iPhone photo dump {week 22}

Highlights:

• We went to Bojangles for Saturday breakfast (which we recently had to limit to once a month because we were ending up there way too often). Boberry biscuit, yuuuummmm.
• We stopped at the farmer's market on the way home and picked up some fresh strawberries and blueberries that we enjoyed all week.
• We went to the pool on Monday (but I forgot to bring my phone). The water isn't cold anymore, it went from frigid to bathwater in no time at all.
• Adam and I each swam some laps for exercise. Go us!
• Lorelai wanted Aidan to hold her in the water. I thought it was sweet until I realized she just wanted to steal his goggles. Ok, it was still really sweet :)
• We had a movie and popcorn night last Saturday with the boys
• Durham Bulls game!
• Lorelai fell asleep on the way home from the baseball game. As Aidan walked past her on his way out of the van, I caught him giving her a sweet kiss on her forehead. Love!
• Yesterday, Lorelai got her baby doll out to play with. Aidan happily played with her, and even got her to tuck herself into "bed" on the couch with her baby while Logan played a lullaby on the guitar. Then he sweetly kissed her "goodnight." I cannot get over how amazing they are with her and how much they truly love her.

Lowlights:

• I found a tick on Logan's ear this week. Since my father-in-law had Lyme disease and a co-worker just recently had Rocky Mountain spotted fever, I have to admit I'm a little more worried/creeped out than I would have been in the past.
• Aidan has had a constant bad attitude all week. I'm so over it. I just wish I knew what was wrong and how to fix it.
• I'm so pale! I really need to get out in the sun a bit more.
• But we're pretty much confined to the house in this heat. 
• Silly me thought it was hot last week. Ha! The temperature in my car read 111 when I got in after work yesterday. It finally settled on 106 by the time I got to daycare. I'm really worried for the rest of the summer if we're already shattering heat records now...

Linking up with Amy @ a good life. 

For the love of baseball?

We can check another item off of our summer bucket list: on Wednesday, we went to a Durham Bulls baseball game. It's an annual outing my company hosts, which I always look forward to. What's not to love about free tickets for the family, which includes dinner on a shaded party deck and covered seats? (Besides the fact that I don't care about baseball in the slightest?) We even lucked into an extra ticket this year so that my mom could join us.

Logan was all decked out in his Durham Bulls gear, ready for the game!

It's something the boys had been looking forward to for a while, and Lorelai even had fun. Although I have a suspicion that had more to do with the cotton candy, baseball hats, and tractors on the field and not so much about the baseball itself. ☺



I'd like to point out the rare smile on Aidan's face in the picture above. I know he was tired from walking around the museum all morning on a camp field trip, but dude was a total grump for most of the time we were there, unfortunately. I was so excited for him to have this fun experience (it wasn't on our summer bucket list for nothing!) and his bad attitude prevented him from fully enjoying it. Such a shame.

Thankfully, Logan and Lorelai were all smiles. Logan was totally into it, and even got to stay longer with Grandma when we had to leave to get Lorelai to bed. Aidan came with us because of his attitude.

Doesn't Logan look so much like Aidan in the bottom right picture? I very rarely see the resemblance between them anymore, but that picture kind of blew my mind. Even Logan got confused for a minute and said it looked like Aidan.

I can honestly say I didn't pay more than 5 minutes total attention to the actual game. I was too busy watching (and taking pictures of) Lorelai being silly. And making sure she didn't try to drink my beer. And socializing with my coworkers. And helping the boys eat the cotton candy quickly before Lorelai could beg for more. Clearly I was too busy to be bothered with actually watching baseball at a baseball game. Ha! I did notice they were down 3-0 when we left at (I think) the top of the 3rd , and I heard later they came back to win 4-3.

No one can get Aidan to smile like Lorelai can. Thank God for her in so many ways.

Despite Aidan's grumpy attitude, I think (hope!) he did enjoy it somewhat, just like the rest of us. Nothing like watching your kids have fun to make you enjoy something as boring as a baseball game! (Which I say without meaning to offend all the baseball fans out there, clearly I'm in the minority in my opinion. ☺)

Too dressy for work, oops

Well that's what I get for wearing jeans to work 90% of the time, and my hair down 99% of the time...I get made to feel like a freak of nature when I pull my hair up and wear heels and a skirt. ☺

Not a freak of nature in a bad way, people were very complimentary. But since I work in a mostly casual office where it's not uncommon to see guys wearing jean shorts (OMG, yes, beacons of fashion they are...), I definitely looked out of place in this.

