a beer in the shower

It's done.  You'd never know we hosted a garage sale in our driveway by the looks of it.  We were up at the crack of dawn setting up.  At one point it was utter chaos.  We probably had 20 people shopping in the beautiful sunshine. In fact, one man said, "this is the best garage sale I've been to in...................................2 weeks!".  Really?  How do we take that?  

 When it was all said and done we raked in a good amount of cash, got rid of a lot of our crap, made a run to Subway for lunch, cleaned up, bought each other's crap,  and took 3 SUV loads of leftovers to Goodwill. 

Handy husband was with the pack of raccoons today.  I made an appearance solely to feed Graham (being the walking refrigerator that I am) and to update him on our sales. 

 There are many tales to tell about today but I'm tired.  I'm so tired and feel so dirty that I'm going to have a beer in the shower.  A dear friend of mine (she knows who she is) says her husband does this.  It sounds like a great idea today.  I better drink it quickly before it gets warm.

 Courtney and Sarah celebrating the counting of the money.

 The "oh, so important" tally sheet.

 Loaded.  We're just loaded.

The grand total. 

Great day, ladies.  Thank you.  Can't wait to celebrate by rearranging the garage and seeing the smile on handy husband's face when he makes a deposit at the bank and parks his riding mower in the garage for the first time!  Oh, and I'll see you at Ruth's Chris happy hour next week to celebrate!

a royal garage sale

Ok, so lets first address the "royal" aspect.  The romantic in me woke up at 3:30 a.m. to catch the nuptials of Prince William and Kate Middleton.  A modern day fairy tale wedding.  She looked gorgeous, iconic, classic, and royal.  The horses, the Abbey, the hats.....oh, I want an occasion to wear one of those hats.  Really, I'm now on the lookout for a reason.  The women just look so distingushed and fashionable-even with the classic "stiff upper lip".   Handy husband sighed and rolled over when I got out of bed.  He just doesn't understand why I needed to watch it "real time".  Again, it's that romantic part.  The same part that always chooses a romantic comedy, gets teary eyed when I hear of a newborn baby even when I don't really know them , bawls like baby when I'm going through clothing the kids can't fit into anymore, and thrives on a sweet and eternal love story.  It's also the part that was teary at 3:30a.m watching Prince William.  I wish his mum could have been there.  He seems to be such a fine young man.  I think she would be so proud as to who he has become.  Exactly what I want for my kids. 

 When we saw the replay on TV this morning, Gracie said, "there's a princess!".  Now tell me that doesn't prove that Kate chose the correct dress.

Bet these goods didn't come from a London garage sale

Moving on to the garage sale part.  Tomorrow is the big day.  The mother of all garage sales.  Between the 3 of us, we have enormous amounts of clothing, kids stuff, and housewares.  Need a bike?  We have a Trek road bike.  How about a bed, mattress, nightstands, kids outdoor slide, jewelry?  How about Patagonia, North Face, Banana Republic, Anthropologie, Nordstrom?  Do those ring a bell?  How about a laser printer? I'd love to stumble upon this garage sale.  We have mimosas ready to start our day and the weather on our side.

There is nothing royal about this

Wish us the best!  And wish that the "after" picture looks highly different than this "before" photo.

Oh, and wish William and Catherine all the happiness in the world!

coloring eggs

Ok, so I know I'm sort of hanging on to Easter but there's just so much to celebrate.  This is the first year that William & Gracie colored eggs together and we could actually file the event under the "fun category". 

 Giving Gracie the "eye"

easter

The torrential rains arrived just in time for Easter Sunday.  Handy husband and I stuffed Easter baskets the night prior and reminisced about our Easter's past.  I learned that the Easter bunny did not visit his house and leave a hidden basket as a child,  so he was a little confused with the process.

The pack of raccoons, being the early birds they are, awoke at the crack of dawn.  On the count of "1-2-3", they sped out of the house in search of the elusive Easter goodies. 

We dressed in our Sunday best...well the kids did, and headed off to Nana and Papa's for a scrumptious Easter brunch.  Nana always has the house decorated wonderfully, the table set to fit the occasion, and Easter goodies for all. 

The menu this year

homemade olive bread

smoked salmon eggs benedict

crab and vegetable quiche

beautiful fruit platter

carrot cupcakes

the best cheesecake ever

chocolate covered strawberries

mimosas

 

When the rain turned to sprinkles, we quickly donned our rainboots and headed out for the traditional Easter egg hunt.  Nana and Papa hid eggs all over the yard with little goodies for the grandkids to find.  William & Grace headed North, while cousin Adelyn headed East.  Baskets were filled, boots were full of water, and William was headed for the sandbox while the rest of us were headed for the cheesecake.

