weekend fun

the hubby built the boys a snow fort this morning and then i made them hot cocoa with marshmallows. it was a good morning.

bonus post :: a thrifted christmas

way back when the weather was warm in wisconsin i spent every friday morning thrifting around town. it was my “me” time....no kids, no work, just me and lots of cheap vintage goodies! it really became a way of life for me and my family. i decided early on in my thrifting adventure that i was going to try and do a totally thrifted christmas for my boys. (ages 5 and 2) they’re still young enough to not care that they’re getting “used” toys and since they outgrow them so fast it just made sense. the boys did occasionally come along with me on my adventures and so i prepared them for their thrifty christmas every time they asked for something at a sale. i’d say, “well, we’ll need to go home and write santa a list of all the things you see at these sales and then maybe he can get them for you for christmas.” and we did just that.



the big gifts of the year were two school desks that the boys happened to be with me when i found. the little dude begged for them. he sat in one and wouldn’t get out. they were an amazing steal at $5 each! yes, $5. they needed a little cleaning since the tops were covered with stickers, but otherwise in great vintage condition. i secretly let the man who was running the sale know that i wanted them and would be back. meanwhile i told the little dude that he needed to add it to his list for santa while he begged all the way to the car.

i spent the summer collecting other gifts and was so excited about christmas. i had found so many goodies. that is, until i started wrapping the gifts. i started second guessing what i had done. would the boys like all these gifts? would they care that they were from garage sales? what had i done to my boys? was i scarring them for life?

that feeling promptly left on christmas morning when they saw their desks and opened all their gifts with wide eyes and smiles. it didn’t matter what they got or where it was from. in fact, i think it made it more magical to them that santa actually read their letter and managed to get all these things that they had seen and written about. how in the world did he do that?





here are both the boys sitting in their desks opening the rest of their gifts (which they insisted on). you can see the huge stack of thrifted books they both got and the excitement in their faces. i think they each got approximately 15-20 books. something that would have cost a fortune if purchased new. i’m very particular when buying used books. they either have to be really cool with vintage artwork or new and high quality. i like to dig through to find things like caldecott winners etc. things that aren’t just garbage.



here you can see some of the other gifts....a little computer, a basketball game (where you try to shoot the ball from a lever and beat your opponent), a school bus (that is fought over often). these are just a few of the other things they received, there was much more yet to be opened. all in all i’d guess i spent less than $30. for EVERYTHING! their ENTIRE christmas. they got way more gifts than they normally would have if we had bought them new and enjoyed it just as much. in fact, my hubby expressed how he thought i bought too much on several occasions. it’s just too much fun when everything costs 25 cents or $1.00!

oh, and the best part of being thrifty? the toys are already out of their original packaging! that’s super great for 2 reasons. #1. less garbage to throw in the landfill, #2. spending our christmas morning playing instead of trying to get things out of all the overdone packaging these days!

will we do a thrifty christmas again? absolutely! will our kids know the difference or care? not for one second!

spring has sprung

it seems that spring is slowly making its way to frigid wisconsin. it hit nearly 70º here today so we finally made it outdoors to wander around the yard and check out what's going on after 9 months of winter. the boys had a blast and i had so much fun taking outdoor photos again! so, for the next week or so, you'll be seeing many more nature photos. i'm so excited about being about to photograph outside again!

....and again.

once again we find ourselves in the middle of a huge snowstorm. my hubby's work decided not to open until noon today because of it, so he spent the morning snow-blowing. somehow i have the feeling he would have rather been at work!


snow that stuck to the outside of our window. it's VERY windy outside.


after 15 minutes of snow-blowing, i went out with my scarf to tie around hubby's face. since it is still snowing and really windy, his face was freezing off. doesn't he look so handsome in my scarf?


the kids LOVE watching daddy and the snow-blower outside.


and here's a photo to show just how much snow we have. i'm only leaning out the front door because i don't actually want to step outside. that's poor hubby in the distance taking care of the sidewalks. and of course it's all still coming down, so there's more to come. we're supposed to get anywhere from 11"-22" in the next couple days.


this is how my hubby looked after about an hour of snow-blowing. poor guy....by the time he got done, everything he started with was already covered in over an inch of snow again! he looks so happy.


and look at this hat! what a guy!

huge snowfall

this is what we woke up to this morning. these photos were actually taken after 2 hours of shoveling by my hubby! (of course our snowblower won't start!) i didn't stop snowing until early afternoon. all schools were called off and there were kids sledding all over town. seems that we're getting so much more snow this year than in years past. just a few years ago we were hoping for snow for christmas. this year we already had snow on the ground in november. it's going to be a long, long winter.

