Painting

This morning we all went out to the courtyard for Lillie and Elliott's first painting session. Jack is really into art. He enjoys painting, coloring, cutting, stickers, those kinds of things. He only gets to paint every now and then and today I decided that Lillie and Elliott were probably old enough to join him.

Lillie's first stab at it.

Elliott started out more interested in the birds than painting.

The pro.

Lillie decided it might be fun to paint her juice cup.

Now Elliott's getting the hang of it.

"Maybe I can paint my body too!"

Jack concentrating.

Finished work of art!

I told Jack they would all need baths. He said "we can just rinse off in the water out here."

Then they all joined in.

Minding his own business.

Lillie got thirsty!

Her mouth full of water.

And I guess she was hot too!

It did add an additional load of laundry to my pile today, but I'd say it was worth it!

Daddy' Socks

Because his legs were cold

and because she has to do everything he does!

Let's Talk Sheets

Up until recently I could not figure out how to fold a fitted sheet and make it come out square. I don't know if others have this problem or not, but just in case I'll show you my new found method of sheet folding, and organizing.

Back in the spring I bought a few new sets of sheets for our bed on overstock.com. I read lots of reviews to find good ones, that were affordable. I'm pleased with the two I settled on! When the shipment arrived I carefully unfolded the fitted sheet and memorized how it was so neatly packaged, so I could fold it properly in the future.

Before I get into folding I'll share a little organizing secret with you. I'm always using other peoples ideas for organizing, and want to be more organized, it's just hard...so I'll share what little I have!

Anyway, I label each tag in the sheet set with a letter. That way I always know what fitted sheet goes with the flat sheet and the pillow cases. I know I could always try to match colors and stitching designs, but who has time for that? I came up with this idea not too long ago (I'm sure it's not original) because I have a very small space to keep my sheets and found myself always trying to sort it out, now I just grab a pillowcase (keep reading) and don't worry about it because I know everything I need is right there.

Ok, back the the fitted sheet.

First, fold in half and stuff one side of the corners into the opposite side of corners.

Second, fold in one side to the middle, then the other.

Next, fold in half again.

Finally fold two or three times to make your nice square!

So there you have it... not rocket science, but it sure has helped me and maybe it will someone else.

The last thing I do is stack up the fitted sheet, flat sheet, and one pillow case (no pillow case if you're working with a twin set) and put them inside the other pillow case, fold the flap over, and store in the closet. I got this idea from Real Simple.

That's it! I know you could always bundle up your sheets and tie a pretty bow around it and then have a little tag hanging from the string indicating what size the sheet set was and that would be very pretty and I would feel good about looking at my linen closet (or shelf in my clothes closet in our case) and pulling a set out, but in this season of life, I'm just thankful to have them all together in one place!

Baseball and Haircuts

Now I'll catch you up from June...

Freddy's parents came to visit over Father's Day weekend.

We enjoyed being out doors with them; parks, fountains, play grounds, and a Father's Day Yankee's game!

Jack wore Gramp's, Freddy, and his hat all at the same time, backwards, for a good bit of the game.

Dinner

Dessert

We also had Elliott's hair cut for the first time.

His First Crush

Earlier last week Jack said, "Mommy. Do you know what my favorite Scooby Doo is?" He proceeded to point to Daphne, the red head.

"Ok Jack"

A few days ago he said, ""Mommy. Do you know what my favorite Scooby Doo is?" He proceeded to point to Daphne, again.

Then it hit me...

"Jack do you think she is pretty?"

His cheeks got a little red and a sheepish grin came across his face, he was clearly a little embarrassed. He snickered, cupped his hands around his little mouth and whispered "shhh... it's a secret."

Amelia Island 2010: Final Post

This is my last post on our vacation. These are just a few extra shots that were mostly taken the night we tried to get a decent family shot.

We tried a few pictures on the tee box again. This picture was right when we were headed down to the beach. They were gone!

Jack and Nay Nay

We tried to get them to lay on our backs.... didn't work.

We even tried some normal poses... didn't work.

Look at last years picture. Can't believe how different they are!

Trying to get a good one of the 3 of them sitting nicely together, facing the camera... fail!

She is such a mess!

My sweet boys.

I love this. He wanted to run free all week on the beach. I like how the bottom half of his shorts are wet.

Wild one!

Destroying someones sand castle.

Before we went to the beach we drew the letter of each family members first name on a piece of paper and Jack had a project to work on all week of coloring in the letters. He got a little help from Sarah(my sister) and Kathryn(my cousin). Not all the family was present at the time of the presentation, but those who were posed for a picture!

One worn out little boy!