 

Forward a couple of hours and the crew was down for naps and in a food coma.

Happy Easter!

eggs ready to go

baskets ready to go

Let's just make a comment about these outfits.  Actually, lets's not.
On your mark, get set.......

....go!

still looking

A water spray bottle!  Hip, hip, hooray!

A magnifying glass

Baby Graham likes his new teethers.

Wait, the bunny dropped something in these bushes.

All gussied up...for 10 minutes, at least.

"Hey bunny, get your paws off my buns!"

Look what I can do, Papa!

"Don't worry, I invested your entire portfolio in Cadbury eggs."

Edward Sistahands & Bill Nye the Science guy's son.

Four cousins

Really, you can never, ever, ever get all kids to look at the camera.

A true northwest egg hunt

Papa making sure the rugrats don't put a boot divet in his beautiful lawn.

a quick rundown

Things have been changing around here.  I'll just bullet point the highlights.  Easter photos will up soon-I'm behind. 

-Baby Graham is now sleeping from 6:30 until 5 a.m. without waking up.  Yeah!!!!!

-Baby Graham is now sleeping in his own room.  This means handy husband and I no longer have to crawl into our bedroom (out of his sight), slither into bed, and lay quietly-just waiting for tired eyes.  I miss reading in bed.

-Baby Graham is a steak and potatoes kind of baby.  He enjoyed chewing on a large piece of grass fed organic tenderloin-filling up on his conjugated linoleic acids and protein. 

-Gracie just received the first "report card" of her lifetime.  The words her teacher used to describe  her were: artistic, capable, happy, and "mother-hen".   She is getting pretty good at writing her name.  Apparently, she has fine motor skills like none other-not sure where that came from.

-We are having a garage sale at our home on Saturday.  Handy husband has made it clear that he has zero part in this.  My friend Sarah (garage sale queen) and another friend are holding my hand through this process.  I'm looking forward to getting rid of stuff, simplifying, and having strangers pay me to haul away our crap.  That has a lovely ring to it, doesn't it?   Any ideas on how I go about selling a pig?

-Brownie and I duked it out in the stall.  I won-not to worry.  He barged his way into Cowgirl's stall and sent her running.  I first tried to shove him out and proceeded to use the pitchfork as a scare tactic when his stubborn behavior was going too far.  He whipped around and tried to kick me while I was standing in the corner of the stall.  I threw myself over the stall door, grabbed a rope, threw myself back in the stall, and sent him running with a few swings of the rope.  It was a great moment.  He then waited outside for me to finish cleaning his stall (which never happens).  Ahhh...a little respect was established.

easter egg hunt

Saturday was gorgeous.  I'm talking about the mercury hitting 69 degrees, the sunglasses getting a polish, spring dresses flying off the hanger, and an Easter egg hunt at Fox Hollow Farm in Issaquah.  Grandma and Grandpa Wasenmiller were up for the weekend and went along with us to keep the rugrats in check. 

Along with the egg hunt, the private farm had bunnies, baby ponies, kittens, peacocks, goats, miniature donkeys, and any other farm animal you can think of.  The river behind the house was trickling along, the inflatable jump house was being held down by the hoards of kids, the miniature John Deere tractors were being fought over, the animals were getting their share of snacks, and our kids saw more candy than they ever had. 

 Checking out the horses

 "Shotgun!"

 "Hey sis, you're losin' the baskets!"

It doesn't take long to learn to check what is inside of the egg before you claim it in your basket.  There is always the option of "re-hiding".

 "Let's see.  Is this a keeper?"

 Bingo! Chocolate!

 Checking out her loot

 Grandma & Gracie

... and they're off!

 We couldn't possibly have everyone looking at the camera, now could we?

William scaring the peacocks with their own feather.  Smart birds.

Perusing the loot

"Hang on Grandma!"

"Ha, ha, ha....I scared her!"





We also learned that horses do not eat hotdogs.  Did you not know that?  We were all standing by a cooler in one of the barns when one of the farm helpers opened it and retrieved a pack of hotdogs.  Grandma Kristie asked, "Are those for the horses?" in a teasing voice.  The employee replies with a cordial smile and in an honest voice, "No, horses don't eat hotdogs. Hotdogs are for the people.".  Hmmmm.  I'll make a mental note of that. Thank you.  We had then realized we were Easter egg hunting with a bunch of "city folk".  So, we loaded up and headed home to feed Brownie and Cowgirl a hotdog with relish-hold the mustard.

The rest of the day was spent pruning the back yard.  It is amazing what 4 adults can get accomplished, especially when you have a master pruner leading the pack (aka: Kristie).  Thanks for the help!!!