hopefully you have some fun activities planned for the long weekend. us? we (and by “we”, i mean brian) are planning on knocking some items off our long list of household projects. our house has come a LONG way since we moved in, but for the sake of making our space more efficient, beautiful, and up-to date we have a way to go still. here is the master list that’s been hanging our on fridge.

-install and paint new trim for upstairs
-paint upstairs living area and bathroom
-install new bathroom floor upstairs
-install tile floor in slop room
-paint the entire downstairs (this has been done twice, we just suck at choosing colors)
-downstairs renovation (taking out a wall between two small rooms and making one big room)
-paint new upstairs doors
-install new carpet downstairs (this has been done twice as well. stupid floods! still saving for this project
-install bead board in finley’s room and repaint
-repaint and repurpose new big girl furniture for finley’s room
-paint, decorate, etc the baby’s room (after we know what we’re having)

so there it is.

oh, and here’s a question. toddler bed or big girl twin bed? i have my old headboard that fits a twin that will be super cute after i paint and recover the fabric, but i just can’t picture my little lady in such a big bed. i go back and forth every day, so please offer some wisdom.

we went to the zoo last week with grandma and maya. i got one picture before my camera died, but at least it’s a good one.

my camera has been broken for the last couple weeks due to an incident involving spilled juice in the diaper bag. I just got a new one today, and I’m really hoping that i get back on track with the picture taking. My mom was out visiting this week, so here are some photos off her camera.

out for a walk with brittney and crystal.

sitting on the pig at the public market.
i just love her smile.

at the beach with her buddy.

helping mama get dinner ready.

her little fingers are perfect for tearing lettuce.

riding the “choo choo train” (aka lightrail) downtown for dinner and people watching.
she squealed the WHOLE way.

group shot.

A few weeks ago we went strawberry picking. At first Finley was very helpful, but she quickly delegated herself to official strawberry taster.


And here’s where i lost my little helper…

oops. that was was a little too dirty.

messy hands…

“oh dear!”

i swear that time flies by even faster when the weather is nice. is it seriously halfway through june? we’ve been spending every chance we get out in the yard, at the beach (i use that term liberally) or at the toddler water park by our house (which i’ll save for another post). finley is in her element when she’s playing outside…climbing, exploring, anything involving water, looking for flowers and animals, and especially the freedom to be as loud as she wants (which is really loud, trust me). and in my humble opinion, the best thing about being in the great outdoors is that the tantrums and timeouts are almost non-existent. there are no battles over sitting nicely in the shopping cart. no exhaustive conversations about sharing. aside from 1 or 2 boundaries involving safety she is free to do whatever she chooses. she loves it. we love it. everybody is happy.