Wordful Wednesday

A neighbor of mine always has an annual Easter egg hunt for some of the children that live nearby.  Last night we got together for a beautiful spring evening and the kids had a blast hunting for eggs!  Some years it is just too cold or snowy to do it outside but with Easter being later this year and our weather being unseasonably warm, it was perfect to be outdoors!

 

And my favorite photo of the evening was this next one…it looks like Peter found all these eggs but he really didn’t! 

To see more Word-ful Wednesday posts, please check out Angie’s blog.

Celebrations!

We were so busy celebrating my husband’s birthday yesterday that we almost forgot what today was!!!!

FFF-“Spring Forward”

This week’s theme for FFF is Spring.  Here in Minnesota we are actually seeing signs of spring after a REALLY, REALLY LONG WINTER!!!  It’s been warmer than normal and we are so excited to once again enjoy the outdoors!

Peter spends much of his day riding on his trike or pulling the wagon around waiting for his siblings to get home from school and play with him!

The other day he was outside and I came out to check on him.  He was “writing” letters with chalk and I heard him say,

“R-I-C-K-Y” as he was pretending to write.  I couldn’t believe he was spelling Ricky’s name so I asked him to do it again and he did!  I guess it’s time to teach him to spell his own name if he already knows how to spell his brother’s name!!!  His big brother is such a good teacher for him!!

What a difference two weeks makes in the weather…look at all the snow we still had a couple weeks ago!

The bird feeder is attracting some birds that have returned again after the long winter and some others that wintered here in MN!

And some new shoots are coming up in my perenniel garden!  Even the grass is already turning green under the winter kill!  That seems early here in MN!

Ricky and Greta had their 2nd grade Spring music program last night.  Ricky doesn’t always like to participate in these things…last year he stood up on stage with the class and sucked his fingers the whole time they were singing!  This year we bribed him with ice cream if he sang and he did AMAZING!!!  I was so proud!!  They sang 7 songs and he knew all of them.  A few of the songs had hand motions and one they sang while doing sign language to the song…he actually knew all the signs and did a better job than some of the 2nd graders who DON’T have special needs!!!  He had a big smile on his face the entire time and was really having a great time…I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have even had to use the ice cream as a bribe!  Ricky was front row, dead center so everyone saw him and several parents and teachers commented on how well he did!  Not to leave Greta out…she did AWESOME!! 

 During the first song, Greta(in light blue) and a few other children played instruments in the front row…I actually got both my kids in one photo(Ricky was right behind her)!  Then she moved back to her spot in the second row.

The entire class did a medley of songs playing their kazoos…we took this picture after the program was over!

Enjoy this great spring day and head over to Hannah’s blog to see more FFF!!

Guatemalan Adoptions…

I just read in the morning paper today that Guatemala will resume adoptions beginning in June!  Only 4 foreign adoption organizations will be selected to be part of the pilot program.  This is such exciting news for the children of Guatemala and for families who want to adopt a child!!  We always said we’d like to adopt a little girl from there if it was an option….  

Wordless Wednesday

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

FFF-“Green”

It’s not quite Friday yet as I go to post this but Friday will be busy so I needed a head start if I was to get a blog post up for this week’s Favorite Foto Friday!

This weekend the MN high school hockey tournaments are taking place in St. Paul.  Once again, my husband’s hometown team is in the tournament.  This little town of 2,700 population is like a David and Goliath story.  Almost every year, they make it to state and compete against big city schools whose high school populations are sometimes larger than this entire little town of Roseau, MN, located 20 miles from the Canadian border!  Although this school should be in the bracket with all the other little schools in the state, they choose to compete against the large schools in the other bracket!  And many years they have won the whole State Tournament in hockey making them the best team in the entire state!

My girls and my husband are spending the weekend watching the games and hanging out with the entire population of Roseau who made the 7 hour trip to St. Paul to cheer their team on.  Many of those people are relatives so my kids are having a great time skipping 3 days of school to be with them.  Hannah was even on the t.v. today during the game when they asked her and her cousin to announce the commercial break !  Here is a picture of Greta wearing her Roseau “Green and White” hat!

