Spring has Sprung!

Our backyard needs some serious help.  To be fair, when we moved in a year and a half ago we were basically handed a wasteland.  The yard was comprised solely of dead grass, weeds, clay soil, and whatever those little spiky things that grow in grass and get stuck to your socks are called.  Our house backs up to a small creek and then open fields as far as you can see.  The deep water channel runs nearby and it is so cool to see a massive ship float by over the fence. 

Over the past 18 months we have definitely made improvements.  There is green grass now, a play area with bark for the kids, garden boxes (that don't have anything in them yet), a vegetable garden area has been sectioned off, etc.  Even with these improvements the winter months wreaked havoc on the yard and TLC is now required. 

Last week Jeff rented a roto-tiller thing to churn up the weeds and clay and try to make the ground somewhat more useable.  He has also been weed whacking up a storm and replacing the bark as needed.

As spring weather has set in we decided it was time to plant our modest vegetable patch again.  Last year we had some successes but that clay soil is really not great for vegetable growing. And the advice we received from a local farmer to "amend, amend, amend, the soil" just seemed like a total pain in the ass so we just lived with our poor showing of tomatoes and couple strawberries that bloomed.

This year we are hoping for a better crop so we changed the game plan and went for container gardening instead.  I read that you can grow a lot of vegetables and fruits in containers so we are giving that a shot.  The problem is that really good containers are really expensive - like crazy expensive! Not in the mood to spend a lot of money on pots, we hit up garage sales and Craigslist and got some major scores.  We have spent about $50 so far and have gotten a huge wine barrel container with a good sized orange tree in it, and seven large ceramic pots.

Last night we enlisted our little helpers to plant our starter seedlings in the new pots and what resulted was a muddy, soaking wet, mess!  So basically they had a blast and Jeff and I did all the work. :o)

Easter Weekend

We would love to take our kids all over the world, and someday I hope to be able to do that.  In the meantime we are determined to show them California and all this great state has to offer.  We made a list of places we would like to go this year and Daffodil Hill in Volcano CA was one of them.  Jeff and I had never been and since it is only open for a short time in the spring, we thought Easter weekend would be a perfect time to make the trek out there.

Saturday we packed a picnic lunch and headed to Volcano to see thousands of daffodils.  The drive was beautiful and someday when the kids are older we'd like to stop at the little historic towns  along the way.

We were so happy to have Cheri join us and she took amazing photos again; so grateful that she helps us document these precious moments.  And only Cheri could make all of us do this...

When we arrived we started off with a picnic but forgot to bring a blanket which completely threw off Logan.  Daffodil Hill has plenty of benches but Logan freaked out at the idea of having a "picnic" without a picnic blanket.  Emmie on the other hand, had no issues with the benches and was happy to eat!

Finally got a partial smile out of Logan once we let him collect filthy rocks for his rock collection...

 Love this pic of me & Jeff! 

 Great family day!

Every time we asked Logan to smile he wanted to "do a move" instead.  Here is one of the moves he did with the stick he found.  Serious business! 

Joey had a blast scouting out locations for Cheri to take photos and posing for them!  He turned into quite the little model during this trip!

Daffodil Hill has peacocks, even a beautiful white one.  Peacocks have become my favorite animal over the past year and seeing a white one was so special.

Joey took this photo with Cheri's camera.  I could see him becoming a photographer someday...

On the drive home Logan wanted to stop at a roadside stand and get flowers for me and Cheri.  Here is the shot I snapped from the car as Jeff and Logan picked out the flowers.  Our little Logan might be a handful at times, but he has a heart of gold.

We hosted our annual Easter Brunch on Sunday with friends and family.  It was a wonderful day complete with way too much food, way too much sangria, and tons of laughter.  Honestly I think this Easter was one of the best we have had, low key and filled with fun.

In the morning Joey and Logan woke up to find their Easter baskets and clues from the Easter Bunny to find their other gifts. Emmie slept in, we don't wake the princess for anything!

One of the clues from EB - 

And this is what they found... 

They tore up the house looking for the rest of the gifts.  

 Aunt Megan and Emmie blowing bubbles.

And we dyed Easter eggs - 

And had an egg hunt in the backyard...

