Garden update

It's been nice enjoying some flowers indoors and out.  I can't believe my Easter cactus is doing so well.  There are 3 more flower blooms! It's definitely liking this new spot better than the last, which is away from the direct sunlight:

And seems that I might have found a good spot for the orchids too.  Look, a couple of new buds! I'm so excited as this has never EVER happened before!! I've always ended up killing the orchid before any new flower buds, so let's hope I didn't just jinx myself:

In the meantime, the tulips outside are providing some nice color-splash :-)

These white ones are sort of turning a bit pink:

These little blue ones along the ground are pretty too. I planted these in the Fall, so I'm so happy they are doing so well. Except we are suppose to have snow showers tomorrow morning. Sheesh!!

It looks like it has just snowed but the driveway is actually covered with the white petals from the Bradford Pear tree flowers:

And based on what our other neighbors are doing, it seems to be the time of year to mulch. So here we go:

And this is just the beginning of it. There's still so much around the yard to mulch!  I attempted to trim the edges here by the tree:

My edges are not very "clean" so maybe I shouldn't attempt any more. It was rather time consuming!  Bobby was actually the one that really wanted to do it, and after about 4ft in another area, he gave up. LOL!

The cherry blossoms has turned so pink! Or what's left of it:

And the other tree has a mix of white and pink flowers:

We are thinking of carving out a few plant identification stakes perhaps for the cherry blossom trees, just like at the botanical gardens.  Might be a fun project for the kids to do this summer at the local public library.  I think Graham has already sent in an order for some 3D printing. It will be interesting to see how much it will cost because it seems that you only pay when you pick it up?!

Hopefully it warms up soon. It's rained all weekend and more tomorrow. Where is Spring??!

Charlie's tooth (4/28)

Charlie has lost another tooth! He seems to be losing a lot of teeth this year.  And actually, it probably could have taken a few more days to come off. But it was super wiggly and he mentioned how uncomfortable it was especially when he had his aligners on. At one point, his tooth was actually stuck to his aligners! He was so brave to wiggle it and then managed to pull it off!

Charlie then went ahead and found our little bunny bag.  This was a gift from a friend since the boys were toddlers :-)

It's his lower left 2nd molar.  Based on some diagrams on the internet, the age to lose this tooth is between 10-12 years old. So he is right on time!

And he totally thinks I'm behind the Tooth Fairy, recognizing my handwriting. Ha!

I keep trying with that flossing and brushing!  We actually bought the boys' new electric toothbrushes recently.  This time we opted for Philips Sonic (vs. Oral B). And everything is "connected"!  We can keep track of how often they brush, for how long, and even if they are using the proper pressure! 

Nothing is recorded here right now because I am not close enough to sync up with his toothbrush from the living room.  But what amazing technology!  So much for using just a regular toothbrush these days. Soon enough, toilets are going to be "connected" - for what I'm not sure yet but I'm sure there will be a market for that one day. LOL!!

New (used) bench

For the love of a bench, I had to endure the dinging sound of my truck for almost 30 minutes! I guess next time, I need to find used furniture that's closer to the house:

The bench was just a tad too long for the truck.  Thankfully, Daddy had the great idea of putting the back window down.  Bobby is actually driving behind the truck, making sure nothing goes wrong. Ha!

And I'm so glad I remembered to bring the bungee cords!  You just never know when you need them :-)

I did end up scratching the paint a bit where the 2 bungee cords connected (to the right of the Toyota logo).  Luckily it's not too obvious:

Here it is! 

It's actually a swivel bench - hanging on 2 chains on each side.  It needs some work, so hopefully the boys and I can fix it up nicely!  We also bought an outdoor umbrella to go on this front porch.  Looking forward to spending some nice afternoons here.  Just need a little table perhaps and a drink with an umbrella in it. LOL! :-D

Charlie's band recital

One final band recital for Charlie and this time, it's actually at his new middle school - which is actually Graham's school.  I love how the elementary school get their kids prepared for middle school. So far, they have sent a school counselor from the middle school to the elementary school. And this week, there's a field trip for the elementary school to visit the middle school!  And during the summer, there's also 6th Grade camp and pool party!

Okay, quick photo of Charlie. He actually pushed Graham away!

Charlie is very proud of his hair-do.  He insisted that Daddy fix it up for him.  And look, he is smiling and showing some teeth! He is finally learning to do that after that photography session at the golf club last weekend:

OMG, I can't believe this.  Instead of sending Charlie at 6:30pm, we have left the house and I was going to drop Charlie off early at 5:30pm.  Oops!  So, in order to kill some time, we decided to check out this little park where we were recently told that there's a small golf course.  Here it is!

It's only a few dollars to play his little 5-hole course (there's two par 4s and three par 3s) and there's actually an honor box on the side. Ha! I wonder how many people actually pay to play.  The course is in decent shape.  It's right next to the train tracks!

Here's Charlie doing his best Elvis impersonation, as he is all dressed up:

This kid is too much!

Okay, after spending some time in a fancy supermarket, we finally make it to the school's gym.  Graham is already on his phone while waiting for the band students to set up. Ha!

Sounding pretty good!  The 5th Grade got to actually play this tune with the entire middle school's band members!

I'm so glad Charlie wants to continue playing the clarinet in Band for middle school next year. Yay!

Charlie gets a hug and a kiss from Daddy.  Bobby showed up late because he had a phone interview at home:

Proud Daddy moment!

Yay for Charlie!

