...I just didnt' have the gumption to start them indoors and attempt the transplant...and so Oakland Nursery came in quite handy...

 I believe we planted 21 tomato plants this year...one less from last year, but just enough to make sauce to last us an entire 12 months:)

 Onions...once again, I planted about 15 and then was reminded by my pasta loving husband that we ran out last year...and so I headed back to the store last week and purchase more...we now have around 30-35 onions sproutin' out of the ground..

 The garlic I planted in themiddle of December...I'm not quite sure how that happened seeing as the ground was probably frozen, but up they came this spring...and lookin' mighty fine...

 Our "strawberry patch" is in the front yard...and yesterday yielded our first crop...

 we love getting out there and pickin' them...they were just waiting for some sunshine...

This is what I made...and sorry for the dark picture...we harvested in the late afternoon and I made the pie in the evening...I didn't catch Italian Stallion soon enough...he already dove into the pie before I got my picture...but, I think you get the idea...

thanks for taking a stroll with me...I'll keep you posted on the progress this summer...



Prelude to the long weekend...

We had Peanut's birthday party today. 

Italian Stallion told me afterwards that one of these days we're just going to scrap the whole thing and send them to Chuck E. Cheese.

Not that it was a "bad" party...far from it...but, the "energy" that is involved and therefore required of the adults present is sometimes a little taxing...and it's not always the birthday girl and friends to causes us to feel this way...sometimes it's the little almost 4 year old who wants her turn first and wants to open all the presents and starts to whine and question "when is it MY birthday"...

Awhile back Peanut thought it would be cool to have a fairy party...and so I started researching and googling and asking friends for ideas...I started to make lists of things that I needed to purchase and get ready...

and then she changed her mind and wanted Nemo...

so I scrapped the plan and tried to fit in some google time in between my photo shoots and edits and trying to wrap my head around the fact that Oprah is gone from daytime television...which is akin to the feeling I had when Friends went off air as well...and yet, I don't really watch TV much, so I'm sure I can catch up in reruns or find it on the History channel in 5 years or so...anyhoo...

And then, 2 days ago, Peanut informed me that she'd like to go with the Fairy theme again...

did you see that?  TWO DAYS AGO...

So, I dragged Little Munchkin out to stores and rummaged around in my basement and strolled around the backyard, through the standing water and mud...and we came up with the following...

please disregard my pathetic attempt at a cake this time around...I could bore you with my excuses from late nights and loss of power, but I think I already went that route a couple posts back, so I'll save you the pity party...again, as long as you do not cast judgement on my baking and/or decorating skills whilst attempting to function on minimal amounts of sleep...

I also want to shout out to my friends Carrie and Laura for awesome ideas that I stole rather rapidly in order to pull together a semi-functional party in a short amount of time! 

Without further ado...here are some pics to commemorate the big #7 celebration!!!

 SCORE on the Disney sale and purchase little fairies that we hid in the flower bed for the girls to find...

 and then they made their fairy houses out of sticks that had blown off our trees along with whatever else I happened to find around the yard...

 WA-LA

 I love the attempt of blowing out candles OUTSIDE with the WIND blowing...

 We went with the rainbow cake once again...

 you can find the recipe HERE from Little Munchkin's birthday party last year...although I wish I would have listened to my "old and younger self" from a year ago and let them actually cool before transporting them...because seriously, I wasn't planning on using 3 tubs of frosting in order to piece the cake together, but friends, THAT is exactly what happened...

 woohoo...big girl gets a BIG bike...and I must say, she looked rather small next to that thing..just a reminder that my girlies are growing up...WAYYY too fast...

 Here was my "brilliant" last minute idea...sew up pixie dust pouch necklaces for each of the girls...complete with glitter to throw around THEIR OWN houses...oh, how the mothers will love me now!

 The biggest surprise was the "fairy flying house"...aka blow up bounce thingy...it was a huge hit..

hopefully it made them tired enough to go to bed early, but I'll get back to you on that one...

It was an amazing deal...in which we ended up paying for 2 hours and they gave it to us for 5...another SCORE!

All in all it was a great day!  We finished it off by "scarfing" down chicken nuggets, french fries and mac-n-cheese because frankly, in the words of little neighbor girl, "we are pizza-ed out"

Have a wonderful Memorial Weekend Y'all!

Is it bedtime yet?

There are times why I wonder why I do it to myself...I know that I'll regret it in the morning...I know my KIDS will "reap" what I have sown...but still, I go overboard because I think my right brain tendencies just don't know when to shut off and my left brain is too wimpy to stop it all...I stay up wayyyyy too late, doing things that take way too much time for the small amount of brain capacity that is functional at that time of night...

