junk day

we have a very special day in louisville: junk day. we're so fortunate to have this happen not once, but four time a year! you can put ANYTHING on the front edge of your yard and a big truck comes to pick it up for you. how sweet is that. when we first moved here, i loved it for that reason and that reason only. until i started to drive by and notice what people actually considered junk. you see these sweet kids on this oh so sweet thing below:







porch swing: junk day find. i found last year a wooden wall shelf that now lives in their play room for the craft supplies. love it. and earlier this year 2 1950's kodak wooden shelves. still out in the garage, haven't decided where to put those.

andy found one item a couple years ago, a vintage tandem bike that needs way too much work and has been gathering weeds back behind our garage. maybe for our grand kids some day, because i seriously don't see that project in the near future. i tease him about this often.

so you can see this is a pure love relationship: me and junk day. until this past week.

we have kid's toys in our yard, yes? of course, we have kids. we are not the pick-up-yard-toys kind of family. we're out there a lot! and i've always kind of liked that our yard looks played in all the time. for those of you who have been to our house, you know our side yard is our back yard. it's the most spacious, and our garage is behind our house. so someone driving by definitely will see we have toys out there and kiddos playing.

someone (i'm sure in a big rusty, noisy truck) drove by our house last week during the day (that's in day light folks!) and scooped up my dear boys backhoe riding toy. yes, it was near the bottom of our front hill, but parked on the side of our car (facing our house) that was parked on the side of our yard. it was quite obvious it was not out there to be picked up for junk.
i wish i could draw you a picture because my words of the location are confusing i'm sure. so, you see now i have this guilt of still loving junk day even though it's existence has caused someone to break my boy's heart. it's now a love/hate relationship i guess.

strawberries

strawberry smoothies, strawberry milkshakes, ice cream with strawberries, strawberry jam, strawberries all by themselves, and more in the freezer for future smoothies ..... that's what this week has been about.








go get some strawberries. they are good !

introducing ....

our newest family member: Lexi.


she's a 2 yr old swiss mountain dog with a little beagle in her. she's beautiful, sweet and fitting into our family nicely.



the kids love her except when she goes after their food or whips her tail into them. her favorite spot is on the blanket on the couch. andy wasn't crazy about this, but as you can see she's gotten her way ;).

p.s. i will blog more this week. i promise.

we're off ....

to oregon tomorrow. Not that i've been posting regularly here, but we won't be back for 10 days and will catch you all up when we return.

we've been playing outside non-stop lately. the kids are happy. the weather is good. friends are around. the yard is green & wet and getting some attention this year. potato and carrot tops are coming up. tomatoes, squash and peppers are going in the ground tomorrow morning. we're all healthy. that's all that matters. oh, and to celebrate kai's completion of his first year of pre-school we went to the ice cream store for lunch today. yum.

I do have photos in our camera from this past weekend in lexington, but really i'm too lazy right now to get up and download photos. the one below is from last week when Zaiah insisted on putting on a much-to-big wizard dress and prance around the yard. i love how she is holding up the dress.

happy memorial weekend! hope this summer is very memorable.

say, do you like green eggs and ham?

you do not like them, you say?
try them, try them and you may


this book has been re-discovered in this house. Last week grandpa jewell and grandma ronda came to visit and there was not one car ride that went without grandpa and kai reading this book. repeat. repeat.

so the other night we attempted to make green eggs and ham .... sanz ham! And this is how it turned out .....


I was feeling a little skeptical. Thinking the kids would try them and say .... no thanks. But it turned out really good. We're even having left overs tonight.

Our recipe: ground chicken with tons of green stuff, like spinach and broccoli. Mix it all up and grill. Then fry an egg. Top the chicken burger with the egg. Spread some pesto and avocado on top. Voila! It WAS mighty tasty. And the kids agreed.

getting dirty, or getting spring-y

our first camping trip this year. we went to red river gorge with two other families. the hit was our friend's VW camper. the kids loved it! besides being wet, it was a great way to kick off the camping season.


and earlier in the week the kids and i planted potatoes in our garden. these and some carrot seeds are in the ground ..... hopefully we'll see some green popping up in the near future.


surely one of the fattest worm! i think this season will be very dirty! my floors agree. people, the floors! the grime and the mud that come in these doors. leaving the shoes at the door doesn't seem to work. any secrets would be great appreciated.

april 16th

april 15: the day Kai got his first 2-wheel peddle bike.
april 16: the day Kai learned how to ride it all by himself!

what a milestone. for me, more exciting than when he took his first steps. I think for him too. He rode his bike until almost 9pm last night, and this morning it was the first thing he did when he awoke. and again, right before I took him to school.

he's amazing. the confidence that exudes from him is contagious.
maybe next year a bike ramp??