Vacation time, Easter and maybe a new house...

Wow, what a crazy couple of weeks. It started off with my kids taking spring break and my husband and I taking vacation time from our jobs. We started off the week by visiting our home town again and remembering why we loved it there.
We had planned on taking a short camping trip, but the weather here was cold and rainy here all week. We ended up just taking the kids to the lake instead for the day. I can't say that I was disappointed...my husband is the camper. He and my son are Boy Scouts and love to camp out. I have learned to endure it for their sakes. I have found that doing silly things like bringing pretty table clothes and pretty plates make it a little more fun for me. It ended up being a beautiful day...perfect weather. I had planned to do several activities, because I knew the toddlers attention span would keep us running. My husband and the kids fished...even the princess. I kept the toddles out of the water.
We also had a cook out. My husband wanted to cook sometime special...we just couldn't do hot dogs and call it a day. Oh No...he has to do it up good. So, he grilled chicken wings, roasted corn on the cob and potato's. He was doing really good preparing for all of this, getting there and setting up. When he went to light the charcoal he realized that he had forgot to bring a lighter. Don't you think I had a hay day with that one...the Boy Scout who is always prepared forgot the lighter. He had to drive up the road a mile or two to find one....this is only after he had asked all the other people fishing around us and then tried to light a napkin with the cigarette lighter in the van. We did finally get our food cooked. It was all very good. My mom also joined us for lunch. She lives close to the lake, so she popped over and ate with us.
We then took the kids to the play area...my teenage son had as much fun as the toddlers did playing in the sand and swinging....I think he was reliving his childhood.
My daughter spent her time reading and getting some sun....she ended up getting a terrible sunburn.





























My Husband and little one taking a rest.







My son flying through the air after jumping out of the swing.

Big brother teaching little brother hoe to fish.

Easter morning...just a side note...all of their clothes came from Target clearence over the last couple of months...except for my teenage sons shoes. I got everything they are wearing...shoes, coat, socks, tie, dress everything for around 100.00 dollars. My daughters coat was 37.oo, which is her winter coat...I guess I shouldn't count that in their Easter budget...so for about 63.00 dollars. Not to bad if I do say so!!

OH...I almost forgot...we are thinking about moving back to our home town, but we need to sell our house first. We have a ton of stuff to do before we put it on the market. We hope to do it with in the next couple of weeks. You may not here from me much...I have a lot of cleaning, decluttering and painting to do. Wish me luck!!

A tisket a tasket...what a Easter basket...

Ok...I have a sick obsession with baskets. I don't know when it began, to far back for me to remember, but I love them. My mother also has this same sickness as you will see in later post. I have gotten several from her to re-purpose. Well, my new focus has been on finding Easter baskets for my kids. When my teenagers were little, I found two large baskets at Big Lots. I have used those baskets for years, but now that I have the two toddlers, I wanted matching ones for all of them. Well, the hunt was on. I know most normal people don't put as much thought into something like this, but I'm a little crazy. I had been looking for several months with no results and you know I'm cheap. I finally came across these little beauties at Michael's. They were on sale for 50% off and only cost 1.98. I know what your thinking...those are kind of big for a Easter basket. I wanted something big enough to put a big chocolate bunny in and some extra stuff besides candy. I like my baskets to be a little grandiose and over the top. So here they are...This is the before and then the after. You know I couldn't just leave them plain. I had to jazz them up a bit with some spray paint and added some ribbon and a name plate to the front. I will use these year after year, so for about 3.00 dollars it was a pretty good investment. The spray paint that I used is Krylon in celery gloss. It was only 2.98 at Walmart. It is my new favorite color, you will be seeing a lot of stuff painted with this. I also picked up some black and some white. I have several projects I will be working on. I can't wait to get started.

I also have started to pick up several items from the dollar tree for the toddler's baskets. I still need to get stuff for the teenagers. I will add some candy, a cello wrap and a big bow.

Have you got your Easter baskets started? I would love to see what everyone else is doing.

After I put this picture of the name on here I decided I'm not in love with how that looks, so I think I will find something else. I will let you know how it turns out.

Weekend Fun!!

