Forgotton Foto Friday

Several weeks ago we went to one of Kevin's adopted kids' graduation at Reliant Stadium. 

Afterwards the boys were particuarly intrested in having their picture taken and were really hamming it up for the camera.

So much so in fact that they wanted to be in every.single.picture as part of the family.  :) 

Congratulations Emily! 

Days to Remember

I often wonder what I did before kids.  I mean really, what did I do all weekend?  Oh yeah... I slept in.  And watched movies on the couch in my PJs.  And took naps.  And ate fruit loops for dinner.  And relaxed before I had to go back to another exhausting day at work.

Now?  Those torturous Mondays?  They are still torturous but that's mostly because I have to get up at the crack of dawn and go back to work after far too little sleep.  But by comparision after a whirlwind weekend with the kiddos work days look pretty relaxing.  :) 

Take this weekend for example - We started the weekend off Friday after work and school with swim lessons followed by a trip to the pool for the kick-off of Flamingo Fridays (movies at the pool).  We spent the evening playing, splashing, and swimming until we were long past pruned.  And despite their protests ("But why couldn't we watch the cat movie??"  "Why did we HAVE to go HOME!?!?") finally cruised into our driveway sometime after 10pm with two wide awake and completely wired kiddos.

You would think the long evening of swimming and late bedtime might convice them to sleep late come Saturday morning.  But oh, no.  Not the boys.  As ususal they popped right up out of bed like Tigger chomping at the bit for some quality Saturday morning DVD time.  So we spent the morning watching Scooby Doo and playing around the house.  After a surpringly long and calm lunch at Chili's I dropped Kevin and the kids back off at home for a nap and went to run a few errands.  When I got home the kiddos were laughing, playing and goofing off upstairs.  They apparently had their second wind and completely refused to take a nap the entire hour and a half I was gone.  Maybe they were just too excited to finally be heading back to the race track. 

Ryan had been asking for weeks if we could go back to Houston Motor Sports Park and watch the races (we hadn't been since last year, but he still rememebred!).  I had been keeping an eye out for cheap tickets and found a good deal for Saturday.  So we headed to the track to meet up with some friends and catch an action packed evening of racing.  Despite our typical best intentions to leave after the second or third race after intermission and be home at a decent time we didn't make it.  :)  Ryan wasn't quite ready to leave and since the kids were still watching and enjoying the races we decided to hang out and catch a few more.  We finally managed to drag Ryan out, and had made it almost to the exit when the fireworks started.  So we hung around to watch the fireworks, and then spent another 20 minutes in the parking lot looking for one of Ryan's favorite autographed race pictures that he was already begging to take to show and tell at school on Monday.  Despite their best efforts to stay awake the kiddos finally passed out in the car on the way home probably 3 hours after bedtime.

After a second late night, and a boycot on naps the boys graciously let us sleep 15 minutes past the crack of dawn before they popped out of bed ready to see if they could talk us into another epsiode or two of their favorite cartoons before heading out to drive their cars all over the neighborhood, catch dozens of little sunfish at our pond, run timed laps at the McDonalds playground until Connor could barely walk before finally heading home to skip yet another nap in favor of a Land Before Time marathon in our bed allowing Kevin to nap almost through the entire first movie (aside from Ryan's elbows when his snorning got to be too loud), and me to get a surprising 10 minutes during the second movie, and the boys not a single wink.  Cleary they still had energy to burn so we headed to the pool for a couple of hours to practice what we learned at swim lessons, and in the vain hope that the blistering heat if nothing else would finally zap some of that energy.  Not that it worked of course.  When the lifeguards finally kicked us out if the pool at closing time the boys enthusiastically asked if we could to go to the playground before eating dinner.  Much to their dismay we ate and then called it a day and put them to bed.  Only to have them stay up and play for 30 minutes or so before finally getting still enough to pass out.

What I wouldn't give to have a fraction of that energy.  Or a weekend to stay at home all by myself.  Sleep in until noon.  And lay around in my PJ's watching movies and eating fruit loops.  :)

[Nearly] Wordless Wednesday - Water Magic

Just a tub of water.

