Green Thumbs

Ok, holy landscaping, batman.  This last weekend, we finally pulled the trigger and purchased some plants, bushes, etc. to go around the deck.  This has been on our list for a long time, but in all honesty, I had absolutely no idea what I wanted to get to go around the deck and the thought of having to pick things out that a) would not die and b) would look good together was totally stressing me out.  So, as with all decisions that stress me out, I just avoided it.  However, Josh has been talking about it for a while now and I finally just decided that we would go to the local greenhouse and look for anything that does well in full sun and then just go for it.  And, that is exactly what we did. 

We got 2 rhododendrons (yes, I had to spell check that) to go on either side of the front door (now if we could just finish putting the walkway in, maybe someone would actually walk to the front door and see them).  It looks a bit silly here, but the tag says that this thing could grow to be 9 feet wide, so we opted to just put one on either side of the door vs. 2.  I don't have a picture of the second one.  It looks just like this one, so you're not missing out.

 At one point, I had mentioned that I really like the look of the weeping cherry trees, so Josh's parents got me one for my birthday and we got that planted this weekend....

 So, remember how I had commented on my hanging baskets that I had managed to keep alive?  Yeah - not so much.  As it turns out, they were impatiens and impatiens need to be in full shade.  So, one can only assume that they didn't do too well, as I had them in FULL SUN!  Anyway, I transplanted them to another pot and put them in the shade and instead, got these, which the woman swears are really hard to kill.  I will probably prove her wrong.

 Then, we got these for one side of the deck.  Those are 2 rose bushes, a hibiscus tree and a butterfly maple tree.  We like to call this side of the deck a "work in process" and will hopefully add more to it soon.  Too bad it is the one side that faces the street.  Whatever. 

 Here is one of the sides of the deck on the left of the stairs.  I don't know what any of these are called, but do know that they will all eventually span 2-3 feet.  Hence, the current spacing...

And, the other side of the deck, which was challenging, as I had to get the location of each plant to be exactly the mirror image of the other side of the deck.

And, here they are together!  Next up?  Grass.  Ugh.

So, what were Avery and Alex up to while we were doing all of this planting?  Avery was building a home for our new pet WORMS - Emily and William. 

 As she was building their new home, she decided that they may be hot and that they needed to go swimming.  I wasn't paying attention until she came to me with both worms sitting in a cup of water.  I don't know what worms have exactly, but I'm pretty certain they resemble lungs more than gills, so I informed Avery that she may want to come up with another past time for Lucy and William.  So, she decided to give them some food (aka, grass) and a toy (aka, a bubble wand).  We then put them in the shade so that they could play with their bubble wand and live while doing it...

What was Al doing, you ask?  Well, Al was sitting on the deck on the other side of the house squeezing an entire bottle of sunscreen all over himself and the deck. 

So, we nearly killed 2 worms and now have an eternally white deck (and child for that matter). BUT, our landscaping has been started, which is a very good thing!

Dead or Alive?

So, for whatever reason, Avery and Alex have both become obsessed with squirt bottles.  They love to just go outside (or inside for that matter) and squirt things with water- or, as Avery calls it, bleach things (she gets this from daycare, as she witnesses the teachers spraying down the table with a bottle of bleach and water before and after snack, lunch, etc).  So, up until the other night, we only had one squirt bottle and as you can imagine, having to share eventually led to meltdowns by both of them that were the kind of meltdowns where I'm pretty sure my neighbors now think that we beat our children.  As a solution, Josh combined 2 windex bottles (both of which had about 1/8 of the bottle left - why didn't we combine them sooner?  Because we're unorganized. You should know this by now) and then cleaned one of them out (he claims "20 times") and filled that with water to give to Avery.  So, now Avery has one squirt bottle and Alex has the other.  It's great - they are perfectly content for a good 30 mins just "bleaching" things.  Well, last night, I was standing near them and swore I could still smell windex coming out of Avery's bottle.  So, I told her that she couldn't squirt anything that was alive - this includes flowers, trees, bushes (which, as you all know, we have some of each now), Deacon and people.  Apparently?  In Avery's eyes?  Mom is no longer among the living...

