The New "Thing"

I know everyone's been waiting in anticipation of the new item I've been hinting at.

Zan was out of town a few days last week on business. Since he was gone I had extra free time to work on my projects.

So without further ado I bring you.....

Reusable Sandwich Bags!!!





I was getting tired of having to buy bags all the time and we use a lot of them. Once I saw one of these and realized that I could very easily make my own I was hooked. The kids LOVE having their own bags. Zan uses them every day for his lunch. Ella will be able to use them for her school lunch too.

They are made with cotton on the outside and a water-resistant nylon on the inside. There is a strip of Velcro that lines the top to keep everything nicely sealed inside. You can easily wipe down the inside when it gets a little dirty or throw it in the washing machine and line/air dry when it needs a little deeper cleaning.

So go check them out in my Etsy store. From what I've seen mine are the lowest priced bags out there. What a deal!!

Always Be Prepared

I think we have everything we need for fall/winter/school already! I guess we don't have the school supplies, but that's just because we haven't received the lists yet. I bought both the kids new snowsuits for this winter. You can find good deals this time of the year on E-Bay.

I got them both new Columbia 2-piece snowsuits from E-Bay. Ella's wasn't such a great deal, but it was so cute I just couldn't pass it up. Sam's was very cute and a great deal, so it evened it out a little. I got Ella's new school shoes also on E-Bay and picked up a pair of fall/winter shoes for Sam at Target the other day 75% off. (Saw aunt Jeanette too! Hi Jeanette!)

Today I ordered Ella's lunchbox from Pottery Barn Kids. They are so cute and it matches (sort of) her backpack that we got her last year. They have free shipping right now and the selection is better. If you wait too long most things are back ordered.

I just love having mostly everything already done. It is a stress reliever for me.

I'm going to work on my new Etsy project/item. I should have it up by tomorrow!

Stormy Weekend

We had an enjoyable, somewhat laid back weekend. Went biking/running with the kids in the morning. Zan ran while I biked and trailed the kids. Ella and I ran a couple errands after lunch while Sam napped and Zan worked on the playhouse.

Here's the playhouse in progress:



(If you look really close it looks like Zan is wearing a white t-shirt, but it's really just a bad farmer tan on a really pale boy.) :)

Around dinner time on Saturday some bad storms started rolling in. There was the neatest looking wall/shelf cloud that was just north of us. The picture doesn't do it justice. I've never seen anything quite like it.



This cloud produced at least one tornado and some huge hail. I'm very thankful that it missed us. I haven't heard that the tornado caused much damage. I think the hail was the worst of it. The sirens sounded for a bit and Zan brought the kids downstairs until they stopped and we were sure the storm wasn't going to be coming towards us.

We got some rain later in the evening which I was hoping for. The grass and garden both needed some rain.

The sunset was gorgeous...



Sunday was much calmer and we just got things done around the house.

I have a new project in the works for my Etsy shop. I'll post pictures up here when I've got them ready. Probably by the end of the week. I'm sure you'll be on pins and needles waiting! :)

Adirondack Chair

Wow, two postings in one day. I usually don't have much to share.

Here's a photo of my adirondack chair that I built. I did it all by myself! I just need to fill in and paint over the screw holes. It turned out really nice and it's really comfortable. Next I'm going to make a small table to put next to it. You need something to hold your drink! :)

Swinging

Sam loves to swing! No matter what park we go to, new or old, he heads straight for the swings. There are so many parks around us that we would try to go to different ones to mix it up a little. We've been staying closer to home these days because they don't care about the different parks. Ella just likes to slide and run and Sam just wants to swing. So why go farther from home when there's a park across the street?

He takes his swinging very seriously also. He checks to make sure that you're pushing with both hands and if you're not then you had better have a very good excuse why not. Most excuses don't work either. He likes to swing high and he'll let you know when you miss a push. If Zan and I are at the park then I have to push him. If Nana and I are at the park, then Nana has to push him. He has his favorite pushers.



We're building a playhouse for the kids in the backyard with a sandbox underneath. We've opted not to add on the swings because all we would be doing would be pushing the kids. Not that it's a bad thing, but since we have the swings literally across the street, then we're okay.

When I was mowing the yard on Tuesday I saw something out of the corner of my eye. It was a little frog. I almost ran it over with the mower. I stopped the mower and captured the frog. Turned out it was a little tree frog. It was so cute, no longer then about an inch long. Very sticky pads on her feet and hopped very far. We put her in the little animal house we have and named her Lily.

She was so cute and we could have kept her as a pet, but we didn't have all the necessary things that she needed. So yesterday, after her sleepover, we let her go. The kids both had fun holding her and letter her hop and crawl all over them. It was very cute.

