Pantry Play

It seems as if our days are spent trying to keep Lane out of mischief.  He sure loves to spend time rummaging through the pantry.  For some reason I occasionally let him, however this is usually how it ends, then I wonder, "why do I let him play in the pantry?" 

I like to think of it as an 'educational experience' for both of us. 

Notice the Bisquick in the background, the other day I found both boys trying to make some pancakes.  The problem was that they were scooping it out of the box onto the floor and I never got pancakes out of it. 

Sometimes these 2 lovely items help get me through the day!

Powder

So I may be the only person that uses baby powder but I like it!  However this is the only problem with having it around.  It is REALLY fun to play with.  He was covered, the TV console was covered, and the carpet all around him was covered.  Aaron, Zackary, and I were even sitting right next to him and didn't realize what he was having so much fun doing. 

I just had to throw in the picture of him with the Mr. Potato Head glasses on. 

This is what the rest of us were playing with and apparently having too much fun!

The Sweetist Thing

These pictures just don't do this moment justice. I will never forget this. I was just telling Aaron the other night how I love that our 18 month old, Lane, loves to be rocked, snuggled, and given a bottle (a sippy cup with a soft spout) every time he goes down to sleep. This, actually is the only way he will take his milk. Rocking and snuggling, with one of us and his blanket. Tonight was the best, I had to have Aaron take a picture because I never want to forget this moment (unfortunately, I have a left droopy eye in pictures problem, and in a moment like this there are no redos). He had just finished his milk, I was saying prayers with him and stroking his hair and the side of his face and whenever I stopped he would sign more (this is why his hands are together) and would say is the softest, sweetest baby voice...mo.

I just couldn't get enough, so I kept stopping just to see him sign more and hear his precious little voice. 

After a few minutes of this he fell right to sleep.

 

Moments like this are the best part about being a mom.

Poppers

Look at my precious boys, I just can't resist them.  So this post is actually about poppers, you know the ones we used to buy at the Trading Post or Diamond Dot (for all of you readers from Queen Creek)?  Well, Aaron went out on our famous morning milk run before work the other day and came home with milk, coffee, and poppers.  Not just a couple of poppers but a giant box of poppers and confetti poppers.  Remember how fun it was to throw the little tissue paper ones on the ground, just to hear the popping sound over and over.  Well poppers and any sort of firework type of toy is music to Aaron's ears. 

He is really fired up that they might become legal here in AZ. 

These poppers seem to be our nightly routine lately.  The boys love them.  I actually have fun too, I just don't enjoy the clean up.  Does anyone else let their 3 year old and 18 month old play with poppers,

or are we just crazy?

Delish

This is a bit silly to blog about but we felt it was "blog worthy," as we say.  Aaron whipped us this phenomenal burger on Memorial Day before I had to head off to work  It had a portobello mushroom, feta cheese, cilantro, organic beef, and some crazy sauce he created.  It was amazing. 
This will definitely be revisited someday, probably soon.

Sign Project

So here was my dilemma...for some reason whenever someone came by the house, whether it was to drop off something, visit, or even the UPS guy, it always seemed to be during nap time.  You understand if you have children that still nap.  The doorbell rings or there is a knock, the dog barks, and it is all over.  Everyone is awake, sometimes upset, and the hour of free time you might have had, over.  For the past couple of years I have strategically taped a scrap piece of paper over the door bell, hoping the person would quietly leave the package or perhaps call if the visit was unexpected.  For some reason this didn't always work for me.  After this long, I decided to finally make something that will hopefully last outside and keep the noise level under control.  So here is what I did. 

I gathered up some supplies and began to create my shh... nap time sign.  I had the paper all printed and was painting the board.  As I was getting ready to apply the paper, I realized something.  Why is my house so quiet?  Zackary was asleep, Aaron was on the computer, but the baby (my 18 month old that I still feel I need to call my baby) was extremely quiet, where could he be?

Oh... there he is happily marking up the wall and door with the markers he had just found is the craft tote I left out.  Little did I know that there was about 20 markers that needed to be tested.  This was just a slight setback I had while trying to complete my project I was determined to get done.

 

Here are the final nap time signs.  I made a couple of extra for friends that have the same issue I have been experiencing.  And really, the scrap paper taped to our door bell is pretty lame.

