Our typical afternoon scene…
I wouldn’t trade these truck loving little dudes for all the princess dress wearing little girls in the world!
#Boymom
Manual Labor
We had a weekend full of yard work – lots of yard work – and all that manual labor has made me sore and tired! But, I’m glad we got so much good work done and our yard is starting to look like spring! Of course, none of it would have been possible without GJ’s help! I just love how she somehow manages to be in town on a beautiful April/May weekend each year so I can rope her into helping us in the yard! 🙂
First, I got my planters in the backyard all fixed up…no thanks to my “helper”.
He was really good at throwing out the dirt I put into the pot!
But, how can you be mad when he’s this cute?!
Along with my second helper, we planted sweet basil, purple basil, rosemary, 3 kinds of tomatoes (sweet cherry, patio and some random variety from the grocery store) and a blueberry plant!
Hooray for mini gardens!
and for my stroooong helpers!
This is my first year trying a blueberry plant so we’ll see. Spencer was bound and determined to kill it before it even had a chance…
Hopefully he’ll learn to leave it alone!…and learn to stop throwing dirt all over himself! 🙂
But, he did learn this weekend to leave his hat on for a bit so that’s good!
I also got smart this year and just got a pre-mixed planter basket to put in my square planters…
Easy peasy!
My mom bleached our front steps and made me realize that I didn’t know just how dirty they were! So much better now!
My mom and I also sprayed Round Up in all the beds – we used a lot Round Up to kill a lot of weeds! Robert trimmed all the boxwoods and got them looking good. We also decided we needed to pull up a few of the spirea bushes we had in front because they weren’t going to come back. I took my helpers to Home Depot (which Maxwell has declared his favorite store – I’m sure the orange everything doesn’t hurt!) and picked out something to replace them with. My helpers decided on these Jasmine plants…
Good choice. Getting the 3 dead spirea out of the ground was easy – getting out the 2 alive ones that I also needed to move was a different story! I was digging hard with that shovel and wielding that ax – thank goodness I work out! With a little sweat, we got the old plants out and the new plants in and I think they’re going to do great in that spot.
On Sunday I started planting our new annuals. Maxwell spotted these orange zinnias and these little orange pine cone looking flowers called celosia and that was that. We had to have those for the yard. I got the ones by the street planted as well as some in front of our crape myrtle.
He keeps calling them “my orange flowers”. Pretty cute. I’ll tackle the ones by the front steps next.
It was frankly an exhausting weekend but a good exhausting. Never, ever did I think I would enjoy yard work but the satisfaction you get from a job well done is great! Next weekend? Mulch! Isn’t home ownership fun?! 🙂
For my records – I used 8 flats of 8 for the front bed and in front of the crape myrtle. Pansies in the fall, this year a mixture of zinnias and celosia in the front. I planted begonias by the front steps and used 5 flats of 10 for the two beds. I did not plant anything by the back of the parking pad. We got 5.5 yards of mulch delivered from Cahaba Heights Hardware.
FRIDAY!
Welcome, Friday. I’m glad you’re here. It’s been a long week of crazy weather – tornado warnings, lots of rain, moving our cars in case of hail. But, luckily we didn’t deal with anything too severe like so many people in AL and AR did. Now we’re ready for a sunshiny weekend – perfect for yard work! woohoo!
Cleaning off the iPhone today…it’s been backed up with photos!
Have a GREAT weekend!!
Supermen!
The boys both had on their Superman shirts and the pull of the camera was too strong to ignore so I tried to get some smiley pics…
Hmmm…not the best. Then little brother joined…
We tried for a cute picture with both smiling at the same time.
Didn’t go so well but Maxwell’s face did make me laugh! Of course, as soon as Maxwell stopped smiling, Spencer smiled. Figures.
Then I got some brotherly hugs…
which made me go “awww” but wasn’t the smiley picture I hoped for. Then they were done.
and that was that. Oh well, they may not be smiling but they’re still pretty cute!
Oops I did it again
I mentioned on Friday that I was doing something VERY fun for the weekend and it turned out to be just that – VERY fun! I went to Vegas with 3 other girls to see Britney!! Oh yes, Ms. Spears herself. Hit Me Baby One More Time, You Drive Me Crazy, Toxic…all of it! Robert ended up having to travel for work through the afternoon Friday but luckily GJ was in town so she kept the boys until Robert got home. Unfortunately, Maxwell used that small 3 hour window to get sick – as in puke under his bed. Ugh. Poor buddy and poor GJ. And, poor me, because right when I got off the plane, he called me in hysterics begging me to come home. Break my heart. But, it all got cleaned up and he was back to his old self by later that night. Thank goodness because I had some Vegas exploring to do!
We stayed at the Palazzo at The Venetian all weekend but spent most of our time at Encore at the Wynn. We had dinner there on Friday night at Andrea’s and it was fantastic. After dinner, we gambled a bit and all won big…except opposite.
Saturday was actually a rainy day in Vegas (very unusual) but we got out early to check out some of the other casinos and, mainly to see all of the incredible floral arrangements everywhere…
We then had an awesome brunch at Tableau at Encore. I love brunch, especially when it involves good coffee and a trio of juices!
We then shopped around a bit before heading to the spa where we had appointments to get dolled up, Vegas style! 🙂 Well, maybe not Vegas style but more dolled up than I’d been in a long time.
We all got hair and make up done and felt very fancy! Check out my (obviously fake) lashes!
We also decided that, since we might never be this dolled up again, we should practice and nail the art of the “selfie”.
I think we did pretty, good! 🙂
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…
GJ was keeping the boys very entertained with a new golf set and bubble guns. The soap from the bubbles somehow ended up all over Spencer’s hair. Somehow I think Maxwell might have been involved! 🙂
After the spa, we headed back to get ready to go to dinner and to BRITNEY!!!
We practiced a few more selfies…
and then went to the Aria for dinner at Julian Serrano.
The show was at Planet Hollywood at 9:00 and we were ready!
It was a fun crowd with several people dressed up in the iconic Britney costumes through the years. Not us though, we were happy to be there with sparkles, blow-out and lashes!
The show started at 9:15 and she performed for an hour and a half. It really was awesome – the sets, the costumes, the back up dancers – all fantastic. It was cool to see Ms. Spears herself and how big/not big/tall/not tall she was (for the record, she’s small but not as small as she was back in the Slave for You days..but who is?!) Britney lip synched the entire show (no surprise) and danced…as best she could. She does a lot of walking and vogue-ing! It was totally what I expected and I did love getting to see her in person. In one part of the show they were playing montages of all of her videos and memorable performances and it made you remember all of the great songs she’s had and how so many images of her at various stages are burned into pop culture and your mind. She may be crazy but she’s got an impressive pop resume!!
After the show we went back to the Encore for a bit and people watched – which is honestly the most fun thing to do in Vegas! We had no problems with our flight home on Sunday and, as always, the best part of going away is coming back home…
A huge thank you to Robert, GJ and everyone else that helped me make this trip happen!