Let's hope both boys keep up with their music!  I'm still trying to get them to make audition tapes for their summer Music camp. They are both somehow not interested in participating anymore - not wanting to be on stage, etc.  Let's see what happens in June! 

Boys' physical examination

We finally have health insurance again!  The boys are a bit behind with their Physicals, so thankfully we were able to get into a doctor's office pretty easily.  And the office isn't too far from the house - even better!

Graham registered at 105lbs and 4ft 10".  Charlie was at 89lbs and only an inch shorter at 4ft 9".  He is catching up to Graham! Well, with all the ice cream these 2 boys eat, I don't think they have any issues putting on the weight!

 

I wasn't actually suppose to take any photos but I snapped this one when the nurse left the room :-)

All good with the Physical examinations. Just trying to get some Rx for Graham's eczema - still not sure if we can yet but it's worth the try!

In the meantime, just have to deal with this one - Charlie came home really tired one day:

And this is what happens when Charlie tries to read in the car - totally fell asleep!

That or he is really good at reading with his eyes closed. LOL!!

Next up are dental and vision appointments. All of these needs to be done before the start of the next school term! In the meantime, just have to deal with Graham, who sends me photos like this one. Ha!  

Such a stinker! Can't believe Graham is going to be 13 years old in less than a month! There was a memory that popped up on my Facebook a few days ago.  Check out Graham at 5 years old. Awww..!! Still so cute :-)

Both boys are growing up so fast!

Photography session

Our golf club needed their members to take some portraits.  Well, time to get all dressed up! Actually, wait - we actually decided to hit balls on the driving range.  But when we showed up early at the club, the driving range was closed! And it was soooooo cold!!!  Brrrr...!!  So I was so happy when the simulators indoors were available:

Daddy catching Mommy in action :-)

Bobby took Charlie out on the golf course a couple of times last week. He snapped this photo and said, Charlie's swing looks just like mine:

Sure looks pretty similar to Mommy's!!

Thankfully we all clean up pretty nicely :-)

I bought this dress last summer.  I finally had a chance to wear it and I'm just happy it still fits!

Charlie is being so silly:

Daddy and his boys:

Of course, there's always a family we-fie :-D

The white flowers on this tree is so pretty:

Okay, time to take the "serious" photos.  The photographer actually had to teach Charlie how to smile with his mouth open. Ha!

Mommy got to pose a little too. Ha ha!

That was a fun photography session but the photos to purchase on the side were too expensive.  So I'm glad we had taken some by ourselves earlier in the day. I'm excited to see how all the photos in the club's directory once it's done!

Indoor/outdoor work

For whatever reason, I've been very sensitive to light when I'm sleeping in the bedroom.  The sun has been rising earlier and even with my little pillow over my eyes, I can't seem to sleep through my usual morning hours.  Perhaps I'm stressed because of the golf qualifier?? I believe the sleeping problem did start around the time I signed up.  Ha!

Anyhow, I thought that maybe it was time to finally put up the black-out curtains. We'd had them in a box since Abu Dhabi - so that's over 5 (maybe even 6) years ago! 

For some reason, I thought I had taken off these hooks from the drapes. I'm so glad I didn't because these will be handy when I hang up the drapes:

Thankfully I was able to find some reasonably priced rail/tracks to hang the drapes on the ceiling (rather than off the wall). However, most of the time the paper instructions are sufficient but wow, this is the first time I actually had to watch the instructional video:

Here goes!!!

I had to get some new anchors - hopefully these rails/tracks stay on the ceiling as the new blackout drapes are super heavy!  I also decided to swap out the yellow drapes (that were original to the house) with our sheer drapes that we had also purchased from Abu Dhabi:

We spent a lot of money on drapes in Abu Dhabi! Ha ha!

Now, this should block out all that sunshine in the morning :-D

Unfortunately, I haven't really been sleeping through any better.  There is one more window but I don't think it's really the culprit. Maybe I just need to practice my golf more so I'm not so stressed. Ha ha!

I decided to also change out a few door knobs to these fancy glass ones. I love these and they were on sale. So even better!

I actually wanted to paint the door too, but Bobby vetoed that decision. 

Here are the door handles that came with the house.  The finish is a bit different and we have other darker ones too.  Hopefully it won't be an issue when it comes time to sell the house.  Hmmm, maybe I shouldn't even talk about that since the unpacking hasn't even finished yet. Ha!

As for the outdoor work, the garden needs so much work!  We seem to be losing some mulch around this area due to all that water coming down the downspouts:

4 bags of river pebbles later... not enough!

Here's another 4 bags of river pebbles...! 

Well, I can't seem to figure out what's weed and what's not.  Bobby thinks everything in this section is a weed. Hmm, I say let a few flowers pop up and then we can decide :-P

Looks like it's time to try out some fire-wood splitting:

Looks like Daddy is leading the pack here.  Success!

Graham is going to try it next:

Pretty good form, but I think the axe is rather heavy for the boys:

Even for Bobby, sometimes it's a hit or miss:

This one was a miss and I obviously had a good chuckle.  Ha ha!

Well, you can definitely tell (or hear!) when they are successful at splitting that wood:

Too funny!  I didn't give it a shot. Maybe after my qualifier.  My body is too fragile right now. LOL!!

It's going to rain these next 2-3 days.  Perhaps I should just use the time to clear up the weeds in the garden. There are soooo many! It might be too overgrown in a month/after the qualifier.  We'll see. My body is already starting to feel sore after the workout today. Being in my 40s is so different from being in my 30s. LOL!!