Gone Golfin'

Brian had today off so we filled it with all sorts of fun nonsense after VBS ended today!

Brian wanted to take Michael to the driving range so off they went!

Here's Brian. I like this picture because Brian's body is in focus, but his swing is in motion and a bit blurry. I was trying to get this shot, but wish I had a cooler angle/composition:

I love all that farmland there as a backdrop for the driving range.

Something about this picture just makes me laugh. Can't put my finger on it:
Brian teaching Michael how to aim his putt. Michael wasn't too terribly interested until Brian sank an awesome putt from like 20 feet away. And so it already is beginning - Michael thinking his parents don't know anything.
Sand bunker practice:
And a picture for me. You know I'm gonna post something not too terribly normal to take:
It's been so fun being outside. Yesterday, we met Brian at the tennis courts and played all together after Brian finished his work tournament match. I am happy to spend outside time/playing time as a family. It promotes healthy living and promotes real quality time with one another.

And I'm a huge fan of that!

VBS has been so fun! My friend, Heather, has been posting pics/videos on her Facebook site.

Brian found out today he has Lyme disease. As my Thermo I prof, Dr. Hall, used to tell us: "Mother Nature - she's a B**T#"

I agree.

Data

This is hilarious to me. My number of blog posts from the last 4 years:

• 2011 (65)
• 2010 (79)
• 2009 (166)
• 2008 (120)
• 2007 (158)

2010 was DEFINITELY a bit short on posts. 2011 is shaping up a bit better. I was a postin' FOOL in 2007-2009. Had a lot to say! Or rather - not much else to DO - so I actually had time to blog about my life!

Makes me think of 2 things:

1. I really do need to make a blog book. I've been wanting to do this, but 2007 ended up being 193 pages and costing around $250.
2. I just do not have as much time to blog as before. Having a house is a beast of burden!

I remember in Paris, all I wanted - was to own a home. And now that I have one, I really miss the days of renting! All my free time nowadays is utilized cleaning, tidying, painting, if not painting - then picking out paint samples, picking out fabric samples, googling how to fix a loose sink faucet, weeding, watering plants, organizing something, looking at new toilets/vanities for my powder room -picking out said paint for my new powder room -

THE LIST GOES ON AND ON.

So whatever free time I do have - is spoken for! Until I have my house all in line. You know how you move in somewhere - and it just doesn't feel like your place yet? Yeah - that's where I am in this house.

When we moved into our apt in Austin, I decorated in about 2-3 months. We had no money - but that was ok because I had a ton of time (newlywed and no job and all) - scoured garage sales, sewed a bunch of stuff and shopped sales. And I decorated our 2 bedroom, 2 bath apt in no time flat. Got a job - and on went our lives.

Then, we moved to Paris - and while I had no more free time (introducing MICHAEL!) - we were well taken care of by Uncle Air Liquide and I outfitted our apt within 2-3 months as well.

NOW - we are in our HOME - and it has been over a year - and it STILL is a work in progress. Something about the fact that I can do WHATEVER I want - paralyzes me for the whole affair. And the fact that now I have no time and little excess money (thank you PA Tax Man, my water softening tank breaking, replacing 2 windshields in one month, maintaining 2 cars, paying for out of network doctors who implied that they were in network, tuition for Michael - THAT list goes on and on as well).

SIGH. So I haven't blogged. Because I am busy taking care of my family - and taking care of my house. Somehow I thought I could start a business in all of that - but now is not the time with Michael being home for the summer. And me needing a new camera. And my house feeling like someone else's house.

Good grief. Am I being a whiny melodramatic drama queen tonight. Really should not have watched my chick flick of Made of Honor.

I'm done now.

P

iPhone Download Time!

About once every quarter, my iphone makes it down to the depths of the basement. Known to Brian as "The Man Cave." Known to me as "The Meat Locker." It's pretty cold down in our basement.

And when this happens, we get the Blog - By Phone Pictures - Fire

Let's begin.

Leftover Picture from Strasburg. I did NOT feed this train any of my coins:

Michael and I playing chess while eating:

Michael wanted to get in the laundry bucket. Made me nostalgic for a similar picture I took of him in Paris when he was less than a year old. I tried to find it to post it here, but can't.

