Follow Me Friday

Welcome to Follow Me Friday! This is a great way to find new blogs and make new friends and get new followers. Here is all you have to do:

Please make a post and spread the word! Grab the badge below and put it in your post.



Head to Still on the Verge to sign into Mr. Linky.

Follow away!! Make sure to leave comments to your new friends and let them know where you found them from!

Make sure to come back every Friday for a new list!

I hope to meet lots of new blogging friends and gain a few new followers!

Oh - I almost forgot...

• When following a new blog, please remember to leave a little personal comment love.
• If you get a new follower, please feel free to reciprocate the love!

The First "Official" Day of Summer Vacation

School's out for Summer!

Well, summer vacation is finally here, and AK couldn't be happier. She had started to cry about school the last couple of weeks because apparently 5 year old girls are as mean to each other as teenage girls are. There was all sorts of bickering and uninviting to birthday parties between AK and her little circle of girlfriends. Why is it so hard for a group of girls to be friends? I remember the same sorts of problems in high school. I had 2 close girlfriends, and it seemed like each week one of us would be excluded from the group, and it was really hard when it was your week.

Anyway...this is not what I was going to blog about, but if you can shed any wisdom on the above topic fell free to COMMENT! :)

To celebrate the last day of school, AK's Mimi planned a camp out in our front yard. Mimi has been AK's babysitter/2nd mother since AK was 3 months old. She is a big part of our family. AK and Mimi had all sorts of fun games and activities planned. Including ghost stories and pranks to be played on N, the only boy attending.

Well, the weather wasn't too cooperative because at 2:00 on the afternoon of the camp out, the bottom dropped out of the sky. The camp out was not canceled, but the camping out part was. So now the festivities were moved to inside my house. Joy. Also, N decided not to attend, so the pranks had to be put on hold.

The festivities started around 4:30, and 5 meltdowns (by MY child only) and tons of fun later they all collapsed and fell asleep. I think it was actually around 10:00, which I found amazing! They all slept through the night, and no parents had to be called in the middle of the night to get their homesick child. AK had the time of her life, and is already planning a 2nd camp out, with hopes of actually camping out, for the end of the summer!

Here are some Kodak moments...

Fun in the sprinkler!


Dinner time


Dirt cups: vanilla ice cream, crushed oreos, and gummy worms


Water balloon toss!


Make-up fun


Rocker chicks!


Meltdown #3



Morning pinata fun! Thankfully, there is no picture of me in my pajamas hacking the poor donkey/unicorn to bits with a shovel.

Saturday

I have been busy lately. It is the end of the school year (5 more days!!!!), and I have so much to do at work around this time. I haven't thought much about my blog until today. I think it's because I took some time this afternoon to do some enjoyable things. Things I like to share here. I broke out the camera, and got busy!

One reason I haven't been blogging much is this.

DROID. I have been trying to figure out how to use it. John and I spied new phones last weekend when we were actually supposed to be helping my mom pick out a new phone! She still doesn't have a new one, but we went back and got these.

Back to today...
We did a little gardening.
I made this. What do you think is in it??? Look hard.



Oops! Wrong end! Look again :)



I found this post at Elizabeth Anne's Designs. I had tried to make a topsy turvy style planter out of a plastic soda bottle, but ended up getting too frustrated. I came across this much prettier version and knew I had to do it instead. I had a planter I got for Christmas just waiting for this project! I hope it works. I broke a few limbs of the tomato plant when I put it through the hole, but hopefully it will survive.

I had a helper when it came time to water the plants.



Remember when I was so excited about this hydrangea bush?



Look at it now!



There are lots of flowers about to bloom on it! I'm so happy it is thriving.

I started a new project tonight, but I will save it for another post :)

Pictures

I realized it's been a while since my last post. I have lots of pictures I've taken for blogging, but haven't gotten around to it. Here are a few...

Little feet dancing in puddles after watering new plants.



The empty robin's nest in a bush in the backyard. John found an empty egg on the ground under the nest.
I guess the babies hatched and flew the coop.






