One busy week...

Well this was one busy and HOT week. We headed out to Pungo Blueberry on Monday with some of our friends and Nanay. Good thing we went out early in the morning because it became a steamy day. It was our first blueberry/blackberry picking trip, ever and it was loads of fun. I especially enjoyed watching the kids play hide and seek through the aisles. I didn't enjoy having to chase them down the aisles as they drifted further away from me and the moms. Stella enjoyed picking until her basket got too heavy and Bro enjoyed eating the berries straight off the bushes. Nanay was left behind in the blueberry patch while we went to check out the blackberries. The blackberries weren't quite ready yet. The ones we did find were nice and sweet and juicy. Stella like to pick the sour ones and Bro liked to pick the red ones and eat them. We only got one basket of blackberries and they were gobbled up by the next day. When we went back to find Nanay, she was no where to be found so we circled both patches twice and found her hiding in the blueberry patch. When we took our pickings to the scale, we ended up picking almost 8lbs of blueberries. They were delicious! I made a blueberry cobbler and froze the rest of the berries.

Al's cousin was down from New England and we visited with them for a while at the beach. It was a perfect overcast day and the waves weren't too rough. The kids had lots of fun chasing and being chased by the water. It was nice to catch up for a while, but our trip was ended short because of a cranky little boy who was in desperate need of a nap.







That afternoon, we had enjoyed a family outing to the Tides game. Al's office had a client event at the park and we got to tailgate before the game and watched a few innings. We were able to watch a couple of trains go by the park up close. Bro was in awe of all the action going on once we were in our seats. I think his favorite thing was the music. Every time they played a song in between batters, he would dance a little jig. His favorite cheer was "Charge." Stella was just happy to have her own lemonade. We ended up leaving during the 3rd inning because the kids had ants in their pants.







Since it's been so hot this week, we haven't been to the pool or beach too much. I decided to take the kids to the beach one evening after dinner with my parents since Al had to work late. We drove down to Croatan beach and enjoyed an hour of playing in the sand and water. It was a beautiful night, light breeze on the beach and ocean was nice and calm. The kids got to dig a giant hole with Tatay and Bro tried to chase some waves.




The summer's almost gone, but we're going to enjoy every minute of what we have left before we get back to the routine of school.

Our mad science experiments...

Last night, after the kids were in bed, I went to a few of my favorite craft websites. I saved a few of the crafts and thought I'd do them with the kids this week. Today was day number one of crafts and we started the morning with bubbles out back. The kids love bubbles and they asked to play with bubbles first thing this morning. One of the crafts I found was to make your own bubble stick with a few straws taped together. I used 5 straws and taped them together with scotch tape. Then I filled the bubble cap with some bubble solution, dipped the stick in the solution and then let Bro blow through the straws. It made tons of little bubbles and Bro didn't suck up nearly as much solution as he normally did, and he had so much fun blowing bubbles. Normally, with a regular bubble stick he's lucky to blow one bubble. So, craft number one was a success and we'll use that idea again.

Our second craft was the 'goop.' A few months ago, Stella spent the day with her cousins and Aunt and they made 'goop.' I made two batches, one pink one for Stella and one blue one for Bro. The kids loved it and it was super easy to make. Everything you need should be easily found in your pantry. The recipe said it would take an hour to do, but it took about 5 minutes to mix up. The only downfall is if you use food coloring, it will temporarily stain your hands. Bro really enjoyed playing with it and wanted to eat it many times, I'm sure he snuck a taste when I wasn't looking. Clean up was pretty easy too.

Stella is all ready asking about what we're going to do next so I better get busy coming up with our 'to do's' for craft time. Below you'll find the recipes for the goop, volcano (great fun too), and straws.

Tell a
Friend: "http://familyfun.go.com/crafts/preschool-potions-860002/"

Tell a Friend: "http://familyfun.go.com/crafts/tiny-bubbles-668489/"

One woman's trash is another woman's treasure...

This past February, a girlfriend of mine and I went 'treasure hunting' in some thrift stores and antique shops (mainly in Norfolk). I had never had much luck finding any 'treasures' in my previous hunts, but hit the jackpot this day. I came home with 2 side tables (1950's-60's) and a gorgeous dresser/buffet (1920's-40's). I didn't even break the bank with my purchases. Great company, awesome deals and a new hobby filled my day.

I decided to tackle the side tables first. I thought they'd go in my bedroom, but they were a bit bigger than I thought so they found a new home in our tv room. I didn't want to go with a 'safe' color so I thought I'd have fun and paint them a turquoise blue. When I started the refinishing process, I discovered someone else started sanding one of the tables, but didn't get very far. After much sanding and many, many coats of turquoise the tables were finally finished. It took a few weeks to finish between nap times, school pickups and all the other endless everyday things. Once I moved them into the tv room, they looked like they belonged and it made my heart smile. Unfortunately, my favorite lamp didn't survive a battle with my little boy and made it's way into the trashcan instead of on top of one of the tables. Stella and I made a trip to our favorite home store (the name slips my mind right now) and got two spectacular lamps. Originally, I wanted a different lamp, but they didn't have any in stock. I think the ones we came home with look even better.

It was about 2 months after I finished the side tables when I decided to get to work on the dresser. I was really at a loss of where to start, I was afraid to mess it up. So, I logged onto DIY network and got some tips and also checked out "This Old House" and found everything I needed. I thought when I bought the piece I would paint it black, but the more I looked at it, the more I fell in love with the way the wood looked and knew that I couldn't paint over it. It was a pain staking process with all the removal of the shiny urethane finish and removal of some of the wood stain. After many pairs of gloves and steel wool, it was finally time to restain. I chose one of the darkest wood stains you can find, aside from black and I had such a hard time with the wood soaking up the stain. I had read that sometimes old wood just won't take stain as easily as new wood so I persisted with the continuous staining process. I realized that I wasn't going to get it as dark as I really wanted, but the work I did still looked really good. The end was near and all that was left was cleaning up the hardware on the dresser. I think that was the biggest pain of all, but the drawer pulls cleaned up nicely and within a few days, Al was able to help me move it into our room and move the old dresser out to the garage.

I'm really pleased with the way everything turned out, even if it wasn't the way I had originally envisioned it all. I have more plans of going 'treasure hunting' for more furniture pieces for my bedroom and eventually Stella's room as well. I think it's great if you can find something old that you really fall in love with and bring new life to it. I like that I can find stuff that's made well and re purpose it. It beats spending thousands of dollars on furniture that you can find in a show room and adds a little character to our home, not to mention a great story to tell.