:)

Enjoy your week everyone and I’ll be back soon!

To my husband on Father’s Day:

And a very happy Father’s Day to the other two heros in my life…

Two AMAZING dads and grandpas.  

And two of the best sports I’ve ever met.

:)

Happy Father’s Day to all the wonderful dads out there who work hard each day making a difference in a child’s life.  You are treasured!  

:)

Popping in to share a few recent pics!  I am SO behind.  So so behind on documenting our day to day.  This week (when I have time to post) will be a lot of catching up on some of our latest – even if it’s not the greatest.  :)  

Not so long ago I shared a picture of Kole “painting the wall” with water and said it was such a great toddler activity.  Turns out it’s not just for toddlers.  :)  I peeked out my kitchen window last week to find this scene.  Looks like El isn’t painting, but scrubbing the wall down instead?  Whatever works!  And keeps them entertained long enough for me to cook dinner.  (BTW – so happy to hear that some of you tried this activity and it was a success.  YEA!  I’ll have to think of more outside activities my kids like.  We have had to get pretty creative over the last nine years with our with our small back yard!)  

Since home cooked dinners are hit and miss around here this is my latest trick to ease some of my guilt and make sure the kids are eating enough fruit/veggies.  I have this veggie tray (bought it for 5 bucks at the grocery store) sitting out on the table each day after school when the kids come home.  They always come home STARVING and start immediately raiding the pantry.  The new rule is that this platter of food has to be eaten before anything else (most of it anyway).  The cool thing is that they are usually full by the time it’s gone and then I can hold them off until dinner.  I change the fruits and vegetables out each day and sometimes there are leftovers so I’m not constantly restocking everything.  I also give them long tooth picks to eat with because for some reason that just makes it more fun.  Except when they start having sword fights.  Then as Kole would say “we are all done toothpicks!”  Yup buddy.  We are.  :)

 Speaking of my little buddy… apple doesn’t fall too far.  

I was adjusting a camera lens last week and snapped the next two pics randomly.  Then when I went through my photos that night I had to laugh at what I caught on camera.  This is Ad trying to make Ellie fancy… 

You can see how well that went over.  

And here is our spring mantel in its latest state.  El did a report on Wood Ducks last week and let me tell you – we all know more about Wood Ducks than we ever cared to.  :)  She loves animals and got really into this little project.  We were proud of her work so the Wood Duck poster is displayed on the mantel.  With Addison’s clay fish.  At least they are keeping things aqua and working with my color scheme.  :)

 Peppa Pig.  It’s such a part of our day to day that I had to share this photo from the weekend.  

I’m giving myself a major pat on the back for making it through this week.  Anyone else feel the same?  To reward myself tonight I’m going to go to bed before 1:00 am.  Which is something that hasn’t happened for a while.  But to do this means I can’t post the pictures I wanted to share today.  If only I didn’t need to sleep!  Do you ever think about that?  How much you could get done if you didn’t need to sleep?  I think about it all the time.  Mostly late at night when I should be sleeping.  :)  I’m rambling now because I’m tired.  Anyway!  Since I’ve been thinking about teacher gifts this week (how I’m going to come up with an extra hour to pull something together this year) I thought I’d share a past post on a gift idea I came up with for Addison’s teachers a couple of years ago.  And I know most of you have either seen this post or you are already out of school and don’t need teacher gift ideas.  But I am sharing it anyway because the pictures of my little cookie watcher are some of my favorites.  And well…  because quite frankly I don’t trust myself to post when I’m this tired.  :)

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WHERE has this week gone!?  First week of summer has definitely been a busy one.  Summer actually hasn’t happened yet for my Addison.  This is her last week of pre-school and this weekend is her little graduation ceremony.  

For Ellie’s teacher, I kept things simple and just did my standard gift card (always to either Nordstroms or Target – the two places I’d want a gift card to!) along with a personal card from me and one from Ellie.  But with Addison, we went a different route because she has SO many teachers who have had an influence on her during the last two years.  

First, Addison made cookies.  I hate to bake so I just turned it all over to her.  

 Kidding!  Kidding.  Kind of.  She did help a lot.  And yes, she’s wearing a Halloween outfit.  In June.  Because that’s the way we roll around here.  And once Addison is on outfit number 6 of the day – you just stop caring.  Ya know?

Kole was our official “cookie watcher.”  He took his job pretty seriously pulling himself up to his post every few minutes to make sure the cookies were progressing to his satisfaction.   

Since Kole had everything under control in the kitchen, Addison and I got to work on our cards. 

Addison drew a picture of her with each teacher.  She is the one on the right with the curly hair.  :)  

I pulled up the shoe collage I made for Addison’s birthday letter, added a little journaling in Photoshop and had it developed as a 4×6 pic.  Quick and easy.  

