summ-ahhhhh

ogunquit beach on the 4th

poolside on the 5th

our summer continues to be pretty great

minus all the ear-wrenching sibling spats that make me

oh-SO-grateful to have a job to escape to ;)

every time i hear the girls scream 'ICE CREAM MAN'

i secretly hear eddie murphy and his ice cream man comedy routine

don't lie

you know what i'm talking about

ok, maybe you don't but that just means you're not a cool 80's chic ;)

 (and if you're a guy reading this well then you must be my dad)
and on the not-so-cool news of the day let me just say...
i know where my kids are at all times of the day
i know when they're sick,
i know what they're eating,
i make sure they have what they need,
i know if i'm not with them then they are with someone i trust,
i know if they've scraped their knee,
i know if they need bug spray,
i know that if they're eating all the way up to dinner time then what they're eating is considered part of their dinner.
i know who wants pink, green, blue,
i know when they're lying to me,
i know when they're sad,
i know when they've had an 'ah-haa' moment
i know that 98% of the time they lurvvve each other
and that the other 2% is reserved for a good debate.
i would most certainly know that if my kids were missing for more than 31 days
 that the person responsible for them missing
would be me.
may that sweet little caylee anthony rip.

well hello there!

a week gone by
no posts
no phone calls
nose to the grindstone.
the girls had yoga camp which was 45 minutes away but only 3.5hrs long
so i spent my mornings driving to and fro and back again in the afternoon
it was tough but totally worth it.
stella was a trooper and was treated to lots of baked goods :)
august is now here
the summer halfway over
we've eaten lots of corn,
been to the beach,
teased some bats,
became ice cream connoisseurs,
read some good books,
picked strawberries,
blueberries,
and more.
got a puppy
(who is driving us mad),
enjoyed our friends,
brushed up on some schoolwork,
did lots of crafts,
saw lots of movies,
camped out in the playroom,
blew bubbles,
stared at the stars,
saw many a sunset...
what's left?
lots.
head over to my other blog to see some fun pix!

blah

life is hectic during the summer. constantly trying to keep everyone occupied, happy, NOT fighting is draining the heck out of me. mostly i just want to walk around with ear plugs in and blinders on so i can just ignore the ugly. the girls are getting on each others nerves which leads to the constant bickering which leads to a crazy mama who can't wait to go to WORK!!! i've let all my OCD's go...messy house, fine. shizzzola everywhere, fine. puppy food on the floor, fine. dried cocoa butter on the counter, fine. dust, fine. it's ALL fine. don't care anymore. ok. i'm totally lying about caring. it kills me but i am learning in my old age that i just.can't.control.EVERYTHING!

i let my dining room become an art studio for the girls for three whole days. paint on the floor, feathers, glitter, pom poms, sequins....all over the place. i didn't care. know why? every time things got a little rough around here i didn't send them to their rooms or a time-out. i sent them to the dining room. where they'd pick up a paint brush and create. the tension, the nastiness, the fighting all stopped. kind words were used, encouragement given, smiles to be had. an experiment gone good. all the negative energy evaporates when making something beautiful or even not so beautiful ;)

c-ya

dis and dat

apparently i'm not being good about posting on my blog...
tisk, tisk!
a few days in round-up
~ been to the pool
~ hosted a sleepover for ruby
~ zoe was party girl all day thursday into friday
~ worked friday night

saturday rolls around and i'm given it off!
craig and i go on a date
and head into portsmouth.
we went to the green monkey and had dinner and drinks at the bar.
this time around we had a good bartender...
to me that makes such a difference!
ps. they have the best butterscotch pudding EVER!

this is me in the parking garage.
i loved the light.
not a great shot but interesting enough.

sunset shot taken from the roof of the parking garage.

the girls and i went to the beach again today.
it was high tide
and yes, i knew it would be.
i didn't care that all we could sit on were rocks for the first couple of hours.
while waiting for the tide to go down we walked into town

and checked out the candy store...
loads of pretty things in there!
i let the kids each get a lollipop.

