One Take On Life

I grew up playing in the water at our cottage when I was little.  It was hard to get me out of the water.  This year Hayden really showed his love for the lake that I had as a child.

Auntie Heidi showed him how we used to stand on our inner tubes and balance.  Hayden had a blast trying to stand on the inner tubes.

My sister, Auntie Heidi, didn’t think I could still stand on an inner tube.  So I quickly had to prove her wrong.

I still got it…

Even after all these years.  And yes, after this picture was taken I bailed in the water….I am sure you would love to see a picture of that…sadly none were taken.

This post is linked to Wordful Wednesday at Seven Clown Circus.

Wishing I could be here

This is “Home” to me.  No it is not where I live now.   Where I live now is also “home” to me.   This place is “Home” to me, because it is where my parents live, where so many fun memories are made with my family.  So it is also “Home” to me and always will be.

We had an amazing time when we were there, and that was a month ago…sigh.

There was lots of this

Time in the lake was wonderful this year, the water was so warm and the weather was perfect.

My mom said that they were in the lake again yesterday, probably for one of the last times this year.

Which made me realize that the next time Hayden does this

He won’t be my little 6 year old still waiting to start 1st grade, he will be 7 years old.

I find myself wishing a lot after I leave this other “home” that we could live close by.  Not just so we could lounge about in the lake like this…

So we could see our families more.  Because I miss them all the more when I get to spend time with them and then we have to leave.

But the end of summer is very near and there are exciting adventures awaiting us here.

I can feel the anticipation in the air, of the school year that is to come.

Tomorrow we meet Hayden’s 1st grade teacher.  And all I can think is…

I am going to miss him when he is gone at school for the whole day.

Maddy’s 2nd Birthday Dress

This post is linked to Wordless Wednesday at Live and Love out Loud, and A Beautiful Mess.

What do blood and peroxide have in common?  Well nothing.  Except that peroxide can be a savior when your son has had a nose bleed and blood is on his favorite shirt.  Soak the shirt in peroxide for 1-5 minutes and then watch the blood come off the shirt.   You may need to scrub a bit but trust me, peroxide gets rid of blood stains.  Rinse with cold water.

I was skeptical when I first heard about this from my sister.  She’s a nurse and has to remove blood stains from her scrubs.

The trick – catch the blood stain before you wash the piece of clothing, otherwise the stain sets in.

This post is linked to Works for me Wednesdays at We are THAT family.

It has been almost a month since Maddy celebrated her 2nd birthday and still she is talking about

her cake.  Her Mickey and Minne cake to be exact.  That she absolutely adored and enjoyed.

And ate almost every night we were at my parent’s, which was one whole week.

I think she is still going through cake detox.  Can’t blame her it was good cake.

About a week ago, Andy came home with a surprise for me.

We had been talking about how I need a new laptop, mine was starting to go.  I haven’t been able to use my current laptop  without having it plugged in, in a year.  It was my laptop desktop shoved in a small area in my kitchen where I would hit my knees against the cupboard.

So last week Andy bought me a Mac book pro.  I have a PC laptop currently.  But I had wanted to get a Mac laptop.

I love it, but I now have a few things to learn.  And it is still summer here so I find limited time to learn.  In fact, today is the first day I am taking the Mac out for a test run.

So far, I can’t connect to our network, heck I couldn’t even find it until Andy called from work to tell me where to go. And then the connection failed, so that means I can’t access our photo’s.

Stay tuned for more on what I have been up to.  I promise my new mac really isn’t what I have been doing for the past oh 2.5 weeks.

Do you have friends that just get you?  Friends that can finish your thoughts?

A couple weekends ago we had some good friends over for dinner.  Danielle is a friend I met while working, and she gets me.  It is so nice that we have kids similar in ages, it  makes for such a fun time.

This fall Danielle and I are looking forward to all girl playdates while the boys are at school.

Should be quite the change from when we used to do playdates with just our little boys.  Back then it was always, can you not be so rough with each other, ah the memories of our rough and tumble boys.

I love that they all played together.

The girls having a blast rocking out to ELMO singing the YMCA song.

Dear Madelynn

Happy birthday to my  little girl!  2 years have gone by in a blink.  It was 2 years ago today you joined our family.  2 wonderful years we have had getting to know you and watching your personality develop.  I love that you were fashionably late by an hour and a half  and in a hurry just two years ago.   Looking back, it just fits you.

You are full of life, full of love and my little girly girl.  It amazes me that you are just 2 years old sometimes, because you really are bound and determined to do things yourself.  You have been speaking sentences since May.  And still I am in awe of what comes out of your mouth.  How easily you communicate with us.  You are known to say “Maddy do it myself!”

You love Mickey Mouse and his friend Toodles on Mickey Mouse clubhouse.  I love to hear you call for Toodles “OH TOODLES!”  Maddy you just crack me up on a daily basis.  Just the other day, your daddy was doing something  and you knew he was kidding, so you said “DAAADDDY”  in this tone of voice that told us you knew he was joking around.

You adore your big brother Hayden and love to play with him.  He teaches you all sorts of things and you soak it all up.  You have stopped calling him “Boy” all the time and now, mostly call him Hayda.  He loves that you are at a stage you can play together and talk together.  And talk together you do, you both love to talk.  And Mommy loves to listen to your conversations.

Lately you are into your bracelet or bacelet as you call it.  You can’t leave the house or be in the house without your pink bracelet.  It is adorable how you love your accessories.  First it was your purse and now it is your bracelet.  Mommy wonders what is next, maybe a necklace?

Maddy you completed our family when you came along just 2 years ago.  I can’t imagine a day without you in it, I love you Maddy bears.

Love

Mommy

In the beginning of summer I mentioned that Maddy was bound and determined to climb our slide.

Last week she did it!  She accomplished climbing up the slide before she’s 2 years old.  I was so proud of her.

She repeatedly climbed up the slide that day.  And Every Single Time she would scream Mama I did it MYSELF!  And every time I would cheer, like any mom would.

I love how proud of herself she was.  And I love that Hayden was right there with her, because he is the one who taught her in the first place.

This post is linked to Wordful Wednesday at Seven Clown Circus

Our summer days have been full to the brim of fun.

Between beach visits, park camp, zoo visits, and time playing outside it has already been an amazing summer.

We visited this beach three times within a week and a half.  It is a smaller lake  but perfect for my kids, shallow and full of sand.

Each time we went we had more friends with us, it made for an amazing three mornings.

Maddy loved sitting in the water or splashing about.  I think she is going to take after me and be a little fish in the water.

One day Hayden and his friends spent most of their time swimming in the water.

Another day, Hayden spent the entire time digging in the sand, making sand rivers.

One day, Maddy had her good friend C there.  Only she still calls her by the wrong name, her sister’s name.  Doesn’t matter how many times I correct her.  She insists her friend is Baby A.

You just have to love those amazing summer days when everything and everyone just “clicks” together.