Pea Pods

These two have been together since school got out.  For the most part they get along, but mostly I think they do because Lee has a one man audience.  Whatever silly and stupid stuff Lee can do to get a laugh out of Eli he will do it.

I love the smile on Eli's face that his big brother is pushing him on the swing!  He does love Lee!

And then we have moments like this and the beauty of the moment above is gone with the wind!  I don't get why the 7 year old is picking on the 2 year old, but if it's not these two it's the 9 year old picking on the 4 year old.  I don't get it but I'm just mom...

Tomorrow is a pool party at Grandma's house and the boys are excited.  Grandma and Grandpa got a new pool and their cousins will be there, pizza I've heard will be involved.  Hope the weather is decent enough!

Happy July folks!

Seeing Red!!

I have strawberries!!!  And man oh man have they been delish...taste of summer!

 The last 2 days I have picked a handful each day, about 10 berries! Crazy!!!

My boys have been SO excited to actually get berries this year.  Last year was scarce and something kept eating them before I could get to them! Frustrating!  So this year I have slug bait and I'm on TOP of it!  And from last year to this year my crop has tripled! I swear!  Unbelievable really!  Four plants producing that much in 2 years!

Here's to some more yummy berries!  Makes me miss my grandparents blueberry bushes...oh the memories of homegrown blueberries, right off the bush!!

By Lee

So I know this is late but I wasn't going to post anything on it but I kept thinking about it. 

Walk back with me to Father's Day...the boys made some gifts for their dad at school and Lee's gift tickles my funny bone a bit.

Lee's gift is a laminated picture along with 'The Ten Best Things About My Dad'...the list is what I find cute and funny.

So here are Lee's 10 things:

#10. He rides bikes with me
#9. He tickles me
#8. He watches movies with me
#7. He makes me things
#6. He makes me laugh
#5. He is funny
#4. He tucks me in at bedtime
#3. He is slow on running ( I about died laughing)
#2. He gives me piggyback rides
And the #1 best things about my dad is.....He took me to a Seahawk game!

                         (here's the funny thing...Frank has never taken any of the boys to a game...he won't take them to a game until they are 15-16 years old...so I want to know whose dad he went with???) 

That kid can crack me up sometimes even if he is at most times the most difficult one!

Thanks for the chuckle Lee!

Sardines

Our cramped quarters!  Even I was cramped! 

Here we have Victoria, Audrey...and you can't see Ian but he's there...his knees are poking up.  Audrey was slepping on top of Ian's feet (GAG!!!), to which the two of them profusly told me they were comfortable. I think they were fibbing.

Austin, Dru, Dean, and Austin

Poor Austin and poor the rest of us, cause Colton had some 'fluff' (yes I used fluff people!)...I was desparate for fresh air.  Between Colton and Eli...shudder! Let's not go there!  Dean cracked me up...he was the last out (outside of me) who went to bed last.  I finally got him to stop talking and then he finally crashed! Who knew!

Lee and Eli

I am NOT sleeping in the middle.  Somehow I got stuck with 2 bedhogs!  Man I'm glad we didn't sleep there all night cause someone wasn't going to make it with elbows and knees in my side!!

Well, that's the end of our Party adventure!  Sad it's over but ready for our summer adventure to begin...soon.  Day 2 of Summer vacation went much better...we had swimming, park playdate, quiet time, and then they played outside some more!  The beautiful part was they went to bed with out a fight...out like a LIGHT!

BE-A-UTIFUL!

I WILL have it!

So help me I will have a storm door on my house before the summer is out!!

Sick and tired of bugs, flies, spiders, kids, grimy kids, whiny kids leaving my front door open and I hate finding this wide open.  Wonder how long the doors been like this...Grrr!!

Ice Cream...You Scream...We all Scream!!!!

Items of the hour!  Instead of doing Smore's like I wanted we did ice cream sundaes instead.  Each family was asked to bring a topping of their choice to share with everyone. As you can see Magic Shell was the time to have!  There was Carmel, Orange Creme, and Chocolate shell, with Carmel syrup, marshmallow topping and sprinkles!  Personally, the Orange Cream and Chocolate magic shell with sprinkles was the best, quite tasty together!Eli with his sundae!  He ate every last bite...I was kinda shocked.  There was at least 3 scoops in there! 