In June, we went and picked strawberries at Walnut Springs Farm. Here is the result of our efforts:

Tarte aux fraises - courtesy of Chocolate and Zucchini cookbook. One of my favorites.

This guy loves cheese even more than Brian. This was taken at -none other than- DUNKIN' Donuts:

Brian ran into this guy on our wood pile:

I would not have remained calm enough to take a picture of it. But I LOVE this one that Brian took. Such a nice contrast between the texture of the wood and the texture of the snake. And how the colors are definitely complimentary. I don't know - I just love this shot.

I DID GET ONE PICTURE FROM JULY 4th WEEKEND!

Our picnic blanket with the Gaglianos at Freedom Fest

Michael climbed on these bouncy houses suppled by : Date with a Tramp (see sign on image)

And Brian's latest harvest. Had to put that GLAD COSTCO sized Press 'n Seal box next to 'em so you could get the scale of these bad boys:

As my dad would say - Grown to about the size of a forearm.

AWESOME. I am off to take "good" pictures of Brian's garden. He has requested them. And then of Michael's hair cut.

And up next - videos of Brian and Michael re-enacting Wimbledon in our driveway.

Love,

P

July 4th

Last year, I think I took about 400 fireworks pictures. This year? Big Fat Zero.

Like I said before, we had no plans for the weekend except to paint the bedroom! And we ended up:

Friday - Brian had off. He went to the dr for a physical exam (insurance gives us $500 just for doing this! ). We got painting supplies at Lowes and spent the rest of the day hanging out at home.

Saturday - BBQ at our place with the Gaglianos and then went to Freedom Fest at Nottingham State Park put on by Herr's Potato Chip Corporation (like Lays, but local). The fireworks were great, but the 45 minute wait for a shuttle back to our car afterwards was NOT. Luckily, there was no traffic and it's only a 20 minute drive back to our house.

Sunday - Our neighbors invited us over for some steamed crabs covered in Old Bay! DONE AND DONE! We had a great time hanging out with my neighbors and her family! Stayed until 11:00pm eating, playing games, roasting s'mores in their fire pit, and eating Rita's water ice.

Monday - had lunch/dinner at my friend, Tami's, house! We ate, hung out, and then drove over to the University of Delaware for another round of fireworks. She had these awesome glasses that make the fireworks look like a kaleidoscope. Pretty sweet!

Exhausted. Officially. With Monday actually being Tuesday - I was confused all week and didn't work out at all. I went in today and counted down nearly every single second of my ONE mile run. Stark contrast to my 2 mile run last Thursday before I stuffed my face full of food all weekend!

This week, nothing much happened. Saw Legends of the Guardian with Michael. The kids in the theater and Michael, ALL loved it. I thought it was the scariest animated owl movie I've ever seen. The owls had like armor and swords on their talons. It was like Braveheart meets animated owls.

Brian and I celebrated our 9 year anniversary on Wednesday! My friend Jamie come over and watched Michael for us so we could go to Fair Hill Inn for dinner. It was AWESOME!!! Best food I've had in America since we've been back!

Brian had amazing beef medallions (cooked to medium rare) - with truffled cauliflower puree. I had a roasted quail with roasted fig/peach AND an amazing crab cake that was somewhere between crab cake and crab souffle on a bed of giant couscous with apple. It was all to die for. Seriously. For dessert, I had this cherry clafoutis (one of my favorite French boulangerie items) that was the best I've ever had (and I used to live in France) - covered with creme anglaise. With a cherry/sherry ice cream. I nearly passed out.

That's it. Maybe pictures next time. I've been meaning to go out to Brian's garden with my 50mm and take some pictures of his efforts! And also been meaning to post some video of Brian playing with Michael in the driveway.

Love,

P

A whole lotta nothin'

We get asked a lot from friends and family who are catching up with us - "What have y'all been up to?"

Which leads to a lot of - "Uhhh...nothin' much. Tending the garden. Playing lots of bean game. Hanging out at home."

There's the end of that conversation!

But seriously, this is all we are really doing. We are hanging out with friends in our neighborhood and eating from time to time. You know, spending the time to develop relationships and real friendships where we are. Especially since we have no close family around.

No other earth shattering news - which also leads to empty voids in the blog, which you can probably tell.

And sometimes I get the impression that I SHOULD be running around - going all sorts of different places and doing all sorts of things all the time so I have something to say.

