The Lollipop Guild

Do you remember Jonah's first lollipop?

(I guess that is a candy cane, but same concept...)

(...and same enabler...keep reading)

Where did he get that?

Oh, he's sharing with Daddy!

but, look how cute Jonah is when he takes a lick:

Dream Home Revisited

The other day I posted pictures of rooms I'd love to have in my Dream Home. Today I'm adding a few more. Enjoy. And happy dreaming!

This would be the perfect guest bedroom! I think of Anne Shirley and her love of the "spare bedroom"...Diana's Aunt Josephine promised to put her in the sparest of spare rooms one day!

And maybe this for a Master Bedroom:

with THIS bath:

and THIS closet...if this isn't the happiest closet you've ever seen, please, please let me see one that is:

Where would one wash those lovely clothes? Why, in a Lovely Laundry, of course!

(with this sink on the other side of the room)

And then, a few fun extras:

Tour My Dream Home

Hey there!

We might be out for a few days, making memories and having adventures, so I thought I'd post some pictures I've found on the lovely world wide web. These are all things, or ideas of things I'd LOVE to have in my Dream Home. 

Now, remember, the key word here is DREAM. I know that having ALL these things under the same roof would take more money than I'll ever have/be willing to spend. So, that being said...here is the outside:

and this is the kitchen:

(the main feature I love about this is the banquette seating for the breakfast area)

I guess we could have a formal dining room too, or in my case, semi-formal:

And the living room/family room:

and THIS room...well I think I may try to create this someday, no matter what house I'm in:

I just love it! 

I love the ladder, the open stairs, and the turquoise chandelier!

OR, how about this home office:

unfortunately, it is more beautiful than it is functional.

ok, well, this is enough for today. Check back later in the week for the upstairs!

Mid-Morning Meltdown

We sure do love waking up with this cutie! He gets us smiling every morning.

This morning he was sitting with me while he ate his breakfast. 

Then, he asked for a fruit snack. He LOVES his fruit snacks. I usually don't give him any in the morning. (I try to limit him to one a day and only after lunch/nap).

Well, today it was really easy to answer him...we are out. (I might not buy any more for a while...he's kind of addicted)

Anyway, he didn't like my answer:

(crouched down on the floor...throwing a short-lived fit. 

I actually caught him looking to see if I was watching)

And then, a few minutes after that..

What's His Deal? (video added)

What is Jonah's deal??? I'll tell you...it's that he learned to deal...cards, that is!

Jonah was very occupied the other night. Upon investigation I saw he had found a deck of cards and was "dealing" them out all over the coffee table. It was the cutest thing! I wondered what brought about this new interest and remembered I'd been playing card games with Ben quite a bit this week. Jonah just wanted in on the fun.

He would deal (shove cards to all sides of the table) very intently. Then he would pick them up one by one and look at them. Finally, he came to me (I may or may not have been feeding my new addiction to Pinterest) and pulled my hand until I joined him at the table. We played for a while...then Jonathan came home and the three of us played.

Two things I noticed while working with these pictures:

1. Jonah needs to work on his "poker face." (middle left)

2. You, dear reader, need to ignore that he is pantless...sometimes that is how we roll!

Here's Looking at ALL of Me, Kid

You may remember the original Here's Looking at Me. It was in front of Jonah's cute little mirror in his room. We loved that. It was a classic in the world of the AtkinsAdventures.

Well, Jonah is still stuck on himself (in the cutest sort of way). This time I captured it in front of a full length mirror.

Weekend Update: WallArt

Jonathan worked on a little project this weekend.

He completed a project I dreamed up over 3 years ago!

 (jonah likes using the stud finder)

We started with a square of plywood. I pasted squares of scrapbook paper and Jonathan built the wooden framework to finish it out. I love how it turned out!

Making Pretzels

Some of my favorite people love love love LOVE Auntie Ann's Pretzels.

These same people also like a good cooking session in the kitchen. Sooooo...we found a recipe at Copykat.com.  Mmmm....yummy.

 Mixing the dough

rolling/shaping the dough

 cooking up nicely!

 And eating up VERY nicely!

Home Grown Veggies

We love to plant a garden every spring. 

We don't have a ton of space, but I think we utilize it well.

Bear with me...there are a lot of pictures here.

March

(we start most of our seeds inside in these handy little dirt pods...just add water)

April

Sometime late April/early May the little younglings made it out to the big garden.

(and well, now it is confession time: NONE of my early starts survived. I was overly eager and didn't "harden them off" before planting...they had all died by the next day)

 Below is our 2nd attempt. We purchased some bell pepper plants and tomato plants.

We replanted okra and squash by seeds directly into the garden.

June: we have plants!!

 And July brings some harvest. 

It is actually kind of pitiful this year. The okra, peppers, tomatoes, and cucumber haven't done much yet. The squash & zucchini have produced a ton, but are almost dead.

Happy 4th!

first, I just thought this was neat....

ok, now on with the Atkins' Adventures...

yes, this is last year's picture. 

I miss his littleness...but I love how big he is now!

Happy Day to ME!

Today is my birthday. 

Happy Birthday toooooo Meeeeeee!

Anybody (other than my mother) know how old I am today?

did you guess??

if you've been around me at all lately, you just might know!

Today I think I'll make a list of  things that are neat about my birthday...

how about a Cool-Things-About-Amy's-Birthday Top Five list!

5. I can usually enjoy a good fireworks display for my birthday. 

4. my half-birthday is New Years day....so, I usually see fireworks for that too!

3.I share my birthday with a princess...this may not seem like much, until I tell you which one...

(and if you were my friend Julie, well, this little fact would be in the #1 slot)

2.  My birth date rhymes...seven. one. eighty one. the thing that makes this fact even cooler is that my sister's rhymes too!! maybe my parents only had two of us because of the low odds of pulling that off again (neither one of us was induced/scheduled)

1. And the coolest little fact about my birthday is that it marks the exact center of the year. (thanks to February)  Jan. 1 - June 30 has the same number of days as July 2 - Dec. 31

well, that's all. I'll be out enjoying my day with my family and some friends. 

(the plan is to see this:

 with 3 of our favorite people!