let's go shopping

Bunches of new outfits from the Gap... $225
Two pairs of adorable green wedges... $14 (yes, we match...what a steal!)
Lunch for two at the food court... $8
Gotta-have Vans for school... $29
Chocolate shake and fries (for the ride home)... $4
7 hours of babysitting Marshall and Gracie... $0 (thanks, Jenna!)

All-day shopping with your ultra-cool 10 year-old... priceless

Prime Outlets, here we come!

time to build

**Exhale**

That's what we've finally been able to do around here. Given the tough real estate market, it took a long time to sell the house Chris built on Beechwood Ave. It's official...we've closed on it. We can now focus on selling our current home and then start building our new home.

Part of the plan is to finish the room over the garage, to maximize the square footage. Chris and Marshall have been busy all day tearing a hole in the roof and building a nice, big room for the new owners to appreciate :) We'll put our house on the market in August.


Here's the view from our new backyard. The house is on Mona Ave. For those of you familiar with Norfolk, it's the neighborhood behind the Sonic, by the church. It's on Pretty Lake which runs into Little Creek, which runs into the bay. We will start putting in the dock next month. The children tell people, "The whole world is our backyard". I can't argue with them.

harley's got tunes

Remember when you were little and you wanted to buy something expensive? Usually by the time the money was saved, you changed your mind or got interested in something else. At least that's how it was with me. Harley has wanted an iPod for a while. Her friends all have one and she knew it would improve her lifestyle :) She announced that she was saving up for one. Harley loves to earn money; she loves to spend it, too. I thought this would fizzle like all my attempts as a child. I told her if she earned half by the time her birthday rolled around in November, I would give her the other half for her present. That was a good idea, but not fast enough. She earned $150 and bought herself a 4GB iPod last week.
It was fun watching her save the money. Its more fun watching her joy as that iPod is on her body every moment I will let her. I already have an iPod, so I gave her a bunch of music from my iTunes. She asked if she could get a Carrie Underwood song, so I purchased it for her. When Chris was inspecting the purchase and the new Carrie Underwood song, he suddenly became interested in the idea of getting video for the gadget. Hmm...I wonder what inspired that??

Check it out!!! Harley has a blog and she's excited to share some cool things with cool girls! She will be featuring Webkinz and Zac Efron updates :) There's a quiz right now with the chance to win a Webkinz virtual gift; just answer the question and leave your 'kinz username. Here's the address: http://1grl1wrld.blogspot.com (the link is over on the sidebar under "Harley").

cast away

I have some posts I need to catch up on. I get so busy with the children, there doesn't seem to be time. When we were at the funeral, we stayed in the cabins at Fairystone State Park. The day we spent at the lake, Marshall fished all day. He had no desire to swim. He didn't care about the water slides and such. He stayed on the side and fished over by the bushes. For about 8 hours. I would go over and visit with him, or bring him food. During one of the chats, he caught a fish. He was pretty excited because he was "down to about a 1/4 of a worm", meaning he had no bait left. He decided rather than take the fish off the hook, he would just leave it on and use it as bait to catch a really big fish. I couldn't resist the chance to video it. I used my still camera for the video. It's not really clear and it has no sound. If you look closely, you'll see he already has a fish on the line before he casts it. Marshall never caught the "big one", but he didn't get discouraged.

happy 4th everyone

Did you have a nice 4th of July? Our was low-key, but filled with good food. The family really wanted to go see fireworks downtown. I knew that if we had a bunch of people over I would be too tired come time for the fireworks. So, Chris went to work and I stayed home and made lots of food. Our friend Michael came over and we grilled pizza and got stuffed. Here's a run-down of our day in pictures:

Breakfast was Red, White and Blueberry French Toast. I made it with homemade whole-wheat bread, blueberries and raspberries.


Then, I got to work on a batch of my Watermelon Slice cookies. They are made with a refrigerator cookie dough with a great almond flavor. The "seeds" are snipped raisins and sesame seeds. (I'll post recipe later.)



Grilled Pizza for dinner! Chris was busy working the grill and fixing the toppings. Mine was a tomato basil pizza with some sliced pumpkin blossoms from our garden.


The children enjoyed Rocket Pops for dessert! We made these with vanilla yogurt. One portion was tinted red. I added crushed strawberries for flavor. Another portion was tinted blue with frozen mini blueberries added. The last portion was plain vanilla. We took waxed paper and made cone shapes. They fit inside sugar cones and we filled the yogurt inside these in layers. To freeze, we cut holes in the sugar cone box to fit the cones. This held them upright in the freezer. We put a stick in each and they were ready to be frozen.
Yummy:)
The grown-ups were not about to be outdone by the Rocket-Pop brigade. We enjoyed a Summer Berry Tart. This tart is filled with pastry cream and fresh berries. It was divine.


With full tummies, we headed out to see the fireworks. (Sorry about the lousy picture.) We left without checking the forecast and wondered why it was so easy to find a parking spot. An hour later, the fireworks were canceled. We drove home in the pouring rain. The children were so tired, no one complained!