What I wore Wednesday: Summer clothes!

In another effort to clean off my phone and get some memory back, WWIW it is! I have seriously been ridiculously lazy about getting dressed this summer. I really has been workout clothes and swimsuits and a cover up, unless I have to leave the house and even then, ehh.

So I had this dream a few nights ago that I went to the grocery store and I saw the boy who grew up next door, that I had a major middle school crush on, and I didn't have any makeup on and I was wearing these tragic painting shorts and a holey t-shirt! It was weird, but you just never know who you will see out, so I have been trying to make a better effort especially if I am leaving the house!! Maybe that dream was a sign?!

Tee: Old Navy

Vest: Target

Shorts: Express, thrifted

Flip flops: Target

The wedding day dress! It was so comfy and pretty!

Dress: Target, thrifted

Necklace: Jane

Heels: Dillard's

Top: Jane

Jeans: Target

Sandals: Target

Fourth of July! My sister in law ordered this top and it was  horribly sized, so I was the lucky chick who got to wear! Thanks Jenny!

Top: from my sis in law

Shorts: American Eagle, thrifted

Flip flops: Target

4th of July again!!

Romper: H&M

Necklace: Jane

Flip flops: Old Navy

I wore this last week to work in my classroom!

Top: Old Navy

Shorts: Express, thrifted

Necklace: I made it! One of my little projects last week!

Sandals: Target

Running errands on a hot Saturday!

Romper: Target

Flip flips: Old Navy

Tee: Target

Necklace: Jane

Shorts: Express

Flip Flops: Old Navy

I wore this last week to the pool and Kellen said, "Oh my goodness mommy, you are so pretty!" I love his sweet compliments!

Dress:??? Thrifted

Sandals: Target

For a fun day at the jumpoline!

Tee: Jane

Shorts: Gap, thrifted

Flip flops: Target

Just a few more precious days of wearing whatever and then it's back to school clothes for the year!! I am going to enjoy it while I can!!

Make something Monday: Masking Tape canvases!

This make something Monday is actually from last Monday! I have to do a workshop for school all week. I got to meet my team today and they are SO great! I am super jazzed to work with them this year! 

While, I am not super thrilled about spending one of the last precious weeks of summer away from my kiddos, at least it was a fun and productive day!

Also, I got Callie registered at my school! I am so excited that she will be going with me next year to my new school and we can have the same schedule and calendar. It is going to be great!

So last week, we tried a new craft that I have been wanting to try forever! The colors didn't come out quite as I had planned, but the kids loved it and now I just need a place to put it!

You need:

Canvases, we had some left over from a my photo canvas project last winter

Making or painters tape

paint

brushes

Super easy. Tape off the canvas in a design that you like. I let Callie go to town on this part!

Then I let the kids paint. Each section we tried to paint a different color!

This was a struggle for my guy, who is used to finger painting, but he did GREAT!

After the paint has dried take off the tape and they are ready to display!

I wanted to use grey, yellow and navy, but the navy was not quite so navy. But it still came out so cute and they were SO proud of their art!

Time to read Tuesday: Book reviews!

We have actually have had some time to read this summer! I miss reading for fun so much and I have already gobbled up 3 books this summer with 3 more waiting on hold for me at the library.

I seriously prefer the library to buying books these days. Books are so expensive and let's be real how many times are you going to read them again, unless it's a really great book??

Here are my favorites this summer!

Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures such a great book! It follows a girl from being 9 years old on Wisconsin at her family farm and country playhouse theater to her rise to fame in Hollywood during the 1930's and 40's. It's a historical fiction book, I am not sure if it's based on an actual actress or not, but it's full of  drama and a super good read. I am sure that there are parts of it that are embellished, but I think it might give some real insight into what it's like to be under contract with a Hollywood studio and all of the crazy expectations that go with it. The main character kind of loses and gains her identity several times throughout the book and it is, of course, full of drama and loss. What book wouldn't be complete without conflict!

Wild is a true story and it is so good as well! I was sneaking this one all week trying to hide from my kids and read it uninterrupted! It's about how Cheryl Strayed loses her mother very suddenly to cancer and then kind of self destructs, she cheats on her husband, gets into drugs and all kinds of yucky stuff. Then she sees a hiking guide for the Pacific Crest Trail waiting in line at the store and decides to buy it. She gets this wild idea to solo hike thousands of miles from southern California to Washington. The books is a mixture of flashbacks and memories to her actual struggle on the trail. There are some parts that made me cringe thinking about the things that she went through on and off the trail, but it is so good, you don't want her journey to be over. There was a bunch of times, I thought, I could totally do that, but no, I probably would never make it. Such a great read!