I may have to agree with her given the fact that I just posted a picture of my ass for the entire world to see....

Happy Birthday, Mama!

Yep!  This weekend (well, nearly all of it) was all about Mama and I'll be honest - I was ok with that.  I officially turned 34 on Sunday, May 22nd.  My last year until "mid-30's."  Not sure I'm too ok with that, but what can I do? 

The weekend started out with (this is the part that wasn't all about me) Avery, myself, a friend of Avery's from school and her mom going up to Providence to get fitted for her uniform for St. Philomenas next year.  Wow- what a process!  It doesn't help that if she fits into an XXS in one thing, it doesn't necessarily mean that she will in all.  That said, we had to try EVERYTHING on.  Not an enjoyable activity when your daughter is, well, 4 and not really interested in trying on clothes.  Couple that with the fact that she was there with a friend and as a result, a bit more hyped up than normal and it turns into a long morning of being fitted.  But, regardless, she had a good time and we bought some clothes. 

And, by the time we were all done, it was lunch time and I knew that the girls would not last for another hour in the car with no food (nor would I, for that matter), so we stopped and had lunch, which was nice.  The rest of the afternoon was spent outside, as it was FINALLY nice out.  High 70's and sunny.  Perfect.

That night, Josh and I went out to dinner by ourselves.  We tried a new restaurant that we had a gift card to and unfortunately, it wasn't overly impressive, but it was still nice to get out without kids for a night.

Sunday, I decided that I wanted to go to the zoo with the whole family in order to celebrate my birthday.  We had a great day!  The kids both LOVE the zoo and had a great time running around, looking at the animals.  And, since it was my bday, I insisted on documenting the occassion with pictures of ME (what a novel concept, huh?).  Ok - we'll start with one of Josh because it is that typical zoo pose of kids and dad looking at animals...

 Mom:  "Hey guys, say, CHEESE!" 
Avery:  "Really mom?  People are watching us.  That is SO not cool."
Alex - "I really want to smile, but because you asked me to, I'm not going to!"

 Avery:  "Ok, FINE!  Alex just do it so that she stops bugging us.  It is her birthday, afterall..."

 Mom:  "Alex, can we try to look a bit more excited here?  Ok, you asked for it...I'm going to do it!"

 Mom: "Alex - say CHEESE!!!!!!"
Alex:  "Mom, it didn't work the first 3 times - it certainly isn't going to work the last 3 times either.  I'm totally over this picture thing..."

 After the zoo, we went to lunch at Chili's.  Ahhhhh, Chilis...home of my most favorite, most deadly junk food ever (literally - it was at one point rated the most unhealthy thing you can get at a restaurant)....Chicken Crispers!!!!!  But, alas, I was good and did not get them.  Although, being the smart mom that I am, decided that Alex should get them!  Good thing I just admitted to giving my son the most unhealthy thing at a restauarant. He had broccoli with it and only ate one, so cut me some slack...and, it was a good thing he only ate one - surely he couldn't have handled the other 2 that mama ate for him.

 Sunday night, we had Josh's dad over for dinner.  Grammy is out of town with a group from school, so it was the perfect opportunity for us to provide dinner for Grampy AND to have another guest over to celebrate my birthday!  As you can see, Avery was thrilled to have another person to push on the swing.  Not so sure Grampy was quite as thrilled.  Nor was Alex given the look on his face...

 Josh made a nice dinner - kept it traditional Wisconsin with brats, potato chips and veggies.  I felt like I was right at home.  He also let Alex pick out my cake while they were at the store earlier that day.  Apparently, Alex was still pissed off about the "Say Cheese" episode, as he selected the "Mexican Flourless Chocolate Tart."  The woman at the counter said that it was different than a normal chocolate tart, as they added a bit more cinnamon to it to spicen it up.  Apparently, by "a bit more cinnamon" she actually meant, "a TON of something similar to red pepper flakes that will burn the crap out of your mouth and taste horrible."  Holy cow!  I mean, it was really spicey!  And, not really all that good, to be honest.  But, good try on Josh's part.  Thoughtful nonetheless.