 Where Logan threw a fit... which is pretty normal for Logan... 

Gidgit supervised.

We hope everyone had a wonderful Easter! 

Fireplace Makeover

Home decorating is a passion of mine and can often get pushed to the back burner when the To Do list is miles long.  But, I have been trying to focus more on it in the past couple months which makes me happy. :o)

Sometimes you want to paint, but you don't want to paint the whole wall.  In those cases a little paint as an accent can go a long way.  A couple weeks ago I added some deep chocolate brown paint to the wall around our fireplace in an attempt to make it stand out more in the living room.  What do you think??
 

BEFORE

AFTER

The whole project took a little over an hour to do and the cost was minimal since I didn't need much paint.  The trick with getting clean lines on a textured wall is to use paintable caulk along the edge of the blue tape when you tape it off.  The caulk fills in the crevices along the edge that a textured wall creates, leaving crisp lines when you are done. 

First Grade Sock Hop

I've said it before, I will say it again - I LOVE our elementary school.  It is beyond refreshing to have a school go back to the philosophy that learning should be fun and interactive.  And it is such a relief to have a school that places importance on standardized testing, while not making it the most important thing they do.  We feel extremely blessed to have Joey attending this school and grateful that Logan was just enrolled for the 2013-2014 kindergarten year.  So many crappy things had to happen for us to move Joey to this school, and it is one of the many silver linings we have discovered through the ordeal of the past year.

Yet another example of a super fun way to teach was the 1st and 3rd grade 1950's Sock Hop they just held.  Want to teach kids about the history of music?  What better way than to bring in a live musician to sing Elvis songs and let the kids dance around the cafeteria in their socks?!  Complete chaos? Absolutely! Totally fun and memorable for the kids?  Absolutely! Is this lesson going to appear on the standardized test this spring? Nope!

Joey learned about the clothes and styles of the 50s, discovered the King of Rock and Roll, and heard Elvis songs for the first time.  Priceless.  We also learned that no matter how much hairspray and gel I put into Joey's hair it refused to stay slicked back!

It is so easy to forget to expose your kids to different genres of music, so easy to just have them listen to whatever is on your favorite radio station.  But we have the technology to allow them to listen to a virtual encyclopedia of music!  If anything, this Sock Hop opened my eyes to the wealth of history that can be taught through music.  I now plan to make a more conscious effort to broaden our children's musical horizons.  When will they get to hear Sinatra or Tony Bennet if we don't put it on from time to time? What a shame it would be to have them miss out on years of getting the lyrics "bye, bye Miss American Pie... " stuck in their heads! C'mon you know you are singing that darn song in your head right now!  To be fair, we are just transitioning out of John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt musical territory, but still I am inspired to start playing some jazz on the ride to school tomorrow!
  

I love that Joey wanted to dance with me.  Such a special memory I will forever cherish!

Sister Turns 7!

Emmie joined our family when she was 6 months old.  We had gone through the process to adopt through foster care, and once we were approved we got the call that they had a daughter for us a mere three weeks later.  As you can imagine, that is a story in and of itself! 

"Blessed" doesn't even begin to describe our feelings about our little princess, and one of the most unexpected blessings that came with Emmie was an entirely new arm of our family tree.  You see Emmie has a 7 year old sister and she was adopted by a different family.  We wanted the girls to grow up knowing each other and have found that the other family is on the exact same page.  We are so fortunate to have spent the last couple years getting to know this family and truly becoming one big happy family in so many ways.  We get together at least once a month, vacation with them, text and chat with them, etc.  We love all of them and are so grateful to have them all in our lives.   

That being said, this past weekend was Bella's 7th birthday.  Emmie was so excited to go to the party and picked out a pair of sunglasses for herself and a pair for Bella at Target.  The girls looked absolutely adorable of course!

Ready to party!

On our way to Bella's house - had to bring Lady the pink penguin too.

Bella rode with us to the party - shades compliments of sister Emmie!

Logan playing a the Bounce House place.

Cheri giving Emmie a lift to make a basket.

Joey concentrating on hitting the ball.

Emmie giving it a shot!

Logan - out for blood!