The Chaperone Another historical fiction book, but this one actually was a true story and it was wonderful as well. It's about silent film star Louise Brooks chaperone. The story starts with Cora who is the chaperone, her kids are grown and she has nothing to do, so Louise's wealthy family hires her to accompany their 15 year old daughter to New York while she is auditioning for several weeks for a famous dance company. Turns out Cora has a mission of her own, she was actually born in New York and was an orphan on a train that was sent to Kansas and she wants to find her birth family or least find out what happened to them. There are some super sad parts, but it's a pretty great book with lots of plot twists that you don't see coming. I would highly recommend it!

So there you have it! Summer reading. Even though I get made fun of by my husband for being a nerd, I love reading and maybe, just maybe this year, I will keep it up and not just in the summer!

Make something Monday: The chalkboard tutorial

This was another project that in reality should have taken like 2 days at most, that has spanned like 3!

I saw a cool pinterest pin like 2 years ago for an outdoor chalkboard and I thought, "Cool! My kids would love that!" but it sat unmade on my outdoors board forever.
Callie loves to play school and "teach" Kellen a variety of things, so I thought this would be a fun thing to have outside for them!

It's pretty easy to throw together and I had all of the supplies! So it was almost free!
I used:
 1 sheet of cement shower board (like the kind you put in your shower before you tile it) We had some left over from the bathroom remodel last spring! Ours was a 3x5 foot sheet that we didn't need to do a thing to!
15 feet of moulding to make the border
primer
chalkboard paint
foam roller
spray paint for the boarder
Saw to cut the moulding
nail or staple gun to make the frame and hang it!

Left over Moulding!

Left over Hardibacker board

I had my mister show me how to use the chop saw and cut the moulding, then I just laid them out the make sure that everything fit together! Check!

Next, I primed, just to make sure the chalkboard paint would stick!

I gave the primer a day to dry and then I cracked open a can of chalkboard paint and it was dust inside the can, dust! So that put my project on hold for the day.

The next day, after a trip to Lowe's, I was back at it! 

This was one coat!

The next day I painted a second coat and it came out great! I used a foam roller and it did a great job!

Next I spray painted 2 coats of high gloss red spray paint to withstand being outside!

Then I was all ready for assembly, but Brien had lent his nail gun to his brother and my project was put on hold until he got it back!

Soooo, three weeks later...Here is my finished product!! I love how it came out and as you can see it's already getting lots of use! I have some cute little tin cans to use as chalk holder and I need to get some hooks up on the fence for the kids to use! It came out so well and the kiddos love it!! 

Random Adventures in the Mountains!

This week has been fun, just fun. Tuesday some of our sweet friends came over to play. Wednesday I worked at school. All. Day. Long. 8:30-5. Like a real grown up who works in the summer!

I got SO much planning done for the year! I learned how to give all of the assessments that 2nd grade administers the first week of school and I learned so, SO much about next year!

Thursday, we were on a mission! Callie's grandparents from Texas have a condo in the mountains near Silverthorne. Awhile back they found out there was so water damage and it was pretty extensive so their entire condo had to be pretty much demoed and put back together. The finishing date keeps getting pushed back further and further and there has been no way to check the progress.

So yesterday our secret mission was to document a visit to the condo and investigate what had been accomplished. Don't I sound like I belong in the FBI or something?? I should have been a spy!

Anywho, so I asked my parents who are off this week to accompany me to the mountains for the day to complete our task and maybe play a little bit!

My mom was feeling a little wimpy, so it was me, my dad, Callie, Kellen and our cousin Carter making the journey.

I just love the mountains so darn much!! I wish that we lived closer. I would probably make an effort to go more. I mean we live in colorado and we hardly ever get to the mountains. It's kind of sad really.

So the condo was a hot mess express! There is no way that it can be ready by the time Callie's grandparents come at the end of July...

Yikes!!

After our photo shoot investigation, it was time to have some fun! We headed back down the mountain to Dillon and the kids played and played!

They have an amazing park and the weather was PERFECT!

The kids had a blast throwing rocks in the lake and splashing around!

My dad took his first selfie!

After the park we made our way back to Idaho Springs to have pizza at the famous Beau Jo's! The pizza did not disappoint and Callie was all about slathering her crust in honey! (Okay...I was too)

We were sitting right in front of a big window, Kellen was quite entertained and entertaining by waving to everyone who passed by!

After lunch we were walking back to the car and we spotted a train! Kellen was in heaven!

Pure joy right here! The only disappointment was that he couldn't go in, I mean it was a train from the 1860's! 

They had a blast climbing all over the train!