Last week I found some cute plates on clearance at Target and snagged about 15 of them.  They were perfect to hold our oatmeal cookies.  Which thanks to Kole, were cooked to perfection.

Then I just used some scrapbook ribbon and plastic wrap I had on hand to tie everything together.

A quick and easy gift with a personal touch.  My favorite kind.

We gave them to her teachers today and I couldn’t help tearing up.  So did several of her teachers.  I am so sad to say good-bye to this second family of mine.  

 Even if it is just for a couple of years until my little “cookie watcher” is ready for pre-school.  Good thing that isn’t for a while though – this little one is needed in the kitchen.

I also have a baby who like all babies, creates as much laundry, spills, spit ups, dirty diapers and messes as is humanly possible.

My house gets trashed on a daily basis and is by no means perfectly clean all the time. Just wanna throw that out there and keep things real.

That being said, I feel like I do a pretty good job of staying on top of my house work and I’m more than happy to share my secrets.

Secret #1) My personality. I have always been a clean freak. When I was a little girl my sister would beg me to play dodge ball with her, but I was too busy organizing my room and re-arranging the furniture. As teenagers, she would stay up late listening to music. I would stay up late scrubbing our bathroom and organizing our hair accessories.

I really like things to be clean and orderly. And while I don’t like to admit this to my husband, I actually enjoy cleaning. I love to turn on music and get lost in housework. Very therapeutic to just clean and let my mind wander. I feel the most content and happy when my house is clean and because of this, I clean a lot. A LOT a lot. My close friends who ask me how I keep my house so clean always get the same answer from me — I’m always cleaning!

Secret #2) I have to admit that I DO have a little help. I have hired house cleaners who come every other week and “deep clean” my house. They do in about two hours what would take me four days. Kenny’s not a fan of our cleaners (not them personally, but the idea of them). It drives him crazy that I spend the whole day before the cleaners come cleaning our house to get it ready for the cleaners! But before they can mop, dust, and scrub, I have to get everything picked up and put away. Plus I love to have all of my laundry done before they come so that for one peaceful day every other week I can feel like everything is “caught up.”

Am I grateful that I am able to afford some help with housework? Extremely.

Does having help make it easier to stay on top of things? For sure. I only have to deep clean every other week and if I can’t get to something, I know that the next week it will be done.

Does having help make it so my house is always clean and I don’t have to do much? I wish! But no.

Secret #3) I have a daily cleaning routine. I’m going to share my routine, but I recognize that this won’t work for a lot of you. It’s unique to my situation at the time with small children and a husband who works late a lot of nights. I’m sure once my kids are older, my routine will change. I do believe though that what you do and when you do it doesn’t matter. What matters is that a daily routine is in place so that your house never reaches the point of being completely out of control and overwhelming.

During the morning/early afternoon I don’t clean a lot – other than picking up messes we make from breakfast and snacks. I’m busy shuttling and entertaining my kids, exercising and running errands. If I am home and have some time, I work off of my to-do list in my binder. By 3 or 4 in the afternoon I like to have all of my kids home. In fact, this year my girls are taking gymnastics and swimming lessons on Saturday mornings so that during the week we have our evenings free. The time change we just had is my all time favorite! I love it when it gets dark earlier because it makes it easier for us to be home in the afternoons. After Ellie gets home from school I give my girls some time to relax and play and then around 4:00 we have a snack and do homework and DEAR time. Then it’s straight upstairs for a bath. This is when my cleaning starts.

Immediately after I put my girls in the tub I start a load of laundry. Then while they play in the water and the clothes are washing I attack one room at a time (upstairs). One room at a time is key! It’s easy to go to put something away in another room and get side tracked. I don’t lose my focus. I keep working on the same room until that room is totally picked up and clean. Then I move on to the next room. I work fast! I bustle around putting everything in its place, checking on the kids and switching out and folding the laundry. In the bathrooms I put items away and wipe off counters and mirrors. Because I do this every evening, bathrooms stay looking nice. I usually have time to get one load of laundry washed, dried, folded and put away during this time and another load going that I finish up later that night while Kenny is reading to the girls. Again, because I do a load or two every night, I don’t get too behind on laundry. A lot of nights a load is left in the dryer and that is what I start with the next night. I always run the dryer for 5 minutes again the following night to get wrinkles out and to have warm clothes to fold. :)

I wash the girls’ hair and get them out of the tub half way through my cleaning frenzy and then I put them to work!

Secret #4) My girls help. I’ve found that assigning them specific responsibilities is key – pick up the crayons in the playroom – put the barbies back in their bin – pull your pajamas out of the pile of laundry and put them away.

