Easter Break, Some benches & Fun Memories

So today is the last day of school for Easter holiday. They won't have school tomorrow which is good. That means I can get a lot done in the living room while the kids clean the blinds, windows, mirrors and their bathroom and beds. I'll also take my children for another walk to Tuesday Morning and Kroger for last minute Easter stuff we've been watching out for, while Mr. Man settles into his sleep. My fingers are tightly crossed that my target items (I've watched for about a month now) will be on sale.

Today was just another opportunity to get things done so I chose to do some visiting teaching. I visited two out of my three ladies. It helps that both of them are also becoming my close friends. After much blog hopping today, I also got to finalize in my head what our Easter table would look like. As it is also my mom's birthday, I wanted it to be a more fun and yet Easter appropriate table while recognizing I have three young children. So we'll see what we can come up with...

In the afternoon, my neighbor and friend Annette shared she saw a great bench that can go under one of the trees in front of my apartment to sit on during the upcoming warmer days to enjoy the breeze and it jogged my memory of how I wanted a pair of wrought iron/wood garden benches on each side of the front door path, facing each other. As we are definitely staying for until L-Infinity graduates next year, I think we may do just that... But then again, I need to make sure that we reduce a lot of what we don't need in the house so that we can truly focus on what would make more inviting inside before we focus on the outside.

Below is my front door, I don't know if you can see what I'm talking about, but I am telling the absolute truth when I tell you we have the best unit in this whole complex. Each day, we are able to witness the sunrise and the glow of the sun setting. We look out onto a 50 plus yards of just grass area ending into a narrow creek filled with turtles, a beaver, fish and an occasional snake. The creek separates us from a small wooded area that is home to some coyotes (further out) that sing to us every night, bunnies that come out at night, all kinds of birds, and our complex is full of dog owners and we have a good group of young children that play together well with our children now. Once again, our apartment area is the play hub of the neighborhood. I love opening the windows and hearing children laugh and play! Especially my two younger ones, Jas and Ian...

Look at that natural canopy/shade action going on at our front door. It is so refreshing during the day when we open the door and windows and let the breeze in. We have about a 5 foot path to the main walkway and dirt on each side. Can you imagine how inviting it would be to have facing benches and my two urns full of seasonal plants at each end of it? Mmmmm... my imagination's going wild!

And tonight, we headed to Walmart for a new front door rug as the other one has seen better days from the wet season we've had lately, plus it's about 4 years old, so I think it was ready for the garbage bin.

Trek down memory lane: It was 2002.

We watched some home videos when I-Dude was only 5 months old and J-Pony was three. We were all in our Gilbert, AZ apartment master bedroom and I-Dude was by the pillows in the middle of the bed playing with his toys. I was folding his clothes next to our director, Mr. Man. J-Pony was helping me fold the clothes by unfolding each bib and towel and refolding them by rolling each one up, bending it in half, twist it tight and pile them on top of each other. L-Infinity was making fun of my socks being in the laundry pile because I rarely wore any. Then you hear J-Pony, without being in the picture, "I, are you a Gerber baby? Are you a Gerber baby, I,?" I-Dude responds by eating his toy Sassy frog.

I then snatch up all the bibs and towels from J-Pony while she was distracted to refold them. She realizes they were gone and asks, "where are the clo-tes? L, where are the clo-tes? Mommy, what happened to all of I's clo-tes?" While watching this video of her calmly looking for her brother's "clo-tes", we are busting up laughing with her. She says, "Mommy, I was three then!" While L-Infiinity kept on saying, "I-Dude was so fat!"

Aaahhh... sweet memories. Nothing like it! Mr. Man will soon transfer all of these tapes into DVDs. That should make it easier to view next time...