Cabinets!

One of the things I love about our house is that at last, we have room to get some fun pieces of furniture. While I adore Ikea, I've had a great time scouring craigslist looking for interesting, unique pieces. This cabinet is about 80 years old and made by an Amishman in Pennsylvania. The brass pitcher and silver vase are from my Grandma.

We decorated these shelves in Ella's room with adorable little dog bookends that were my Grandma's when she was a young girl. The teacups belonged to my Grandma, as did the vase on the left. My mom cross-stitched the picture on the bottom right.

This hutch in the kids bathroom is also an antique -- it was pretty battered, but a coat of mint paint made it pretty cute.

Last but not least, we got this cabinet for our bathroom (the downside to pedestal sinks!). My favorite part about it is the solid glass knobs.

So we need to work on geography....

Rand: "Mom, I love you all the way to outer space and back. No, wait, I love you all the way to heaven and back! No, I love you all the way to New York and back!!!"

Dirt Pile!

Easter Videos

Yes, they're a month late....and the photos will be even later! Note: these videos unedited and probably of no interest to anybody except very, very immediate family.

Today...

I woke up to find that Ella had smeared red lipstick all over our bedspread and sheets, plus the carpet, bathroom rug, and her toybox, not to mention herself. WD40 removes red lipstick from said items.

We went to storytime at the library, which featured a real police officer. Rand raised his hand, was called on twice, and, in his excitement to ask the question, promptly forgot his question both times. His 3rd question was, "What should you do if a car crashes into your house?" followed by "What should you do if a car crashes into your gate?" I wonder what kind of parents that police officer thinks we are.

We made chocolate chip cookies.

Rand loves Peter Spier books right now, and I got "Noah's Ark" at the library. He examined every page in minute detail.

Ella can take off her own diaper and pants. This has results in some not-very-good things.

Day Two of our new Dirt Pile was fantastic. There was a scorpion in the middle of our bedroom floor (I think it may have fallen from the ceiling vent). We found a little red snake under a piece of wood and had fun watching it slither around. I think our bird in the carport has laid more eggs, as she is back to sitting on her nest again and dive-bombing our heads when we get too close.

Summer is coming.....

Summer is coming to Arizona. It's not too bad yet, but yesterday it was hot enough that we all went swimming and enjoyed our beautiful new pool. Rand has braved it before, but yesterday Ella and I joined him. Rand has remembered how to swim (well, dog paddle) and I need to go and get Ella a little life jacket this week so she can do more than sit in my arms.

There's also the "have-a-bucket-of-water-and-a-popsicle" for the less classy among us.

And as long as they're outside in their bathing suits, why not finger paint?

Butterflies!

A couple of weeks ago we went to see the butterflies at the Botanical Gardens. The kids had so much fun! They were given miniature magnifying glasses and loved peering at the butterflies through them. Rand had a million questions for the people working at the exhibit and learned that if a butterfly was on the ground, he should put his shadow on top of the butterfly so it would fly away. For the rest of the visit, he paid very close attention and made sure that no butterfly stayed on the ground for more than a few seconds!

Ella loved the butterflies and kept saying, "Fly! Fly! Pretty!" She would look and point and start giggling.

Mud, Mud, and More Mud

I shot the video from inside our living room. The abrupt ending is due to Rand not sharing, but on a happier note, he was quickly reasoned with after the video camera was shut off and the paint brush was returned to Ella.

Normally I am very casual about letting the kids make a mess, but this was ridiculously time-consuming to clean up. There was mud on the front of the house, the doors, the windows, all of the dogs, all over the front patio....there is still dried mud on the sidewalk that I need to go chisel off. But they had fun!

Giggles

Living in the (almost) country

One of the reasons why we love our new house so much is that it's a little teeny bit like living in the country. Except with a Costco three minutes away.

One challenge: weeds! We had a glorious rainy season and waited way too long to buy a lawn mower, which left me with weeds taller than Ella:

Our poor mower made it through the bulk of the weeds before dying a tragic death. We now need a new mower quickly before the weeds regroup.

In happy news, our grapevines survived! There are loads of tiny little green grapes -- we'll see how they taste.

Guess where I stopped mowing? Thankfully, this tree was already dead before the weeds surrounded it and took over. If anyone feels like having a wood-chopping party, just let me know.

I felt almost bad mowing down all of the beautiful flowers.

Werner got stung by a scorpion a couple of weeks ago, and we promptly called our scorpion-killing friend who came and sprayed the house for us. No more sightings, thank goodness, and Werner said that the after-effects were some of the strangest feelings ever.

We also had baby birds in our carport! Mama bird laid her eggs and was very protective whenever any person or dog tried to walk underneath her nest. All four of the eggs hatched, and it was fun to stand underneath the nest and hear them peeping. The last of the four flew off today, but maybe they'll come back next year.

Suffice to say, we enjoy our house!

Peek-a-Boo!

I bought an antique cabinet -- it didn't take long for Rand and Ella to find out that it was just the right size for them to hide inside.