1.2.3....say cheese!

c-ya!

henna

it's hot,
humid,
barely tolerable out.
we be cranky
over heeeeahhh.
lots of ice pops, ice cream, ice consumption going on.
we pulled out the henna and did some tattooing...
came out beautiful.
i'm off to work and the kids off to nonno's pool to cool off...
have a sweet day.
c-ya!

random, smandom....

clearly loads of catching up to do beginning with field day
at the girls school

it was hot out
but everyone was happy

just a little healthy competition
where everyone had f.u.n.

watching these two cracked me up

ruby doing her thang'

a few days later we took our first trip of what will be many to
butternut farms
one of my most favorite places to go,
ever.
we picked 18lbs of strawberries!!!!

ruby's a born farmer

the man of the bunch treating the girls to a lil' ride ;)

later that same day we got a furious storm
stella was scared
but intent on watching the 'show'

mesmerized

and happily took part in a lil' old fashioned puddle jumping.
c-ya!

Boy was I shocked when I woke up this morning and saw that it was STILL raining. OY-VAY! I can't take it anymore! PMS'ing, kids home for summer vacation and rain, rain, rain. I HAD to get the kids out of the house. So we headed to The Children's Museum...yet again. Crazy madhouse. I knew it would be. We had loads of fun for about an hour and a half and then BYE BYE! Picnic in the car and off to swim. Kids loved it! By the time we left there it was already 4pm!!! Woooop! Stopped off at Hollywood Video and let the kids pick out a couple of movies. Came home made Pasta Primavera (Giada style) and now....well, now it's 8:45 and my house is s.i.l.e.n.t.


Daily Gratitudes

1. Miss Mother Nature decided to let us see her smile again at about 5pm...thank YOU sunshine.
2. Made dinner and before I even sat down Zoe said sweetly 'thanks for dinner Mom' :)
3. Both Ruby and Zoe learned to dive today thanks to a new little pool friend.
4. Stella didn't nap today so guess who went right to sleep tonight?
5. We had a fun day...just wish Daddy could have been with us.

hmmmm....

Yesterday was H.O.T!
Today is H.O.T!
Summer, here we come!

Randoms:
~ Why does Elmer's Glue smell SOOOOO bad!!!! (ya know what? I don't actually really want to know...too disturbing!)
~ I'd totally pay the $700 to have our lawn cleared of leaves every Fall...it's totally worth it in my opinion...cause guess what? We've got leaves ALL over our backyard, making nice little homes for all the woodchucks and what-have-you's.
~ I attempted to remove leaves from my vegetable garden...brought my 'A' game and everything. I lasted for about five minutes and then I heard crying...that was my back, legs, arms, mind, body and soul.
~ I'm totally not a quitter ;)
~ I stocked up on Frosty Paws, Popsicles, Fudgesicles, ice cream, cones and sprinkles. The ice cream man better steer clear of this neighborhood today because I'll be da_ned if I spend $30 on his treats!
~ I'm loving my new Blackberry :)
~ Do you really believe it when someone says they don't have any regrets? I think that's a load of crap. I totally regret lots of things I've said, done and will do. Yep, will do.
~ Like the time I ordered a rare hamburger when I was like 7. My sister and I were visiting my Grandmother in New York and were at some ritzy restaurant and the waitress asked me how I wanted my burger cooked. The only thing I could remember her saying was rare, medium rare, medium or well. The chocolate milk was really, really good there.
~ Should I take it as a good sign that I haven't heard from the sewing machine Dr.? Like when you go to the hospital and they say 'no news is good news'...is that wishful thinking???
~ I will totally be putting my little patchwork pillows in the shop as soon as I make more!
~ I've got a HOLY SALE, SALE, SALE going on in my shop right now. More things will be listed as soon as I can! I'm cleaning out my stash making room for new things...gettum while there hot!
~ Market Basket isn't as bad as I thought...went there today and got about double what I'd get at Hannafords for less $$$$.
~ I truly love bartending and can't believe how much I missed it.
~ My legs are horribly pale.
~ The post lady at our local post office is the monster from Monster's Inc. who says 'You forgot to turn in your paper work last night'....envision please with sound effects ta-boot.
~ I can be mean.
~ Sorry!

Have yourselves a lovely day!
xo

our last days of summer...

were spent enjoying the great new england weather and family time! fall here we come with open arms...can't wait to get lost in a corn maze and go apple picking.

