Bird Watching

We have birds in our back yard. Many, MANY birds. Their chirping is the soundtrack to my day, starting in the unholy hours of the morning when the sun begins to lighten the sky. They have recently been feasting on the grass seed we laid down in the back yard in our pathetic attempts to resurrect the lawn.

My girls are love the birdies and like to watch them at their antics and like to "help" me chase them off the grass. One recent afternoon, while their dad and I toiled away on the yard, the girls set up shop and it was pretty darn cute.

This last one was my favorite!

Penguin Palooza!

Turning eight is a big deal at our house, so I pull out all the stops and go for it.

Since Little Sis loves penguins, we went penguin crazy and it was a blast!

Invitations

Let the celebration commence!

We played musical "icebergs", but instead of being out, our little penguins had to hop on another iceberg with their buddies. By the end there was a lot of hugging and giggling in our frozen ocean!

We went "ice fishing" for swedish fish! Yummy!

We even had a "snowball fight" (with rolled up socks), and waddle races too!

Penguin cookie craft!

It's amazing what you can do with Thin Mints, Oreos, M & Ms and some frosting "glue."

Penguin cutie!

I made these out of fondant!

Cake time!

Chocolate "iceberg" cake and 8 little penguins for our birthday girl!

Don't waddle off without your goodie bag!

It was so much fun!

Happy Birthday Little Sis!

Welcome to the Gun Show!

Rather than spend a ton of money going to the gym every day, I decided it would be WAY more fun to build muscles working on my yard. Because dirt and sweat are SOOOOOO attractive, you know.

But, enough about me! Let's see that yard! Woo woo!

This was one of my more brilliant ideas. I needed to mix up dirt for my roses I was planting. Lacking a large wheelbarrow or some such item, I dragged the slide over and used it instead! Genius! (I'm so humble...)

Grow babies! Grow! (My David Austin roses I got for my birthday)

See that trench? You know the one where he's dumping concrete? Yeah. I dug that. By myself. It goes all around the back of the yard. Don't mess with Mama!
Oh, did I mention that I laid the whole stone border myself? Yep. I sure did! Who needs a fancy gym membership when you can lug around concrete, stones, and spend hours crouching over a trench on your knees?!

Leveling the yard. What a good helper she is!

So, yeah, they're out of order.

It's like a puzzle for you to solve.

I want to make sure your brains stay active.

I'm a giver like that.

Girl Scouts Turn 100!

Early in March we attended the Birthday Extravaganza for the Girl Scouts 100th birthday. My favorite part was seeing all the memorabilia from past decades, particularly the old Girl Scout and Girl Guide uniforms, patches, manuals, pins, and cookie box designs. Super cool to see all of that and get a sense of the history of the Girl Scouts. As a child of the 80s it was fun to wander through that booth and show my girls things they have never seen, but were everyday for me: records and record players, the old banana shaped phone with a cord attached to the wall, the old Apple Macintosh computer that was little bigger than a shoe box with a tiny black and white screen, and don't forget the jelly bracelets & shoes with the super sculpted hair sprayed within an inch of its' life. Good times.

Congrats, Girl Scouts!

The Spoils of Age

As you can see, birthdays have their rewards.

Mwahahahaha!

P.S. My undying gratitude for those who provided all the sparkly, chocolatey, booky, and musical goodness. May the birthday fairies visit you with similar spoils of delight!

March Madness

Welcome to March Madness at the Weitzel House!

Insert something here about the glory of triumph and the majesty and physical prowess on display, blah blah blah. Oh, and by the way, I'm not talking about basketball here, People.

In the last month we:

Celebrated Girl Scouts turning 100!

Had two birthdays, plus various extended family member birthdays

Threw a legendary birthday party

Baptized the youngest child

Landscaped

Cleaned house

Made a comforter and various party accessories

Enjoyed having family in town for the Epic Weekend of Celebration

Lost my mind....you knew that already though, right? RIGHT?!?

So, to recap: glory, majesty, physical prowess, etc.

Fine. I'll stick to posting pictures.