June

So I guess this is from May, but I missed it....we spent memorial day weekend painting some rooms that we have procrastinated for almost 6 years.

Stairwells are just intimidating to deal with. We had this lovely paisley boarder and chair rail with more wall paper below (I forgot to snap a before pic). It was just really ugly and out-dated. The walls were a beige but it has always looked way to pink-ish to me.

So....some tricky manovering on a tall ladder & demolition of the chair rail finally produced a neutral stairwell that I love. Now to figure out how to fill the large walls with some sort of art...

Our teeny-tiny kids bathroom was bright/dark blue with more wall paper boarders (the previous owners loved wall paper boarders). I've always wanted to re-do it but the thought of having to paint 100 coats of primer to cover up the color was overwhelming. In the end it wasn't too bad and I'm so happy it is neutral although Maya is disgusted with my "boring" color choice and refused to use it for a couple of weeks.

We also framed the bathroom mirror in the master bath using molding--super easy and cheap upgrade! More uses for molding coming up as I finish them...

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Now onto actual June events...

Our playgroup arranged a tour of our county landfill. I've seriously wanted to do this for so long! Truth be told, it was kind of boring for the kids but it was good motivation for me to do better with recycling. And who knew they could make trash from the last 30 year look so scenic?!?!

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During the last week of school Hayley was in the school's multi-cultural fashion show. Last year she wore my British school uniform. This year she showed of an outfit from Ryan's uncle's family who live in China.

School finished late here in VA. Hayley had an awesome 1st grade year.

But we were happy to see June 18th finally roll around and summer begin!

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Ryan's sister, Rhonda, her husband Greg, and their two darling girls Ruby and Cora came to visit. It was so fun to meet Cora and let the cousins reconnect.

Ruby and Alice are the same age. They were a cute little pair.

One hot night they had to wait for Hayley and Maya's to have their swim lessons.

They found the little foot shower on the side and ended up stripping down and having a blast!

No family can visit in the summer time without a trip to our favorite ice-cream stand: JoJo's

We ended the week of their visit with a big BBQ and water balloon launchers at G'mas house

That's one way to pop them?!?!

Sweet little baby Cora!

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Busch Gardens Amusement Park

There's a super-fun, clean, family friendly amusement park about 2 hours from us.

We never thought that an amusement park would be fun with little kids but this place is our 2010 family vacation....over and over again.

We got season tickets (same price as 1-day!) and we've been going on day trips there every couple of weeks.

There are so many kiddie rides, splash parks to cool us down and amazingly fun shows to watch. My personal favorite is the Irish Dancing show.

May

An awesome family vacation to Great Wolf Lodge!

We love this place...and it's been way to long since we've been.

Good memories!

We were lucky enough to have Grandma (Ryan's mom) come along for the fun...

it sure is easy when you have a 1:1 ratio of kids and adults!

Our sweet Maya has been completely tongue tied since she was born.

Unfortunately we listened to the doctors when she was a baby and did nothing...

so this was her lucky month to have to undergo surgery.

She was terrified but managed through and all went well.

Now she loves to show off her ability to lick ice cream cones

(it made me so sad to hear her say that and realize that she never had been able to really lick!)

Lucky me! Happy birthday and mother's day landed on the same day.

Ryan made sure he spoiled me doubly and Alice was kind enough to help open the presents!

For our 10th anniversary I made the yummy carrot cake recipe that had been in our wedding cake (it's crazy good--I think I almost ate the whole thing myself!)

Here it is:

Carrot Cake Bars

2 c sugar

3 eggs

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1 ½ c oil

2 tsp vanilla

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2 ¼ c flour

2 tsp soda

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp salt

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2 c grated carrots (fine)

1 c crushed pineapple (with some juice)

2 c coconut

1 c chopped nuts

Bake as a sheet cake at 350° for 35-40 minutes

(or bake it in whatever shape you want and figure out your own baking instructions!)

We managed to squeeze in a quick camping trip to our favorite campsite before the humidity and heat hit. I just love camping on mowed lawn and having bathrooms that smell like strawberries (as Maya pointed out!)

