Autumn got her “big girl bike” last week, and after only an hour on it, she was a pro.  And we can’t get her off of it!

She could’ve gotten it last summer, but she was so attached to her Dora Bike (okay, it’s a regular tricycle that she put Dora stickers allllllllll over) that she didn’t want a big bike… but we had an opportunity to get a great hand-me-down from a friend and convinced her that she’d love it.  And we were right.  We “girlied” it up with a Princess basket and tassles and a pink bell, and Autumn is going to hunt for Princess stickers to put on it.  She’s growing up too fast!

 

Showing her little sister how it works:

And really, what’s more fun than chasing your friends through the neighbor’s sprinkler??

And Ayla was enjoying the “rain” too… but she stopped to take a break:

 

Ah, isn’t summertime grand?

So Autumn was doing something (I don’t even remember now – dragging dog food from the bowls to feed the dogs, right after I swept?  I dunno) that I asked her not to do, please.  She did it again a few minutes later.

So I asked her, rhetorically, in my familiar slightly-gritted-teeth style that lets her know I mean business, “HOW many times am I going to have to ask you to stop??”

To which she replied, after giving it quite a bit of thought, “Two?”

Okay, you’re forgiven.

about making homemade chocolate cake, is sharing the batter-covered beaters and barely-scraped bowl with my girls!  Ah, I actually DO love rainy day fun!

I think I caught Autumn off-guard!

Hope all my mommy friends had a great Mother’s Day.  I was blessed with flowers on Friday, a special meal at my favorite restaurant on Saturday, and a gift from the Diamond Cellar on Sunday.  All that, and hubby did laundry, cleaned the kitchen, and took care of the kids for me.  I must’ve done something right sometime, somewhere!  Here’s a (not so good) picture of my gift, it made me cry… a charm necklace for each of my children with their birth stones:

Let’s see… other random musings for today…

Wanda Sykes needs moved to a deserted island and put out of our misery.

Thank GAWD Joan won the Celebrity Apprentice.  When your boss asks you what you’ve done to earn a job, you DON’T start pointing fingers at someone else and blaming them for your failures. 

I have decided I will never beat my carb addiction.  Why are carbs so wonderful???  And isn’t it a gift for my grandkids to snuggle into a grandma with some meat on her bones?  Yeah, I think so.

Ayla has a new trick.  If you say, “Ayla, MEAN FACE!” she drops what she’s doing and does this:

But then she thinks she’s hysterical and falls out, cracking herself up:

Hm.  I think that’s all I have today.  We had a wonderful weekend, and I hope everyone else did too!  Have a great week!

today… and still lovin’ it.

 

(LOL… someone graciously pointed out that I had a typo in the title and wrote 17 months – I didn’t notice it, I have fixed it!)

Autumn so wanted to plant a flower garden… so we gutted the old big sandbox and filled it with topsoil and let her shop for flowers.  She’s completely obsessed… she checks their growth on the hour, every hour.  There are wilflower seeds planted in the middle of the big area, and she checks several times a day to see if they’re growing yet.  I think she’s going to get frustrated very quickly at this rate!  She’s lovin’ it – Grandma and Grandpa have promised to go get some flowers for her to plant at their house too.  Martha Stewart in the making, maybe?

Yes, that’s a lovely area of dead grass where the broken lid was left laying all spring… guess I’ll be shopping for grass seed soon too!

Visiting Grandma’s house, finding an interesting thing trying to hide from us:

That’s a teeny frog balanced one of the chairs:

And why oh why do I like pictures of them walking away so much?  It’s so… “me and my shadow”!

sans mantle.  I don’t know why I don’t have a mantle.  I built the house and didn’t include one.  11 years later I still don’t have one.  I don’t know why.  I guess the benefit is it’s one less thing to dust.  But I digress…

Autumn won 3rd place in her age group for an Easter drawing she did at a local restaurant… I think this girl has never been so proud of herself in all her life!

Daddy came home a little early and took her to pick up her prizes (and yes, she wanted to put on her pretty Easter dress) – she got a little plastic backpack, a playdoh set, a gift card for a kid’s meal, and a certificate.  She’s so tickled!

Ah, mom brag over.

… or should I say “Rainy Day Mess?”

And for the perfect end to playtime, we looked out the back window and saw this!

We had a glorious Saturday enjoying a picnic in our local park.  Grandma and Grandpa came to enjoy it with us, and we took some pics and watched the kids play.  Our park has a water area, so the kids can fill up their waterguns and get everyone wet – including bystanders! 

There’s nothing better than eating outside in the warm spring weather, laughing and being together with family.  We are so blessed, and I thank God every day for that.

‘

After we got back home and it got dark, we lit up the firepit and had roasted marshmallows.  Is there a better way to end a perfect day?

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