May Day - it's not too late!

No, I'm not making a desperate call for help as in MAYDAY, MAYDAY!!! I'm talking about a holiday that a friend and I were talking about ... "May Day". May Day is on May 1st every year. Both of us wondered what exactly it was so I googled it and came up with this:

"May Day was also celebrated by some early European settlers of the American continent. In some parts of the United States, May Baskets are made. These baskets are small and usually filled with flowers or treats and left at someone's doorstep. The basket giver would ring the bell and run away. The person receiving the basket would try to catch the fleeing giver. If they caught the person, a kiss was to be exchanged."

I saw some cute ideas on a crafty blog I enjoy called Skip to My Lou so I thought I'd share it with you! And I know it's already mid-afternoon on the night before May Day ... but I want to tell you that it's NOT TOO LATE to surprise someone with a May Day basket tomorrow! Go to Walmart {like I did!} and grab yourself a pretty flower {for only $1.50 each!}, put it in something pretty like a basket, tin can, glass jar or whatever you have on hand, tie some pretty ribbons around the outside and attach one of these FREE, pretty, printable tags. Then choose the person you would like to bless and drop off the surprise! Try not to get caught!

I already have in mind who I wish to bless with mine, but I can't tell you or it'll spoil the surprise!
Check out Skip to My Lou for more great May Day ideas ...

Project Procrastinators Party April 30th-May 14th

My friend Shawna never ceases to challenge or inspire me and this week she did it again! From her blog: "Do you have a list a mile long of little projects that need to be finished up? Or even started AND finished?! I know I do! That is why this little "party" caught my eye! Anyone want to join me?"

Seriously, how did Shawna know that this was EXACTLY what I needed?! I DO have a list a mile long of projects - many of them that were started and are still unfinished. And this time of year I always get the itch to finish them all so that I can spend all summer long enjoying my house, my family, my friends and my yard with no worries about that silly wall I meant to paint last winter!

Here is a snippet from the host, Melissa at Inspired Room:

PROJECT PROCRASTINATORS PARTY
APRIL 30 - May 14

I’m inviting you all over to share in my misery joy! And if you all want to join me in getting started on that project YOU are procrastinating on, I’ll give you moral support right back. I’ll put a special Mr. Linky out so we can declare to the world what our Procrastination Project is and then two weeks later on May 14 we’ll have Mr. Linky back so we can show off our accomplishments (however small they might be).

Even if we don’t finish, we’ll be farther along than if we hadn’t started, right?

APRIL 30, READY SET GO!

SO, because I'm such a procrastinator I don't even have BEFORE photos for this challenge. But I DO have a nice long list to share! And I promise to take photos as I'm working on each project. I've set myself up with quite a hefty task for these next 2 weeks - we have SO much going on in our lives, plus I'm now going to add a big list of projects. But if I don't set the bar high I know I will waste my time and not get enough done. Plus, I've also been feeling bad lately about spending so much time on the computer - so this is a great way to keep me busy and keep me off the computer. So if you don't hear much from me don't panic ... I'm still here, just getting a lot done. And I'll be back to post photos and all my completed projects.

OK here goes!!!

* Finish painting garden fence and install it

* Put together presentation board for science class

* Finish priming kitchen walls

* Paint kitchen walls

* Take {all my old junk} stuff to Goodwill {which will make my closets much cleaner - bonus!}

* Plant bulbs in the garden

* Hang white cabinet in bathroom

* Bring finished curtains to church

* Hang stuff in master bedroom

* Clean out girls closet/toys and donate stuff

* Put away all Easter decor and put out summer stuff

It's funny, the more I sit and think about what needs to get done, the more items I keep adding to my list! I do have even more tasks to complete - but for now I think I've given myself quite a big list. So I hope some of you will join the fun and stay tuned for the results in a couple weeks!

Catching Up On April

We have had such a busy {but fun!} month around here and I have lots of pictures but just not much energy to create several different blogs about them. So this is my April Catch Up blog! The weather around here has been simply gorgeous for the last week so we've thoroughly enjoyed the outdoors.