But honestly, we are so perfectly content in our little country home in the middle of nowhere.

Do we indeed get out from time to time? Yes - and you can see the frequency in our blog. But it is NOWHERE near the pace we used to have in Paris. And I realized that we are SO very ok with that.

Why?

Well, we bought this house in the country because it reminds of our most relaxing and wonderful vacations in the countryside in France.

Which we associate with a whole lot of doing nothing, eating well, and occasionally seeing a site or two but not at a breakneck pace.

Because that's one of the things we learned while living in Europe, the ability to take things slowly, enjoy great food, and really relax. So we're not always concerned about the "things to do." And our house shows it!! We could really use a bit of fire under out butts to spruce things up! :)

I never realized how MUCH of a toll our lifestyle - day in and day out - really took on our family in Paris. I remember feeling so stressed, tired, and just over run most of the time. Asking me for a favor was like the end of the world. We were just exhausted traveling, buying groceries, speaking French, and raising a young'un ALL on our own with no family around.

So much so - that now, all we want to do is relax. That's it. Maybe in 5 years when we've recuperated from 3 years of living in Paris - we'll go back to that crazy lifestyle where we're running around.

But for now, we are happy to be at peace here in the country. Quietly living our existence.

Forgive me for being absent on our blog. There's just not much going on.

This weekend was a busy one though. We went into the weekend with NO plans except for me to finish painting my bedroom.

Instead, we filled all 3 days with friends, food, and fun. And my bedroom just has a coat of primer on it. That's it!

But we'll blog about our 4th of July weekend later. With no pictures as I am tired of my camera. I am so at -odds with it that I don't even want to take pictures.

Cape May, NJ: 6/17 - 6/18

Our little family took a quick family vacation to Cape May, NJ - voted one of the top 10 beach destinations in the USA by Trip Advisor.

I'm not a beach person and am no expert on this subject, but we were willing to give it a go since it's only 2.5 hours from our place!

Cape May was everything a beach vacation should be. Not much to do, cute things to look at, and a lot of laying around on the beach!

There were lots of Victorian houses to look at! Here's a quick smattering:

Love the colors in this one:

Took all my effort not to just go through this gate and make myself at home here:

Tell me you thought, "Wedgewood," when you saw this house too:

And this is someone's porch. Does it look like Southern Living to you too?

We arrived by noon on Friday 6/17 and luckily no storms as the weather was predicting. It was sunny, partly cloudy, high of 81 with some winds. So while it was pleasant, it really wasn't swimmin' weather. We tried at the pool and gave up.

Got dressed and went to play putt putt, which was right outside of our MOTEL. Yes, motel, but it really wasn't bad! It wasn't fancy, but it was plenty spacious! We had a living area, a dining area, a kitchenette with stove/fridge/microwave/sink, and a separate bedroom! So it was plenty of room and right across the street from the beach.

After putt putt - we played Ticket to Ride, Brian's Father's Day gift which I did not hide very well (or at all for that matter) so he saw it before our trip!

One thing I love about America? You can bring nonsensical things, like this game, with you on vacations. We would have NEVER brought that on a European vacation because it would have taken up too much space and we didn't want to schlep it all over creation!

Walked the promenade. Dinner at a Mexican place. It was ok. We're not huge Mexican food fans.

Put Michael to bed and Brian and I stayed up playing Bohnanza and Ticket to Ride in our "dining room." I am all about multi rooms when traveling with kids! LOVE America!

Next day, we walked around, took pictures of houses, ate a cafe breakfast and just sat at the beach all day. Brian rented us an umbrella so we had some reprieve from the sun. I read a ton of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo while Brian and Michael played in the surf.

Skipped lunch. Had dinner at Louisa's - great fresh fish grilled. And delicious desserts! We ordered 3! They had panna cotta, which we love!

After a huge dinner, we headed back to our country in the PA. We always love coming home.

