Love this blog!

If you are crafty (or want to be crafty), you should check out this blog. Erin is such a whiz at fun kid projects and ways to be more "green." Her site is the one I got my laundry detergent recipe from! (Elaine, I know you are going to be checking that out here soon!) She's got a great giveaway going on right now too. Check it out! (Oh, and she posts a WHOLE lot more often than I do!)
http://www.abirdandabean.blogspot.com

Memorial Day, finally

I have been a bit delayed updating here lately. School is finally out, so now I have plans to be abit more on top of things. We'll see how that goes. Here are some photos from Memorial day. We had a great day filled with 2 parades, good friends, and Dairy Queen. Can't get much better than that!

First parade: City of Florence

As you can very clearly tell, the kids had a great time.  Caroline really had a ball waving to everyone.  She also still drags those flags around in the driveway.  After this parade, we headed home for naps and then headed to Covington for our 2nd parade.  Our neighbor Richard is a fireman in Covington,  We went to see him in the parade.  We love Richard and Ashley.  And of course, Jack loves that Richard is a firefighter!

After the parade we headed to Dairy Queen with Richard, Ashley and her parents.  Caroline LOVED the icecream.  Ashley made this nice collage for us of all Caroline's faces.  Now if only we could get Jack to eat this eagerly, all the time!

Tada

Thirty-One

My neighbor recently became a consultant for and introduced me to the Thirty-One company.  I have to say, I'm LOVING the products.  I am excited to be hosting a party next weekend.  For any of you that are local, I would love to have you over.  2pm, my house, Sunday, June 13.  Please let me know if you are interested.  Or if you are not local, take a look at the catalog and let me know if you find anything.  So much cute stuff...and so REASONABLE.  I think that's what sold me.  Anyways, I already have several things in use for me and the kids.  Come see what she's got!  Here's her page with the catalog.

http://www.mythirtyone.com/ashleymcfarland31/

Video galore

**I've decided to add a login to our site to add a bit of privacy (I know, there are probably only 5 people really reading this, but still).  Once I add the login, I'm pretty sure it will just ask that you request permission.  No big deal!  I think it's best in the long run!**

Here are a few videos from recent times.

I love this one showing how the kids play together.  They are at that good age where they entertain and enjoy each other.  We just have to watch Jack as he sometimes gets really irritated/frustrated if Caroline gets into his things.  I also love noticing how different our kids are.  I like to think back to what Jack looked like at this age!

Here is a photo of both kids at 14 months...similarities?

This has to be one of my favorites of Caroline (although, as I think about the chair video from just a bit back, I have to think this might be my 2nd).  She loves to move!  This little Dora toy is one of her favorites.  Even as she watches this video now, her little hips start shaking!

Organics

Recently I've really been making much more of an effort to buy organic produce at the grocery store.  It's so hard to ignore all the stories on the news, internet, etc about all the pesticides and chemicals that are covering our food.  We've also been using natural cleaners, homemade detergents, and other things to reduce our chemical waste and exposure.  Anyways, I'm just curious what others are doing as well.  What are some of the next steps that others have taken in this more natural approach to living and eating?  I'm really excited for our garden to start producing our own vegetables and can also use the local farmer's market.  I'm thinking our next step will be organic milk, but the tightwad that I am, I'm having a hard time thinking about $6 a gallon when we usually go through 3-4 gallons a week!

Bubbles and such

So I'm not really that great at the blogging thing.  There are so many people that I read their blogs and they have so much substance to them!  I wish I could be that into it.  I think to myself, "oh, that would be good to blog about," but I'm just not that good about sitting down and actually doing it.  There are a few topics that I would really love to get my opinion down about...maybe this summer I'll find some time.  I'm really looking forward to the summer coming up.  3 weeks and 2 days left...whohoo!  The kids are at such fun ages that I'm ready to hit the ground running with them.  I see lots of zoo trips, playdates, and hopefully learning to sleep past 6am!  We've also got the garden to keep us busy.  Part of the wonderful mother's day weekend that we just had involved time spent in the garden getting it ready to plant.  Tommy recently doubled the size of my garden so I'm so excited to fill it up!  Next weekend, hopefully it will be warmer, and I have big plans to hit the farmer's market to get all my plants.  Jack has requested green beans and carrots.  We'll see what all else we sneak in there.

Caroline is growing like a weed.  It's amazing how different are children are.  She's such a happy baby, but oh, the temper.  I don't remember tantrums like these at all with Jack!  She also a champ eater.  We have to set a timer for Jack to make sure he eats (otherwise he messes around) and Caroline can't get enough of what we get her.  She's also becoming a good fruit and veggie eater (thank you toddlerwise!).  She's getting close to walking.  Here's a fun video of her and one of her favorite chairs.  She's such a nut!

Anyways, we enjoyed this cool evening with a fun time of bubbles.  Here are some fun pictures of the evening.  I love the new effects on the desktop picassa photosoftware.