I am TWO afterall!

Left to his own devices, curiosity, climbing skills as well as fine motor skills, the Babe made a mess of himself.

 He got into my scrapbooking supplies and got some stackable inks pads out.

 He thinks because I'm taking pictures, he's pretty. "Cheeseburger"

 Then I tell him, he's a mess and in trouble.  He then tries to explain and talk his way out of it. "I paint, I pretty"

He's trying to be sweet  "I love you, Mommy"

Ah, well it did wash right off. 

And I didn't even bother to look at the damage done to my inks. I'll just have to be upset about that later when I go to use them again.

And for the record, you are pretty and I love you too!

Class Project

 For Thanksgiving and Native American week, LGs teacher sent out an email that if anyone wanted to make an example of native American housing, please do.  

LG was really into this and wanted to make an Inuit Igloo.   

Awesome and I had every single supply needed in my enormous stash of craftness.

 After researching, I decided to forego, marshmellows or sugarcubes and go for paper mache.
Here they are in the early stages of construction of igloo.
**Note: Buddy

Buddy could hardly stand not getting in on the auction and getting his hands dirty.  So after about 5 minutes and previous picture, he jumped in to help.

I forgot to take picture of the painting and popping of the balloon, but it was fun and LG did it all. 

Here's his igloo on display in the school library.

We are so proud of LG for all his hard work.

Hiking on the Farm

Aunt Cream and Sman love to hike in the winter time.  I can't say that I blame them, we love it too. The views are great with no leaves on and there's no chance of a snake bite. So Friday, we had had our fill of Thanksgiving dinner times 2, and headed across the creek for a big hike.

 We parked at the northend of the big hill and hiked all the way around the backside, ending up on the ridge about midway, then we hiked across the ridge to the "we were here" and then went straight down.

 It was so fun for the boys to run and play and hike with Sman and Miss Mo.

 How handsome is this guy.  He said to M.E. at the end, "I want to live near the woods."  

M.E. too, Buddy, M.E. too!

 At the summit, the group shot. 

 The descent down was steep and funny as we were all sliding and practically running down the hill.

 All smiles as we loaded up in the truck to head back to the house.

the Man and M.E.  

We miss the farm!

Bitten by the Apple Bug

 

We are now the proud owners of an Apple iMac.  

I can hardly believe it. It is not brand new, but close to it. We have a good friend at school who loves technology and he was able to get this used iMac for us at a great price and he cleaned it up and installed a lot of cool stuff including some movies for the boys.  

This computer is amazing but as I've yet to learn how to use it. I've never used a Mac before and its set up and function are totally different from a PC.  But I'm learning, slowly. Buddy and LG use Macs at school and currently know more than I do. Reality Check! 

Anyhow, so the last couple of nights, they've piled on the couch just like this for movie night on the computer.  Its so cute.   Thanks Mike for the computer!

Keeping a Toddler Busy

 I seriously need to do an ALL ABOUT PINTEREST series post, because its such a part of my routine and my life right now.  

Pinterest is a website that you create an account. Once you have this account you get to create yourself "VIRTUAL" bulletin boards.  So if you see something cool on the internet you can save the photo and link to your virtual bulletin board, instead of booking mark the entire webpage.  Its a genesis thing and I'm on there all the time looking wonderful and smart ideas other people have.  I also can see my friends bulletin boards and get great ideas from them.

I have bulletin boards for quotes and funny things I read, a board for things to sew, things to make, things to craft, things to help make housework easier, etc.   So last week when I really needed to work from home, because a certain little Babe was having major diaper explosion and couldn't go to school, I went to my trusty pinterest and got this idea for keeping him busy. 

Putting pipe cleaners through the holes of a colander.

 He was really excited at first.

 These creation was call a "wainmo" aka rainbow.

And he loved it for the 2 minutes, I was sitting there with him, but the moment I walked away - he was done.  UGH.  It was a really cool idea and I think maybe when he's older he'll have more patience with it.   But it wasn't a totally loss, because he LOVED the pipe cleaners and actually did spend about 15 to 20 minutes just bending them and having himself a big time sitting at my feet. He would put them in the bowl of the colander and stir them, toss them and made a mess. But it was an easy mess to clean up. 

Thanks Pinterest.

Birthday Bonaza

On Saturday we celebrated LG's 7th birthday again here in town. 

First stop was Chuck E Cheese!

Let M.E. just I have no desire to ever go to this place with the Babe who is 2 going on 10 and likes to run and be completely independent.   I really don't like going to this place on a Saturday when there is literally 200 + people in the place. But with that said, LG really wanted to have a playdate there with his friend L, who also happens to have a sister in Babe's class. 