P

Parenting Splurp

Read this in my weekly events for families newsletter that I get and I just loved it:

This mom will always have time to kiss a boo-boo. Otherwise, things tend to fall to the wayside. Things like car maintenance; phone surveys; organizing that rabbit-prolific pile of paper on my counter; finding my keys; setting the DVR; staying on top of what's really going on in Libya. Ditto for most of the other countries in the world. Things like remembering to buy vanilla; returning phone calls from my very best friends unless I'm behind the wheel; but I can never find my hands-free wire so there goes that. Things like sending cards on time; sending thank-you notes like, ever; and waiting for things to go on sale. Things like making it to the Lilly warehouse sale or the Boden warehouse sale or actually getting on line and buying things I like catalogues before they are out of stock in my preferred color and size. Things like who the Kardashians are and why they are newsworthy in the first place. Things like who is replacing Regis. Boo-boos, however, are another story. Boo-boos and bedtime stories are my specialty. And I have to believe that there are plenty of other moms like me out there. Thank goodness. My only discrepancy is that I DO wait for things to go on sale. :)

Jellystone Park: Quarryvile, PA

We drove 30 minutes away, deep into Amish country, to "camp" in Jellystone Park in Quarryville, PA. Here's the website. Check it out. It's pretty sweet:

http://www.jellystonepa.com/

"Camp" belongs in parenthesis because it's not REAL camping where you are in the wilderness with no facilities. We used to camp this way when Brian was in grad school.

This was like a mini Splashtown with camping sites/cabins surrounding it. We could have opted for an air conditioned cabin with a flat screen TV, DVD player, refrigerator, and microwave.

But Brian told me, "We're not weak. Get the campsite for the tent."

We made hobo pies and camped Friday night. We probably had the minimalist's campsite. All we had up was a tent and 3 camping chairs.

It was pretty hot but we slept fine in our tents. Michael, LOVED it. Of course. In the morning, we were woken up at 6:00am by rain. After it finished 5 minutes later, we made breakfast and then played Ticket to Ride with the Irwins in their cabin.

After this, we played on the Jumping Pillow (chk out the website for pictures!). It's like a HUGE blow up pillow that is basically a trampoline. It had a sign, "Play at your Own Risk." Makes an anxious mother like myself a bit nervous!

But Michael played and had a great time!

Then, waterpark time. I.LOVE.WATERPARKS.

And this one had really fun slides, water guns, and water canons. It was awesome!

Mini golf, then lunch, then more waterpark time, and then dinner with the 2 homegroups we went with.

After dinner, we got set up go watch Yogi Bear on their outdoor movie screen, but lightning and thunder were starting to set in so that got cancelled.

Brian and I looked at each other and decided to quit while we were ahead. Packed up our tent and 3 camping chairs in the dark and went home! We paid for that last night's stay, but lightening storms really freak me out. Glad we did because it POURED when we got home!

Would you have packed up and stayed the last night because you paid for it? Or would you have high tailed it out of there?!?!

Then went to church and were glad we made it Pentecost Sunday! Ran into the Chans and Abbey came over for lunch and a round of the Bean game (Bohnanza!)

Busy weekend - but super fun.

Love,

P

Freezer Cooking

Money Saving Mom likes to make a lot of meals all at once and freeze them for later. She does it efficiently so that she can make 3-4 meals worth of food in 1-2 hours and then freeze it.

I'm not such a big fan of freezing things because sometimes, it DOES taste a LITTLE different. But honestly, I'm always willing to try new things.

She posted about this woman who made 46 meals in 4 hours and froze it all. Incredible and ridiculous all at the same time. My kind of insanity:

http://aturtleslifeforme.blogspot.com/2011/06/freezer-meals-on-cheap.html

Michael's being INCREDIBLE today. He's listening when I am asking him to, patient with me when I need to get things done and no whining. He's getting 30 minutes of Zelda today as a reward! And he told me, "I'm going to take a long nap!"

O.M.G.

It's like the baby lottery (when they sleep for much longer than you expect for about a week). Except this is the preschoolers lottery and it might only last a day.

Strasburg

We've been getting a lot of heat about visiting Strasburg, PA - what with its old trains and all:
And Amish and all:

First up, we rode the old Strasburg train - it's no TGV/ICE, but Michael liked it:

It was fun for like 15 minutes. But after 15 minutes of going 10 mph - we were wondering when the ride was going to be over. :)

In the mean time, I took some pictures, of course:

Michael is a HUGE fan of these self-powered trains:
Then, we popped over to the #2 attraction in Strasburg, according to tripadvisor. The Pennsylvania Railroad Museum:
Lots of trains indoors - some of which we could look in, some of which we could not. I'm not sure it was such a hit with us, but we can now say we saw it.

