Frugal Friday

Welcome to the party! Wendy at The Shabby Nest is having Frugal Friday Linky Party and I wanted to share a simple thrift store makeover.

I picked up a huge king size fitted sheet that I wanted to use for fabric a while back. I fell IN LOVE with the print but didn't know where it would go in the house.

BUT when I found a good size cork board I thought it would make a perfect accent

for my craft space.

Spray paint and staples...

Now I guess I need to find something to pin on it!

Sheet: $3.00 (tons of yardage left over)

Corkboard: $1.50

Jump over to the frugal party and check out all the great ideas!

Memorial Day

We had a full and fun Memorial Day.

Most of the afternoon was spent with my sister. She has chickens and her in-laws have a horse. Add some kids and you have loads of fun.



Princess wishes she could live here.



They hunted for eggs.

Ooooh, found two!

Seriously, is this not the most beautiful bird? It looks like a kitchen decoration.

Then we met up with the whole fam for wiffle ball and BBQ. Mmmmmm.

And some impromptu water fun. The kids weren't dressed for it but we borrowed and altered and they were all happy and wet.

And the girls made hair clips for the babies :)

See my cute pregnant sister? She is due any day!

Count off

When I was a teen my parents occasionally had us 6 kids count off (in birth order) if we were traveling somewhere, usually when we were getting gathered back together after an outing. I saw the $2 Michael's tees last week while I was there and I had the crazy idea to number my kids for the holiday. hehe.

I picked up iron-on numbers on clearance a long time ago for 75 cents and I thought it would be really funny to use them to label our little(big?) family. So I did!

I'm glad my kids aren't too old to be embarrassed by their mother's nonsense just yet. I bet by this time next year my oldest will be. They were actually all begging me to wear them for the last few days. I'll count my blessings now.

(When I did it I thought of my friend CoolWhip because she uses numbers for her kids on her blog).

I just realized I didn't get pics of baby Rosebud in her onesie. Oh well. You get the idea, though. This would also work really well for a trip to Disneyland or another crazy busy place, and you could make the shirts all the same color for easy ID.

And a website to share:

21 Things to do this summer

To-Do Tuesday

Well, on the docket today:

*grocery shopping (totally out of milk)
*upload pics from yesterday
*cash check at bank
*switch to cash system for groceries
*fold laundry from the weekend
*visiting teaching
*menu plan
*turn in Bugs' scout project
*finish research for my dad
*clean up from Memorial Day fun (balls, games, wet clothes, wash serving bowls)
*enter mystery shop info
*blog :)

Bye Bye Birdie

The birds were so big and cute this morning. I had to get pics and video.

Ignore my silly commentary. I was basically doing this for my three kids who are at school and had to miss it :(

Click on this one; you can see all 4 little heads!

Then an hour later it was SO LOUD outside with the mom squawking that I had to check.


The nest was empty.


Seriously? An HOUR and I missed it? Mom was going nuts, though. Why?





I called my neighbor and said "I think the birds are gone! Have you checked?" She calmly stated that they had been out and about all morning. Some of them were still hanging around. While on the phone I poked my head out the door and saw why the mama was so noisy. She had one baby left to get going. And he was on the ground and vulnerable.

Here he is poking his head up over the hill.

And running toward mom.








He stumbles down the little hill.






(In the video I state that the others were by the stairs, but since mom took off after this one was safe, it must have been the last).

Wait for me!!

So, no more mama and all is quiet outside.

Just as suddenly as we realized

they were there, they are gone.

And so life goes.

Not dead yet

So far so good. The veggies are still alive!

Pics from a week ago:

And this morning:

The fun plant markers are off of this site, Make and Takes. So easy and fun.

And just because I can't help myself... ;)

Princess preschool

Princess finished preschool this week. She had a fantastic year. Our school has the most wonderful preschool program and teachers. Our family has been so blessed over the years by being able to have our boys and now Princess go up there to learn and grow and prepare for elementary school. She made her teacher cry when we came up for a picture and a hug.






She still won't enter K till 2010, but she seems so smart and mature already to me. It's so neat to watch her grow. I love this stuff!