My nephew Colton, he really does have one of the best smiles out there! Colton cracks me up, I had to disagree and argue with him about Dru being older than he was.  He didn't believe me and then when I said when their birthdays were he asked how come Dru was older.  I had to chuckle and told him sometimes life just stinks like that.  But Colton look on the bright side of things...you are older than Eli???

Dru put ALL toppings on his sundae and was quite thrilled to do it himself!  It's the little things.

My nephew the Dean-ster!  I knew he would bring the Marshmallow topping...he loves that stuff!  (I love how Charlie is hovering in the background).

Austin, my other nephew!  I'm so glad he came and had fun!  He is a good soccer player and has no fear of taking his Auntie out if need be!

Ian...can you tell by his face just how excited he was by this whole thing, ice cream that is.  I promise we do give him treats from time to time...I swear!  Love this boy...because really simple is so easy to please him!

Audrey...love this girl! This chica knows how to have fun!

Lee my boy!  He just wanted to mix his all up and make ice cream soup!  *shudder!*  All those toppings made into soup...I know it all gets mixed up later but...well just looks gross.

*Not pictured...Victoria.  Somehow in the hustle and bustle of it all and her wonderful help I managed to forget to take her picture! I am SO bummed and mad at myself!  She was a wonderful help to me and I appreciate it greatly!  Thanks Victoria!

We had fun making our own sundaes...I think I would definitely do this again with whoever would come next year.  Honestly I had so much fun bonding with them!  I love you Victoria, Audrey, Ian, Lee, Austin, Dean, Dru, Colton, and Eli!

End of The School Year Party!!!

Pt. 1

So I had my end of the year party and I do believe it was a success!  I had such a wonderful time with my nieces and nephews! I had a blast really!

The kids are all playing...swords, light sabers, and guns...all fun and games until someone loses an eye!  Or so I'm told.

 Even Eli got in on the fun.  He had his "Weeze Weeze" there!  That's how he says his cousin's name Audrey.  He loves her and she loves him...they have eyes for no one but each other. 

Eli playing some football...that is when he's not swinging or trying to get someone to push him on the swing.

 What is it with boys and guns?

 One of my handsome nephews!  Poor kid had a bit of trauma at my house no thanks to Lee.  Who I might add is lucky to be alive.  Lee and my nephew were in our sandbox and for reasons only known to Lee he threw sand in my nephew's eyes.  I don't remember ever pulling such big pieces of sand out of anything...I was afraid that kids eyes were going to be scratched to hell!  Thankfully I saw his dad today and he said there was no problems.  WHEW! Trauma 1 averted!

 One of my other nephews...

 Dru had to get his turn with the gun too!

 Eli swinging on his swing...he loves that swing and knows it's his.  His daddy put it right at his height so he could get on it all by himself.  Heaven help you if you are on it and he wants on!

 One of my lovely nieces...this is "Weeze Weeze"...she's a hoot!

 My other lovely niece...she was very helpful during the party!  I remember when she was 2 and holding Ian as a baby! Time is flying by!

 We had pizza!! Yummy!  The pizza was devoured and Kool-Aid was drunk!  Getting some energy for our boisterous game of soccer we had after dinner!  I took a few kids down...well just mine.  I strong-armed Lee and butt-butted Ian.  Which had Ian laughing so hard he couldn't stand up, kinda funny to watch really!  Thankfully the game was a tie, so both teams won!  I had a blast playing soccer, I think I'm going to try and have more of them with my boys more often...I have a yard to use why not?

 Our humble abode for the night.  I'm quite proud of myself and my nieces.  Together we put up the tent up and it stayed up!  Yeah us!  We went to bed at a decent hour, however, at 3am the next morning it started raining...OK well sprinkling.  Either way it picked up speed and I was outta there!  I woke the kids up and put them all inside.  Certainly no sense in getting soaked when my house is a few feet away and dry! So inside we went.  The tent on the other hand is still up and got a real good Pacific Northwest testing in how dry it really does stay dry. 

Frank said the tent didn't do half bad...good to know.  Now the next job is to spray water repellent or whatever it's called on it and then pack it up for our next adventure in July.

More to come about the party.  Our treat was ice cream sundaes and sleeping arrangements...think sardines...for the tent that is!

It's Here!!!