look real close

it's not much, but it's there. we've had a few small snow-falls this year, but nothing that hasn't melted on impact. it's been pretty cold the last few days so the ground was cold enough to hold a few flakes without melting. the little dude was so excited that he had to call daddy and leave a voicemail telling him to "look out your window daddy.....it's snowing!"

before & after

yesterday we got a few new windows in our house. we were in great need. our house is a mid-entry colonial that was built in 1924. from what we can tell, the windows were original. needless to say our heating bills were astronomical in the wintertime. according to the window guys, the average house has 12 windows.....we're "lucky" enough to have 33! and of course, since it's an old house, the windows are huge. which, of course, means more money. our original quote for windows was over 1/3 of the price that we paid for our entire house! several quotes later we found a better deal. even with that better price, 33 windows at once was not feasible. we decided to break it out through several years and yesterday was the day for round #1. we got new windows in our entire sunroom and one in the bathroom we've been remodeling. (figured since it was already ripped apart we may as well include that one!) here are some before and after pictures so you can get an idea of just how bad the originals are.


before #1. the previous owners of this house liked paint.....a lot! most of the windows had been painted shut and didn't function at all which made getting a breeze in the summer nearly impossible.


before #2. some of the windows were able to open. however, they all needed to be propped up with sticks because the counterbalances were broken off and had fallen into the wall. fun times!


after. ahhhh! how clean and beautiful! i can't tell you what it's like to drive up to our house and see the sunroom full of nice, bright clean windows!! and speaking of clean, i can actually tip all of these in to clean them! i'm so excited!

field trip : pumpkin farm

today the little dude's preschool went to a local pumpkin farm. here, they got to:

jump in the bouncy house (since our wagon ride was cancelled because of too much mud.)


read a book about pumpkins.


sing a song about a horse.


feed the goats ice cream cones filled with goat feed. (and look at a million other animals)


and explore thousands of pumpkins!


and more pumpkins.


and still more pumpkins.

fun was had by all....even with the muddy, muddy weather.

field trip

the little dude had his first field trip today with his pre-school class. it was very, very cool and i'm so glad he was able to go. (he's been a little under the weather and i was worried he wouldn't feel well enough to make it). we got to hang out at a outdoor sculpture gallery only a few miles from our house! i never knew it was there, but in the middle of the woods, there it was! the owner is an older gentleman who is a retired surgeon. he's represented artists over the years and had their work on display all over his property. (which is very wooded) so we got to walk up his very, very long driveway though the woods and look at (and play on) the sculptures along the way.





i thought it was just amazing that they let the kids feel and touch and even climb on the artwork. it's just not something you see everyday. the kids had a blast. they were also given little lunch bags so that along the way they could collect thing. they'll be bringing their treasures back to school to make their own sculptures! i thought it was such a cute idea.


of course, being a dr.'s house, it was right on the lake (michigan). basically right out their backdoor was a full sand beach. they allowed the children to go out and stick their feet in and hang out for awhile. above is a photo of the little dude and one of his teachers drawing in the sand. she's from england and so she sounds just like the nanny on that parenting show! so fun to listen to her talk to the kids.


once down by the lake, they had a big spread of snacks for the kids. the little dude pulled up a rock and sat and snacked. he said: "look mommy, it's just like a couch!"



finally just two photos of him enjoying the lake. he had so much fun and couldn't stop talking about it the whole way home.

you'll see a few "nature" photos popping up in the coming week on my "photo of the day" post that i took while out in the woods. so many cool mushrooms and other nature-y things to see!

a week later

i got a little side-tracked with pre-school this week and never had a chance to post about labor day.

we went to my parents house out in the country to help them build a pergola for their garden. (am i the only one who knows what this is? it seems everyone i talk to is like....."a what?")

anyway, the kids always have such a blast there because they have tons and tons of free space to run. they have a huge yard and we can let them run free without worry.


you can see here just how much fun was had that day! and this was after being washed up once already! this face is a mix of dirt and dinner. he just loves being able to play in all the dirt at grandma & papa's house....something he never really gets to do at home.


and here's the baby playing in the grass. i've never seen a baby take to crawling in the grass like he does. most babies are afaid of the stuff. not this guy. he'd roll around in it all day if he could!


and here's a photo of the hard work the boys put in all day. (just one small corner) i can't wait to see the finished project! it's beautiful already!