WHAT DID YOU DO THIS WEEKEND?

Yesterday, we finally spent some time in the magic room getting everything organized. The magic room is where we keep most of the inventory for our store. At first we tried to keep the cats out of the room and when we'd come out, they'd be sitting there trying desperately to get in, sure that something "magical" was going on in there, and so the name was born. Now, Helen is in and out of the room so often during the day, she'd spend so much time trying to catch them as they fight to get in that she wouldn't get anything else done. Anyway, it's been a while since we straightened and organized the room. So we gave up a weekend at the beach to stay home and work.

As you can see, we got everything up on shelves and







and on peg boards








and in mini-bins




and big bins. We got lots and lots of help from the felines.

See all our lovely inventory? Isn't there something you'd like for your kids? Or do you know any teachers that want to get great items for their classrooms? Go to http://www.heyteach.biz/ and check out our cool stuff. If you use the code mbgblog just before paying, you can get a 15% discount.

Then today, we attacked the back yard. Helen mowed the lawn while I gave the bushes a badly needed hair cut. You would not believe the number of spider webs I had to fight my way through as I cut the branches on the bushes. Bleah!

And as I was cleaning up the branches, look what I found!

It's a young praying mantis. We got his picture before he went hopping under the bush but you can be sure we'll trying to keep him safe and sound. Not only are they endangered but they eat tons of mosquitoes and considering where we are, we will take whatever help we can get:)

The grave continues to bloom. Once we cut the grass, the gladioli really stand out from their surroundings.

I'm taking part in the Great Interview Experiment over at Neil Kramer's blog and I finally managed to get my questions for Deb over at San Diego Momma sent, received and posted. Get to know her better here and then go check out her blog here. I got my questions from AC over at Thunder and Windchimes last week and have been working on them. I sent them to her today - I'll let you know when she posts them. You won't want to miss that!

You can tell how much we got done this weekend - look how tuckered out these poor cats are! Dudley and his best bud Andrew have just had it:)

Oh, I got the Wii up and running. The kids in my family have what we lovingly refer to as the Graham genes. Eye to hand coordination is not out strong point. We're more readers and into intellectual pursuits. This is going to shock you but it turns out I suck at Wii tennis. I did manage to hit the ball a couple of times - I'm better at returning lobs when I'm serving. I haven't figured out how to return an opposing serve yet. I also am really, really bad at baseball - god help me if I'm supposed to do anything other than pitch or hit. Catching fly balls ain't gonna happen. Bowling now - I did get a couple of spares and one strike (I don't even know the lingo - I had to check to make sure I was using the right terms.)

So what did you do this weekend? Did you have fun? I've got to say what we did was satisfying because you could really see the difference it made, but other than that, not so much fun. I like weekends full of books and blogs and naps and stuff like that.