Real Life

This is how my kitchen looks. It's messy...and it's OK!

I keep reminding myself that a lovely home is not what I will look back at & remember fondly one day. There is just so much else that is more precious right now.

Construction/Creating

John is building the shop.  

He's progressing quickly & it's looking great!

 I've been transforming a formerly scuffed, dark brown stained coffee table. First, a coat of off-white paint, then distress, fleur-de-lis stencil applied in pencil, pattern covered with Sharpie paint pens...

I'll try to post an "all done" shot. I am going to finish it with a coat of poly acrylic. I've never used it before but it's supposed to be a washable protective coat that won't yellow.  It's been fun to try something new & I'm pleased with the results. At first the boys thought it was "too girly" but now they think it's OK.

 

 Nathan made a sweet little paper bird.

He is definitely my fellow animal lover in this family.

Mark & Luke made weapons - Luke has a bow & arrow that Dad helped him make & Mark created a bungee cord gun all on his own.

More Fun at the Beach

 The boys love riding their bikes all around the beach town, where the speed limit is 20mph. John & I drive the golf cart & they follow behind. Very cute & a great way to tire them out - at least in theory. We can always hope! Generally they are tireless.

 My four favorite guys in the world.

The boys watched Disney's Tarzan, so they were pretending to be gorillas here.They also watched the Disney movie about the spotted puppies & Luke later reported to me about the cool movie "101 Damnations"! (We still have a lot of mispronunciations at our house, but that one is my new favorite!)

Beach Holiday

We got away to the SC coast for a few wonderful days.

Mud

 

 

Our lives are muddy these days but it washes off...most things!

I'll take the mud if it means having happy, healthy little boys. 

But I won't complain when we have grass growing in the 

yard again either!

The Shop

 John is moving right along on the shop building project. 

 Some of the back yard spectators

 

Science...

 with Daddy! 

The boys & I were delighted when John was able to join us on a field trip to one of our favorite science museums.

 We introduced him to Mollie, the Otter,

 Cool puppets,

 Hands-on dentistry,

and how to rock out to the science-of-sound! 

 

Little Boys Still...

The boys seem to want to grow up so quickly these days, so I loved it when they all decided to bring their favorite stuffed toys to the Library. Mark brought "Bubba" the bear, Nathan brought "Jaguar" the dog & Luke took "Luke Ema" the monkey. I savored the moment.

The Shop

 The new "thing" around here is that John is building a shop 

in our back yard. 

 Jake takes his supervisory role very seriously! 

 The boys LOVE playing in all the mud!

Nathan was interested in the post hole digger. Don't worry - it's not running in this picture!

Unknown Path

I think change is in the wind for us. I am feeling very stressed out about it but also peaceful at the same time (weird combo, I know!). More on all that as time goes by...

Hiking for Five

 My four favorite "bums".

I love this cute shot of Mark & Nathan.  I think they started out wrestling but it ended up as a hug.

We have a lot going on in our lives right now & are feeling very stressed out. A family hike is always good medicine for us, so off we went to Pilot Mountain. It was so good to just be all together in the beautiful woods, with the boys running around, climbing everything & making lots of noise. At the end of our hiking, Mark & Nathan pretended they were tired. Ha! It takes a lot more than an afternoon of hiking to tire out those guys!