LEGOs, cork guns, and photographer wannabe

As you may be able to tell from my last few posts, it's been pretty quiet here- not a whole lot (other than life with 4 children) has been happening~ today was a Lego afternoon- check out my little organizing 8-year old who strategically placed each piece in the appropriate spot before beginning on his helicopter~ wonder who he gets that from???This is PapPap BUSTED~ I came home from a walk yesterday and found him snoozing on the couch- and look what was on TV-- hee hee!!!

I was quite excited to see my rose plant blooming- I thought it was dead because of mites- so I threw it outside on the porch and YAY! A rose!! (this is where the photographer wannabe comes in- I'd love to be able to take pictures like the pro's but I think I'll stick to my housewife day-job- no matter how hard I try, the camera and beautiful 'professionalism' have just never agreed with me :) And here you have the most BRILLIANT purchase from PapPap during their Cabella's outing yesterday- a nice cork gun. I'm sure all the neighbors LOVED you this morning PapPap!!! (for those of you who have never had the pleasure of playing with a cork- pop gun, they aren't the quietest things around!!) It's moments like this that make it all worth it!

Rainy days and flowers

It's been one of those dreary days and the girls have been begging to do a project~ so they made sunny flowers~ in Lydia's favorite colors. (Not sure why Elizabeth didn't want yellow- 'the mysteries of Elizabeth' :)

It's so gray outside you just want to follow in Jacob's shadow~ this was taken yesterday in when he was watching a movie during our country drive.

Nothing new going on in the outside project area. I'm soon going to have to ask just what IS going on~ being a good project manager, you know. :)

Summer Days

It's a fun summer day around here because 'Daddy's home'-- the children have a blast with him. They've played hard all day- washing the vehicles is such a cool deal with him! (don't ya wish we never outgrew that one??)

As you can see the pavers are all tamped in (just needs a sealer put on) and the next project awaits- what that is, I'm not sure. However- there is a section of concrete missing above the garage door, so my assumption being that the garage door opening is about to be blocked up. Maybe that's why a new door is laying on it's side in the garage?? I told you they keep me out of the loop now- they said I pester too much and when I see something being done, then that's the project being worked on- how's that for making a 'minute my minute' planner a little nervous? :) Arghhhhh!

A little rain couldn't stop the evening's fun-- tent night with Daddy too. With the tent now leaking, it had to be dried out, but that was Aok with the kids. Time for s'mores, movies and popcorn!

Frog face and Bang! You're Dead!

Having another great time and Gma and Gpa Tony's 'country getaway'-- Jacob discovered the pond frogs and have a blast with them- if you look closely you can see one on his shoulder. It was very fitting as Elisha's been studying the life cycles of frogs and pond food chains a bit this summer.

Jacob's also taken his cowboy/indian shoot em' up game to a new level:

Bang~

Bang~

You're Dead--- he's learned how to play dead~ don't know where he saw that one, but it was pretty funny to watch him fall over~ ah, the simplicity of children!

It's Back!

We told Jacob he was growing fungus on his feet. (the spots from green marker ink he stepped in yesterday)His response was to shoot us with his gun, which is actually the long-division piece from his magnetic number set.

He's been shooting us all week- you should hear his sound effects.

And--- it's back- the carpet isn't supposed to be green. Upon awaking this morning, it had resurfaced. Not good. Wouldn't be too bad except it's in the middle of the floor.

Life evaluations

Our morning started with a rainy day- so we (or should I say I) decided we would take advantage of the inside weather and 'do school'. Within an hour this really swell, green, RoseArt liquid marker that Lydia was using broke apart- EVERYWHERE! I'd really like to tell the company what I think of their product as the same thing happened to Elizabeth yesterday- except her's happened on the hard floor, not new carpet- I thought it was a one-time fluke. Wrong! Lucky for RoseArt I can't find any contact info. Anyway, that began our morning- however, as 'life' happens, it's all put into perspective and the marker incident really isn't important at all- not compared to the precious value of life. I've learned that one of the friends we've grown up with was in a tragic motorcycle accident and has left this life, leaving behind a wife and 3 very young children- any death isn't easy, but sometimes it just seems harder when someone so young leaves this world. You just never know what can happen, it makes you realize what's really important. While I never spoke to him again after graduating school, our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends. May God bless you all~

The Good, The Bad, The Pretty, and The Not So Pretty

It's a blog of opposites today~ take for example the $12 tropical patio plant that I love:And then there's the dying plants on the rest of the porch~ they look like they should at the end of August or September. Oh well- there's always next year- I'll get it figured out one of these growing seasons. Yes, I've watered them, taken care of them and talked to them. OK. I haven't talked to them, but maybe I should try. This is the Japanese Maple that I'm still not convinced that is 'thriving' anymore! What do you all think? Come on guys- help me out here~ :) The pretty: The beginnings of the patio- amazing what they can do in an hour's time! (Wish it were all that easy) And the not so pretty:

Yesterday's watermain break that left inches of mud below the driveway- at least it wasn't in the driveway!

Good: the garden viewed from the distance- just look at those tomatoes waiting to ripen~

NOT GOOD!!: Tomato blight- NOOOOOOO! Not again! I saw it yesterday- at least I think that's what it is. Again- there's always next year.. and next year... and next.........

