Weekend

Uncle James, Auntie Melinda and Lexy gave the girls tickets to see Veggie Tales (thanks again so much!), and we went to the show this weekend. As the above picture indicates, the girls had a wild time. They sang, danced and climbed around.

What's not to love, really, about a bunch of singing vegetables?

Sunday lunch

John Lennon Google Doodle

Kitchens!

And so today on Kelly's Korner, the topic is kitchens. Our kitchen took a huge hit last week, what with planning the girls' fourth birthday. After making cupcakes for school, making two cakes and the food for the party, our kitchen was in complete disarray. There is nothing like posting pictures on the internet to motivate a good clean. (The clutter remains; there is always clutter -- and I say that lovingly -- when small children are in the house.)

Our keeping room (the keeping-it-real room is what we call it) is right off the foyer. As the photos clearly indicate, this room has become a downstairs play room, and the toy level is at an all-time high, post-birthday party.



A huge bonus to this room (and the kitchen) is that there are French doors that open onto the porch (like in the dining room). Before the doors became blocked by toys, we could sit on the sofa and enjoy a breeze on nice fall or spring days.



(I just noticed that one of the pillows is upside down. That is the kind of thing that would have driven me insane before having children. Now? I just choose not to see it.)

From the other entry point (off of the family room/living room):



And here is a shot from the laundry room:



I have crossed over into a new territory... I am now someone who stores items atop the refrigerator. This is where I keep the girls' art supplies and work books. Keeping these types of things out of reach until we are actually using them helps to preserve some order. The rest of the time I try not to look up.



So that's the kitchen. Thanks for stopping by, and have a great weekend!

Friday's quote

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined."

Henry David Thoreau

Tricks of the trade

Every now and then I read something that causes me to do a mental (and sometimes physical) double take. This week I read somewhere that a mother's trick for improving a morning routine was to clothe her child in her school clothing the night before. Several readers commented that they employed that strategy. The child sleeps in his/her school clothing and marches off to school the next morning. Voila!

Now, that would never, never, EVER work for us because there are so many arguments about clothing, and I wouldn't want those to commence a second before they absolutely must. However, I hold no judgment whatsoever. Our trick is to lay clothing out for an entire week in a hanging organizer (as I'm sure I have mentioned before). While they may suck the spontaneity out of the clothing mystery, that is how we tackle the morning.

Whatever works.

Pedometers

Skip's employer has kicked off a physical fitness awareness program and (generously) sent all of the employees pedometers. Skip has been convinced that the device does not accurately count steps. He is out of town today and left his pedometer home. I took the opportunity to see how the gadget works.

I checked the reading an hour after clipping it to my pants (and after many, many, many steps), and it registered FOUR steps. That kind of inaccuracy is not going to work for me. I started thinking that maybe my waist doesn't jiggle enough (although that sure doesn't seem possible) to register steps, and that pocket placement would make for a more accurate reading. Alas, I have no pockets today. Instead, I clipped it to my sock.

Upside: It accurately counts steps!

Downside: It could be mistaken for an ankle monitoring device.

Birthday update

Sorry for the delay in updating. We have been completely wiped out by the the birthday preparations that have occurred over the last couple of weeks. Last Friday, however, we got very serious and began our day with a "fun Friday" breakfast. Lauren is not a morning person so she spent the breakfast like so:



Gracie was ready to wear her birthday crown. They received them last Thursday during their cupcake party at school. Something tells me Lauren refused to wear hers even at school. Gracie, our morning person, was ready to roll:

You say it's your birthday
It's my birthday, too, yeah!



We spent the morning making cakes and icing. I am not sure why I was insistent on making their cakes this year, but I am so glad we did because the girls loved it. They were fascinated with the whole process, and sat in front of the oven while they were cooking. Making the buttercream icing was even more fun (no foolish downtime waiting for it to cook), although I finally had to restrict Gracie's icing consumption. Even with all of the special help from four little hands, I think they turned out fine.

Next, we made shirts for them to wear at the party. As I mentioned, Lauren wanted a Sleeping Beauty party, and Gracie wanted the opposite of that (she settled on Barney). There simply were no Barney options so we made shirts to wear.



Saturday finally arrived ("Is our party now? In a little while? Is our party after nap???"), and the party was under way! The Sleeping Beauty cake held up really well:



Somehow Barney ended up with some sun exposure and may have melted slightly. It looks worse in the photograph than it actually was, and Gracie was none the wiser:






We had a wonderful time visiting with everyone, and the girls really enjoyed getting to play with their cousins. To top off all of that (which was, by far, their favorite), they enjoyed some really nice loot as well. Here is a family hug (minus Skip) in celebration of their receiving some new shoes. YEA SHOES!







