Happy Birthday, Big Guy!!

Happy Birthday to my Big Guy, N!!! I cannot believe you are already five years old. Mommy is proud of all the growth you've done this year. I look forward to celebrating your Birthday at Monkey Joe's with your friends!! We celebrated with family last weekend and had so much fun. Thanks to everyone who attended.

Happy Birthday, Buddy.

VBS & Spiked Hair

N is attending Vacation Bible School (VBS) at our church this week and he's having a blast! This morning he asked me to spike his hair "so my teacher will like it." He's in need of a haircut! Fortunately the good thing about being in desparate need of a hair cut means we were able to make one heck of a mohawk-ish spike. We even used gel! (Or Jelly as he calls it).We loaded up in the car to head to VBS. L did his new usual thing of pointing to his car window and said "Peeeese." This is his way of asking me to please roll down his window. It was a gorgeous morning, so I rolled down all the windows in the car. The second we got up a little bit of speed and the wind blew through the car, I hear,"Mom!!! Roll up the windows!! You're messing up my hair!!"

4th July and Dining Room

This year the 4th fell on Monday. D is fortunate enough to get the 4th off from work. He decided that because he already got Monday off, he'd take the rest of the week off. It is about this time each year that he realizes we are already half way through the year and he still has a big stash of vacation days to use or lose, so he usually uses some of them and we spend the week doing things around the house.

This year we decided that it was time to paint the dining room and cover up the ink drawing N did on one of the walls a long time ago when he sitting in there for a time out. In addition to painting the walls, we decided to hang wainscoting. I started painting after church on Sunday at 10 am and finished at 10 that night. I took breaks to eat lunch, play with L while D and N were gone for a bit and we had a pizza picnic in the garage for supper. Other than that, I painted all day Sunday.

We honestly cannot remember what we did Monday morning. Ha! I think we went shopping for supplies for the project that morning, then D worked on the project for the rest of the day. We took a break from the project late Monday afternoon and evening to celebrate the 4th with D's parents. We had big plans of going to a nearby city to partake in their festivities (unlimited jumping on blow up bouncy houses), but that didn't work out due to L's nap time. Instead, the boys played at home in the awesome new "kiddie car wash" Daddy built. They had a total blast! We ate supper, played with D's parents (snap caps) then they headed home. We played with our neighbors, the M's for a while before heading inside. We had plans of taking the boys to fireworks that night, but N wasn't behaving well, so we stayed home. We were all totally bummed that we had to stay home do to his poor behavior, but it ended up working out okay. The boys fell right to sleep at bed time, so D and I sat out in our driveway on our wicker couch and watched several fireworks displays from our front yard. The coolest thing we saw were lanterns that someone was setting off. If you've seen the move Tangled you'll know what I mean. The lanterns we saw were similar to the lanterns in the movie. They were really far away from us, but, from what we could tell, they were red, rectangular lanterns that had a small candle or tea light in each lantern that lit it for a while. The lantern would float slowly up into the air for a while, then the candle blew out. We saw a lot of neat fireworks that night, but the lanterns were by far the coolest!

N woke up on Tuesday morning and said he'd be a good boy that day so we could see the fireworks that night. Fortunately D taped the Macy's firework show and that filled N's desire to see fireworks. I took the boys to the gym and the library Tuesday morning so D could work on the wainscoting. We came home, ate lunch and put L down for a nap. Then I realized I forgot our library bag of library books at the library. Oops! So while L napped, N and I returned to the library while D worked on the dining room. We played there for quite a while before heading home. That afternoon we played in the kiddie car wash sprinkler again and our neighbors came over and joined us....while D worked on the dining room. Ha! Poor guy! I had no idea I was signing him up for such a big project on his week off. (Sorry, honey!)

This morning we went to D's brother's house to say goodbye to them before they move out of town. We got to visit with them for a little bit, but we knew they were busy directing the movers, so we didn't stay too long. After that, we ran some errands to pick up some tractor related supplies, then went back to the hardware store for more wainscoting supplies. We came home, ate lunch, put L down for a nap then D went back to work on the dining room! Fortunately our neighbor invited N over to play trains at her house with her son, so I was able to get him out of the house and out of D's way while L napped. After playing in the basement for a while and vaccuuming, I realized we needed to get the boys out of the house (and out of the dining room) for a while, so we headed to the gym to let Daddy finish up a few trim pieces. As of right now, the only thing we have left to do is hang the top strips of trim pieces and paint. Then we'll be done with that and I can start looking for curtains and dining room furniture. I think it'd be fun to find a table and chair set at the second hand store and paint them fun colors, but we'll see.

Friday Funnies

N's Birthday is coming up in the near future. He has been talking about what he wants on his Birthday list for months. We have a list typed up and he's hand written a few. He is currently on a train kick. Let me restate that. We eat, sleep and breathe trains! So, needless to say, trains are on his Birthday list. Tonight he was listing off a few more trains that he wants and he said he wanted those on his Christmas List and I said, "Don't you mean you want that on your Birthday List?" And he said, "No, those trains are on my Christmas list because they cost more money and Santa has more dollars, so I'll ask him for those trains."

The boys and I discovered that sledding in the summer is much more fun than sledding in the winter. No snowsuits, no frigid cold, no problem!! I pulled the two of them down the hills in our yard for a long time the other morning and we had a blast!! I bet we could do this on a hot summer day and add water into the equation somehow and have even more fun. I'll take pix next time.

I took both boys to the public outdoor pool today and we had a blast! I was super nervous to take two boys to the pool 'cause neither of them are great swimmers. I thought it would be an anxiety-filled experience for me, but it wasn't. I put them both in life jackets and they did really well. I'm so happy that our pool added toddler swimming hours in the morning. Those hours work great for our daily routine. The boys did so well and behaved so well I think we might just make a return visit before the summer is over. :) I told N if he reads thirty more books we can arrange a "Mommy and Me" or "Daddy and Me" pool date with him while L naps and the other parent stays home. And on that special date N could go down the blue slide in the big kid pool. He was pleased with that idea... Did I ever tell you N can raise one eye brow? Ya, he can raise one eye brow up and down multiple times in a row. He often does this when a good idea has been passed him. The special pool date idea was a single eye brow raiser.

I hope you're having a good summer. It's going fast! I can't believe the 4th of July is almost here. It's time to get our little summer wish list out, see what fun things we have written down and get them on the calendar before summer breezes past us.