Michael was really interested in the miniature train display they had. So in reality, we should have taken him to the #4 attraction in Strasburg, the Choo Choo Barn. It's got LOTS of miniature train displays and I suggested taking Michael there next.

But Brian looked at me and said, "I think that sounds like a nice MOMMY and Michael activity." OK. It's right by the outlet mall. :)

Michael enjoyed Putt Putt golf the most in Strasburg, PA:

SO we could have just stayed nearby us and played putt putt. :)

That was what we did on Sunday during Memorial Day Weekend. We spent Saturday and Monday working around the house. It takes a lot of work to maintain our yard and Brian's garden!

What did you guys do for Memorial Day Weekend?

Some Nice Things About Michael

To balance out my previous post about Michael's bad week, I am going to post a bit about what Michael IS doing right. Hope this doesn't come across as bragging!

It's so bizarre to look at the little person he is and wonder if he's going to end up ok. You never know what life experiences/people/pressures will come their way and change who you see now, as a child. All you can do is pray for them and do your best as a parent.

• Michael can add and subtract. He can write his numbers. They're not perfect, but they are legible.
• Michael cannot read - but he is starting to understand phonics and can recognize some words.
• He can do most of the Pre-K going into Kindergarten workbooks and some of the Kindergarten workbooks. But no, we are not skipping him ahead. Brian and I were both older kids in our years and we liked it. And for those of you who know Michael - his social skills really do need another year in Preschool before advancing to real school.
• Michael can almost play on beat at the piano and knows the value of whole notes, half notes, and quarter notes and can play them correctly when reading a song.
• He is pretty decent at Super Mario Brothers, Mario Kart, and Hot Wheels Track Attack.
• He wants Donkey Kong so so so so badly on Wii for his birthday.
• He seems to need attention. A LOT.
• He can play games designated for ages 6+ and up. He can play Carcassonne and that is designated for 10 years and up.
• He plays chess and knows what each piece can do - and to be honest, I'm such a bad chess player that it won't be long before he's beating me.
• He is not terribly social in large groups. Not surprising considering his parents.
• He has started to make some friends and can play with other kids. So that's good!
• No surprise - he loves Magnums
• Michael loves to bowl.

I think that's enough for now. We are so very proud to see him learning, growing, and having fun. We love his zest for life, gaming, and doing things as a family. We hope that never changes.

P

Michael's Spring Sing

Michael had his Spring Sing last Thursday. Here are the clips we came up with.

I'm sure his school was SO excited to have an Asian person do this for the program this year:

A clip to demonstrate his Besancon musical genius:

And for those who feel like they have a lot of stamina:

Michael wanted to post on the blog as well. Here is his take on the evening:

jfjlhjjodfohnfdjkkgvdfxlikbgbdhbnjggushgfhhdjkfhfjdcjjcjspojncidddddddddddoifjmvmkkfmdx

cmkjvojfiojjjjjjjjj

jjlfnjbkgkoffgjijjoidfjjifiohuifgdhughiugiufhdiughjjoijdivdfihgbskfhdoigjfiijgjihfjhbbfbhgdujdh

jfvvhgvghdvuhdgbfguugfgdhjgfgfugsggyudgsuydufyggfguggdgfysgdgyfytsggtydgfyytgfytdyggyfy

ttdtdytgjhfbbmndjfjhhvhjchhjhgfghumnmjjnvnkjdjbjhjdsgbhdhhsdhhszhsdtsgayughcgdgtdsthfd

dgyytfsftdftzhcvbuugxchgc8uszhiuddbuohfuhiuglikfgfgjinnvncinjggdnnfuibf hugbghuub njfhdbh

jdfjf8hudgfjxiocjidfhuchuhfhudifnndifhddgufguhbuyhiuhf

Love to all,

P

Bargains! Calling Digital Scrapbookers

For those who knew me before Michael, you know I scrapbooked.

I thought I'd never go digital, but I am definitely there. I love photobooks (My Publisher specifically), and I love my pro lab's ultra slick fancyschmancy photo books and photo albums (yes, there is a big difference!).

BUT - the point of this post is to post a Bargain! This is the 2nd of my blog series, to post the bargains I come across. Not moneysavingmom style, but just every now and then!

