::diy::

We've (by we, I mostly mean Matt) done a couple of home projects...

Project #1...

A garden/trampoline & sandbox area in the back yard. We finished it probably about a month ago, and I forgot I had taken pictures along the way...

Matt tilled up a pretty big area in the corner of our backyard. We had to make a more permanent spot to put the trampoline (because it's a heavy duty one-too heavy to move when we mow), and we wanted a bigger sandbox for the kids. We thought we better add on a garden area too-this is our first year to ever do a garden...

(the beginning of the tilling)

(after lots of tilling and digging, ready for the landscaping bricks)

(almost done-need some bark, sandbox frame, sand, and a few more bricks-(oops) )

(the kids enjoyed the whole project. Portie liked taking dirt away in his dump truck, and they all liked climbing on Papa's trailer)

Ta-Daaaaaa!!

(finished! complete with a new spicket for watering)



Project #2

a new front door.

We've lived in our house for 4 years, and I've hated our front door since the day we looked at the house. It's just a plain ol' white 6 panel (which doesn't even match any of our interior doors). No windows, no pretty handle, no nothin'! I could go on for days about why I hate that door, but I wont :) So we finally got a new one. I picked it out and painted it, Matt did all the hard stuff...

(The kids liked the painting/taping process. They thought they'd tape up parts of the outside of the house so I don't get paint on it.)

(Matt & Coopie worked on installing the hardware)

(J came over to help with the hanging-thanks, J!!)

Ta-Daaaaaa!!!!

I think it turned out pretty nice. It's pretty nice having some light come through that side of the house too.

::memorial day::

Memorial Day 2010

cemetary.4 wheeler ride.basketball.swings.watermelon.

hamburgers.hotdogs.s'mores.boots.

bikes.scooters.cousins.fire.outside.family.

::a trip to the e.r.::

It was a normal, leisurely Sunday morning. We were all slooooowly getting ready for church (doesn't start 'til 1). I was sitting on my bed watching some kind of show (Memorial Day weekend is always a good one for marathons, and I love marathons).

Coop came in. He was walking around my bed over to me and fell. I heard a thud. He cried. I picked him up and held him. I thought he just bumped his head. He kept crying. We got up to get him a drink or something to kind of take his mind off of it. I saw blood on his shirt. Then I saw the cut. "Maaaatt?!?" I took him downstairs to show him. I said I thought we might need to go to the E.R. He thought so too...so we did.

The big kids didn't think too much about it. Which really kind of amazes me. They just go where we go and don't think too much about it. They were running and kind of laughing on the way into the E.R.. No cares at all. But that's good.

When they took us back, our nurse was Miss Trish (our neighbor across the street!). Not that that helped Cooper at all, but it's always nice to see a familiar face. She took good care of us. Coop is NOT a good patient. He's not even good at his well-baby checkups. He pretty much cried continuously for about 10 minutes while they were fixin' him. He had to be strapped down to this thing (can't remember the name of it). It was pretty awful. I cried a little too.

The big kids got concerned while this was all going on. When Miss Trish was getting everything ready, Port asked her "Is Bubba gonna be ok??" And Chloe cried a little with me.

When we got all done, he ended up with dermabond, no stitches. We were glad for that. He got a sucker and a few stickers. We called Papa Guitar afterwards to make sure those E.R. people did everything right :) We wished he worked at our hospital so he could've taken care of Coopie.

It was not a fun morning for Cooper.

After we got home, he finished his sucker, had a drink, and a few licks of the big kids' popsicles. Then he had some lunch, and now he's sleeping.

Poor Bubb.
There's nothing worse than when your kids are hurt. It was pretty minor in the grand scheme of things, but it was still kinda rough.

Hopefully our day gets better.

::a saturday matinee::

We finally got ourselves to the

movies to see Shrek 4....

(Me, Grandma Kitty, Cooper-1 1/2, Porter 4, Chloe 6 1/2)

I know it only came out a week ago, but the way the kids kept saying we needed to go see it, you'da thought it had been out for months!

Mom, the kids, and Matt & I all went. Going to the movies is always a fun experience. We had our fair share (and then some) of popcorn, candy, and coke, and we all felt a little sick afterwards-like we always do :) We (the adults) enjoyed it, Chloe liked it ok, Porter was asking (after about the first 30 minutes) when we were leaving, and Bubb was just not good at all-lots of up and down, lots of pulling straws out of drinks, lots of throwing trash on the floor, lots of squawking because he's tired, but doesn't want to go to sleep.

