Reverse Mohawk!

So my adorable little boy decided to give himself a haircut last night and here is how it looks.

I know you are all jealous and you wish that your own child had style just like mine has. He also cut a chunk from the side of his head above his ear and that looks just as adorable, though not quite as noticeable. Needless to say the scissors have been confiscated and now only Mom or Dad are allowed to use them. Little stinker! I told him that at least when I did this as a kid I was sensible enough to cut someone else's hair and not my own! I think I got that one from my Mam who decided to cut the pigtails off a girl who had beautiful long hair. Remember that Mummy dear? Every time a plane went over today I told Joe to cover his head incase the pilot thought he had a landing strip on his head :)

Not a great deal else going on right now. We've just been to soccer as usual and tonight was Joe's last practice. They have tournament on Saturday and Sunday and then that is him finished. Yippee! It will be a lot less rushing around. Amy's practice will continue but now we won't need to be anywhere until 6pm instead of 5pm.

Denise, I have not been eating well like you have. I really need to make an effort and plan more rather than flying by the seat of my pants like I do most days. We have cut back on the amount of veggies and fruit we've been eating and we really need to reverse that with so many good things being in season right now. Saying that Joe had a banana and an apple for dinner and 5 slices of watermelon for lunch - he's a great fruit and veggie eater. We always have plenty of melon and strawberries and such like but there's so much more on offer that I should make the effort to buy it and actually do something with it (as opposed to watching it grow a fur jacket in my fridge!)

Ok, well I need to clean up a little and get my energy level up and ready for laying 5 pallets of sod tomorrow - yay me! Enjoy your night.

Game time

Can you guess what this is?

You are right Denise! I was out in the yard planting and digging etc from 9.30am until 5pm yesterday. Did I think to put sunscreen on? Nope! Now I'm paying for it. My skin is still burning and stinging and sleeping was uncomfortable last night. We still have a ton of work left to do outside so today I'll be sure and cover up more AND wear sunscreen :) I took some before pics yesterday but you'll have to wait for the "after" ones as we need to go and get mulch. This morning I'm going to plant up some pots of annuals for the front of the house and then I think I will start to do some clearing up of the beds round the pool.

Shaun is busy working in the basement. He pulled a wall down yesterday and now is doing all the repair work. Our big screen TV down there broke and we replaced it with a projector. The big TV had been built into a recessed wall so now we're filling that in so it's flat for the projector screen. It's a huge mess down there. I was hoping to have some friends over to swim tomorrow but there's no way we can do that until all of the stuff in the basement is cleared away and put back where it belongs. You can barely get through to go to the bathroom as it is. Hopefully it won't take too long.

Well sitting here is not getting any work done outside is it? I guess I will have to move or I'll still be here this afternoon! Have a great day and I hope the sun is shining where you are.

Where to Start?

Yes Gina I know it's been a while but there just aren't enough days in the week or hours in the day. There's too much to go back on and update so I'll just start with what generally has been going on this week. First of all Joe had a red mark on his face last Thursday and we thought it was just from a bump with a toy like he told us. Well, one blotch turned into 3 and then he had lines across his nose and around his eye. It turns out it was Poison Ivy. I took him to the Dr on Monday after school and she gave us a Rx for some ointment that was safe to use around his eye. She wanted to avoid the steroid if she could so she just said to call her immediately if the symptoms worsened. The next day when he woke up he looked terrible. His eye was really swollen and itchy and everything was bright red. I called the Dr's office as soon as it opened and had the Rx for the oral steroid within the hour. Within an hour or so of taking it the swelling had really gone down :) A little more of the rash came out on his arms and lower body but it was very mild compared to his face. And now it's Friday and it's almost cleared up entirely. Hopefully that's it done. This picture of him was taken on Monday after seeing the Dr.

I had kept Joe home from school on Tuesday mainly because he was uncomfortable and because I wasn't sure if the Dr would want to see him again. I normally volunteer in Amy's class that day so I had the morning at home for a change. It was just as well as I really needed the time to get Teresa's birthday cake finished in time for lunch at Applebees. I'm not sure I would have gotten it finished if I hadn't stayed home as I worked on it most of the morning. Here is the finished product. It's a sushi theme as that is her favorite food.

Yesterday morning was Joe's preschool graduation down at our local beach. It was extremely windy but that didn't stop the kids from going in the water. My little guy announced that he was hot so he had to take his shirt off! We had a nice time with friends and it was kinda sad to end that era but, it's time to move on. I didn't think Joe was too bothered about it all but this morning he came into our room at 6.30am crying because he missed school and his friends already! We have plans for a swim date or park playdate next week so hopefully we can keep that going over the summer.

