SPC Week #3 STREET *Mom Taxi*

One of our inevitable duties as Moms is transportation, chauffeur, basically a "mom taxi". This is my van 2-3 days a week around 3 PM, when my 2 little ones and I pick up my son and his friends from school. This picture just looks busy to me, which really describes my life overall as a mom of a 6 year old, 4 year old and a 2 1/2 year old. My oldest on the left is telling me about something his friend did at school, Tessa on the right is talking to Andrew in the back left, Allyson in the middle is doing homework so she can play as soon as she gets home, and Jonah in the back right is spotting flags. Busy but blessed.

See more SPC's here.

just swingin'

This picture needs no commentary.

a fun day and fun finds

One of the things that I love the best about warm weather is that we can all wear flip flops (or as Tessa like to call them, "tick tocks"!) I love not having to dig through their drawer looking for matching socks, and I love not having to tie shoes. They can do flip flops ALL ON THEIR OWN!!! Funny what excites us Mothers, eh?

Tessa didn't quite get hers on correctly, but she tried. (look familiar Amelia?) So we jumped in the van and headed out to find garage sales. The kids love to go garage saling- I load their pockets up with change and they think they are RICH. They find the toy quarter boxes and come home with handfulls of "new" toys that keep them entertained til the next week. I was excited to find a wooden bookshelf/entertainment center for our game room. I had to leave it there for Ryan to pick up in his truck later, but I plan to paint it white and distress it and get some fun baskets for the shelves. I'm happy to have something for all of their media- books, movies, tv, gamecube, etc.
After the great find at the FIRST garage sale, we ventured on to one of my all time favorite places to shop:

The River City Trading Post is so much fun! It's in Jenks, which is supposed to be the Antique Capital of the US (according to their signs). This Trading Post is full of booths rented by individuals that sell their own stuff, new and old, whether it's bags, jewelry, and stationary that they make or old vintage signs, bottles, ceramics, frames, furniture, and lots of antiques that are fun like old wash boards, dishes...just about anything you can think of. I was looking for an old glass window that I want to turn into a picture frame and hang up in my office- I'd seen them there before, but no such luck today. Instead I found these wooden signs:

for my kitches and this:

wooden table for our office/guest room. It needs paint, maybe white but I'm toying with the idea of a distressed pink. But it's perfect for guests to have a few drawers to put stuff in without taking up alot of room- it's an office/bead room/guest room- very multi-purpose!
The kids were very good in the Post, so on the way home we had to stop at the park and let loose:

Tonight our friends are taking us out to say thanks for dog/bird sitting last week. I love date nights!

Operation: Turtle Rescue

I'm so happy to report that the "save the turtles" turtle tradition has been passed on to my kids. Growing up we lived a couple of miles outside of town and came across lots of turtles trying to cross the road. I would make my parents stop so that I could carry the turtle to safety on the other side far away from the road. My parents ALWAYS stopped for me and even started helping me spot them, and quickly it became natural for them to just pull over the second a turtle crossing the road was seen. My Mom started calling me "Turtle Woman".

This morning as the kids and I are scrambling to school (only about 30 minutes late- see post below) I spotted my first turtle crossing of the season. He was on a very busy road and thus far had made it halfway, but I seriously doubt he would have made it the entire way. I pulled over, put on my hazzards and snatched the turtle up, who immediately began to pee all over me (I had TOTALLY forgotten about that- turtles pee- alot!) So I waited for him to finish up his business and then put him in the car on some newspaper on the floor in our van between my kids seats. They talked to him and named him Mr. Turtle (so original, I know.) We took him to Ryan's office where we released him- there's a goose pond, lots of trees, grass, flowers, total turtle heaven. As we were driving away and saying goodbye to Mr. Turtle, I said "we saved the turtle", and my 2 1/2 year old Tessa rewarded me with a great big "good job Mommy!"

an Unsolved Mystery???

I am stumped. This is a picture of my kids this morning at 8:15 am. They were supposed to be at Mother's Day Out at 9:00 am. (We ran a little late this morning!) Why is it that on the mornings my kids HAVE to get up to go to MDO, they sleep in? EVERYTIME. But on the other mornings when we have no where to be and I can sleep in, they get up early ready to start the day at 7 am? This has been going on for 6 years- since my oldest was a baby- he would wake up early on days we had nothing going on, then want to sleep in on days we went to work (he went with me). I am baffled. This happens every single week...is it just my house or does this happen in every family?

OH MY MUDNESS!

It's been raining for over a week now. The boys were ever so niceley playing outside and then I realized why-- they were playing in the new big lake in our backyard. Soaked head to toe in mud. Boys are magnets to mud. Oh, and the younger one, I had to put shorts on him for the picture, he was streaking around the yard in his underwear and shoes. *sigh*