A Good Mother's Day Weekend...

Mother's day is typically the first time I really venture outdoors to begin the gardening season. This year I was not feeling quite ready for the challenge of both indoors and outdoors, but spending the time outside this weekend cured the hesitancy in me! What a glorious time I was able to spend with my family! We grilled almost every meal-had Mom and Dad over on Sunday, and spent all day today preparing the yard and gardens. The first was major job to tackle was taking down one of our apple trees-sniff sniff. It is beautiful, but over the years the wasps have gotten more and more vicious with the kiddos. By the end of the season last year, not a day went by without a bee sting. The apples were not edible, so we decided sadly, that it wasn't serving much of a purpose. We have plans for planting new trees, but for now we will be clearing that spot for our pool. I spent the early evening hours in a magical garden hideaway with the kids. We built it from the tree branches we cut down. I have an old swing set frame in my main garden that we used to prop the cut branches on. They won't stay there for long, we will be planting the garden soon and the branches of course will not stay looking so magical for long, but the girls especially, found this idea inspiring. I think school under the branches tomorrow will be in order. We also were able to build a new box for transplanting our raspberries across the yard. Hoping the transplant goes well for the years to come! Raspberries everyday it one of summer's best gifts!! Here are just some fun pictures of our day today...

The Most Priceless Art...........

This Masterpiece is entitled " The Spider Who Wants To Be a Boy" ~by Bell Drietz

Why would I want to shop the galleries of the world for art when I have the mind of a precious child to captivate and pull me into their imagination. I have a crate full of stories and exploration, full of my childrens expressions and thoughts. And then there is the stack of picnic baskets that tuck away more of there doodles, oh and the drawer of the misplaced nightstand for the overflow. But, a collision has occured and it has made a beautiful mess on my walls. We have one finished wall in our basement amongst the more "modern industrial" concrete walls...you know, the walls that have not been touched since the house was built except for a coat of paint slapped on occasionally so it feels more like a real room:)- But what do you do with one silly wall in your semi TV room? Well at the same time as this question began building, so did the craving to showcase my kiddos fun creations instead of them being hid away. And that is how a happy medium was arrived at. With a trip to the dollar store and a few cans of spray paint, I was able to turn our rec room wall into a gallery for the kiddos. They have been pretty excited about looking at there art in frames. And I, well, I could stare at them for hours. Fun to giggle about some of their stories. So here is their debu....

"God's Zoo" ~ by Madison Drietz


Madison has been working on a zoo-she has Zeke the Zebra, Giggles the giraffe, Elly the Elephant, Lady the Lady bug, and more to be unveiled at a later date:)

Cole has a masterpeice of humor up on the wall called "Smell the Pitt-ur"

Now this picture was colored years ago and it just makes me laugh because everyone who sees it thinks it says, "smells the pits" which completely looks fitting-but! it doesn't, see Cole had just recieved a set of smelly markers when he colored this and it actually says "smell the picture" but is of course mispelled. Isn't childhood fantastic!
Joslyn has been painting up a storm this week and this is her newest work of art.
It is entitled "POT" oh, the joy of learning to spell. She has been the one most fascinated with them being put up on the wall and has helped me get them hung. I have a feeling it will continue to inspire her to create more. She is my little one who loves to draw whole books for me.


Bell's was about a spider who is dreaming of becoming a boy and she sure enjoyed telling the story. She even let us giggle while she shared and seemed to completely understand the humor in it. She is also the mastermind behind the bug which is on the wall and the "pile of poop" which we have not framed as of yet:) It is all about the mixing of paint I guess only a true artist could relate to. I am seeing art in a whole new way thanks to her!