This Week… {Insta Friday}

Here’s what we were up to this past week (and the week before that) – I’m MomsGonnaSnap on Instagram if you want to follow along!

I missed last Friday, so I doubled-up two weeks worth of pics for this week.  The last two weeks have been pretty busy!

One morning I woke up to this – a seriously happy kid, SWIMMING in Lego's!  We scored a major deal – two big tubs worth of Legos for cheap from a guy at hubby’s work. They get a lot of use!


I have been working way through a set of super ugly furniture I scored on Craigslist.  If you follow me on IG, you know that I started working on these beauties (there are 2) a couple weeks ago.  Then I ran out of paint. Oops. I ordered more, and it was delivered this week. Hopefully these will be done by the end of the weekend!


Hubby took Anthony to Cub Scout camp and they tried all kinds of fun new things – archery, shooting a BB gun, and more.  They had a FULL day and Anthony loved EVERY minute. They received camp shirts too – the back says, “Don’t Judge a Hero by the Size of his Cape”. Love it!


We live in Minnesota and it’s sweet corn season. I LOVE some delicious fresh sweet corn! We pick some up several times a week from the local farmer stands. I always cook up the whole bag (we buy a dozen, which is typically about 16 ears – always extra!) and then freeze the rest. It is SO good to have during the rest of the year!


It’s official, that crazy snaggle tooth fell out. Finally!  Anthony’s smile is SO CUTE now – I love it! Oh, and I’ll stop the regular tooth updates now. For real though, wiggly teeth have really been a big deal at our house.


We had some friends over for the weekend and all 3 boys climbed on the tire swing.  They were having a blast! I was crossing my fingers that the branch would hold up! Combined, they weighed so much that the swing was bottoming out on the ground! Fun times!


Chocolate lasagna. This stuff is seriously amazing. I found the recipe on Pinterest. You can thank me later.  My only complaint is the pile of dishes left behind after making it. But, it’s totally worth it!


We went downtown last week and the boys “shared” a piece of pizza. Technically I think hubby is stealing a bite, but Anthony didn’t mind!


Anthony created some artwork – the one with the big orange splatter with the yellow center is his.  He was super proud of it.


Last Friday I spent the day at an antique flea market.  I couldn’t resist grabbing a few comic books from 1979 and 1980. I planned to cut them up (GASP, I know) and use them to create a poster collage for Anthony’s room, but now I’m just not sure if I can do that.  We’ll see. I found some other fun things there too!


We met some of hubby’s family in Iowa for a weekend of camping. The ladies enjoyed wine and words (aka Scrabble) – it’s good for the soul. Games like this force me to SLOW DOWN, which is a good thing. Long walks, campfires, kayaking, boating – good stuff!


There were so many of us that the grill didn’t provide enough room to cook dinner all at the same time.  We quickly started a fire and put the big boys to work cooking.  Of course the women sat around and told them how to cook. Ha!  Dinner cooked over an open flame is pretty amazing.


This is Dixie. She was camping with us.  She’s a great dog. Dixie decided the camp chairs were much more comfy than the ground. She’s a smart dog!


On the way home from camping, this guy crashed out.  He was TIRED! About those teeth – can you see any? Nope.  He’s all gums…  Ha. Cracks me up. Okay, now I’m done talking about teeth…


This week I joined the 2nd graders on two field trips. One of them involved this guy. Let’s just say I predicted that the naturalist would walk around and show all the kids, so I got up and moved to the back of the room. I snuck up to take this photo and stepped right back. Oh, and there was a child between me and the spider. I’m safe like that.


What did you do this week?


Linking to: Life Rearranged, Lauren Elizabeth

This Week… {InstaFriday}

Here’s what we were up to this week – I’m MomsGonnaSnap on Instagram if you want to follow along during the week!

I wrote about loose teeth last Friday, and then this finally happened! During dinner, while eating pizza. I didn’t instagram a pic of what happened later, but imagine that other front tooth a little more centered and dropped down at an angle.  It’s so loose!  And very redneck.  Did I mention that school pictures are today?  Yep. Awesome.

It’s a good thing we have plenty of parking out front… The neighborhood kids congregate at our house and we love it!

Handy hubby put up a rope swing in the backyard last weekend.  It’s been getting some serious use this week!

While hubby worked on the rope swing, I was working on this.  There will eventually be before/after pictures on the blog.  Until then, just imagine what this looked like in 1980. It was UGLY!

The awesome swing in the backyard can easily be switched out – this is the other one!  Bonus – when we bought new camper tires, we saved the $3 disposal fee by keeping this one!

My friend Julie came to visit and brought her sweet little 2-year-old.  Loved being able to spend a little time with them this week!

Ever played Cards Against Humanity?  It’s like The Game of Things, only it doesn’t require you to be as creative.  We are ready for a fun night with friends this weekend!

What did you do this week?


