A fun park and some pretty stuff.

Part 1: A fun park

I took the kids to Settlers Park in Meridian on Saturday, May 14th. I'd heard of it many times, but never made it out there until last month. I took Oliver there one day while the girls were at school, and we liked it so much that we wanted to take them to check it out as soon as possible! It's really spacious and there is a lot to do. It even has a splash park for the warmer months.


What a bright, sunshiny day it was. Here's one of my own personal rays of sunshine.


And here are two more.

Cora and Jane had fun monkeying around.


"Help! I need somebody."


The park has an assortment of giant percussion instruments.



It's a fine way for kids to channel the musician in themselves.



A beautiful, beautiful duet...



Ollie on the rocks.


Looks like I need to get my boy some sunglasses!


He stayed put for long enough for me to take 2 pictures. Then he saw an airplane overhead.





Don't they look like angels?



Part 2: Pretty stuff

We spotted a rainbow out the window on the 2nd of May. Looks like we're "safe" for at least the rest of this year.

I never get sick of seeing rainbows. They're so pretty.


I previously posted a picture of this flowering shrub in our yard. Among my photo files, I found the picture I should have posted to begin with. I thought I didn't have a better close-up, but I actually did! I hate it when I share pictures and then find/take better ones of the same thing when the topic has changed. Luckily, flowering shrub pictures are never old news. =)
Aren't the tiny blooms absolutely adorable? They have since withered, so that's reason enough to post a photo now.

I'm in love with this bush that's flourishing right outside our back window.

I love the big, fluffy tufts of pale green petals.




I had no way of knowing this bush would yield flowers the same color as the paint I chose for our living room! What a fun coincidence!

Photography by Jane or Oliver

Sometimes Jane takes pictures. She likes to arrange things, pose her stuffed animals, and just snap away.

One day, she made her bed look picture perfect. So, naturally, she took the camera to it.


She did a photo shoot for her turtle and Cora's fox on Easter Sunday in my mom's yard.




She had a great time capturing lots of different poses and backgrounds.



I like this one. Timmy the turtle is super photogenic.



Since Oliver notices me taking pictures of things everywhere, he wants to take pictures of his toys. Below are the more recent ones.

That's part of his foot at the bottom of the shot. =)


He lined up the logs and freight cars so nicely. He's finally learning to move his fingers out of the way of the lens when he pushes the button!



The fingers make another appearance.

And that's it for now.

How Mother's Day Was

It's driving me crazy that I'm so behind on my blog. I don't know what I'm in such a hurry for. It's not like anyone's eagerly waiting to read all about my May.

Anyway, I've broken the month down into a series of smaller, manageable posts.

It just wouldn't be May without Mother's Day.

Cora and Jane gave me the presents they made at school. Cora personalized a coupon book for me.

In case it's not clear enough, this one offers "something easy".

I asked her why she didn't finish writing her name on some of the coupons. I thought maybe she'd gotten distracted or she ran out of time. I assumed incorrectly. She said she only put part of her name on the tasks she didn't really want to do-- the fewer letters, the less excited she felt about completing the "chore". Little stinker!


She's almost completely willing to do "nothing hard". =)


I guess if I want cookies I'll have to bake them myself... ;)



The kids in her class also made little magnetic sticky notepads for their moms.

"Have a nice Mother's Day. That is all I could think of to say." I guess she thought I could use a little ego deflation on my special day.


Janey's a bit more open with her affection, like her mom is.


I think she loves me.


This is the gift bag she decorated.


Her class made these tiles, or coasters. So cute.


I was trying to give in to my wavy hair for the day, so I followed (at least, I think I did) the instructions on the green Garnier Fructis bottle, spraying my hair and twisting it up in small sections. I was supposed to let it dry completely before removing the twisties, but I ran out of time, so I had to unleash it before it had cured properly.

So, it looked more "amazing" in this picture than it did when I let it down and went to church.

End of hair story...


In case anyone was bummed, I have another hair story. I put sponge curlers in Jane's hair the night before Mother's Day. My mom used to put pink sponge curlers in my hair to prep it for Sundays. Not every week, but often enough.

Jane has a ton of hair!

Shoot! The next picture is out of place. There was one more thing that Jane gave me with the present she made. A "complete the sentence" page all about me.

I'm pretty as a WHAT?! Oh... a princess! Heh, heh... *cough*

To top it off, I apparently know 1+1.


Sorry to be so disorganized. Here's Curly Jane.

Not the best portrait of her, but I was going to make us late for church if I didn't unhand the camera and finish getting ready.