 And, as it turns out, it was fine that my bday cake wasn't really all that good because Lindsey had brought over these cupcakes earlier in the day, so now, instead of both the cake and the cupcake that I was planning to eat, I just stuck with the cupcake.  Anything to cut calories, you know (insert sarcasm)?

 And, no birthday is complete without running and jumping on the packaging that came in the crate and barrel box from Aunt Lexi!

Thanks everyone for all of the birthday wishes (facebook is a wonderful thing - I haven't spoken to some people in over 10 years, yet they wish me a happy birthday!) and thanks to Josh and the kids for making my day so special! 

Busy Bees

I know that I've said this before, but getting stuff done around the house is hard with 2 kids running around.  Really, really hard.  It also doesn't help that neither Josh or I are overly handy and really, neither one of us has a clue when it comes to landscaping, decorating, or really, organization in general - clearly not a good recipe for successful home ownership, but whatever - we'll blame everything that isn't done on the fact that we have 2 kids running around (Avery and Alex -don't take offense - we love you dearly, I promise). 

That said, as I mentioned before, we did manage to get a significant (according to the Holland definition of significant) amount done before Avery's party.  And, just to toot my own horn - I'm going to list our accomplishments...

1) Washed the windows.  This my friends, was no small task.  a) we have those grates on EVERY window, so it isn't just one fell swoop with the squeegie - it is 32 little ones.  b) I washed all windows the first time with the wrong type of squeegie and had to do it again because they still looked horrible.  I have learned a lesson, it is ALL in the squeegie - I highly recommend you invest in one.  Anyway - a little dawn dish detergent in a bucket of water and the right squeegie worked like a charm.  And, here is the result!  And, yes - I realize that you can't tell if this is clean or not and yes, I realize that it is a picture of a window,  but, for the full effect, I really wanted a picture of each thing that we did, so embrace the window...

Of course, I realized just now that I had to take a picture out the one window that clearly displays the fact that we are a bit challenged in the grass planting department.  It's the kids, I swear.

THEN, 2) I finally managed to get some flower pots AND, an added bonus, plant some flowers in the pots! 

3) purchased and hung some hanging plants, which have still managed to stay alive.  I don't know what my deal is, but I really can't get hanging plants to live any longer than a month or so.  I don't know if I over water?  under water?  But, regardless - they are currently thriving, so I must be doing something right this time around (note the 2 additional flower pots on this deck)...

4) fertilized the bushes that we planted last fall and as it turns out, it worked!  Look at this puppy...

We also did various things like 5) pick up sticks and 6) attempt to plant grass, but I don't have pictures of that stuff (so much for that "full effect" concept) so I will ask you to use your imagination here.

And, last but not least - the wall!!!  Yes, folks, I FINALLY got THE WALL done!  I can't tell you how many times I layed these pictures out on the floor and how many times I changed the layout and then, how long it took to finish it once I actually started hanging the pictures, but it is done!

Our new hutch is on the other side of the wall, but I forgot to take a picture of that.  And, really, I can't take much credit for it, as our good buddy Earle installed it, but I will take credit for FINALLY deciding what we wanted and purchasing it (which, given our lack of good home ownership traits as described above, is an accomplishment in and of itself).

I will say that it feels great to have gotten this stuff done.  I now feel like we can go into the summer a bit less stressed and we will be able to enjoy ourselves even more as a result.  Granted, we may be enjoying ourselves on a lawn 1/2 covered in grass, but whatever.  At least we have flower pots to look at...

New and Improved?

