Something Old, Something New

No, I'm not talking about the royal wedding, but did you see her dress? I thought it was beautiful.

I was browsing online the other day (I really need to stop this) and found something old that I really needed for my house (something new). And no I didn't need it, but something about screamed to me that I had to have it.

It's called a telescoping buffet table and I'd never seen anything like it. I put it in our foyer because that's where it fits best and looks really nice.

Here it is in it's "natural" state.

Looks just like a regular buffet right? Well this special buffet has leaves stored inside it and the front pulls off and this buffet will turn into a table up to 11 feet long!!

Pretty cool, huh? I thought so too, that's why I just had to have it. It was super cheap too. 

So if I need to host the new royal family I'll have a nice long table for dinner!! ;)

Easter Day

Easter has come and gone. Zan's parents stayed with us over the weekend and a good time was had by all.

The kids decorated their little cake bird nests. Those were yummy! Sam usually just chooses to eat the frosting though. 



































Ella learned how to play Old Maid. She had so much fun. She needs to work on her poker face though. She has many "tells".

 













After the kids were finished the adults continued to play. With princess cards none the less.

Easter morning the kids had fun hunting for the eggs and their baskets. Sam would find an egg and then go running after Ella to tell her all about it. Or if he found a pink or purple one he would give it to her because he knew she liked those colors.

I ate way too much candy, cake and food but it was so yummy and worth it!

My plants are all still growing so well. Each day I have to untangle my bean plants from themselves. They like to wind their way up and around. It's going to be a long few weeks until planting. Especially with this cold/wet weather. Warmer weather can't come soon enough!

In the Kitchen

Since spring is taking its sweet old time getting here I've been trying to keep busy in the house. That usually means I end up in the kitchen whipping up something or another. 

Yesterday, I will admit, I made the worst batch of cookies I've ever made before. (This does not include burnt batches.) Apparently my old ~lets just throw things in there~ way of cooking really doesn't work with baking. Sometimes it does, but sometimes it doesn't. They taste fine, but look funny. And since Zan has been eating them all up I'm assuming they aren't so bad.

The last time I went grocery shopping I picked up a couple very large bags of dry beans and over the past couple of days I have been canning them. I've always had a problem with buying dry beans and cooking them until they are soft enough. Then never seem to get cooked all the way when I cook with them. But they are great after canning. I had one jar that didn't seal and I tried the beans from there and they are nice and tender!! I'm very excited to have beans all ready to use when needed and not have to buy canned beans. 

I also made up another 8 pounds of baking mix. I use this mix for pancakes, waffles, muffins and coffee cake. It's so handy to have on hand and we have breakfast for dinner about once a week so this is a great easy ~and economical~ thing to have around.

I don't know if I mentioned this recently, but I'm currently in the process of building a big boy bed for Sam. He's in his toddler sized bed and growing out of it quickly. I have the headboard and foot board almost completed. I'll need to finish them this week and then get them stained and ready to be put together. They are coming along very nicely and I'll post pictures when I get them completed.

My plants are also growing nicely. 

The beans are now taller than the tomatoes. They have about one more month of growing until they will be planted. It will be interesting to see how big they get. I'm itching to get out in the garden, but it's been too cold. It's also supposed to snow tomorrow into Wednesday so this week is out. Bummer.

Well I'd better get back to my work. We've got house guests coming in a few days and I need to get the place spiffied up. Not to mention this room turned into a guest room. :) Ah, happy Monday.

Soccer

Soccer season has begun!! The first game was cold. Yesterday's game was 70 and sunny! Very nice. Unfortunately this Saturday is going to be cold and wet/snow. It just might be canceled. 

Last years team was preschool and kindergarten. This year her team is first and second graders. She's probably the littlest one on the team, but she's feisty!! She runs really fast and sometimes actually kicks the ball, but she's having tons of fun!! 

She totally reminds me of me when I catch her standing in the grass not paying any attention to the game and looking for bugs and in the grass. I'll catch her eye and tell her to get going! Than off she goes.

She took a hard block right to her face last night. I was looking through my camera lens and I saw it smack her head and she was down. She came off the field for a few minutes, but went right back out there. She was a little more hesitant, but got right back into it. Thankfully she didn't get any bruises and seems to be a-okay!

Here are the photos from yesterday's game:

Ah...Spring

It's finally starting to feel like spring around here. Right now I have a few windows cracked around the house letting in the fresh air. Sam and I got my compost bin set up in the garden. We even cleared the leaves from around the strawberry plants and put those in the bin. 

I was a little surprised to see a few green things growing underneath the leaves. I'm not sure what they are, but they are green, so I'll leave them for now. Once the ground gets all thawed and dried out a little I've got a lot of work to do in the garden. We need to get a big roto-tiller and level it out and then get a ton of dirt to raise it up. I'm not looking forward to all the work, but I'm so excited to get things planted in the garden that it pretty much makes up for it.

My seedlings are starting to get really big. They're taking over my sewing table.

You can see my tomatoes are the tallest, but my bean plants are quickly catching up! I have peppers on the windowsill. There are also squash, cucumbers, cantaloupe and new this year are green beans and kidney beans. I'm anxious to dry out the kidney beans and can them this fall. We'll see how that turns out. 

Heaven forbid I actually need to sew something. 

Well, off to enjoy the rest of this beautiful day!!!

A Weekend in Bullets

*Ella had a birthday party on Saturday and had a great time. It was a spa type themed party and I was in charge of nails. I did pretty well. Painting small nails doesn't take much time at all.

*Sam managed to take a scissors to his hair. Thankfully it was only a little and I really can't tell where it was. I just noticed that he had hair all over his shoulder. Yikes!

*My seedlings are sprouting like nobody's business!! 

These are my tomato seedlings, but the picture is a week or two old. You should see them now! I also started more last week and some of them are starting to come up. I'll get a new picture in here soon to show you the difference.

*Ella starts soccer this Saturday. Um...the snow just finished melting over the weekend. I think the fields are going to be a big soggy. 

*The new bread maker I ordered arrived on Saturday. I've been having fun trying new things out. My old one is starting to act up a bit. I got a ton of use out of it though. This time I got this Zojirushi one and so far I've been very impressed.


*All the snow is officially melted out of the yard. The grass took a beating this winter. It's going to be a tough cleanup this spring. 


*Romeo's birthday was yesterday. He's 10 years old.


*I cleaned/organized the kids closets/dressers today. I have a huge pile of clothes in my bedroom (from their rooms) for my garage sale. They have so many clothes!!


*Last but not least....a cute picture of the kids. (I took this picture a couple weeks ago. I've since cut Ella's hair to shoulder length and she looks really cute!)