Craftiness!

For those that know me well, you know I am not a crafty person.  In fact, I really don't like stuff!  If you were to visit our home, you would notice we are fairly minimalistic in decoration.  I just have never really thought that crafting was important enough to make time for, and so I just have never done it.  Well that, and the fact that I really just don't have time to craft during the school year!  I'm also incredibly not sentimental, because often this involves the keeping of "stuff."  My husband hates this about me, because I have no problem getting rid of just about anything that wasn't used, oh we will say, yesterday:-)

 I have dabbled in crafting this summer.  Simple projects to add some color to our home and a touch of creativeness.  It has been fun, and I have found it to be somewhat relaxing.  Here are a couple of the projects I have done so far!

 The first project I made was a chalkboard.  I took an old frame from my cedar chest.  The kids and I painted the frame yellow.  Then I spray painted the glass with chalkboard paint.  Don't panic!  I took it outside to actually spray paint;-)  Super easy!  The cost of this project was fairly cheap.  Here is a breakdown of the project.

Paint-$1.20
Chalkboard Spray Paint-$7.99 (Obviously, I did not use all of it!)
Frame-FREE from my own house!
Chalk-FREE from the kids' stash;-)

I am going to put it on my table for little notes!

I made a chalkboard!  

 The second project I did was a sentimental project!  I just love the little hand prints of small children.  I saw on Pinterest to use them as wall art!  What a fabulous idea, so I did it with our own kids.  Again, this was super simple for someone not crafty like me!  I simply painted two canvas boards, then dipped my children's hands in white acrylic paint and stuck them on the dried canvas.  I will confess this is harder than it looks to not mess up the hand print.  We had to repaint both boards and try a second time to get hand prints that I was satisfied with:-)

Paint-$1.20 x 3=$3.60 (one of each of the colors and white)
Canvas Boards-$3.99 for package of 2
Brush-We had these around, so I didn't have to buy them.

That's it.  I hung these in our living room, and I think they are a sweet little reminder that they don't stay little for long!

So precious!

Summer Week 5 in Pictures!

This week was a busy week.  We made it to the North Pool, Mulvane Art Center, Going Bonkers, the Discovery Center, and then lunch with Dad today.  There was also the smattering of laundry, cooking, cleaning, but I'll only show pictures of the fun stuff;-)

Isla prefers to sit on the side of pool and eat snacks!

Rowan-aka "The fish!"

He loves to throw rings in and then go get them!

Isla loves to dump water into the side of the pool!

Playdate with our friend Sheila, Adam, and Lillian at Going Bonkers! (I forgot socks and had to buy them at $1.50 a pair.  Oops!  Don't forget socks if you go!)

Having fun climbing around!

Books with Dad!  Notice we are reading, River Monsters!

The Discovery Center!

Rowan climbing around on the rope course!

Cuteness!  They were holding hands, but I was about a second too late:-(

Isla did lots of scooping!

Astronaut Rowan!

Summer Bucket List Update

Summer 2012 Bucket List

1. Swimming Lessons for Rowan- Done!  Rowan LOVES to swim at the North Pool!  We are practicing what he has learned!


2. Science Camp for Rowan at Discovery Center- Done!

3. Vacation Bible Camp at SWUMC for Rowan and I'll volunteer as well.-I have signed up to volunteer to lead a preschool class. I mailed in his registration for this last week!



4. Camping as a family-this is out of my comfort zone;-)-Still a go.  We are responsible for making a breakfast for 27 people.  I'm so not looking forward to this adventure, but I am trying to be positive:-)



5. Read 6 books for pleasure.- Done! So far, I have finished Fifty Shades of Freed, Untraceables, Swim, 10 Habits of Happy Mothers (fantastic read), Unspeakable, and Snatched!  That is 6 so far.  I guess I needed to set a higher goal.  I'm kind of excited I actually completed it, though;-)

6. Run 3 times a week.- Ongoing.  Ooh, bad week!  It has been over 100 degrees every day this week.  I'm ashamed to say I have run 0:-(

7. Go on 2 dates with Big Al.-Ongoing.  One date is done, and we actually have a wedding to go to tomorrow night for a girl I work with.  I guess you could call it a date since we aren't taking the children, and we have a babysitter!  


