sunday drive.

today we went for a little sunday morning drive.

we needed to fill up the long morning with something other than movies, laziness, pajamas, whining, boredom, etc.

1:00 pm church is the worst.
{ok, 2:30 pm church is the worst, but 1:00 is still rough.}

serena still whined {"grandma's house! grandma's house!} but hey, she's 2... i had better just get used to it already. i think we will have to make the sunday drive a ritual for the next 5 months. it might just save my sanity.

what do YOU do with little kids on long sunday mornings when you have late church??? please help! seriously. HELP.

dear summer,

please stay forever. we love you.

colorful cookies from parson's, swimming at grandma's pool, bubble gum ice cream, stuck in a huggies box {"mommy! i stuck!"}, beeeautiful sunset, road trip, harper likes swimming {her very first time!}, brand new baby boy cousin {roman}, mommy-serena date at lagoon.

doll bed makeover.

before:

after:

i've been meaning to post this makeover for a long time, but here it is several months later. serena got this $20 ikea doll bed for her 2nd birthday. as a ploy to get her excited about sleeping in a big girl bed, i thought i would spruce it up a bit. it came with unfinished wood and the most hideous bedding ever {meant to be gender neutral or something}. so i found some fabric and my mom did the sewing. i painted and mod podged the bed, and voila! we bought serena a big girl doll {one with hair} to put in it, but she is napping with her at the moment, thus the baby doll.

if i were to do it over again, i would paint the bed a paler pink or white and skip the mod podging, but overall i like how it turned out.

did the ploy work? not really. but that was weeks ago and she now sleeps in her bed like a champ. for the most part.

roy's pizza & palisade.

on our way home, we stopped in ephraim for some pizza at roy's {formerly fat jack's} at heather's suggestion. it really did not disappoint. loved it! then we had a swim at palisade state park. we tried and failed at catching some fish {like in a plastic bag, not the real fishing pole type fish-catching}. serena had a love/hate relationship with the lake. she wanted in and out and in out. and mostly only had fun when heather and i swung her around in circles with her feet skimming the water. we left when the dark storm clouds started rolling in. both kids fell fast asleep for the rest of the ride home.

traveling with kids is exhausting. we had a wonderful weekend, and we're glad to be home now!

cove fort.

we spent part of friday touring cove fort, which is just a 20 minute drive from barbra & gene's house. i really enjoyed it, even though my kids were trying hard not to let me. it's a beautiful place and i loved learning about its history. i'm glad we made it as long as we did before taking the kids back to the house :)