The Combs Krewe

We've been enjoying our Chick-fil-a coupons from the First 100 Event we attended. This week Piper discovered ketchup and LOVED it! I made a homemade pizza for the first time in a while. Man, do I love homemade pizza! The little kids and I picked up a couple of friends and headed to Sunshine Park. I totally underestimated the difficulty of directing a four-year old and a three-year old on bikes plus a two-year old on a tricycle while pulling a two-year old and a one-year old in a wagon down the street where people were dropping off kids for camp. Yeah. Duh, me. But thanks to a kind woman's help we made it all in one piece! I think everyone had a good time and was ready for a popsicle when we got back home. We tried banana "ice cream" this week. You just slice up ripe bananas and freeze the slices then stick them in the blender and blend until smooth. You can eat it right away for a "soft serve" texture or refreeze it for something more like

The kids are participating in the summer reading program at the Jefferson Parish Libraries. We've been working hard reading a ton of books, and yesterday Jathan, Ryland, and Piper got rewarded. (Keeleigh still has a few books to go...I don't get to read to her and she has spent more time at the pool than with her nose in a book this summer!) We just so happened to stop in during story time and got to meet Boudreaux, the Zephyr's mascot, who was there for the baseball-themed story time. We also chose a *few* more books and four movies for this week. We'll meet the 50 book requirement and be entered into the drawing for a big prize. Here's hoping we win! Now here are a few pictures of the littles wearing their new reading shirts in front of our yard sign (what do you do with a yard sign if you have no yard?). Piper... Ryland... Jathan... Hopefully Keeleigh will get on the ball and I'll have a celebratory pic of her up here soon!

I signed the kids up for the summer reading program at the library, and a couple of weeks ago we picked out a few books to take home. I let the kids choose freely and we ended up with 32 books! One of the books Piper had chosen all by herself. I may end up buying a copy of this one because she absolutely loves it. It's so adorable seeing her flip through the pictures and light up. She points and says, "Baby," while I try to keep my heart from bursting. = )

June 2012, Week 3 Keeleigh and I visited the homeschool resource room on campus searching for material for the 2012-2013 school year. The boys helped me make our first batch of homemade laundry detergent. For under $5 we made enough concentrate to last for at least 160 loads of laundry! The little kids visited the Floores one morning. Carley showed Ryland how to drive. We tried to hit the playground early and enjoy the little bit of shade. The kids love drawing with sidewalk chalk! I traced around each of the kids. Piper thought that was so funny and kept laying down smiling waiting for me to draw her some more. Seriously, could she get any cuter? "It's hot outside," Ryland tells me. He was happy to head upstairs to cool off with a snowball! At least someone is enjoying the hot and humid weather. My tomatoes are soaking up the sun on the balcony and grow, grow, growing. Can't wait to have a garden someday! This one was from

June, Week 2 I made black bean quesadillas ( click here for the recipe ). Everyone (except Keeleigh) ate them up . Ryland even said, "Good food, Mommy!" This recipe is definitely a keeper. Keeleigh constructed a play tent for the boys. They loved it! We had planning on going to Fontainebleau State Park Wednesday to let the kids play on the beach for the afternoon, then Keeleigh suggested we camp out for the night. "Why not?" we decided. It was our first family camping adventure---so much fun! I see many return trips in our future. Jackie and I needed to go buy Keeleigh's birthday present so my friend, Melissa, volunteered to keep the boys, Keeleigh stayed with a friend, and we got a date night (Piper joined us but we didn't mind!). Hears photographic proof that I'm a cheap date. We used my coupons from the First 100 Event and got all of this food for $2.66. Good deal! This shot is from the Causeway...I love seeing NOLA in the d

I met someone new last week and as we were talking I mentioned that I home school my children. As with many people, I got the response, "Oh, I could never do that!" I know that everyone does not agree that homeschooling is a viable, desirable option but no one has ever been rude to me (at least not to my face!) when I mention that's what we do. Almost always people bestow compliments on me. I try not to let this go to my head because I happen to know that I am nothing special. Yes, I have four children and their ages sometimes make things challenging. Although I have a natural creative bent and love learning, I didn't exactly plan that I'd be homeschooling a teenager, a preschooler, a curious two-year old, and a mama-lovin' toddler. It's hard juggling geometry and diapers! I like to think of myself as an innately patient person (when it comes to dealing with people) and that helps, but that is not my secret. Over and over I hear people say, "I cou

My mom texted me this evening and asked if I remembered that today would have been my granny's birthday. Sadly, I hadn't. My granny passed away several years ago and her death was the first time I'd truly understood the phrase, "You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone." She was the kindest person I think I've ever known. Soft spoken with blue eyes that conveyed emotion--whether sparkling behind a chuckle or welled up with sadness. I remember the way her heavy blankets felt on my body when I spent the night at her house as a child. I remember how the tinsel star on her Christmas tree sparkled. I rarely eat a slice of pizza without thinking of the many times she told the story about her and a friend picking up a pizza once and hungrily devouring almost all of it before realizing it had anchovies on it. I think of her when I walk through a misty rain as she liked to do. When I visit my parents' house, I close the window shade that

I've been on the lookout for bunk beds for the boys' room. Although I adore their car beds, they just took up far too much space in their small room and they had no floor space to play. Then a friend mentioned that they were giving away their loft bed! I love that Ryland got to keep his toddler car bed and they got some play space. Plus I think it look pretty cool in their room, too. No nap + 2 hours at the pool + warm shower = a snoozing Ryland! We had just returned from the pool and I stuck Jathan and Ryland in the shower to wash off while I nursed Piper and put her down for a nap. When I finished I found Ryland like this--with the water still running over him! He was very sad that I got him out, too. = ) Our supper one night this week. Penne pasta casserole except I used rigatoni because that's just what we happened to have. I think I liked it better that way! Everyone else must have loved it, too, because an entire 9x13 inch dish of it was eaten. Delicious.

There are four adorable, golden-haired girls who live in the apartment directly below us. We have the pleasure of hanging out with them on the playground quite often. From time to time I hear them singing pop songs in their sugary little voices. It's so funny to hear Selena Gomez and Justin Beiber and Katy Perry lyrics coming out of mouths. The other day I heard Jathan singing joyfully. " The itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout..."  he caroled. He stopped there, smiled at me, and said, "I just love that song!" You're not likely to hear Justin Beiber crooning it, but I'm pretty fond of it, too, Jathan. = )

I have been eager for my hair to grow out some so that I could add some layers. I've been scouring the Internet for ideas. Finally my hair had reached shoulder length and I thought I could go for it. Jackie even found a Group On for a haircut. I called. They didn't have anything available that day and I was impatient not wanting to wait for Jackie's next day off so I didn't make an appointment. Instead I walked in to a Walmart salon. I really should have walked back out after seeing the customer in front of me leaving. She was an older lady and had a fairly short cut which was now extremely choppy all over. Maybe it just needs to be styled , I thought. I sat in the chair and chatted with the stylist. She was complimentary and seemed confident that she could do what I wanted. Snip, snip, snip. Then the other stylist came over, picked up the picture example I'd brought in, and raised her eyebrows. It was too late to stop. The one stylist asked the other, "What