a typical day in the neighborhood

This past Sunday afternoon was pretty much like most afternoons for the past few months.  We go outside just about every day.  We play and hang out with our neighbors, and their trio of little girls (Reisa is 2, and the twins are 8 months.)  Every so often we have to break out the water toys, and make a big splashy (and eventually muddy) mess but on this particular day we started out with some bike and scooter racing:

this picture of reisa and tanner cracks me up! they have the funniest faces! they adore each other so much, but they have a very two-year-old relationship of playing nicely together one second, and hollering and beating on each other the next minute! Reisa will probably be moving soon, so we are enjoying EVERY second we can with our sweet pals, two-doors-down.

And we're happy to say that three of our four broccoli plants have big broccoli florets growing on them, and we have been excited to watch them get "big and strong" according to Tanner.  The plants droop a little every afternoon, which is why the leaves look a little wilty in this picture, but they perk right back up by evening.  I think it will just be a few more weeks, and then we can eat the first of it!

Happy day-after-Mother's Day!

Just a few quick pictures that the boys and I took before we left for church on Sunday morning! We spent a lovely Mother's Day with Eric's family, out at the beach condo (minus the beach, because the weather was sort of questionable!)  I got some BEAUTIFUL plants and flowers, plus my FAVORITE lemon soap from Eric's mom! (And perhaps the best part? Leftovers from dinner. . . I'm pretty sure I won't have to cook or shop for a week, after all the food that came home with us!)

Last week, although it wasn't intended as a Mother's Day present, I used some long held gift card $, and got a pedicure with a friend, and then had a massage. . . .and I dubbed that part of my Mother's Day celebration too.  It was DIVINE!!!! 

And. . . because I simply can't let any of you be without the AMAZING cookies that the boys and I baked, I must share this recipe.  Eric says I have to start making them every day.  They are seriously THAT good. . . .and amazingly enough, they have NO flour, and NO butter. . .and they are EASY! 

So if you need a peanut butter and chocolate fix, try these out! 

Flourless Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies 

(PS. . .be sure to keep scrolling down. in order to make me feel less guilty, I've pre-dated some posts, so i could put pictures in chronological order. i'll be adding a few more from my birthday, and the end of april over the next day or so!)

God made the dirt. . .

so the dirt won't hurt. . .right? It was not easy to get out of Bryce's white shirt, but miraculously it survived.  I can NOT keep the boys out of the garden lately. . .it's frustrating, and disastrous, but then again BOYS WILL BE BOYS, so I will take a deep breath, and wipe them off AGAIN.  On this particular day, I think we started out playing with water. . .and THEN the dirt, so it was especially bad. And Tanner had a runny nose. (Also not helpful.)  And I've found that dirt REALLY sticks to sunscreen.

EWWWWWWWW!  :)

To the zoo we go!

We took our dear friends Paul and Sara, and their little cutie pie Hannah, for Hannah's FIRST TRIP to the zoo on Saturday! It was so fun to see her excited about the animals!!! She and Tanner are totally best buds, and he really loves to call her "Baby Hannah" (even though she's becoming not such a baby anymore!)