Girls Night

I had a girls night out with Courtney and our next door neighbors, Anna and Alexis. There was a 5th grade dance at the school, which to me is totally ridiculous. 5th graders don't need a dance. Come on. Have an end-of-the-year party, a movie night, anything but a dance. Thankfully Courtney and her friend Alexis weren't really interested in going so it wasn't a problem when I said she couldn't attend. Instead, I told them we would go out and do something fun.

The girls chose Adventure Landing. It has mini golf, arcade, go carts, batting cages and laser tag. Alexis' mom came with us so we made it a fun girls night. We let them choose 3 activities. It was so much fun, I need to take our whole family there sometime. We would all have a blast.

Afterwards we treated ourselves to Cold Stone Creamery, mmmmmmm!

Can Rotation Shelves

I can get excited over little things and this is one of them. We made these rotation shelves in Relief Society this month.

You can purchase some really nice shelving units, but I really don't want to pay for them, and anyways I don't know where I would put one. These are great because I can use them on the shelves I already have. I thought cardboard would not hold up well, but they are surprisingly sturdy. Some people who have made them have been using theirs for years. (Tip: use a glue gun to put the pieces together.)

Bruce wants to make me some nice ones out of plywood, but I know what happens when he wants to do a project. It won't get done for a very long time. So I'm not waiting for him. I've made 2, and have a big pile of cardboard in the garage waiting to be cut into more. I plan on painting them and putting labels on the front so they look nice all lined up together. (Maybe I'll include a picture of that later.)

I need to do a lot of organizing of shelves so this project is great for me right now. Here's a few links to directions. You can make them any size you need for all the different sizes of cans.

The Pantry Panel
Food Storage Made Easy

So Sleepy

Travis was up late one Sunday night. I was on the phone and so didn't pay attention to his crankiness escalating. Until finally it dawned on me, "Oh, he must be getting tired. It is quite late." Of course in the next moment I was absorbed in my phone conversation once again. I'm a great mother, I know. A few minutes later I walked into the kitchen to find this:




Poor guy, he just wanted to go to bed.

TBall & Softball Season

Marbles Kids Museum

We love our children's museum, which is why we go at least a few times each year. Here are some pics from our recent visit in April.

Historic Yates Mill

We took a field trip in April with Travis' preschool buddies to Historic Yates Mill. Courtney and Dylan were tracked out so they got to come along. Because I know you all are curious, here's an excerpt from their brochure:

"The 174-acre park features Historic Yates Mill, a fully restored
18th century, water-powered gristmill, which is maintained
and operated by the private, non-profit group, Yates Mill
Associates. The mill is an excellent example of the evolution
of early industries in piedmont N.C."


It's a beautiful setting with a large pond, a trail circling the pond, picnic areas, and lots of wildlife.

The kids enjoyed being outside and wandering the area. We visited the exhibit hall where the kids saw how the mill works and got to try some of their hands-on activities. We walked a little of the trail, but the little legs couldn't make it the whole mile around, so we only walked a few minutes before turning around. We had a nice picnic lunch before leaving.


Travis' preschool class: Travis (far left), Logan (green shirt), Rachel (red scarf), Rebecca (purple & white shirt, far right).

So Sweet

I looked outside the other day and saw Courtney pushing Travis on the swing. I have good kids, but they aren't always as helpful and loving to each other as they could be. So to see her pushing him on her own just made me feel good. I love them.

For some reason the picture came out fuzzy, but you get the idea.