A Pinterest Play Date!

We had a play date with a cute set of twins scheduled for this morning at 10:00...and I had all three kids home for the day (Sassy's school was closed for an obscure holiday!).  At about 9:30, I decided to plan something new and different to entertain the children.  It's very rare that I orchestrate a play date because I love to see their imaginations develop...but I had a feeling that we were going to need some intervention today!

So enter my new obsession...Pinterest!  Someday I'll do a post on all my crafty projects that now fill my house...but let's stay on topic here!  I skimmed my "Kids" board and stumbled across the "homemade chalk paint" and quickly noticed that we had all the ingredients on hand. 

Here's the recipe and instructions...so simple!  And the kids loved it...see for yourself!

Love the tongue hanging out!

And this is the face of someone caught mixing colors!

Oh, Sassy!

A little Boy's Heaven on Earth

Some might consider having the street outside their house torn up a major inconvenience.

Not the case in our house! 

This was Bruiser's spot for the ENTIRE day!

He was in little boy Heaven!

What Happened to July???

We've been away, celebrating summer!

Who wouldn't LOVE being here...

 ...with this little one (and a few more!)?

We splashed in the water,

 jumped some waves,

 dug in the sand,

and snuggled with this smiley guy! 

The Sprout Clan 

The Sprout/Deitz Clan 

More stories and pictures to come! 

Happy Birthday, America!

A Bit of Culture

Sunday we headed to Papa and Mimi's house and hung out with aunts and uncles and a certain little chunk of a cousin!

It was hot again and Mimi needed a rest, so we headed to the local museum to check things out.

There was an amazing toothpick display that was incredible to look at...it even held the kids' attention!  Bruiser has talked of nothing else than building a bridge out of toothpicks.

And here is the mummy I remember from childhood...many school trips were taken to this museum to see this very mummy.

There was also a great dinosaur exhibit that I recorded on my phone...stay tuned!

Pennsylvania Water Play!

This past weekend we headed to Pennsylvania to help Daddy's grandmother celebrate her 80th birthday and to deliver Tater to Papa's house for the month of July.  It was a quick three-day, two-night trip but we packed in a lot of fun! 

Saturday was unbearably hot but the kids stayed cool with some water play!

iPhone Photo Dump!

I love my large amazing camera...and it goes with us often and takes amazing pictures.  But, as we all know, our phone is always attached to our bodies and is SO convenient to snap pictures and upload them to Facebook or text and email them.  I can't believe that I have over 500 pictures on my phone!  Here are a few from the past several months that have never made it to the blog and I wanted to make sure we documented!

This was taken about 30 minutes before Tater broke her arm...if only we had known what was coming our way!

Bruiser's preschool school picture...LOVE!

Sassy being sassy!

Tater learned to write me "love" notes!

Sassy had the local weatherman visit her preschool class...and her picture made it on TV!

(She's sitting on the bottom left!)

Oh, the pose!

The Big Blue Bug, a local icon that made national news when they added his tie!

Sassy likes to claim it's "my tie" every morning as she and Daddy drive by it!

Tater, the Young Author, in first grade!

And...we went camping!

Our home away from home.

Our little Katniss in her tutu!

Mountain man!

We're all about the costumes!

Dinner time!

Mommy and the Sass

Fire!

A little red, white, and blue!

Color-coordinated nails!

Our local zoo opened a new play are for the kids and we won a contest to preview it and make it on the local news that was filming it.

There is amazing water play!

And some creating that is tons of fun!

And what are pictures from the House of Sprout without some beach shots?

Playing like they like each other!

Sassy and Daddy in the water...her favorite place to be!

Here she was telling the water to "Stop!"

Shivery girl!

Love this shot!

And to end this photo dump...here's the injury Mommy suffered this spring...thanks to a mandolin slicer!  It required 3 stitches and I still have a scar and lose of feeling in the finger tip!  I couldn't let Tater have all the fun!!!!!!