The Little Things That Make Us Smile.

To me---part of having a great childhood is just finding fun...little adventures...things that are spontaneous & unstructured, and just....being a kid.

...and it's those little activities that I LOVE to watch my son create on his own, just exploring, and looking for fun. I LOVE that. Love it.

Cool.

Look what I did!


I did it with this:

...handy-dandy little tool that I picked up @ Tom Thumb.

...and look what else I did...

I put up these framed prints over this little shelf where we hang our keys, purse, etc, by the door to the laundry room...

It's definitely feeling more like home around here, but I still need to find the perfect curtains. Until then---we are sans curtains. Actually---we're sans a lot of things...like a couch or seating for the play-room, adequate toy storage for the playroom, any theme whatsoever for the guest rooms & upstairs bathroom, any solid surface for me to erect the sewing machine & necessary supplies...okay...I need to stop.

The point is: it's coming together. Slowly, but surely.
:)

Last Day of School....

Gage had his last day of school in the PreK-3s class.....

...Pics before School...



Pics at the Ice Cream party for school...
(Gage {being shy}, M {the girl-friend}, & W {the best-friend})



Doesn't Gage look so sad!? He's going to miss M!


Gage & his teachers...Ms.Laura & Ms.Lisa


...and it MUST have been a fun-filled day, because this is what I found in the backseat after I pulled into the garage...


Needless to say, he didn't nap long... a bit later, we were back at the pool!



...until the lightning came & we had to cut our pool activities short...

In the end, it was still a GREAT day!

Pool Season Opening, 2010.

Well, it's official: the pool is officially open.

On Sunday, after Melis & Goofball left, I told Gage that I'd take him down to the pool.
But----I didn't want to go in any of my swimsuits...I wanted something a bit more conservative than what I owned at the time {read: I wanted a one piece rather than a 2 piece}. So, I had to get a few things at the grocery store, so I thought---what the heck? I'll go to WalMart, get the grocery items & a swimsuit all in one stop.

Did that.
This is what I came to----the nappers.

It was pretty cute.

Finally, when the child woke, we were getting ready to go to the pool. I asked Hubby for his opinion on my swimsuit. His response? "It looks {pause} functional."
FUNCTIONAL?
That's code for: it looks like a mom-suit, it's ugly as hell, and what happened to the 25 year old bikini-clad confident loud-mouth that I married!?

Whatever. I'll take functional at this point, and we headed to the pool....Gage had a blast. THAT's what's important, right?





Those pics were taken from the kiddie pool splash park part...After Gage played there for a bit, we headed over to the big pool. No pics of that part because the camera is not waterproof, I was solo-parenting, and Gage was jumping off the side, into my arms, then paddling back to the edge. Yes, rinse, repeat. I'm fairly certain we did that over 100 times.

:)
So, that was our 1st neighborhood pool adventure.
Good times....

Aubri's Dance Recital

So, the same Saturday that Melis & Goofball came into town, I was LUCKY enough to attend Aubri's 1st dance recital.

Let me just tell you a few things...
1. I need a girl.
I need the glitter, the butterfly wings, the hairsprayed buns, tulle, the whole 9 yards. I need a girl.
2. Before Nathan & Tera even got to the auditorium, my a$$ was there, saving seats, and damn near crying because it was all just so sparkly sweet. {...and yes, if Nathan reads that, or Tera reads that to Nathan---he'll just laugh at me. It's okay. I'm a girl. I can't help my silly self.}

And so, I present...little Miss Aubri's first official performance...








She eeeeeevent took a few pics with me, even though she was hot, and tired & ready to leave.
:)


...and then it was over.

Melis & Goofball...

Well, my Melissa got married to one Mr.Goofball.
Okay...that's not reeeeally his name, but somehow, that's what we call him around the Casa de Lainey-Paney. In fact, the nickname was really from Colin & intended for Gage, but Gage flipped it on him, and now they are just "Goofball & Goofball."

At Chateau Melissa, Gage is "Goofball."
At the Casa de Lainey-Paney, Colin is "Goofball."
Confusing? Yes.
Does it work for us? Sure does.
{And yes, Melissa---I just named your home. You need a sign...}

So........anywho....
Last weekend, they came to TEXAS!

So, they brought gifts for Gage, which he loved.
While he has enjoyed the books---the Ghostbusters "sweat band" was the biggest hit! (I put that in quotations b/c Hubby quickly corrected me when I referred to it as a bracelet.)



They LOVED our little Ranger...{can you really blame them?}


So, they got to our house late in the evening on Saturday night after spending all day at the Byron Nelson.

We got up Sunday morning...

{Yes, that's me 1st thing in the morning}

We were all sooooo lucky to have Hubby cook up a big breakfast.



...while the rest of us played outside...{poor Hubby...missing all the fun}


{Yes, that's Gage's 'Mom-stop-interrupting-our-play-to-take-your-stupid-pictures' pose. Cute, eh?)

Gage was also slingin' rock in the living room. {I could NOT HELP MYSELF! I had to type that!} No, really, he was selling them his gems from his panning adventures while we were on our recent trip...




After breakfast, we went for a walk down to the playground. Gage rode his bike...and he had to stop and give Goofball a flower. I'm tellin' ya---Gage loves Goofball.



We played at the park for a bit...but it was SO hot.



When we got home, Gage wanted to play in his little hose-sprinkler thing...which just created mud puddles. Fun. ...ya know..if you're a little boy.



So, Daddy turned on the regular backyard sprinklers...
Well...that was entertaining for our little guy...




And finally: How to make your own backyard pool for less than $24K---Gage style.




The visit was too brief. We don't see each other enough. I miss her terribly.
And so-----we just HAVE to get to STL this Summer. We just have to.