Picnic in the Park

Last week we walked to the park for lunch. A creek runs along one side. We saw fish, snakes, a few dogs (j's favorite) and lots of birds, including lots of bluejays. The walk to the park wasn't bad but it was decidedly uphill on the way back home. Don't think we will walk to that park very often.

Painting the Bedrooms

Saturday we painted the Master Bedroom. Instead of a dark blue stripey and flowered wallpaper, we now have a paint in a brown very similar to what we had in the living room of our last house. It is called Stonehenge Greige.

Now we need to get working on J's bedroom. About 3 weeks ago (time passes quickly) Seth's parents visited. They helped us strip the paper in J's room. It was pretty ugly and even the closet was papered. Now we just have to wash the walls and paint. His room is going to be blue. I think we went with Wild River Blue.

Hat Hunt

I can't find where I packed the kids' hats, though they probably have outgrown them anyway. So today we went to buy new ones. I discovered, in the parking lot of the mall, that we had left the stroller home. We went from one end of the mall to the other, J in my arms and M walking holding on to one finger. We ended up buying some big pillows at the store furthest from our car. (The long pillows will be stuffed between M's new big bed and the wall. There is quite a gap.)

In addition to the pillows, we came home with a picture frame for some flowers I picked as we closed up our old house, a plain boring blue hat for J (only one he'd leave on his head for any length of time) and a $0.79 hat for M that is also boring but fits and was a great price. It was quite a hike back to the car. Very slow going. When we got home, M came up to me nearly in tears "Mommy, we forgot to get you a hat, too."

Naptime Games

I'm tired of our current game. Anyone know any new ones?

I'm tired of the 45 minutes or more it takes of crying to get Jonathan to take a nap. I'm tired of naps still being on Utah time meaning that bedtime gets pushed back the same two hours with kids not even remotely ready to sleep til 9 or 10. They get up at 7 local time but just won't settle in for naps until almost three, two hours late.

Anyone have any suggestions on getting kids to take naps or at least give me some peace and quiet for an hour so I can have a chance to eat lunch? Speaking of lunch, I'm going to go eat some while I can.

No Pictures Today

1) Yesterday afternoon we drove down to visit the Kastelers, who are now our nearest relatives. The two hour drive wasn't bad at all, though it was considerably longer than the drive to visit family before we moved out here.

2) M brought home a sucker from church yesterday. We made her sit up to the table with a bib to eat it. After a while she started whining that she wanted a cracker. I told her she had to finish her sucker first. Her response: "No. Throw it away. It's all sticky. I want a cracker." Fine with me if she prefers crackers to candy.

3) We let M read books until she falls asleep at night. That doesn't work for J. He prefers cars or trucks, usually. Though, the last two nights he has fallen asleep with his Bristle Blocks.

Grandma Betty and Grandpa sent a package of books with us to our new home. We saved the package for a time when the kids really needed a nice surprise. After a very stormy and wet day (inside, not outside) the kids had a nice storytime with Daddy.

Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa. We love you.

Wallpaper Post One (of many)

One of our first projects (okay the fourth or fifth project) in the new house is stripping wallpaper. The whole family helped out.