TDF: When we play a board game in the afternoon sun.

Why all the feet pictures?

More about tour de feet here.

TDF: When Jace takes a potty break in Lowes.

Do you think that I should take this as an indication that it's time to start potty training my boy? 

Or that my kids might be starting to feel a little too comfortable in the home improvement stores?

P.S.
Happy, happy birthday do the best mom ever.
Love you mom!

Why all the feet pictures?

More about tour de feet here.

TDF: When Jace gets lost in Home Depot

Where'd Jace go?

 Oh, there he is. . .

Why all the feet pictures?

More about tour de feet here.

TDF: When Project Master Bathroom takes command.

I burnt the French bread for last night's dinner.  You know that thin line between toasted perfectly golden brown and unrecognizably broiled crispy black? I crossed it.

And, the day before that I managed to incinerate a bag of microwave popcorn. Seriously, popcorn reduced to smoldering ashes. My house still has a faint 'good crap, who burnt the popcorn' smell. And I don't think my microwave {or my confidence in my ability to microwave popcorn} will ever be the same.

And that, with a huge ole' serving of chaos and lack of sleep, pretty much sums up my life since my last tour de feet post.

My little sister, Katie, moved into our guest bedroom. Which explains all the chaos and neglectful cooking woes.

Oh, I'm just kidding.

Kate's lived with us numerous times before so we've worked out all the kinks and it's always fun to have her around. Plus my kids are about seventy-two levels of excited about our new semi-permanent house guest; specifically a semi-permanent house guest that buys them milkshakes and treats them to the gas station candy aisle upon their request. It's just like the sweet nectar of awesomeness is living in our guest bedroom.

Except for that sweet nectar of awesomeness likes to take an occasional shower. And that's where things get a little problematic.

Because, do you remember how we started Project: Master Bathroom? Like, forever ago. And then, do you remember, how Project: Master Bathroom turned into Project: I'd much rather stay up all night and watch Lost. And then Project: It's kind of nice to only have two toilets to clean, so we will work on the bathroom a little here and a little there but no rush on getting that third toilet back up and running. And then Project: If you close your eyes when you walk into the Master Bedroom it's just like that HUGE UNFINSHED HOLE FORMALLY KNOWN AS THE BATHROOM doesn't even exist.

And that worked. For a while.

And then Kate asked if she could move in.  And so Spence and I decided that it was high time that we took back claim on what remained of our master bedroom and bathroom so our new roommate could actually use the guest bedroom and bathroom. It just made sense.

So with that we blew the sheetrock dust of Project: Master Bathroom and since then we have done nothing else.

Spencer took most of last week off work. We tiled. And designed. And Home Depoted. And sheetrocked. And grouted. And barely slept. And burnt microwave popcorn. And left the house and all of its contents at the children's immediate disposal. It was like the tale of an amateur construction team meets crazy. Sorry you missed it.

And needless to say tour de feet went out the window with my sanity. And the burnt French bread.

And although Project: Master Bathroom is no where near completion we've made progress. We have a toilet, and a floor, and a bathtub, and a shower. And get this . . . the other night I came upstairs to find Spencer cleaning the garage out of our bedroom. There he was, shining like a bright beacon of cleanliness and delight, picking up tools to expose what used to be our bedroom floor. It might have been my favorite part of the entire week. And now we are back to sleeping in our very own bedroom. And earlier this evening the kids took a bath in the new bathtub. And look, I'm even posting tour de feet pictures.

Everything's back to normal. Whatever that is.

P.S.

No, I don't always where flip-flops when we do construction work.

Sometimes I go barefoot.

Why all the feet pictures?

More about tour de feet here.

TDF: When right hand goes on yellow

Why all the feet pictures?

More about tour de feet here.

TDF: When she rides her bike sans training wheels.

And a few more pictures, because I'm a proud mama.

And can I just add that I'm glad I was on 'push Jace in the stroller slash camera' duty and not 'run around the neighborhood next to a reckless four year old on a two wheeler bike' duty. Because seriously, EXHAUSTING!

Why all the feet pictures?

More about tour de feet here.

TDF: When it’s the weekend.

TDF: When we meet again {10 years later}.

TDF: When we go to grandpa's farm.

TDF: When we take an afternoon walk.

TDF: When mom crosses her arm, her legs, her toes?

TDF: When it's a Sunday afternoon with cousins.

TDF: When we arrive back home and spray each other with water.

Why all the feet pictures?
More about tour de feet here.

TDF: When Carl joins reading hour

And then Carl {the puppet} told Brynlee that she was so good at coloring that she should be an artist when she got bigger.

So Bryn came home and practiced and practiced and practiced.

Because nobody wants to be known as the kid that let Carl down.

TDF: When I play the catch-up game

Turns out I've fallen a tad behind on posting tour de feet pictures.
It's kinda like laundry.
You rest for only a minute and it's all piled up again. 
But I'm getting caught up riiiggghhhttt now.

Why all the feet pictures?

More about tour de feet here.

TDF: When the toy she wants is on the very, VERY top shelf.

Wednesday, August 11^th

Why all the feet pictures?

More about tour de feet here.

TDF: When she joins the construction crew.

