We are home now from our spontaneous trip to Nebraska!  What a whirlwind it was.  I basically decided last Saturday that we would head to Lincoln for the week…by Sunday afternoon we were in the car and headed that direction…loaded down with swimsuits, goggles, sunscreen, and the stroller!  I was wavering between enrolling the girls in a summer camp when my Mom suggested we just come for a visit and cram in as many summertime activities as humanly possible.  The kids had an absolute blast and we are all worn out, sunburned, and HAPPY!

We did the Children’s Museum, Lincoln Children’s Zoo, shopping, ice cream, Morrill Hall, swimming at the pool (every day), crafts, and side walk chalk.  At the end of the week Mr. P joined us and we ended with the Henry Dorley Zoo!  It was hotter than hot and we only had a few hours there..but my kidlets will be talking about the experience for years to come.

I took lots of random pictures…pictures of the zoo animals and my own little animals too.

We have deemed Danny as “The World’s Easiest Baby to Have on Vacation”.  Even Sam (aka: Sir Whines A lot) was a real trooper despite the lack of a double stroller.  The girls were mesmerized by ALL of the animals and kept yelling “MOMMY….TAKE A PICTURE OF THAT!”  Of course, they didn’t really want to be in the pictures themselves

We rounded out the week long extravaganza with another trip to the Theater in the Park.  It was nearly 134 degrees that night and we were soaked through before we even got our lawn chairs positioned.  But nothing could stop us from The Wizard of Oz with the girls in tow (not even the sweaty 6 year old that watched the entire show on my lap!)

{iphone picture…do we look miserable enough?}

PLEASE tell me summer will NEVER END.

Ding…ding…ding…WE HAVE A WINNER {that’s what my crazy  kids say when I give them the
right answer to any question they have!}

JEN…from my-crazy-wonderful-life.

Your day just got happier…YOU WON!

So we are in Nebraska soaking up the good life…hanging with Mimi and Baboo and just generally enjoying summer.  I didn’t bring along any editing software so all I can share are {a few} snapshots…but that surely doesn’t diminish the fun memories!

{Lincoln Children’s Museum}  one of our favorite spots!

{Lincoln Children’s Zoo}  Another favorite!

We’ve also been swimming, chalk drawing, eating {lots of eating}, shopping, and hitting the museums {cool dinosaur bones}.  Tomorrow we are hitting the Omaha Zoo and the outdoor theater.

Have I mentioned that I love summer?

I packed up the kidlets and headed to Nebraska for the week.  We have been busy checking activities off of our summer list!  But I thought I would pop in here and do a quick WIWW post.  For those who are wondering about these crazy posts let me explain.  In an effort to “get dressed” and really wear the clothes hanging in my closet…I’ve started trying to photograph myself a few times a week.  Some outfits turn out fairly cute…some are big flops.  But mostly…I’m just trying to stay away from the cut offs and beater tanks that would normally be my mommy uniform.  If you want to join in the fun just head over to Lindsey’s blog and link up!

Day 1

tank – Banana Republic outlet

cardi – Target

skirt – Target

necklace – The Vintage Pearl

yellow sandals – Payless

purse – World Market

adorable baby – Ethiopia

Day 2

white tank – Old Navy

orange tank – Old Navy

skirt – hand me up from my niece (originally from Target)

necklace – The Vintage Pearl (wore this one a lot this week)

sandals – Old Navy

Day 3

white tank – Old Navy

cardi – Old Navy

shorts – GAP

necklace – The Vintage Pearl

sandals – Old Navy

Nothing spectacular this week…lots of beater tanks…but I tried.  Tanks and cardis are definitely my cup of tea.  I just can’t seem to help myself!

So what are you wearing this week?

You may remember Daniel’s betrothed from THIS post.  She’s grown up a bit since coming home to her forever family!  She’s such a beautiful little baby…full of life, giggles, and jabbering.  She’s almost walking, crawling at lightening speed, and charming everyone who looks her way.  Her mommy and daddy had taught her to “smile” on command…which made our session pretty darn easy. She loved me for the first half hour…and then in typical one year old fashion…she was completely over my antics.  Either I need some new one year old tactics or else these kiddos are talking to each other

I’d say her parents are completely smitten with her…wouldn’t you?

Of course….I think she likes them quite a bit too!

She was {almost} too fast to catch…but I was faster

Such a girly girl…checking herself out in the mirror.  She has the most amazing smile…and those ringlet!  Heaven help me…that girl is going to have some amazing poofs in a few months.  Tracy, can I come play with her hair?  {I’ve secretly put Daniel’s hair in poofs just for fun but it isn’t quite the same}

Guess who could illicit these smiles?  Yep…that one was for daddy!

We found these GIANT dandelions and she was mesmerized.  Loved this shot of her looking like “Glenda the Good Witch”…better than all the ones of her trying to eat it!

