handsful

Abbey regularly grabs little L and whisks her away for a project.  Today they were looking for changing leaves…quite a daunting task here in North Florida.  Luckily, our dogwood tree has beautiful color right now, so they collected leaves from it and other trees and made a beautiful collage for Lainey’s room. 

After this, they went around to find more nature things and made another frame of those.  Lainey adores spending time with Abbey, and I love seeing my oldest take such sweet time with her baby sister. 

As I type, Abbey is pushing Lainey in the hammock swing – wish you could hear her giggling hysterically with her eyes squinted shut! 

I’m so thankful to have a “handful” of kids…

If only her eyes had been open!

When most everyone else is pulling out sweaters and jackets, we’re still in flip flops.  So, when we do get a “cold snap” (no laughing), we make a fire.  Every year, we end up chasing at least a few lizards that wound up on top of the damper.  We rescued one, and another one disappeared into a crack in the back.  To safety, I’m SURE.  The kids love having a fire, it’s just a shame we don’t need it more often!

3 days till Thanksgiving…is YOUR turkey thawing in the fridge like mine??

Randy left last Sunday for a sales meeting in Las Vegas and BOY did I miss him.  Lots of people say to me, being a homeschooling mom of 5, “I don’t know HOW you do it!”.  Well, I’ll say that to all the single moms out there.  Being the only ringmaster is hard work and has to be lonely at times.  Maybe having total control of the remote makes all that hard work worth it?  (grin) Seriously, if you’re a single mom and you’re reading this…know that I am in awe of how YOU do it all. 

While he was in Vegas, my Poker-loving guy just HAD to play a few card games.  He entered 3 poker tournaments at Caesar’s Palace during his stay, with each having about 50 players at the start.  Randy WON the first one, placed 12th at the next, and placed 6th at the last.  He had a fantastic time and brought home a nice chunk of change.  I’m thrilled he was able to play (even if it did mean he got very little sleep!) and do so well.  He’s my Poker Stud.  ;)

A shot of Lainey enjoying her decorated cookie at our homeschool co-op.  We have co-op every Friday from 8:30-12.  The big kids each have 3 classes with an assembly between the 2nd and 3rd class.  Lainey stays with me during the first hour while I get her classroom ready, I help teach her class of 2’s and 3’s during the second hour and I have free time during the third (L stays in her class with a new set of teachers).  We LOVE co-op, it is a huge blessing to be able to have access to such great teaching and wonderful friends to do it with.  Most of the classes are mom or dad taught, with some (guitar, composition, art, etc.) taught by outside teachers who are paid by the parents of the children taking the class.  We especially love the composition class that MPE are taking.  It is intensive, very well structured, and the teacher has years of experience teaching writing to middleschool and older kids.  The guitar class has given Ethan, and now Abbey, a love for the instrument…I could go on and on about co-op…don’t worry.  I won’t.  :)  Suffice it to say we dig it.   

I don’t think I posted this pic of Payton in his Napoleon Dynamite costume.  He has the “look” down pat!  And, yes, I made the design with a permanent marker.  I could have ordered it, but I waited too long…at least I saved the money. 

Rinsing her own hair.  Lainey is all about doing things herself these days.  Her favorite thing to tell me is “Lainey’s a big girl” – she says/signs it.  “A-eee uh Nay gull”  Not sure how “big” is coming out “nay”, but she’s being stubborn about changing it! 

Her favorites right now…soup, doing “airplane” tricks with Abbey, going ANYWHERE, lollipops, cookies, wasabi peas, cutting paper, and running!  She’s also decided to do a little testing lately, and now says “ohh ay” which means “no it’s not”.  She’s quite persistent, and will continue asking you OVER and over for the thing that you’ve already said “no” to OVER and over again.  Ahhh, the threes.  Who said two was hard?? 

Oops.  Back to co-op.  Today was Support your Sport day, so everyone showed their team spirit.  I had my Steelers shirt on, too.  Of course!  Abbey has Randy’s Rothlisberger Steelers jersey, EJ has his Braves, Payton has the Polumalu Steelers jersey, Marley has her mix of Steelers and Wolfpack on, and Lainey is also supporting daddy’s college.  There was a lot of orange and blue for the Gators…blech. 

Cupcake anyone?  A new cupcake bakery opened up a while back, so we stopped by tonight.  Looks good, huh?  I had the chocolate pecan caramel one, far right.  I hope I get a bite of that bottom left one…Creme Brulee’. 

Well, dad’s home and all is well.  This weekend, we’re catching up on yardwork, teaching the kids how to mow the lawn with a push mower, and going to EJ’s baseball game.  Church and Real Life Groups on Sunday.  Happy Weekend :)

Celebrating our morning with Starbucks hot chocolate :)

I enjoy finding deals.  I head to the clearance end caps first when I go to Target.  I love using a coupon on TOP of a sale.  And, stumbling across a REALLY good yardsale?  Well, that makes me positively giggle like a school girl. 

I love going to yardsales, but rarely do.  Two reasons…Lainey and I like my sleep on Saturdays.  But, a very nice and very large neighborhood near us was having their annual neighborhood yardsale this weekend.  And, a gal in our homeschool co-op was having one of them, and rumor had it there would be lots of girl clothes, all sizes.  We headed there first and spent an HOUR at that house alone.  We walked away with arm loads and, as we drove off, we giggled and screamed for joy.  (see, I really do giggle…)

The next few sales gave us some great items, too.  Some the girls are saving for Christmas presents (shhh…).  Marley probably found the best bargain of the day. 

Marley has been needing a new bike for a while.  Her hand-me-down from Abbey almost has her knees in her chin when she rides it!  We found this bike today, she gave it a test drive, and it was a go.  Best part?  It was $7.  Cha-ching!

It’s that time…time to pose in front of gorgeous orange and brown colors!  I love fall!

Abbey took it upon herself to guide Lainey in her 2nd pumpkin picking outing. 

Could this be the one??

There were really weird pumpkins there this year!  White ones, greenish ones, some covered in creepy bumps and wrinkles!  This one made Randy curiously hungry. 

Marley found hers right away.  Last year, she took FOREVER…like she was picking her next puppy. 

Picking pumpkins gives Lainey the giggles. 

Payton found one just like him – unique!

Heave.  Ho.  Yep…this is it. 

Lainey found hers, too.  Abbey also found one.  We already had 2 on the porch prior to our visit to the patch.  There’s a lot of orange on our front porch!  I love fall colors.

We’ll start with the Before pics…

Wallpaper with big fruit and leaves.  Lovely. 

I had finally had enough.

The During pictures…

adding a coat of Kilz on top of the wallpaper.  We learned the hard way a while back that the wallpaper in this house was put DIRECTLY on the sheetrock.  Taking it down wasn’t an option. 

Lainey painted the area behind our fridge.  She loved painting.

And, my favorite…the After!

Earthy Sage replaces hideous wallpaper.  Ignore the cabinet above the fridge without a door…we got that back on later. 

We’re beyond pleased with how it turned out…I never realized how much I disliked the wallpaper until I saw our kitchen without it!  The room is much more calming now, and so less BUSY!  Yea for us!  :)