What could be better?

What could be better than a donut?

A chocolate iced donut topped with whipped cream and sprinkles.

And a picnic in the park.

Monkey See. Monkey Do.

Monkey See.


Monkey Do.

It was that time again...

Ryan's hair was down in his eyes again. He has been fussing and pulling on it with increasing frequency the last few days so I finally decided it was time. The coupon that arrived in the mialbox was just another omen. I am always sad to see his long blond locks disappear. But seeing where you are going when you run non-stop is probably a good idea. So here is his before picture...

Here is his after. He always looks so much younger to me after a haircut. And I miss the long curls from the very first snip.

Connor's hair wasn't quite as long as Ryan's. But the longer Connor's hair gets the more unruly it gets. It starts to wave and curl and in general have a mind of its own that is pretty hard to tame so Connor got a turn in the chair, too. Here's Connor's before:

And his cut in progress as he sat in the chair watching a movie.

And his after. We decided to try something new for him. The stylist recommended a spiked look.

Connor however decided he wasn't crazy about it and opted for something a little more classic.

As for Connor - his haircuts always leave me wondering where my little boy went.

Be Afraid.

Be Afraid. Be VERY Afraid.

We stopped by my Uncle's house to wish him a Happy Birthday. While we were there the boys discovered the 4-wheelers and wanted to take them out for a drive. Their cousin Gracie took hers out for a spin at break-neck speed so of course the boys wanted a turn, too.

How do you start this thing?

Clutch? What clutch?

Uh, huh. And what does this do again?

Okay, Connor. Hold on. I know how to drive it now!

Hey... There's another one. I think this one is more our speed.

Don't run over it? What's back there to run over??

Visitors

My mom and grandparents came out to visit for a few days to wish my Uncle a Happy Birthday. They enjoyed spending time with the boys.

Gratitous Cuteness

I decided it was time to put the eggs up. But not before I snapped a few pics of the boys "helping" with them.

Day and Night

Could the boys be any more different? I made chicken salad for dinner. Connor ate his... well... like this.


Ryan on the other hand took petite little bites.

How I found him

I was cleaning up the kitchen after dinner when I heard the crash. I came around the corner and I didn't see Connor. Ryan was in the living room, but the crash had most certainly come from the direction of the dining room. I took a closer look and and out of the corner of my eye I saw the shoes wriggling.


This is exactly how I found him. Apparently he had knocked one of his books off the back of the shelf so he pulled all the rest out and crawled in after it.



After he rescued all of his books he started trying to pull up the jar with his fish in it. The jar however was too big to be pulled between the back of the cubby and the wall though he gave ti a good try and spent several minutes trying to fish it out.

Terrorizing the Neighborhood

We generally keep the doors barred. It is the only way to protect unsuspecting people from the terrors. But once in a while we unleash them. Like this weekend. We let them out under the auspice of playing with their cars in the culdesac. And technically they did have their cars, and they didn't actually leave the culdesac. They just drove the cars up on the curb into the grass. Beware pedestrians.


When they thought we weren't looking they picked up a handful of dirt. They weren't struck by lightening so they picked up another. Getting braver still they let it run through their hands. As still no thunderous "NO!!" boomed through the air they began to grab fistfulls and toss it willy nilly into the air laughing and egging one another on.


When we finally did say something they smiled, and acted as innocent as they possibly could while covered in and busily wiping off the evidence.

Later in the afternoon while Kevin was on a conference call we hit the backyard. Ryan loves to swing in my hammock. Or just sit there and watch the clouds, and planes, and birds.

Connor however couldn't possibly sit still for even a minute. He first decided to play in the stagnant water pooled on top of the sandbox cover. As I dumped the last of the water off into the grass and chased him a way for the umpteenth time he decided to try to drink out of the dog waterer. Once again thwarted he decided to to try the wind chimes out as a gong. Ryan decided to give him a hand as they banged the chimes together miraculously managing not to smash any fingers in the process.

After being once again chased away Ryan decided to play on the slide. Though he wouldn't set foot on it until it was cleaned off. "It's dirty, mommy!" Yes, dear - that is what happens when it is outside. Really a little bit of dirt won't kill you no matter what your father says. But he wasn't to be swayed.

Once we got it cleaned off Ryan proceeded to demonstrate his head first sliding technique. I can only guess that he learned it from one of his friends at school.

He certainly thought it was fun and had it do it that way every time thereafter.

While Ryan checked out the slide Connor relocated rocks out of the flower bed onto the patio and banged them on a stone frog faucet. He also crawled behind the rose bushes and buford hollies and hid behind the bushes in the flower bed. Meanwhile Ryan who had been sliding down the slide starting screaming bloody murder. Ryan practically collided with me as I came around the corner to see what was the matter. "HOLD YOU, MOMMY!!!!" As we walked back towards the slide to see what had scared him I saw two lizzards crawling up the side of the slide. He was terrified of them. I shoed them off, and went to chase Connor out of the bushes, but he was too scared to stay there by himself. So he joined Connor in the bushes. While I was helping Ryan Connor got caught by either the rose bushes or the hollies and had gotten quite a scratch across his forehead. I finally caught both of the boys and drug them out of the flower beds lest we have more cuts and scratches to go with the one Connor already had.

Looking for more trouble to get into Connor decided to check out the patio furniture. First by sitting in it, then by standing and hanging over the back...

After being kicked out of the chair before he had the chance to land head first on the concrete he decided to check out the opposite flower bed where he proceeded to trample the gladiolas and try to pull the raccoon statue down on his head.



As Ryan heard Connor getting in trouble again he had to come check it out himself, too. He had to play in the bird waterer and touch the raccoon.

I finally convinced Connor to quit trampling the plants and have a seat on the bench.

He lasted almost a minute before he tried to stand on it then began pulling the leaves and flowers off the vine.

It is truly amazing just how many things two little boys can find to get into.

Hamming it Up

The boys were little hams this weekend.

Ryan especially. He's so funny when I get the camera out. After I snapped a few pictures of him he ran over and got his toy camera and took some pictures of me, too.

Downright giddy

I have been thinking about taking some photography or photography related classes for a while now. I found some online classes probably a year or so ago, but I kept waffling and hemming and hawing. I finally decided to take the plunge earlier this week with a quick photo editing class. And I am really glad I did. They have been great - I love the work at your own pace and tivo like instant replay if you didn't quite catch something the first time, or more often than not happens to me in one ear and right out the other. I also love the fact that they are always online and available if you need a refresher (how did I do that again??) I have only done a few lessons so far, but I really like the results.

Here's one of my first before and after pics -

I was stunned at what a difference it could make even on a photo that actually looked pretty good to me to begin with. I can't wait to see what's next!