Baby Z…you are loved by SO many people.  You have a bright future ahead of you full of love and family.  Your mommy and daddy are SO blessed to have you in their lives!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY Z!!  {Danny sends all his love!}

I think it is pretty amazing that God placed these two together in Kansas City.   They laid together in cribs side by side on the other side of the world…then He lovingly placed them in families in the SAME city.  God is in the details.

Here they are together on our first trip to Ethiopia.  They’ve changed so much in the past few months…God has been SO good!

I’m only a month late…but HAPPIEST of days to my little Super Sam.

His actual birthday was a whirlwind of activity and worry this year.  When he came down with a horrible stomach bug 48 hours from our family vacation my heart sank.  He woke up that morning “not quite right”.  I quickly announced “it’s your BIRTHDAY!” in an effort to cheer him up.  He quickly threw up all over my kitchen floor.  We spent the next 2 days trying to pack and nurse him back to health.  The vacation ended up going off without a hitch and we all thoroughly enjoyed our little birthday boy once he was feeling better.

We did a quick family birthday celebration the day we got home from vacation…had to squeeze it in fast before Mr. P left us for a 10 day business trip.

Basically his birthday has been going on for a month now.  I just found one of his birthday cards (with money!) in the mail basket yesterday.  Next year ought to be a big let down when he realizes our typical birthday celebrations don’t last an entire month!

At 3, Sam is precocious and funny.  At 2 he could barely talk and now he over enunciates every word he says.  He speaks with a southern accent even though we live in Kansas.  Simple words like “help” and “hi” take on multiple syllables.  He is always repeating and mimicking phrases he hears us say…just never seems to get them in at the right time

He loves books and story time and all things Thomas the Train.  Anything with wheels rates high in his books and he is quite the expert puzzler.  He yodels every night at dinner when we sit down to pray.  It is amazing the child is alive as he refuses to eat unless it is Goldfish crackers.  He eats all of his calories before 11am and then refuses food for the rest of the day…unless, of course, you bring out the pizza.

This next one is a classic Sam face.  He has a perpetual orange beard under his bottom lip due to biting it with his top teeth (and the over abundance of cracker crumbs).

This little man taught me how to mommy boys.  I’m still learning about the wonderful world of trucks and legos…but I thank God everyday for giving me my first son.

I pray for him daily.  That God will guide his life and use it for something BIG.  I pray that his sweet smile and outgoing nature will showcase God’s love to the world.  I pray that he’ll carry God’s love in his heart all his days.

HAPPY THREE Super Sam.  I hope this last month has been everything you ever dreamed

So July kind of snuck up on me somehow.  Not really sure how that happened as it usually blows in with quite the BANG!  But with all the festivities I almost forgot to post my FUN JULY GIVEAWAY…and that would be downright tragic!  It is one of my most favorite posts!

A nod to our great country without going all “stars and stripes” on you – which also conveniently makes these little treasures suitable for months beyond July.

1. embellished tote bag lined in chambray (interior pocket and magnetic closure)

2. navy patent leather flower clutch

3. anchors away journal for charting your course

4. she sells sea shells by the seashore notecards

LEAVE A COMMENT to enter to win!  Tell me who is your favorite American?  Or what you did for the Fourth?  Or why you are completely smitten with all things nautical (oh wait…that’s me!)

Winner will be drawn on THURSDAY, JULY 14th.

GOOD LUCK!

The great thing about a Dad and husband that can build…they build you stuff.  And this past weekend the men took my idea to add floor to ceiling bookcases in our downstairs family room and ran with it.  And now I have awesome bookshelves all along one wall to store our huge library of children’s book and toys.  Score.  The downside is that this monstrous bookcase requires painting.

And I’m the family painter.

Last night as I was painting the underside of the bottom shelves in an awkward “yoga gone wrong” position…Mr. P mentioned that I could just leave the under side of the shelves unpainted.  After I glared at him like he had three heads…I mentioned that anyone down on their hands and knees…or anyone under 4 ft. tall would notice that…and that there was a reason I never let him be the project finisher.  Harsh I know.

This afternoon I was painting (again) during nap time.  And in the quiet I started to think.  Generally, I love to paint.  I love how a swipe of the roller adds fresh color and life to a space.  I even love the smell of paint.  No low VOC paints here…bring on those chemicals baby…breath them in and smell the change.  Painting is also a “quick fix”…you can make drastic change in an afternoon.  But this project is a bit more involved.  It has me in painful positions and it is tedious.   It’s just been honest hard work.

