And then he turned 6.

 

It's true. That cute little screaming baby of mine is 6 now.  I can hardly believe it!  We celebrated his day with homemade pizza,

an alien/monster theme birthday cookie,

and presents that included a remote control Millenium Falcon.

We continued the celebrating to his 'friend party'.

Monster plates

Sassy monster cups

Worms in dirt

Eyeballs

Lady monster toes

And bandaged monster toes

More eyeballs (made from $2 worth of styrofoam balls, round stickers and a sharpie) 

Assorted body parts

The party scene (Buddy had pants on by the party, don't worry)

Monster making supplies

My super cheap and easy 'pinata'

Monster footprints leading up to the house

I made stencils out of  parchment paper and sidewalk paint

All the party people

J serving up swamp slime drink

It was a 'make your own monster' affair

And mummy pizza

The birthday wish

Pin the eyes on the alien

 

Assorted posterboard monsters

Happy birthday, my sweet son!  You are so bright and talented and you amazing me every day.  Thanks for lighting up my life and teaching me so much.  I love you a million, billion, zillion.

Yet More of the Darndest

They just don't stop.  They don't.

Girlie:  For a long time I thought that the handicapped parking pictures were of people sitting on the potty. I thought that people who really needed to go potty could park there so that they could get to the bathroom really quick.
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At breakfast one morning:

Sammy:  Hey, let's play 'I Spy'.  Okay, I spy with my little eye, something that is black.
Me:  Is it a sign that says 'You need to eat your breakfast before you play this game'?
Sammy:  No.  (pause, wrinkles up his forehead) I don't think we even have a sign like that.

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Every time I turn onto an on ramp.

"Free-way en-trance.  This is the freeway?  I love the freeway!!!"

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Ah, my little Buddy.  I wish you could spend some time with this kid.  He's actually our funniest kid.  He's had speech delays, and has apparently compensated with facial expressions and body language.  It's hilarious to see a 3 year old look disgusted, put out, or shocked.  He can roll his eyes with the best of them.  So, he's more of a 'visual' funny guy.  He's much improved thanks to weekly speech therapy, and can even say whole prayers by himself.  They usually go something like this:

"Dew Heavy Fa-yer, Dear Heavenly Father,

Fakey fo mine day. Thank Thee for my day. Fakey fo mine famee. Thank Thee for my family (and then he names each of us). Fakey for bookies (bookies are blankets), an puppies, an pate paint, an coe-tins curtains (I recently redid the boys room, in case you're not getting that), an diggos diggers, an dup chucks dump trucks.  Pease hep me be good boy, obey Mommy an Daddy. Name Jeez Kise, Eemen."

Oh, I just love it.

Continuing the conversation and please help!

Just a couple things:

The rug:  I kept it.  It is living happily in my living room.  After some serious vacuuming, it is behaving nicely, and I'm thrilled.  J is still not a fan, but I love it!!  Thanks to all for your input!! 

My shoes:  Thanks for all the compliments on my family picture shoes.  I love them too.  For those asking:  I got them a few years ago at Dillards, a store in St. Louis.  We don't have it here in Seattle (you Midwesterners are so lucky), but it is a Jessica Simpson shoe, if that helps at all.  I did make and attach the flowers, and I am going to do a tutorial on the super easy flowers.  Stay tuned.

Now, a problem:  Believe it or not, my blog told me that I ran out of picture space.  I don't know what to do.  The options that I can think of are

1-Pay an annual fee for more space.  (Not a fan of this one)

2-Start a new blog. (Not a big fan of this one, either)

3-Only writing/no pictures on this blog (Again,...)

4-Start a new blog and put an update link on this one going to the new one. (you guessed it...)

5-Don't blog anymore. (um...)

Has anyone encountered this before?  Or heard of it?  What should I do?  I have a couple things already uploaded, but after that, no more pictures!!  Help, please!!

A little like giving a mouse a cookie...{hall & bath makeovers}

I told you I had plans for that humongous window hanging out in my living room, right?  So here's what I did with it.  The only 'before' picture I could find of my weird little hallway was when we first moved in.  So here's the 'way before'.

And here's the after:

Of course, said J, why wouldn't we hang a window in front of the window?  That's just common sense.

And then I went after the powder bath, since it was right next to the hallway.

Before

And then I bought this little sign:

So of course I had to go antiquing to find an old frame to put around it:

And then the black and white of the sign reminded me of the fabric I had left over from the kitchen valance,





Which made me think that buying some fancy-fancy chair rail and painting it black (and painting the wall white since I had the paint stuff out) would be a good idea...



as well as hunting down some old French books
(So that any French people who use our bathroom have something to read? --J)



and French made me think of lavender, naturally...




so I thought I'd hang it all on my wall...

and then maybe I stopped because my husband is "project'd out."  But I'd have a new powder bath, and it would smell like lavender.  And then I'd go looking for a new sign.

I think this is one of my favorite projects!  What do you think?

Oh, There Were Tears

You may see the smiles, but let me tell you, there were tears.  Oh, such tears.  The wrinkly face trying to hold them in, the blinking them back, yet they came.  Pouring out.  Every morning for a full week.  None of us were ready for summer to end.  The pain of getting back into a schedule, the SEPARATION from mama bear!  Tears, I tell you!!

Lucky for the kids, I held them back until they were mostly out of sight and into the classroom.

But when they were gone and I was all alone, except for Buddy and Sweetie...I bawled.  The kind of heaving, high pitched whine followed by the gasping for breath and trying to clear my vision enough to see my way out of the parking lot crying. 

The best part was that instead of the sweet, sincere sympathy only a small child (Buddy) can give, I got imitation--imitation!!!--fake, whiney imitation followed by giggles and "You're so funny, Mommy!"

