Camping does not equal FUN

This past weekend our class at church at a psuedo campout. We all hung out and slept in tents in my friend's backyard. Now she has a really cool backyard! There is a pond and a fire pit and their back yard is like 2 acres. And they have some really cool dunebuggy mobile. I pounced on that ride! I had a blast driving it, until all the kids kept begging me for rides - I was done after that! :)

We had about 50 people there and only a dozen or so families camp out. Let me mention that ALL my so called closest friends WENT HOME! None would sleep over in the tent. I GREATLY REGRET not doing the same. You see, I have a reputation of hating (putting it lightly) camping. So when I put it out there that I would sleep over, I had to deliver. I woke up in the morning with my eyes sealed shut and not being able to breathe. Saying that I have alllergies is putting it mildly. I am allergic to all things green. Each morning, I dope up. I have a pill, prescription eyedrops (that are worth every penny of the $80 they cost me), steroid inhaler, and a nasal spray. All prescription strength. About this time of year, my allergy doctor calls me up to make sure I am still alive and breeathing. Sometimes, I am barely able to open my eyes. But I digress.... I got up at around 5am to Parker having a very excited conversation (and a baby crying) and asking for a backrub. We packed up once the rest of the crazies were up and headed straight for dunkin donuts. I need coffee and a donut STAT! I sat in the car with my eyes shut and barely breathing...


At least the boys had a great time. Parker caught his first fish that night. He was sooooo excited! He also had a marshmallow dinner. I'm suprised his tummy didn't hurt.



Anderson loved camping so much he convinced DH to set up a tent in the playroom last night. And for the 2nd night in a row the boys are sleeping in it. Better in there, than outside!


So needless to say, I'm done camping for a while. I promised DH that I would camp every decade. The last time I went "for real" camping was in 2001, and apparently this doesn't count for the next decade. bummer.....

I love Co-Op produce!

I joined a Produce Co-Op with a group from church. The concept is simple, a large group of women get together each week and put an order in. There are small groups within the large group. Each small group (3 or 4) take turns shopping/compiling/sorting every 10 days. You are not guaranteed that you will get everything you ask for (there is a master list we use). When you do request items you are getting a minimum of 1/8th of box. But you don't have to place an order every week.

I was up at 5am...that's right folks, I said A.M!!! But that's the best time to go, you get better service and there isn't hardly anyone there. The woman started our group is already a part of another produce group and she is helping us get started. I went to get trained to shop. It was awesome!! I wanted to buy everything there!

Here are pictures of what I got


Apples - $2.25 for 15
Mangoes - $2.29 for 7
Pineapple - $1.56 for 1
Red Potatoes - $1.60 for 5 pounds
Kiwi - $2.75 for 13

The beauty for when its your turn to shop you see stuff that wasn't on the list or not enough people wanted it to buy a box, and can decide last minute you want it. So there was a box of red ORGANIC pears, corn (!), cauliflower, and bagged broccoli I got.

So I got the following for $7

18 Red ORGANIC pears
8 ears of corn
1 head of cauliflower
1 bunch of cilantro
1 bag of broccoli


I'M SOOOO EXCITED FOR THIS! Now to eat some fruit for a snack. My group of 3 will be shopping in 10 days. It will be our first shop. Today was a day of training! My job will be back at my house, and I will be compiling and getting ready for the ladies to return from the shop.

GREEN JUICE - BLEH!

My kids are funny. They L-O-V-E this juice! Anderson calls it "Green Juice". I think its gross. You pour it and its more gross! Its a thick dark green goop. But they love it. I do try and dilute a little bit with some water, b/c their dentist informed me it was turning their teeth brown. So, now we only buy it for "special treats"

What is in "green juice" - let me tell you...

