And the cool part? The lego that lights up!! 🙂
And this is where it now lives:
Category Archives: Photos
I’ve never seen someone use quite so much chapstick at one time.
Surprises while doing Owen’s laundry.
It kind of gives you a little scare to open the washer and see something trying to escape (sorry it’s a bit blurry):
But then you instantly recognize that it’s a zombie figurine and have a good laugh.
She knows she’s guilty!
I washed our spring/summer quilt to put away for the winter and after folding it, kind of set it upright so none of the animals would be tempted to lay on it. Then I walked in to see this.
Kicking it old school today!
Kicking it old school today with my college dorm sweatshirt (class of ’94 but I got it freshman year). Do I look like a co-ed? 😂
I’ve always thought a train under the tree would be cool.
It only took 44 years, a kid who loves Legos, grandparents who were willing to buy the set and the electronics 💗 and a last-minute extra set of tracks to fit around the tree stand… It ended up needing some parental intervention [to get the power hooked up correctly and the tracks in an approximate circle] but Owen did the bulk of it.
She doesn’t look sick does she?
I had to go pick up Katie from school yesterday afternoon because she had a fever. She did seem a bit worn out (and had been sneezing and coughing for a few days) but this morning she seemed quite okay—but I had to keep her out for 24 hours post-temperature. This is her “resting.”
I kicked ass at this game back in the day.Â
I was out shopping today and ran across this game.
Holy cow the memories came flooding back!
I kicked ass at it back in the day when my cousins and I each got it for Christmas. (Google tells me it came out in 1982, which is about exactly when I thought it was—I guessed I was around 8 or so.) This is what the box looked like then.
I asked on Facebook if anyone remembered it, and my cousins did—and amazingly, said her kids played the very game a short time ago!! I wish I still had mine, but I wasn’t about to pay $17 for it. 🙂
She wiggles herself in.Â
Of course Charlie found the comfy bags.Â
Surprise trip to LegoLand Discovery Center!
We didn’t even know this place existed until a few weeks ago, so I found discount tickets and off we went! It wasn’t quite as exciting as I’d hoped it would be (and one of the rides was shut down) but the kids had a really good time so that’s all that matters!
This is pretty much what the whole front of the tree looks like.
And this is what I look like:
Owen learned to climb a ladder!
He had to rescue a toy he threw up and which landed inside one of the squares.
He didn’t love it (he doesn’t like heights) but he powered through.
This is NOT what I wanted to come home to.
I came home from Sam’s Club and was unloading the car when I smelled something…odd…out of place… But I couldn’t put my finger on it. Unloaded some more. Sniffed. Hmmm. It wasn’t a bad smell but it was overpowering. No idea. I thought I’ll have to explore the house when I’m done unloading and then I happened to look into the laundry room… Oh shit.
SHIT. SHIT. SHIT.
The stupid washer is off balance and jostles things around quite badly. I forget (since our own washer was never this bad) and left it too close to the edge after starting a load earlier. 😣😭 On the bright side, it smelled Downy fresh.
Of course Tom was worried that it went down the vent, but thankfully most of it seeped under the rug.
And very little actually went down the vent.
And me being the idiot I apparently was this morning, grabbed nice kitchen towels INSTEAD OF THE RAGS RIGHT BEHIND ME IN THE LAUNDRY ROOM. (I did remember the rags after the first batch of kitchen towels )
The rug was a total loss—it wouldn’t fit in the washer and it’s too cold to hose off outside.
I spent about a half hour cleaning and wiping the spatter off the walls, doors, and floor (the spots made it way out into the other room and up the garage door). Annoyingly, blue fabric softener stains (ugh).
On a positive note, that load of towels was the softest load of laundry I’ve ever felt in my life.
My H wall!!
