Can you keep a secret?

Over at New England Mama's, we've been blabbing our secrets all week, and the fun continues this week as well.

As we enter our second week of Secret Spaces/Hidden Gems, we are inviting you to share your ideas with the readers of New England Mamas. If you have a secret space, hidden gem, private nook or undiscovered spot located anywhere in New England, write up something before the end of July and send it to Fairly Odd Mother at fairlyoddmother@inbox.com. She'll post it later this week, and will link the post back to your blog (although you do not have to be a blogger to play along). She'll also enter your name to win the 2008 Fun Pass we are giving away.

So what are you waiting for?

It's time to spill the beans!

Summer Fun

School is officially out - the girl's finished June 11th. While we haven't hit the summer doldrums yet, we do have a few activities planned for the summer. Husband has many weeks home this summer thanks to an odd work schedule and stacking vacations on his days off, so while our summer will be mostly unscheduled, we did sign the girls up for some activities to keep them busy and get them out of the house. Hopefully, we can get some home improvement projects done when they are not here (although Mos is too young to accompany her sisters to most things, we'll have one week at least where they are all gone for three hours a day). Of course, it's the one week Husband is working and we have out of town guests the first two days.

Head on over to New England Mama's to check out some fun summer activities.

Easter - Polish Style

With Easter coming up, I thought I'd write a little about some family traditions. So stop by the New England Mamas and read up on what we do.

Put a smile on her face

To see just what happened to put a smile on my face, look over here.

**************************************************************

Here's a great blog I've been reading, The Junk Pyramid. In fact, she's inspired me to do a little cleaning myself. The other day while one of the girls was taking her sweet time in the bathroom, I cleaned out under the sink tossing many items we didn't use and were no longer needed. Then I opened the two drawers and cleaned them out, and put all the kids hair ties and clips in their boxes so I could actually find them when I wanted them. Next up was the nightstand and then the hall closet. I now actually have room to store stuff! Some things tossed were bottles of old perfume and cologne, a brand of contact solution that neither of us use, old tub toys, old magazines, pieces to our old vacuum, plastic bags, an old bath pillow, empty bottles (no clue why they were saved) and various other little pieces of old things.

I'm not here right now....

Psst. I've posted another bird themed post over at the New England Mamas site today. Today's topic is Eagle Fest 2008.

So once your finished reading about this weekend's disappointments, head over there and check out that post.

For the Birds

Winter in New England is anything but predictable. Take this week for instance. Last Thursday, we had high temps of 12 degrees with a wind chill of below zero. Today, the high is supposed to be above 50 degrees! Throw snow and ice into the mix and you weather that's for the birds.

[To read more, visit New England Mamas...]

One Crazy Mama...

What do you get when you have 13 kids under the age of 6, 7 dozen sugar cookies, containers of colored frosting and more toppings than you can imagine? Sugar highs to last until Christmas!

{Rest of the story...}

Psst. Wanna know something?

My girls are blabber mouths! Every year, we take them out and let them pick out gifts for their siblings and parents (Husband takes them to shop for me, and I take them to shop for him). So far, the two little one's have spilled the beans.

Meenie to Moe: "I got you puppy in my pockets with a bracelet"
Meenie to Einey "I got you Pokemon cards with Cradaily and Roserade"

After shopping with with daddy yesterday:
Moe to Meenie "I got you a penguin" (which in fact she did but it wasn't a Christmas gift)
and then signing in the other room "We got Mommy socks and".................. shhh don't tell me!

Every time they open their mouths, I need to remind them NOT to tell what they brought someone. I think i need to start walking around with my fingers in my ears saying "lalalalalalala"!

******************************************************************

Yesterday UPS pulled up in front of the house (not unusual since I did alot of shopping online and I am still waiting for at least 3 more packages). Only I couldn't identify what was in the box. I mean the box was HUGE and the items I ordered were small. They shipped this:


Inside a box like this:

A little bit of overkill, no?

******************************************************************

Speaking of Christmas and gifts, don't forget to visit the New England Mama's blog for your chance to win some great prizes! Some are from New England vendor's such as Little New Englander, Brooks Pond, and Yellowhale Photography. I wish they had (or I knew about) that Brooks Pond baby carrier cover when I had the girls. I would always slip one of Husband's sweaters over whichever girl was in the front pack at the time. It made getting out in the spring and fall much easier! And the Little New Englander tee-shirts are great! The girls love walking around in their Virginia Beach shirts, so why not a local shirt. Finding a children's photographer is hard. I have a hard time finding one who fits our families need. But Yellowhale Photography does amazing work. Just browse through their gallery to check. Other prizes include a gift certificate to Sephora, a set of sacks from Envirosax (these are truly an amazing product - and they really do hold alot. So far, I have managed to fit almost everything inside of them), some gift certificates to Dunkin Donuts, Digital Day Counters from Days Ago, some HP photo books, A homemade Christmas Ornament made by our Maine blogger, MomonCoffee (do you take order's because Husband thought they were cool!) and a diaper bag by Skip Hop.

Make sure you visit and sign up for the contest. Contest ends 12/8! Be sure to tell them Whirlwind sent you!

Alone

Hear that? No not the heater running nor the hot water percolating. The silence! The kids grudgingly went to school (I say grudgingly because they were hoping for a day off - but as usual, the winter weather predicted was less than anticipated) and Husband is gone for the day. With Moe. On his own free will!

Yup, despite standing in line on Black Friday t oget me my camera *surprise* he feels he needs to buy me more things for Christmas. And thus, he volunteered to take Moe shopping.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to do the laundry, dishes, and finish decorating visit the New England Mama's Blog and see what kind of prizes I can win.

T minus three days

What's in three days you ask? Why the grand blog-opening of the new and improved New England Mamas blog of course. Posts by us mama's from up here in New England. Don't worry, it's not all about the chowder ;)

So be sure to stop by on Monday. We're even giving away free stuff! I'm not sure what types of goodies we are giving away, but I do know you could win some of these. And they are so totally awesome. Or wait, maybe you shouldn't go. Um yeah. Then I can just keep these for myself. I need some more anyway. So yeah, Monday, what ever you do, don't visit here.

See you Monday!

Let's talk turkey....

No, not here. Over here!

Psss. I'm not here today

No one can deny that payday is their favorite day of the week. But what happens when you are no longer the employee –but rather the boss? And just how much do you pay these micro employees? And just what do their job descriptions entail?

[Click here to read the rest of this post...]