Throwback Thursday

The date: Sometime in late 1996. Obviously, pre-Rachel days.

The place: I'm not sure what the occasion was. Perhaps Kevin can fill in details. I know most of the girls in this picture from our Second Baptist singles days. Kevin was the new guy in town and many girls were trying to get his attention.

The mood: Well, now it looks like everyone is having a grand old time.

All I can say is, "Ha! Ha! I won. He's mine!"

Incidentally, I've reconnected with several of these girls via Facebook and most are married with at least a couple of kids.

Cream Colored Ponies And Crisp Apple Streudels

I haven't done a post on a few of my favorite things in a while so here goes.

These pictures are on Fletcher's wall in his room. I found them at the children's consignment store for $5 each. But wait, there's more! I take some of the boys clothes and toys here to consign them so I had a credit. I used my credit and didn't pay anything out of pocket for these matted and framed prints. I wish I knew more about who made them. His room doesn't have a theme but he is starting to get interested in sports so I thought these were perfect.

This is the back wall of my laundry room. This little device only sticks out about an inch when closed.

But when opened, I have all this space to hang up stuff to dry. Incidentally, I bought this on clearance at Pottery Barn almost two years ago. It is no longer available. It has been sitting in the box in the laundry room since we moved into this house in August 2007. I just had Kevin hang it a few months ago and I love it. The other day I had some of the aforementioned unmentionables hanging to dry and Fletcher said, "Mommy, it looks likes a colorful rainforest in here!!!"

This was a complete impulse buy at Target. I use colanders and strainers alot around here for berries, grapes, pasta, etc. And these nest inside of each other for easy storage. The green color just makes me happy every time I use them. Fletcher likes the smallest one with the handle because he can hold it and rinse grapes or berries.

This paring knife is made by a company names Kuhn Rikon from Switzerland. It is super sharp and it comes with its own cover which is great for storing and also taking on a picnic lunch. There's a coating on the blade that keeps food from sticking to it. With a 20 month old, I do lots of cutting, chopping, peeling, and dicing so these are great. I found these on clearance at Sur La Table, but since then I have also seen them at places like Marshalls and TJ Maxx. I bought an orange one too.

Do you have any favorite things to share?

Summer Garden

I have to let you in on a little secret. I'm not so sure about all this gardening stuff.

According to what I read, our broccoli and lettuce should have already produced by now making room for our summer plants. Most everything we planted said it would mature between 60-75 days. We planted on Feb. 15. I'm no mathematical genius (but I did major in it in college), but that tells me that by now we should have some serious maturity.

I'm not sure if this counts. Maybe my boys can split the floret and get their vegetable nutrients for the day.

I might be able to serve Kevin a tiny side salad with our buttercrunch lettuce. Any idea why the lettuce seems to be doing great near the sides of the garden but not in the middle. Do the pressure treated posts Kevin used to assemble the structure add some kind of fertilizer I don't know about. Hmmmmm?

Maybe it has something to do with the 3 or 4 really cold/freezing nights we had after Feb. 15.

It does look like we'll be having a few strawberries soon. Fletcher reminded me not to eat the green ones because they don't taste good. Voice of experience? I didn't ask.

In good faith we went ahead and squeezed in some Lady Bell peppers, burpless cucumbers (whatever that means) and six tomato plants. Three of the tomato plants are called Better Bush. The guy at the gardening place said they are good to grow in raised beds and containers because they only get about 3 feet tall. The other kind are La Roma. We used pots since we didn't have much room anyway and tomatoes are prone to diseases. I'm not sure whether we will need stakes or not so we put them in just in case.

We haven't been getting much rain so Fletcher and I have been diligently watering. The boys and I were in Sams awhile back and we saw this really cool setup. Kevin said, "No." Maybe next year. . .

Times Have Changed (Thank Goodness)

Remember back in the day when the time came for school pictures?


Moms would make sure we were dressed in our best (unless, of course, they happened to forget that it was school picture day). Everyone pretty much had the same backdrop and maybe a prop. I remember we all had our hands folded on our science textbook in 3rd grade because it had a "colorful cover" according to our teacher


Plastic combs. It seemed as though the photographer had a big box of combs. I guess even back then they knew enough about head lice so they didn't let kids share combs. The teachers tried to make sure hair was in place, bows were tied, clothes were not unbuttoned, unzipped or crooked.


Then one by one, we sat down. The photographer said, "Look right here and smile" or maybe "Say cheese." There was one shot. One opportunity to get it right. The photographers might possibly take a second photo if they knew for certain a child had blinked or coughed or made a weird face. But usually it was one shot.


These days, school pictures have gone high tech. Everything is digital. The photographers even go to preschools. Color pictures in the fall and black and white playground pictures in the spring. They take the kids outside since the lighting is better. The kid talks to the photographer and plays while the photographer snaps away.


Parents get choices. A few weeks later, we receive 10-12 proofs and then we can go online and order. They'll adjust blemishes, runny noses, etc.