(Addison – age 3 – folding laundry in her bride dress)I can’t say “clean your room” and expect anything to get done, but if I give them a specific task they do a lot better. Yes, in the beginning this was way more work than help, but because I involve them with the cleaning every evening they are actually starting to become better cleaners. My timer and quarters are great motivation on those nights that they aren’t feelin’ it. Some nights we play music (Gwen Stephani is a favorite for cleaning – lately Christmas music) and some nights we play “freeze” where the girls clean until I say freeze and then they freeze for a minute and then start cleaning again. I know. Sounds so silly, but any way I can make cleaning into a game helps to get my girls moving.

(Just a few weeks ago – scrubbing the dining room chairs while mom mops the kitchen floor. In dress ups of course. My girls clean best when they look fancy. :)After the upstairs is done, we all move downstairs and I make the kids dinner. While they are eating I pick up the living room/kitchen area. I would love to sit down together as a family to eat, but most nights Kenny isn’t home early enough to eat with us and aside from cleaning the downstairs I am also taking care of Kole (feeding and holding him) while the girls eat. That’s just our reality right now! Then Kenny gets home around 7:00 and I put Kole to bed and finish laundry while he reads to the girls and puts them in bed.

So I basically clean my whole house from 5-7 every evening.

My goal is to be sitting on my couch with kids in bed and everything clean by 7:30 – 8:00 PM. If nothing interferes with my afternoon at home, I manage to pull it off. Kenny and I eat a later dinner together and our popcorn is always popping by 8:00. :) Then it’s time to watch our shows and hang out together while I blog. My little treat at the end of a long day.

A few of my favorite cleaning supplies:
1 – Resolve Carpet cleaner. Best carpet cleaner EVER. I love this for any little spills or spit ups on the carpet. Spray a little, wait a little, wipe a little. Magic. I am a freak about clean carpets and this stuff has been my best friend since having children.

2 – Cascade Complete for the dishwasher. Costs just a few dollars more than regular Cascade, but I see a big difference in the way it cleans my dishes.

3 – I so love Pledge! Always makes my tables so shiny and clean. Plus I just love the smell! Whenever I use it Kenny comes home and says “It smells good! You’ve been cleaning.” I always think – actually I’ve just been Pledging. :)

4 – Plain old Ammonia for mopping my tile floors and Comet for bathroom sinks and counters. Boring and unoriginal, but after trying all kinds of new products I always come back to the basics. They get the job done!

5 – Weiman Granite and Stainless Steel wipes. My FAVORITE. They are five bucks each at Target and I LOVE them. I wipe down my stainless steel appliances with a wipe every day. Takes two seconds and they shine like new. I use the granite wipes once a week on my granite counter tops and they really make my counters shine.
Those are the supplies that I use over and over again!

Tips that have helped me to stay on top of house work:

–Make a place for everything. Don’t let flat surfaces or that spare bedroom become a catch all for any and everything. Find a home for things and while you’re cleaning put them there. (same as my tips on staying organized)
-Attack one room at a time and don’t stop until that room is finished. Then move on to the next room.
–Create a daily routine (whatever works with your schedule) so that you are staying on top of the housework and not letting it get out of control.
–Involve your kids as much as you can. Teach them how to clean and make them responsible for cleaning up their own messes.

(Ellie – vacuuming with mommy – age two)

Well hello all!  Sharing a few pics from the past few days.  Kenny took the girls camping over the weekend and the girls were worried that I would feel lonely.

So they filled half of my bed with their “friends” to keep me company.  Lucky me.  :)  They made me promise to look after them all and keep them in my bed so I slept among stuffed dogs, monkeys, and of course – several pandas.  

Speaking of … when I saw this shirt at Gap I knew a certain someone had to have it.  :)

He’s hiding from me in this picture.  I love it.  :)  This has got to be one of my favorite things about toddlers – when they close and cover their eyes and think you can’t see them anymore.  It just never gets old to me.    

  

Get a bucket and a paint brush.  Add a little water to the bucket and teach your little one how to “paint” the wall.  This is my favorite way to occupy a toddler in the summer time.  They love it.  And by the time the wall is finished the water has started drying so it’s time to start again!  I told him what a great painter he was and thank you so much for all of the help.  He was in heaven and I was able to get the dishes done and watch him from the kitchen window.  Score for both of us.  

My girls used to do this for hours when they were little too.  :)

Of course a little organizing was in order.  The kids’ bathroom cupboards were getting cluttered again.

 So I cleaned them. 

8 oz. cream cheese (softened)

7 oz. jar of marshmallow creme

2 teaspoons of Maraschino Cherry juice

Perfect for summer BBQ’s!  Love this time of year.

K.  That was a bit of a random post!  Everything and nothing.  Works for me. 

:)