We are getting some great creative use out of our trampoline.

This particular day the girls conducted fairy flight school--complete with wings.

As it has heated up we've figured out how to combine sprinklers and bouncing!

So much fun!!!

April Highlights

Hayley turned 7!

We took cupcakes to her classroom that day.

On odd-numbed birthdays we just do a family party.

We still have lots of fun--just take out the chaos.

Hayley chose Chuck E. Cheese with the family and Grandma.

Then our first trip ever to Build-a-Bear.

(I've always been a skeptic of how much money a stuffed animal there can cost but I have to admit...the experience was so much fun for the girls!)

We ran out of energy and time....so the next night we had her birthday cake.

Requested flavor: brownies with chocolate chips baked into the top. Yummy!

My mom, Grammy, happened to be in town so 2 nights after her birthday we ended up out at dinner with Grammy and found ourselves still celebrating!

My Mom and little brother, Adam thought they were stopping through for a quick "hello" after a month of traveling around the states to help with grand-babies. But a volcano eruption over Iceland reeked havoc on the airlines schedule so we got an extra 5 days with them!

I love these pictures of Grammy and the girls!

We're so glad that we got extra time to play and have fun together!

About 2 days after Grammy left to go home to England, Grandpa flew out to DC for a business trip (they barely crossed paths as he left!)

It's pitiful that I don't have a single picture of our quick hello from Grandpa but I did find photographic evidence (mostly from Alice) that he'd been here....

Grandpa knows how to spoil his grandkids...he showed up with a big ol' trampoline this time! (It has an enclosure on it...this is just the pics during assembly)

New books to read...My Dad loves books!

This picture definitely means Grandpa has been around.

They never last long, but Cadbury chocolate and ice cream is the sure way to a grandchild's heart! It was way too quick but we're glad we got some hugs Grandpa!

The Messicks doorstep shot!

Binge blogging....

It's official. I'm a binge blogger! I hate to admit it but sometimes living life takes priority over blogging fun...

Picture courtesy of Alice Messick

The end of the school year and start of a swim team for Hayley and Maya ramped up our schedule these past few months. Plus....did you get the memo that once you have school kids--there's no such thing as the lazy days of summer?!?! The kids might be relaxing but man, the mundane elements of my job just quadrupled--more endlessly hungry tummy's to fill, more spills to clean up, more fights to referee, more games to play, books to read, hugs to give, parks to visit, pools to swim in, more clothes to wash, and definitely a dirtier house to top it all off!

I've been putting in over-time lately at my "Mom" job....power struggles with a certain child are threatening to take me down...but we're hanging in there and hoping for the end of this "phase" to come soon. Oh the joy of phases!!! The word gives me hope though--it implies that there is an ending--just not soon enough, right?

I know most of you moms have been here. Every night I feel so emotionally exhausted after trying to stay one step ahead and keep my own frustration and anger in check through all the long repetitious battles. It's not that every moment is bad. It's just that her struggles seem to be mostly with the routine things of life right now. So it's just when she has to get up, eat, get dressed, go to church, go anywhere for that matter, take a bath, put pajamas on, go potty before bed, brush her teeth, go to bed, etc. etc. etc. that we have a battle. And even though you'd think she hates me--guess who can't stand me to leave her??? I guess she likes fighting with me!

On Saturday, Ryan gave me the best gift ever--4 hours alone in a quiet house (that we had just finished cleaning all morning.) The silence was pure heaven! He and the kids headed to Grandma's house to go swimming with cousins and Aunts and Uncles. I was so happy to work on digital scrapbooking projects that have been buried under too many to do lists for the whole 4 hours!!!. How fun to do something that you get to actually see immediate results from. My day to day job isn't so satisfying right now and I really needed that!

So now that I'm feeling a little revived....I got that old blogging itch that I haven't felt for so long. So I'm not committing to any sort of regularity but we can always hope. Here's a little catch up of some of the happier moments from the last couple of months!