It's so darn exciting!!! Out of nowhere it's here!!  Lee FINALLY has one of his front teeth in!!! YIPPEE!!!!  I couldn't believe it!  One minute it was barely poking through and now it's almost all the way out!  One whole year with out front teeth!

Tonka

Messing with my picture stuff...I thought it looked kinda cool...I'm still learning my computer.

Friends

This isn't a great picture, kinda blurry.  But I know you can get the picture (yes pun intended) that two boys  had a great day today playing.  They came in for a bit while Eli took a nap and had some quiet time of their own.  So much so that Dru's friend took a snooze!  They are cute together and they really do play well together and have such great imaginations and pretend wonderful things.

Here's to more playdates and continued friendships!

D-day is tomorrow!! Party time with the kids and nieces and nephews!! I am SO excited!!!

Suvivor

Today at school it was Field Day!!  The boys were very excited for this day, they have had a good last week of school I might add.  Anyway, back to what I was talking about.  The theme for Field Day was Survivor!  Although their theme was not Outwit...Outplay...Outlast... 

Lee's 1st grade class had a theme son however, which I thought was cool!  To give you a hing their team name was Back in Black.  Song had the same name sung by AC/DC...Lee was all giggly over that song. You think that kid had never heard a rock song before.

*side note...I can't believe how tall he's getting!

 Here is Ian, who is part of the team called 'The Brave Green Hornets (and I'm a bad mom because I can't remember the rest of his team name) something or other.

When did Ian get too big to smile???

 Here are the 2 dudes with a 'tude! 

Well there's only two more days until school is out for the summer!!

DISCLAIMER:

***Still unclear as to whether they will make it through the summer alive****

A Query

Some background to my subject for this post:

Yesterday Lee was able to go to our local pool with his class and the rest of the 1st grade classes.  For an hour or so. 

Going back farther yet:

Since we all knew Lee was going to the pool I had to tell Lee to make sure to take his underwear off.  My boys have a habit of wearing their underwear with their swim trunks.  Which is normally fine cause they can just go in and put on a dry pair while at home.  However, this time around we are at the pool during school hours.  I was worried he was going to remember to bring home his towel and trunks so I wasn't going to pack a dry pair in his bag (lets face it, pretty sure that pair wouldn't stay dry anyway). So I told Lee...take underwear off when putting trunks on to go into pool, then when you are done, dry off and put them back on.

Speed up with me to the present:

It's time to go pick the boys up at the bus stop and I go to meet them.  The first thing out of that boys mouth is I lost my underwear mom!!  WHAT!?! Well mom, I went to go put my underwear on and I lost it. 

Please tell me how one loses their underwear????  I honestly don't know.  Then to top it off the next thing out of his mouth was...mom I think someone took my underwear and put it on!  GAG! GAG! GAG! *shiver just ran down my spine*  That is SO gross!  Honestly, boys are just down right disgusting!!! 

Then I was highly disturbed because my child had gone 'commando' for however long at school!!!  The old saying your mother tells you "make sure you have clean underwear on in case something happens" went through my head!  Horrified!!!

THEN to top it all off, cause my mind didn't just stop there.  I'm am afraid that Lee's teacher is going to send out a mass email to all parents informing them of the said missing underwear and wondering who the, not so white (cause yes my boys for some reason are those nasty kids who can't quite grasp the meaning of wipe until the toilet paper stays white/clean) undergarment belongs too. 

I say burn it!!!

Well there was my Proud Mommy Moment!! 

Because I Can

Because I can.  Because he's cute.  Because he still likes me for the most part.  Because I  am still his whole world.  Because he's cute.  Because I'm feeling melancholy...because he's the last.  Because as a good friend of mine tells me 'someone has to be the last'.  Because...

Laughter at 100

I had such a good chuckle today!  There is an upside to school getting out and that's seeing  your children's work they have do through out the year.  I do enjoy that because at this age they still do some fun stuff and make scrapbooks.  I enjoy going through them because if nothing else it's a window that enables me to see a side of my children I probably don't or won't get to see. 

Today was great! Lee brought home his book about him, entitled "LEE".  I learned that he loves sharks and likes green apples.  Now I knew he liked apples but didn't know he preferred green...I should have known that ...being as his fave color is green.  I also didn't know his favorite flavor of ice cream is Mint Chocolate Chip (again with the green theme).