With nothing in it.

Except for the magic water beads.

Half a million little squishy balls.

So cool.

Needless to say the boys had a blast chasing down every.last.one.  So much in fact that we had to take them to school to show all our friends the next day.  :)

Summer Treats

I have been promising the boys for ages that someday we would actually make our own popsicle treats.  And since I just recently cleaned out the freezer and actually had the space, not to mention half of a behemoth watermelon to figure out what to do with I decided there was no time like the present. 

Connor thoroughly enjoyed them.  :)  And Ryan is already putting in requests for future flavors - he thinks we should try banana next.

Celebrating summer

We kicked off the first official day of summer with quite a treat.  PB&J sandwiches.  :)  But not just any PB&J.  The peanut butter was about as fresh as it gets - straight off line at the Cannery 5 days ago.  Though work one of my coworkers had the opportunity to volunteer at the Cannery - a local church run, volunteer operation that supplies peanut butter to the food bank.  After their 4 hour shift where a group of about 16 people made somewhere around 5000 jars of peanut butter they got to take a jar home.  I was super bummed when I couldn't make it myself.  It's definitely something I will try to make time for next time.  In the meantime, however, my coworker who isn't a giant fan of peanut butter brought me her jar for the boys and I to enjoy.  :)

I was really looking forward to trying it, and when another coworker Bruce sent me home 2 jars of freshly made homemade strawberry and peach jam I knew we would be giving all 3 a thorough taste testing that night!  :)  And taste test we did.  It was all absolutely delicious.  The peanut butter was super creamy, and the jam was amazingly good.  So good in fact that we had polished off three whole plates full of the mini sandwiches before it even dawned on me to fend off the horde and at least get one picture of them before they were gone - plates licked clean.  :)

The PB&J wasn't the only thing that flew off the plates.  The boys polished off almost an entire half of what must be a > 10 lb watermelon all by themselves.  I had originally picked up the behemoth for us to take for Father's Day, but in the chaos of getting out the door Kevin forgot to take it.

Before last night I would have said there was no way the kids could eat it all themselves, so I had already decided to make some watermelon popsicles and once i make it to the store for a lime some Watermelon Lime Sorbet.  My mouth is already watering just thinking about. 

We tried the popsicles we made last night and they were delicious.  Sweet and refreshing.  Connor gave them 2 enthusiastic thumbs up.  :)  We will have to remember to make our own popsicles more often.  I even saw a great recipe at lunch today for making your own banana pops with super ripe bananas.  Not that Ryan ever let's bananas go bad around here, but I am sure he would save me a couple if he knew we could make popsicles with them next time.  :)

Father's Day Collages

The idea:
[Cue dream lighting and angels singing]
To take pictures of the kids (all dressed up of course) holding the letters D-A-D.  Let the kids pick their favorite pictures to make a card for father's day.  And then to use a 3 mat frame (3 5x7's) to create a collage for Kevin to take to work.

Reality check:
D-A-D is 3 letters, and there are 2 kids.  And let's be honest here - posing is not the boys' forte - unless of course it's their idea... Which in dress clothes it never is.   Not to mention that whole me finding the time to procure, and PAINT the letters in between eye infections, car thieves, stomach bugs, swim lessons, and oh, yeah, work.  Funny, huh?

What actually happened:
I picked up chipboard letters, but didn't get around to getting them painted made an executive design decision to go with a more natural rustic look.

The boys wore their Father's Day Shirts ("Like Father, Like Son") instead of their dress shirts because they violently object to polo shirts, anything that has buttons, or anything that isn't cotton I made an executive design decision to go with a more natural rustic look.

Connor cooperated and had several cute pictures to choose from.

Ryan chose several creative ways to hold the letter D (on top of his head, sideways, hanging off his nose, upside down and backwards). 

Ryan also fervently objected to holding the letter A recommended that I use a picture of him with Daddy as his "A" picture.

To be "fair" (3 letters, 2 kids) I decided the best thing to do for the framed art piece was to have BOTH boys hold the letter A.   Let's just say sharing and cooperating is not their forte either.  And some children approached this task with more excitement and vigor than others.

