Summer Fun, So Far!

 While I certainly meant to write more in May, it doesn't equate to the level of fun that we had as we closed out a school year and began another summer!  We love summertime so much and here's just a few snapshots of the fun we've been having lately!

Our town had a touch-a-truck celebration a few weekends ago.  Noah had a blast! Avery joined him for a few photos. Michael was present, but preferred to stay right by my side instead of venturing into the vehicles. 

The next day, a local church had a food truck party to kick off their VBS! We made a quick stop at the ice cream truck.

During Michael's last art class of the year, the younger two and I wandered around our downtown and tried out a "new to us" drink place. We ordered a pink flamingo in honor of one of my best friends (whom we call "Flamingo"). I especially appreciated the mantra written on the cup!

An unexpected few days of rain finished out our school days, and Avery enjoyed getting to wear her rain boots and jump in muddy puddles like Peppa Pig!

My mom made a delicious low carb berry pie to ring in Memorial Day!

Yesterday, I took the kiddos to the art studio for its 15th birthday party. All three of them made these really cool water paint portraits. They each chose three colors and squirted them into a tub of water. The art studio associate then dipped a piece of thick paper into the water, and when she pulled it out, the paint design was on the side that was pressed into the water! How cool!  I love these so much. They express the personality of each of my kiddos so well. 

(Avery's, Michael's, Noah's)

As I'm working on school work for myself at various points throughout the day, I try to do something fun with the kids to make sure their summer retains its relaxing atmosphere. This morning, we made a run to Krispy Kreme! 

Oh these kids. I love them ever so much!

Until Next Time, 

Much Love, Reba

Kid Room Cleanout

Like so many others, I am in an organizing mood as of late. Possibly it's due to the new year and the need for things to feel refreshed. More likely it's due to knowing that we plan to sell our home within a couple months and I'm trying to get our spaces ready. (Alternate reading: I'm trying to declutter on a magnanimous level!) 

Aaron & I semi-tackled the pantry last weekend and I'll share pictures of that when I get around to doing more but it wasn't a huge change and I don't have "before" pictures so I'll have to explain how it looked previously. 

Today rather, I'm focusing on how we decluttered our kids' rooms. This was a multi-step process for sure and my hope is that it remains clean at least until pictures are taken for the house sale. 

I don't really have "before" pictures of these spaces because I didn't like to look at the constant clutter, and I struggled to think of how to get toys off the floor.  The boys have lots of buckets and bins in their room that we were encouraging them to put their toys in, but toys were just haphazardly placed in them which meant they might only be half full and not fit on the shelf properly which led to toys randomly being placed all over the floor. Also, everything was all mixed up so if they were searching for something particular, all the toys would end up on the floor and most likely would not be put away. 

In Walmart this past week, I bought two canvas bins (one for boys' room and one for Avery's room). These bins kind of spurred along a new inspiration to organize. 

In Avery's room after Christmas, we bought a red storage bin and put her stuffed animals and baby dolls in it. She has a vintage doll bunkbed and we use it for shelves. She has a few baskets on it (one for her favorite doll's clothes, one for her most played with Barbies, and one for dress up clothes). She also has a couple small plastic bins with lids and I moved the rest of her Barbies into one of these bins, then I put Barbie accessories in the smaller bin. These are stacked in her dress-up basket where she can easily access them and easily put them away.  She used to have her big Barbie toys (camper, grocery store) in a striped canvas bin on her floor but it took up so much space. I eventually figured out if I really moved all of her stuffed animals to the red storage bin, I could free up the lower level of the doll bunk bed to put the striped pink bin.  I put her Paw Patrol characters into a clear zipper bag and placed it under the bunk bed. Next to the pink bin, I placed the new canvas bin from Walmart & we're storing her horses and unicorns in that bin. The only things on her floor now are the Polly Pocket unicorn, the Paw Patrol tower & a trash bin. 

It seems so much more spacious! For the moment I'm keeping her gigantic unicorn bean bag on her bed since it takes up so much space. This might move back to grandma's house when we list our home. 

In the boys room, we have done ALOT of work over the past couple weeks. The boys spent New Year's morning sorting through toys & really deciding which ones they wanted to keep. We've made one run to the donation center and still have one or two loads to do over the new few weeks (the donation center was overwhelmed with stuff on New Year's day so we're giving them time to process what they've received before we inundate them with more things). 

Noah has collected garbage trucks and police cars for four years or more and amassed quite a collection. We brought out a big plastic bin to the living room last weekend and lined up every garbage truck, police car, firetruck, and bus and told him he could keep whatever fit into the bin (with the lid still being able to close). He did VERY well and this eliminated about a third to half of his collection. 