And then I started to think about my life and the person God is trying to shape me to be.  I’d really rather he put me in one of those spray chambers at the automotive dealer and just spray me down once with a big dose of glossy red humility, honesty, and patience.  But instead He has out his artists brush.  And he’s shaping the details of my soul.  And it is slow and tedious and not all that much fun sometimes.  There is change coming but the process there isn’t as exciting as the end result.   Those nooks and crannies are deep in my soul and I’d really rather He didn’t add the twists and turns in life that bring about their transformation.  But if there is grace on the other side…I think it will be worth it in the end.

And the bookcases are almost done

On a side note and completely unrelated to painting or God’s shaping of my character….My Mom and I took the girls to see Les Miserables this weekend at the local Theater in the Park.  It was the “school” version of the musical which led me to believe that it would be suitable for “school aged” children.  And even though I have seen Les Miserables three times on Broadway…I had somehow set aside the fact that a musical titled “The Wretched” can probably only be toned down to a certain extent.  The girls LOVED the show and I quickly learned to think on my toes during scenes involving the brothel.  Yep.  You know they asked why the ladies were dancing in their underwear.  Which led to a rather intense whispered discussion on slavery and human traffiking.  And I was just really thankful when sweet Cosette came out to sing and we could move on.

{we may have entertained ourselves before the show and during “half time” – as the girls like to say – with my phone}

{The Brainiac entertained us – and those around us – with her rendition of the Monkey Dance.  It’s a shame if you haven’t seen this in person.}

Overall a good night with some of my favorite people. Plus we ate an entire bag of Twizzlers which made the night next to perfect.  Next time, though, I think we will see Cinderella

JULY GIVEAWAY COMING TOMORROW because…Holy Cow people…HOW is it already JULY????

Well I thought I did pretty good this week.  But when I went to load up the pictures there was slim pickins.  So you’ll just have to take my word that I actually got dressed this week.  Does anyone else feel like summer calls for at least 3 different outfits per day…plus a swimsuit?  Or is it just me?  I start out the day in “real clothes”.  Then we need to water the garden.  Or I decide to paint.  Or we do a messy craft.  So I go back upstairs and put on my “grubs”.  Later in the day I get re-dressed…only to head to the pool and then have to change into my suit.  It is really quite annoying.  Maybe that’s why I felt like I wore so many outfits this week.  I never really looked good…I just got dressed a lot!

Day One

tunic – J Crew

leggings – not sure but I’m betting on Walmart

sandals – DSW

necklace – thrifted

OK…same day.  This photo cracks me up because it is the epitome of SUMMER CAMP!  This was the girls’ final day of a 2 week long stint at camp.  HELLO TIE DYE…how I LOVE YOU!  Throw in those little jean shorts and twinkle toe tennies and they are such little “campers”.  AHHH Summer!

Day Two

tank – Old Navy

cardi – Old Navy

jean shorts – older than dirt…would have to look in my closet and that is 2 floors up so it isn’t happening right now!

This was my lame attempt to be festive for the Fourth.  OK.  I know it was orange.  But I had the blue and white in there so let’s roll with it!  Like the wet hair too?  We didn’t actually take showers and dress until about 5pm that day

{on Danny: tee and plaid shorts from Janie and Jack}  Too bad no one saw how cute he was in this little hand-me-down outfit!

The only other picture I have of people with clothes on (I’m not sure that was the best way to say that) is the pictures we took of the kidlets before our wild and crazy Fourth of July Spectacular Celebration (oh wait…that would be watching fireworks from the top of the parking garage).  Since they are all so cute, though…let’s see that picture one more time   This might have been the first year I didn’t try to coordinate the kids for the Fourth.  Good thing I didn’t waste money on outfits as no one saw them and they had plenty of red, white, and blue just hanging out in their closets!

{on Danny: Janie and Jack,  on Miss Middle: top and shorts from Target, on The Brainiac: tank from Old Navy and shorts from Gymboree, on SS: polo from Target and shorts from GAP}

Are you playing along and linking up with Lindsey???

I had planned on doing a tutorial on this fun project but there were lots of little hands involved and taking pictures at various points of completion was stressing me out.  As soon as the girls and I headed outside to assemble our garden…the neighborhood children descended on our yard…needless to say…we had lots of “extra hands”.

My mom and I came up with this plan as a fun thing for the girls to play outside in our garden.  We started brainstorming ideas while we were out shopping on Saturday and started looking for a few key aspects.  I had the reclaimed metal tub just sitting around in our garage and knew I wanted to use that to “contain” the fairy garden.  It was a nice size, had that thrifted feel, and it was FREE (probably the most compelling reason).  The first thing you need to decide is WHERE you want your fairy garden to grow.  Our garden is in the back of our yard along a split rail fence.  It gets FULL sun as there are only a couple of young trees nearby.  You could plant your garden under a big tree (would have loved to do this if we had a tree big enough), in a pot on your patio…or even make one for indoors!  I love the idea of a shade garden because you can incorporate more “woodsy” plantings like moss and ferns!

