More of this!

This weekend we're off doing more of this...












A completely different season and area but we're hoping to have as much fun as we did back in May! Have a great weekend.

2009 Beach Trip

We leave for the beach soon and we're all just ecstatic! We didn't think we were going to be able to go this year which makes it all the more exciting now that we are. We absolutely adore the beach! I know I know, most people do. It's just a really special place for my Love and I. So we're just excited beyond words to get there and I know Lovebug is going to love it even more than she did last year.

Speaking of last year, I was recently looking at pictures from our 2009 trip and realized I never posted any. SO I thought I'd reminisce a bit and share some (ok, MANY) with you! Gosh, Lovebug looks so young in all of these...














Well, that was our 2009 trip! SOOOO fun and such wonderful memories made as it was our first family trip with just the three of us. I'll never forget it! I know our 2010 trip is going to amazing too though and I CANNOT wait.

I must run now and get working on some other things to get us ready. We have LOTS to do before we leave. With our lifestyle, there is SO MUCH planning regarding food and whatnot. I'm not complaining though because it's fun and worth it! Anywhoo, I hope you all have a wonderful rest of your week. I have a little video that's been going around that I'm going to share later.

Be back soon!

Fall-ish

We had absolutely amazing weather the last couple of days! It almost felt a bit fall-ish out compared to our 100+ degee days as of late. It made me feel like baking some bread and making some cider, but we've probably still got plenty of hot weather to come so I'll tap the breaks on that :). Much of our day was spent outside yesterday even when it was raining. It was incredible. I didn't want to leave my soccer practice the other night either because it felt so heavenly out. Of course we opened our windows to bring all the lovely fresh air inside and I can't tell you how much I missed our open window living. Oh my word, I LOVE it! Lovebug and I were just squealing in delight as we vacuumed out the window things (gross!) and opened them all up yesterday. We ended up closing them tonight (bummer!) because we kept seeing LOTS of bugs and a red wasp and knew they were getting in through our old windows and screens (aarrggh!). We might not be able to leave them open for long periods of time until we get some new windows :(. Gosh darn it!

Anyway, I know it isn't too far away and although we're actually leaving for the beach next week, I'm ready for some fall! OH and that pic was taken on a walk at a local park a few weeks ago. It looked so interesting and fall-ish to me! :)

UPDATE: Our windows are open again...I can't stand to have them closed when it's this decent out. They'll be closed later if it gets hotter than 84 in here (which it will:). We really need to replace those darn windows though.

Our active weekend

I wrote this last week but lost my connection and couldn't get it posted. ANYWAY, I've decided to go ahead and post it because if I added in lots of housework/projects and some homemade veg sushi on Sunday, this last weekend included pretty much all of the below again too - HA!

This last weekend was an active one with most of it spent outside which I just love! There was some really fun tennis and swimming on Friday evening. Gardening, basketball, rollerblading, and park playing on Saturday. Then Sunday there was alot of hiking and creeking for the August family birthday party! So FUN! Yes it's hot here (very hot) but as long as you have a pool, creek, or any body of water to cool off in, it's bearable. :) These shots are from all different parts of our most enjoyable family weekend...






I already can't wait for the weekend with my lil' family all together again...Hope you all have wonderful weeks!

Our weekend trip

We're back from our little weekend trip and had such a blast! We went to Glen Rose after some quick antiquing in Granbury, where I found some adorable vintage children's books. It was alot of fun to have my siblings (with spouses, kids, girlfriends, etc.) all there at some point during the weekend! We were all there on Saturday, which was a fun-filled active day.


The accommodations ended up being pretty disappointing but the surroundings sure were pretty! I love rivers and we spent much of Saturday in the Paluxy which was really enjoyable (except where the water was uber warm). There was hiking, picnicking, dinousaur track finding, lounging by the river, and yes, much swimming!


It was so wonderful to be outside most of the weekend, even if it was pretty darn hot. We all took turns cooking delicious meals and we ended Saturday with a too-dark game of ultimate frisbee. Such SUCH fun! Lovebug LOVED being around her cousins and aunts/uncles. She is so blessed to have such wonderful ones!


