this month in pictures {the April/May edition}

Wow, sorry about that guys. I know your lives have been a little amiss without a daily, or in the very least weekly post from me. Ha ha! (I would have said LOL, but as we now know my brother-in-law believed until very recently that it stood for "Lots of Love", and I would want to confuse him).

Nothing too exciting going on. We've got Baby Jeans here 5 days a week now until school gets out in June. I actually find it easier to have her here consistently five days instead of three. Odd, but I am a creature of habit and routine!

You know that painting project in the third bedroom I started in March (see this post)? Well, here it is May 20th and I just barely put up the two new color samples I had bought way back when this week. The two I can't decide between are the same color, one's just darker. I may have to try to get a decent picture of them and post a poll because I'm obviously not making any progress.

This is my golden time of year though, this and the fall. Most people paint and do interior projects in the winter, but not me. Now is when I am in the mood to take on bigger projects inside and out. For instance, since I haven't made up my mind of the computer room paint, I managed to finally find curtains that match our bedding (after about 8 months of keeping my eye open for some), and that got me ready to paint. We picked a color out the other day, but what Harland doesn't know yet (since he's in the dreaded Atlanta) is that today I came home with everything we need to get that room painted. I'm hoping to start tomorrow on the ceiling since Harland NEVER thinks the ceiling needs to be painted. Of course it does! (But when you get home Harley you'll be happy to find a mowed lawn!)

We also ripped out a few bushes, some of which were really, extremely dead for 6 months now and replaced them. It looks so nice with the black mulch! That's another photo I need to take. The front of the house is finally presentable (other than needing to paint and eventually replace the front door). No more blah white shutters or scary vampire ones.

Thrilling as all of that was for you, I'll move on. The girls are great! Abby's really starting to like having Baby Jeans around. She was never mean to her, but she did her thing, and let Grace and I do the Baby Jeans thing. Now she fights with Grace over face time with the baby. And it's funny to see in action how your kids learn EVERYTHING from you! I think I must have an extremely annoying baby talk voice because when they do it...wow is all I can say about that. But she likes it, so that's all that matters. Their last day of school is Friday. I know. This crazy preschool ends in May! I'd love any ideas you guys have for entertaining them over the summer.

Lots of words, no pictures. Let's fix that:

On Tax Day I got a package from the Netherlands which contained only two things. Kinder Eggs for the girls (which they loved) and lots and lots of one of my favorite treats, Hanuta! I was so excited at the full stock of Hanuta, which is an awesome chocolatey, hazelnutty, little square of yum Harland and I discovered while we were in Germany (we tried as many different candy bars as possible while we were there). Grace decided she should take my picture with it. She told me exactly how to pose. Here's one shot I'm willing to share on the internet:


And yes, I have been good and sharing them! Thanks Karen and Dave!!!!

The girls had their very first bubble bath! I know, I know, about 3 years too late, but you try finding bubble bath with no dyes or frangrance for Miss Abby Excema. Thank you to Mr. Bubble for coming out with this product! They are so thrilled with bubble baths. Unfortunately it's going to cost us a small fortune since you have to use about a quarter of the bottle to get a decent amount of bubbles, but I don't care. Every kid should be able to take a bubble bath!

Another thing we received in the fall was tulip bulbs from the Netherlands (where Harland's parents are living). We thought we planted them too late and were worried they wouldn't come up but they did! And they were absolutely gorgeous. They varied in height and all kinds of colors. The white ones were actually stunning. At the time this photo was taken, we thought this was the peak, but were we ever wrong. I didn't get picture of them since it pretty much rained for a month, but I will have to next year. We're hoping to get another shipment this fall to on the other side of the steps (nudge nudge, wink wink!)