It was pretty much our normal trip to the movies with 3 littles, buuut we'll do it all again when the next kids movie comes out (which happens to be Toy Story 3-woo!!!!).

::tumble-tu::

Friday, we had Chloe's performance night for tumbling. She showed us all her stuff! And she did awesome!!

She started with the tramp. She was waiting for her turn...

Coop tried a few jumps...

Double-Mini...

Round-off, back handspring pass...

we all watched...

She scored 9/10 on all three 3 stations; which comes out to a 27 out of 30. Not too bad! She did awesome, and we're so proud of her! She got a trophy too.

And this is Miss Jenn. She's Chloe's tumbling coach. Chloe LOVES her! She wants to be a power tumbling coach when she grows up, just like Miss Jenn.

To say Chloe loves tumbling would be a gross understatement. She's a little upset that it's over. She even started crying a few minutes before her performance because she just didn't want tumbling to end. She has so much fun with it. It's been the highlight of her week since August. Handstands in the living room, back handsprings on the trampoline, cartwheels & round-offs all over the place...she is just completely in love with it! She's starting cheer in a couple of weeks, so hopefully she can make it 'til then :)

In other news...

Well, first I think I better note that Porter did NOT have fun at performance night. He pretty much laid on the floor and complained about how much he hated the whole thing. He got in a bit of trouble for it afterwards. I feel for him though. It's probably not lots of fun to wait to watch your sister and watch a bunch of other kids tumble. There was a lot of waiting involved in the whole thing too-which he is NOT a fan of. I also wanted to note that Buzz is taking over our house! We have Buzz bread, Buzz hamburger buns, Buzz Fruit Loops, Buzz fruit snacks, and today we got some Buzz icecream. Oh man!

::end of school stuff::

We're nearing the end of the school year, and life is super busy with all the activities. We've had swim parties, activity days, kindergarten programs, tumbling finales...

Chloe had her kindergarten program on Wednesday night (and also Wednesday morning). I went to both. The morning one was less crowded and I intended to video the whole thing and get pictures. Buuut, my memory card is just not big enough for all that (you'd think it is, 4GB oughtta be enough!) So I recorded half of it in the morning and the other half in the evening. I didn't save myself from standing up against the wall for the entire thing (twice).

BUT, my troubles aside, it was such a cute program! They sand lots of songs (including their abc's backwards!) They did such a great job!

Then yesterday, Portie had his last-day-of-school-activity-day. His class sang a few way cute songs, and did 3 cute little activities. He had fun with it all, and I think he liked that Bubb and I came to school with him.

( His teachers: Miss Wendy, Portie, & Miss Kim)

He colored a summer-y picture, painted a playground, and made a "wihm" pencil. Great little projects-cute, quick, and fun.

Portie's completely done, but Chloe still has 2 more weeks. She's wrapping it up though. Homework's all done, nightly reading books are all done, and spelling tests are all done! She's excited for the end too. Too bad they have soo many more years of school

::ouch!::

7:45 am

It was kind of a rough morning. It was particularly hard to get up and get ready for school, and while I was fixing her hair, Chloe was telling me about how hard her life is...

Chloe: Mom, you just don't know what it's like to be a kid.

Me: Yes I do, I used to be one!

Chloe: Yeah, but that was like 10,000 years ago!

::Chloe's class photo::

Chloe's kindergarten class...

::swimmin' in the rain...::

"I'm laughin at clouds, so dark up above..."

-Gene Kelly

Yesterday was Port's swim party at school. It was 60 degrees and raining. Good thing their pool is super warm! He loved it. He took his Buzz kickboard. When we got there I laughed because before he got in the pool, I had to say "let me have your coat." And Gene Kelly's Singin' in the Rain has been in my head ever since.

Coopie mostly threw things into the pool. He tried a couple of times to walk down the steps into it.

They swam for a while, and then went in for snack right before it was time to go home. I felt bad for his teacher. She swam with them in the morning, then she had to swim with her afternoon class. She probably had to be wet all day long! And then she had to do it again the next day with her MWF friday classes.