Gracie, shown below, getting some batting pointers from Lexy before taking a few swings at the pinata:





Again, we had a great time, and really appreciate everyone coming by to celebrate. Special thanks to everyone for pitching in with food, pictures (Melinda), video and set-up/clean-up. We appreciate all of the extra help!

Bye bye 3!

Recovery

We are trying to recover from the mayhem of birthday weekend. Updates to come soon.

Sunday lunch

Friday's quote

"Have the courage to say no. Have the courage to face the truth. Do the right thing because it is right. These are the magic keys to living your life with integrity."

Mark Twain

Serious and silly

Where we dine

Kelly's Korner is doing a room tour, and the room for today is....... drumroll..... dining rooms. Since I recently put some fall decorations out, I thought I would take a pic or two and join in (not that the decorations are elaborate by any means).

Looking in from the foyer:



This is the only real color we have in our home, and it doesn't photograph particularly well. It is a terra cotta type color. We recently had the ceiling and one of the walls repainted in this room (don't ask). Luckily, the previous homeowners left some paint behind so we were able to match it perfectly.

We actually use this room. We have a small breakfast nook with a table that seats four. Therefore, any time we have more than 2-3 guests, we head for the dining room.

The long view captures one of the best features of the room, that being the French doors. The previous homeowner also invested in a nice chandelier and a rare cornice board that isn't visible, but it makes for a great conversation piece.



Our dining room furniture is a little mis-matched. We have a good, solid table and chairs, and that's a great start. At some point, we will likely add the buffet for storage (for now we store our china on an old baker's rack), and skip the china cabinet altogether. My goal is to keep the room open so that the table can be expanded easily when needed.



Things we need to work on include artwork, such as this lovely wedding gift that should have been framed and hung years ago:



and removal of some toys the girls have outgrown:



And, of course, what dining room would be complete without an easel?



Thanks for stopping by, and have a wonderful weekend!

Cupcakes

The birthday celebration continues. This morning I stood outside of Hobby Lobby, waiting for the store to open. I have mixed feelings about Hobby Lobby on a good day, much less when I am standing on the sidewalk at 9:02 a.m., awaiting the 9:00 a.m. opening. (Truthfully, my feelings are not that conflicted. I tend to be opposed to the Hobby Lobby and stores of its ilk.) The clutter in Hobby Lobby makes me nervous, to put it lightly, and I have fantasies of swiping some of the more over-the-top displays to the floor. Hobby Lobby is the reason that storage companies do so well.

Whatever. Bygones.

What I logged on to share is that we made cupcakes yesterday for the girls' class this morning. We have a joint theme this year, consisting of Sleeping Beauty and Barney that Lauren and Gracie, respectively, chose themselves. I'm not sure if Gracie's choice is motivated 1) by a renewed interest/love in/for Barney or 2) by her wish to choose the exact opposite of whatever Lauren wants (which is increasingly becoming her way). She threw us a curve ball, what with the discontinuation of most Barney goods, but we worked out a pink and purple theme that we can live with.

For the cupcakes, we stuck with a simple plan: white icing + a decoration that they applied themselves. Here's how they turned out:




The cakes, on the other hand, will not be so simple, and that's why I had to stand on the sidewalk of Hobby Lobby.

Birthday week

Waiting in line for Costco to open can mean only one thing: it is "birthday week" here at the Lindsey home. Accordingly, I have spent significant time at all the usual places, such as Wal-Mart, Target, etc., and have not spent as much time with the computer.

The expression of someone who does not like to be confined:

It couldn't be helped. We had to sprint through the store to get everything done.

What do you know?

The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life has revealed America's ignorance with a basic religious survey. The New York Times summarizes the findings here, and the full survey results can be seen here.

Take a sample test here, or see the full survey here.

Weekend

I am not really a techy sort of person. I would prefer to have more aptitude in that area, but it is apparently not meant to be. I spent not an insignificant amount of time Sunday afternoon and evening attempting to upload (I believe the proper term is "rip," but I'm not sure) an audio only clip. But the thing is? No one bothers with audio clips. I had recorded Gracie singing, via the monitor, during a nap, and I have nearly driven myself mad attempting to capture it here. Instead, I am now inundated with spam after trying to use the same source I used previously for a similar task.

Instead, I will share some pics from our viewing of the Alabama-Arkansas game Saturday. Lauren's expression (below) captures our sentiments for the first 3 1/2 quarters of the game:

"Umm, did they seriously just score with the second play of the game?"



"This is gonna be a long one."



At half-time, we had to take a mental break and get some fresh air.







Lauren picked up some new lingo, such as "that's a great run!". Unfortunately, she was unable to apply it to her own team. Gracie honed her cheering skills, as those were sorely needed.

Sunday lunch

Nature

Lauren in the light