Ridiculous & Adorable

Friday was "Graduation Day" for both of the boys. Ian has completed kindergarten and Nathan finished preschool. Such a milestone! I did not really appreciate having to sit through two ridiculous graduation ceremonies, but they looked SO adorable in their caps and gowns that I forgave them.

Earning My Keep

Because I just didn't have enough to do (please note the sarcasm here) I thought it would be a great time to re-seed the backyard and see if we can actually grow some healthy grass. During the 3.5 hours the boys were in school on Friday morning I managed to swing by Starbucks, fertilize and seed the lawn, run to Home Depot to trade out one of the bags of seed, spread bags of compost over the sandy sections of the yard and then cover the super bare sections of lawn with the four huge bags of peat moss. Oh, and I was able to squeeze in a quick shower and clothing change before picking the boys up from school. Most productive 3.5 hours ever.

Here are a few "Before" pictures of our weeds and sand.






Ryan--Here you can see the compost I spread out to help feed the seed since sand doesn't contain nutrients. Who knew? Ha! I miss California & Washington and having DIRT in the yard.


The peat moss is spread over all the bare sections of the yard. This stuff is essential with our crazy weather. Highs of 70 one day and 89 the next. I wish we had a sprinkler system because I hate watering twice a day by hand and/or moving a sprinkler around. Wonder how much that would cost to install...


Here we are 8 days later. Really, 7 days later since I didn't water that first day. I just wish we didn't have to wait until mid-July before applying Weed & Feed. The weeds are going to drive me crazy! Tomorrow I'm going to try to pull the dandelions. Wonder how far I'll get before I give up.


See, new grass! I'm very proud. :)

FRG Halfway Party

This past weekend we celebrated reaching (and surpassing) the halfway point of our current deployment with a picnic and treasure hunt. It was a beautiful Saturday and we were happy to spend it with so many command families. Here are a few pictures of the boys and I having a great time.

Days 46-50

Did you think I forgot about the 365 Challenge? I did try to forget, but here I am posting daily pictures (for you, Ryan).

Day 46: The boys doing what they do best: eating. Looks like slow cooker ravioli and sausage, salad and bread. Yum! We are lucky to have boys that love to eat.


Day 47: Nathan loves his Legos from Aunt Evie and Uncle Rich. They received a huge box of Legos for Christmas which prompted Daddy to dig out his old childhood Legos as well. The boys now play with Legos at least 5 days each week.


Day 48: How do I attempt to maintain some sanity during deployment? I invite my girl friends over as often as possible (since I can rarely leave the house at night myself). Tonight's theme: CHOCOLATE!!! I did not try that chocolate wine you see pictured here...too scary. I did, however, buy a bunch of double chocolate cake donuts from Dunkin Donuts!


Day 49: Nathan is completing his homework first thing in the morning. He doesn't consistently have homework so I often forget to check his folder at night. He looks so cute in his jammies.


Day 50: Broken siding because something must constantly break during deployment. We had this section of siding repaired shortly before Ryan left and now it's coming lose again. (It's lose AGAIN in case anyone is keeping track. It's driving me CRAZY.)