As you may notice, the design of my blog has changed.  Up until today, I had kept the original, boring, "I don't really know what I'm doing", template that I used when I first started this. But, given that I have actually kept up with this blog thing and actually enjoy doing it, I figured I should change things up a bit to make it look a bit more put together.  Do you like it?  I will be honest - I'm not completely sold on it yet, so will probably continue to play around with it.  Quite frankly, I feel like, when you first open it, it is like "Wow!  There are the Hollands!  Front and Center!"  But, I thought that it would be fun to have a picture of the family up - especially since there are very few of Josh and I on this thing - and, I can't figure out how to make the picture smaller, so it will stay this way until I change it.  Look at it this way, every time you open the blog, it will be like the entire Holland family is right in the room with you shouting hello (well, except for Al, who clearly isn't paying attention to you - no offense)!  And, really - who wouldn't want that?  :) 

Happy 4th Birthday, Avery!

Well, the weekend that we have been preparing for finally came a few days ago. It's funny because, every year, Avery's birthday party weekend is the drop dead date to have everything (or at least 90%) done around the house that we have been meaning to get to for months. The timing of her parties also coincides with the start of spring, so it is only natural that we start to do all of the spring cleaning activities around that time anyway, but with her parties (aka, having what seems like 1000 people in my house who may have never seen it before and who are wondering where Avery lives) on the horizon, the speed of actually getting this spring cleaning done picks up just a bit. And, by just a bit, I mean, that we have not actually stopped going on the weekends since about mid-March. Anyway....all in all, our efforts paid off and the parties were all a huge success.


Opa and Grandma once again came in for the festitivities on Friday night. The kids just about bounced off the walls when they walked in the door. They were so excited to see both of them. And, Alex has learned how to say "Opa" quite well, so needless to say, that is pretty much all we heard all weekend.


On Saturday, we had approximately 20 kids and their parents over to the house for Avery's "kid party." First of all, let me tell you that all of our "spring cleaning" nearly was a bust, as the forecast called for rain (and even thunderstorms) ALL day on Saturday. However, we woke up to a gorgeous, sunny, mid 60 degree day and it stayed that way ALL weekend. It was amazing. We wanted to make sure the kids would have plenty to do, so we rented a bouncy house for the weekend, which turned out to be a huge hit. Even Al got in there with the big kids and managed to only get elbowed in the face once. Not bad for a 2 year old bouncing with 15 other 4 year olds.

We had a pinata as well, which was fun, but well...sturdy. Every kid had 2 shots at it and then finally, one of them just hit it about 10 times until it finally opened a bit and Opa dumped all of the candy on the ground.






Other than that, the kids had fun playing in the new swingset (installed just in the knick (how does one spell "knick" when saying "knick of time," anyway?) of time - the weekend before the party) and running around.





And, given how many beers we went through, I would say that the parents had a great time as well.

And, yes - I said 90% of the spring cleaning was done. One of the 10% that wasn't? Grass growing in on time - hence, the hay. Oh - and, the lack of landscaping around the deck. But, whatever. All in good time.


AND, the hit of the party was Avery's bday present from Lindsey - butterfly cupcakes! Lindsey made these all by hand - 72 of them to be exact! They were incredible. I think that people are still talking about them.

Sunday was her family party with Josh's whole family and my parents. It has become a tradition to celebrate her birthday on Mother's Day, which works well for everyone, I think.

This year, given the fact that BOTH parties were at our house, I attempted to do things as easy as possible. So, we stuck with a one-color, no starred (or minimal stars) cake and went with a princess. I think that it actually turned out quite well and the 3-D thing makes it look like it was even more complicated than the others that I've done!


Tuesday was her actual birthday, so I took the day off and Opa, Grandma, Avery, Alex and I all went to the Children's museum to play. Of course, we had to go to a restaurant first for lunch (Avery's birthday would not be complete without a trip to a restaurant). As one can expect, the children's museum on a weekday has about 90% fewer kids than it does on the weekends. It was a nice surprise, as the kids were able to really spend a lot of time at the various activities and were able to do nearly everything there.

So, here we are, at the end of the birthday festivities and Mama is pooped. I'll be honest - I'm looking forward to a few weekends off from spring cleaning and from hosting. But, overall, I'm glad that Avery had a great birthday and was able to celebrate it with all of her friends and family.