Last night there was an event planned by our soccer club, CSA down in Prince Frederick. English Premier League soccer star JLloyd Samuel came to meet all of the kids. We took some members of our teams along together with Amy and Joe and the kids all had a great time. Amy and Joe got their soccer balls signed and autographs to frame and Joe also got his shirt signed. JLloyd was very approachable and happily signed autographs and had pictures taken. Here's a pic of the three of them.

So today marks the beginning of a 3 day weekend - my favorite kind! We plan to do lots of gardening to get the front garden in particular into some sort of order. We had ordered lots of plants online and they arrived today so we need to get all of those planted out together with some small bedding plants I bought today. We also need to have a good clean around the pool and get all of the weed fabric down on the beds and mulch around the plants with the white marble rocks that we have. Hopefully by Monday the majority will be done and we will be able to relax and swim. It should be in the 80s by then so hopefully that is warm enough.

That is this weeks update from me. I hope you all have a great holiday weekend - whichever side of the pond you are on.

Okay, Okay people!

No the rain did not wash my computer away but it did wash my brain away :-) Nah really I've just been super busy and tired and haven't really gotten the time to blog. Where does the time go?

Our week days are just so busy at the moment what with school, preschool, soccer etc. Joe's preschool finishes next Thursday so things may get a little calmer after that. Also Amy has her last game of the season this Sunday so then we will have at least part of our weekends back. We will continue to have soccer practice through the summer with Amy's team but it won't be as often.

Tomorrow Joe has a 9am game so we have to be at the field by 8.30am - that should be a challenge in itself! At least we have the rest of the day once his game is over. I think we are going to go to Greenstreet Gardens and buy some plants and also a small tree and get some yard work done. After Shaun laid all of the new sod last weekend the floods came and most of it now looks dead:( Hopefully it will recover but right now it's not looking so healthy. It's raining again this morning but it does appear to be brightening so I don't think we're in for any flooding this time. Phew!

We all know that blog posts without photos are boring so I thought I'd post this one from Amy's game last Sunday. I just love how you can see that she's thrown her whole body into this shot!

I hope this post was worth waiting for even though it's not overly exciting. Have a great weekend whatever you do!

Phew!

This week seems to have been a whirlwind already and we're only halfway through it. Yesterday was crazy Tuesday (as always) and I was exhausted when I finally got into bed last night. I volunteered in school in the morning and then headed to the grocery store, picked up Joe etc. I had volunteered (I know, sometimes I should just say nothing!) to make a cake for the teachers luncheon today for Teacher Appreciation Week. I was bringing a cake on "salad day" so I thought I'd make it fit in with the theme. I worked on it last night after we got home from practices and then I raced home this morning after dropping the kids off at school to finish up. It was supposed to be at school by 10.45am ready for the first lunch shift at 11am. I made it there by 10.59am!!!! I really was pushing it and just managed a quick photo before I headed out the door. It turned out pretty cute don't you think?

So, now that is out of the way I can breathe - just a little. I have to run back to Joe's preschool in about 40mins to clean up there and then I'll be off to pick up Amy. It's beautiful here today - around 84 degrees, so we'll definitely head to the playground for a little while after school and I can catch up with my Mommy friends. Shaun has soccer with his adult team tonight so he'll be heading to his game just before 6pm.

This weekend our Select team (Amy's team) are having a fundraiser at the winery which I'm looking forward to. We have around 65 people coming and all of the team parents are making the appetizers and desserts so I need to start baking again soon for that. I may make a start on it tonight or I may just wait and do it all tomorrow or Friday. We'll see how I feel. I probably should just get it done and out of the way and then I can always freeze my goodies and forget about them until Saturday.

We have just ordered the sod for half of the front yard - the section that is in front of the house. It's still just dirt from when Shaun dug it all out and levelled it off. It will be nice to have grass again especially when it rains. Of course, we have to lay the sod too which is probably going to be a back breaker. Can't say I'm looking forward to it but it will be nice afterwards.

We opened our pool on Sunday and I can't wait until we can get in it. It was quite gross this year - full of algae and pollen but it's cleaning up nicely with the addition of some chemicals. The weather is definitely warming up quickly although in Maryland it can also change just as quick. Hopefully the water will be nice and warm soon.

Well that's my update for now as I need to get ready to head back out the door. Hope you are all having a good week!

Busy Weekend

Inner Harbor at Baltimore

As usual the time is flying by over the weekend and before we know it it will be Monday morning once again.

