Trash Day, Tricycle Riding, and Flowers!

Yep, it was another successful trash day!  I have to say today’s find is my favorite so far!!  My friend Amy went with us again, and it was so fun to have someone along for the ride!  As were driving around we found a fantastic yard sale and I found some great buys….

 

Here are the items I got at the yard sale.  A new (literally never used!) Ohio State doggie bed for Ebony (as you can see she loves it), an Ohio State bean bag pillow, 3 DVD’s for Noah, a beautiful tiffany table lamp, and lots of summer jammies for Noah.

 

Now for the best part….our FREEBIE finds!  Here is my favorite find!!  A beautiful, HUGE, rug that is in fantastic condition (I just steam cleaned it and vacuumed it) and best of all it matched our house decor!!!  Noah loves laying on it because it’s so soft!  Is that GREAT or what??!!

 

We also found some cute 3-D beach pictures (that now are in our bedroom), a purple glass vase my neighbor kept for her house, and several World Market place mats.

 

Here are some flowers from my garden!  I just love them!!  I have been making up vases and taking them to each of my neighbors everyday.

 

Last night Noah tried out his tricycle.  He is tall enough now to reach the peddals.  He doesn’t quite "get it" yet, but it won’t be long until he’s zooming around the cul-de-sac!

Trash Day

Today was a very fun trash day!  My friend, and neighbor, Amy had the day off work and went with Noah and I on our trash day drive. We found tons of great stuff today, in fact, so much that we had to stop by home a couple times to drop stuff off!  Amy even found something for her deck!  Take a look at the bounty we found today!  Thanks for going with us Amy, we love you!!!

 

This is a ball pit blow up toy.  Noah seems to like when I fill it with water!

 

Amy actually spotted this cute lounge chair that is just Noah’s size! 

 

We found these awesome iron yard decorations!  It didn’t take me very long to find the perfect place for them in my front yard garden!

 

Amy kept this planter for her deck.  She is going to paint it brown.  I just love it!

 

If your not familiar with "corn hole" it’s a popular game here in Ohio.  Basically you have bean bags and the "corn hole" wooden "boxes" and you see who can get the most bean bags in the hole.  Gary and I were just talking this weekend about wanting a "corn hole game" for Noah’s birthday BBQ, but they are very expensive new (about $50).  Today I found this old corn hole game sitting out for trash.  I sanded them, added some nails to make them strong, and went to Sherwin Williams paint store and asked them if they had any mistake paints they would be willing to sell me.  I got a quart of "mistake paint" for $1.10 and painted our new game!  Now we just have to buy some bean bags!

 

I also found this clay planter that I am going to plant some strawberries in tomorrow, and Amy spotted this beach chair…in perfect condtion!  It will be perfect for our beach trip in June.

Our Little Allstar!

Daddy pulled out the T-ball stuff this weekend.  We figure it’s never too early to start molding our little all-star!  He actually did a pretty good job of hitting the ball off the tee.  We think he looks like a natural….what do you think?  Don’t you just love his "new" T-shirt.  Gotta love what you find at the thrift store!

 

 

Look at our new toy.  We decided it was a necessary purchase with an upcoming 2-day drive with Noah!  Now he will be able to watch lots of Sesame Street on the way to the beach!

Bday Invites are Done!

I just got done making these yesterday afternoon and love how cute they turned out!

Memorial Day Parade

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY!  THANK YOU VETERANS AND THOSE CURRENTLY SERVING FOR ALL YOU DO!!!

 

We went to a nearby town for their Memorial Day Parade.  It was a great parade and Noah really enjoyed the bands and the Shriner clowns and little cars. 

 

Noah’s first camping trip!

We took Noah on his first camping trip this weekend.  We went to Hocking Hills which is a little over an hour from our house.  We had a wonderful time and Noah really seemed to enjoy himself.  All the things I was worried about (campfire, poison ivy, hiking) didn’t end up being an issue at all.  He was very good about listening to daddy and I when we would tell him to be careful or avoid certain plants.  He also did a great job at the evening campfire staying in his "special blue chair".  He was a big fan of smores and made quite the mess!  He loved visiting the waterfalls, splashing around in the streams, throwing rocks in the water, catching bugs with is butterfly net, and searching for campfire sticks.  We really enjoyed our trip and are already planning our next trip!

 

Morning silly-ness before we head out for camping!

 

Helping load the car!

 

On our way to Hocking Hills we stopped at a HUGE antique mall!  Mom, you could LOVE this!  We spent a little time looking around.  I found these phones….don’t you just love when you find things from your childhood at an antique store!  These regular old lunchboxes were selling for $50 a piece!

 

Just before we checked into our campsite, we stopped off for a little ice cream.  This was the first time we let Noah have his very own cone.  It was a mess!

 

Setting up camp!  Noah was such a good helper trying out the bed in the tent!  He had his bug catcher on and was ready to get busy finding bugs!  Of course, we stopped for a little lunch.

 

Off he goes to catch some bugs and butterflies!

 

Our first evening dinner was delicious!  I made "pudgy pie pizzas" and corn. 

 

Our first evening at camp we visited Ash Cave and enjoyed the beautiful waterfall and sandy ground.  We were the only ones there for awhile.  Noah had fun throwing rocks into the waterfall.

 

First night’s campfire and smores!  YUM!

 

Morning fire and some breakfast with daddy.

 

The second day we took a hike to "The Rock House".  Folklore says that the Rock House used to be used as a hideout by horse thieves, bootleggers, and robbers.  At one time a 16-room hotel was built nearby (we didn’t see any remnants of this on our visit).  I will say that this was the largest rock cave I have ever seen.  It was really awesome!

 

Noah thought for sure he would catch this squirrel with his butterfly net!  We got a laugh while watching him.