And there you have it- mid-summer's update:)

Quiet ending

Just checking in for an end of the week update:

After a busy week, all is quiet- strange phenomenon around here! Driveway complete- not without etching from Mark already. >:O He bought a new power washer and tried it out- it's pretty powerful alright- made instant marks in the uncured concrete~way to go! He says the marks will go right away when he puts the sealer on-- I'm thinking it might be time for another bet. And I have y'all know that the Japanese Maple is looking a little 'sickly'! I'll have to take some pictures for you- but the leaves seem to be withering up- Mark thinks I've poisoned it. I haven't... but that gives me an idea... (for those just joining this page- I bet Mark that he killed our tree by basically cutting it off instead of pruning it- the little sucker ended up living anyway)

Found a new yummy mexican place today- Chipotle. Yummy food, neat website, although the restaurant we were at lacked the character shown in picts of other Chipotle restaurants. Anyway, a nice alternate, heath'ier' place- hard to find cheap, semi-healthy food these days. Which brings me to my next topic:

After more and more people have been asking: how do you homeschool 4 kids (really only 2 right now), keep the house clean (somewhat-ha ha), keep the kids clean (every other day anyway- hee, hee) and get a healthy dinner on the table each night???-- well, coming soon is a website answering these questions-- something along the lines of 'what makes our family tick'-good ol' practical, down-to-earth living with a crazy family of 7. I'll keep ya informed as it develops.

Time to sign off and prepare for the week ahead, or just veg out~

Sorry- more driveway picts for Lauri :) and garden produce

Had to put in a picture of the handprints~ I thought they looked pretty cute~ they are actually in the 'border' concrete that will surround the patio to be done in pavers. OOOHHHHH- Look at all this room!!!! Wheeeeeee!!! Had to show our garden's (except for lettuce) first produce-- I'm really excited, as we've never had this before! Happy weekend!

All done~ yay!

And finally... we have a brand new driveway.

This is Darryl, (and his other brother Darryl, and his other brother Darryl- not really)- what a guy! He's in his 70's and still pours concrete for a living- up at the crack of dawn, on the job site 10 minutes before he says he'll be there, does an awesome job and charges a good honest price- you just don't find good 'ol boys like that anymore!

Check out Elisha- just one of the guys- with real coffee-

(thanks Daddy >:I) Spiffy brand new cement trucks-- oohh, aahhhh! :) The moment we've been waiting for... (and PapPap's standing around again- ha ha!) That stuff looked like too much fun to play in :) ~if I wasn't so 'practical' I would have tried to get into it :)

Funny story- see the car behind the cement truck in the driveway- well it got stuck there. (Hee hee, ha ha) He turned the corner to go down the street and couldn't get through because there were parked cars to the right of the 2nd cement truck. Then he couldn't back up because the other truck had pulled into our driveway. He was REALLY happy (I'm being very sarcastic!). He even waved his hand- PapPap thought he was waving a friendly hello until I told him what happened. I tried to run out and take his picture up close, but the 2nd truck had moved, allowing him to pass, before I could run out there. What great blog material that would have been-- Mark says I'm way too ornery :)

There's going to be lots of bike riding on that! What a brand new, big, blank palate for colored chalk! PapPap hates colored sidewalk chalk :O Come on PapPap- it will wash off easily :)

I had to have all of the children put in their hand prints- they came out really cute. I later learned that Darryl really doesn't like it when people mess up his work with writing and handprints-- sorry Darryl! Oops!

And that's all folks-- ...until the porch is started :) Looks like this could be a 'boring blog summer' for y'all. But, unfortunately I'm pretty excited :) We did look at a house overlooking the river a few nights ago. We were really excited about it because it's probably the most breath-taking lot in our town, and the house looks absolutely beautiful. And it was- magazine country-photo quality! But it ended up being smaller than our house now- so back to pushing for our addition here- I'm working the guys the best I can :)

Dirt slide

This was the rest of the children's outside P.E. class :), pictures taken after the posting of Monday's blog.

Leave it to the creativity of children to slide down belly first- ouch! It obviously didn't hurt them, or they wouldn't have done it. Elizabeth looked like a little seal flopping all around.

I had to leave-- Daddy said they were OK- "Relax Mom- they're kids!" - it just looked a little too steep to me :) but they had a great time, laughing all afternoon!

I've never seen so much excitement from children, knowing a cement truck is coming tomorrow- it's like Christmas Eve. Until tomorrow...

Concrete Date

Work, Work, Work!

This is the nice dump-truck man, with bill in hand, for yet another 8 tons of crush and run gravel. Had to show a picture of him, because without him there would be no driveway.Does this really look like 8 tons of material?? Special thanks to Jason and Gary, who out of the blue, just came down to help shovel. How many neighbors do that today? It's appreciated! And... 23 tons later.... (yes that's a literal number!)... we're ready for Thursday's concrete pour date. (Won't y'all be so happy when I can start blogging about something else :) Look- the grass is even growing in... (I know, I know~ Ooh, Aah~ the little things of excitement) Caught ya! PapPap had NO idea I even took this- hee hee! On to the adventures of the children-- they made their own slide out of dirt. I was a bit anxious over that one, as it's a pretty steep grade, but Daddy said A-ok~ you know how that one goes:)

They'll be sleeping good tonight!