Oh hello...awkward self-portrait in the ladies room at work
(I take comfort in the fact that I'm not the only blogger that does this)

Honestly, I didn't really mean to look dressy. It was going to be 95+ today so I didn't want to wear pants--a skirt seemed like the way to go. And since I showered late last night and didn't want to bother with my hair (I had 2 hours of SYTYCD to watch, yo) it was a mess this morning so I just pulled it up into a (messy) sock bun. The heels? Yeah, they're probably what put this outfit over the top (even though they're not even super dressy on their own, I don't think), but I hadn't worn them in a while and they pretty much only look good with skirts. And I also painted my nails the other day which I very rarely do.

Lesson learned: save an outfit like this for date night (on the rare occasion that they happen). Or, start dressing up for work more often so people get used to it.☺

Happy Father's Day, I drew you a...tie.

(Oh hey, a belated post. That's new for me. But at least our internet is working again.)

First of all, I hope my kids understand how lucky they are to have a father who loves them unconditionally, works very hard to provide for them, and is there for them both emotionally and physically. Not all of us were that lucky, so I hope they appreciate that. And him. He deserves it, without question.



Second of all, this is the card Logan made for Adam at school this year. In a word: Awesome.

(He's making a habit of ambiguous pictures like this...)

I know what you're thinking: "Wow, that's a good looking tie." Right?! I mean, that was my first thought when I saw it and can't imagine anyone getting the wrong impression about what he drew there (pardon me while I snicker like a 12-year-old boy...I'm so mature).

Also? Adam is as handsome as a duck. What?! Logan is so hilarious. These fill-in-the-blank questionnaires are just so fun at that age. I actually had the boys do one, too (not knowing Logan had done one at school). Aidan's answers were sweet and interesting, but I just loved waiting to hear what Logan would come up with.



Does Logan have a one-track mind or what? He's klassy, that boy of ours, talking all about farts :)

On the front, they each drew a picture. Aidan made up the character "Fohawk" especially for Adam. Logan drew himself and Adam at graduation. And Lorelai's handprint card from school was sweet, too.



The boys also picked out some new cologne for Adam, and we got him a 3-in-1 Panini Press, Grill and Open Griddle.

The boys each filled out a questionnaire for Grandpa, too, to go along with his gift, since we totally failed and didn't send him a birthday card last month. But then I forgot to scan or take a picture before we gave it to him, so you'll just have to take my word on Logan's awesome answers. Thankfully, none of them had anything to do with farts this time.

I do know that both Adam and Houston both really appreciated Logan's answer for how old they were ;). Logan thinks Adam's 22 and Grandpa is 30 (or somewhere around there, I think). Also, Logan said Grandpa is really strong, he could lift a "almost Grandma." Ha!

As for our Father's Day celebrations this year, we went to Brueggers for bagels on Saturday morning, a special request from Adam since we hadn't been there in a while.



On Sunday, we hung out at home in the morning and relaxed, then headed over to Grandma and Grandpa's (Adam's parents) for a cook out. Fun was had by all, and we ate our faces off as usual. Seriously, the food they fix is always amazing.

They kids played on the slip-n-slide, totally immune to the pain of throwing their bodies down onto the hard ground across a tiny wet plastic sheet.



Of course they thought it was awesome.



After dinner, Adam bribed Lorelai with some homemade ice cream and they had some quality father/daughter time shoveling mouthfuls of yumminess into their mouthparts.





Lorelai thought the ice cream was so good, she wanted to snort the last of it from my bowl.



After we were done stuffing our faces, Grandpa took their puppy, Blaze, out the play. The kids (and Grandpa) ran around like maniacs trying to burn off some of that sugar high and get sufficiently tired out for bed.





Then we packed up Lorelai and left the boys behind for a sleepover and movie on Monday to see Madagascar 3. They had a blast, of course. And I think the fathers had a pretty darn good day, too!