Yesterday I made up a batch of raspberry jam. It turned out really well. So well that this morning I entered it into the county fair. The fair is less than a month away and I'm very excited to see how I do. I'm saving up the strawberries from my garden and hopefully I'll have enough soon to make a batch of strawberry jam also.

That's about all that's been going on this week. Nana is coming over to watch the kids tonight for a couple hours while Zan swims in the lake with his swimming group and I get to paddle the kayak with the group. I had so much fun doing it last week I'm looking forward to it tonight. Something out being out on the water. I think I need to get a boat of my own. :)

Police Department to the Rescue!!!

Wow, catchy title eh? And it's soooo true!!

So yesterday Ella had a birthday party at her cousin's house. It's about 45 minutes away so Sam and I dropped her off and ran to do a couple errands. On our way back to pick her up we stopped to get gas.

I pulled into the pump. Turned off the car and pulled out my keys. I then proceeded to put them into the ignition just a little, but not enough to make the door beep when I get out. This is something I do ALL the time. Apparently they were not sitting in there correctly or something because as soon as I got out and closed the door behind me all the doors automatically locked behind me!!

At first I didn't think that could have happened. Nothing like that has ever happened before in over 6 years that I've had the car. I guess there had to be a first time.

Well Sam was in the car and I couldn't get to him. There's no door lock/unlock button in the back seats and he's in his car seat so well that he couldn't get himself unbuckled. I finished pumping gas (all the while brainstorming) and then went inside the store. There was no way I could get into my car. I told the clerk what had happened and that my son my inside the vehicle. He proceeded to call the police.

They showed up a few minutes later (no sirens) and got out their tools to try to unlock the car. Apparently my car isn't the easiest to break into because they almost didn't get it. They pretty much had a long metal rod and were trying to push the unlock button from the inside.

We were getting ready to have to break a window (a locksmith would have taken too long to get there and I had to pick up Ella) when an off duty officer pulled up and was able to hit the button and unlock the doors with his first try!! I was so thankful that we didn't have to break a window or anything drastic.

Sam was great. He was just sitting there watching them do their work. I was so relieved to get back into the car! We even made it to pick Ella up right on time. What an adventure.

So now when I'm in my car (Zan's car has a keypad on the outside) I'm always bringing my keys out with me. Or opening a window or something! I was actually going to open Sam's window before I got out, but decided not to. Crazy when you look back on the situation.

I was a little frazzled, but we managed to survive.

That was definitely the highlight (or lowlight) of the weekend. Zan started working on the kids playhouse in the backyard and I've been working on my chair for the front porch/steps. I'll post pictures when we each get a little farther.

I'm hoping for a much more relaxed week this week!!

The Waterpark

Last week I took the kids to the waterpark with a couple friends and their kids. It was a chilly day, but the sun was out. They had a great time! They hadn't been to an actual outdoor water park before, so this was fun.

I have more pictures of Sam because Ella was off playing with her friends and Sam stuck close to me.





After the waterpark we went to a nearby park and had a picnic then played on their playground. They had some very, very tall slides. I went down one with Sam and scraped my elbow. (it's still healing) Then I told him he was too little for them.

Luckily they had many things to do there. It really was a cool park.















It was a fun time and we'll definitely be going to more waterparks this summer!

*** Don't forget to enter the dress giveaway at Our Mommyhood!! Only a couple days left!! ***

Tales From The Backyard

Since I can't seem to find the time to sit at my computer these days I figured as long as I'm just sitting here watching the kids in the sprinkler I should be doing something productive. Well as productive as I can be typing on my tiny phone...

Last week was pretty whirlwind around here. Tuesday we wnt with a couple friends to a water park/pool in St. Paul. Everyone had a great time! I have pictures from that to put up in another post. Wednesday we had another playdate with Jodi and her girls. Thursday we had a bunch of errands to run. Friday Zan took the day off work and we took a bike ride in the morning and crashed in the afternoon.

We had a fun/uneventful 4th. Went over to Nana and Papa's house. We also celebrated grandpa/great-grandpa's 90th birthday. (Which is actually today.) Everyone had a great time and it was fun seeing everyone.

Got home in time to get the kids in bed before it got dark. We were able to sit in our backyard and watch the fireworks over the lake. It was a great view and very convenient!

Now back to the everyday grind...

Super Giveaway

So you know that I have my Etsy store. We'll there's a giveaway of one of my fabulous dresses and a special discount for all readers.

The blog is called Our Mommyhood and it's great! Go check it out!

Happy 4th of July!!