Summer is officially half over today.  This makes my heart sad, but I am enjoying it.  I can honestly say it has not been stressful, and that is exactly what I wanted!

Kansas City Family Trip

Every year, my dad's brothers and sisters get together in Kansas City for a gathering.  It is usually the only time during the year when everyone is together.  We love going on this trip to see all of my aunts and uncles and a smattering of cousins, as well as each other.  It just so happened, that my parents and my two brothers were there too!

My brother, Seth, walking with Rowan!

We took the kids to Kaleidoscope in Kansas City!  They loved it!

My 2 brothers, Tyler and Seth!

We went to Fritz's for lunch.  The kids loved looking at the trains delivering their food!

Kynlee, Tayte, CJ, and Aunt Heather looking at the trains!

I love this picture! 

The 6 cousins: Kemer, Kynlee, Isla, Rowan, Tayte, and CJ

Miss Sassy!

The whole family! 

My momma and my daddy!

The boys being boys!

I never get my picture taken.  Alex just never thinks about it.  Someone else took this picture, and I just think it is so telling the life of a mom!  Haggard, windblown, and with a kid on my hip;-)

Summer Week 3 in Pictures

What a great week we had last week.  I'll just let the pictures do the talking!

Rowan helped me cook supper one night.  He is a great helper!

The kids played nicely together!

HAPPY HOUR at Dairy Queen!!!!

Isla had a Dr. appointment and got shots:-(  She was a trooper, though!

Rowan kept entertained on my phone while we waited!

Rowan loves to play on my Nook and listen to books.

We went to the zoo!  It was a fabulous day to go~

Birthday Party!  Two of my favorite people!

The birthday party was complete with a carousel ride!

This is before Isla screamed and cried hysterically at the noise:-(

We brought home balloons from the party, and Miss Isla loved them!

There was also a pool trip in there last week, but I don't have any pictures!  I'm always petrified that I will get my camera wet.  Maybe this week I'll brave pictures!

June Financial Update

 

June was a better month than May in our house, but I always forget about summer;-)  The fact that I am home all day makes me come up with projects or need to go places.  We have enjoyed our outings to the pool, and I have enjoyed coming up with some house projects, but I know now I need to put a budget item in for summer!  We made some progress, though, and any progress is good!

1. Get PMI taken off of our Home Loan -Done in February!

2. Pay off Alex's small student loan ($641.00 to be exact)-Done in June!  I paid it off, and we freed up this payment to go into the car fund!  Yeah!

3. Save enough money to replace Jolie's car by November 1, 2012 in cash!
We were able to put some money into this account this month.  We are up to 34% of our target now.  We have been paying for hotels for Alex and some traveling, so we didn't put as much in here as we thought.  We will get reimbursed for most of these, so hopefully we can add that to this account.  

Happy Father's Day!

 

The kids and I did a little art work for Father's Day this year.  We found the letters at Hobby Lobby to spell out, DAD.  Then Rowan helped me paint them one morning after Alex had gone to work.  It was fun, and he was really a pretty good little painter.

 

 Then we went outside, and I attempted to get some cute pictures of the kids to make a card for their dad.  Rowan insisted on wearing his swimming suit.  Sigh, but it is all in the memory, right:-)

  Isla would not sit still, and this proved to be more of a challenge than I thought it would be.

You can tell this is supposed to say, "DAD," right?

Rowan loved it!  He was all over making Dad feel special with his picture!  We made the card, and 

then on Father's Day we gave Dad some treasures.

Rowan helping Dad open his treasures!

Here is the finished card!  I thought it turned out cute.  The best part was it was free through the website I ordered it from- minus the time it took me to actually make it:-)

It was a great Father's Day!  Rowan had fun making the letters, and I hope Alex enjoyed the pictures!

Rowan actually spent Father's Day at the Omaha Zoo with his friend, Gage.  The rest of us went over to the Darby's for some pool fun and a BBQ outside.  It was relaxing and fun to celebrate two great men in all of our lives!