Happy Father's day to my sweet hubby. We're so lucky to have you!

iPhone photo dump {week 21}

Highlights:

• The kids were all pretty hilarious this week. Lorelai walked around in Aidan's shoes and made a bunch of funny faces. Aidan and Logan put nerf balls under their shirts and walked around talking about their "nurples" (aka nipples, and I'm thinking we should probably stop calling them that before Lorelai picks up on it, too...).
• When Aidan was getting his hair cut, Lorelai and Logan sat on the floor to watch. Lorelai was cracking up like crazy, we're thinking because Aidan looked funny with the cape on. She was hilarious.
• Lorelai was also pretty funny at Target. Instead of riding in the big cart, she jumped out to push it--with sunglasses on (for the entire trip) and straw in her mouth.
• Adam and I are totally obsessed with Game of Thrones now. Thank goodness for HBO On Demand, so we can catch up on all the episodes. (Shhh, don't spoil anything, we're not caught up yet!)
• I've been using my new BB cream, and so far I like it. I'm not used to foundation since I've been only wearing mineral powder for the past 5 or so years, but I like how this goes on, and I'm hoping it'll improve the condition of my skin.
• I'm the only one in my house who will actually eat zucchini and squash, but I've really really been enjoying it lately. Roasted, grilled...yay for fresh summer veggies. (I just wish I could get them to grow in our garden, but I've given up on it for the past two years since the only thing I can get to grow is tomatoes.)
• Father's day, which I'll hopefully blog about soon...

Lowlights:

• More issues with stupid #%$ Time Warner Cable. I seriously can't believe we're still with them at this point. We've got constantly low signal that they haven't been able to fix permanently. Then, when we got our new DVRs/modem, our On Demand wouldn't work, then our wireless wouldn't work, our phone wasn't working for like 4 days, and this past week, we had three service calls to fix our internet, which we were without from Sunday through Thursday. $%#&!!!!
• That's why I haven't been able to upload Father's day pictures and blog about it.
• OMG it's been hot this week. Summer is definitely here, right on time. At least we were able to enjoy milder weather for what seemed like longer than normal for central NC.
• I can't for the life of me get Lorelai to let me brush her teeth. All she does is suck and chew on the toothbrush and won't let me touch it. It's so frustrating and I'm worried her teeth are going to rot out of her head.
• I feel so out of shape. I have to start working out again. HAVE to. I'm starting to feel bad about myself...not a good thing during bathing suit season. UGH.

Linking up with Amy @ a good life.

Haircut sadness

I know I've been saying for a while that Aidan needs a hair cut. Now I realize I was wrong.



He reluctantly agreed to getting it cut much shorter after I kept trying to painfully comb the tangled mess into submission after his showers, and after he couldn't see through his goggles in the pool. But he was so upset after the haircut, that it just broke my heart.

Honestly, I really miss his hair, too. I thought it looked really cool (even though it sometimes drove me crazy that he would pull it down over his eyes...to hide? I don't know), and once it was gone, I got a pang of regret because all of a sudden he looked 4 or 5 years old again to me. (Is it weird that him looking younger made me sad?)

4-year-old Aidan (October 2008 and May 2009)

He's handsome no matter what (I mean, obviously ☺) and I know we'll get used to it eventually, but it's a big change. On the plus side, it's much easier to shampoo and comb, and his head will probably be cooler in this heat. Too bad he doesn't care about the plus side right now.

To make him feel better, I told him we would grow it out again, and hopefully by fall it'll be close to where it was. Also to make him feel better, I told him we could lightly style it today. A little product in his hair to texturize, and I actually got a smile from him. YAY!

As for Logan, he's the one that usually hates getting his hair cut, but he was all excited this time. Unfortunately, his smile disappeared when I broke the news to him that he wasn't allowed to have a real mohawk. (And he started hating on his curls again, too.)



But this morning, he convinced me to style his hair into a faux hawx, and damned if that's not the cutest little curly-haired faux hawk I've ever seen! He's never been so excited to get to school to show all his friends and teachers. ☺

Between the three guys, I see us going through a lot of hair product in the future. And ironically enough, I don't even use any styling products in my hair! Ha!

Summer 2012 Bucket List

I've never done a summer bucket list before, but I thought it might be fun for us this year. Here's what I came up with.

