Accentuate the Positive

When you look back at your life, the things that stick out are the really good and the really bad. Hopefully the good outweigh the bad . I personally think it helps if you document the decent times so that if you're on the fence about having a good life or bad, this can push you over the good edge. So here's to a fantastic week at the Perkins House.

First, we had Caroline's kindergarten graduation. When they sang their little songs, you could hear cute little Caroline so well. She really has a talent for remembering words. It was amazing to look back over this school year and think that Caroline started the year with a cast on her arm and road rash on her face. Amazing.

For breakfast on the last day of school, my mom started the tradition of having banana splits. I thought it was worth keeping. Some people leave off the banana and just have the ice cream. Sophia was amazed when I set this creation on her tray.

Then the first day of summer vacation was all about sugar cereal, karoake, video games, and of course it was Kassie's birthday today! How much better could it get?

We had a swimming party for Kassie, very low key but fun. She requested a cookie cake from Nestle but I just made one instead. Our recipe for chocolate chip cookies is way better.
In this shot, I told the birthday crowd to jump on three. The splash is Caroline, who jumped on two:)

The one dark spot on our day was that poor little Sydney was throwing up. We are hoping it was just a 24 hour thing. But I'm accentuating the positive so I'll just tell you that if I have to have any of the kids throwing up, I'm glad it's her. She's so neat and clean and low maintenance.

When the kids think life is bad, I'll just show them this post! Maybe I need a blog book...

Yummy!

Sometimes I get sick and tired of eating the same stuff day after day. It is my lot since I am sort of a picky eater. So every once in a while, I will pull out my cookbooks or look online to spice up my weekly menu. This week has some old favorites as well as a recipe from Courtney's Angels Cookbook. Amy Pennington contributed it and it is YUMMY! I don't usually post recipes on my blog but this one is so good and easy! All you do is mix all the ingredients together in the crock pot and cook on high for 4-5 hours, shredding the chicken about an hour before complete. When you're ready to serve, you can put it in taco shells or roll it up like a burrito, and top with lettuce, shredded cheese, and sour cream. Everyone in my family ate it - which is VERY unusual. Thanks Amy!

3-4 chicken breast (thawed)

1 jar salsa

1 can of corn

1 can of black beans

1/2 packet of chicken taco seasoning

Thanks to Facebook

I am a fairly nosey person by nature - not in a bad way, not gossipy - just fascinated by people in general and specifically in those who have touched my life significantly. So a couple of years ago when a friend told us how great facebook was for helping you reconnect with old friends, I jumped on it! I spent HOURS looking for friends from my old neighborhood, schools, church. It was addicting. There are still some people who aren't on facebook and I wonder about them, especially when I hear certain songs on the radio that bring back memories. But luckily I am able to stay in touch with most of my closest friends from the past.

Today, I met up with one of my closest friends from high school, embarrassingly we called ourselves the Crayola Queens. (Jenn, Cathleen, Sherri - forgive me for posting this picture):

You see, we thought we were so smart and so over high school that we didn't really have to listen to our government teacher (who spent most of his time drunk and to this day every time I hear the name Justice Rehnquist I hear it in his voice) or our World Lit teacher (who we really liked but again, we were too cool). We each bought ourselves a Brand New Pack of 96 Crayola Crayons. And that was back when they were introducing the new colors and we got to enter the contest to help name them, you know Purple Mountain Majesty and Macaroni and Cheese. (You know you are wishing this very minute for a fresh pack of brand new crayons.) Anyway, senior year was great with these girls in almost all my classes. After high school, we each went to separate colleges and haven't seen each except at our 10 year reunion! But thanks to facebook, we are in touch again! Jenn and I took our families to the Phoenix Zoo and the first thing we saw was the Ram at the top of the mountain! It was a sign since we were the Rancho Rams in high school:)

After trekking through the zoo in fairly warm weather, we paused to take this picture of us with our kids. I had such a good time, it's amazing how good friends can just reconnect and melt away all the years spent apart. Jenn is the same amazing person with a realistic outlook on life, witty sense of humor, and get-it-done attitude that I remember. No wonder we were such good friends! Cathleen, I can't wait till you come in June and we can ALL get together. Thanks, facebook!

It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

One of the things that sold us on this house was the backyard. It is gorgeous and it has a pool! Right after we moved in, we dumped hundreds of dollars into the pool trying to get it ready to swim in, only to find out that it needed to be completely drained! So we drained it, cleaned it, and refilled it, then dumped a few hundred more dollars worth of chemicals in. We swam for a few months before it was too cold and then it sat all winter. Unfortunately, when we tested the water in the spring, it was like tap water with no trace of the chemicals we had put in last fall! We discovered that it had a leak in the fill valve, fixed that and started the chemical process all over again.

We were so frustrated and began to be very concerned about the money pit we apparently bought! Seriously, that kind of money was not in the budget! What were we going to do? Clearly, we had made a terrible mistake!

Luckily the problem turned out to be realtively cheap to fix and we have been enjoying the pool for several weeks now. In fact, the kids come home from school, put on their swimming suits and hardly come in the house (except for homework). They even have their snack and their dinner out there. It's divine! Definitely worth all the money and stress:)

Not Quite as Disturbing as the Last Post

You wouldn't think that something as ho-hum as a potty chair could bring so much excitement to our baby. Sophia doesn't turn two until June but lately she's been interested in the toilet so I thought I would just pick up this little seat while I was at grocery shopping today. It's much fancier than what the other girls sat on but works just the same. Sophia loved it! After taking her diaper off by herself over and over again, she carried it all over the house today and then out to the back yard! Not a single drop of pee-pee all day but it was fun to watch.