Signs of Spring

We were at a local mall today and ran into a friend of ours that has a photo studio kiosk set up there. She happens to be Q's nursery teacher at church, so Quincy ran to her with open arms, and Ruthie took her over to see the live bunnies and baby chick she has there for spring photo props.

My kids happened to be in their typical Saturday attire of dress up clothes (crammed on right over the hoodies and sweatpants) so Ruthie snapped a couple of great shots of the girls with the bunnies, that I'll post later.
For now, enjoy the short (20 sec or less) videos I took. One of them starts out with Q saying "ruff ruff" to the chickie. Perhaps we should review our animal sounds. I wish I had thought to tape them with the bunnies. They could hardly contain their excitement, especially after Quincy poked one of them in the eye and the bunny wiggled all over the place. Reese was much more fond of the bunnies than the chick...who was starting to fly around a little by the time we left.
So cute! If we had a fenced yard, I would raise chicks in a heartbeat!

"You Complete Me"

Did I actually finish something? We have SO MANY projects going on around here, in addition to the regular mommy/kid routine AND being pregnant, that I am starting to lose track of which way is up.

I'm impressed that Aaron and I managed to complete about 75% of this project TOGETHER. (we don't play nice during project time and often fight over how something should be done, or who's way is better). We agreed not to spoil a good thing and he happily passed the "project buddy" torch over to Kasey, who came over to lend a hand for the final assembly...which turned out to be more complicated than we'd expected. Anyway, thanks K for sticking it out with me and helping get the job done! I feel so much relief being able to cross SOMEthing off my never ending "To Do" list!

Still a few little touch ups here and there (like that extra piece of backing sticking up off the top of the mini shelf was removed, along with 2 nails where I missed the target...and of course, PAINT! It will be blue tomorrow!) but overall...here's the scoop!

The inspiration:

Our version:

I guess I should've waited to photograph it until after it's hung on the cute pink wall and full of books...but you get the idea. And I'll probably post another pic after I paint the mini-me shelf, but just imagine that it is blue to match that dang cute bedding I'm going to make:

Mini Me Version:

Be Careful What You Wish For.

Some of you might have noticed the label on one of my recent gardening posts requesting that my sister, HolleeAnn photoshop me.

What I was HOPING for was that she might whiten my teeth, gimme a glistening bronzy tan, defriz my hair, remove the smoothie stain from my shirt, or perhaps push my funky-please-get-a-better-bra-pregnant-hooters back up over where they belong.
She granted my request to be "photoshopped" and hacked into my blog.
I opened a "draft" today to discover the results.

For your viewing pleasure...
before:

after:
Well....at least the garden is looking better!
And, HolleeAnn, how did you know I've been wanting some chickies for the yard?

Other additions:
a tiara, a bunny friend, more chicks, and of course....a big, beautiful shining sun!
I kind of feel like Uncle Remus in "Song of the South" (tell me some of you know what movie I'm talking about)
Reese's pic is my favorite:
Mary Mary quite contrary!

Other HolleeAnn photoshop fun:

before

after

before after

Thank You, Sis! I love them all.

My kids are going to start singing "Zippedy-Doo-Dah" any minute now...although, considering the current state of my living room, I think I might prefer "Whistle While You Work", "Hi-Ho, Hi-Ho, It's Off to Work We Go", Jezelle's "Happy Little Working Song", or...what's the cleaning song from Mary Poppins? "A Spoonful of Sugar"?
We could use some of THAT magic snapping action around here, today!

Gotta love Disney. Thanks to Mary Poppins, Snow White, and Cinderella, and many others, my kids might actually believe in the possibility that a bluebird is going to fly through the window and help me fold the laundry.

Perhaps if I sing...

"I Have Run, I Have Crawled, I Have Scaled These City Walls..."

And after nearly a YEAR of searching, (really...estate sales, craigslist-daily, ebay, garage sales, newspaper ads, ...everywhere) I have FINALLY found what I'm looking for!!!

25 bucks.
I LOVE THEM.

I will love them more when I learn how to reupholster and cover them in THIS.

Yummy.

Yellow + Blue = GREEN

I still haven't posted our fun with Rainbow Colors week.
Watercolors.
Note to Moms.
Once your child has had their face painted at a fair, they will forever paint their own faces at any given opportunity where they have free access to watercolors.
This a prime example of why I refuse to enter the risky waters of the temporary tattoo.
The girls also had fun mixing colored water ("juithe" if you ask Quin). Using little plastic pipettes.

The amazing discovery?

Yellow + Blue = not green,

Yellow + Blue = my kids had a LOT of fun while playing unsupervised on the patio for 20 minutes. The result was a LOT of blue dye smeared on Quincy's forehead (how? I don't know, I put the food coloring away, she materialized it out of thin air!), and the yellow water being poured into a watering can and used to water the daffodils. The blue water was also half empty, but I think that's because Q was thirsty, and the kool-aid-looking "juithe" appeared more appetizing than the urine-colored "juithe".

