Words of wisdom

When looking at my very tangled marionette Josh brought to me to fix with despair, he said, "You can fix it.  You can fix anything!" Aww thanks buddy!  

It was followed up by "I didn't do it!"  Hmmm.

Bushes a la Dad

My father taught me that bushes or shrubs should never be trimmed with a hedge clipper or electric trimmers. He mastered the fine art of pruning shears and I would watch him work on our fluffy round bushes.  There were a few time when he pruned them way farther than anticipated and amazingly they always seemed to bounce back.  I have been know to copy his example.

We have two awesome thorn covered bayberry bushes and 3 fluffy green one that shot up about a foot this month, mostly in the last two weeks.  I wasn't thrilled with their height initially, as you could barely see the porch from the yard or vice versa, so I took a little schnoop off the top.  And then another.  So now I have five bushes worth in the front yard and no super convenient way to get rid of them.  I miss VA right now.  Our trash guys had automatic lifts so it was no biggie to have a giant branch filled trash can.  

Spring flowers

One of the most delightful parts of spring has been finding a boat load of bulbs in my new yard! There are tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, and they are different colors and all so lovely!!!

The formers owners planted a cluster in both the front and back yards! I am so delighted! Now to plant more around the edge of the foundation plantings!!

Messy, but better (from feb)

Karl and I have made a ton of progress in the basement! I have almost got my craft area back together, just down to the last 4 boxes. We ended up deciding to grab all the boxes from the upstairs and sort downstairs, but we are close. Yeah!
Josh has a few things upstairs and the play area needs some work. We've got most of Karl's shelves assembled, so once we get boxes unpacked, we can put books and things away. We are missing one hardware packet, so we are one shelf down. And happily, the treadmill was able to move from the scary storage room u to the play area. It's much more fun to workout in that room.
Karl even admits he might have too much stuff, so we may even get rid of some stuff!

Vacation!

Karl purchased a groupon vacation over spring break that we could not take as I didn't have a passport or the enhanced drivers license, so we rescheduled our trip to an indoor waterpark in Toronto. We drive up Thursday night and spent a wonderful day playing at the park. Josh is an absolute water slide fiend. Karl and I were exhausted after just a few hours running up the slide steps!
At one point Josh wanted to catch my attention from the slide platform so he started calling "help, help". Needless to say it freaked out the lifeguards!

We left the hotel and headed to the falls where we discovered we had left Emily's phone at the hotel. We called the hotel, and went back to talk in person, but we think she left in under her pillow and it got bundled up by housekeeping and sent to the laundry. She is beside herself. We wish the trip had ended better. We also missed the last Maid of the Mist boat tour for the night, so we just stood and took pictures.

Carousel Mall

Karl and I took Josh with us to the Carousel Mall to get my ipad fixed. While we were there, I took him for his first ride on a carousel. He was a but nervous, but loved it!

Ding Ding, the orange is gone!

I didn't live the original color of my family room. I had shuffled it to the bottom of the list again and again, but once I got the taxes filed, the sparkle came out and the paint went on the walls! I am thrilled with the brighter room we have now!

The kids like the new color, and I love that we finally have the live seat in the room so we can all sit down at one time!