Franklin Conservatory Take Two

Thanks for your kind comments!! (I tell myself I do this blog for my family history, but if we're being completely honest, the comments are pretty motivating, too!!!) And there are lots and lots of things I don't do well - the laundry, dieting, being punctual, the dishes, exercising, pregnancy, being decisive to name a few....  I just don't blog about that! ;)

Our first trip to the conservatory was a bit too much of an adventure for me (a little ugly, if you will), so I was quite pleased when this trip turned out less eventful (except for the part where our friend 20-month-old Hugh decided to take a dip in the Bonsai Garden pool...).
We met up with Joseph, the Sondrups and Heather, Ryan and L - it was fun to explore together and watch the kids' excitement over each new thing.

Handsome boys! (picture from Kristi - hope you don't mind I stole it from you!)

Sweet girls (also from Kristi)

She is such a peach - running up the stairs when I approached with the camera - she immediately turned around and said, "cheese!"

Just because

I think she's cute....

side tracked....

It all started with a little Spring cleaning.....  I had really good intentions of making my way through the whole house, collecting mounds of things to donate, leaving me with a sparkling home, full of things that I either 'know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.'  That way when I pack up in June (dah! next month! where are we going?!) it'll be easier, right? 

But when I got to K and A's room, this bookshelf was buggin' me.  This is the pretty picture of the bookshelf - but we were well beyond pretty.  It was just a clutter collection spot - K-lady had a make-shift desk coming off the second shelf, and it was stashed FULL of half-colored pages, partially finished projects, art supplies, tea sets, CD's and junk.  We keep 'cleaning' it out, but it just doesn't stay clean - it was driving me nuts.  

So I listed it on Craigslist and told K-lady we'd get her a desk to replace it (hopefully one w/ less storage space for stuff we don't need!). 

I looked around half-heartedly for a used desk, but finally decided I'd just make my own.  I've been eyeing this blog for months now, and could no longer resist it's siren call.....

a quick trip to Home Depot while J-boy and K-lady were in school - just me and Baby A and Chip at the saw, cutting all my pieces to size for me right then and there.  This is how to fit a whole sheet of plywood in a mini van. :)

 

My back patio was transformed into a shop!  I found that this is a great way to get to know your neighbors. :)

 

Here she is at the end of day one - rough around the edges, but that's what power sanders are for!!! 

and at the end of day three...

And finally finished, covered in the clutter that moved here from the shelf.  K-lady has also requested a hutch!  More shelves??!!!  I guess I can't win 'em all.  :) 

But I do love this desk!  And it feels GREAT!  I told my wonderful neighbor, Matt, (who let's me borrow his tools and use his garage - SO NICE!), "I feel so powerful!"  and he said, "Why do you think us guys' do it?"  It took about $90 and 1 week of working on it here and there, during naps, after bedtime.  I could have just gone to Pottery Barn and bought it here, but where's the fun in that??  :)

Now back to that spring cleaning (as soon as I'm done with the bookshelf waiting for stain in the basement, an ottoman for K's desk, and a hutch....)

I ♥ power tools. And Knock-Off Wood blog!

Easter, anyone??

(I'm such a bulimic blogger - binge and purge, binge and purge - time to binge....)

We kept it simple with just one Easter egg hunt, hosted by our good friends the Sondrups. It was a beautiful beautiful evening, and the kids had fun - Baby A was so pumped to find CANDY in her eggs!

The Easter Bunny commissioned me to make the kids bike baskets for Easter this year --I found a tutorial on a blog (imagine that!) here.  It was pretty easy to follow, but I'd beef it up a little more if I were to make them again - J-boy's been pretty hard on his, and K-ladies isn't quite as crisp looking as it was at first.... :)   But I love a good project, and I love a good deadline, and this gave me both so I was quite happy. :)

We didn't do Easter dresses or Easter pictures or any of that.  We did enjoy a fun crepe breakfast with Heather and Ryan and L, then zipped off to the church for the morning session of General Conference, which starts at noon here (the bishop asked our ward to attend at least one session in the church, so we picked Sunday AM - I remember next to NOTHING of that session - too much fun chasing Baby A around and trying to hush J-boy and K-lady.  But by golly we were obedient!).  Then we came home, enjoyed lunchish/dinner with our friends the Nielsons and watched/dozed to the afternoon session of conference in the comfort of the living room with an internet connection.  (Does anyone else ALWAYS fall asleep during the Sunday afternoon session of conference????  In Joseph's defense, he was a little sick.  No excuses for me....)
In any case, it was a lovely Easter!

