"but this one is just right..."

When Nanaw and Papa visited in March for Bubbas birthday, they surprised him with a desk. It's literally old school..my great grandpa gave it to me when I was little. Its so old that it's metal with a wood/ laminate top, a metal frame and actually has a lift top. It's adorable and he loves it. He uses it for puzzles, to draw/color and enjoys having his own spot. But, as it happens when you have more than one child, the other boys were jealous/upset. So I've kept an eye out for one and as luck would have it, Sunday night I found an ad on my buddy Craig's list, where a former home-schooling mom was selling not one, but 2 old wooden desks. Yeah I immediately emailed her....I wanted those desks. Well she contacted me and said they were ours for just $15/each....score! So after work yesterday, B went and picked them up!


Is that not the cutest thing you have seen?

Seriously?! Look at their little faces:

Now granted, they're not done yet...I am planning on refinishing them back to how they looked originally (Bubbas is in original condition). I'll have to sand off the green and pink spray paint, then Pooks will probably be re-painted to the gunmetal silver (depending on condition, since his is metal) and if the original wood on Peanuts is nice, we'll stain it. If it's not, we'll paint it again (but it won't be pink with hearts).

I think this is the push we needed to get refocused on home-schooling. When we moved to this house, we lost our "classroom" basement and we didn't have an area to kinda settle down and focus in. Well, now we do. Granted it's in our dining room but eh, we'll take it! As of now we will still be enrolling Bubba into Kindergarten this fall but I will teach Pooks and Peanut at home for preschool (unless Pooks somehow wrangles a spot in Pre-K...he desperately wants to go to the big school with Bubba we just don't know if he'll qualify). The boys are excited to go get Alphabet posters and workbooks, so off we go!

I am jonesing for a new craft project.

For reals.

I haven't crafted something in a long time. I made a wreath at Christmas and I made our stockings but then...well then I didn't make much. I did make some potholders (out of a super cute M&M fabric) for my aunt but I never took photos. I painted a bow holder for all of Sissys bows but that took like, one evening and I have yet to even take photos of it (or even hang it up. It may be sitting on her dresser holding all her bows. Maybe). One night I made up some of my Stroller Buddy handles and even created an Etsy shop with a few listed {I made up a bunch but listed a few...Etsy charges for listings and I wanted to see if they'd sell first}. But I really really want to refinish something. I read all these cool blogs where people buy a dresser or a nightstand for $10 and it is the UGLIEST thing ever but then they sand it, paint it, switch out the handles and viola, totally gorgeous new piece of furniture for less than like, $30.

Case in point, look at what Kara did over on Craftastical...
She took this freebie (totally yuck, right?)

 and turned it into this by sanding, painting and switching out the pulls. Seriously!

I want to do it! Except I don't need a nightstand. What I want to do is find some big beefy buffet or long dresser, strip it, sand it, paint it/stain it and make it into a new TV stand. Something that I can hide puzzles, dvds and books in but it'll look gorgeous without spending $500 (or more) on a solid wood "entertainment center". I am searching Craigslist and cannot wait to find a piece that "speaks" to me! Right now I have my eye on another little project but I'm waiting (impatiently) to hear back from the seller as to see if it's still available!

Weekend Adventures!

Okay so when we moved here, one of our goals was to use the weekends to really explore the area around us. Get out and do fun things as a family and see what this new city/state has to offer. And we have, just last weekend we went to Corpus Christi and Port Aransas. We've done the Riverwalk & Sea World. We visited the famous Gruene, TX. But more often than not our weekends consist of hanging around in our pj's, watching movies, heading to Costco...just totally vegging. And that's perfectly fine, sometimes. But I do think we need to get out more. We don't know if we'll end up living here for a year or 10 years but we should continue to have our mini-adventures. One of the things that I've wanted to do was find a good local Farmers Market.

Yesterday, we did just that. First we googled and came up at this website: http://www.pearlfarmersmarket.com/

It was the nicest farmers market that I have personally ever been too. Live music, pet friendly, hot foods for sale, honey, soaps, fresh cut flowers, tea, coffee, fresh breads PLUS produce, herbs, honey and sauces. Very cool! We bought {and immediately began eating, cibatta bread and the best fresh peaches)

 After the farmers market, we headed over to another free attraction: The Japanese Tea Gardens

While our timing could have been better (11am on a Saturday), the gardens are gorgeous. It was a bit crowded but none of us seemed to mind. The water was clear with tons of koi fish, the stonework was amazing, the bridges, steps, the flowers, birds...all of it was really pretty. The boys LOVED it.

 

 

Thank you random lady for snapping a good family pic :)

 

 The same lady who took our pic, also gave the boys some fish food to feed the koi fishes...those suckers were eager to eat!

 

 There is suppose to be this gorgeous waterfall but the severe drought around here dried it all up! Here is a self-portrait we took near the rocks where the water would cascade down

And after we walked up the stairs, wound around the ''waterfall'' and back down this gorgeous flower path, there was this small bench made of rocks...I had to get a pic of the kiddos...

all in all, a great morning exploring our new city :) Now I have to get searching for things to try next weekend!

Ka-Chow!

Cars 2 hit theaters today. Our boys have been anxiously waiting for this moment {going on 2 years I think!} and like a smart Mommy, I went and bought advance tickets yesterday so that we wouldn't have to wait in line today. The show started at 11:15 but we were ready for it by oh, 8am. They were a bit excited:

So we managed to keep them corralled at home until 10:30am when we finally left for theater. We skipped the looonng line of people waiting to buy tickets and went and found seats. Even at 10:50am, it was already filling up! B kept an eye on the kids (and our up front, all togeher, row of seats) while I went and got snacks. I'm proud to say that because of different coupons and promotions, our family of six was able to see the movie for $2.50. Add in the large popcorn and medium drink (that I also had a coupon for) and our total for 4 tickets on Premiere Day + snacks was $9.25! Woohoo!

The boys had their popcorn in special Cars2 cups...they ate a cupful each before the movie had started!

I have to say that it was a really cute movie. I think that the storyline was a bit harder for them to follow {lets just say it involved oil companies vs eco friendly ''alltinol''} but they were so intrigued by the racing, spies, and funny parts that they didn't seem to care. All four kids sat through the entire movie without needing a potty break or throwing a fit. Granted Sissy did fall asleep 5 minutes into the movie and wake up 5 minutes before it ended but it worked out perfect.

In the Theater's lobby afterward

After the movie we ate a late lunch at Red Robin. After Red Robin the boys wanted to go see it again. Needless to say, that didn't happen. But we went home and took a nice long nap and now at 9pm, they are all back in bed asleep. All in all, a great day!

I could use your help!

Remember a couple months ago when I shared these pictures:





I took them after Sissy had her toenails painted for the very first time. We used Piggy Paint for her first pedicure because it's completely natural and non-toxic. Unfortunately, I don't own any...a friend had the color "girls rule" and painted her little piggies for me.

Fast forward to now. I entered the upper photo in a contest to win a "Beach Bum" gift set from Piggy Paint via a Facebook contest. Well it ends tomorrow and we're in second place. So while I usually wouldn't do this, I'm asking for your help!

contest has ended...sissy placed second! she won a free bottle of polish...thank you to all who voted!


Right now we are in second place by about 20 votes...can you help a little sister of three brothers out? Thank you!