Miss Rumphius

This morning Oliver and Mommy read one of Mommy's favorite children's books.  Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney.  It is a wonderful story about a woman who sets out to do three things: travel to faraway places, live by the sea, and make the world a more beautiful place.  By the end of the story Miss Rumphius decides to make the world a more beautiful place by scattering lupine seeds around the town by the sea where she lives...her efforts where successful, the flowers are perennial so they keep coming back every year.  (Mommy likes things that come back.)  Miss Rumphius also inspired many people to keep making the world a more beautiful place.  

Oliver loved the story, so does Mommy.  We are thinking up ways we can make the world a more beautiful place.  Sweet dreams....

Oliver in the morning playing on the coffee table.

Miss Rumphius- Barbara Cooney has amazing artwork.

The page where Miss Rumphius talks about her dreams...

Her home by the sea.

Scattering her seeds.

Reading in the morning.

Pretty town with lupines growing everywhere.

Our Lupine seeds.  We are going to try

making the world even more beautiful by planting

 these in our backyard. 

Donut Wednesday

Another fun donut Wednesday!  We had a nice time hanging out this morning and then having breakfast together at the donut shop.  Oliver had a fun day at preschool.  Wednesdays are always full of fun stuff!

Picking out his donut.

Strawberry Yums.

Oliver's Zebra Donut.

Mommy's donut hole.

Giant donut- he only took a few small bites.  Good.

Wheatgrass Wednesday.  (Hmmmm...yum.)

Bath Time

Mommy didn't get to spend too much time with her Owl today.  He got to play for a little bit at home and then he was off with his Grandma for the Zoo.  He had a good time- he told Mommy all about the monkeys he got to see.  Lucky boy.

In the evening he rested, took a really nice warm bath, helped Mommy with some things and listened to an interesting chapter about "Indians" in our Little House book.  Sweet dreams...

Playing on the counter top- he thinks it

is a fun game to play to avoid

getting in the bath tub.  He is such a joker.

At least he likes taking baths now.

 Playing with his boat and singing in the bathtub. 

After his bath he was avoiding getting dressed and

getting ready for bed.  He pulled out a bunch of artwork

from a pile that Mommy is working on and explained

each piece to her.  (He is good at stalling, Mommy is

good at waiting.)  He finally got dressed-- little man.

More Playdough

We had a great Monday.  Oliver had fun playing outside with his new truck and playhouse.  We had a good time taking care of the daycare babies.  All the kiddos left early today so we headed over to Grammie's house.  Oliver fell asleep on the way there and took a really nice nap.  Something he doesn't do for Mommy anymore--it usually only happens if he is really tired and we are out driving.  So Mommy was glad he got a good nap in today!

We came home later and had a nice dinner, he took an awesome bath, and we read two chapters of our novel.  Sweet dreams...

 Playdough Fun.

 Sweet Little Mouse.

Mommy's Lavendar Collection in her car.  Oliver picks

it for her everyday.  Mommy likes to put it where she can see it.

(She likes having it close to her.)  It is so pretty. 

...And Even More Treasures

This morning we were off early to pick up our playhouse in Oceanside.  We took the scenic route- Gopher Canyon Road, it is so pretty that way- the people lived near Guajome Lake.  It was a nice misty drive.  We met Larry there and he helped us bring our playhouse home.  Oliver was very very excited!  Mommy still can't believe she actually got this one- it is exactly the one she has been wanting- and she doesn't search for playhouses that often on craigslist.  We came home and put it in the backyard.

We visited with Grammie for a bit- Oliver played with her while Mommy took her Y break.  Mommy rushed back to get Oliver so we could go to the bi-annual Parent Connection Swap Meet.  We needed some essentials for our daycare.  When we got there it was 20 minutes before they closed up shop.  Perfect time for bargaining.  We got our essentials and Oliver got to pick out one thing- he picked out a truck of course.

We came home and were busy bees in the backyard.  We put the porch of the playhouse back together, pulled some weeds, and worked on the garden beds.  We played for a bit with some stuff in the playroom too!  This weekend was fun!  Oliver fell asleep really fast after our chapter tonight!  Sweet dreams.

Excited little boy-still in his jammies.