It's been a week...It started off with Sweetpea's all day Pioneer Day experience, at which I was "official photographer"...I'm not sure if after seeing the pictures that they will ask me back...seeing as I have about 300 pictures of Sweetpea's class and about 10 of the other school that was there...but, ya know...these things happen...

At least they happen to a Mom whose daughter is dressed up so incredibly cute and she's busting at the seams with excitement and it's all she can do not do use up the entire compact flash card taking pictures of her daughter's apron, bonnet and little black shoes...

This all followed a wedding from the Friday before, which followed a rehearsal dinner the day prior to that...it all led into a weekend of soccer games and photo shoots as well...

I have to be honest that I am so grateful for the opportunity to do photography...I felt like, growing up, I had in my mind to be what everyone else "thought" I should be...so I studied hard, I played sports, I learned music...not that I regret ANY of those things, but I don't think it was until I got to college and even more so once I met my husband, who accepted and just loved whomever I was or chose to be...that I just started exploring new avenues...like writing and sewing and then photography...

I'm totally going off track...the gist of it is that I love what I am doing and it's fun to be able to share that with my girlies too...

Okay...so back to my bedtime blues...

I did the ole "skin cancer awareness" screening thing on Tuesday...all my moles look great...there really isn't a purpose for them being there and if it didn't require needles and knives and doctor's offices and a list of other things that really make me jittery, I'd really get them all removed...but...ya know...the needle thing...can't handle it...

Wednesday came with the promise of ANOTHER field trip...This one was to a girl scout camp about 40 minutes on the other side of the city...I should have realized the impact of this trip after receiving about 4 notices about "good shoes" and "change of clothes"...had I known that I would be called upon to assist in the digging through pond scum, ripping worms apart with my bare hands...WITH MY BARE HANDS I tell you! and then basking in the rain while my first grader says to me, "Yeah Mom, I'm thinking that this probably wasn't the best field trip for you to come on...maybe Daddy should have brought me!"...I'm not sure I disagreed with her...

But people, a Mom's gotta do, what a Mom's gotta do...and so I sucked it up and ripped apart worms and stuck them with hooks...I pretended to eat mud slime and took pictures of tadpoles...I put on my "that is soooo awesome" face when they showed pelt after pelt of poor, DEAD animals...

And then I came home and washed my hands and then took a shower and washed my hands again...

Peanut had fun...and that's all that counts...oh, and I learned what a Damselfly is...and everyone laughed at me...but it was all in the name of Mommy!!!

Thursday brought some reprieve...but not really as I dragged Little Munchkin from store to store searching for supplies for the birthday party that I must plan for Saturday...what?, that's in a mere 12 hours from this moment and you haven't gotten it all planned?.. you ask...why yes, this is what "procastinating" looks like...it's also what "staying in front of the computer until the weeeee hours of the night trying to finish photo shoot editing while cross-eyed and hyped up on Pepsi and Coffee" looks like...

And so, I'm still asking myself...is it time for bed yet?

have a great weekend!

It's Going Down on the Books...

...other Post Titles that would appropriately fit:

I'm Paranoid, but my Husband Humors Me
We Are Outnumbered
Our Weathermen and the SHOCK factor
Stupid Smoke Alarms
How to get the Worst Night's Sleep...Ever

the extent to which I am tired would probably equal the amount of rainfall that we've received this spring...

Let me explain..

In case you haven't seen the news lately, our country has been bombarded by tornadoes...awful, deadly, scary tornadoes that have left much damage in their wake...

And although, our area has never experienced one first hand, with how things have been, I'm not discounting it...and so last night, after the umpteenth time of watching the weathermen do their "hand ballet" across the radar explaining the fact that the world as we know it could be coming to an end...I had to make a decision...

The storm was supposed to role through around 3am..now, I KNOW that I'm not all that functional at 3am and after all the staying up late with editing, etc, I"m not the most coherent and/or coordinated...my fear was that we'd hear some siren and we'd have to get all 3 girls down to the basement in record time...this would mean that I'd have to actually THINK and be able to walk in a straight line...2 things of which I do poorly that "early" in the morning...

So, I made the paranoid decision to create a "bed" of sorts in the basement...it consisted of the old queen mattress on the floor with a large arm chair pushed up again one end....I was also able to crawl across the hoarding mess, which I have deemed my treasure trove in order to locate some blankets and old feather pillows.  Italian Stallion and I created this makeshift bed thinking that the older girls and I would sleep across the queen bed and Little Munchkin would curl up in the chair.  This only left my poor husband lacking a place to lay his head before his long day at work...