Yesterday, we hauled out every bin and bucket of toys into the living room and sorted them according to type ("emergency vehicles," "Legos," "Utility Vehicles," "Random Toys" etc.). Then we selected bins to match the amount of toys in each category (so "emergency vehicles" like hot wheels size police cars and police stations etc. were placed into an appropriate sized bin). These bins were then placed accordingly on their shelf. Today we reminded them that if they play with a toy, they should put it back in its bin before moving on to something else. 

Tonight, the boys & I spent some time in their room cleaning out from under the bunk bed. We eliminated half a garbage bag full of trash! Little torn up slips of paper, broken toy pieces, etc. are now no longer hiding in the room. Taking pictures of the clean area & loads of floor space to prove to ourselves that this can be done was a great boost to our morale!

I feel WAY more at ease about the potential to photograph these rooms for a listing and I hope that playtime is more enjoyable for my kids since they can easily find the things they enjoy. 

Until Next Time,

Much Love, Reba

Fall Touches 2021

Once the calendar shifted into September, I brought out our fall decor.  Each piece is special to me and that's what helps turn my house into a home.  Decorating for the seasons is one of my favorite things to do.  My goal is to create a cozy refuge for my family and decorating helps me achieve this. 

On my laundry room door, I have my season-changing wreath and my rattan pumpkin door hanger.  The season-changing wreath is set for September and I will change it out again in October and November.  The rattan pumpkin is one of the first door hangers I bought when Aaron and I owned our first home. 

In the dining room, I chose to display two wreaths.  On the window is a $3 felt wreath from Target from the fall when we had the boys in daycare in 2014.  I hardly had any money left over at the end of the month due to daycare fees and medical supplies, etc. so buying this $3 wreath was all I could afford at the time and I've taken special care of it to make sure it continues to last the seasons as a good reminder of how far God has brought us.  Above the "Family Rules" sign is a wreath made of cupcake wrappers. This was part of a Lady's Craft Night at church several years ago.  I purposely chose something "fall themed" so that I could use it during this season.  It takes extra care to make sure this wreath doesn't get too squished when storing! It's very delicate, but I love it and the rich coloring it has. 

On my table is a white and gray autumnal tablecloth, and this year I'm layering my fall table runner on top of it.  My Nana made the table runner for me and I absolutely love pulling it out each year! 

The felt leaf garland is adorning my mantle.  I love this little fall garland, but always question the addition of the blue leaves. What tree makes blue leaves??? 

On the mantle shelf are three pumpkins. The first is Avery's purple pumpkin face that she made with much particularity.  I love the girly-ness of it and of course the gold glitter "stem" adds a special touch too. 

On the other side of the mantle shelf are two other pumpkins-- both of which I made during Lady's Craft Night at church several years ago on different years. The one on the left is made from a pumpkin themed "fat quarter" of fabric and a toilet paper roll, and the white pumpkin is made from mason jar lids and twine. 

This year, my children are finally old enough for me to display pumpkins on top of my TV stand!  To be fair though, I did put the fabric pumpkin on the edge and tucked my mercury glass pumpkin behind the corner of the TV. 

My white ceramic pumpkin decorates the other side of the TV stand. 

On my coat closet door is the fabric "P" monogrammed pumpkin that I bought for $3 at a grocery store in Amish country Pennsylvania when Aaron and I visited my grandma in August of 2016.  This was such a fun find because not many letters were left and when I found the letter "P" I was so excited!  And since it was fabric, it was easy to pack in my suitcase!  I love pulling this out year after year.  I love the chevron and damask patterns and the light shade of orange.  

Fall is certainly one of my favorite seasons!  It used to be my number one favorite but now that I'm a teacher, summer and winter (Christmas break!) are tying for first.  Fall is a nice bonus favorite though with all of its fun activities and decorations to ease the transition back to school. 

Until Next Time, 

Much Love, Reba

Beach Recap

Last weekend, we took a family trip to our beach town.  I've been vacationing in this town my whole life and I'm so glad to keep the tradition going with my own family!  We are still in the process of waiting for lumber costs to come down a bit from the Covid spikes, so we're unable to rebuild our cottage for the time being.  This means that I have to find places to stay when we go to the beach.  In March, I ventured away from Airbnb and stayed at an RV park that offered little cottages and cabins.  The cabin that we rented at that time was okay and doable but it lacked things that we now know are necessities for us (like a full size fridge, and an actual table to sit at, etc.).  This time, I booked the next size up in their accommodations, which was a little cottage with an actual kitchen. This place was PERFECT for us and I'd totally book here again.  (It would actually be nice to get the same one we stayed in this time since I could see the beach from the back porch!)

Here's a little recap of our quick weekend trip!

We left on Saturday morning around 6:30 and I had three happy kiddos ready for this vacation!

We made pretty good time and arrived in time for lunch at a local seafood restaurant.  My hope was that the kids would use the bathroom here since we couldn't check into the cottage yet.  However, no kid needed to use the bathroom, which was fine.  Aaron and I got lunch for the kids here and we sat inside while they ate, but Aaron and I got our lunch at the Korean food stand a block away and we ate at a local playground. :)  We are choosing to really try supporting local restaurants and endeavors when we go out of town.  (PS- when did Michael start looking like a teenager?!?)