The best however is what I learned when he will be 100 years old and what he would do with $100.  First what Lee would do when he's 100 years old: (and I quote):

"When I am 100 years old, I will play New Super Mario Bros!  I will have white hair.  I will play games and eat at "The Lee" (that is a restaurant here where we live, he is just tickled there's a place with his name on it).  I will eat spaghetti.  I will have fragile bones.  I would hate to be 100!

(OK are you dying of laughter now? Cause I was!)

What Lee would do with $100 (and I quote):

"If I had 100 dollars, I would buy a Mario 64 and go on a trip to China.  I would have a pet shark.  I would put him in a 60 ton pool.  I would have a pet horse.  He would be brown.  I would love it!

I want life to be that simple again!

Well there's my  laugh for the day, I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!

Naughty

He got caught!  Markers...from his big brother's room.  Thank you Ian.  When I took his picture I told him to say Markers, that's why he looks goofy...well more than his 'normal'.

I see the future of my summer as VERY long!

Criss-Cross

Applesauce!!  Yup I made some this morning and it took forever!!!  A lot longer than I anticipated, so much so that I started doubting myself.  That I could take frozen apple pieces and make applesauce...I figured since the apples were already soft from being thawed it wouldn't take as long to cook down.  I was wrong!  Either way, I made some and it made 8 jars for my family to enjoy.  I am looking forward to this fall again and finding/getting/picking more apples and providing something wonderful and nutritious for my family.

Count Down

Well, not really.  I'm still on the fence about this school year being over.  In some respects I'm ready...ready for SO many reason and SO ready for Ian to have a fresh start next year.  I know every year I'm on the fence about them being out, but like I've said before we always seem to survive it and have a blast. 

With that said...not counting weekends we have one week left to go!!! Next school year Lee will go into Second, Ian into Fourth, and Dru will attend Preschool again.  They all had a decent year for the most part.

One week...still trying to process that!  I do have a bit of excitement coming on the last day of school.  I planned a party that I am excited about, I'm really not sure whose more excited, myself or my children.  I planned an End of the Year party for my boys and my nieces and nephews.

 I have to laugh though, and I'm going on a tangent here for a moment because this is SO me.  I sent my invites out and put all the pertinent info on there, date, time, what to bring...that kind of thing.  Well I said they should come when school gets out or when their parents will bring them.  Well of course AFTER I sent the invites out I got a piece of paper from one of the boys saying that the last day of school was a half day.  Are you kidding me!?!?!  I totally thought it would be a normal day, on Fridays' they get out an hour earlier than the rest of the week, so why do a half day?  Again, generally no one asks my opinion about these important things.  So if you haven't gathered, I wasn't expecting children until 2:30 or 3pm.  What was I thinking??  Now since school gets out at 12:15 they could all be here shortly after!!!  No, I love them all.  They'll just be here 3 hours earlier than I anticipated...hahahahahaha! (you decide what kind of laugh that is)

So back to the party, I really did just have to share that because that's so how thing have been operating of late.  I am keeping all things crossed that the weather will be nice...because I am really hoping that we can pop our new tent up and we are all going to camp out in the backyard.  OK well not all of us...I'm betting Frank will be sleeping in the house, party pooper! Or maybe he's the sane one here...time will tell.  On top of camping in the backyard we will be having pizza and soda and homemade applesauce (probably not exciting to them but I like my applesauce).  For dessert we are having ice cream sundae (who thinks we should just skip all the above and jump right to the ice cream?).  They were asked to bring their favorite ice cream topping.  Today we bought ours, we got chocolate sprinkles and Magic Shell-orange creme flavor...it was a really tough decision with tears and anger involved (seriously..mostly by the 9 and 7 year old...SO don't get that).  It will be interesting to see what the other kiddos bring, eclectic tastes all of them (SO didn't know there was a marshmallow topping until one of them had that at their house).  What I wanted to do was find an outdoor fire pit so we could do Smore's.  I didn't think it would be so hard to find but it turns out it was...some were melted thru and  some had gone through several.  One was melted from motor oil?  Don't ask...I think there was more to that story than I think I was willing to endure.

All in all I think it will be a ton of fun and I really, really hope that the kids have fun and this can be something we do every year as long as they want to do it.  I guess if the nieces and nephews don't really like it I can still do it with my kids.  You all know it's my life goal to be the coolest and most fave Auntie EVER!!

That night is going to be EPIC!

(let's just hope I live to regal you with stories and pictures!!)

