Brainstorming....

I am looking for fun, crafty, creative ideas...thinking possibly carnival themed. Tons of kids involved. Curious yet?? I'm picturing tents, cotton candy, a bouncy house, a lemonade stand, popcorn, peanuts, candy table...I see bright colors, fun banners, and tulle. This is going to be HUGE : ) But have to do this on a budget. Ideas WELCOME!!!! Especially on how to do all this fun stuff on a BUDGET.

(taken from Dear Lizzy blog...but this is just the start of what I'm thinking...)

Holy concrete Batman!

Top half of driveway, finished. Amounting to 1500+ sq ft of concrete. Yikes, that's alot of concrete!

The kids put their handprints along the driveway near the garage. Sadie tried to grab it as soon as I placed her hand in it, hence the reason her handprint looks more like a raccoon's!!

And just because...

More teeth are poking through, but she might just look like a lil vampire because it's not the top front teeth! She can get into crawling position on her own, and sit back up by herself. She's mobile...watch out!!!

Lots of work to do coming up...I've convinced Mike we must finish the porch, as well as steps out the back door, & we have to add on to our swingset before the summer is over. On the way to Menards before he changes his mind!!!! Have a good weekend! ; )

make a wish!

JOIN US!!!

The annual Make A Wish Run/Walk event along Milwaukee's lakefront is August 28th this year. It will be our 6th year as a team. This year we celebrate Kaycey being nearly five years cancer free!! Kaycey was discharged from a three week transplant inpatient stay just days before our first year walking. She didn't go on the walk with us, but she and Mike met us afterwards. Here she is hooked up to her meds & nutrition, playing four square. One tough little cookie!!

Anyone interested in joining our team, please contact me or search for team "Kaycey Jane" HERE

projects part 2

I'm pretty sure the concrete being poured for our driveway this week should be made of diamonds and pearls for what it is costing...yikes. But it will be so nice!! We were only going to do half of the drive, but it's amounting to almost 2/3 I'd say. We aren't sure if we'll finish it in concrete or asphalt next year. The kids will be able to play basketball, use chalk, ride scooters & bikes...things they haven't done in forever. And little rocks and pebbles won't be all over the house from the formerly gravel driveway! I can't believe how huge the driveway looks! It's crazy. Looks like a basketball court. 1/3 done yesterday, 2/3 of the way to go...

Also Mike has been working on the porch (the past couple months really). It is all white now! Just need to finish the stairs/railings and some trim, and we need to put the white criss-cross trellis stuff below the porch. He even built some little planters at the top of the stairs!

The to do list goes on and on for outside stuff...but it's looking like that might be it for summer completed projects : (

We have a relatively new marble reward system in the house...it has been working great. We are still working out some kinks, like what each one will be worth, what they can trade them in for, or what they can save them up for. The kids and I cleaned all day Monday--and everyone was eager to help! We made a chart of jobs and rooms to be cleaned. Too bad we haven't even tackled 1/3 of them. And too bad poor Maddie puked all over the freshly cleaned dining room floor late last night! Thankfully she is feeling much better today.

In other news, I got an email from our principal at school...registration packets are being mailed out soon!! I love seeing the school supplies in stores. Love it. How I love school supplies. Not becauce I am eager to start another school year, I really do love school supplies!! Ask my sister & cousins about how I made them play school ALL the time, and only I could be the teacher : )

a crafty project

While it has been entirely too long since I've gotten a chance to scrapbook, this past Friday my neighbor friend and I got together (childless!) for a 5 hour crafty day. She sewed, and I scrapped. So I've been working on this mini album of Sadie since October...pathetic, I know. It's not quite complete; there's many notebook-like journaling pages inside that I have to fill yet as well as a handful of pictures. Morgan, I'm using all those October Afternoon goodies : )

This past week...

Sadie is at the terrible "I can sit up perfectly, but that's not so cool anymore, so when you sit me on the floor, I will probably lean over and try to crawl but won't go anywhere yet" stage. Which then results in an angry baby on her belly. It won't be long till she's a crawling machine. She manages to get around just by wiggling, or when on her belly she'll use her arms and "crawl" in a circle. She gets on all 4's, but hasn't quite mastered the real moving yet. Legos are upstairs in preparation for this!! Next to be moved: polly pockets and littlest pet shop.

The weekend of the 4th was crazy, but being that it is probably my favorite holiday (seriously!) that's okay. We went to see the waterski show in Muskego (remember our friend who is on the team?). Then stayed for those fireworks with Mike's parents. We ran into SO many people from church, it was fun. Love this small town atmosphere where everywhere we go we run into people we know. On Sunday after church, we last minute decided to do a parade (I do love parades!) but unfortunately we were at the very end of the parade, so it was so long and drawn out at that point that it wasn't even fun. And no one was throwing candy, either. We left after an hour and a half; hot, candyless, and tired. We then went swimming at Oma's, followed by cookout and more fireworks. Note to self: Greendale fireworks were totally lame this year, must do Franklin or good ole Big Bend next year. Hope y'all had a great 4th!

Thanks for the feedback! I feel much better about it all. My kids, my rules. I think part of the problem also is that parents are so bent on doing what's hot right now, even if it's not age appropriate (like the 5 year olds going to see Justin Bieber/Sean Kingston....REALLY?!?!?!) That goes for fashion, too. (The 10 year olds dressed like 21 year olds. I know the 10 year olds aren't out buying their own clothes...so who is?) The 11 year old with the iphone (who does the 11 year old really need to text?!?!). Technology, fashion, etc...it all goes together. And it's all on the parents. Kids grow up fast enough, why push it along any faster?

Now I must delete pictures--I have no room on my computer to finish uploading any more from this past weekend! Time for a computer with more memory!