Now you see it....

When we were first looking at the house, I noticed the walls had a lot of finger prints on them.  It was pretty clear that the people living here before us weren't neat freaks so the finger prints seemed like they belonged. We got the keys and I got to work with my magic erasers.  They took off all the fingerprints, but left behind some residue.  I washed the residue off, but it still left marks.  It turned into way too much work.  After really checking the walls out, we realized they used a flat paint. Why would anyone use a flat paint?  I've been staring at walls that were accumulating Purdum fingerprints for the past few weeks and I convinced Jon to repaint the house.  He wasn't thrilled, but he loves me!  

We finished the downstairs last night.  It looks so much better and smudges wipe right off with nothing left behind. Its amazing how much something little like paint changes everything.  We'll probably start the upstairs this weekend and then maybe take a whole night off to rest before we start the deck!

Clean walls with no little finger prints staring at me.  I love it!

Bear

Ben has successfully completed another year of cub scouts.  He has moved on from Wolf to Bear.  We finished out the year in Lakewood and he'll start back in the fall with the Olmsted Twp group. 

Friends

Now that the boys have met every single kid in the neighborhood, Ellie has claimed most of them as her friends too.  Luckily, they seem to be ok with that. Ellie hitched a ride with her friend Emmy.  She even got to drive, but that didn't go so well!

Ellie inherited skates from another friend that outgrew them.  She's basically just walking right now, but she's having fun.

Busy morning

Apparently the kids had a really good time playing....

He was pooped!

New pj's

I love taking the kids shopping for pajamas.  They always look so cute and have fun picking them out.  I think I just like that we put on new pj's after bath time...the only time they're clean for more than 30seconds all summer long!

Party animal

The kids went to a birthday party where the main attraction was Jungle Terry.  He's a toned down version of Steve Irwin who travels around showing off his animal friends.  The kids were very excited to see a white skunk, dove, chinchilla, hedge hog, crocodile and snakes to name a few.  They got to pet them, play on a brand new swing set and had major amounts of sweets.  It was a good time!

My Mothers Day

Jon did some landscaping for me yesterday.  It turned out amazing.  It will be nice when the bushes in the back come back to life and get some green on them.

Wordless Wednesday: Random pics from the week

Update

I'm not sure what I was thinking in the last post.  I said Ellie would have the bike thing down by the end of the week.  After her nap she went back out, hopped on and started riding.  She's mastered her Minnie bike!

Bikes!

Jon took Ben out to get a new helmet yesterday.  That got us thinking about the whole bike situation.  Ben got a new one last year.  Sam has Bens first bike which he has outgrown, but is still riding.  We bit the bullet and got Sam and Ellie a new bike and were able to pass down Sams bike to Zach.  Ellie is thrilled.  She has a Minnie bike and helmet to match her Minnie shoes.  Jon was thrilled because her bike was marked down huge!  

Ellie is pretty close to getting the hang of riding a bike. She keeps breaking instead of moving and forgets to look where she's going.  I have no doubt she'll have the hang of it by the end of the week.

Zach is going to require a bit more patience and practice. He loves feeling like a big boy like his brothers so I'm not too worried about him either.

Wipeout

Ben was out riding bikes with his friends last night.  I'm not completely sure what happened, but I think some not paying attention was involved.  Ben hit the curb and had his first major fall off his bike.  Thank goodness he was wearing his helmet.  Based on the bump he has on his head, I'm confident we would have been in the ER last night if he didn't have a helmet on.  

Last night just before bed:

Its not just red, thats all swollen and gross!

This morning:

The bump isn't as red today, but its still huge.

The helmet:  

The visor wont stay in place anymore and you can see a chunk of his helmet is missing in the middle.  Fortunately, hes already talking about getting a new helmet so he can ride bikes again today.