A Month at a Glance

I've been a bit MIA but for a good reason! I needed to take a break from all that Disney talk to let family who aren't as familiar with blogger to read up without having too much trouble (as those 3 posts took up the entire page). This is what the Brown Family has been up to since I last wrote...

• Our family went to Oregon a couple weeks ago to see Tennyson's high school graduation (from one end of the country to the next in a matter of weeks which is okay by me - I love traveling!). We had to miss my cousin Paige's graduation, which was a bummer. So proud of them both!

• End-of-the-school-year activities like field days, talent shows, etc... Mikenna's last day was June 7th! Mikenna and Adiee ROCKED the talent show by the way! What seemed like a 2.5 hours of Justin Bieber and Katy Perry's "Firework" on repeat (half the time you couldn't even hear the kids singing along!) Our kiddos walked on stage and they sang, The Little Mermaid's "Part of Your World" at the top of their lungs! Good thing they had the music playing in the background, otherwise they would've sang in circles for who knows how long! I laughed til I cried and got every moment on tape for Kasey to enjoy that afternoon. :)

Last day of 1st Grade... *sniff *sniff :(

• We broke in the ocean (a.k.a. lake, ha!) kayak! It was SO much fun, now I can't wait til mine gets here!! Good thing Kasey shares so well! ;-)

The girls had a blast playing at the beach/playground while we messed around on the kayak! 

My good lookin' hubby on his newest toy. I realized I had the camera in my pocket when I went out, so feet is all ya get! LOVE his goofy face - he makes me laugh! :)

• I've been blog surfing! I discovered the joys of blog hopping a few months ago, there are SO many creative, helpful, inspiring blogs out there!
• I've joined Pinterest, an addicting place to hoard those creative, helpful, inspiring posts that you run into! If you are wanting to join, let me know and I will send you an invite so that you don't have to wait for them to send you one. :)
• Yesterday we celebrated 7 years of marriage! As always we used facebook to flaunt our happiness to the world - sorry if we made you vomit... Haha! But seriously, couldn't be happier!!

I wanted to put this really cute Disney World one of the two of us, but I'm still waiting for my disc... It should be here within the next couple days (at least it better be)!

• We are taking the munchkins to Denver this Saturday to celebrate Miss Mikenna's birthday at Elitch's amusement park, which is today by the way! :-) She is SO excited, that crazy kid cannot wait to do the heart stopping sky coaster swing ride... She's just like her daddy! (ok, I kinda like it too... haha!)

• AND lastly, I have been on a mission to simplify and declutter our life!! I can't STOP!! So far in the last week, I have gone through every drawer, bin, box, cupboard, closet, and corner in our master bedroom, master bathroom, laundry room, living room, kitchen, as well as Mikenna and Isla's room. Adiee's is a whole 'nother ballpark - stuffed animals have taken over! No joke!

These 2 pictures are kind of embarrassing, but obviously they aren't kept on the floor. All of these cuddly little jerks are the reason for most of my temporary episodes of insanity and are kept on the top bunk in Adiee's bedroom, but we are getting rid of the bed and ALL of these besides a select few. These pictures are right before we started the sorting process, "after" pictures are unavailable at the moment because we are about to undergo round 2 of sifting through the keep pile to put more into the toss/sell/donate piles. They are doing great at understanding why we should give to those in need, make room for new stuff, and paring down to keep mommy's mental health intact. Ha! And I still have to go through the playroom and girls' bathroom.

I am a list maker and organizer at heart and crave order and cleanliness; with space being a serious issue in this temporary abode and I have been LOSING my mind lately with how much stuff we have accumulated over the past few years! And with Isla getting older, we have an obscene amount of baby toys, clothes, furniture, etc... to get rid of (among many many other things)! Wierd... we have big kids now (sort of, haha!) Going through all of our belongings with a fine tooth comb and getting ready for our upcoming garage sale to shed all this unwanted stuff has left me feeling liberated! My goal is to live more simply - less material and visual clutter and more functional, orderly, and beautiful surroundings in my life :)