Lilac Parade

On Saturday night I took Lizzy with me to the Spokane's lilac parade. I hardly ever take one girl without the other. The first few minutes in the car Liz kept asking "Where's Noey?" Apparently the lilac parade is REALLY popular....the paper said 150,000 people were there. Had I known that I probably would have stayed home. We had to walk quite a bit to get to the parade because I refused to pay the outrageous price of event parking. There were 4 rows of people in lawn chairs along the parade route in front of us. I was glad Jed didn't come because he hates big crowds.

Lizzy however, seemed fascinated by all the people watching. She loved it when the horses would trot by her and seemed to take every beauty pagent wave as a personal hello. She also liked the high school bands and dancers. She was good about pointing out the "soldiers" that passed by too.

a week full of saturdays

Liberty Lake

We saw some really neat flowers and plants. Jed was somewhat annoyed that I kept stopping to take pictures but I ended up getting some cool ones. The girls enjoyed the hike via their view in our backpacks. Noelle loved her little personal hydration system and spent the majority of the time sipping away. Indy enjoyed himself as usual. We forgot his leash at home so Jed thought that he could just get away with using a colorful ribbon we found in the back of our car. Well lets just say a ribbon is not a good leash for a giant dog. Maybe a little tiny dog but Indy is anything but tiny.

We had a yummy picnic under a canopy of huge cedars. The girls ran around and picked up little sticks, pinecones, flowers and rocks.

It has been awesome having Jed home this week. It is amazing how much easier raising twins is with another set of hands. Taking the girls places is like herding cats. Leaving the house involves chasing them down and getting them to leave their shoes, socks, and coats on long enough to get them out the door. Once out the door they try to escape to our neighbors back yard. They are always twisting, turning and squirming out of my arms trying to plan an escape. They are fast and when I am trying to chase one north the other will run south. With Jed home we were able to boldly go where I could not go by myself with the kids. With daddy around I'm not outnumbered and the task of going out is much more managable. Jed is such a great father and the kids have also loved having him home too.

bluff trail

Me and liz on the windy trail

Our mini picnic at the bottom of the bluff

bluff trail

Daddy swinging with the girls after we got back.

out and about

Liz trying to share a cookie with her sleeping sister. She also picked some wildflowers to share with her too.

We found a fun new place to hike near our house.

Noelle's crazy outfit 2 dresses a sweater, 2 pairs of shorts



Lizzy having a ball

Liz at the top of the slide

Jed snuggling with the Indy and our friend's dog copper that we watched last weekend

Mom's day off

For Mothers Day Jed gave me a day off on Monday. It was glorious!

He fed and dressed the kids. He took them to the potty umpteen times and cleaned up an accident. He took them for a run and played games and read books with them.

While he was being Mr. Mom I enjoyed doing all things that I haven't been able to do in a while or ever. I did more things for myself yesterday than I have for the past 6 months combined and it felt nice to have a break.

Things I did yesterday:
Sleep in an extra hour (7 oclock is better than 6 any day)
take a shower when I want
Work out without having monkeys climbing on me
Go shopping at Potty Barn, Restoration Hardware, Habitat store, Pier 1 and a vintage lighting store. I didn't buy anything but it was fun looking.
Walked to the bottom of Spokane Falls which is something I have wanted to do since we moved here.
Go to the spokane visitors center and got some maps of hiking trails
Go to JoAnns and get some paints and paper
Make some homemade cards
Painted a picture
Worked on stuff for primary

thanks for your help Jed, I love my sweeties but the cumulative effect of round the clock day after day chasing after 2 two year olds can be exhausting. Even moms need a day off every now and then.

i love my new kitchen!

So here is phase 2 of the kitchen re-do. A million thanks to Uncle Val for his amazing skills and helping us do something in a day that would take Jed and I years to do and would have been impossible.

Things done in this phase of the makeover:

move stove to other side of kitchen

put in a built in dishwasher($35 on craigslist)

(horay!no more wheeling it in the middle of the room anymore when I need to dishes)

New countertops including a cool slab of granite that I got last fall 75% off.

New faucet-(free at a garage sale last summer)

New sink-because it is deeper than the old one and works better with the faucet

Candle holder -$3 at a garage sale last summer I accidentally dropped it and broke a few candles

New coat of paint for the cabinets and trim-extra paint left in the basement when we bought the house

New coat of paint for the ceiling-purchased at Walmart...IMPORTANT NOTE: If you ever find yourself painting a ceiling. It IS worth it to pay the extra money for a good paint that goes on in one coat. I didn't do this and got the cheapie paint and ended up straining my neck after it took 3 coats to finish the job. I thought since it was a light color on a light color it would be easy...not so.

Paint on walls-$5 miss-mix from Fred Meyer

New shelf for the microwave and surround for the dishwasher-Uncle Val fabricated from misc boards in the basement

New outlets! I no longer have to only use a single outlet.

New curtains-because I seem to be obsessed with window treatments and just loved this fabric

It is amazing how much better the kitchen functions now. I am so glad. I hope these improvements will also help us out in a few years when we go to sell it.

Now all I need to do is find a few colorful accessories to add a "*pop of color."

*most overused term on HGTV

Pictures of the BEFORE anything was done.