Thanks Family!

I was able to go to Flower World today thanks to some awesome family members who gave me some plant money! I picked up a new spade (because the lawn mower kind of got my old one) and a new sprinkler (because the car tire kind of got the old one). I also got 2 Azalea plants (Pink Gumbo and hot pink Kaempo. I think they will go near the blue Hydrangea's in back.

I picked up my first Hosta - Francee - which I am really excited about. I don't have much shade so I had to make my 1 shade plant decision carefully.

Maria and I wandered all over, checking out vines, trees, annuals, it was so fun. We cam across this feathery silver plant, that turns into a low bush. It feels so cool.

These pretty pink verigated leaves are Pink Splash Hypoestes. My one splurge -they are an annual and I try not to get many of those! Finally, I picked up some Soapwart groundcover. I nkow- it seems like a lot of pink. However, the back yard is full of blue and white- so I had to balance it out. I have tons of purple and pink in the front and had to spread out the color. Thanks again, it was fantastic!!!

Double Birthday party!

Last night our extended family all got together at our house for a little birthday gathering. We had some super yummy food. Morrie BBQ'd my favorite chicken, my mom made her famous potato salad from scratch, and my sister made our family recipe for baked beans. Mmmm...good times!

We also had a little Bostom Cream Pie for dessert (but I let Izzy blow out the candles!).

Somebody got a new Sounders shirt!!!

Here I am in full on excitement as Isabelle just opened a gift certificate from my sister for a manicure and a pedicure. I just opened the same thing and I grabbed Isabelle and said "We get to go TOGETHER!!!". It's a twelve year olds dream come true - hee hee.

Maria's first tournament!

Whew! We spent all weekend up in Burlington where Maria had 3 games this weekend. Her other big accomplishment is that she started the 4th Harry Potter book on Friday and finished it Sunday (can you say "obsessed"?).

Her team is 8-9 year olds and they had to play up against the 10 year olds. You can tell in the pictures, these girls we pretty large. She did AWESOME though and played her heart out. She ran and ran and ran. She shoved and pushed and shouldered. She stole the ball, drove it up the side and cleared the ball. She even ALMOST scored. However, they lost all their games - but I told her that's no big deal. Her coach wanted to see how they played, and that he did!

In her last game, she played the entire second half, even though they had 5 subs! Her coach told her that the girls who were out had to pick a position, figure out who was playing and then ask to go in for that person. He told them they would have to play as hard as the person they went in for and nobody picked Maria! She looked slightly deflated during the second round of subs when nobody picked her and she shrugged her shoulders and then turned up the heat! Maybe her coach was wondering if she could maintain her speed for very long...well..she can! She had a blast, and even thanked Morrie, Isabelle and myself for coming to her tournament! It was so cute. An update on my birthday is coming soon, I promise!

Flocked!

Oh, those kids! I woke up on my birthday to discover we had been flocked. The teens at Holy Family are raising money for a mission trip this summer and this is how they are doing it. You can pay to have a dozen pink flamingos put in someones yard for 2 days. The volunteers move about the neighborhoods every 2 days under the blanket of darkness doing this.

You can also pay to do this to someone anonymously - but on my note I saw that Samantha did it!! You can pay extra to leave them for 4 days, you can in turn flock someone else, you can pay to protect your home and not have it done...I think it's a pretty funny fundraiser! They must have parked down at the main street and snuck up, we never heard a car (the dog would have barked) and all of the sudden they were there. Now if I can just keep the neighbor kid off my lawn it will be fine.

Adventures in Babysitting

We had the honor of babysitting Benjamin (Jammy) lastnight and had quite a ball. We went to Maria's soccer game (where she scored!). Jammy wouldn't let Morrie go, it was so cute (and a new experience for him!). We came home and decided to water some plants. Now, if this isn't a Calvin and Hobbes picture, I don't know what is!

Jammy proceeded to turn when I was taking a picture of Morrie and got Uncle Morrie all wet (hahahahahahah - oh, it was good!). I then snapped Maria and Morrie. Maria is holding Jammy's "Hobbes". We were all ready for the Sounders game on tv - hence the awesome Sounders gear.

Jammy and Morrie were chillin' as they watched the Sounders win - it was a great night!

Summer!!

Today is the first official day of summer break in our house. It felt so good when I woke up, forgot what day it was and then suddenly remembered! We celebrated by going out to dinner with my parents lastnight after I got off work. Morrie had taken the day off to take the kids to their last day (mass) and then followed with our annual trip to the library (the FIRST thing we do every year right after school lets out) and then spent the day with the kids. Here are some pictures I took this week in preparation for summer! Blogger is so weird, I can't figure out how to put them in the order I want. Anyway...1) My summer reading list, and I may vacuum the carpet they are sitting on. 2) I plan on napping a lot in the sun. 3) It will be soo hot that we will have to use our ingenius sponges (place them in a cooler of ice water and promptly squeeze over head when taking a break from soccer practice!). What will YOU do this summer? (this is my way of getting more comments, but at least JULIE will comment - that's my way of making everyone else feel guilty about not commenting).

Maria does good

Maria went to a end of year gymnastics party a few weeks ago and she had a blast. Here she is with both her coaches, Bri and Nancy. I can't say enough about these two, they loooove Maria and have been so great for her. They made gymnastics fun and exciting. It doesn't hurt that Nancy wants to take Maria home with her and Nancy and I both cried on Maria's last day. We gave her a huge bouquet of flowers and promised to send out Maria's game schedule so they could come see her sometime. It's been great for Maria especially since she has been having such a hard time at school with her 3 month substitute teacher. At least she had gym to look forward to, and had coaches that love her like I do!

16 years?

On June 4th, Morrie and I celebrated 16 years together. We shared our first kiss way back on June 4th, 19 ninety something. Shoot, I'm not old enough for that kind of anniversary!

As we watched our lives flash before our eyes, we drove our 11 and 9 year old kids to soccer in unusual 90 degree heat, we continued to plant things in our yard in an attempt to bring it back from the wasteland it was when we bought the house, and we went out for date night. It was, all in all, a pretty good week!

We are preparing for Maria's indoor soccer game this afternoon, the Sounders are on tv this evening and we are all doing our favorite things tomorrow. Morrie is going hiking, I'm taking Isabelle to a much needed mall trip, and I'm taking Maria to flower world to get some bushes for the backyard. I am suuuuper excited, but maybe it's because it's my first weekend home in 4 years. I have worked Saturdays or Sundays for 4 years and I am finally free. That is my favorite thing this weekend!