Here are the supplies we used:

metal tub (about 24″ across and 12″ deep):  reclaimed

gravel (for the bottom 1/3 of the tub)

potting soil

birdhouse (unfinished wood section of Jo-Anns)

tree stump (we found tons of sticks and dead branches at a nearby wilderness park)

river rocks (from my craft stash)

larger rocks (from our yard)

shells (for the fairies bathtub!)

colored gems (we chose blue for a river effect – available at ANY craft store and the Dollar Store)

plantings (we chose full sun sedum, marjoram, ivy, and some crazy leafy plant that I can’t remember the name of!)

resin mushrooms (Home Goods)

mushroom stakes (Michaels)

fairies (Michaels…Jo-Anns carries this same kind as well)

“follow your heart sign”  (Hobby Lobby)

“dream” stone – Gordmans

Between my mom and I….and the trips out with the girls…I think we hit every craft store within 10 miles of our house   This is the perfect time for this project though as most stores have their summer/garden items at least 60% off!   We found the fairies first and completely fell in love!  I figured we would need to make fairies as I am particular and didn’t want clunky statues in pastel colors.  When my mom found these little gems we knew immediately they would be perfect!

We also knew we wanted a house of some kind.  Did you know there is some kind of freakish fairy subculture in the US?  Sorry if you are part of said freaky culture.  But, seriously.  There are entire websites devoted to fairy gardens where you can purchase fairy houses for $200+ as well as all the furniture your fairies could ever desire.  It kind of takes the fun out of it for me…more fun to just use what you have!  We looked around for a humble dwelling for our fairies but all we could find were birdhouses with the traditional circle perch which just wouldn’t do…how would our fairies get inside?  They are surely too dignified to be slithering into their houses on their bellies through that tiny opening!  We found a couple of cute houses that incorporated doors but at $40 a pop they didn’t come home with us.  Instead we purchased a plain unfinished bird “gazebo” and set to work customizing it to look like the fairies had built it themselves.  I painted the entire thing brown with leftover paint.  Then we hot glued river rocks to the roof and added sticks to the columns.  The fairies fit perfectly inside…which is great because in Kansas you never know when there might be a sudden downpour and you might have to seek shelter!  I don’t know whether our DIY house with weather the summer heat…but we can always customize a new house next year if necessary!

Once we finished the house we took all of our supplies out to the yard and started to assemble our garden.  We dumped gravel in the bottom 1/3 of the bucket (remember to drill drainage holes!) and then added potting soil to the top.  We buried our tree stump for added stability (didn’t want to get sued by any falling fairies) and added the house to the top.  Then we placed our resin mushroom and the larger rocks in the tub.  The girls wanted a river so we used the blue gems to position one that would flow from the mushroom woods.  The largest planting (the crazy red leafed plant) went in the back as a nice woodsy backdrop and the ivy got planted next to the stump so we can train it to climb over the house.  The rest of the plants went towards the front and then we filled in with rocks!

There is really no wrong way to go about making your fairies a fitting home.  One of my favorite parts of our garden are the mushroom stakes I found on clearance at Michaels ($3 each) as they really help draw your eye down into the fairy garden and help “set the stage” so to speak. You could use a trellis, an old door propped up, or anything!  We also decided to add some larger rocks around the base of the tub too.

This back portion of our yard has been a MESS since we moved in (shamefully 4 years ago).   Making the fairy garden was just what I needed to inspire me to get the rest of that area planted and spruced up!  We added a cobalt bird bath (the fairies have taken this over as their swimming pool), a gazing ball, and lots of new colorful flowers.  I am working on painting an old bench to set out there as well!

Anyone have any awesome garden inspirations for me?  I’ve been bitten by the bug!

If you make your own fairy garden…be sure to SHARE!!!

Happy Independence Day from the Coopers!

Kind of a quiet night here at home.  Mr. P took the girls out to watch some pyrotechnics while I chill with the boys (who were in bed hours ago).   Mimi and Baboo were here this weekend and we had a FULL weekend of projects to keep us busy.  It was one of the best weekends I have had in a LONG time.

Thursday night Mr. P got home from a 10 day overseas work trip.  My parents showed up the next afternoon…and the party started!  My Mom and I did some “retail therapy”.  The men worked like crazy and built an entire wall of built-in bookshelves in our basement family room.  My Mom helped me plan out our garden in the backyard.  And then today…the girls and I created their very own fairy garden. WHEW!

We are all exhausted and ready for a quiet week of summer lounging!

We worked so hard today we didn’t actually even get the boys dressed until after dinner.  But I had to pull out some red and white for a few family shots of course

I hope your weekend was full of strawberry shortcake and people you love!

{I may not be able to cook but I assemble a mean shortcake}

HAPPY FOURTH!!