I'm finally back...I sometimes wish there was two of me so I could get more done. I had to work a lot this last week and I had lots of things going on with my kids. My son decided to stay in Orchestra..with a little guilt from his mom...he had a concert this week and also has contest today.

Any who, I did get to have a nice outing with my daughter and my mom over the weekend. We went back to my home town . It is a very small, old town . It has lots of cute shops and charming old buildings. It is known for its antique shops. I have not been there in several years and was pleasantly surprised at some of the changes that had taken place. The town has redone the park and a new owner had refurbished the hotel which had set empty for at least twenty years. We just played tourist and walked around. We didn't do any major shopping, but I plan to go back next week. My kids have spring break and I want to spend some more time there.

This building is for rent. My daughter and I would love to have a little shop here...maybe someday!!

This is the cute downtown area. The town only has about 1500 people.

I always loved this building this, the balcony is so cute.

It was a nice day, I plan on going back in next week. My kids are out of school for spring break and we plan on spending at least one day there.
I will be posting more stuff today...I don't have to work and it is raining here. Perfect time to get some blogging done.

Check back in a little while!!

I will back tomorrow....

I have lots of things to show, but very busy with the kids. I will be back tomorrow.

Teenagers!!!...Do I need to say more...

I planned on several other post today, but my teenagers have put a wrinkle in that plan. My 15 year old son decided to download music on my laptop and I now have a virus that I can't get off and then my 17 year old daughter broke my card reader to my desk top. Needless to say I can't upload any new pics until I get a new card reader...UGH!!! So I just doing a filler post of some pics of my kids that my daughter took a couple of weeks ago. She has gotten pretty good with her photography...now if I could get her to take better can of my stuff!!

Product suggestion....

My product suggestion for today is something that I can't live without....my electric griddle. I use it almost everyday. When you have a family of six you cook a lot of food in large quantities. I use it to fry bacon, pancakes, hamburgers, chicken, pork chops, eggs...I could go on. I use it for anything that I would use a regular skillet for, but it can hold so much more. It is so much quicker and cooks more evenly than a regular skillet. The only draw back to it, is that if you want to store it, it does take up a little more room. I don't put mine away because I use it so much. There is a fold up version that is easier to store than the full size. Here are a few of them in different styles and price ranges. You can also google electric griddles to find price comparisons and reviews.


The first one is a Presto Professional electric griddle...39.99 at Target
The second one is a Rival Fold and Store electric griddle....49.99 at Target
The third on is a Wolfgang Puck Reversible electric griddle...54.64 at Sams club










I would like to have the Wolfgang Puck, but right now have the Presto...it works very well. I just like the reversible option. Let me know if any of you have one and what kind it is.

Planning ideas for April...

April.......what a great month.

Here in the mid west it is one of the best months of the year. The weather is usually very nice during this month....60's and 70's. This is a great time to be doing things out side.

Here are some suggestions of things to do to enjoy the weather:






Camping...we are planning a short camping trip to our local lake/park in the first week of April. My kids are on spring break that week. We are going to a lake/park that is only about a half an hour away, but it is really pretty and relaxing. Look around your area, you don't have to travel long distances to have a good time. If you are not a camper, try going when the weather is a little cool...it makes sleeping more comfortable. I will another post on tips for camping later.


Fishing...all my kids love to go fishing...even my seventeen year old daughter, who is the girly girl you will ever meet.























Weenie roast...This may be a country thing, but we always had these when I was growing up. Usually in the early spring and in the fall. All you do is start a small fire...of course this is easier in the country. If you live in the city, you can use an outdoor fire pit. Then grab some hot dogs and marshmallows to cook. Again we grew up in the country so we would use a willow branch to stick our hot dogs on but you can buy metal ones to use too.

Picnic in the park

Fly a kite













Plant some flower or vegetable seeds....If you don't have room for a garden, use a flower pot.

Plant a tree...this in National Arbor day month

Do a walking tour of your town...take pictures of the different buildings to help you children remember what they look like.

Catch lighting bugs...they have cute bug houses at the dollar store...or do what we did as kids...use a mason jar and punch holes in the lid.

We can't forget Easter...I will do another post, this one is getting a little long!!

I hope this inspires you to get out and enjoy the weather.