Treasures found thrifting!

I went to the annual Craven Farms (Snohomish) Tailgate Antique sale on Saturday morning. This is my 2nd year attending. Photos of the treasures I found last year are here. The prices at this event are generally excellent. I was so excited to find this beauty for 5 dollars! Yes! I think a trip to Flower World is in order, to fill it up with flowers/plants. :)

I also found a map of Paris, 4 doilies (I've started a collection), a magazine/paper holder that I'll repaint, and a china plate.

I'm happy that garage sale season has begun but my pet peeve is wasting time finding parking for a sale only to find out that the seller has only junk.

I'm linking up with Thrifty Treasures at Southern Hospitality and Nifty Thrifty Tuesdays at Coastal Charm.Pin It

Summer Activities - 2011 Edition

Summer is in full swing around here, even if the weather isn't exactly playing along. My boys have been out of school for almost 2 weeks!

Inspired by The Crafting Chicks, I created 3 jars of ideas. One has rainy day ideas (blue paper), one had sunny day ideas (yellow paper), and the third is places to go (orange paper). The summer jars are a big hit with my boys! They even wrote out some of their own ideas.

Here is a sample of the rainy day list, which is the longest. :)
- write a letter to a friend
- write in summer journal (I bought each of them a composition book)
- summer reading. We signed up at the local library. There are so many programs available including Half Price Books.
- make muffins or cookies with Mommy
- play a board game
- look through photo albums
- do a science experiment. I found some great books at the library.
- find 5 toys to give away
- practice math skills (note to self: get a math workbook or two)

Here are our sunny day list. This list is the shortest because my boys don't need much help coming up with ideas on those days.
- play street hockey
- sidewalk chalk
- bubbles
- paint rocks
- hide & seek
- dig up weeds with Mommy (hmmm, maybe today?)
- wash the car
- slip n' slide- "water slide" - garden hose directed down the slide (our slide isn't bolted down so we can move it around)
- street soccer

The "places to go" list includes parks, beaches, mini golf, and the Zoo. For rainy day outings, there is the following:
- Science center
- Children's musuem
- Lego store at Bellevue Square
- rollerskating
- Zoo (inside stuff)
- McDonald's play area (yes, they still like that).
- Creation Station
- Amphibian Center in Edmonds - call first before you go - limited hours.
- Lowe's Build and Grow (some Saturday mornings)

Today, we're going to the play area at McDonald's and I'm bringing a book to read. :)Pin It

6 already???

My baby turned six in May. OK, I said it. He also graduated from Kindergarten earlier this month. Sigh. Life is moving way too fast! Thankfully, I still get some cuddles once in awhile. :)

So with many busy Saturdays we weren't able to have a birthday party until this past weekend. I made a Lego cake that took 3 times longer to frost than I expected and the first cake I made fell apart when I turned it over. I ended up arriving late to the party! I also didn't take as many photos as I wanted but it is so difficult to be the hostess AND photographer. C had a great time and so did his guests. That's the main thing, right? I was exhausted at the end of the day. I think I fell asleep at 7:30 pm that night!

On with the photos. First, the cake.Not my best but it does look like Lego. The bumps are marshmallows cut in half. The icing was homemade and yummy!

Here's the birthday boy on his throne. He's going through his serious-in-photos stage.
And here are the friends (and big brother).

The party was held at a childrens museum so the guests got to run around and play after we had cake and opened presents. (We also had a little game - guess how many Lego in a glass jar.) The Wedgits were popular.
My mom is now reading my blog for the first time since I started blogging (back in 2006, I think). Hi Mom!!!Pin It

Sorticulture?

The name of this festival cracks me up - Sorticulture. We went today.
It was free and not too crowded. There was a great playground so the boys preferred to spend most of their time there. Thanks, J, for staying with them while I explored the garden art. :)

I want to try this some day - a garden bed using an old bed.This was my favourite display - miniature gardens - so creative!(These are Barbies if it wasn't clear.)

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Summer activity #1

School's out for summer! It is a good thing and a challenge. The challenge is keeping my kids active and avoiding hearing that dreaded "I'm bored!" I'm compiling a list of things we want to do, things to keep their brains occupied (to avoid the summer slide in math), and places to visit that are fairly close by. Of course, we'll go on a family vacation and attend a vacation Bible school. There may also be swim lessons but what about the rest of the time? Well, a mom has to get creative, especially since day camps are expensive!

Activity #1 - Painting Rocks

My youngest did this yesterday since he was already out of school and looking for things to do.

Cost? Free! Well, if you don't count the paint, that is. Washing the rocks can also be part of the fun. I've included a painting tip in my photo. Use a cheap ice cube tray (think dollar store) for holding paint.Pin It

Kindergarten Graduation

This is a very short blog post due to busy week.

I had to share this photo from Kindergarten graduation which was last Friday.
Every child received an award and said what they want to be when they grow up.
My son's award? The Isaac Newton Award for Science. :)
What does he want to be? An artist.Pin It