 Our Playhouse in "pieces" at home.  Mommy was going to help

Larry carry it to the backyard.  But Mommy's neighbor magically 

appeared in the driveway and asked if we needed help.  (Mommy

wonders how he knew or if was just a coincidence...)  He can't really

see Mommy's driveway from his home and he usually isn't out on

our little street.  Mommy is so lucky to have such nice neighbors.

Parent Connection Swap Meet.

 Paying for his truck.

 Oliver with his new toy.

 We got another lawn mower.  The lady saw us glance at it

and she said she would give it to us for a $1.  We couldn't pass

it up.  Now the toddlers won't fight over who gets to push 

the mower, because we will have two!

 Mommy's favorite section.

 Love that old chest.  All the stuff is really neat, but

kind of too expensive for this swap meet...

 We needed to find two play yards for napping babies

and toddlers.  We got both of them and were able to

get good deals on them!  

Mission Accomplished.  We also got a vacuum cleaner

for the kids to push around the playroom.  Cute.

 Our Playhouse.  Still can't believe we got it!

 The porch in pieces.

 Good thing Grandpa got Mommy her own

little toolkit for Christmas.

 Oliver working.

 And Oliver not working...he was climbing out of 

Mommy's bedroom window...

...which is weird, because there is a door that leads to

her room too.  Oliver is such a monkey.

 Our playhouse all set up.

 The porch.  We were missing some screws so

its not perfect.  Mommy will need to have someone

look over it, so it it safe for the kids.  For now it's okay.

 Window and window box.  Oliver was already putting flowers in it.

 The inside.

Playing in the playroom. Some of our eggs in a basket.  

Mommy wants to use this strawberry basket for some kind of

craft.  She found some good ideas on the internet. (Fun stuff.)

Maxine

Since Hallmark has been on Mommy's mind she decided to post some of Grammie's Maxine things.  Oliver likes all of Grammie's collections.  A lot of the Maxine things are actually Christmas so they are stored away.  But these are a few of her fun things!

Maxine is a crotchety old woman who says the funniest things.  You can learn more about her through this link.

Maxine Doll

 Mommy drew this for Grammie a long time ago.

Maxine is really the only thing Mommy knows how to draw.

 Mommy made this counted cross-stich for Grammie.

(It has a nice message.)

 Some of Grammie's note cards.

This is a good one.  (Mommy always likes when

people are quick to respond.)  Grammie taught us to

always send Thank You Notes out right away and 

it is nice to not leave people waiting for too long---

when you are pen pals.  Mommy still loves snail mail.  

Lots of Treasures...

We had a fun Saturday together.  Oliver slept in really late, so Mommy kind of worked on some things.  Once he woke up we hung out for a bit then headed over to Grammie's house.  Oliver had fun with Grammie while Mommy took a little Y break.  

After we headed over to the Patti's Hallmark shop that Mommy used to work at during high school and college.  We browsed through all the stuff they had--the discounts are only 20 to 30 percent--but Mommy got lucky!  Patti's daughter was there and she gave Mommy 50% off.  (Mommy guesses timing is everything...)  She had fun talking with her friend and picking out some treasures for Oliver and our daycare.  

Right after that we went and checked out a playhouse for our backyard.  We got super lucky again!  We found the perfect used playhouse on craigslist.  (Craigslist is awesome.)  The lady still had it, it is in good condition and it was a good price.  So excited!  We will go back to pick it up in the morning.  Here is a link to our playhouse.

This made Mommy a little sad.

Oliver picked up this Maxine card.  Grammie has

Maxine hanging out in different places around her house.  So

Oliver recognized her.  Cute.

 Mommy's favorite section has always been the stationary section.

 He loves the dancing/singing animals that they have 

for every Holiday.

 We got some coloring books.

 We got this fun Pirate puzzle.  (Hmmm...pirates.)

Our friends will be excited to play with some new food!

Mommy wanted some kind of "keepsake" from her Hallmark store.

She wasn't sure what, but on her way out she saw all the 

baskets stacked by the door.  The basket is now her keepsake.

The kids will have fun with it!

Of course we went up to the coffee shop.

He was looking at all the goodies making

little hmm...hmm sounds.

After finding all of our treasures we worked for 

a while in the backyard.  This is right after Oliver

had an accident standing on the compost bin.  Mommy

thinks he learned his lesson...