busy-ness.

This "something five days a week" thing is KILLing me. 
We have been busy.  And going. 
I have gotten up an hour before the boys every morning to *try* to catch up to life...it does not seem to be working. 
Regardless of the crazy around us, we took some time to take the boys to a local zoo (Richmond Metro) for a day of family fun. 
The animals were so great...you could get so close...Aaron loved chatting so intimately with these penguins. :) 

 You could feed giraffes.  I did not.  That tongue creeps me out. 

 I had never seen a black and white giraffe before...maybe he is old and has gone gray?

Moses loved this little bird tent...where you could hold out a stick covered with seeds to feed the birds from your hand. 

 He would never have done this last year. :)

 And Aaron is game for anything that Moses will do.

 Another thing Moses would not have done last year...ride a ski lift over all the animal areas. 

And again, Aaron loved that, too.
It was a good day and we have a few more adventures up our sleeves for the boys coming up. 
Which is making me work extra hard to get caught up (and ahead?!).

 I finished the Yoda inspired hat and robe...and had to coax my grumpy model into smiling for me.

Aaaaand chocolate saves the day.

And this was an extremely particular, special, awesome custom order...for a soon to be nine year old who really, really, wanted this for his birthday.  Only problem is...they don't really make them.  Against my better judgement (because I really like the mama of the nine year old) I took the job.  Eight yards of satin, a few times of wanting to stab myself with a seam ripper and frayed satin covering myself and my carpet later and it's done. :) I hope the birthday boy will be pleased. :)

Custom orders continue to flow in...and I am so thankful.  Please be sure to email me with your requests just as soon as you can. :) And if you have emailed me...please know I WILL email you back...I am doing my best. :) 

Yoda, I would be happy to make for you...but please don't request anything with satin. :)

I hope your busy-ness is just as lovely as mine.

boys. end of summer.

We are taking advantage of these last few days of summer.
It's getting tough now that we have something to do five mornings out of seven.  For me, that is tough...I have thoroughly enjoyed those toddler days of lazy activities scheduled around naps and bed times.  Summer, I have a feeling, will become even sweeter to us. 
On the flip side of that though...I LOVE having older children.
I am SO very thankful for this new season of life.  I feel like the last few years of babyhood and toddler hood have been survival years for me.  Tough, tough years.   
I've said before that it has taken me having kids to realize that I am not a baby person.  Not that I don't adore tiny parts and the special time that is having a newborn...but these last few months with older (able to communicate) kids I have really felt like I have hit my stride...I am well slept...life is less crazy with older kids.  Not EASIER but I feel better equipped for the stage we are in now...more so than the tiny person days.  I am grateful for the experiences but looking forward to each new day with these growing little me.
Here's what we've been up to lately... 

We found a special place about 30 minutes outside of Charlottesville..
It's a creek...full of rocks to throw, wildlife to seek out, sticks to hit things with and water to play in...basically everything that a little boy could ask for.

 These photos are from when we went there a few weeks ago...

 ...it was a fun time.  We saw snakes and crawdads and frogs.  The boys were thrilled. 

 A wonderful FREE time with family building forever memories.

 Moses continues to be the funny guy...

 and hoho fills the crazy/naughty position pretty well. 

 We've learned that Aaron will eat ANYTHING on his plate for a mini-ice cream cone.

Moses LOVED going to the dentist again.  LOVE loved.  Like screamed "I"M SO EXCITED" when I told him he had an appointment the next day.

 You never know what superhero will show up to a meal.  Even super heroes need their super foods.

Hoho had his first day of "hoho school".  It's really just the childcare that is provided while I am in a Bible study but hoho LOVES it and calls it hoho school.  So we go with it.  I almost didn't do it this semester due to already being busy so many mornings a week already...but hoho was broken hearted at the idea of no hoho school so I'm doing it.  Maybe God wanted me there?

 Moses also goes to the Bible study childcare...which is better than most Sunday school classes that I have seen so they are both getting some great stuff out of it.  And it's free.  Wonderful and free.  How awesome is that?

 We go on a lot of family dates...sometimes in search of food...

...sometimes in search of adventure. 

Today we picked up Moses from school and went back to our little creek...

Moses was thrilled with the surprise.  Virginia is back to being my favorite again...80's well into September and sometimes October if we're really lucky. 

This barn lives on the way to the creek...these kinds of things are all over...at least anywhere that I have traveled...Virginia Tech fans seem to be everywhere.  My favorite part is that if you tried to pull this off in Blacksburg it wouldn't stay up overnight without being painted over. 

It's my favorite thing about Charlottesville...the loyalty to Hokies. 

We've had some good good days lately...trying to pack in as much as we can before Winter traps us in the house for a couple of months. :)

family days.

this is the busiest time of year for doug.
busier than Christmas.
we've tried to make a point of having at least one fun family day a week. 
where we do nothing but SOMEthing fun together. :)
last week we took the boys to a local safari park.
you buy buckets of feed and drive through an enormous park full of animals.
admittedly, though the boys had fun, doug and i had WAY more fun.
something about two adults screaming and laughing while bossy animals try to steal food out of your car makes for a fun time.

this guy looks nice. 
but bossy.

and these emus?
crazy.

i loved the camels. 
though they would steal the entire buckets of food from you.

 another crazy bird.

once the boys found out that the animals were bossy.
and stuck their heads in the car.
the boys wanted NOTHING to do with it.
and wanted their windows UP.
but they were happy to look at the animals while doug and i fed the animals.

but these animals they were ok with.
something about being in cages i think.

you were allowed to go through the safari part as many times as you wanted.
so i talked doug into going through again.

this photo does not do this guy justice.
his rack was as wide as our car.

and the zebras were gorgesous.
is God not the best artist ever?

thankfully...on the second go round moses got up his courage.
and had a great time feeding some llamas.

 hoho still insisted on his window being UP.

 isn't Virgina the prettiest?

it was a great family day.
we ALL had a great time.

4th.

our 4th was very laid back.
two reasons. 
doug worked.
and i refuse to take my kids to see real fireworks until they learn to sleep in.
currently they wake up at 6:30am.  regardless of what time they go to bed. 
so this year, again, we laid low.

well i wasn't actually low.
we had a bad storm that knocked down our neighbors gutter which was connected to ours.
as long as we have lived here the owners have never taken great care of their side...and our side paid for it.
our solution...cut it down the middle, cap our end off and be done with it.
doug and i are a good team.
one of us is not a fan of killing bugs.
one of us is not a fan of heights.

i made these for doug to take to work.
birthday cake rice krispie treats. 
three batches made one at a time. 
layered into the same pan.
tasty.

 

i made time to make another cute pool robe. 

and we treated the boys to sparklers from the dollar bin at target. 

so as far as they are concerned they saw fireworks. 

and clearly, from this photo, you can tell where hoho's priorities are. :) 

 

and lastly. 

to celebrate reaching 1,000 facebook fans, i am giving this happy weathered sign away to one lucky fan.  hop on over to my facebook page to enter.  ---------------->

happy day to you!  xo