Since we're in year-round schools, we've got five weeks of summer break. One down, only four to go. Yikes, that feels like no time at all! That's why I didn't make the list too long. And what do you know, we can already check a couple of items off:

1. Go to the beach 
2. Play in the rain (technically done, but I'd love to do this again and maybe I'll even get out there!)
   
3. Have a picnic at the pool
4. Go on a moonlight walk 
5. Catch fireflies
6. Make our own popsicles
7. Light sparklers
8. Go to a baseball game
9. Enjoy treats from the ice cream truck

The ice cream man actually came by this weekend, so that one is checked off as well. But for the record, I plan to flag him down for an ice cream cookie every time I hear that magical sound. ☺

Anyone else have a summer bucket list? Anything I missed?

iPhone photo dump {week 20}

Highlights:

• Adam went to Virgina Beach last weekend for his annual sand soccer tournament. They did great and won their division!
• He came home with a freakin' mustache. A mustache! It was hilarious. (But dude? No. Just...No.) He finally shaved it after several people apparently told him it made him look at least ten years older.
• True Blood is back on, woohoo!
• I took Logan to a birthday party at the Museum of Life and Science. We got to ride the train and try to catch butterflies in the butterfly house (no luck this time, darn).
• Logan had his kindergarten assessment to determine how the teachers will evenly divide the students to make sure there's a range of levels in each class. He said the only thing he forgot was his birthday and how to spell his last name (doh!). We've been quizzing him daily so by July he'll know :)
• He seems very excited about kindergarten (this week, at least). Although when we showed up at school for the assessment, he was totally confused about why we were at Aidan's school. For some reason he didn't realize (or remember) that they'll be going to the same school now. That made him even more excited.
• Aidan started his summer camp program at the same place where we have Logan and Lorelai. So far, so good and he really likes being at the same place as them (although I was skeptical that this program would be as fun for him as his previous program...we'll see how it goes).
• Playing in the rain was so much fun!
• The bunny that lives under our deck came out for breakfast the other morning and the kids caught a glimpse. (And now they really want to capture him for a pet...yikes.)
• I loved having the whole day off on Friday to spend with Logan for his graduation and celebration.

Lowlights:

• We really missed Adam while he was gone last weekend.
• I especially missed having him there when Lorelai threw up all.over.the.floor on Saturday night. Fortunately most of it ended up on the kitchen floor (only a little got on the carpet) and she was fine afterward and never had any fever. But it was a mess. She even slipped and fell into a pool of her own vomit where she sat and continuted to vomit some more until I could clean up and take her to the bath. Poor sweet girl (and poor mommy).
• With all of our cable issues, we got a new plan with new DVRs. Great, except for the fact that now we have to set up all of our shows again, and any shows we had already taped are gone.
• That's not as big a deal as the fact that On Demand quit working, half of our channels weren't coming in, and our cable land line phone wasn't working. They came out today and hopefully fixed the issue. Hopefully...

That was our week, how was yours?

Congrats, grad!

My little boy graduated from preschool today. And this picture? It kills me. Holy moly what a stinkin' cute and handsome kid (says the completely biased mom).

I've got such mixed feelings. On the one hand, I'm a little sad that my little boy is growing up so fast and clearly isn't so little any more. On the other hand, the offical countdown is on: only one month until we're only paying for one child in daycare! Hooray for free public school!

I've been worried about how Logan was going to handle graduation, since it means change, and he's not big on change. To put things mildly. But he did great! He was SO excited to put on a performance of what they've learned. They even memorized a ridiculously cute poem with hand gestures and everything, that he did perfectly.

His teacher and the directors made some moving speeches, they had a slideshow with pictures of the kids throughout the years at the school, and they handed out special character awards in addition to the diplomas. Logan got the Mr. Goodbar award (his teacher called them "The Sweets" where everyone was a different candy) because he's so good at making friends and he gets along with everone.

It's a miracle I didn't cry during all of that, although I do admit I got choked up a couple of times. We're all just so proud of this kid!

That's his awesome teacher, we're really going to miss her!

After the ceremony, we headed to Chick-fil-a for a celebratory lunch, and then met up with a bunch of his classmates at Frankies Fun Park. Logan and I had never been, and we all had a blast.



