A little bit of this, a little bit of that

Things sure have been busy in our neck of the woods, and they are not about to slow down, even after the 4th of July holiday weekend. In the past two weeks I have worked on several small projects between spending lots of time with my family. You might want to have a snack or something to drink, this could be a long one!

I put our summer to do list up on our chalkboard (like Andi's from Jane of all Crafts) so that we could keep track of all of the things that we want to do/have done this summer. Since I am able to stay home during the summer months I want to spend some quality time doing things with the kids that we usually don't have time/don't make time for. The items on our list are also great opportunities for learning about and exploring our surroundings. The John Deere Expo in Moline, IL was a huge hit with the kids! They spent about an hour climbing on and off of all of the tractors on display. It was the perfect activity for a rainy day because most of the tractor models are displayed indoors and it is completely free, unless you walk into the gift shop full of toy tractors and John Deere paraphernalia.

We also purchased a membership to and visited our local zoo for the first time.


The vinyl that I purchased for my living room photo wall was a complete fail. The vinyl did not stick well at all on our textured walls. I was able to save the quote by covering over it with mod podge. The decorative scrolls simply kept falling off of the wall even with the addition of mod podge. So I attached the vinyl to a paper shopping bag and cut it out using a craft knife. I then traced the shape onto the wall and hand painted the scrolls.



After fixing the vinyl in the living room, we did a little bit of relaxing by the pool.


We are so fortunate that my in-laws have a pool in their backyard. It is so convenient and nice to have a private quiet place to cool off and relax without fighting the crowds.

After a refreshing swim, I worked on updating our kitchen by giving several items a coat of glossy black spray paint. We received the spice rack, knife block, cup holder, paper towel holder and utensil container for our wedding almost a decade ago.


I was tired of the wood tones and decided to paint them all black.



Did you see all of those little white plastic squares on my kitchen countertops? No they are not the latest kitchen design trend, rather they are to try to control a little problem that we have in our house every summer: ANTS! No matter how obsessively I clean and try to keep the kids eating and drinking only at the table, we have had a problem with ants both of the years we have lived in this house. Our neighbor recommended a pest control company which I called and had do a fumigation. Unfortunately, the fumigation was not as effective as I would have hoped. They told me in advance that ants come in the house to find a dry enviroment, but it has not rained here in about 2 weeks. Do any of you have any ideas for getting rid of ants?

During the weekend of the 4th of July, we spent a lot of time on the good ol' muddy Mississppi. We have had about as many boats as we have had houses, but since purchasing our pontoon boat, we have spent even more time on the river and especially at the local beach.




Finally, I created button bracelets for my daughter and I, using buttons that I had on hand.

The buttons are simply sewn onto a piece of elastic. The possibilities for these are absolutely endless!

Whew! I am tired, but I just realized today that school supplies are filling the store shelves, which means that summer is coming to a close. I only have about 6 weeks left to enjoy being a stay at home mommy before going back to work for the school year. So there will be no rest for the weary and we will be hitting the to do list hard and creating lots of fun family memories!