the 4th

Independence Day is such a fun and happy holiday. I just adore it. 

And, after moving to our new home, we discovered that we can see our town's fireworks display from our cove. 

Stop. It.

To quote the star of my new favorite train-wreck of a show to watch... 

It was "pearrrfect".

So - we invited a few friends and my parents to join us for an impromptu gathering at our house. 

If you know me, you know that I'm pretty much an impromptu kind of gal. 

Some of my friends are impromptu kind of folks like me, and others prefer - and need - time to plan things a little more; a fact that may have contributed to making our gathering of friends much more "intimate" than it would have been had I given my friends a bit more notice.
Noted.
 

There are those that may argue that a small gathering of friends and family does not an official "party" make, but I consider any time that I can be with the people I love a reason to celebrate. 

And decorate. 

The week before the 4th, the kiddos made rockets to hang on our chandelier (idea from alphamom)

And I brought out the cookie cutter star garland Avery made last year.

I added a little something to our mantle.

 

But as the 4th approached, it was clear that the screened-in porch could not - and should not - be ignored. It would definitely be the center of all the action, and must be pretty.

Because, as my friend Sonya says, "pretty is important."

 

 Despite all the important prettiness, it was the food that was the true the star of the show - at least until the fireworks started.

Ok - so take a quick look at the cupcakes in the next photo.

Those were the 4 cupcakes that my mom brought.
Four.
Quatro.
To be divided among approximately one million children.

In her defense, she only brought them because they were left over from another event. She brought them to our house for my kids but I decided that we should stick them on the cake plate. Because pretty is important.
Not my best idea.

Can I just say that every child there was obsessed with those cupcakes?
Obsessed.
I think we told them 100 times that they would have to wait until after dinner to even think about touching those cupcakes.
At least 100 times.
And when dinner was finally over, each child got 1/2 of one.

Mental note: make lots of cupcakes next year. And don't bring them out until AFTER dinner.

The kids played super hard outside all night. Our neighbors, cousins, and friends made quite a scene in our quiet little cove.

Avery and our neighbor - "little" chris.
Isn't he too cute?
Avery just loves bossing him around. And having him do her bidding.
Oh goodness.

 

Before the fireworks started, we made a little food craft from an idea I found online.

While Avery loved it, Charlie ignored it.

Because it involved bananas. 

I'm pretty sure there's nothing in the world he thinks is more unappetizing than bananas.

 Our little friend Carter took her work quite seriously.

 And Spencer was just...cute. As usual.

 

The finished product!

I've decided that the 4th may be my favorite holiday of the year. And I can't wait to do it again next year.

Ok, Dear, Sweet, Planning Friends: consider that your official notice.
One year in advance.

completely two.

Charlie brought this to me the other day.

Just handed it to me.

I think I said, "What is this?"

To which he responded with the usual, "Nuffing."

It looks like I arrived just in time to save his favorite racing car from being lost forever.  Who knows what else is in there.

He's so two.

And totally inquisitive.

And curious.

He's fearless and adventurous.

And a total mess.

Sometimes, his curiousity can be kind of expensive.

But mostly, it's just really, really messy.

breaking the new house in.

There's only one word to describe the following photo:
Charlie.

And today, after I walked in the kitchen and surveyed his latest handiwork, I said that word more like...
CHAR-LIEE!!!!

Immediately I started cleaning up the millions of tiny glass shards on the back porch. And as I emptied the dust pan into the trash, this is what I found:

It's a 3 lb. weight.
In my trashcan.

It didn't take too long for me to put 2 and 2 together.
Broken glass...heavy banging instrument thrown into the trashcan...
I know. Just call me Matlock.

After some questioning, he totally fessed up.
Readily fessed up.
Shamelessly fessed up.
And dare I say proudly fessed up?

Awesome.
Thank goodness he's cute.

Summertime makes me feel fine

 I'm looking forward to a summer filled with Daisy Chains,

 

discovering new things,

 doing daring new moves,

and dancing in the park

Hooray for Summer!

paci's are not forever. or ARE they?

This guy loves some paci's.
A lot.

And the closer he gets to 3, the more worrisome his love becomes to me.
Because I know something that he doesn't know.
I know that the Day of Reckoning is coming.
The Day of Doom.
The Day of No. More. Pacifiers.

How am I going to get up the nerve to separate him from his one, true love?
I may just break his sweet little heart right in two.

It's been weighing heavily on David's mind too.

The other day when we took the kids to the Library, I ran across this book.

It was like a sign.
And I actually found myself entertaining the totally delusional thought that this book could be the key to ending my 2 year old's serious paci addiction.
I just knew that the words of the book would speak to him so clearly that he would have no choice but to get rid of his paci forever.