Two fantastic teachers, two excited kiddos (who haven't even thought of shedding a tear).

School is back.

Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails {Boys Room Makeover}

When we moved into this house, my big guy was a little guy.

And my little guy was a baby in a crib.

And this is what their room used to look like, including the sign above the crib that said, "boy, n: a noise with dirt on it."  I thought it was adorable.  Sammy (then 3), not even kidding, found it offensive and took it upon himself to remove it.  In his words, it was "not appwopwiate."

Fast forward to boys room project 2011:

The theme is sort of "vintage boy."  The blue quilt is from Target, the red star ones I made.

To hang the artful collage I used this method.  The things I had gathered over my years of 'junk collecting', as J terms it.

This is Buddy's side.  The art is from Target, too.  The color on the bottom is Skipper by Behr at Home Depot.  The color on top is custom matched to my trim.

I was thrilled with these vintage-looking synonym signs.  I cannot for the life of me remember what website it was, but some talented, generous lady made these for people to print off for themselves!! She knocked off Restoration Hardware (see it here!!!)  I got these printed off at Costco for a few dollars and Mod Podged them onto BOGO canvases at Michaels (I painted the sides navy first).  I'd say it was one of the highlights of this room process.  If you want the file, I'd be more than happy to email it to you so you can make your own!!!!  I have 8X10 and 11x14 of brave/valiant and swift/fast.  Just leave me a note in the comments and I'll email it right off to you! 

Yes, of course it's this clean all the time...naturally......

Oh, my, a little sleeping boy!

It's hard to tell from the other pictures, but do you love the beadboard on the top??  Wanna know a secret?  It's wallpaper!!!  It's amazing!  We were skeptical too.  But I know what I want (beadboard), and when I can't do it myself and no one else will ("not a chance, lady") I have to get creative (and discover beadboard wallpaper at Lowe's).

They each have letters above their beds.  They are painted paper mache that I got at Joann Fabrics.

A place for my sweet boys to lay their heads.

Cheapskate Tooth Fairy

Our Tooth Fairy is cheapskate.  She only pays 50 cents, but she does leave little teeny tiny notes thanking Girlie for her teeth and telling her how very cute they are.  Girlie is still very grateful for the money, and Sammy is still duly impressed.  Not that being unimpressed would change the Tooth Fairy's budget.  I just don't think she's swayed by popular opinion.  One time I visited Girlie's kindergarten class when a little boy, Ishan, had just lost a tooth so he stood up and told everyone about it.  His Tooth Fairy apparently operates on a much heftier budget, because that kid got 20 bucks for his tooth with which he was going to buy a new transformer.  I'm guessing that by now (3rd grade) his Tooth Fairy is up to her eyeballs in debt.  I mean, that first tooth wasn't even a molar.  At best it was a canine.
 
Some more information on the Tooth Fairy you might not already know, according to Girlie and Sam:

Does the Tooth Fairy have a 1st name?  Yes, Tooth.

How big is she?  One inch.

What are her hobbies?  Building a castle out of teeth.  She likes taking people's teeth to make jewelry and other accessories.  And pot holders, too.  And sewing, she likes that too.

What does she do with the teeth?  She makes jewelry and accessories, like we already said.

Where does she live?  In a tooth castle.  Where else would she live?

Does she have a family?  Yes.  She's a queen.  Her husband's name is Robert.  Her children are Bob and Jimmy and Toothy-loo-loo.  She has a fish named Toothy.  She has a dog, maybe, whose name is Toothalicious.

Does she have helpers?  Yes.  20,000 million.

When does she sleep? She sleeps when all the tooth work is done.  Sometimes her helpers go so she can sleep.

Where does she get her money?  She steals it.

Awesome. 

I've got to be careful though. One time the kids were looking through their boxes of special memories and all of a sudden I hear "Look!  It says it's my first tooth!!"  I wheeled around, Girlie was holding a little tooth sized envelope. "Whaaaaattt????" I said in a voice suddenly too high pitched, "She... gave it back to me????  That's soooo niiiiice!  She must have known how much I'd looooove it!!"  Now, I usually have big problems with lying to my kids, but it seemed to me that since this wasn't detracting from any deeply spiritual holiday that I am aware of, it was okay to perpetuate the Tooth Fairy myth.  Innocuous, right?  Girlie totally bought it.

Anyway, we'll stick with our cheap Tooth Fairy.  Girlie will continue to deposit her 50 cents into our Family Bank, which earns 50% interest (we're trying to teach them the value of saving), and by the time she heads off for BYU in only 10 years (only 10 years...sniff, sniff) her teeth will pay for a semester of books. But, really, how much is the going rate for teeth these days?

The Summer of Nothing and Everything

Nothing.  This summer, we've gone nowhere exciting, exotic, or even warm (except Utah).  We've done nothing extraordinary.  We've met no one famous, seen anything mind blowing, read anything earth-shattering.  We've not done any sort of particularly glamourous trips (unless Utah counts, but I was thinking more along the lines of Maui), or eaten especially fancy cuisine. 

Nothing.

But.

We have been together and happy.  And together and happily we've been dining alfresco every night, exploring new parks, painting rocks, making fun pancakes, playing "sponge ball",  eating fresh blueberries by the 1/2 flat, enjoying family movie nights, blackberry picking, family reunions (in Utah, which included paintball, 4 wheelers, fishing and crafting), canning 63 quarts of fresh peaches, hiking, gardening, exploring a real battleship, visiting friends and family that we adore, and doing yard work together in the cool evenings.  Just being healthy, and happy, and together.

And to me, that is everything.  What was your favorite thing about summer?