Thank goodness times have changed. Thank goodness there's not just one shot. One opportunity to get it right. Otherwise, we'd be stuck with this as our forever record of our child's time in preschool.

It's a Kettler

When Fletcher was 2, Santa found a fabulous deal on a German made Kettler tricycle. These tricycles are not cheap, but they are supposed to last forever and have a weight limit of 400 lbs. I'm not kidding - google it. I guess those German kids can put away the beer and brats!

While we haven't tested all 400 lbs we have gotten up to about 230 lbs.

My Own Version Of 27 Dresses (Throwback Thursday)

Today's Throwback is a little different. We have lots of pictures instead of just one or two!

A few months ago a movie came out entitled "27 Dresses". The main character was "always a bridesmaid, never a bride" not once, but 27 times. Well, I wasn't in 27 weddings, but I was a bridesmaid ten times before I got married. So here are the pictures to prove it. The dates range from 1989 through about 1995. See if you can pick up on any late 80's/early 90's fashion trends!

I've tried to put them in chronological order as best as I could remember. Unfortunately, for three of the dresses I didn't have any actual wedding party pictures.

Mint green, tea length, bow on butt, material unknown (satin maybe), shoes dyed to match. These are wrinkled because they've been stuffed in a box in the closet. I kept all of them thinking that I would let my daughter play dress up in them one day. Kevin says Fletcher and Luke are not allowed to play dress up in them. :)

Floral print, tea length, cotton, no bow on butt, shoes dyed a mint green.

Green velvet, tea length, lace applique on front, drop waist, gathered sleeves, bow on butt (hard to see in picture), shoes dyed to match. Fall wedding.

Two piece, teal green, tea length skirt, scalloped neckline, bone colored shoes. I actually wore this one as a church dress after the wedding.

Floral print, drop waist, tea length but higher in front than the back (what is that called?), bow on butt, light purple shoes.

Fuschia two piece, shawl wrapped collar, short skirt, shoes dyed to match. Karen and Steff are still mad at me for making them wear so much makeup that day. What was I thinking?

Two piece, turquoise and white, tea length skirt, bow in front, white shoes. I do remember it being incredibly hot in Louisiana on this day.

Black and white, two piece, tea length, shawl flowy collar, black shoes.

Floral print, halter top, long dress, can't remember if there was a bow on butt, but look closely at my white gloves. Shoes were white I think.

Two piece, black and white plaid silk, long skirt, black dyed shoes.

That's all ten! I know some of you are wondering (if you weren't there) what my bridesmaids dresses looked like. Here's the only pic I could find without disassembling my entire wedding album (Sorry, Stacie). Purple eggplant color, sleeveless, rounded neckline, empire waist, tea length with shoes dyed to match.

20 Things About Our 20 Month Old

We try to keep things real over here at Snickelfritz Lane so please disregard the giant booger in his nose. Sunglasses + bright sun + camera lens + spring allergies + squirmy toddler = oops, should have gotten a tissue.

Also, note his less than stellar haircut. It started out ok until pieces of hair got in his mini M&Ms and that just made him upset.

I can't believe he is 20 months old. Some of our favorite things he is saying/doing:

He calls Fletcher "Che-chee" (short e sound then long e sound at the end).

He loves playing in Fletcher's room especially if Fletcher is not in there.

He's been known to jump on the bed in Fletcher's room which is one of the reasons why Fletcher's room has a baby gate at the door

He calls all drinks "wah-wee" (his word for water).

He calls crackers "kee-kahs"

He is starting to put words together like Daddy's truck, Mommy's wah-wee (shh, it's really Diet Coke), Che-chee's teeth.

He is learning to say please and still does the sign with it (rub flat hand on chest in circular motion).

He can sing the nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah BATMAN!

His favorite Bible story right now is Meme MahMah - his words for Mary and Martha. To his credit, MeMe MahMah do look sort of cute in this particular Bible.

If he falls or drops something he says, "Whoa".

He can do the motions to the Zachheus Was a Wee Little Man Song.

He loves most food and is getting pretty good at using a spoon and a fork.

He has learned what a tortilla chip is and asks for them frequently.

He calls all hats "Yee Ha's" because Fletcher used to put on Kevin's cowboy hat and yell Yee Ha!

He loves all kinds of trucks, construction vehicles, firetrucks, 18 wheelers, etc. Fortunately, for us we live in an area where there seems to be road construction EVERYWHERE (but I'm not bitter) so we get to see lots of bull dozers, graders, etc.

He calls Elmo "Eee - on". Same thing as a donkey sound.

He puts his hands together to pray and then whispers something we can't understand.

He likes listening to music in the car and frequently "dances" in his car seat.

His favorite friend in the neighborhood is Ella and he calls out her name "Yella, Yella" when we drive by her house.

He loves riding his "Tick-I-Tick-el" which is his tricycle (say it fast). I use the term riding loosely since the tricycle has a push bar and Kevin or I end up pushing him around since he can't pedal yet.