Logan's apparently a natural at skeeball, and loved the roller coaster simulator. That's the only reason I was comfortable with him going on the Drop Zone ride he begged us to let him ride, on which I was fully expecting him to lose his everloving mind. He looks thrilled, right? He had a look of terror on his face the whole time, but came off smiling and high-fiving. Win!



We also did several rounds of go karts (again, mine and Logan's first time, it was my favorite part!) and I'm an awesome driver if I do say to myself. Aidan, on the other hand, is NOT an awesome bumper boat driver. Somehow he managed to get his and Logan's boat stuck underneath the water fountain, so they both ended up soaked from head to toe. All smiles, though! (Which wouldn't have been the case if Logan had fallen in, like he literally almost did when he decided it would be a good idea to stand up and switch seats with Aidan. Crisis narrowly averted.)

It was an awesome day, and I'm so proud of my graduate!

Before the wasps chased us inside...

Sunday morning was much like Saturday morning for us. Go outside, ride bikes, pull out almost every toy in our garage to play with, take pictures.



One of us {coughAidancough} was mad about the whole picture-taking thing though for some reason. Sometimes he gladly lets me take his picture, other times he scowls or refuses to look at the camera. UGH. How moody and teenage boy of him. (Noooo, not yet!!)



Lorelai's been known to do the same thing—either run from the camera or refuse to look at me and smile. I see a hint of a smile here though (along with some drool, hello molars).



At least Logan will happily smile and not run from the camera. Although he does get easily distracted on occasion.



We had a lot of fun. That is, until some huge wasps chased us inside. Last week we noticed a couple had taken up residence in our bird feeder (shame on me for not filling it up sooner), so Adam sprayed the crap out of them with wasp spray. I'm imagining they were pissed we ruined their nice home so they were coming back to seek revenge. (Don't laugh, it could happen!) They seemed particularly aggressive and were all up in our garage, too.

When we went back outside after naps, we stuck to the backyard. The coast was clear (of snakes, too...you know I check carefully every single time now). Lorelai helped me water the flowers. And by that, I mean, she almost decimated my dahlias again.



Completely unrelated side note: I love how she specifically requests pigtails or ponytails every day now. She just needs to quit messing with them once I put them in!



Moral of the story: wasps are a total buzzkill. Yep, I went there. :)

Wise Words Wednesday: Dancing in the rain

“Anyone who says sunshine brings happiness has never danced in the rain.” -Unknown

Honestly, I've never really been a fan of the rain. Dark, dreary, rainy days really sour my mood. It's a pain in the rear to go out in the rain (especially with kids--how do you hold an umbrella and a squirmy baby and stay dry??), and it makes my hair look terrible.

But I may just have to change my opinion on summer* rain, after seeing how much fun Logan and Lorelai had splashing around in puddles during a downpour on Monday. It was sheer joy. They were giddy, and it was contagious.

 *Summer rain only. Cold rain will always suck. It might as well snow and let us out of school/work or at least look pretty.  

Notice her right flip flop is between the wrong toes? "No mommy, La-lai do it."
At least she got them on the correct feet this time.

After dinner it started to pour, and Logan was really bummed that he couldn't go out and ride his bike and we couldn't go to the pool. I think I surprised everyone in the house when I suggested he put on his bathing suit and go jump in puddles. This was something we've actually never done, so he looked at me and said "really? Are you serious?" (Which is pretty much what Adam said--he thought I was crazy.) But I figured why not, they could just jump straight into the bath right after, no biggie.

Next thing I knew, Logan was running out the door ready to go (didn't even take time to fix his waistband), and Lorelai was only a step behind him. I had to convince her to take a second to let me pull off her clothes first.

Even Aidan got in on the action, but from safely under the umbrella. For whatever reason, he didn't feel the need to get all wet.

I grabbed one of the boys' tiny umbrellas and headed out to take pictures. My back got pretty wet, but at least the camera stayed dry.

After a while, it was time to head in for baths and showers. I literally had to carry Lorelai in kicking and screaming because she was having so much fun and didn't want to stop. At that point, I got soaking wet chasing after her, but I didn't even care. They had so much fun, it was totally worth it, and I dare say I might even look forward to another evening downpour.