Apple juice
Mango puree
Pineapple juice
Banana puree
Kiwi puree
Spirulina (??? some kind of dietary supplement)
Broccoli
Spinach
Barley grass
Wheat grass
Parsley
Ginger root
Blue green algae
Odorless garlic (interesting)

Bolthouse Farms makes a "green juice" too that I used to buy at Costco. I haven't seen it at Costco in while, so now I buy it at Trader Joes

Green Juice anyone???

Just call me Martha!

For some reason I felt compelled to bake like crazy today. At 8am I started to make a batch of "pumpkin apple struesel muffins". The boys loved them! I gave half the batch to the landscape workers outside, I think they really liked them too - there weren't any left! After the muffins came out of the oven, I put in a loaf of banana bread. I had about 5 rotten/ripe bananas staring at me, and I found a recipe that didn't involve me hauling out my kitchen aid (I know, most people love recipes that involve the kitchen aid, but I would rather mix with the spoon). I'm bringing this loaf to school tomorrow, to share with the awesome ladies in the office, they put up with a lot of my craziness. And then tonight at 9:30pm, I popped a pumpkin pie in the oven. That's right, a homemade (crust is from Trader Joes) pie! Anderson has been begging, begging me for a pumpkin pie for soooo long! I guess the picture on the can of pumpkin from the muffins got his brain moving. So tonight, I proceeded to bake the pie.

Also, I made it to the gym today. First time since March 4th, (when we had the puking incident with Parker - didn't get his way and that's what he does!) Does it count if I eat a Tastykake (similar to a hostess cake) on the way? Because, seriously, the 25 minutes I was on the elliptical I am positive that I didn't burn the calories of 1/2 of my Tastykake! Oh well, I did bake muffins, bread and a pie today! And thankfully, most of what I baked was or is being given away!

Annual Yard Sale

Each year, our Sunday School class has an annual yard sale. Everyone drops off items to be donated and we sell it. We host it and its a HUGE EVENT! My garage was so full and the driveway was packed out with tables and STUFF!!!! At 6am, we had our first "drove" of customers. These 2 ladies came with a pickup truck and trailer - serious!



I have a lot of help from members in our class and its my favorite event that I organize!!! I have no emotional attachment to any of the "stuff" so I sell it. The goal is to get it off my driveway!



We love to find stuff in the piles and wear them. This is my friend and I wearing random scarves we found and this great parrot sweater.


We brought in almost $900! What a great day...I'm wiped and headed to bed

DEMOLITION DERBY

The demolition continues and its in full force! Our landscaper (and former neighbor) is here with his crew tearing it up! Its awesome! We are on the main drag of our neighborhood and I've gotten a lot of people slowing down while they drive by. I personally think they are very very excited! You see, our new house was on the market for 1.5years and finally went into foreclosure, so that is when we snatched it up. It was empty for a year, so I can only assume that my fellow neighbors are excited to see some landscape happenings! :)


The boys have had a good time watching Mr. Tim and his crew use the "diggers" pulling up the trees, bushes and grass. I can't wait to see the finished product. Stay tuned!

Easter Day

Its been a busy Easter weekend. We had an egg hunt at our friend's house on Saturday. The boys had a great time there. The rest of the day was spent getting the house ready. We had a bunch of families over on Sunday.



We woke up on Sunday and headed to church for Easter services. What a great service! The boys looked so handsome in their Easter outfits.


We had a bunch of families over in the late afternoon for dinner. We did an egg hunt when they all got here and some great grub!

Survived another Zoo Trip

I survived another trip to the zoo with 6 other fellow mommies and 15 kids! What a trip. We had a 9 hour day, including travel time. (about 1.5 hours in the car).....I'm beat! The kids were so great, and the zoo was packed out! That is what we get for visiting on spring break week! It was stroller crazy but the kids had a great time with each other. We had a great weather...

I will say, we are getting better at leaving our "meeting place" earlier. It doesn't take us 2 hours anymore to pack up the cars and get the caravan going. This time, we planned it out via email and was ready to go within 30minutes of everyone's arrival.

