And the Time Has Come....

to say goodbye to our bathroom sinks and faucets.
They don't look too shabby from this angle.

About five years after living in our house the hall bathroom sink really started to fall apart.
There were chunks and flakes of porcelain in the cabinet underneath the sink.
And about a year ago as I was cleaning the sink a huge chunk of the actual bowl came off.
Both sinks were looking pretty horrible and the rust was starting to smell.

This is the master bath sink. The hall one looked worse.

So off to Lowe's we went.
Here is Chris hard at work.

We are planning to put new towel racks in too.
Here is Myles helping to dismantle the one in the hall bathroom.

The finished products....

This is the new master bathroom sink and faucet.

This is the new faucet and sink in the hall.

It is so nice to walk into the bathrooms and see nice sinks.

I can actually put stuff under the sinks now because there aren't flakes of porcelain everywhere.
The kids were pretty thrilled with the new addition to their bathroom.

The 4th Celebration

What a busy and fun weekend we've had.
We normally don't do much the 4th of July weekend. We pretty much stay
at home and do our own thing.
This year was out of the box.
Saturday we spent the late afternoon/evening with my best friend's family.
It was so much fun to see all her siblings that I haven't seen in several years. The kids had fun with all the other children there playing tag, Frisbee and exploration on their five acres.
We had a wonderful dinner, scrumptious cake, and then enjoyed a round of fireworks from their deck.

Yesterday, on the fourth, we were invited to the Brown's house.
Chris works with Bryan Brown and his daughter, Brooke, is Rhaevyn's best friend.
What a wonderful time we had visiting and eating good food.
The kids were in heaven with a swimming pool, swings, a creek and making mud pies in the mud kitchen.

Elsa says she is ready to go!!

Here is Bryan and Chris.
They are pretty much like peas in a pod.

This is a bit of heaven in the Brown's backyard.
I love the sound of the water trickling over the rocks.

Carol was explaining to Myles that he could try and catch something in the creek.

Carol and Kyle help Myles into the creek to look for mud fish.

Myles caught a couple of snails.

The kids enjoyed some pool time.

Myles was excited that it wasn't too deep for him.

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Elsa loved running around on their acreage.
Here she is on the swing.

Time to gather round the campfire for s'mores.

The bug zapper gathered quite the crowd.

Time for sparklers.

And she's out.....zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...................

Myles enjoying the firework show with a sip of soda and....

a smakeral of ice cream.

Usually Myles enjoys watching the fireworks from inside the house.

On Saturday he was on the lawn with the kids watching fireworks and did good for the most part, but I had not realized that he had a bit of meltdown. Thank goodness for one of the kids, Jesse, who took him under her wing.

So on Monday we decided to get him some ear gear. Why we didn't think of this sooner I don't know.

At any rate, he absolutely loved having his ear protectors on. No crying, and he was able to be out with all of us enjoying the show.

Rhaevyn got to try out a Roman Candle.

The Finale....
We love the mortars!

How thankful we are that we get to celebrate this great nation's independence.
Here is to the hope of being blessed with many more family and friend filled Independence days to celebrate in the years ahead.

A Week Of Mylestones

This week Myles learned to jump rope.
I told him that out of our kids he is the one to learn to do it before hitting five, so far. We will have to see if Elsa breaks that record. I remember Rhaevyn hitting that accomplishment in first grade. What an exciting Mylestone, Myles!!

You can do it, buddy! Just keep trying, just keep trying.

Myles wanted to go the dollar store so badly to spend his dollar.
He bought himself a jump rope just perfect for his size and one that won't hurt.

Myles tried origami this week too.
Any guesses on why Myles picked a Penguin? Anyone?
Ben? (Hint, hint).
He did pretty good, with a bit of help.

Mr. Penguin has one green eye and one blue eye.
Just in case it doesn't survive until we see you next, Ben, here is a picture for you.

Aeva and I did a bit of crafting while Elsa took a nap.
We each painted a huge clothes pin and then mod podged some scrap-booking paper onto them.
This is Aeva's clothes pin.

At the store the sample had it as a photo holder.

I bought four and have in mind to use them for a bigger project.
Maybe I will get to that project soon.
Here is my first attempt.

And here is my buy of the week.
So, our stapler bit the dust, and I have been holding out on getting a new one.
I received a five dollar off rewards coupon plus a 20% off coupon from Staples. I figured that was a sign. So I headed over to Staples and picked this up for........drum roll please........
11 cents. I had to pay $5.11 upfront, but I am getting a $5 rebate.
Aeva and I were practically dancing out of the store.

Aeva tried out origami this week too.
She made three fortune tellers, a snake, a turtle, a lady bug and a grasshopper.

On Monday all of us girls painted our nails.
Elsa kept looking at her toes all day and would say "Pretty!"

On Sunday I sat out in the car the last hour of church with Aeva.
She had a bad headache, so I let her just lay down in the front seat.
At one point she happened to look up at the sky out the side window and
exclaimed that there was a rainbow in the sky.
I thought that was strange because it wasn't rainy, in fact the the sky was perfectly clear.
I rolled down the window and poked my head out.
Well, there was a rainbow in a sense. It was a ring around the sun.
That was so cool to see. All the kids thought it was simply amazing and it gave us something to look up on the computer and learn about.

Big Brother pushing Little Sister.....on the swing.

Last but not least, here is a little video of Elsa swinging.
She hit a milestone too.
Now, while this milestone is exciting it is also bittersweet.
I always thought the "baby" of the family was supposed to let the mommy actually enjoy making the baby's babyhood last. Perhaps that is in the world according to me. In the world according to Elsa the "baby" is supposed to run to catch up with all the things the siblings are doing.
My baby has learned to swing on her own. While we still love to push her on the swing, she really doesn't need any help at all. I think she has hit this mark sooner than all my other ones.
At least kids never seem to outgrow the love of having mommy or daddy push them on the swing.

Wishing you all a very safe, fun and enjoyable Independence Day.
Happy 4th of July!