Snapshot Monday

Here are some views of what we have been up to lately:

We found a new park right by our house. It is so cool. There are two playgrounds and lots of trails. One park is made out of found wood and has rain barrels and recycling at each picnic shelter. It also has a huge, steep slide that Ian loves.

We went to see cousin CC run in the NC High School Cross Country finals last weekend. She had a good run and was quite pleased with her final XC run (she's a senior so this was the last opportunity to run). It was also great to see some family and to have a nice meal together. I love my mother-in-law and always feel so lucky to have a great mil when most people I know can't stand theirs. She and I disagree (a lot) about education and unschooling (since she is a school teacher) but otherwise we get along swimmingly. Also, I think as time goes by and Ian gets older she will change her mind about unschooling.

We got some Magic Rocks the other day at Buck's work. They were really pretty initially and I took lots of pictures to keep track of their progress, but as soon as I had to rinse out the tank (per the directions) they fell apart and most of them fell out of the tank. I don't think it was a very fun toy. It was just kind of...there.

Last night Ian and I watched 'Ferris Bueller" and "Willy Wonka" while we got crafty. He drew and painted Oompa Loompas and Willy Wonka and I made some more felt food. I am thrilled with my shrimp. It was all free hand and spur of the moment. The cake is cute but I would do it differently if I ever made another piece. I also made a sausage but we couldn't find it when we were taking pictures. Today we will make more food and try some embroidery.

Snapshot Sunday

Here is another long-awaited (ha ha!) version of Snapshot Sunday.
We had a peek from the sun for a bit so the little boy and the big boy ran around in the backyard with foam swords for a while.

We are starting to decorate for Halloween. This is Buck's favorite holiday so he goes all out. This year we decided to do a haunted Victorian mansion to be like the one from Disneyland. We have rounded up all the creepy old family pictures (of which Buck has lots :) and made a display in a bookcase. The big picture is actually Buck's parents and Buck (as the baby) back in 1970. His folks were actors and were in a play right around the time he was born so this was taken as a promotional photo.

Ian is getting into the Halloween spirit by drawing skeletons and specters and watching "Nightmare Before Christmas" about 4 times a day! He has plans to collaborate with me on a book version though.
Ah, I found a box of treasures and memories in some stuff that my mom dropped off for Nick. First I found some pictures of old houses and 15-year- old me. Man, I am glad I am not 15 again. I also found a date book from 1987, the year I was left alone at JFK airport (at age 9.5) and the year Nick accidentally burned down the house in the picture!

The last treasure is a mixed blessing. I found a really sad letter from Jensen (from 1991) with a bunch of his hair in it! It is the only physical thing I have left of him, so it was really bittersweet to find it. The letter was also heart-breaking.

See Sarah to play!

Chemicals and Concoctions!

Today we were treated to a fun, empty and cold park with some friends. Afterwards we had lunch at Chick-fil-A where Ian! got a beaker with his meal.

Okay, so here is a brief aside: last night Ian! and I were discussing exclamation points and how they work, and he thought it would be better if his name and my name had exclamation points after them from now on since we are cool and need some way to denote that. I love my boy!

So, he was pretty stoked about the beaker and told me he wanted to make chemicals once we got home. First it was simply milk, water, and gummies. I brought out some stuff I thought would be fun like syrup and vanilla and sprinkles.

I thought he might actually want to taste it so I chose sweetish things. Then it got chunkier with bread and vitamins and pumpkin seeds and protein powder.
Then it got so crazy that Ian! ran out of room in the beaker and had to move it to a large measuring cup. He added all sorts of spices and condiments and herbs. His favorite thing was adding a bunch of secret ingredients and then watching them sink into the chemical.
He discovered he could use his stirring straw to blow bubbles and that opened up a whole new way to mix his concoction.

All told he used over 30 different ingredients. We had so much fun together this afternoon listening to good music, pretending to be Chairface Chipendale's wife and son (any Tick fans out there?) and making concoctions, connections and good memories.

Snapshot Sunday

Dearest's role-playing stuff

A bird on a wire

Our "new" front door (since Nick's room covers the old front door).

Rusty railing
Ian drew his dream for me today. He has been wanting to dream about the Animaniacs for such a long time and was thrilled with his brain for giving him the desired dream this morning! He is drawing Yakko in this picture but Wakko is his favorite. He is requesting a little sister to play the part of Dot :)

See Sarah to play!

Snapshot Sunday-Life on the couch edition

It is sad to say that almost all of my pics from yesterday were taken whilst sitting on the couch. That is where I spent the majority of my day. I have been having a lot of lower back pain for the last month or so and this weekend it got to the point where I couldn't do much except lounge


and play Gauntlet (I got to level 100!) and eat cake lovingly prepared by dearest for no special reason (it says "Cutsie and LIBC" Ian calls my Cutsie and Buck calls me LIBC). I managed to make a surcoat on Friday for my brother Nick who will be knighted next weekend. I also played a lot of New Super Mario Bros. on my lovely turquoise DSi that I got for my birthday and I watched Buck and Ian have a Battle Royale with good guys vs. bad guys.

I will be going to the chiropractor tomorrow, so next Sunday will be more action-packed, I'm sure. I just realized that all of the pictures are blue! It wasn't planned but I like it.

See Sarah to play!

Snapshot Sunday

It was a.....

Lego and ice cream....

journal writin'.....

Upside-down movie watchin'....

Munchkin playin'....

Library bookin'......
kind of day.

See Sarah to play along.....

Super Sunny Snapshot Sunday

Denim on the line.

Muscadines almost ready for picking.

Cicada and Liriope.

A sunny spot in the kitchen.

Woo hoo. We're not quite there yet but I think CPMs will be legalized soon.

See Sarah if'n you want to play along.....

Snapshot Sunday

We're back to all things Haunted Mansion and Lego around here. This is the jilted bride in the attic from Ian's Lego version of the H.M.

A quiet corner of my bedroom.

Rooms within rooms within rooms. (Please excuse the plywood at the end of the hall...once the room addition is complete this will be a bookshelf.)

A picture of a picture of the boy at Epcot.

Rain, rain go away!

See Sarah to play.

Snapshot Sunday

Construction is finally underway on Nick's room. Hooray!


Today is the last day that we have these windows. Tomorrow they will be gone!

Missing my boys.....they are out of town until next week. It's lonely here....

My perfume bottles

My nightstand with a love note from Dearest....(can you tell that I miss them?)

See Sarah to play!

Snapshot Sunday

We had a party and someone brought us flowers for the 4th. I loved that the water turned pink the next day! The kitchen view is the morning after the party. This proclamation was on our front door. Here is my smilin' boy. We also got the toys back in some order after having lots of friends over on the 4th.



See Sarah to play.