Yesterday was Amy's class field trip to the Maryland Science Center in Baltimore and I went along as a chaperone. Shaun took the day off work to stay with Joe and they had their own fun planned for the day. Joe was so excited that his Dad didn't have to do ANY work at all for a whole day and he kept referring to it as "Daddy Day!" He came into our room at some god forsaken hour yesterday and got into our bed and just started chatting away and asking loads of questions. It must've been around 6.15am. Then Amy came in all dressed and ready to go - even though we didn't have to leave the house until 8.40am. It's amazing how easy it is to get them up and out when there's no school work to be done!

After a horrific bus drive we finally arrived at the Museum. Amy and I were in a group on our own. We were supposed to have one more girl with us but she didn't turn up at school so it was just the two of us which was really nice:) We headed to the dinosaur exhibition to start off with and hunted for fossils etc. We then went outside to sit on the grass overlooking the inner harbor and ate our lunch. It was around 80 degrees and just beautiful out there (I could've fancied just sitting there for the rest of the afternoon! After that we went back into the museum and looked at all of the other exhibits. Everything is extremely hands on in there and that is right up Amy's street. Her favorite things were the bed of nails and these pully type seats.

A Bed of Nails

We got back to school around 3pm and were able to leave right away which was nice. The two of us made a run tot he store before heading home to see Joe and Shaun. They had enjoyed a nice day together too. They had been to play golf in the morning and Joe was very excited that they played on the big course this time and rented a golf cart! After finishing that they were starving so they headed to Five Guys in Prince Frederick for lunch. Unfortunately when they got home they smelled a bad smell and then realized that Spud had laid a huge poop right in the middle of the playroom carpet - nice huh? Thank goodness I wasn't around to clean that one up!!!!!

There was no rest for the wicked and it was time to get back to my cake and get it finished so I could deliver it. It turned out pretty cute and the best thing was that the recipients really like it. I didn't finish it until around 7.30pm and Amy came with me to deliver it before she had to go to bed. She was happy to get to see Morgan's house for the first time and got to see her bedroom and all of her "stuff!"

Today we have been busy again. I mowed the lawn and almost killed myself in the heat! Then I helped Shaun for a bit by moving bricks for him while he built the wall. He got a whole line of bricks in before it was time to head out to Joe's game. Joe's game was great today. We won 11-1 and Joe scored 3 goals and had 3 assists. He played really well and by the look on his face in all of the photographs, he really enjoyed it!

While we were at Joe's game Amy got to go out with a friend from her team. They called this morning and said they were heading down to Solomon's for the afternoon and would she like to come? She sure would and she had a blast! She said it was the best day ever. They got to go to the beach, ride in a golf cart, play at the playground and hang out in Grandpa's RV! What could be better. Joe had his friend over to our house this afternoon and he had fun too.

Taking a break

I'm supposed to be getting as much of my cake done as I can this morning but I'm taking a break after just having burned the palm of my hand quite badly. I think the only reason I can type so well is because it's numbed up so much right now with ice. Ouch!

Well I'm glad to have inspired at least of couple of you into checking out the "clean eating" magazine. Denise, I knew you'd jump at the chance as it's pretty much what you've been striving towards lately. In answer to one of your questions yes I do feed the kids whatever Shaun and I eat. Thankfully they love salad and their veggies - I usually have to bribe them to eat the protein and not just all of the veggies so they are not starving in 15 minutes! They tend to like raw veggies more than cooked so we eat a lot of salad which is fine by me seeing as it's less for me to cook. I want to try out the granola bar recipe you had on your blog and I will have the kids help me to make them and I think they will be more inclined to eat them. Actually, I really need to let them help out more in the kitchen and prepare their own food as I think they would try a lot more things that way - especially the more healthful stuff. Sure they still eat their processed snacks and candy but I get veggies and good stuff in them at every opportunity. I would like to get away from the sugary cereal but I don't think that will be easy.

Talking of breakfast this is my breakfast smoothie for this morning.

It is mango, strawberry, vanilla yogurt and a little filtered water

(crushed ice makes it too cold for me.) It was delicious but the next thing for me to do once I've used up my stash of Dannon "Best Life" yogurt is to change brands. I learned that this yoghurt has high fructose syrup added to it which is gross. It's the cheapest sweetener for manufacturers to use and it also acts as a thickener - yuck! I'm probably going to buy Dannon Activia from now on. Just little changes like that will all add up and hopefully improve the health of us all. Since Amy eats so much peanut butter I will switch her to a natural brand also and I'm sure she won't even notice the difference.

Well, this post is over for now. My hand is feeling better so I'm going to clean up my counter and then pack up my car and head to the dump before picking up Joe from school. Wishing you all a (clean) healthy day!