Happy Birthday !!!

Happy Birthday to Charlie!!! Today Charlie turned 21 years old!  In dog years of course!  Ian was SO excited! (I think he was more excited about the fact that Charlie would get a beer on his birthday...wonder how many people/kids at school heard about this today??)   For Charlie's birthday dinner he got a hot dog (doesn't seem right I know!) and Bud Light!  What more could a dog ask for in this life besides a scratch behind his ears!

He dug the beer for a few licks but it's an acquired taste right?  Well that's what I told Ian anyway, he didn't get why Charlie didn't drink it all. 

The hot dog however didn't stand a chance once it cooled off and he could actually eat it.  He kept looking at me with this unimpressed look of "how am I suppose to eat this when it's SO hot lady???" Well, he finally took off with it into Ian and Lee's room (G-R-O-S-S!) .

 I think Charlie had a great birthday...good weather, good food, and good beer (well for a few sips at least!).  Can't imagine life with out Charlie, he just fits in so well.  A dog with UCD issues and a need for love and a personality to boot...fits right in with our house!

Happy Birthday Charlie!

Useless

Useless...my boycott to sweep my floor because I live with 4 little pigs went unnoticed nor did they care.  To be fair though this boycott lasted as long as I could stand it...don't ask how long it was...too long!!!!

This is just gross...I hate sweeping and mopping my floors.  Right up there with doing laundry...sigh

List

Does the "To Do" list ever get smaller??? Honestly! I'm in the middle of doing dishes and my sink gets clogged.  We did Drain-o, but that was a few hours ago.  Poor Frank...one more thing for this guy to fix for me.  He's thrilled because now he has to take the pipes apart and well, he's not happy.  Note to self...draining taco meat in the sink apparently is NOT the way to go.  Even if I've done it several times before...what can one say...

We all kept busy today doing weeding and the likes, our lawn even got mowed thanks to Frank.  My hips still isn't up to that kind of work.  We all got a lot done today, even the boys helped out begrudgingly.  I am a bad mom though, I didn't put sun tan lotion on the kids.  Well, Dru was the one who managed to get his arms burned, no one else though.  I don't get that...so tomorrow dont' forget to apply the lotion!!!!   Honestly, how does just one kid get burned???

Whoopeee!!!

Believe it or not there is a park at the campsite we were at!! Heaven really is a place on earth...for a bunch of boys!!!!

The boys of course had a blast and Eli LOVED it! 

Here is Dru...I'm so glad he didn't give me one of those bad cheesy grins that seem to come with 4 year olds!

Lee climbing like the monkey he is!  He actually complied with me when I asked him to get back on so I could take a picture!  Shocking I know...sit down if you need to!

My baby! he had so much fun here and camping in general.  He really does love being outside, I can't wait for the weather to get nicer (this weekend and even tomorrow!! Finally!). He's going to have SO much fun playing at his "Park"!

My dear nephew "C".  After camping that weekend I don't think I'm the cool Auntie anymore but I love him...he's also 4...between him and Dru...these two were a force to be reckoned with...good and bad!  I sorta dread the day these guys get bigger and form an alliance together...his parents and Frank and I don NOT have a chance.

 Do we dare look ahead and wonder what they will be like when they are 16? 

Are you still sitting down??? Look another picture of Lee AND it's a nice one!  Don't mind the chocolate mustache he's got going (that's from a baggie full of peanut M&M's his Grandparents provided while Frank and I were away, nice right?...Oh well out of my control that one was).

Well I think those pictures pretty much sum up our camping trip.  Usually I have so much more, I don't really know what was different this time but it was what it was. 

I am so looking forward to some nice weather tomorrow and the weekend.  I was so mad I had to turn the heat on this afternoon.  I have been miserable since yesterday.  My hip went out again...and this time it is bad.  Bad like when I was pregnant with Eli...bad that I was planning on making it a pain pill kind of day.  Then I decided to take a chance and see if my Chiro was open today...I was so sure they were closed on Thursday.  Turns out I was wrong, they aren't there on Wednesday!  God must love me!  So I got adjusted and I go back in on Monday...I am in less pain but still pretty sore...thankfully there is something called Excedrin!!

I do hope I feel much better and more flexible tomorrow...it is really bugging me that I can't workout...I just want to walk...that's all! Is that asking for too much?? Is it??