If you are in the market for cool digital papers/album templates/etc, check out:

http://sassy-designs.net/shop

Right now, all of the items in the store are marked down to $1. AND, couple that with their birthday promotion code, you get 75% off your entire purchase.

So basically, I got about 95% off my purchase today. I paid $3.20 for a total retail value of well over $54.

This is a website that supplies digital papers mainly to photographers (for album/card design). However anyone can order. You just need Photoshop and knowledge on how to use it!

Bon soldes!

P

May Scripture Memory Verse

I'm not sure if I can post bi-monthly on this, but I will try!

Romans 12:12, NIV

"Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer."

Whew. I did it. Not only was it pretty parallel in structure, but the verse number and chapter number are exactly the same.

Until June!

P

Blog Series

Money Saving Mom recently posted a series on improving your blog. One of the suggestions was changing up your blog posts. The same one after the same one gets dull. She suggested having different blog series that you post about helps!

So I'm starting with:

Scripture Memory Verse

At the retreat I went to back in the spring, one of the talks suggested memorizing scripture twice a month. On the 1st and 15th, pick one verse, and memorize it. I get reminders to do it.

So I thought, why not post it on my blog? Let's see how me, as an undisciplined person, can really do this!

Michael's Accountability Chart

So Michael got 2 stickers/stars at school for good behavior. Kylee got 2 as well. I asked him if he behaved because he wanted to or because Kylee was behaving, and he told me HE wanted to behave - so I hope that's true!

YEA!

I wanted to share the accountability chart up there not because I feel like I am an amazing parent. That's far from the truth! But to share something that has worked for - oh, I don't know - 48 hours. :)

This chart developed from bottom to top. I started by using the bottom to preserve space on the board. Then, seeing how effective it was, I decided to keep going. I'll go into each in detail.

ADDRESSING DISOBEDIENCE

The last row of 3 square boxes are his "strikes" for the day. And "Wild Kratts" on the right is his "prize." It is his favorite show in PBS. He likes it more than Abbey. THAT'S saying somethin'.

Every time he is purposefully disobedient, is disrespectful to us (spitting/hitting/attitude), or argues with us about something we are not 'discussing' - he gets an X.

After 3 'X's (strikes), he's out. No Wild Kratts for the day.

ADDRESSING SCREEN TIME

The 2nd row of 4 square boxes represents his screen time. Each box represents 30 minutes. Every time he uses up 30 minutes of Wii/computer/TV, he gets a check. Once all 4 boxes are filled, do not ask me anymore for any Wii/computer/TV. You are done for the day.

POSITIVE INCENTIVES

The set of 8 square boxes represents workbook sheets completed. THIS I threw in for fun. I figured Michael loves to do workbooks so much that he should get a little treat for enjoying activities which foster learning and brain development.

I asked him how many workbook sheets he thinks he should finish to get a prize - and he yelled out "EIGHT!" Why, ok. I was thinking more like 5, but 8 is great.

This time, his prize is candy. But I told him the prize can change all the time. It could be going to get ice cream, or seeing a movie, or staying up an extra 30 minutes one night.

He can take as long as he like to fill up the squares. The longer he takes to fill out the squares, the longer he'll have to wait for his prize!

36 Days

Part of the fun initiative. 36 days until Cars 2 comes to theaters. We are doing a countdown!

WILL THIS WORK?

I have absolutely no idea. But I do know, this is a system that I, as a pretty undisciplined person, can keep up with. I've done it for 2 days now and it's working out well for me. I "reset" whatever squares need to reset in the morning with Michael.

Best part? We go through the day knowing what is expected of us, and the prizes/punishments are clearly spelled out.

I don't have to yell, feel upset and impatient, frustrated with my little 4 yr old and his attitude at times. I just ask him when we are nearing a bad place, "Michael, is this worth an X? Because you are on your way. It is your decision what you want to do."

So I thought I'd share in case anyone thought it might be useful. I'll give an update in a couple of weeks to see if it is!

Milburn Farms Egg Hunt

Ne need to check to see if you are on page 1 of this blog. I AM that late in blogging this and you ARE on the most recent entry for today, May 18.

On April 21, one of the few sunny days we had before Easter, I took Michael to Milburn for an egg hunt. They did not disappoint:

Egg hunts every half hour for the first 4 hours of the day.