Tuesday, August 10^th
Spencer is the foreman.
I'm the construction peon.
And Brynlee's on the clean-up crew.
Specifically the removing tile spacers crew.
She thinks it's the best job. Ever. 
And I'm not about to tell her otherwise.

Why all the feet pictures?

More about tour de feet here.

TDF: When we spend the day at Lagoon.

Monday, August 9^th
When we are driving in the band.

When we are going around, and around, and around and around.

 

P.S.

When we went on Wicked I called dibs on sitting next to Jami.

Because I knew she would swear.

She did.

Twice.

I would have called dibs on sitting by Jessica.

But she wouldn't even ride it.

Chicken!

But if she had, she would have sworn too.

Or passed out.

Maybe even stopped breathing.

Or died.

She quite possibly would have died.

Why all the feet pictures?

More about tour de feet here.

TDF: When he reads books on the couch.

Sunday, August 8^th
A new favorite pastime of my always favorite little boy.

Why all the feet pictures?

More about tour de feet here.

TDF: When it’s the day after the sleepover.

Saturday, August 7^th
When the gang plays Wii first thing in the morning.

And then, when we have Elmer's make our breakfast for us.

Why all the feet pictures?

More about tour de feet here.

TDF: When we are entertained by Peter Pan.

Friday, August 6^th
Sarah and Bryn joined Brynlee and I for the Peter Pan play. 
While Spencer and the boys played Wii and went to ice-cream. 
And then we vowed to do things like this together more often.

And we will.

 Bryn & Brynlee at Peter Pan

Why all the feet pictures?

More about tour de feet here.

TDF: When we all scream for ice-cream.

Today we celebrated Aunt Elizabeth, Aunt Emily, Maddie, one-year old Zayne, and my Grandpa B's birthday with a huge scoop of Farr's Playdough ice-cream on a cone.

And even though none of the birthday guests were actually in attendance, or even knew we were celebrating, the grass was green, the sun was shining and the ice-cream drippies were bountiful.

And then, to top it off, my mom and little sis gifted me a bag of dried mangos and berries for watching their kiddos while they spent the day shopping.

Ice-cream and dried fruit.  That's what great days are made of.

Three cheers for the August 4^th and 5^th Birthday clan

{and my, there's a whole lot of you}.

Birthday wishes from us to you!

Why all the feet pictures?

More about tour de feet here.

TDF: When we dine on lunch in the park.

Why all the feet pictures? 

More about tour de feet here.

P.S. Sometimes I pay people large sums of hard earned cash if they will, in turn, write nice things about me on their blog. It does wonders for the self-esteem and makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. I budget it under money that would otherwise be spent on therapy. The checks in the mail, Miranda. Thanks for upholding your side of the bargain.

And just for the record, the two of us are planning a reunion of sorts for some of my absolute favorite people. And I'm so excited to reunion with them. LIKE REALLY EXCITED. I'll be posting more about it later. Or niner. Or, you know, whenever I get around to it.

{Did I just catch a niner in there?}

Happy Thursday, my friends.  Hope it's smashing.

TDF: When she takes lessons of the swimming sort.

Swimming Lessons.
Session Two. Day Two.
Blows bubbles. Goes under water.
And get this, no tears.
She's practically Michael Phelps.

TDF: When we whip up a batch of play-doh.

We're using a play-doh recipe that came courtesy of Miss Karalynn. She gave it to me back when I called for assistance on aisle number play-doh, and I have used it faithfully ever sense.

Homemade Play-Doh
2 c flour
1/2 c salt
1 tablespoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon oil
2 c boiling water
food coloring

Mix the food coloring in with the water then pour over remaining ingredients.

And because I love my daughter, per Karalynn's suggestion, I occasionally add glitter. You should too.

Oh, and see Brynlee's shoelaces in the tour de feet picture. She picked those neon baby's out yesterday at the dollar store.

{If I were to write a book on parenting there would be a chapter completely devoted to dollar store bribery. It would follow the chapter about spelling words mid conversation to keep the dialogue private and how to properly skip 4 pages at a time when your child picks out THE LONGEST BOOK EVER before bedtime}.

Anyway, she saw them and was overcome with all the hot pink and neon yellow excitement.

PLLLLEEEEAAASE OH PLEASE CAN I GET THESE MOM!? THESE ARE THE PRETTIEST SHOE SLICES I HAVE EVER SEEN. CAN I GET THESE? CAN I GET THESE! CAN I PLLLLLEEEEAAASSSEEE HAVE THESE SHOE SLICES?  MOM, LOOK AT THE PINK FLOWERS.  THERE PINK.  PPPLLLLEEEEEAAAASSSEEE CAN I GET THESE.

And since I'm almost positive that I had some shoes laces (pronounced: shoe slices) almost exactly like that weaved in my LA Gears when I was growing up, I agreed.  But only after I made her picky swear that she would NOT use a blow dryer, a curling iron and an entire bottle of Rave hairspray to wing out the side of her hair when we got home. 

And she was like, "Okay awesome dude, thanks for being so gnarly.  My shoes are totally going to be killer to the max." 

And I was like, "What-EVER!  Take a chill pill, darling." 

And she's worn them proudly ever sense.

TDF: When he was flying helicopters in his diaper.

I

a little bit about the tour de feet here.

and a little disclaimer about my photography skills here. 

and can you believe its already August.  Geez.