I asked our friend D to come along with us, which was a blessing.  She totally took complete care of Babe and his little friend A.  They were having so much fun, but at the same time, getting way to stimulated.  After about 2 hours, they both were in full melt down mode. But that's another story.

This guy had a blast with L. (that's her staying watching)

 The Man got some really cute pictures of these two, but didn't realize he was in video mode instead of picture mode.  So I can't post them at this time. Oh well. 

Second stop was the Bowling Alley. After the Chuck E Cheese, taking D home and Babe having a meltdown, it was time for LG and I to head to the bowling alley for his class birthday party.  He and 3 other little boys have their birthdays within a month of each other, so we do a joint party.

 

 This is the only pic that you can actually see anything in and its not very good.  But that's him watching his ball roll toward the pins. He had a blast and he liked bringing home a few gifts. 

 Here they are after the fact with all the lego loot.  How they love LEGOS! 

I think we are done with the birthday celebration for this year, I can hardly believe he's 7.  

How is that possible?

That's My Boy!

We let Buddy take the first shot on this single drake that came in. His first shot of the day. Dropped him dead!
- The Man

Sometimes You Need Some Mommy Time

A couple of weeks ago, we realized that Buddy needed to have some M.E. time, so we scheduled Wednesday as an official Mom & Me day.

After dropping of LG, then Babe to school, we headed straight to the zoo per Buddy's request.   It was a chilly 50 degrees and a weekday so once again the place was empty... and wonderful.

 No secret I love peacocks. I told Buddy today, I wanted to get peacock on the farm and he said, that's cool but I'd rather have turkeys.

 He said he was too old to ride the train.

 But he secretly loved it.

 So much so that when he got off the train he headed straight for the carousel.

After the zoo, we headed to his new favorite restaurant, Cheddar's.  When I told him he needed to cut his sandwich in half, he said, no, I want to eat it like a man.  Oh my, he's getting so big.

We had so much fun together, it was really nice to have the one-on-one time. And how could I not let him skip school, when he's bringing home tests like this one!!!!!!!

He Can Read!

Before school reading for a little extra practice.
We are so proud of LG and all his hardwork.  

I plan to video him reading soon, so everyone can hear him. 

Scrappin' Again

I think I mentioned a couple of weeks (or months) ago, I was scrapping again. I've done 6 pages in the last month. An all-time record.

Here's some to the pages.

 I love this photo. Its out-of-focus and was originally red, but I just turned it to black and white, lighten it up and scrapped it.  It show the excitement of Aunt Cream and LG on the first night of their fall break visit. I just love it.

 This is Babe knowing he is cool at one of Buddy's early season soccer games.  Gotta love it.

This is a hilarious series of photos of M.E. trying to get all the boys and myself in the photo before the timer went off.  It takes 3 shots in 10 seconds.  10 seconds is fast.

Thanks for Reading!

OKC Soccer Tournament

 Buddy first out-of-town soccer tournament was this weekend.  We got to go to Oklahoma City Friday night through Sunday for three games.  Buddy didn't see much playing time in the first game, but played a bunch in the second game, which we in fact won 3 to 0.  Woo Hoo!

 Babe hanging out in the hotel playing on my phone.  He's too cute.

 On Sunday a big cold front came through and at game time the temperature had drop 20 degrees and it was wet and extremely windy.  I had to run to walmart and get Buddy a hat and gloves.  

It was COLD!

Therefore I stayed in the van with these two!  I luckily got a parking place near the field so I could watch part of the game and get the above pictures.  LG and Babe had a blast playing legos in the van.

Buddy's team actually lost this game 0 - 4, but Buddy was happy to get warm and on the road to home.  Me, too!

Happy Birthday, LG!

We got to celebrate LGs big 7th birthday while in OKC during Buddy's soccer tournament. 

So between soccer game, we went to the OK Science Museum and let M.E. just say that if you ever have an opportunity to visit this place - DO IT!  It was absolutely amazing. Its huge and everythings hands-on. They big boys were literally running from one exhibit to the next. It was really cool.
We also got to a planetarium show and a Live Science show.  

At the science show, the Man was chosen to volunteer.   

 LG absolutely loved seeing the Man on stage.

 In the illusion center, they loved playing on this giant table and chairs.

 Future astronaut LG! 

 After the last game and a very late dinner with the entire team, we made our way back to the hotel for presents. LG had been patience all day and seriously thought we hadn't brought any presents.  So he was really surprised.

 

 His favorite was getting two new lego sets!  

Thanks to everyone for all the birthday wishes and cards. He had a very good birthday!