Our neighbor's sweet new puppy.





Teacher Appreciation Day gifts for AK's teachers. I got this neat idea from Eighteen 25.
Her blog is full of great stuff! I took the 2nd picture before I filled up all the little compartments.

The countdown has begun for the end of the school year. Only 8 MORE DAYS!!!!

Summer vacation, here we come :)

Dishing It!

Last month I participated in the Dishing It! Party over at Serenity Now. It was fun a fun way to meet other bloggers and discover new blogs. I am partying again this month!

Here is this month's topic:

Moms

YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE A MOM TO PARTICIPATE. Please feel free to use this as a question and answer post, or use it as a loose guide to write your post however you like. Add or omit any questions you like, and feel free to embellish with photos!

~What's the best thing about your mom? She is so giving. She's always there when I need her! And she puts up with me no matter what :)

~What's your relationship with your mom like (do you just tolerate each other, or is she your best confidant)? She's my best confidant. I talk on the phone to my mom daily, if not more often. I tell her pretty much everything. I can always count on her to comfort me when I'm sad and celebrate with me when I'm happy.

~What's the best advice your mom has ever given you? Hmmm...I can recall any specific advice, but she always has good advice for me. I rely on her opinion for most of my decisions!

~Describe the most embarrassing outfit your mom made you wear when you were growing up. (If you have a photo of this, I will give you ten bonus points!) I don't really remember any specific outfit she made me wear. She was always on my side when it came to the frou frou dresses my grandmother wanted me to wear. I hated them, and she didn't make me wear them!

~If you're a mom, what's your favorite thing about motherhood? What's the most difficult? The most difficult is staying calm during the 5 year old tantrums. Ugh. Give me strength! My favorite thing is the unconditional love I receive from that 5 year old!

Wanna dish about your mom or about being a mom? Head on over to Amanda's at Serenity Now and check out the party.

She won't be happy about this picture! But, it's all I had handy on the computer :)

I'm a Winner!

I am so happy to say that I have won my first blog giveaway! Now, I enter giveaway's every so often, but I never won until today! Becky, over at Clean Mama, had an awesome giveaway sponsored by Alethia Pottery. Becky left me a sweet comment about my One Small Change blog post. She hinted around that I should check out her blog post for today. Well, I clicked over expecting to see a post related to mine and...SURPRISE...I was a winner :)
I can't wait to receive my sweet little dish.

Thank you, Clean Mama, for this great giveaway!

One Small Change - May

We are still enjoying the One Small Change challenge. I totally missed the wrap-up where I was supposed to post how the changes went for our family! I am so glad we joined the challenge, and I plan on continuing with a change each month. I think our most successful change was the switch to cloth napkins and "paper"towels. I love using cloth. I do still have an emergency roll of paper towels for really gross clean-ups, and guests who can't get into the cloth thing :) I have also been successful with my reusable water bottles. I use them daily...hooray! I've gotten better at remembering to take my reusable bags into the grocery store. Now if I could just remember to take them into Target, Walmart, etc... Our April change was to use reusable baggies instead of plastic. It has gone really well. I have tons of cute cloth bags!

Some of my favorites are in mine and AK's lunch bags, so they didn't get in the picture!

My change for May is to plant a small container garden. I have a tomato plant that's waiting to be planted. I am going to make my own "topsy turvy" style planter for it. I found a tutorial for one at the Crafty Crow. As soon as John finishes the ginger ale, I'm on it!

We have a huge wooden barrel that my mother-in-law gave us last year. I think I will use it to plant some other veggies. I haven't decided which ones yet. I better get on that!

What changes are you making?

Yes, you are in the right place

When you got here did you think you were in at the wrong blog? How do you like my new look? I'm too excited about it:) Leelou has some adorable free (yes FREE) blog templates. I loved this one and a few others, but went with the owls for now. I think it brightens things up a little!

I'll be back later to post pictures of some fun we had today :)