April Fool's

My plans for April Fools' day got hijacked by a trip to the Emergency Department (ugh, no offense to you wonderful ED docs, but I really don't like visiting you at work).

J-boy slipped climbing up a ladder at the playground - it wasn't terrible, but it wasn't too fun, either. We'd ridden our bikes over and met up with Heather and then Ryan stopped off on his way home from school. J-boy hit his chin, Ryan (med-student-super-hero) checked him out and drove us home while Heather rode my bike w/ her baby and K-lady back to our house. I was SO GLAD they were there! I wasn't excited about J-boy riding his bike with his chin dripping blood all the way home. :) And though my little stock of bandaids and neosporin came in handy, it wasn't quite enough!

Joseph was still at work, and (bless them!) Heather and Ryan stayed with the girls so I could take J-boy to what I thought was our urgent care clinic. Nope! Scary part of town and scary psycho clinic (literally and descriptively - psychiatric care). After chatting with a phone-nurse via cell for a while I ended up just taking him to Children's Hospital where the urgent clinic said, "Sorry we don't do stitches! To the ED for you!" Which roughly translates to "This may take a while."

(nice nostril shot, no?)

J-boy did great the whole time we were waiting. But as soon as the doc came in to start with the sutures he freaked out. Poor boy was so worn out by then (he fell around 5:00, and finally got stitched up around 9:00), and though I'm pretty sure the local anesthetic stuff worked it couldn't numb his imagination. :)
Finally we made it out - never counted the stitches since I was wracking my brains to come up with some wonderfully diverting and distracting story I could share (the only thing I came up with were stories about my own stitches experiences.... I don't think that helped). :) But he had somewhere around 8. The doctor said no bike riding or running or jumping or being-a-boy for a week while they healed. That lasted almost 16 hours, which I felt was probably long enough. After all, we had Easter eggs to hunt and zoos to visit. :) All's well that ends well!

"pasketti" night

K-lady and Joseph decided we need to have a Spaghetti Night - cloth-napkin bibs, no cutting of noodles allowed, and meatballs are a must.  I'm good with that. Friday is pizza, Saturday is leftovers, Monday is spaghetti (though after a month of spaghetti night, I'm starting to think we need to shake it up a bit - maybe fettucine alfredo next time???)
Anyway, it does make menu planning a little easier!




You heard the man - (but could you understand him?) - GET SOME PESKETTI!!!
 Do your kids turn into complete goofs when the video camera's on??

Spring Break in Jeresey!!

Get ready for a LOT of pictures (5 adults + 5 cameras + 5 days = 459 pictures!)

We decided to hit the road for K-lady's Spring Break this year -- Joseph couldn't get time off, but my sister and nephew came along to keep my children entertained so we could all meet this wonderful little man:

my new nephew!  Isn't he handsome?  Dave, Angela and their kids live in New Jersey, about a 10 hour drive.  We had such a good time visiting with them and just loving up the time we had together. 

 Dave is such a good uncle -- he even set up a tent for a camp out in the back yard one of the nights we were there.  Baby A and I opted for beds inside, but Dave and the older two slept out there all night (with the electric blanket plugged into the house).  Cousin Bailey started out with them, but apparently she was too much of a party animal and got banished to the master bedroom.  :)

We spent the first day of Spring on the Jersey Shore -- Baby A and J-boy's first time to the Atlantic ocean.  It was COLD, but that didn't stop my kids from getting wet!  :)

 My wonderful mom was there, too -- bonus!!!

 

We got to visit Dave's "office"

This little guy is such a sweet sweet baby!  And Angela is such a sweet sweet momma.

all the cousins!  It's a good bunch.

The whole crew (minus mom, who is taking the picture).  There are always a few moans when we announce that it's time for a family picture, but I never regret having them.