I’ve been collecting Hs for some time now but always kind of felt like it was overkill—I mean, just how many do you really need? And where do you put them all? But I kept quietly buying them when I saw one I loved. And then we went to a friend’s house and they had one whole wall of Ms and I had an AHA! moment. It took awhile, but…
And there’s room for more! The big plywood H in the center is just a placeholder for one Tom is making. My favorite thus far is the set of red Hs that were my dad’s JV and varsity letters from Handy High School.
Getting Lippy gives back!
Getting VIP Lippy with Jen was donating three cans of food for every $20 spent in November, so that equated to 111 cans of food.
I was just going to turn that into a cash donation to make life easier, but the kids’ schools are having a Holiday Food Drive (to include books, cleaning supplies, personal care items, and winter accessories) so I’ve decided this is where my donations are going. And on top of that, I donated $50 to the Northern Illinois Food Bank, which is currently being doubled by sponsors and will provide $800 worth of food! Thank you to all who made purchases this month!!
Yes, that’s slime on the ceiling.
Welcome to my morning.
Owen threw it too high then tried to clean it with… Are you ready??… A nerf gun, a folder, and a coloring book.
#thishappenedfiveminutesafterwarninghimnottogetslimeanywhere
#thatboyhasnocommonsense
#thisthursdayismymonday
#slimeisnolongerallowedinourhouse
#isittooearlyforwine
I left it all day so he could clean it when he got home. Thankfully it came right off with a magic eraser.
Katie’s first love letters.
His name is Thomas and apparently he’s one of four who love her and want to take her out to eat and who chase her. Hoo boy.
Tonight’s dress up costumes!
Exhausted after nine days at Gramma’s.
Relaxing by the fire…
Grandpa build a fire downstairs to take some of the humidity and chill out of the air and Katie desperately wanted to be down by it. So I went down and sat with her and relaxed…for about five whole minutes until she got bored.
Helping Gramma make soup!
Thanksgiving 2017
Our turkey chef tonight! #infraredfryer #17pounds #50degreesinmichigan #thanksgiving
I thoroughly enjoyed drinking my first wine in two weeks tonight with Dee (Rob’s girlfriend)… But it gave me a headache. Maybe we should have stopped after the first bottle! 😂
And all the leftovers!!
Potato Helper
Gramma wanted Katie to check with me if we had enough potatoes for our Thanksgiving Dinner. I said no. I mean really, you can never have too many mashed potatoes.
Pink hair!
I had bought Katie some light pink shampoo at the same time I bought my dark blue shampoo, and I had Tom bring it back with him so we could do Katie’s hair. And boy was she excited!
Katie’s first manicure & Owen’s Brian Lewerke haircut!
Grayling has a beauty school where my mom gets her hair permed and cut so I went earlier this week for a blow out (it’s a treat for me since I suck at it—plus it was the first wash post-color and I thought why not let someone else deal with it?). Then I decided since everything was so cheap, I’d take Katie for her first basic manicure to see how she did (before I drop $$$ on a real manicure or pedicure). She was all about it. 🙂
Owen needed a haircut, too. He had decided to get the same cut as Brian Lewerke, an MSU Spartan player.
This is literally how Maggie spent the majority of her vacation.Â
Last night:
This morning:
The kids on the time out tree stump
There’s a stump in the back yard that we joke is the perfect time-out spot. Of course we’ve never had to use it, but that’s still what we call it. Katie is finally big enough to get up there by herself so this happened.
The kids doing pysanky with Gramma Jean for the first time!
They’re a bit behind—I started at age 3! They were both excited to sit down and do it. Gramma gave them a quick lesson on how to hold the egg and kistka, but unfortunately both of them forgot and ended up grabbing the hot metal end…which is why you see tears on some of Katie’s close up pics. They both had fun and enjoyed doing two eggs—I was only going to watch but then couldn’t help myself and had to jump in and “do a quick egg” which of course turned into more time than I planned and I ended up sitting there finishing mine while the kids were done and outside playing. 🙂 (Note: The eggs are done but are still at Gramma’s house being varnished so the finished product photo will come later.)
Two kids and a dog
