Nothing much has been going on here lately, to really speak of. The weather has been fantastic and the kids have been playing themselves out at night running and never stopping. I think the weather is going to play a factor in going down to the lake tonight for a free concert .

I keep plugging away on spring cleaning the house. That what happens when you have a small house and have to keep going through stuff and getting rid of it and shifting it here and there to make room :( I hope one more week and that will be done and then we can get down to summer vacation. I do soon want to go to Pa. for a week and this year I AM going to see the Flight 93 memorial. So we will see where we decide to end up at this year. I am getting anxious to get going places. Ok, I'm off for the weekend. Happy Father's Day to all dad's!!

Oh, those lovely signs of summer. We have had some really gorgeous days here lately and we have taken full advantage of them. Life is getting easier the older Logan gets (yes, I will bite my tongue on that later), so I decided this summer we were going to take full advantage of getting out and doing stuff again. First trip was to pick strawberries. This went so well, I almost have to pinch myself! Logan found a piece of hay (he's into pointing everything with a stick lately) and kept himself occupied poking the strawberries and plants........whatever, he kept him busy! Olivia couldn't get over how many (acres) of strawberries there were, and just how many we could pick. Fun was had by all and Logan managed to keep his piece of hay with him to the car.

Busy hands are happy hands!

Olivia had my camera outside the other evening and was going to town taking pics, and I have to say, she's pretty good at it. It's funny sometimes to look at what they see and why they see it, after all aren't we too busy to notice the little things in life..........

I just can't believe how much Logan's grown and how much more he is doing. It just thrills me when he's in the yard playing on his own, oh how I longed for this day for so long!!

Schools out for summer!

Sorry for the title, you know you all have that song in your head now. Olivia's last day was Thursday and I'm learning once again this summer, busy hands are happy hands. Believe me, if all I had to do every day was play with my kids,life would be grand! She can't find enough to do to keep her busy, I guess it's going from being busy every minute of the day at school to be home every minute of a day now. Logan seems to like having her home all day now, keeps him occupied with someone else here. Above is her art award she received on Wed. and very proud of it she is. I think there may be more in her future........just saying.

Can we fix it? Yes, we can! Such a boy.

Let me see how exactly you do that dad, so I can do it next time. Can't you just read his mind!

Logan has grown so much lately, physically and mentally. He's understanding more each day and is doing awesome outside playing. Needless to say, he loves it outside and don't try to bring him inside. He is also into hiding things he has in his hands, which is quit comical sometimes. You will find his cup when your not even looking, just happen to stumble across it in the cupboard or take the other night when I tore this house apart looking for his toothbrush he ran off with only to find it 3hrs. later in the silverware drawer. It has become kind of funny looking for this stuff cause you never know where he could put things. Rich's truck keys down in the couch, on purpose! What a boy!

It's good having a big sister to ride you around when your feet will only likely reach pedals in 2 more yrs. (i joke). Didn't think he would stay seated, but he loved it and it kept the two of them occupied for awhile.

I finally got my hands on the newspaper article with the list and pics in of the Springfield book! I cannot tell you how excited we are!!

Once again we awoke this morning to a surprise out front! Like I have said before, "you just never know what you are going to find in this yard!" A turtle was a pleasant surprise until the neighbor tried to take it away to his pond and found out it was a snapper!

Ok, I'm going to brag here a little. Not much has been happening lately here, but then I got some really exciting news that will make parents just gloat until forever! We found out that Olivia's drawing in art class is going to be printed on the front cover of a school textbook!! YIPEE Let me explain.....at the beginning of school 2 teachers decided they wanted to put a book together about the history of Springfield Township for a 3rd grade textbook (that is a taught course in 3rd grade). So each art class was doing a separate drawing for inside the book and the best one would get printed in it. I have held my breathe all year long and sorta had my doubts only b/c there was a little boy also in her class who had a pretty good gazebo drawing (they drew the new gazebo down by the lake). I finally got the final paper on it saying that her drawing is going to be the front cover!!! Now think about this.....First grade and her drawing will be permanently on a school textbook........forever!!! I am truly over the moon happy for her. The drawings are getting sent down to Canton,OH. to be professionally framed and displayed in the town hall in the fall, bet I will get my hands on that and it will proudly be displayed over our mantle!!! Olivia is going to go far in her drawing and i'm so excited she has had this opportunity to put herself out there and really show herself what she can do!!!! Below is the paper, but of course it wouldn't take a good picture, but it does say Olivia Nagle (cover of book)...........She crossed out her age of 6 and put 7, but 6 is when the drawing was finished.Logan has learned to reach on tip toes and he uses them frequently to his advantage.

We got to finally go home over Memorial Day and it was beautiful. How couldn't you ask for a better holiday weekend than being able to wear shorts and t-shirts and no coats!!

Anybody else surprised he stood still long enough for me to take the pic without it being blurred?? Look at those fat little legs!

I have no idea what this bush is, but it got really loaded this year with pink flowers and was gorgeous this week until a heavy rain beat it up.

One last note......I'm still couponing(ha ha Jimmy who thinks i'm insane) and getting lots of stuff for so much less and my mom and Nicole may have caught the bug too after getting gallons of ice tea for .50 each!

GO CAVS! The Cleveland Cavaliers are still hanging in there in the playoffs and well deserve to be there and beat Orlando!! Believe me I don't watch much b-ball but to watch LeBron James play is like magic.........I love this, (dare I say) kid, he's so young and SO EXTREMELY TALENTED!!! I remember when Rich wanted to go watch him in high school and I was like "whatever" you ain't got no Micheal Jordan here, he grew up in the hood! Well, guess what........I should have went in High School...................

Last Coupon Lecture

ok, last time, I promise (unless I get a REALLY awesome deal). I just wanted to show you what you can get with your money without spending it all in one place. My first trip to the store was the top pic. 2 Mega size diapers (these alone were $14.99 each, but I got $5 OYNO(on your next order), 10 pasta/rice sides, 5 BarBQue, 2 bags of fish, and 4 boxes of mac&Cheese. Now i went and got these in one trip b/c they were all offering a OYNO if you bought so many of each item. So I went armed with my reg.coupons and using $10 OYNO from last week. Anybody want to guess how much was spent?? (answer at the bottom) I also got $11.50 in OYNO for today!!

So my second trip today was with my $11.50 and reg. coupons. These did not offer any OYNO although I got a $3 for something and I can't figure it out, but I'll take it! This trip included 4 boxes of hefty storage zip bags, 1 velveeta pasta, 2 boxes of Spah.noodles, 1 coffee, 2 aluminium foil, 2 Kool-aid, 3 dial hand soap, 2 doz. eggs, 3 barbque's, 5 jars of ragu, wheat thins, and Ritz. Anybody guessing the price??

I just wanted everyone to see what you can do. I thought that trip was well worth the cutting and printing I did, let alone the strategy. also, I only try to use my coupons at stores that double them, i want more for my buck!! Don't forget the diapers add a huge expense but no way around that right now.

This is my shopper who helped by just looking cute!!

The total from pic #1 was 33.61 (basically I bought the diapers all else was free)

Pic #2.......$13.96........seriously good deals!!