After we arrived home and unpacked, we took a long (really long) family nap on our bed. We were TIRED!! Then we capped the weekend off with a late family dinner of leftover biscuits, cashew gravy, tempeh, breakfast potatoes, and fruit. Breakfast for dinner is always a fun treat, don't you think?! We laughed and talked about our favorite parts of the trip. Then we cleaned up the kitchen, showered, and all quickly fell asleep again in our bed...


The end. :)

Coloring Al Fresco

Lately the weather has been completely lovely so we have tried to be outside as much as possible. I've mentioned before how much Lovebug LOVES to color and draw...well, she really does. In fact we get crayons and/or colored pencils out pretty much first thing in the morning and we color off and on ALL day long.


She recently started to tell me what she is drawing all on her own which I think is pretty darn cute. She typically sticks with "baby", "bowl", "mommy", "daddy", "dog", or "tree" right now, but she throws out random things sometimes which amaze me. She is very into drawing "lines" and "circles" right now too. Anyway, I just adore her abstract masterpieces!


With the weather being so delightful we decided to color al fresco a couple mornings and early afternoons. The leaves have been falling like crazy around here which has been really fun to watch. There is such a simple beauty to it that I just love. So we set our quilt on a blanket of leaves and colored as more continued to fall all around us. It was quite enjoyable!


When we color, we do so often on paper scraps like the back of packing slips and junk mail but this is our favorite coloring book from Green Field Paper Company that we all love to color in. I particularly love its size and of course that it's hemp. It's fun to get out Lovebug's older versions and see how her art has changed in just a short period of time. As far as crayons, we love these soy rocks and soy Prangs. Lovebug doesn't like the paper on the Prangs though so we end up taking that off right away for whatever reason :). I have been saving all of the wrapper scraps for an upcoming project though that I'll share at a later date! We also have some vintage crayolas I got off Etsy that we pull out occasionally as well.


Anyway, while outside one day we decided to gather up some things from around us and work on the names of colors. Lovebug generally says everything is "blue" right now which is just adorable. She's getting some other colors down though too.


We also separated the crayons by color which my little organizer really liked helping with! By this time the sun was incredibly bright though so none of my shots turned out wonderfully but you get the idea. I like seeing a rainbow of colors - so pretty!


Well, are the leaves still falling where you are? Isn't it beautiful? There is a bit of a cold front that has come through, but I bet there is still more al fresco coloring and falling leaf watching that will occur this week as well...

Have a great Monday!

Sometimes you just got to...

GET OUT and get dirty...even if it's drizzling...or maybe because it's JUST drizzling!

This week's weather has been pretty enjoyable though in my opinion. We've been blessed with a ton of rain, plus it's been slightly cooler which has made open window living so wonderful! It feels ALMOST fall-ISH at times - almost. Have you been enjoying anything similar and liking it?

Lovebug and I enjoyed ourselves immensely the other day out in it all. We got pretty dirty and had such a good time exploring the front yard!






Well, have a lovely weekend. We're going to be finishing up some organizing projects around our nest, which I'm really excited about. Have a great one!

Our Water Day

Did you have a good weekend? We sure did! It was nice, restful, and yet productive too. Yesterday was particularly enjoyable and was kind of a big water day in the backyard.

We started here in the little pool. It's the only non-PVC one I could find, plus it fits all of us and has a canopy. I wanted to provide a link to it since it's non-PVC but they don't have it anymore apparently - darn it! Anyway, it doesn't look the coolest but it works really well and provides a good amount of enjoyment and cooling off for Lovebug (and mommy/daddy too)!


Then we moved here to the galvanized "pool", which really became the dumping area for all of the rocks, dirt, and whatnot Lovebug started to gather...and where to wash off her ever-dirty hands.


After that, we moved to the sprinkler which was super fun for all of us. Lovebug especially loved cupping it and letting the water erupt out as I'm showing her here...


By this point we were all very hungry, so we gathered up some leftovers and had a picnic lunch in the backyard (with lots of water), which was so fun until we became under ant attack. By the way, those are bracelets she put on her ankles in the morning and then wore all day...so cute! :)


Then after lunch, Lovebug and her daddy were so sweet to make us some dessert. Dirt + water = mud pies...YUM!


It was so much fun! The day ended with a long bath for Lovebug which is a very rare treat as we always do showers. So, it certainly was quite the water day...

SO, what did you do??? Hope you have a good one today!