My kids weren’t happy about this but I made them put the green wig on so we’d have some photos for this post!!

Actually Hannah refused but she said she’d be in the picture if Peter wore it!  You can tell he’s thrilled about it!  So is Ricky in this next shot!

I don’t often get an opportunity to photograph my oldest, Taylor.  The other night when I was busy, she offered to put the boys to bed for me.  When I went up to check on them, she was so sweetly reading them a story!

Thumbs up to that, Peter!

To see more FFF, please stop by Hannah’s blog.

WordFUL Wednesday-Remodeling…Before and After

We are FINALLY done with our master bathroom remodel!!!!!  It took WAY LONGER and cost WAY MORE than we ever realized that it would but looking back…it is so worth it!  Not only do we now have a fabulous spa-like master bath retreat, we also will soon have a laundry area on the second floor where most of the laundry comes from!! No more running up and down the stairs with baskets full of clean and dirty clothing all week.  With seven people in this family, I do lots of laundry!!

Without further ado, here are the before and after shots:

It wasn’t bad before but it was in need of a facelift!  We opened up the wall between the shower and the toilet to add another 2 feet to the new shower.  The old tile was only in this small area…the rest of the bathroom was carpeted!!  Gross!

I sure don’t miss this lovely decorative band of burgundy tile in the shower!!!

We added a bench to the shower and around the corner where you can’t see it, we put in shelves to hold all the shower items.

Gone are the “popcorn” textured ceilings!

The existing tub was in great shape so we just updated the tile around it.

The finished product!!

The tiles are a rich, warm tan color…not the yellow color that they appear with this lighting.  Our contractor did an amazing meticulous job with all this tile.  Do you see how many types of tile we chose for the shower alone?  I’m sure it was a nightmare for him but it turned out so beautifully!

We took the tile all the way to the ceiling and added a light to this area.

The carpet is gone and in it’s place, this beautiful travertine flooring.    He also used it around the tub.

The door to the closet wasn’t in yet.  The new laundry area is on the other side of this wall that the tub is on.(in the photo above)

For now, we kept the same lighting but replaced the big ugly 3 foot by 6 foot mirror with these two framed mirrors.   They were such a bargain at a discount store for only $29 each!  I think they make some of the biggest impact in the room!!  Notice the smooth white ceilings too.

The mustard-colored walls were replaced with a warm neutral tan color.  What was I thinking when I chose that yellow color for the walls??!!

Looking back, all the inconvenience for the past two months was all worth it.  If we could do it over again, we would have gone alot cheaper on the tile.  That was the largest expense and I know we could have found less expensive yet equally beautiful tile at another store.  Live and learn…so much for our winter vacation!!!

To see more WordFUL Wednesday posts, go to Angies’s blog.

I’m Back!!!

There’s no excuse for why I’ve been gone so long.  I just felt like I had nothing worth writing about!  I’ve also been a little wrapped up in my Etsy business lately and spend long hours each day creating new items if I’m not busy getting out orders.  My poor little Peter is such a good sport about entertaining himself when I’m busy.  I have to make an effort to spend quality time with him too…I know that sounds terrible.  I love to be with him!  He’s just so easy going that I figure if he’s content playing by himself, I’ll keep plugging away at my work.

He loves working on puzzles.  He’s the only one of my 5 children who ever had an interest in them and spends lots of time putting these alphabet puzzles together.  They are actually for older kids but he’s just really determined and great at doing them.

We are eagerly awaiting spring here in MN like everyone else is!  The snow continues to melt more each day with temps in the 40’s…high for this time of year where we live!

We had hoped to take a winter vacation to somewhere HOT but our bathroom remodel costs got a bit out of control and now when the kids ask if we can still go on vacation, I tell them to go into the master bath and enjoy their spring break!!  I’ll post photos of the before and after shots tomorrow….it turned out fabulous!!!!!!

Glad to be back and blogging!  I missed it( and missed all of you) but I did try to keep up on all your blogs several times a week.  Didn’t always comment but I still loved reading about you!  I hope I still have some followers out there who haven’t abandoned me!!?? ANYONE THERE??????