In the mean time, lots of Easter corn hole for Michael:

Then lineup for the whistle:
To pick up empty plastic eggs. Michael was pretty saddened that there were no treats in the eggs:

Inspecting loot:
Then, we played on the farm. We love playing on the farm! We fed goats; we made a colored sand scooby doo; we played in the sandbox for a long time.

**Which leads me to a rant. I miss sandboxes. MICHAEL misses sandboxes. There was always sandboxes at the parks in Paris (Square Rene Legall's was HUGE). Here, not so much.**

Then, Michael decided to try his hand at this:

Perfect.

Afterwards, Michael insisted on lunch in the freezing cold. He ordered himself a grilled cheese sandwich with tomato soup, which he gobbled all up.

It was a fun morning for us! After that, we met up for a playdate at Ashton/Ryan's house in Newark.

And where are the DC pictures?!?! I've edited about half of them. The other half, I am having trouble pinpointing exactly what I want them to look like. So I have a bit of photoshop block and that's why it's taking so long.

Slideshow

Et voila - a slideshow from the Longwood Gardens when I took Michael a couple of weeks back!

Do not click on the icon for "enlarge to full screen." The resolution is absolutely awful and you can tell more of what is going on with the pictures on the smaller screened version of it:

BAAAAD Michael

You know that angelic post of him that I just did. That is SO not what life has been like lately around here.

Just yesterday alone, Michael:

• Threw his dinosaur at me when we got to McDonald's (at his request of course)
• Hit his younger than him friend Ryan and caused him to cry.
• Rammed a car into his older than him friend and caused him to cry.
• Ran completely far away from me at the mall and I had to YELL at him to come back. I was THAT mom.
• Came home and sprayed water all over his Dad while he was wearing his dry clean only work clothes.

This all coupled with the fact that he's been not listening to his teacher at school and was placed in time out for making "bad choices" with this new little girl he's been hanging out with named Kylee (which I have found out regularly does not get a sticker for being well behaved). Michael has not gotten a good sticker for good behavior the last 3 days he's been to school.

Reactions to above bullets:

• Got back in the car and did not have lunch at McDonalds, but where I wanted to go.
• Got put in time out for hitting.
• Got put in time out for not being kind.
• Had to hold my hand the rest of the time we were in the mall and could not run around with his friends if he could not behave himself, stay close, and listen. No freedom for you buddy.
• Got sent to his room.

We were supposed to go see Rio today at the movies, but after his behavior at school, that was cancelled. And I told him there would be no Wii, no computer games, no TV until he went back to having good behavior at school and getting a sticker on his chart for doing so.

SIGH.

All this is definitely in correlation to 2 things: 1) Lack of sleep - he's been going to bed some nights at 10pm (You can thank Brian for that) and he hasn't been getting regular naps (you can thank Mom for that). 2) Increase in "screen" time - I've been a bit lax about TV/Computer games on weekdays.

All this definitely compounds to the behavior above. And while it is no excuse for it, we still discipline regardless.

Which brings me back to having to raise an accountable person now. And teaching him to choose his friends correctly. He asked to have Kylee over today and I said, most certainly not. And that he should be a good influence and example by behaving and not partaking in disobeying.

He had a stern lecture over all of this. I realize at 4.5, it seems a bit young, but I remember my parents being strict and hard on me - with high expectations of my behavior, manners, and school. I remember getting lectures about not "losing face" and making them look badly or embarrassing them. I remember getting into big trouble in public and having to come home and get on my knees and apologize for my disappointing behavior. And do I look back at that with disdain? Absolutely not. I look back at that and am glad my parents made me accountable and instilled a precedent for acceptable behavior.

I instill the same in Michael and if that's being "hard-assed," then so be it. Do I still love on him? Absolutely. Do I still spend time with him doing things he enjoys? Yes! I'm not taking away family fun time activities (games/etc) - I am taking away activities that aren't that beneficial to begin with and apparently are attributing to his poor behavior.

SIGH.

Longwood Gardens - Again

I am intending to put up a slideshow of the Longwood Gardens in the spring. Until I get it all together, I've been proofing. Here's the latest:

My little guy is just not so little any more!

