Are you on Instagram?
I’m addicted and have been for almost 1-1/2 years.
You should download the app and follow me (@homeiswhatyoumakeit).
If not, you can still view my instagram photos on my new Instagram web profile!
You can click the link in the sidebar on the right to see any of my new Instagram photos on the good old inter web!
Also, have you heard about the new Afterglow app? It’s also addicting.
Download it.
Did you vote today?
They should make an app for that.
home is…cool apps.
This morning I hosted our weekly Friday playgroup.
It was our first playgroup since all of our oldest (except for Reece…he starts on Monday) started Kindergarten.
There were only six mommies this morning, but it still felt so nice to have my friends in my house talking, laughing, and supporting (there may have even been a few tears).
There were stories of hectic first mornings, continued struggles after a couple of days, and some super scary bus stories (that make me glad my little ones may not be able to ride a bus until middle school).
In the future, I am sure there will be stories of success, happiness, and new skills learned…but this was the first week.
We’ve had to change our timing to accommodate new school schedules, and are thinking of adding in a monthly Friday Afternoon Happy Hour so the older kids (and husbands) can join us!
Our playgroup is evolving, as it has ever since we met each other 5 years ago sitting on the floor of a conference room in a building across the street from where all of our babies were born in the summer of 2007.
And, it is as much for us, as mommies, as it is for our kids.
Maybe, even more.
*photos from {m}iphone were taken using the Instagram app and put together in a collage using Picasa
home is…a kitchen full of friends.
That’s what my youngest cousin had to say about our extended family’s trip to northern Idaho together.
I think Reece would agree.
Thanks to my other cousin, Greg, for inviting us all to celebrate with them!
It was definitely “fun with a capital f”!
Still going through the photos…I have them edited down to 989.
Post will be up next week.
Until then, a little FUN from our week back home…
home is…FUN!
It’s been a long stretch of traveling for Ryan.
He’s tired.
I’m tired.
This stretch of travel has put him away 11 out of 15 days.
He’ll come home for one day, and then the kids and I leave on a road trip for a family wedding.
Lorelai and Reece are flower girl and ring bearer along with my sisters daughter, Sasha.
My mom is flying out to Portland to help me drive to Northern Idaho.
Ryan is staying in Portland to spend time with some friends who are visiting from the Boise area.
He will meet us in Northern Idaho sometime next week…at least that is the plan.
I’m looking forward to some celebrating, playtime, and fun with my extended family.
And, I’m hoping to come back home re-energized to end the summer…we still have a lot of our summer list left to accomplish!
Who wants a mason jar pendant light?
I’m giving away the one I made for the tutorial.
To enter answer the following question as a comment below:
Deadline is Thursday, August 2nd at 9pm Pacific.
Winner will be announced on Friday, August 3rd!
home is…looking forward to a road trip.
I was going to write a big post about our yard and how it has changed and grown since my last post, but I am tired and I didn’t take photos with my good camera today.
This morning was beautiful and I enjoyed our backyard…sipping coffee while the kids watched a show inside (it was a bit cold out).
After that, I organized, crafted, and cleaned inside while the kids ate breakfast and played.
Once it warmed up, we moved outside where we organized, played, cleaned (think car wash) outside, and made rainbows.
Summer definitely made an appearance here in the Pacific Northwest today…
I hope you all had a great day, too!
*all photos taken on my iPhone with Instagram…you can follow me @homeisablog
home is…summer.
Last year I was inspired by Meg to come up with a Summer List of our own, and I loved it!
I absolutely love how Meg’s looked on her giant chalkboard with the photo collages in what is now her craft house!
{I also adore her old school chairs and would love some of my own.}
Source: megduerksen.typepad.com via stephany @ on Pinterest
Anyway, it gave us (me) a reason to plan some fun activities each week, but also left room for spontaneity and lazy days.
Although the little guy has been out of school for a couple of weeks, this week is the “official” start of summer break for all of the “big kids” as the last day of school was yesterday.
I have a giant chalkboard like Meg’s, but the kids use it and I am afraid that they would erase our list and I would constantly be re-writing it this summer.
I decided to use our giant bulletin board instead.
You may remember that it has been used to display our christmas cards in the past…
in our playroom…
and, in our family room.
Now, the bulletin board is located on the huge wall next to our open staircase in our entryway.
It has been displaying the kids artwork from the school year.
Since we won’t have school work, and we have two other bulletins on the wall to display artwork, I decided this would be a good place to put our summer list.