In my brilliance and his dear, and sacrificial heart, we threw some pillows on the treadmill and got his pillow from upstairs...my poor hubby spent a brilliant night "sleeping" on the exercise machine hoping that he wouldn't hit the on switch...

This wasn't "stellar" as is...but, at the same time, it was cooler in the basement and now I didn't have to worry about getting 3 children under shelter in the middle of the night...

For some reason...during this wonderful "solution" that we opted for last night, our smoke alarms decided to go off..only to further freak our children out and awaken us all at 5:30am to start our day...

And so...my day begins...and I think I'm heading for a nap this afternoon:)...maybe earlier...or maybe I'll just go back to bed when the girls get on the bus...

check...check...check...holy cow, how will I get it all finished?

...skin cancer screening...CHECK
(just FYI: may is skin cancer awareness month and they offered free screening...just thought I'd give it a try)
...wedding photo shoot...CHECK
...weekend photo shoots...CHECK
...Pioneer Day with Sweetpea...CHECK

...editing gazillions of pictures....ummm...

So, I've been a bit busy in front of my computer lately...don't get me wrong, I love me some computer time...but brightening eyes and saving for the web is getting a little old...

But, I suppose it's better than tramplin' through our saturated back yard and weeding the garden while mud slaps up the back of my legs...

Oh, wait...I HAVE been doing that as well...okay, not the weeding part...that would be my Italian Stallion's job...I prefer to wander back there when all the pickin' is finished and swoop in to take the credit as people drive by:) 

And although this precipitation has GOT to stop sometime, it has done wonders for our lettuce...which I plan on photographing soon...once my fingers and right arm stop tingling from all the "over camera usage" this past weekend...

I would like to share just a few pics from Pioneer Day though...it was awesome...I was utterly impressed with the parents that put it all together AND for letting me just come and take pictures all day...and eat their fried chicken and noodles...and video tape the principal squaredancing:)

I still have a long road of editing ahead of me, but I'm attempting to tackle it in steps...as I'm able, I'll shoot a few pictures up here...in between trying to plan Peanut's birthday party and eating Java chip icecream at 2 in the morning!

Back to pioneer day...I think I spent a majority of my running around time getting "detail" pictures that noone but me/I will like (I have no idea which pronoun is proper in this case, so chose one and go with it)...

gotta luv wooden nickels...:)

and the square-dancing...OHHHH the dancing...

As I said, it was a glorious day...I took over 500 pictures, of which I won't post here because 1) I don't want every parent to have to sign a waiver thingy and 2) who wants to be bored with that many photos of kids you don't know running around in pioneer clothing at a location of which you are unaware??? 

So, I leave you with yet, another detail picture...I love the little boy's shadow on the gravestone...

I'll be back soon...I promise!

Last Installment of Vacationing with Mamarazzi

Okay...so lest you think that after walking Colonial Williamsburg, Jamestown settlement and Mt. Vernon...intermixed with climbing trees and swimming laps, that we were finished with our "site-seeing"...

Um, that would be a negative...

We thought it would be a great idea to force our children to walk, without a stroller, for hours on end, in the drizzle-rain and overcast day in order to see our Nation's capitol...where, I must admit they were sorely disappointed in President Obama whom did not allow them admittance into the White House...but we're just going to blame it on the postal system for now...

Don't get me wrong...we had a great time in D.C. and we know that when we return some day, the memory of seeing certain buildings and walking the mall will cause them to enjoy it all the more...

however, in the middle of carrying 2 umbrellas, 2 backpacks, and a heavy three year old after a week's worth of physical exertion, well, I won't say it was our brightest plan:)

We were fortunate enough to happen upon the Washington Monument first thing, where we learned that we must obtain tickets for a later appointment in order to ride to the top!  And so, we scurried to the ticket office and then started on our way to the White House.  We were all anxious to see their garden and see if we could catch a glimpse of anyone important...the flag was flying, so we knew he was at least home:)

We had a 12:10 reserved tour at the Capitol and so we started hoofin' it pretty fast...I was ubber impressed with the Capitol tour...the girls loved the headphones and our tour guide was a hoot!  He not only was knowledgeable, but you could tell that he loved his job.  The girls still comment that it was this tour that was their favorite thing during our DC visit.