Feeling Green

haha, for once...I'm actually NOT feeling green!
Today's photos where all taken by Reese. I think her photography talent has surpassed mine.
Step 1: Ok, for those who might be interested...to build a raised garden bed similar to ours, you need the following:

3 2x10x10 pieces of UNtreated lumber. Treated wood (like for fencing, etc) has been known to have asbestos and other carcinogens in it. If your garden box IS built from treated wood (like those cute landscaping timbers) and you plan to eat what you are going to grow, just line the box with plastic or weed barrier or something before you fill it with soil.

Cut one (or flash a pretty smile and have the guys at Lows cut it for you before they load it into your car) of the boards in half so now you have two 2x10x10s and two 2x10x5s.

12 2 inch coated sinkers (nails)

a Hammer. If yo don't own one of these, it's probably because I broke it. Seriously, I broke 3 hammers last summer doing jobs that should have been done with a crowbar. Oops.

I think the assembly is pretty self explanitory. Use the 2 10ft boards as the long sides and nail the 5 ft pieces on the ends to form a box.


Ok, to take care of the grass (cough weeds) currently growing where the box is, you could rotatill the ground, treat it with RoundUp (but then you need to wait about 2 weeks before putting anything in the box...or you'll end up with Round Up in your soil, and it will kill your plants!), put down a layer of commercial weed barrier, or tear it out with Jenny's shovel, like we did with the first raised bed.

This year, we're trying another method we've heard is equally successful, and we're going with it because it's the least expensive and the easiest route and... well, we are both cheap AND lazy.

Step 2: Line the bottom of the bed with newsprint and cover it with a thin layer of soil. Spray with water. Add more soil. Done. The idea is that the newsprint acts as a wimpy (but free) weed barrier, and biodegrades over time as the weeds die. Hopefully it works!
Step 3: buy a larger shirt, because after seeing yourself in photographs, you realize that what you THOUGHT looked cute was a very warped perception and clearly a bad idea.

Straight From the Horse's Mouth...'Er Butt Actually.

There are DISEASES flying rampant around the Willy House this month!

Be warned that both are highly contagious.
Did YOU catch them, too?

Spring Fever and March Madness!

Spring Fever is actually a predecessor to March Madness. I'm in a mad rush to complete every project that pops into my head, as I know that in a few short days, everyone in the house will immediately become totally useless, abort regular eating and sleeping habits, and start muttering things about "brackets", "Sweet Sixteen", "Cinderella Story", "HUGE Upsets", etc. All productivity on the project front will come to a total halt.
Which is why I am busting into HIGH GEAR this week to get a head start on everything that will soon be neglected for approximately 3 weeks.

Our latest family project?
March is about Garden Prep!
Every year since we've been married, Aaron and I have planted a vegetable garden. Some years thrived better than others. One year was in pots and didn't thrive at all, but the last couple years we have had pretty good crop.

We added a second 10' x 5' raised bed this year. (pictures to come later, it got too dark outside tonight)
Now we just need to fill it with crap.
Literally. We filled the first bed with compost from the local compost plant, and mixed in a few bags of manure, top soil, and peat. All winter long we dump our fireplace ashes on top. Our garden has THRIVED on this combination the past two years...and if we can keep the bug population at bay, we'll be rock stars this year, too.

I got a butt load (hahaha really.) of horse manure from some friends today with an Equestrian business about 20 minutes away. It won't be nearly enough to fill the new garden bed...but I've heard that the manure is fantastic for gardening, so hopefully it will help, in case we end up having to fill it with store-bought soil mixes this year.
All I know is, we let the kids help us tonight...and I'm pretty sure they both ate a fair amount of feces. I broke up one clump of manure and found a partially digested carrot. I hope my stinky neighbor-Don't-Park-On-My-Lawn-Keith (who often pollutes our yard with the smell of his cigarettes) is enjoying the smell of what is wafting HIS way tonight. It's going to be warm outside tomorrow....that certainly won't help the smell!
THIS year, my goal is to grow our garden from seeds. I keep hearing about how much more economical it is. I think that would be true if I had an ENORMOUS garden, since you get so many plants from one seed packet...but so far I'm not officially sold on the idea. I'm going to try it out this year as an experiment and see if it is worth the effort vs picking up a few healthy starter plants and putting them straight into the ground, like we usually do.
My main motivation for starting from seeds (other than bragging rights if it is actually a success) is so my girls can have a science project. They are just fascinated by the changes they are seeing in nature, so I thought it would be fun for it to be THEIR garden this year, and place some of the responsibility of caring for it on their shoulders.
I'm putting together a theme box for them to play "Gardeners" with. I copied and laminated little seed packets for them to play with (aren't they cute?), and will be adding their watering can, some buckets, shovels, and maybe a little rake to the box. I'm hoping that they'll learn the names for all the vegetables we planted, and that watching them grow into something that looks similar (hopefully) to the picture on the seed packets will add a little enthusiasm when it comes time to eat them. Reese ate loads of zucchini last summer, so we're hoping she'll enjoy it as much this year, and perhaps taste a tomato or cucumber. My goal for Q is that she will eat at least SOMEthing from the garden that isn't manure.

Wish us luck and send some of your GREEN thoughts tomorrow our way!
So that's March.