Here are a bunch of pictures - enjoy!

The girls and Bob found this FREE power wheels ride on - they were so excited they threw it in the van and brought it right home and it works great! It even had the charger and instruction manual with it! Joy has wanted one of these for most of her life but we've never bought one because of the cost - to find it for free was amazing and the girls just love it!


My friend Julie and her 3 daughters came to visit for a few days during Spring Break. We had a lot of fun together, the Moms got to scrapbook and the girls enjoyed playing together. Her youngest daughter just LOVED our dog and would follow her around and squeal with delight!
We took all the girls to the Zoo - it was a beautiful day! Here is my favorite animal - so majestic!
Julie and her youngest ...
This Ant eater was one of the coolest animals I have ever seen!
Taking a break for a snack ...
This Wallaby was adorable!
All 5 girls!
Julie's youngest - such a sweetheart and a very good baby!
Bob and I went to see Kenny Chesney in concert - it was so much fun! We enjoyed our overnight date without our kids and were very thankful to our friends who kept the girls overnight.
This weekend the temps soared into the 80's so the girls decided to break out the slip-n-slide!

We spent Sunday at a lovely park enjoying the day together ...

Little Miss Joy just learned how to ride a two-wheeler and is doing fantastic! She rides so fast trying to keep up with Hope now! She's had a couple of spills but gets back up and keeps going.
Hope in the flowers on Sunday.
It was so nice to enjoy the sunshine in just a t-shirt {no coats, sweaters or sweatshirts - yay!}
Joy in the flowers ...
We stopped for a yummy treat after the park.
On Monday we went on a field trip to our local Aquarium. They have this beautiful Sea Turtle right now ...
Hope is getting braver! She's holding a Spider Crab ...
Speaking of brave ... now that our deck is finished we decided to open the pool. These brave girls wanted to try it out on the second day it was open! BRRRRR, it still has a water temp of 62 degrees!
Yeah, no wonder you're chilly, silly girl!!

All about the 8's

I'm so sorry for my lack of posts lately ... honestly I've just been busy and had a real lack of creativity when it comes to what to blog about lately!

So today I share with you my list of 8's ...

8 Things I am looking forward to:
1. Our cruise
2. Summer
3. Finishing our school year
4. Morning quiet times on the deck
5. Swimming in the pool
6. Going to the beach
7. Planting and working in the garden
8. Seeing the girls reaction to the cruise ship

8 Things I did yesterday:
1. Went to a MOMS meeting at church
2. Ate lunch
3. Did laundry
4. Hand washed lots of dishes {until new dishwasher arrives!}
5. Planted seeds with the girls
6. Spent time on the computer
7. Shopped for swimsuits for the girls {looked at but didn't buy}
8. Went to a friend's Partylite Candle party

8 Things I wish I could do:
1. Have more discipline in my quiet times
2. Have more discipline to exercise
3. Have more discipline to eat healthy
4. Lose weight faster {are you sensing a pattern here???}
5. Spend more time scrapbooking and sewing
6. Be a better example to my girls
7. Finish all the projects I've started
8. Spend less time on the computer

8 Shows I watch:
1. Survivor
2. Dancing with the Stars
3. American Idol
4. Extreme Makeover Home Edition
5. America's Funniest Home Videos
6. ER {it's over now, but I've loved it for years!}
7. 18 and Counting
8. The Amazing Race

8 Books I love:
1. The Bible
2. Mom and Loving It
3. The Power of a Positive Mom
4. The Yada Yada books
5. Anything by Lisa Welchel
6. Anything by Karen Kingsbury
7. Anything by Lori Wick
8. Anything by Beverly Lewis

8 foods I could eat over and over again:
1. Lasagna
2. Pizza
3. Mac and cheese
4. Grilled cheese sandwiches
5. Brownies
6. Ice Cream
7. Cheesecake
8. Chocolate covered strawberries

8 things I plan to get done today:
1. Laundry
2. shower
3. exercise
4. eat well
5. have Mom over for dinner
6. go to the girl's show tonight
7. get outside to enjoy the beautiful weather
8. run some errands

So, with that list in mind .... guess I'd better run! Have a great weekend everyone!!

