Three Little Jewells

Stick House

July 23, 2009:

Mary got the bright idea to build a “stick house” a la “The Three Little Pigs”.   Nathan went into the natural area and dragged out the large supporting limb all by himself!   Mary collected most of the sticks.  I helped them get the house started and when Kip got home he helped them finish it.

Mary and Nathan in their “stick house”

Building the stick house.

“THE STICK HOUSE”

Mary and Kip on the front porch.

I LOVE THIS PICTURE of Mary looking up at Kip- isn’t it fabulous???

Fire Pit

For my birthday/Mother’s Day, Kip agreed to put in a fire pit in a little clearing in the trees.   He finally finished it (mostly! we still want to add some mulch around the seating area and some pea gravel right around the fire ring) last weekend and we have had SO MUCH FUN having campfires almost every night.

Mary- 5 1/2 years old.

Notice Savannah in the background holding the box of matches???   Not one second after I snapped this picture she chucked the whole box of matches into the Firepit.

See them in there?

She’s got a bruise and a bit of a goose egg on her forehead- we’ve got no clue how she did it.

Picture of the new fire pit area.   On the left side, Kip used an old ladder and some scrap lumber to make the log holder that’s behind the hammock.   The logs around the fire were from a tree the previous owner had cut down.   She’d left them in a huge pile on the side of the house and when we were having the landscaping done, I asked Kip to save these in hopes of using them as seats around a fire pit someday.   They worked out perfectly.   That’s a chimnea on the far right.   We’d still like to get some Tikki Torches to put around the perimeter to ward of mosquitos in the evening.

Our neighbors brought us over 1/2 a watermelon that night.   Following are a bunch of pictures of Nathan and Savvy devouring the watermelon.

Notice she’s eating the rind.  Yuck!

I love this picture of Kip with Nathan and Savvy.

Busy Weekend

We recently joined the local pool and spent three days there last week.  I had my regular sitter here on other morning while I ran 8 errands in the course of three hours.   By Friday, the house was much more of a wreck than I am comfortable with so we stayed home from the pool.
Over the course of three days I have…

Gone through the pile of mail, bills, flyers, magazines, junk mail, cards, etc. awaiting me on the counter.

Filed at least 3 months worth of paperwork

Balanced the checkbook

Paid all the bills

Washed, dried, folded and put away 5 or 6 loads of laundry.

Washed and changed the sheets on Nathan’s bed.

Gave the kitchen, laundry room and bathroom a thorough sweep & mop.

Cleaned the bathroom.

Gone through the piles of cards and correspondence and dealt with them all.

Helped Mary clean her room and restore it to order.

Touch up painting in Nathan’s room and the Living room.

Finished ALL of my “TO PHOTOCOPY” list and found and printed everything on my “RESEARCH” list for the upcoming school year.  (well, September-December)

Cleaned the dining room and restored it to order.    This is the room that Mary and Nathan use to play with any of their “big kid” toys that have small parts we want to keep away from Savvy.  Dollhouse, playmobil, etc.  Also, Nathan’s hotwheels are in here.  This room can get to be quite the mess after a week or so.

Thorgoughly cleaned all the kitchen counters.

Made 2 pounds of homemade meatballs and froze them for the coming months.

Sorted through ALL of the children’s clothes and made complete lists of what they already have for the coming winter and what they need and in what sizes so I am ready for consignment sale shopping (starts next weekend!).

Tackled my long to-do list or random things such as call State Farm Bank,  find and fill out the necessary form for returning Kip’s workshirts, find Netflix movies and return them, sign, address & mail birthday cards, etc.

FINALLY, the house feels back in the order that I like to have it in.   I’m planning to spend Monday-Thursday at the pool and I can’t wait.

Have a great week- pictures coming soon!