Noah was adamant that he was going to order hushpuppies with his food.  Since his entree didn't come with hushpuppies, we ordered him a side of them and it came with 4 huge ones!

This is the view from the living room into the loft and kitchen area (the bedroom is at the back there where that other door is located).  

 It's so funny how we really came to view a full kitchen as a non-negotiable in any future rentings.  It's our tradition to make muffins for breakfast and we couldn't do that in March due to having no oven.  It was such a treat to have a full kitchen (albeit a tiny one)! When I took this picture, I was standing in front of the full size fridge and near the dining table (also now non-negotiables). 

My sweet little girl posing in the downstairs bedroom.  There was so much storage packed into this room, in addition to a door that led to a private deck.  Noah and I ate breakfast out there on our last morning when he needed some "mom one-on-one time."

This is the back porch (but the stairs leading to the parking space are from this porch, so I guess it might be considered the front porch?).  The door leading to the living room is behind me.  Although this tree is directly in the middle of the view, I can still see ocean on either side of it and that's a game changer!  Being able to get eyes on the water when you're at the beach is so calming! On this porch were a high-top 4 seater table and two wicker chairs.  It was a great size!  

This is the light fixture above the dining table.  Aaron is really into fishing and he thought this light was so cool!  My dad is also into fishing, so we sent him a text with a picture of this. 

On the loft railing was this shark cutout and Avery loved to pretend she was being eaten. 

For my birthday in April, my parents got me this beach wagon and it came in clutch this weekend!  It was SO NICE to load everything up at the truck and pull it down to the sand, rather than hand carry everything! 

My three kiddos in one of our favorite places on Earth. 

One of my favorite things to do is to catch candid moments of the kids with their Daddy. 

I bought sturdy sand shovels for each kid before this trip, and the boys made these really cool designs in the sand by setting their shovel on the hard sand and then running while dragging the shovel.  The straighter lines are caused by the shovel imprint, and the sand that was removed from the imprint was flung out in cool patterns. 

We were so excited to have an oven that we made one batch of muffins on Saturday night at 9:00!  Since the batter only had milk in it (no eggs), Avery got to have a bedtime snack while her brothers were upstairs watching Animal Planet. 

We buried Aaron's feet and created "Bigfoot" designs with a shovel. 

My love!

Great weather day on Sunday!

I took this picture to show the color of the house that we stayed in.  It really seemed like all of the other houses were muted neutrals, but ours was an "in your face" Tic Tac aqua. I took this picture right before we went to lunch at a seafood restaurant in the neighboring town (of which I took no pictures). 

Having an afternoon snack at the table!

I love this picture so much!  This was right before we went for a walk around the RV park before heading to the same neighboring town for dinner at a Mexican restaurant.  We tried out this restaurant for the first time in March with my parents and we were really excited to go back because it was so good!  It didn't disappoint this time either!

While we waited for time to go to the restaurant, we played on the playground.  I was pumped that Avery let me put her hair in a ponytail!

Our dinner at the Mexican restaurant was really good, but the best part was being able to say YES when the boys asked if they could have dessert!  We told them that they'd be sharing with all of us and they were totally fine with that.  Noah wanted churros because they came with cherries on them.  He was so excited when this arrived that when I told him to say "cheese" he actually put his hands together and bowed his head because he was going to pray for this dessert! 

Michael ordered fried ice cream and none of us had ever had it before.  It was so delicious!  (There are no pictures of Avery because she fell asleep on the way to the restaurant and woke up at dessert time, but wasn't in a picture taking mood.)

After dinner, I took each kid on a one-on-one walk around the RV park.  Michael wanted to walk past the cabin we rented last time.  Noah wanted to walk past the pool.  Avery wanted to go back to the playground! 

At bedtime, we'd let the boys choose a show on the TV in the loft.  It was a fairly good sized room up there.  Avery was the only one of us who could stand upright in the loft, but there still seemed to be enough space for everything we needed to do.  The queen size mattress was on the floor and there was still ample floor space in between the end of the bed and the railing, so the boys played up here for most of the time we were inside. 

After breakfast on Monday morning, the boys played tic-tac-toe very nicely while we waited to be able to check out. 

Three kids ready to head home and see our pup!

Before heading out of town, we stopped at the grocery store to get a snack and we let them eat the snack at a local playground pavilion and run around a bit before sitting in the truck for a long length of time. 

On our way out of town, Aaron stopped at our favorite seafood market and ordered some raw shrimp to bring home to cook.  We stopped across the Alabama line for lunch and made it home in early afternoon. 

It was a great little trip and it seems to be exactly what we needed for a nearly mid-summer boost!

Until Next Time, 

Much Love, Reba