Pictures A Little Late

These are pics from Hope's birthday party. We just celebrated as a family but Hope enjoyed it all the same.

Ben made this yummy cake from scratch with home-made bavarian cream filling!

Happy Birthday Hope!

Hope is 2 today! I can't believe it.

Here's a few choice pics from the last year.

Pretty Toes

Hope got so excited when she saw the silver nail polish and I told her we were going to paint her toes. I don't paint them very often, but I really should because - LOOK HOW CUTE!!! Actually, I couldn't get a very good picture of them because our camera is not that great, but you get the general idea.

Seriously?

A few days ago, as I was snooping around blogs, I happened upon a post titled "Lazy Day" in which the blogger was confessing that she had shirked her daily chores for ONE day and that the next morning she found that ignoring housework for 24 hours is not worth the terrible mess that she woke up to.

Seriously?

Then I remembered a few years ago a friend of mine talking about her cleaning schedule. For example, she cleaned her bathrooms on Tuesdays and Fridays, and she vacuumed at least once a day.

Seriously?

Okay, I admit that during my first marriage our apartment (when we weren't living with his parents) was spotless. This is because I use cleaning as a defense mechanism. When I get upset or irritated or angry I scrub my stress away.

So now, I would like to blame my messy house on the fact that I am a happily married woman. Ben, those dirty dishes and the muddy kitchen floor is a product of our love and admiration for each other. :) Okay, I can't blame my happy relationship for my disgusting abode, I suppose I will have to assume responsibility for that.
Don't get me wrong, I totally appreciate having a clean home, I am just wondering...

Seriously,

am I the only person I know that does not clean her house everyday? What do you think, should I make a cleaning schedule for myself?

Tennis

Noah is taking tennis lessons this summer. These pictures were of his first lesson. His instructor said that he improved a lot in only 30 minutes! Of course, I was surprised at how well he was doing at the beginning of the lesson.

I can't wait to see how well he does at the end of summer.

Traditions

Growing up my family had very few traditions so I find myself wondering what to carry on to my own family during holidays and such. This year for the 4th, we really didn't do anything because this has been a mad house trying to prepare for Cheryl's wedding and the company that is coming from out-of-town. Ben and I did get a few fireworks at the very last minute for Noah and him to light in the backyard, but that was about the extent of it.

Last year, I tried to get a little crafty and make something festive for the 4th. Turns out no one in my family likes strawberry shortcake...including me.

So here is my question for the blogging world - What are your traditions?

Fort

What do you get when you mix a bored 7 year old, a fussy 2 year old, a desperate mother, no car and a bunch of card tables? FORTS! We've been collecting card tables for Cheryl's wedding so the kids and I decided to make good use of them and build a fort. It provided hours of entertainment and a cool place to have lunch, and even Muffin enjoyed it.