LOVE it!

cuteness with cheese...

swimming for the last time outside at the works

wearing her tutu to the park...

going for a ride with dad on the harley...

one of the girlies most favorite guys, EVER!!

playing at the park...

xo

dear santa...

we had a very nice time while visiting you this weekend. while the weather had been predicted to be nasty we actually preferred the cloudiness and occasional sprinkle to the blistering sun. the girls loved the rides especially the log ride (okay, I LOVED the log ride :) and there was plenty of good fried food to get us through until dinner (gag).

now, for the apology. (exhale) dear santa, upon leaving your super fabulous park my dear husband took it upon himself to say something rather nasty to rudolph. not believing that rudolph was real was his first mistake...but saying to rudolph 'i don't like you' put me over the edge. now, i know he said it only to get a rise out of me (and rudolph) but really he wasn't expecting rudolph to reply with 'well, i like you'. c got a time out when we got to the car and he's promised never to say such things again...see you next year rudolph!

i happen to want to hold onto that childlike dreaminess that allows there to be a santa clause, an easter bunny, fairies, magic. more importantly i want my children to hold onto these fantasies for as long as possible. it bums me out whenever z has asked me questions regarding the truths behind these childhood myths. i play dumb and utter in disbelief 'of course there's a santa clause' and 'we don't even have that wrapping paper!'. i think that the very act of believing makes it true...don't you?

on the way...

to what's been dubbed 'the wood' park we passed this huge field of sunflowers...sunflowers always make me happy...they look as if they're smiling right at you...so cheerful.

anyways, we get to the wood park and there's a huge yellow sign saying NO PLAYING ON THE FIELD and in itty bitty letters '& playground'. now, after dragging three kids to this out of the way playground i wasn't going to let a little thing like a HUGE yellow sign saying no playing get in my way...probably not a good message to send my kids but i was hot. so we carried on and to my relief there were a couple other moms breakin' the rules. i immediately asked them what was up with THE SIGN but they claimed they hadn't seen it (i'm thinking uhhhh how could you not?)...anyhoo we giggled about our unlawfulness together and let the kids play away. about 45 minutes later a cop shows up (we're talking tiny little town here folks...not a ton of crime...gotta bust the moms at the park)...gist. we got kicked out...but it gave the kids just enough time to play and then it rained after we left anyways.

now for some random spewing:

~ i've gotten 9 migraines already this month and am out of my prescription (which by the way is a miracle worker) i should know, i've tried just about everything there is. so now i need to go spend $50 on two pills just to get me through...hopefully that's all i'll need until the 8th!!!

~ why the heck isn't there a trader joe's in southern new hampshire...are we not hip enough??? cripes, i'd spend enough in your store to justify putting one here...(dear trader joe, if you're coming no more than 20 minutes from my house would be ideal)

~ i love you starbucks and all your store closings and layoffs really has me scared you're going to bite the dust completely and leave me without my favorite beverage.

~ i'm dreading my trip to walmart to get more fusible web...i hate making 'quick' trips with three kids....it SUCKS!!!!

~ we're off to santa's village this weekend and of course it's supposed to....RAIN!

~ i miss my friend lisa and working out at the gym...can't wait for school to start again!!

~ i just ordered labels for my etsy stuff and a new banner and avatar for my etsy site.

~ molly is shedding like you wouldn't believe and no matter how much i brush her she still has hair falling off everywhere...where the heck are c's clippers.

~ why in the world does r still like to watch caillou??????

~ lastly....what am i going to make for dinner??????

right now...

later i'll catch you all up with random musings but right now i can hear da ladies battling it out upstairs...doesn't quite make for good concentration...till then i'll leave you with some recent shots. xoxo

z holding the tiniest frog you ever did see

a sweet bib i made

my favorite afternoon treat...yum!

lassie girl treats...can't wait to dive in!

loved

ahhhh berries...

we took our first trip of the summer to butternut farm and stocked up on fresh raspberries! i love going there...it's so peaceful and beautiful. we had hoped to pick blueberries too but they were done for the day so another trip is already planned for later this week when we'll be able to pick peaches too. i had no idea just how many berries we had picked until we all put our baskets in the wagon...ooops, too many berries!

Plum's Raspberry Muffins

2 sticks of butter (i used salted but you could use unsalted too)

2c sugar

4 large eggs

4c flour

3t baking powder

1t salt

2t pure almond extract

1c sour cream

1/2c-3/4 c milk

4c fresh raspberries

preheat oven to 375. combine softened butter and sugar. mix in eggs and almond extract. add baking powder and salt. stir in flour, sour cream, and milk. fold in raspberries gently. bake for approx 30min until toothpick comes out clean.

note: i added a little bit of sugar to the tops of the unbaked muffins as i thought maybe the berries might be too tart. i'm glad i did it because it added a perfect amount of sweetness and a little added crunch.