Church was nice. The kids all got up to sing the obligatory "Mother, I Love You" with the enormous Primary. Oliver was the most excited, but he didn't sing. He just wanted to march up there and show me how cute he was.
All the moms got a candy bar at the conclusion of sacrament meeting. We didn't stay for classes that day. Oliver desperately needed a nap and I needed to decorate the cake/cupcakes before dinner at my parents'. Plus Ryan was at work. On the way home, the kids and I each ate 1/4 of my Hershey's bar.

I stole the idea for the flowers from a cupcake book. Super easy, very pretty. I love making stuff like this. Jane assembled some of the flowers. She was very eager to help! I would have added more detail, like leaves, but I ran out of time. Plus I suck at leaves.

The petals are diagonally sliced mini marshmallows dipped in colored sugar. I give credit to the authors of the book, What's New, Cupcake?, although I did modify their chrysanthemum instructions to make daisies for some of the cupcakes.

Notice the chocolate jimmies scattered along the edge to resemble pieces of dirt.


Ack! I swear Blogger hates me. Lately, some of the pictures I tell it to post don't show up in the (reverse) order I clicked on them. I don't usually have problems with it, so it's not that I don't know how to do it.

Here's a picture of the back of Jane's curly Mother's Day hair.

And that's all for Mother's Day, 2011: Shannon Edition
I'm happy to be a mom, and I love my kids to bits!

Playtime

Jane and Oliver like to build sprawling train tracks in the front room.




We have a different track configuration going almost every day. Oliver enlists help from any one of us. He just never gets sick of it.
I love his fixation with trains. The other day at the park, he was riding his bike and came to a fork in the dirt path, and he told me, "It's just a small junction!" His voice always rises an octave when he talks about trains (or airplanes or helicopters). He's such an enthusiastic little boy! I'm so glad he's around to give me lots of excuses to smile.


For Ryan's birthday (May 1st) , I got him an indoor remote control helicopter. He's been having a lot of fun with it. I have to cringe every time it crashes into the ceiling and drops to the floor, but it's a surprisingly resilient toy, and still works fine over a month later!



Moral of this post: Don't forget to play!

The Living Room- Before and After...

I finished painting and bedecking the living room. Come on in and see what's new!
Actually, let's revisit the "old" living room pictures first.
(I wish I could figure out how to post my before and after shots side by side for a more intense viewing experience.)

Here we have the outer crust of the room as seen from the front entry of the house. Note the wood-colored trim.

Other side of the wall adjacent to the hall that leads to Cora's door. Got it? =)


The curtains left by the previous homeowners.




Murky brown walls combined with an unappealing pumpkin hue in the kitchen= no thanks!



Yeah, this is the same angle from the first photo. Above is before...


Below is after...

It's all green now! I love it. It's amazing how much difference paint colors make in the whole feel of an area.
I painted the walls surrounding the outside of the room a slightly darker shade (asparagus) than the walls inside the room (celery sprig). I knew I wanted a cheery color, and since the day we moved in I was envisioning green.

I had to paint the other side of the hall a cream color since the existing taupe wall didn't flow very well with the greens. Trust me, it didn't.

I'm bummed my camera doesn't do the actual color justice! I tried in all kinds of light, and none of it yielded what my eyes see in person. Oh well.

I painted the mantel and the woodwork around the half walls white. It all looks so bright and happy now.


After I painted, I found the two floral canvases that looked like they were destined for my living room. They have all the right colors and I really like them. It's difficult to tell, but the leaves on the corners of the art are almost the same as the color of my walls! Also, flowers are the BEST!

I've since taken down the spherical brown vase and put that black flower ball on the right in its place. It looks a little less cluttered that way. I've arranged and rearranged the stuff on the mantel over and over, and I can't decide what looks "right". I guess that's the beauty of mantel decor. It can be changed easily and as often as necessary.

See how much better it looks without the curtains?

I got the table on the left at a consignment store for $30, but it was a worn out wood color, so I spray painted it. It wasn't a super bargain, but it was a good deal to me because it's unique. It has two drop leaves. When they're folded down, the top of the table is a triangle - perfect for holding a very large slice of pizza.

The table on the right had been left for dead in the backyard by the previous owners. I dragged it into the garage some time after we moved in to freshen it up a bit. It was already white, but it had rust on the wrought iron top and the paint was chipped heavily. All I did was sand it down and apply more white.

The coffee table was a freebie, cast off by Ryan's sister.

I repainted the lamps I already had, and got new shades for them.


The walls really don't look yellow in person. It's just my silly camera playing tricks.



I used this idea from a blog. I like the crisp orderliness of a grid. I bought frames from Honk's Only $1 (which I'm certain was NOT the blog author's intention!) , then had to spray paint them black. The mats were included with the frames. =) Then I got an array of coordinating scrapbook paper to fill them with. Very inexpensive, and I like the way the arrangement looks.

That's it! I'm nearly done with the kitchen, then I think I'll take a summer hiatus from all my home decor endeavors!