When we arrived at the zoo, it was stroller mania...


We always try to get a group picture, and I think its more comical to all the other people around us, than it is for us. Parker wouldn't get it in the picture, he is missing and I think there was one other child who wouldn't do it either!



Til we go again...

Soccer Season

Its Soccer Mom time again! This is Anderson's 3rd time/season playing soccer. Much much much better. There was no crying, whining or hands down his pants! He was actually kicking and running and smiling! :) Parker was on the sidelines playing soccer with DH and he was really good!

Dinner and a Show

We had a special night with Anderson. DH was able to score some theatre tickets to see "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" via craigslist. We first took him to a restaurant downtown. It was a pretty fancy place - Yes, we were brave...there is no children's menu, no crayons, no kids cups. The gentleman on the phone (when I called to make reservations) told me that they don't have 5 year olds eat there on a regular basis. Well, we still went out. Anderson got all dressed up, tie and all. He was sooo proud of his tie. He did not want to wear a vest, b/c he said it would cover up his tie. How precious is that!!!

Dinner was successful. No spillage of the drinking water, a few bubbles with the straw but he did great. Everyone at the restaurant was so great with him. Thankfully, he was well behaved too! He ate the appeitzer of calamari, I didn't tell him what it was - just that it was like shrimp. I ordered a dish with tortelline and veggies and shared it with him. He ate some of DH's seafood from his seafood paella. And then the big winner was dessert! It was also the bribery of the meal. He had a huge piece of chocolate cake.

After dinner, DH and Anderson caught a shuttle (bus) to the theatre while I went to park the car across from the theatre. Upon arrival of the theatre he was so excited to get a booster seat, and way into the orchestra pit! When he got back to his seat he said, "Mom, I saw a tuba! Parker would of liked that!" How precious!

He was excellently behaved during the entire show. At intermission, he was ready to go home. The show didn't start til 8pm, so it was late already. After we convinced him it wasn't much longer, he was ready. Come to find out, he was afraid of the pirates that were coming up and discovered they weren't that scary.

On the way home, he was comparing how the stage production was different from the movie (we had been watching the movie for the past 2 weeks). What a smart kid!

I'm so proud of my little theatre buff...

New Oven = New Day!

About a month ago, my DH caught my oven on fire. Oh yes, FIRE! I was attempting to clean out this nasty piece of appliance and DH decided to "help" me by unscrewing the heating element, and sparks ignited and flames were scene, my kids are hovering under a blanket on the coach, DH starts screaming "CALL 911" Thankfully, no 911 call was needed, just a fire extinguisher. The repair man came out a few days later and he said it was faulty wiring. This began the calls to the Home Warranty Company. (A picture of my faulty oven after they took it out today)

You have to understand that we have made full use of our Home Warranty since moving in - new hot water heater, microwave, central vac repair, oven repair (when we first moved in the display panel didn't work) and now we can add a NEW VIKING OVEN! After several phone calls, DH, got them to give us a cash out. They would not replace my old oven, which was a Jenn Air, with a comparable one. So we found on ebay and purchased it with the money the Home Warranty gave us. DH did have to drive up to D.C to pick it up, but he was there on business anyhow.

The boys were so into watching the installation process. It was quite fascinating to them. Parker kept asking questions, and Anderson just sat there mesmorized.


But here is my NEW OVEN!!!! DH does have to do some repair work to the cabinetry to get it to fit snugly in.

Suprise Pictures

The other day, I downloaded the pictures off my phone. To my suprise I found about 20 pictures that Anderson took of Parker. It was really funny!

The funniest picture is this one:


He loves this new shirt! (Thanks Lisa EPo) He spilled something on it, and would not let me take it off of him to treat and wash. And if you look closely you can see the stains, which means, he took the shirt off, took the picture and put the shirt back on! That just makes me laugh.

Funny Kids

I was chatting with some friends the other night at church in the hall. I went in to the nursery and found this! How cute are they???