Cousins!

After the trains we headed back down to the city. At one point my dad and I looked back and every single kid was out cold! Finally, something to wear them out! So our random mission to the mountains was successful and fun! I can't wait to go back again!

Happy 4th, Y'all!!

This year was probably one of my favorite 4th of July's on record! It was truly so relaxing and just fun. We didn't do anything huge or exciting, it was just relaxing, family time!

Thank goodness for long weekends. I think that the 4th should always fall on or near to a weekend!

On Friday, I moved all my crap into my classroom!! Hurray! It's starting to feel real that I will not be going back to my old school and I am really teaching 2nd grade next year! I got to see my roster with all of the precious little names on it and  to see the space where I will be teaching with them next year and I am SO excited!

Saturday we had oh so many plans, but it rained. All. Morning. Long. So zero yard work was accomplished, no path was finished, no cool patio lights or misters were installed, sad times. But we did get to celebrate my sweet sister in law's birthday with a milk can stew. It sounds weird, but it's delicious, you cook veggies and sausage in a milk can, like the old ones, from the days of yore. And you just pop that on an open flame and then yummyness happens! It was a fun time and a great way to get the weekend going!

Sunday, we drove up to flatville to visit with Brien's family for the 4th/Phanneth's brother in law's birthday. It was a blast!

Grandma's pool has a spashpad, a baby pool, and a big pool! There was no shortage of food and yummy treats and drinks! Such a great time with family and friends!   

Uncle Joey probably threw this girl in the pool like 50 times! 

On actual 4th of July, we went to my aunt and uncles for a BBQ and it was also a blast. The kids had the slip and slide and water balloons going. My family recently discovered corn hole and we had to break in the new set. It was another great year with our sweet families!

On the way home Brien took a turn into a fireworks stand. Say what?!? Fireworks are illegal in our town, but for the last 3 nights it has sounded like we live in a war zone, so he felt pretty confident that we could do a few sparklers and fountains for the kids!

We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening snacking on left overs and waiting for dark so we could do our fireworks! And also reminiscing about our first blind date on the 4th, 7 years ago!!

Finally that magical twilight hour happened and we had our mini display (it was pretty sad, I not gonna lie) I forgot how much I love fireworks! Kellen apparently was  HUGE fan as well! After we burned through ours, the kids were not ready to call it a night! It was perfect and warm, so we packed up our party animals and went for a stroll around the neighborhood. Most of our neighbors were launching their own as well, so we got multiple shows! No crowded big fireworks displays, no fighting through crowds and getting a spot and waiting for hours and then fighting traffic home. It was just so perfect! 

Happy 4th, Y'all!

Adventures in Southern Colorado

Last Friday my mister had a random day off and we had big plans to take the kids somewhere fun. So the night before we paged through of our list of places we want to take them, and we decided on the Punch Bowls in Colorado Springs.

It's a really cool trail my best friends and I hiked on summer when we were home from college. It has these cool springs and I was thinking the kids would be able to splash in them after our hike. The next morning we set off on our Adventure. While we were sitting in the driveway I googled the directions and it was saddest day, the trail we were planning on going on was closed for the season, due to fires like 4 years ago and had never reopened. Bummer!

So I asked Brien what we should do and he said, "We are winging it!" Callie made the decision to drive south so that's where we ended up!

We randomly pulled off at an exit and ended up in Larkspur which is the cutest little town ever!
We pulled over and hiked around Palmer Lake and it was so lovely!

After a lovely time at the lake we headed further south and decided to take the kids to Garden of The Gods. Brien and I have been here several times, but we have never taken the kiddos. Lemme' tell you, it was packed! We couldn't even get into the big parking lot and had to drive all around, park far away and then hike into the park. It was a process, but we made it! And it was totally worth it!

It was quite the hike and we discovered that Kellen HATES to be carried on anyone's shoulders and that Callie is born rock climber with those long arms and legs!

Such a pretty place!!

Some nice family from Texas took this picture for us!

Kellen had to be a mountain climber just like his big sister!

It is seriously so cool here! 

After a loonnngg hike, Kellen was starting to get fussy from the heat and the walking we decided it was time to grab some lunch and head back to the city. 

On our way back home we drove past, wait for it... Taco Bueno!! I had no idea they even had one in Colorado Springs! So Callie decided that we had to stop at this Texas Delicacy and introduce Brien and Kellen to the wonderful world of Taco Beeno! (as Callie called it when she was little) Oh, how I missed party burritos! Yummy oh!

After a fun and adventurous day we headed home back to the big city. It was so fun to be in nature and just get away for the day! Yay for family adventures!