Looking at David, (and feeling quite proud of my lucky little find) I said, "Hey, Daddy - let's read this one."
I could be wrong, but I thought I sensed in David's eyes a little glimmer of hope too.
The story/crucial life lesson started out really well.
Charlie was super engaged.
He happily and eagerly pointed to the pacifier on each page we read.
Then, we got to the good stuff...
Here's how it went:


me (reading): ...Goodbye paci. Let's throw our paci in the trash-y.

Charlie (looks at me in utter disbelief, like I had just read the silliest book known to man): Noooo... we don't throw our paci's in the trash-y.

Then he promptly walked off.

Clearly, this is going to be more difficult than I'd hoped.

d is for dance party

My sister Katharine is in college...and just recently decided to pursue a degree in Education. 

Something that I could not be more thrilled about.

So, since she got out for summer break a few days before we did, I decided to give her a little taste of what one can really do with a hard earned degree in Early Childhood Education.

 I think I'm doing some sort of hillbilly move in this next picture...

 Dancing is serious business in my class.

Good times were had by all. As usual.

I'm pretty sure she left feeling the weightiness of her decision.

almost wordless wednesday

 

Something tells me we're not quite ready to potty train.

feathering my nest and other nonsense

May was a whirlwind of a month for me.
I wrapped up a very busy Preschool year with a Water Day party, 15 sweet little scrapbooks, an end of the year music program and parent/teacher conferences.
And as if that wasn't quite enough, I agreed to host David's grandparent's 65th wedding anniversary party at our house.
I'm a glutton for punishment.
For reals.

Honestly though, we were totally honored to host the party here. And the it gave us the perfect excuse to get all the little projects completed that we had on our gigantic check-list.

So - in an attempt to ready my house for the big partay, I re-arranged things millions of times, eye-balled blank walls, hung things up and took them down again, stared at magazines, sewed a few things, cleaned a LOT of things, and painted some others...

With each picture I hung, each piece of furniture I found the perfect place for, each nasty cabinet I cleaned, I watched what was once somebody else's house slowly transform into our home.

It's kind of magical how that happens...

Anyway - One of the things that I've really been super excited about was being re-united with my porch swing. The porch swing that David bought for me when we were dating.

It got a new, darker coat of stain on it and I'm happy to say, has not collapsed.
Yet.
Nice work, David.
He's a whiz with the power drill, that one.

Another check-list item for me was to make some pillows for our Living Room couch.

And while some gals get jewelry or chocolates for Mother's day, my sweet husband knows that beautiful fabric will make me just plain giddy. So - that's what I got. Some really awesome, really beautiful fabric.

Originally, I discovered the awesome, beautiful fabric at a really snooty place here in town.

After what could only be described as a horrible, no good, very bad shopping experience, I decided that giving my hard earned Mother's Day cash to a snooty place wasn't really what I wanted to do.

And since Shopping Necessity is the Mother of Creativity ... and Snootiness is the Mother of Desire-to-Stick-it-to-the-Man-ness, I opted to try my luck with the world wide web. 

Lady Internet was kind to me. 

I found both fabrics I loved for waaaay less money.

So there, mean 'ol snooty fabric store.

I used some of the fabric to make these little lovely ladies:

I was hoping that they would turn our pumpkin of a couch into a beautiful coach.
Or at least make the toddler stainage less noticeable.
They didn't.
But I love them anyway.

I used some of the extra fabric to recover a lamp shade. And I painted my formerly red lamp robin's egg blue. 

Next up, I recovered the seat cushions in my kitchen.

They used to look like this:

And now they look like this:

And this...

The fabric is called Hip Dove by P Kaufman. I want to stare at it all the time.
I want to decorate every room in my house with it. I just loooove it.

This was the chandelier in my dining room when we first moved in.

David said it reminded him of the chandelier in Beauty and the Beast.

I'm thinking he meant this one.

...not this one.

She's creepy.

Anyway, now it looks like neither.

Just a regular, Oil Rubbed bronzish one. 

After a can or two of spray paint.

When we first saw the house, the kitchen looked like this:

Pretty range hood, eh?

Now it looks like this.

I know, I know, it's a subtle difference, but I painted the cabinets white (they were dark cream before) and changed the knobs.

Thankfully, the bank who owned the property put a microwave in place of the range hood before we moved in.
Hooray for that.

Cause y'all know I'm not even trying to living in a house sans microwave.

May is over.
I made lots of little checks all over my huge list.
And I feel totally happy.
And inspired to rest.
A lot.
But not until I finish just a few more things...
Specifically, Avery's bedroom. 

She requested a purple room, but I talked her into a subtle lilac-y color instead.

Does that make me a control freak?

Don't answer that.