Linking to: Life Rearranged, The Lauren Elizabeth

Handmade Chevron Quilt

I have been wanting to update Anthony’s room and make it more colorful for awhile – he was almost 7 when we started this project and still had a room full of trucks, trains and planes.  He likes “zig zags”, so I convinced my mom to help me make him a chevron quilt for his new room (he also switched bedrooms).  If you know me, you know I am not really into sewing, and I definitely do not enjoy it. That said, I love a good project and seeing progress happen, and making this quilt definitely met my desire for a “quick project”.  My mom might not agree on the “quick” part, but more on that later…

My Mom drove over from Wisconsin and we met at my house.  First we had to spend some time working through the math to figure out a pattern.  This was tricky, but we figured it out!  We headed out fabric shopping around 1:30 and eventually came home with this pile of fabric.  I have to admit, I was SHOCKED at how expensive the fabric was.  Seriously – crazy expensive!!


After dinner we dove in and started working. It took a little time, but eventually my mom trusted me to measure and cut the fabric. We used a method like this to make the squares and then just set them out on the floor to create the strips.  I measured, cut, did some ironing, and most of the pinning, while my mom was the lady at the sewing machine making the real magic happen.


Here are all the rows laid out on the floor in our living room – this was about 24 hours after we headed out to buy the fabric!


We finished the quilt top around 5:00 the next afternoon (less than 24 hours after we starting cutting the fabric!). After we had the top all sewn together, we laid it out on Anthony’s new bed and this guy quickly climbed on top of it.  (check out that outfit – crazy swim trunks are all day attire! Ha!)


Then came the easy part (at least for me!).  My mom took the quilt top home with her, picked up some batting, and finished assembling and sewing the quilt. It sounds so easy, right?  I do know that she spent many long hours working on this (and Anthony and I are very thankful for her work!).  She tells me that this was a HUGE quilt to maneuver through her machine. So big that she had to move her machine from her sewing room out to the dining room table so that she had enough room. The quilt is also so heavy that she had to help “hold” the quilt by rolling it and throwing it up over her shoulder. It looks a little warm too (she did this in June)…


Here’s a few pics of the finished quilt, just because you need to see it in all it’s glory! 


The gray fabric is a little funky and I LOVE all of the other bright colors!






Now if only the rest of Anthony’s room would get finished up as “quickly” as this quilt did!  Thanks Mom!


Linking to: Sugar Bee Crafts, Uncommon Designs, Life With the Crust Cut Off, Skip to my Lou, Ladybug Blessings, Made to be a Momma, Ginger Snap Crafts, The 36th Avenue

This week… {InstaFriday}

Another busy, and fun, week for us this week!  I'm MomsGonnaSnap on Instagram if you want to follow along during the week!

Last Friday night we made homemade pizza. This is mine – a caprese pizza!  Pesto with (LOTS and LOTS of) fresh sliced mozzarella and tomatoes on garlic naan bread.  Delish!

On Saturday we went out to celebrate our anniversary. First we had dinner (somehow I managed to stay away from the portabella mushroom fries this time) and then met some friends for drinks and a show at a comedy club before everyone came back to our place.  We had a blast!  Happy 12 years!

For his 7th birthday, this guy got rollerblades.  SO.MUCH.FUN!  It’s been a blast watching him learn how to use them.  He’s doing great!!  He’s also Mr. Safety: elbows, knees, wrists and head = protected!

And look at his Daddy – they make a great team.

On Sunday after lunch we decided to take our bikes down on the city trails.  Unfortunately a storm rolled in so we only got to ride for 1.5 miles.  We were hoping for 5 miles.  Maybe this weekend?

Yep. That’s a mohawk. On my 7-year-old.  He is in heaven.  He wants me to do this every single day for school, except he remembers as the bus pulls up in front of our house…  Oh, did I mention that this is 8 hours later, after I picked him up from school?  It looked even better when he got on the bus that morning.

That tooth...  Will someone please pull it for me?  It’s HANGING.  I am not a fan of loose teeth.  Please send help.

No, we are not moving.  That’s a furniture delivery truck backing into OUR driveway!  Our new bed and a couch for our basement arrived this week.  Yes, a couch, in our basement.  No, the basement is not done, but it’s close enough that we found a couch (thank you for the birthday party that gave us 2 free hours to furniture dream/shop!). Those delivery guys were crazy.  3 guys, and it was like a tornado.  They were FAST – in and out in just a couple minutes. 

Here’s hubby with one of the city building inspectors.  We had 2 inspections on the basement yesterday – the final electric inspection (passed!) and the final a fireplace inspection (failed). They will have to come back one more time for the final fireplace inspection. After our plumber comes back to swap out some of the gas line for a pipe. Or something like that.

At the beginning of the month I started using the app Collect on my iPhone.  Every day I made sure to take a pic and save it to the app on that day.  It was fun, but now what do I do with it?

I have to admit, I’m kinda liking these posts.  What a perfect way to document the “goings on” of our week while also sharing with family and friends.  Works for me.

What did you do this week?

Linking to: Life Rearranged, Lauren Elizabeth

A Month in Photos {July}

I think it’s safe to say that July is our busiest month out of the year. Every year I think we are going to cut something out because there is just way too much going on, and so far we haven’t.  Maybe next year? 

July is FULL of celebrations for our family, and we will definitely continue
to celebrate them every year!
Anthony’s Birthday
My Birthday (Yes, I am aging against my will)
My mom, brother and mother-in-law celebrate birthdays in July too!
Our anniversary (12 years!)

Other things we did this month:
Anthony’s birthday party (that included a snake! eek!)
Time with cousins
4th of July Party
Slip-n-Slide
Day at the pool
”7” Pictures
First Day of School