Change of wallpaper ... soon

Helen and William are gone again. The week went so fast. Now to pick up where we had left it. Sarah had texted whether we felt like sitting the boys. My answer: if the payment is hair cuts. Oh yes!

As a good-bye gift Helen had given the boys a "Haunted House Chocolate Kit". The boys were so eager. Was Omi up for it? Oh well. The construction didn't got so well in the beginning. Just holding it together for 1 minute after "gluing" it with the icing (as the directions said) didn't do it. Caleb is always very helpful. Just ask him to find a rubber band and cups in a certain size and he delivers. Can you see the rubber band? 

We did this before dinner.

After dinner we could do the decorating. They all had the same amount of the "decorations" to "glue" on but needless to say not all made it onto the house.

Thank you, Auntie Helen. The boys thoroughly enjoyed your gift. 

As a bedtime story they had selected a book which involved using a flashlight. Papa is the best story reader. They always love that time.

Time of the year where you don't really know what the weather is going to be. It's odd when you have to turn the heating on during the day and A/C for bedtime. But there is something to be appreciated in everything. One morning I saw this spiderweb on our front patio wrote iron. Mmhh, it looked probably better when seeing it in person. 

We had errands to do. We went to Lowe's for AC/Heating filters and came back with a new grill. The old one was so rusted and way too large. This is perfectly sufficient and much smaller. You can turn down the two side trays. Much better. James grilled the hamburgers to perfection. 

Having lunch outside with the view on beautiful flowers makes one very grateful and happy. We are so much happier with our yard now. The grass seeds are doing well. Everything is looking almost as it is supposed to. And there are the little things. The yellow mums was a leftover from last year. I had forgotten to take it out when it had died down at the beginning of winter. But when I wanted to throw them out in spring they started looking so good. They have flowered now already for a very long time. Very unexpected. The dahlia is a rescue from the now gone flowerbed in the corner which had never been a success and according to James an eyesore. James' dad had always the most gorgeous dahlias and I couldn't  just throw it out. I stuck it into an empty planter. Low and behold, it suddenly took off. For many weeks now it has given us one beautiful flower after the other. Sometimes rain made the blooms so heavy that they broke off but I could put them into a vase and enjoy them indoors. Yes, its the simple things.

Besides all that James and I felt very strongly that a change of wallpaper was important. So on the spur of the moment we found a place at a beach in North Carolina to rent for 4 nights. But more about that later.