Love,

P

Grocery Shopping and Hallmark

Money Saving Mom always posts her grocery shopping finds every week along with how much she spent on it. I decided to do the same this weekend since I got to go grocery shopping without Michael today:

TOTAL: 55.80

I'm sure in Texas, I would have netted a lot more for $55.80, but for up here in the NE - it's not a bad showing there! If you are wondering what is on the list:

Bananas

Rhubarb

Mushrooms

2 lbs of Strawberries

Apples

Kiwi

Blueberries

Mediterranean Olives

2 packages of hotdogs

A sunday paper

2 mayonnaises

1 swanson beef broth

skimpy butter (splurge, not on sale but Michael wants to make cookies today so there it is)

Dozen eggs (could have bought 2 dozen eggs for the price of that 1, but the ones on sale were out and we needed eggs for said cookies)

Bag of steamfresh mixed vegetables

Bag of steamfresh brown/wild rice with broccoli/carrots

24 frigo cheese sticks

2 roaster chickens (each 7 lbs)

12 pack of apple juice

2 packs of Materne squeezable applesauces (French and one of Michael's favorites)

Hallmark is next to my grocery store, so I popped in there.

I bought this game for Michael - an African animal quiz game along with a whole tube full of little African animals to play around with on the ground:
I also purchased 1 card to celebrate 1st communion, 1 small gift sac, Melissa and Doug's wooden fruit cutting tray, 5 Christian themed cards of various sentiments (birthday/sympathy/friendship), and a set of 10 thank you cards.

Grand total? $22 - AFTER taxes. Retail cost: $62

I was pretty proud of my deal finding. Brian thought that NO money should have been spent in the first place. Party pooper.

Target has some great grocery deals for my area this week. Milk at $2.96 (astronomically cheap for here - my milk normally costs me $4 a gallon). Plus some great $5 gift card deals, which when partnered with coupons basically ends up with some pretty great deals on personal care items. You can pretty much bet, I pay between $0.00 to $1 for each of our toiletries. Free for suave branded stuff - $1 for Aveeno/fancier brand stuff.

I don't think I have talked about how much I love couponing. It is really fun getting great deals on items I actually used. Like this week, I'll be getting 3 rolls of scotch tape for free at Walgreens when I partner printed coupons from 3M with the Walgreen coupons this week.

Money Saving Mom has changed my life and my spending habits and reintroduced to me the fact that I can get great deals on stuff and save a ton of money. :)

All - to buy paint for our rooms, nightstands, plants for the outside/etc. Oh yes - to pay for all the grownup things we need - like our water neutralization tank that busted. NICE.

How much are basic items in your area? Like a gallon of milk, a loaf of bread, a dozen eggs, 1 avocado, 2 lbs of strawberries, cost of bananas per lb. Let's see who answers this question!!!

Love,

P

I *heart* Longwood Gardens

I'm a big 'ole fan of the Longwood Gardens:

Spring is amazing there!

Pictures with No People

All of these pictures were taken on my deck - it gets a lot of use in the fall/spring times!

First up, Mother's Day! I had a great one! Went to church, had their brunch, was driven to Sephora to get face stuff I needed, then to Everything but the Kitchen Sink (closed, HRMPH), then Gateway nursery, then home to play baseball, piddle, organize myself for the week, then Brian made me this for dinner:

I'm a steak girl. It was DELICIOUS. Michael ate all of his sweet potatoes and squashes but he did not get filet mignon.

Next up, just pictures of things around my deck. I did a major rearrange today - because it is gorgeous outside and our deck/house needs some sprucing up.

Planted these guys myself! I love to garden florals. Absolutely shocking to me.

Planted these petunias too! Got the combo idea from Gateway garden center last weekend!

Spring has definitely sprung at the Besancon house!

Love,

P

Still Chugging Away

It takes a long time for me to proof things. First, there's the finding of the time to sit down at the computer. Michael's been taking 45 minute naps as of late = no time to proof then. But the real reason is because I'm pretty lazy. Oh yes, and I've been busy with this resale I'm helping to organize that is happening this Saturday.

But yes, still chugging away.

Michael at the Lincoln Memorial

Before the Family Picture

We always see the "good" family pictures on blogs. Here's what happened before our family picture at Camden Yards.

Mommy: "Michael, I am DONE asking nicely. Get over here for a picture."

Michael in his Head: "FiNE. I will come over there but I won't smile AND I'm going to put my mitt over my face."