Despite everything we did eventually end up with an "A" picture we could use.

And I thought the whole thing turned out pretty darn cute!

With the pictures in hand it was time to start on the card(s).  The design was originally intended to be a bit more upscale blue and green.  When I didn't get around to painting the letters made the executive design decision to make it more natural and rustic I had to scramble to come up with a corresponding card design.

I think I succeeded.

So then it was time for the framed art...

At which time I discovered that the 3 picture vertical 5x7 frames were no longer anywhere to be found (and I do mean anywhere!) I looked. 

So I finally came up with a glass 3 picture (3x3) frame that I already had.  So I had to recrop & reprint the pictures as 3x3's.  Which is far more difficult than it should be.  Only to discover that the frames weren't exactly the 3x3 that they advertised.  More like 3 1/4 x 3 1/8.  Great.  Just Great.

I did eventually manage to get pictures in the frame.  And the boys and I excitedly admired our handiwork.  So much so that we totally scrapped the plan to wrap the frame (which is semi circular) in a brown paper bag (rustic theme carried though, see??) tied with brown twine and instead decided to just put it on the mantle and drag him in to admire it the second he came downstairs on Saturday.  :)   And yes, I meant Saturday... :)  Since school was hosting a Father's Day lunch on Friday we had already broken out the kids shirts and the shirts the kids and I picked out for Kevin.  So we figured why wait!?  :)

In our excitement we also forgot to take a picture of the finished product for everyone to admire.  An oversight I am sure we will have to rectify soon.  As soon as I remember.  Right after I finally remember to count my teaspoons, and look for the check I got at Christmas that hasn't been cashed.  :)

Update: And here's a picture.  :)

Happy Father's Day

A day full of silver linings

You know those days when you just shouldn't have gotten out of bed?  It was one of those days for me...

Woke up. Ryan had goup in his eyes. Another infection – wonderful.

Kid can’t go to school.  I can't go to work.
Went to the doctor. Waited forever. Confirmed Ryan has uber contagious cooties going around. Needs toxic eye drops. Can’t go to school for TWO days.
Dr.’s office says payment is overdue on 4 year well checks. Insurance didn’t pay. 361 days since last appt. Must be 365. Have to write appeal. Insurance sucks.
Dr.s’ office wants payment now or is threatening to send to collections. Did I mention that iinsurance sucks?
Went to lunch – discovered phone was toast.
Got kids meal free despite not being able to show coupon on phone. Bonus.
Discovered Ryan has diarrhea.
Finally left the restaurant after visiting the bathroom no fewer than 5 times.
Remote started my car to get the AC going. Surprised thieves trying to break-in.
Unlocked car doors to let Ryan in – freaked thieves out and scared them away.
Got a good look at the passenger (the one doing the actual breaking-in). Got the license number. Called the police.
Waited forever. With Ryan. Joy.
Police ran plates – didn’t match car description – stolen plates.
Thankful we weren’t two minutes slower. Had radar detector, GPS, [broken] phone, my computer, my passport and other important documents in the car.
Stopped by Verizon hoping they could fix my phone - especially since it was the number I gave the police. Confirmed phone is toast. Phone was surprisingly under warranty.  And only took 10 minutes.
I already knew that because I remembered when I got the phone – the day after my car got broken into in my driveway and my phone was stolen. Ironic.
Ordered new phone. It will be here sometime next year.  Had to pay shipping.  And it has to be signed for. Yea.
Picked up RX.   Drove home. 
Got key stuck in door. Door doesn’t unlock. Key doesn’t come out.
Finally got in the house. Gave Ryan eye drops. Kid freaked out. Will require straight jacket for future application.
Put Ryan down for a nap. He refused to go to sleep.
Had to use pliers to wrench the key out of the door.  Lock’s broken (thankfully locked.)
Finally logged into work email. Million and one messages. Missed a meeting I scheduled.  Fabulous.

It was just that kind of day... And despite everything that happened, it could have been so much worse.