So, here is our Summer List 2012…
We walk by it every day and we can make sure that we are checking things off as summer moves along!
I printed out our list in a fun font, cut out the items, and glued them to scrapbook paper that was cut into different sizes.
My hope is that each time we do something on the “list” we can write the date on the card and I can write down a little bit about our adventure.
I will also print some photos of our adventures to put up on the board.
See my handsome cousin and his fiancé up there? We’re going to their wedding in August!
And, the big thing on our list…
no more diapers!
So, what do you plan to do this summer?
Here are some recent photos from Instagram…you can follow me as @homeisablog!
Well, we’ve got to to cross something off our summer list…
home is…hot fun in the summertime.
As of this morning I deactivated my personal Facebook account.
{my blog and colton+cadence pages are still active}
I didn’t delete it.
I may want it back.
I just decided to take a break from it.
I wanted to see what life felt like without it again.
I wanted to not have the temptation to sign in.
You see, if you are my personal friend on Facebook, you can no longer find me.
That means, other people can keep me accountable for not being there.
Not that I care if other people can keep me accountable, but I care about that fact that it makes me less likely to “sneak a peek” at my wall.
I would do that.
Anyway, it was an amazingly freeing feeling this morning as I drove the little guy to his last day of preschool.
Yes, I was thinking about Facebook.
I was thinking about not really caring who was doing what.
Or, caring if I told people what I was doing
You see, that’s what I started a blog for.
And, I started a blog before I joined Facebook, so I just figured I would go back to the basics.
So, you will still find me here.
I’ll still be sharing our adventures, photos, and random things right here in this space.
You can also find me on Instagram (homeisablog) and Pinterest…I’m not willing to give those up.
Speaking of Instagram…
home is…welcome to summer break!
So, let me tell you, you don’t want to get shingles.
Thankfully, I think I have a mild case.
However, I think the fact that they are on my head and neck make it a bit more painful.
And, it’s not really fun going to your kids preschool field trip with what looks like a big old hickey on your neck.
I’ve spared you all from the photos.
I think I posted a couple on Instagram (maybe Facebook), but otherwise I’ve tried to stay on the “down low”.
Anyway, Ryan really stepped in once he returned from business travel last week (after also helping out when his mom was here for a week).
He took the little guy to school on Friday and then Lala and I went to the Mother’s Day Tea at the preschool.
He’s a little tea pot…
The 4’s…
I’m not sure if he even sang…
Oooooh, he did sing…just missed the hand movements on this one.
Pulling it all together…
for the BIG finish!!!
{by the way, he and the cutie next to him were partners for the play and held hands all they way through their “Chicken Little” skit}
What else have we done?
Set up an outdoor bed for the kids to rest in…and play with the iPhone’s and iPad.
Real men play with pink iPads.
Letting Ryan deal out the discipline…Lala wasn’t thrilled about timeout.
Watched while Ryan played with the kids at the playground.
They are both capable of so many new things on a playground.
He couldn’t do this alone last summer.
And, she just wants to keep up with him.
And, I’ve just let them goof off while I sit and watch in the backyard.
Now, I am off to bed.
I hope to have a Spring yard and garden tour up on the blog by then end of the week!
Also, I gave the teachers their gifts at the Mothers Day Tea…they loved them!
home is…still having fun while I am on the mend.
These photos are a little late…
We had a great time at our Friday playgroup last Friday and I didn’t make the time to get the photos posted.
Then we had an fantastic weekend here in the Pacific Northwest, so we played outside as much as we could.
And, after the kids went to bed I was exhausted.
Exhausted.
That’s the norm, though.
And, if I don’t take the time to rest, or if I stay up too late, I get sick.
It’s a bummer, but it’s how I am.
So, today, we are just hanging out.
Resting.
So, we can play later this week when it is supposed to be in the 60’s!
*all photos taken with the Instagram app on my iPhone 4s
home is…exhausting fun.
The last 4 Fridays I have downloaded photos from my iPhone and posted them here on my blog. All the photos that I post can also be seen on my Instagram feed…I am @homeisablog. (find out more about Instagram here)
I like the idea of having the week captured in glimpses through my iPhone. I use it for most of my snapshot taking during the day…it is almost always in my pocket.
I am also participating in a photo a day challenge on Instagram, so some of the photos you see may be kind of random. You can read more about the challenge here. If you’re in Instagram, join in! If you’re not on Instagram, get on Instagram, and join in!
I hope you are enjoying the photos.
Here are some from the last week…
stephany taddeo 