the breakfast bandit.

evan's so silly. no matter what we eat for breakfast, or how much breakfast he eats, he always finds his way to lane's leftovers for a little post-breakfast snack.

the breakfast bandit strikes again.

wordless wednesday.

dropping in for a quick hello.

just dropping in for a quick hello. i know things have been silent around here lately. but to say things have been hectic for us would be a huge understatement. the kitchen renovation lingers on. we now have a window where a wall used to be. walls where rooms used to be. and a huge opening where a a counter, sink and dishwasher used to be. as of tonight, we should have hardwood floors where the old laundry room linoleum used to be.

our house is a wreck, and i've kind of given up on keeping any kind of organization to it. i do laundry on an as needed basis and we eat out a bunch.

during the day, the boys and i avoid the house so the guys can work. this means we spend a lot of time at the gym, pool, target, james' office and any where else kind of cool.

my boys - they are champs. like seriously, i think james and i love them even more now than we did before. if that was even possible.

they nap in the car. or in the house while floors are being laid and plumbing being installed. (they get their sleeping abilities from us druckers. seriously, we can sleep through any thing.

they let me drag them around all day long.

they eat whatever we can pull together on days we can't stand one more restaurant meal.

and i'm not kidding when i say that once our kitchen is complete this family will not be going any where for a very long time.

unless it is the beach.

i hope everyone has a lovely fourth. wherever you might be spending it. be safe.

keep your fingers crossed for us. rumor has it cabinets get installed on monday.

lovely little life.

 i admit, i haven't been making my kids spend their entire summer in the backyard. we have been going to the pool most week nights and went back to red top beach last weekend. i'm not sure why, but evan loved it. it could have something to do with not being so tired. or maybe it was because i slathered him in sunscreen before we left the house. or, more than likely, it was because his papa was with him.

whatever it was, the boys had a blast.

any time anyone wants to join us for an early morning, before it gets too crowded, meet-up at red top beach, let me know.

we are in.

 in summer learning news, my mom gave lane an activity book for kindergartners a few weeks ago. there's lots of pages full of all of his favorite things to do - tracing letters, drawing shapes, counting objects. and, what he isn't quite old enough to grasp yet, i just modify for him (without him even knowing).

most mornings, before breakfast, he'll ask for a page in his book and i'll set him up with a marker and and some sunshine.

he constantly amazes me.

 last week, lane found an empty box in the dining room and started playing cars around it. he informed me it was dixie speedway - and bam, just like that, i had a great idea. i cut open the box. pulled some instant oatmeal out of its box, found an almost empty box of cereal. and set out to help him create his own dixie speedway. 

 first, we needed a place for people to sit. then we needed a pit stop. then a concession stand. we continued to add on for a few days, including a track drawn by lane and a girl cut from one of my catalogs singing our national anthem.

lane came up with the design. i cut and taped. evan constantly destroyed his brother's hard work.

it gave all three of us something to play with and work on for a few days. 

 last friday night, james had to run up to the office before bed time. so, all of us went with him and stopped at dairy queen on our way there. we parked in the back of the office complex. the boys ate their ice creams while james and i enjoyed our shakes. all of us looked for dear and bunnies.

lane soon tired of looking for bunnies and decided he would much rather look at himself. i caught him happily licking away at his ice cream cone while watching his own reflection in the truck's bumper.

of course, last sunday was father's day. we lazed around the house all morning. the boys and i went to the gym in the early afternoon - giving james some much needed at home alone time. and then we spoiled him with  scooby doo cupcakes on the back deck. as a special treat, lane and evan stuck their fingers in to each cupcake and ate just the icing off more than half of them.

we sure do love that guy.

the best seat in the house.

the green grass is nice, but the best spot in the backyard has to be our red adirondack chair. it has always been a sought after chair on the back deck but now it is THE SPOT TO BE. i spotted that yellow cushion at a treasure store in downtown on my way to the office a month or so ago and rushed in to get it before anyone else could.

it is bright yellow. big. and cushy. just what our red chair needed.

i didn't realize how much time we spent in that chair until i started looking through my instagram feed. apparently, each one of us makes our way to that chair at least once a day. i'm going to venture out and say it might be the most photographed chair in the june photo challenge i signed on to do this month.

it is just right for reading, watching the boys play in the yard, munching on an afternoon snack or just monkeying around.

wordless wednesday.

our beautiful backyard.

 have i ever told all of you that james has a slightly unhealthy relationship with our backyard? i'm not kidding. this place was a mess when we moved here more than five years ago. the grass in the backyard was so high and unkept that james couldn't even use a mower to cut it down. he had to use a machete in certain places. for two years after moving in, we would find random items that did not belong to us that would somehow float to the surface of our backyard.

for a few years, james dealt with it and did the best he could to clean it up on his own. then, when i was pregnant with lane, he went crazy with the nesting and took a bulldozer to the backyard. it has only gotten worse since then. he's planted grass. he's watered. he's laid sod in certain spots. nothing worked.

this year, he killed all of our grass. all of it. for weeks, i was left with what you see above. dirt.

dirt in my backyard. dirt in my house. dirt on my dogs. dirt on my boys. dirt on my furniture.

i cleaned on and remained calm. (or at least tried to remain calm.)

then, the landscapers came. they leveled. they raked up rocks. they laid sod and placed pinestraw.

they made my backyard a lovely little space where our dogs run and our boys play all day long.

 and, i get to spend my afternoons lounged on our back deck reading books, eating yummy food and watching the boys throw balls, play cars and run through the sprinkler.