Bubbles and gardens and mattresses - oh my!

Maddie is at girl scout day camp this week, leaving me and the boys home together for most of the day. We've been getting a lot done around the house. Today I gave my bedroom a good cleaning (including the windows!), cleaned the kids' bathroom, did 4 loads of laundry and decluttered another dresser drawer (making it the 4th one this week - Goodwill is going to love me!)

Ryan and I played a few games this afternoon, but soon he wanted to try something new. I just got the newest issue of Family Fun magazine in the mail and had torn out a page with a cool bubble activity on it. We decided to try it.

All you do is take an empty bottle (water, soda etc) and cut the bottom off of it. Rubber band a piece of towel or washcloth around the bottom, wet the fabric and then dip it in a shallow pan of dish detergent (we use Dawn). Just blow into the bottle and here is what you'll get
Aren't those the coolest bubble "snakes" you have ever seen? This was so east to do, but be careful you don't hyperventilate! Ryan was blowing so hard (to make longer snakes) that he nearly fell over! The best part about this (aside from how easy it is to do) is surprising others with it. Ryan loved showing his brother and sister what his new bubble blower does - they were all pleasantly surprised!

While Ryan blew bubbles, I checked the progress of the garden.
We have lots of green beans on the plants (had some with dinner a few nights ago) and the lettuce is getting bigger (I planted too close to the beans, and most of my lettuce ended up not growing at all - we'll try again for the fall). Lots of carrots plumping up too. We have some nice green tomatoes:
The squash has some nice flowers on the plant, and the peppers are turning from flowers to tiny peppers this week! we also have TONS of flowers on the cantaloupe plants and some starting on the watermelon too!
Tonight, we went mattress shopping - with all three kids. Needless to say, it was quite an experience. We currently have a queen-size bed which is about 10 years old. The mattress is getting saggy, and after sleeping in king-size beds on vacation we started talking about upgrading to a king.

Mattress shopping is very frustrating! Craig seems to enjoy laying down in hundreds of beds, but I find it tedious and exhausting! The kids want to jump on every bed (you have to admit, it does look tempting), and Jacob had an accident while we were in one little mattress store! Yikes! (I was kind of hoping perhaps the salesman would give us a great deal just to get us to leave his store!).

However, we did make some progress. We know we are interested in a traditional innerspring mattress - something right in the middle of plush and firm. Hopefully we'll make a decision this week and order something - then I can have fun shopping for new bedding!!!!! I love this brown quilt from Kohls.com
Tomorrow - I'll show you my very undecorated bedroom. We'll finally paint and decorate once we get the new bed!