Seeing as we made haste to get to the tour on time, we by-passed anything else along the way and our feet were not thanking us...we had a great and filling lunch in the Capitol's cafe...It was quite endearing to see older couples strolling along...one elderly gentlemen came over and put his arm on my Italian Stallion's shoulder and asked him if he had a shotgun b/c he would need it someday with all his little girls:)  It made my heart glad to hear words of encouragement from someone, even in the heart of D.C.

We had that other reserved ticket for the monument and so we quickly ate and started on our way once again...to the tune of, "I think I have blisters on my feet" and "can we go to the hotel and swim?"

We did make a quick stop into the Air and Space museum where Peanut led us straight to the Wright brothers and gave us her quick snopsis of her knowledge concerning these flying genius'. 

And then, we were out the door again and wearing out the soles of our old tennis shoes...

I've got to say that our girls were real troupers...I joke about the "feet hurting", etc..but really, they were great and were in awe of the comparison between colonial Williamsburg Capitol and our current one...

The Washington Monument was great and a few Marine accompanied us to the top...you want to see little girls squealing in an elevator??  I had to keep them from stepping on their shined up shoes...

The Lincoln Memorial was our last stop before the long trek back to the car...we thought it quite interesting that Peanut found a penny on the way there...we thought we'd show it off:)

So there you have it...our trip in 3 posts:)  It was educational, enjoyable and definitely something we'll like remembering...

As I mentioned yesterday of my overwhelming feelings that have bubbled up due to an over-crowded schedule this month...I'll apologize now if I don't make it back here on a regular basis, but I will try...

Vacationing Part 2

Goodness gracious, does anyone else feel like May swooped in and is dragging you not only under water (when will the rain stop?), but pulling you in fifteen million directions as you try to keep things structured and in place???

Maybe it's the fact that I just came off a week of munching gumballs and twirling in dresses in 70 degree weather...but whatever it is, I won't bore you with the specific details of my upcoming life events which happen to include a few field trips, multiple photo shoots and a wedding...I just feel a bit overwhelmed as I try to regain some semblence of order in my house and keep things moving as we are in the homestretch for the last day of school for the summer...

I say this as 7 loads of laundry sit folded on my couch and the lasagna that I had to put together this morning is in the oven (that's me trying to be pro-active)

I"m always in a tug of war of what I "want" to do versus what I "need" to do versus what I "should" do as well...

Needless to say, I'm a bit frazzled at the moment and in my denial of all things "to do list", I wish to reminisce about last week...and so I continue my vacationing post as we went to Jamestown and Mount Vernon...

Jamestown is field trip central...let me tell you...( if you go in the spring)

Although it is a fun place to visit and we all enjoyed getting on the Susan Constant and playing in the wigwam things that had another name but I can't recall it right now...however, there were many people there and to be honest, we just realized that we probably wouldn't have felt all that great living in those first forts and colonies...we definitely came away thankful for our microwaves and ipod touches:) 

We spent about 4 hours there and headed back to Colonial Williamsburg for the remainder of the day...we watched the fife and drum presentation and the cannons going off:) 

When we left the Williamsburg area, we traveled up to Alexandria in order to visit Mt. Vernon...and I must confess that it was probably the most beautiful and most enjoyable part of the trip for me.  Granted, we hit our first batch of rain while there, but I couldn't help but just take in the enormous amount of trees and land that we were allowed to walk through...

I loved going through Pres. Washington's home, learning about his family and what he cherished...the education center and museum is just wonderful and I could have stayed in there for HOURS (which we couldn't because Little Munch and a couple other girls whom I will let you guess, were a little "done" with reading and more into, "let's go into the gift shop and play with the toys") 

I am amazed by the mentalities of the people back then...I loved seeing the old script and just trying to guess the personalities of Martha and others on the plantation...

We were able to tour the home and the plantation work houses...I must say, that of all the places, I'd go back to Mt. Vernon first! They even had an adventure map for the girls to go through as we toured...as they got their clues, they finished the puzzle and received a free gift at the end...very thoughtful! 

I'm thankful we took a day to just do Mt. Vernon...I probably could have spent even more time there, but it just inspires me to come back:) 

My laundry is now calling to me...as are all 3 of my children who are clammering over the CD player to listen to Felicity on tape again...Lord, help me!  And so I will depart for now and return with thrilling news of our trips to DC...and by thrilling I mean walking over 6 miles, 3/4 of which Little Munchkin rode on someone's shoulders or was carried in arms...and listening to comments such as, "are we there yet?" and "I think my feet are going to fall off" that were just MUSIC to our ears! 

See you soon...