Here is before, wow that was really bad!

And After!

Beer Making Saturday

Aaron and his buddy Scott have recently become, as they call it, brewmasters.  They began last October when Aaron received his brew kit for his birthday (what was I thinking?).  The process used to start with a simple kit and 2 buckets.  Now all of this and more... is involved.  They are now coming up with their own recipes.  No more simple kits and buckets, there is new technology (that they created), turkey frier's, kegs, etc.  I don't even know what everything is or what its purpose is.  But who cares, they are having 'man time' and fun with the whole process. 

And in the end, they get to drink beer (no sharing involved because I'm not a fan).

Just think of all the goodies that are stored at our house.

Sunflowers

I know this isn't the most exciting thing to read about but we are very proud of ourselves (Zackary and I) for growing a giant sunflower from only a tiny little seed.  Oma gave us a package of seeds to plant somewhere, I came across them and decided it would be a fun activity for the boys and I to do.  We found the little shovels and started digging.  They didn't have much of an attention span for digging through rocks so we just started shoving them in the ground.

All of the sudden we noticed some little sprouts and began to try to remember to water them.  I read on the package they needed a lot of water, but didn't plant them where there was much, thinking aah, they probably won't grow anyways.

I tell you everyday we go outside they are even bigger.  Out of the whole package we planted only about 5 really thrived.

 

Now we have a huge sunflower that is beautiful.  The only problem is...it faces north, high above our fence so we really don't get to enjoy the beauty.  We can't figure out why it doesn't face the 'sun'?  We have another that should be blooming soon, hopefully facing the 'right' way.

Retirement Party

What a great feeling to actually get to retire someday.   At this point, with about 35 years remaining to this day, I can only envy my father-in-law.  He got to retire on May 20th, after 70 years, probably working 55 of them, he really deserves it.  So my mother-in-law planned an amazing party for him that I got to be part of.  There were about 50 people that got to help celebrate with him.  We had an amazing dinner, wine, roast and toast, and some late night dancing. 

We got a great picture with the man of the night! 

Congratulations Art, you are a wonderful man, father, husband, and friend. 

Preschool Program

Zackary finished up preschool last Thursday. He was in the last session for this school year of Apples to Zebras with the City of Chandler. He loved going, I was a bit hesitant to sign him up but what a great experience he had. I think we will be continuing next year as long as he still enjoys going. We still have 2 more years before school, I'm in no hurry to send him off to school but a couple hours of preschool a week seems to be a good fit for him to get out and learn some fun stuff and do great art projects.

The kids put on a little program for the parents on the last day. They did the Pledge of Allegiance, sang all the songs they learned, and we had snacks and drinks. It was so cute to see him with friends and teachers, interacting and singing along.

These are the wonderful teachers Ms. Lizzy and Ms. Dori.

He loved to tell them stories about airplanes and Papa.

Summer is Here

I picked up this little pool the other day (I don't want to admit where I got it). We have busted it out a few times now, but after today, it will probably make a daily appearance. The kids have such a great time playing in it, well, Lane enjoys playing around it.

We spent most of the afternoon playing outside, as usual. Boys can sure find random things to entertain themselves with outside. Why is it that nobody is every upset outside and if somebody is upset, you can take them outside and it suddenly fixes the problem? Why is it that adults sometimes forget that outside is so wonderful and that we can keep ourselves couped up inside, doing nothing, and be okay with it?

Kids are such a wonderful way to enjoy the Great Outdoors!

Peaches 'n' cream

This morning we headed out to Schnepf Farms for the Peach Festival. We started out having some delicious pancakes with peaches 'n' cream on top. Headed out to the train ride, followed by several other little carnival rides, a couple of meltdowns, the petting zoo, then QT and Papas Hardware Store. We really had a great time despite the heat and hungry kid combination. Believe it or not, one meltdown was over getting a Coke (really?). I didn't take very many photos however I finally took a picture of Lane's great new look. We are pretty sure it has a lot to do with the giant molars coming in. I know they are probably bugging him, but the face is so dang cute.

Here is another shot of Zackary and Aaron on the giant swings. Aaron said they were quite relaxing.

I'm pretty sure I would have been dizzy from the spinning.