They just look grown.

But they're not really. When secret clubhouses aren't a daily happening and my lawn isn't cluttered with castaways from make believe in the magic clover and when I don't hear a whine 10 times a minute, that's when I'll be worried.

hmmm, look at that. you can make the pictures bigger now.

Is it working for you? Or did I just mess up your screen?

Behold. It is the older child.

Sadly, she just sits and placates me. No more cute birdseed shenanigans for her anymore. Just a boring smile because I was feeling guilt about the jujushow. So many of the olders activities take place outside our home now and I'm just not good at documenting outside our yard. I think it's because I don't have an iphone. I'm just saying...

It's for the birds.

Random item in bucket #2? Birdseed. I can hear you... "really, Rae? birdseed?". Yep. birdseed. Just trust me on this one. Obviously this is a supervised activity and note some birdseed may contain peanuts so watch your histamine challenged kids. The bucket o'birdseed keeps the juju entertained for hours. HOURS. at. a. time.
You can stir it.

Put it on your head.
Sift it through your fingers.
And eat it. But we don't recommend that. Don't eat the birdseed! Saying that occupied about 45 minutes of our 2 hour birdseed adventure.
Handing to mama is also fun.
Hitting Mama in the head? Also fun.
Ahhhh, birdseed between your toes.
Seriously. So fun. Check out that excitement. It's the little things people.

Poor Juju.

Poor little third child has to take her baths outside. And doesn't even have diapers.
Ha! We know there is nothing sad about the juju's position in this family. Spoiled much? Yep.
No, this is really just #1 in the the series: Juju in the yard with random stuff in a bucket. Alternately titled : Entertain your toddler for cheap!

tutu much?

I saw this swimsuit in Chasing Fireflies maybe two years ago and loved, loved, loved it? And because that catalog is just stupid expensive(but oh so lovely to look at) I'm sure it was 80 dollars or so. You think I'm exaggerating. I'm not. So while filling a prescription at Target this morning I had to wander and wait on the pharmacy, right? Right? In my wandering I strolled by the baby clothes. Wait. Could it be? Target knockoff strikes again. I snatched that little number off the rack so fast I'm sure the nice lady buying a swimsuit wardrobe for her 3 year old must have thought I was possessed. But it's mine now. MINE. And even though my husband thinks I spend money like it's water (I believe he said something about it flying not water but same difference right?) I'm pretty certain the 10 bucks was well worth that first shot(that's her new happy face). And she needed a swimsuit anyway. And tutu swimsuits are so practical and all.

So speaking about too much. Let's talk about my porch floor. I have that orange brick on the walls and you can see the different tile they used on the floor. I don't know who thought that matched? But wait. It gets better. The bottom part of the house is actually faced in cut stone. So yep, I've got 3 different colors(not a single one pretty) of brick/stone going on. WHOA! The house and orange brick will be painted in the next (few)year(s) or so but just not right now. Any ideas to make that floor more palatable in the meantime? I want to try and just paint it, I honestly don't see how it can look much worse. I'm hoping in the future that we can just pop those off but I want to wait on that until I know what I want to put down. Whatcha think? Bad idea?

Isn't amazing how fast a day can spiral downhill? We were having a lovely morning complete w/homemade biscuits. Then. Rosie stomped in and woke up juju an hour into naptime. Photoshop closed down just as I was 5 minutes away from finishing an album that was NOT saved. And Evies been messing around with the same flippin math page for 40 minutes. Nevermind that she did alll the problems right on the previous 2 pages in about 10 minutes. Why!
God grant me the serenity to change the things....
Time to shut off the computer.
Put away school and go outside!

mmmmm

As Juliana would say " sss good".
Somebody put the peanut butter away without the lid. I guess she was hungry. The tantrum that came after we took it away? Not so good but funny!

just a little stubborn

This girl of mine is determined. Very determined. Take this afternoon. She did not want her picture taken. She wanted to be out playing in the spring air with her sisters.

See... "seriously mom?" She's done. I hadn't even started.
"I will get off this chair"
"I don't care if it matches my outfit or if my foot is stuck"
FREEDOM!

where does she get it?

trying to take juju pics and the older two wouldn't stop hamming long enough to let me get her alone. that's definitely not from me.




again , not from me. she's consistently hitting the ball. she would like her auntie sara to come play with her because her mama stinks.
p.s. i am fully aware where they get it from. and i do love him dearly.

Meet the bunnies.

Yep. We were those parents this year. In our (my?) defense we needed a pet and we've been waiting since we closed on the house. They're house bunnies and would you believe me if I told you they're already using a litter box? How bizarre is that? Right now they're in the living room in a cage and they get the run of the room a couple times a day. As soon as we're done with our school room (it's got carpet and that needs to go before we have bunny mess in there) we'll build them a bunny condo and install them in there. They're still getting used to us but they're getting more and more adventurous everyday. They tear around the living room in circles and hop up on our selves - so cute to watch. Juliana is scared of them though which is quite hysterical since they're itty bitty dwarf rabbits and they look like a ball of fluff.

The egg hunt

We did things a little different this year. I was delighted to find out our local Catholic community has a sunrise mass. I do love a good god celebration out in his glory. So we set the alarm and headed up to Monte Sano state park at gulp 6:00. It's held at one of the overlooks and I knew we'd be putting the girls in the car pretty much still asleep and then we'd be sitting on a blanket on the ground in the semi-cold so we saved our Easter finery for dining later in the day. After mass we ate breakfast out and waited on the Easter bunny to come. Miraculously just as we pulled into the drive Mimi and Papa showed up too. Isn't it amazing how things work? Stay tuned to find out what else the Easter bunny left behind...

pretty Easter girls