Easter

We had a wonderful Easter this year. For some reason in years past the thought never occurred to me that there is so much the girls can learn about Easter and so many great traditions that can be made and celebrated.

So this year we started several new traditions, in addition the the few we already had. It made for an awesome celebration of Christ's death and resurrection.

During the week leading up to Easter the girls and I read the whole story of the Cross and did some coloring pages that went with it. I got the information from Sarah's blog, here is the link if you'd like to bookmark it for next year. There are lots of ideas for activities, songs and stuff to go with the story each day. Another great way to reinforce this is the Resurrection Eggs - of course I could not find mine this year - so I might have to make some new ones for next year!

We also dyed and decorated lots and lots of hard boiled eggs - the girls had a blast doing that.

We made yummy Resurrection Rolls and made an extra batch to share with our sweet neighbors.

We participated in a Bake Sale on Good Friday where all proceeds went to feed the hungry in our area.

We set up a scavenger hunt for the girls to find their Easter baskets. We don't use the Easter bunny idea - the girls know they come from us - but they had SUCH a blast running all around the house trying to find their baskets by following the clues. This was something new this year and it was SO simple to do. Literally took me 10 min to put together and the girls loved it so much that I know we'll do it every year.

We enjoyed a beautiful time of worship and teaching at our church on Sunday morning.

Then we hosted 18 of our family members for a yummy Easter dinner. There were 7 kids here who had a great time playing outside for hours {even though it was still a bit chilly!}. We had an Easter egg hunt with about 130 eggs.

Another thing we tried this year that was new ... we set up an "Easter store" with all sorts of small toys, dollar store items, etc ... Inside the eggs there was some candy, some money and some tickets. The kids brought their tickets up to the Easter store and were able to 'buy' items from the choices. It was great! You know how those little plastic eggs are too small to fit anything?? Well this idea meant we could still give the kids items that were too big to fit in the eggs.

All in all, it was a lovely week and weekend. We're thankful for family, for friends and most of all for the Cross of Christ!
I love my friends at church!
Getting ready to hunt for those eggs!
My adorable nephew! I taped white paper to the kids table instead of a tablecloth so the kids could color on it after they ate ... Andrew thought that was the greatest thing ever!
*** I have a serious problem with overusing the word 'wonderful' lately ... just had to edit this when I realized I'd used it 8 times!! Where is my thesaurus when I need it!!?? ***

Florida

I had the wonderful opportunity to go to Florida a couple weeks ago to visit my friends who live down there. It was an all girls weekend - no kids, no hubbies, no responsibilities ... just all fun, girly stuff!

We started off by going out to lunch, then to get Starbucks and pedicures .... then back to Sarah's house where we spent the rest of the weekend scrapbooking, talking, laughing, eating, encouraging, sharing, etc ...

It was a wonderful break and I came home feeling so encouraged. We talked for a long time about our spiritual lives, homeschooling, parenting and all other topics under the sun. I love to spend time with other Moms who inspire and encourage me in every aspect of my life - and I'm truly blessed to have many, many friends in my life who do that.

Here are some fun pictures from our weekend ...
Friday night we had Mexican food and Margaritas!
Our large scrapbook area ...
I got to meet Sarah's sweet little Marissa for the first time! What a little doll baby!
We ate at the Melting Pot and this was the dessert tray ... looks good, right? Well you also dip all those wonderful things into chocolate fondue!
Myself and Sarah ...
Sarah and her friend that lives nearby, Alicia ...
Sarah's sister, Rachel and Angela ...
Our little group at the restaurant ...
Sarah lives right across the street from the beach ...
Angela and I took a walk on the beach and took some pics together ...

It was so nice to have a break from the cold weather!
Beautiful Hibiscus!
My trip ended with me getting the stomach bug. It was awful and the trip home {on an airplane, while feeling sick} was terrible. But the weekend was so wonderful up until that point, so it was all worth it! Wonderful friends, wonderful memories!