Splash Pad Fun

 My friend Amoura and I took our daughters to a splash pad the other day. They had a BLAST. Aislyn didn't really like being sprayed by the water, but Layna loved it! I gotta get that child in the sprinkler more. They get along so well, it's super cute. I hope they are friends for years to come.

Layna is so outgoing and energetic, while Aislyn is much more laid back. She tends to take a lot more time adjusting to new surroundings than the other kids. And she likes to stick close to me, that momma's girl. But I don't mind :)

The splash pad was so much fun! It had a lot of different water jets spraying in all directions, and nice picnic tables for parents to sit and watch their kids. Next to it was a large playground which the girls also enjoyed. 

This shows how different their reactions are to the water jets!

< Timid vs. Outgoing! >

  

We had a great day! I've been working on painting one of our bathrooms for the past week or so. I'll post pictures soon!

Kaitlin

Happy 4th of July!

Happy Birthday America!!!

A big thank you goes out to all the service men and women of today and yesterday that have sacrificed their lives for the good of this amazing country.

Fittingly, I was assigned to read the Declaration of Independence for my American Literature class. I think every American should look over it from time to time and remind ourselves of the men, principles, and ideas that founded this nation. It is time to get back to this standard; we do not need career politicians and a corrupt government. States need more rights, federal government needs to be limited and the American people need to regain the "American Dream" and work hard to improve their lives instead of rely on a welfare system to provide for them. Abraham Lincoln's philosophy was  “a government of the people, by the people,for the people,” not a government full of politicians that do not listen to the people, pass certain health care bills that will hurt the middle class, and don't pay taxes because they consider themselves better than us. But enough preaching, let's go wave the flag, light off some fireworks, drink some beer, and celebrate!

 Me, Aislyn and Mike participating in The Yankee Volunteer 

Fife and Drum Corps at a parade last summer.

God Bless,
Kaitlin

Watch the Garden Grow

I put some veggie plants into my new garden a few weeks ago and most of them are starting to show definite growth. The tomato plants have blossoms on them and one even has some baby tomatoes!! Other than two different types of tomatoes (one of which is called "Mortgage Lifter," appropriate, right?) I planted summer squash, zucchini, eggplant and cucumber. Everything looks like it's doing good except for the eggplant. Probably because it's in a shadier area than the rest of them. I probably won't put vegetables there next year unless they magically grow and produce a lot, which I don't think will happen...

From L to R: 2 tomato plants, 4 zucchini, 1 cucumber plant

 Summer Squash!

Zucchini & Eggplant

 

My poor little eggplant...

It's my first true attempt at gardening. My mom has had a garden and it has done really well in previous years but I didn't spend much time in it. I'm glad she knows about it and can pass her knowledge on to me because sometimes I feel pretty clueless about stuff :) Forget sometimes, I feel that way most of the time haha. If any of you have gardening tips and advice please feel free to leave a comment.  I'm really nice & won't bite :)

-Kaitlin

Chalkboard Menu

The previous owners of our house did a fairly good job of taking things with them when they moved out. They did leave some miscellaneous pool junk and some old sand box toys that I didn't really find appealing, but they did a lot better job than the previous owners of my parent's house who left a whole lotta junk. Ick. They did leave some relatively nice & useful things though, like the [now] yellow picnic table and this pretty snazzy chalk board. Honestly, they seem like nice people and I'm pretty sure the previous lady of the house and I would have gotten along quite wonderfully.

Here's how they left it; isn't it cute??

I thought it was really nice of them. I left it up for awhile and

 then decided that it was time to transform it into.... Our Weekly Menu!

Now Mike can't ask what's for dinner and I know exactly what I'm making ahead of time. It also really helps with planning the trip to the grocery store and calculating finances. Win-win and super cool looking too, if I do say so myself. It goes without saying that it was a super easy project too.

Chalk to ya later,
Kaitlin

Picnic Table Painting

Well! It has been quite the eventful month! After writing the last post, we attempted to go to the closing, only to be told that there was a slight glitch and they had to postpone. We ended up closing the next day, which wasn't a huge deal, but it did set our plans back and we didn't get as much accomplished as we hoped. After we closed and picked up the keys we started cleaning and painting Aislyn's room. It turned out so cute! I'll post picks soon, right now there's laundry waiting to be put away...

Moving in went smoothly, with the exception that no large furniture would fit up the staircase.... so they put it through the 2nd floor window. I pretended I didn't see that and was involved as little as possible... what if they dropped out new bedroom set?! ahh...

We've slowly settled in and gotten used to the routine. I started my summer college sessions and it stinks. It's four days a week and a ton of reading, plus the dance recital is coming up too so between that I'm staying super busy. But I did happen to paint a picnic table for Aislyn :)

The previous owners left it at the house, and it was in really good shape other than some weathering:

 I sanded it down and then primed it:

 Then painted it BRIGHT yellow!!

Aislyn loves it and keeps saying "Mommy paint my table yellow!" 

She's so cute sometimes.

I'm looking forward to seeing her play on and use this table a lot this summer.

Post soon!

Kaitlin

Our AWESOME New Home :)

 

Today is the big day! May 15th babyy! We close on our new home today! We are all excited, nervous and a tad stressed, but overwhelmingly happy. Aislyn is probably the most excited out of all of us. Yesterday we had the final walk through and when we went up to the second story she led everyone down the hall saying, "My room! My room! So pretty!" and then went up to the 3rd floor finished attic and had a little accident. We've regressed a little in the potty training area, which is to be expected...

We are doing a little painting this week to freshen things up and then we are moving in this weekend! Once we are all in an settled I can start posting room updates and fun things around our *NEW* house! But for now I have to get ready and go to the closing.

Happy, happy day!!

Kaitlin

Father-Daughter Dance

Mike took Aislyn to her first sweetheart dance at the YMCA on Friday night, and boy let me tell you, she had a GREAT time. We got her all dolled up in a pretty pink dress, painted her finger nails, curled her hair and put on her new white dress shoes and took pictures before heading over. Mike also cleaned up good :)

I came in towards the end of the dance and she was running around and dancing like a maniac. She was one of the younger ones there but she was probably having the grandest time. It was SO cute. Mike and Ais had some pictures taken together at the dance itself but we haven't received them yet. I'll post them when we do (look below!). We expected her to crash on the way home, but she was so excited, she babbled and talked the entire way back and took way longer than expected to fall asleep. All signs of a great time.

Her Southern roots are showing!

Happy Sunday!
Kaitlin


edited to add photos:

Here are the pictures of Mike and Aislyn at the Sweetheart dance taken by YMCA staff :)

Aren't they darlin'?