 

We also took a little hike to see Cedar Falls.  This is a beautiful waterfall.  We let Noah play and splash around in the water.  We walked a little downstream and mommy caught a couple minnows with the butterfly net, and daddy caught 3 butterflies.  We had a fun afternoon of playing.

 

The great outdoors sure does make you tired!  We got back to the campsire and we all took a nice long nap!

 

Our last hike of the day was to visit Old Man’s Cave and the waterfall.  The trail took us through an couple awesome rock cave staircases.  Daddy was amazing and carried Noah the entire way!  We splashed around a little at the waterfall and enjoyed the peace and quiet, then headed back to our campsite for some dinner and a campfire.

 

Second night campfire and of course….more smores!  Noah was so pooped out he fell asleep on mommy.  I loved getting snuggles under the stars!

 

 

 

Flip it!

Have you ever seen the show on TV called "Flip this House"?  The idea of the show is to buy a house cheap, fix it up, and sell it for profit.  I did that today….on a smaller scale!  I was at our local thrift store and found this awesome kid’s kitchen for $2!  I brought it home, cleaned it up and sold it at the kid’s resale store for $13!  WOOHOO, I made $11.  I used that money (and the $11.50 I got for the basketball hoop I found in the trash this week) and bought Noah some summer clothes, summer PJ’s, got me some T-shirts, and some other small things.  I just love doing that!  I am now going to check the thrift store once a week for "flip it" buys.  So fun.

 

Here’s the kitchen I found and sold…(sorry about the funky picture, my shutter didn’t open all the way)

 

My pooped out baby after a fun morning!

 

Today Noah and I made some yummy cookie sandwiches for our church bake sale….yum!

 

The excitement in our cul-de-sac today was at our friend Amy’s house.  They had their yard landscaped this week and today they cut down a tree they wanted removed.  Noah enjoyed watching!

Feeding the Geese

I took Noah to the reservoir to feed the geese today.  It was his first time doing this and I just knew he would get a kick out of all the geese….little did I know just how many geese would come to eat our bread!  I have to admit I get a little scared of the geese here in Ohio.  They are very large (taller than Noah) and are very large and can get a bit aggressive when it comes to food.  So, I perched Noah and I up on a picnic table so that we would be "safe" from the swarm coming for food.  When we first started feeding them there were about 5 or so geese.  Then a HUGE flock flew over from the other side of the reservoir and landed in the water in front of us.  They quickly made their way up to us to get some bread.  We must have had 50 or so geese begging for bread and I admit I was freaked out!!  Noah wasn’t afraid at all and insisted on getting down from our "safe table" to visit with the geese.  Well, I certainly wasn’t getting down off the table so I let him visit and was praying that they didn’t start attacking him for his bread (he decided to eat the bread himself instead of share with the geese).  I kept telling him that mommy was staying on the table and that he needed to come back, but he ignored me and walked around greeting the geese with wide "hug me" arms.  I looked back at the parking lot to see a woman in her car laughing so hard she was crying!  How embarrasing.  We finished feeding all the bread and I made Noah stay on the table with me until the crowd of geese started to disperse.  I’m a wimp.  I know.  But, Noah had fun!

 

When we first arrived…

 

Then the big swarm arrived!  You can see more coming in from the water in the background.

 

Noah heading out to visit with the geese…

 

At the grocery store they have a horse Noah loves riding…only one cent!!  I love that!

 

He went over to visit with our neighbor and showed off his big tummy that was full from lunch!

 

We are leaving Friday for Noah’s first camping trip.  Today we were airing out the tent and Noah had fun exploring the inside of the tent.

 

Dawn, John, and the kids came over for dinner tonight.  Here are the kids playing with Noah’s toys!  Cousin Alan and Noah doing a little bonding!

 

Trash Day

Noah and I had another very successful "trash" day drive this morning.  Some of the items I picked up looked pretty bad, but I tend to look past that and see the potential in things.  Take a look at what we found today….

 

Yes, another kid’s basketball hoop.  That makes 3 now that I have found.

 

Wooden planters….the before and after I cleaned and painted them!  They have made a nice home for my tomato plants.

 

This was some sort of iron candle lantern.  I cleaned it, painted it, and made it a bird feeder.

 

An adorable "just-my-size" umbrella for Noah!  In perfect condition!

 

This was the most UNBELIEVABLE find.  Seriously, what are the odds??  I found a rug that matches my kitchen rug!!  When I bought my kitchen rug I really wanted two, but they were expensive so I settled for one.  I found this rug today and could not believe that it matched my rug!!!  Noah and I scrubbed it with soap and water, then let it dry for several hours, gave it a good vacuuming….and here it is!!!

 

My wonderful neighbors put this fake plant out for the trash…and of course I snatched it up and gave it a new home!  It’s the palm plant in the basket.  Thanks Dick and Jan!!  You’ll notice in the picture a black and tan large vase, I found that in the trash too a few weeks ago!

 

I found a cute idea online to make a "cereal necklace".  I made one for Noah today for "snack time".  He seemed to love it…the cereal was gone in about 5 minutes.

 

Outdoor Adventures

  Today Noah and I spent a lot of time outdoors with his new bug collector!  We are going camping this weekend so Gary and I thought it would be fun for him to have some bug collecting supplies for our camping adventure!  We tried it out yesterday collecting worms and other tiny creatures from under rocks.  We collected over 15 worms!  I have to admit, I don’t seem to have any issues these days holding worms.  I guess that’s what happens when you have a boy.

 

 

I also got him some sidewalk chalk…

 

Noah wanted to take his worms for a walk in his wagon.  I’m sure the worms just LOVED bouncing around on the walk.  I told Noah we needed to put them back in their "houses" under the rocks when we returned from the walk.  It was so adorable watching him walk the worms.