I’m making roast chicken tonight for supper and decided to make stuffing too.  I used stale hamburger buns for the bread in the stuffing.  I’ll let you know how it turns out.  Could be a great way to recycle what would otherwise become duck food. 🙂

Connor asked me two days ago if there were TVs, vacuum cleaners, and popsicles when I was a kid.  I can’t believe he already sees me as that old. 🙂

I braved this event alone with the kids on Saturday.  We all went last year and melted in the heat.  This year we also melted in the heat.  But the kids liked seeing and climbing inside all the trucks, and we all got to drink fresh lemonade.  We were a little disappointed that they didn’t have any inflatable water slides like last year (the kids had even worn their suits).  And there was no ice cream, despite the fact that the event was sponsored by a local ice cream shop. 🙁  The highlight for the kids was all the free stuff they gave away  like bike helmets, reflectors, water bottles, and pencils.  The highlight for me was the lemonade (yum!) and the opportunity to give food to hungry children through the Food4Kids Backpack program.  Oh yes, and Connor got to dunk someone in a dunk tank.  Wish I had an action shot of that one. 🙂

Sorry, Dad.

Big rig

SWAT vehicle

Shands medical helicopter

Dunk Tank

Sunday afternoon, I took the kids to their friend Mario’s birthday party.  They got to swim in an above ground pool for the first time.  It was a little disconcerting for Lucy, but they both had a good time.  They also got to ride in a power wheels jeep for the first time.

They loved the jeep!

I have to include the following pic just because.  Connor has started stripping his shirt off after he goes to bed, mostly because it’s so warm up on the top bunk.  A couple nights ago I found him down to his underwear (didn’t take a picture of that though).  But anyway, he’s quite a heavy sleeper, so I knew this wouldn’t wake him up.

Ah to sleep so soundly!

Hello, my faithful readers!  Are you still there?  Sorry it’s been so long…although I guess it hasn’t been that long when compared with former absences, but still.  I’m going to make a few brief posts in backward order from when they happened, and I hope to get caught up…as long as nap lasts as long as it’s supposed to 🙂

Today after lunch, each of the kiddies got to eat a popsicle.  They all LOVE popsicles!  I told them that they had to go outside to eat them (you know, so they wouldn’t drip on my already terribly stained carpet…hehe).  The picture below is what I found.  It was so cute, and for once I actually caught it on film.  Hurray!

Bunched up on the porch, leaning on the screen

Yesterday, it stormed all day at our house.  We lost power for about 6 hours from 1:30PM to 6:30PM.  Uggh!  While it was quite inconvenient not to have any electricity in our house, it made me stop and think how much of life’s little luxuries we take for granted.  Anyway, since we were all sitting around the house with no power and Tim had already played Uno for two hours with the older beans (this is not an exaggeration), I decided it was a great time to take Connor and Lucy to McDonald’s to use their free ice cream cone coupons, which they received for finishing their swimming lessons at the Y.  It was a fun little outing and I snapped a couple of photos while we were there.  I also let the kids each take a picture, so there are actually a couple pics of me with my children..what a novelty!

Oh yes, I almost forgot…yesterday morning while Tim and I were discussing our plans for the day, our littlest bean decided to help himself to the Cheerios…again.  Never a dull moment in this house. 🙂

Connor was very excited about his first soft-serve cone

Lucy requested a cup

Mommy and Lucy

Couldn't get Connor to look

Lucy and Tyler enjoying the spoils

Little mischief maker

Tim’s office is finished!  Hurray!!!  The wood floor was installed on Thursday, so all that remains is finding some office furniture.  If it were me, I would probably just set up one of the white craft tables we purchased at Sam’s years ago and find a random chair.  But I don’t work at a desk for a living for one thing and I don’t have my wonderful husband’s sense of precision, style, and spacial sensibility.  Therefore, no decisions have yet been made regarding furniture for said finished office.  I hope that Tim will be moving into his office shortly, though, because I really want to have our bedroom back (and my bathroom, which cannot be used while he is in skype meetings..heehee).

I have shared the current state of my house with some, but I’m going to write about it and post pictures so that I remember it in the future.  The next room to be “fixed up” is the dining room, which is going to receive crown moulding, a fresh coat of paint, and the new wood floor that is in the office.  Here’s where we are:  We donated our couch and loveseat to charity to create space for all the dining room furniture, which we have since moved into our family room.  So now we have a big empty dining room waiting for a facelift and we’re eating meals at our table in the family room.  It’s quite an interesting arrangement, which is not bothering me too much so far.  But my question is, “How long will we be without family room furniture?”  After the dining room is finished, we will paint and re-carpet the family room, and then we will be getting new furniture…we really have no idea how long this whole process is going to take, but I’m thinking it could be a couple of months still before we have somewhere to sit. 🙂  Enjoy the pics of our chaotic life.

Family room from sliding glass door

Family room from hallway

Empty dining room

Alcove for china cabinet

Lucy's favorite goofy face

Little Ty

On Saturday afternoon, Tim and I took the kiddies to the blueberry patch.  Our friends the Palmers have a little family blueberry farm where they have u-pick for a couple of weeks in May.  It was quite hot, but we had a good time.  Lucy and I especially liked finding fat, juicy blueberries. Connor petered out pretty quickly, and Tim didn’t really consider it fun…oh well.  And I held Tyler while picking until I couldn’t manage anymore.  The youngest Palmer (Noah) graciously played with Tyler in the sandbox so that the rest of us could continue picking.  Btw, the blueberries are delicious.

Connor ate as many as he picked 🙂

Picking is serious business

Tyler commandeered the bucket so he could taste test

Lucy found some great blueberries!

Have I mentioned that this is our pet name for Tyler?  Lucy actually made it up and it has stuck.  I just had to include this pic of our littlest bean in his pj’s.  He loves to come into the kitchen, turn on the oven light, and then peer in to see what’s cooking.

So cute!

Sorry for the delay in posting…I could not get my act together.  Here’s a brief recap of the last few days (we’re going with bullet points):

• Last Tuesday I took the kids to the Alachua Splash Park and met some friends from church.  I also picked up my friend Teresa’s two boys on the way.  Now I know that five kids and five carseats/boosters will indeed fit in the swagger wagon.  Hurrah!

Mario, Leo, and Connor filling up cups for their splash war

Leo, Lucy, Tyler, and Joel having lunch together

• On Wednesday I took the kids to “open mic” at the downtown library.  It was National Book Week last week.  They invited all children to come to the library and show and tell about their favorite book.  The reward for their participation was an edible book (see picture).  It was a fun little outing.  P.S.  Since Tim is working at home now, I was able to take the two older kids and leave Ty sleeping at home!

The edible book (Don't you just love Publix?)

Mouth stuffed full

Little cake eater

• On Thursday morning I took the kids over to duck pond by the hospital, because we had a bunch of old hamburger buns and stale bread to get rid of.  Tyler was excited to see the ducks at first but ended up clinging to me and eating the stale bread himself.

C and L poised to feed

Ty observing from a distance

My sweet Lucy

Hello, friends!  I am making a quick post even though I don’t really have anything exciting to report.  I actually typed out a summary of my day but after reading it, I was so bored that I just deleted it.  It was a good day…just ordinary.  I did catch a couple of pics of the kids at the grocery store just because…I know, I know, I’m becoming a maniac.  I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before I return to my slack ways, so just try to persevere through my over-zealous blogging. 🙂

Not sure why Ty looks so stunned

Connor chose to sit up front (He changed his mind five minutes in)