Christmas in June

Last Christmas, Miss C asked for three things.....roller skates, a red guitar and a playground. A girl with simple requests, huh? Well she got the guitar and eventually the roller skates, but Santa just couldn't deliver on the playground. I know, I know. These kids are so deprived. Don't you just feel sorry for them?

This summer J and I decided to finish up the landscaping and finally get those poor kids a playground. We bought it a couple of weeks ago but have been waiting to get approval from the HOA to put it up. We've also been calling around trying to find someone to put the set together for us. Unfortunately, we did have much luck. Either we never got a phone call back or they wanted more than what the play set costs to begin with. So J and I decided we would put it together ourselves. Let's just call it a temporary lapse of sanity.

So this past weekend (oh and it was the hottest weekend yet this year too boot) we decided to give it a whirl. We started Friday night separating and sorting all of the parts and pieces. We should have known we were doomed when the bag of screws and bolts weighed about 50 pounds alone. But none-the-less, we started 7 a.m. Saturday morning bright and early. Here's a pic of J so optimistic about the project

Mee Maw was nice enough to bring in donuts in hopes of us giving us a sugar high and keeping us motivated to work. Unfortunately the kiddos got into the donuts (oh, and a little sunflare too)

Taken with my 50mm......I need to use this lens more often. It's been neglected lately

Which kind of backfired because they were the ones on the sugar high. Actually, it wasn't so bad. Here is Miss C helping. We probably would have had an easier time putting the thing together if we hadn't left her responsible for reading us the directions. Maybe that's why it took us so long.

Goomps and daddy putting the structure together. This was by far the hardest part. We were trying to make sure it was square and level on the ground which was neither square nor level. That kind of made it a little difficult.

Fortunately for me, I had to take the kids to a birthday party at 10:30 that morning. We went to a pottery store and had fun painting and eating cupcakes.

The next 1 1/2 days were kind of a blur to me. Once I got home from the birthday party I got right back to work. J and I worked for a total of maybe 12 hours on Saturday and 7 hours on Sunday. J had to leave for a business trip Sunday night so we didn't get to finish, but it's 75% done. We just have to put the swings up, build the picnic table and monkey bars and finish the decorative touches on the roof. Oh, and we have to build a wood structure around it and have it filled with cedar chips. Ok, maybe we're like 50% done.

Regardless, the kids just love it.

Tribute....

Well, it's a sad day. Michael Jackson died yesterday. It's the end of an era. I grew up listening to his music. In fact, Thriller was my first cassette tape (and if you don't know what a cassette tape is, I don't like you anymore :) ). To make myself feel better, that cassette player was of the Fisher Price variety. So I'm not that old! I even remember where I was when I watched the video Thriller for the first time. How random is that?! Anyway, we'll miss you MJ. Even though you were kind of a weirdo, you sure did know how to make great music.

And in the spirit of great music, I give you Miss C and her song du jour. I may love me some Michael Jackson, but Miss C's song of choice as of late is No More Monkeys Jumpin on the Bed. Miss C is just lovin' that song. She got out her CD player (with the headphones) and was jammin' on our walk yesterday morning. I'm talking about at the top of her lungs kind of jam. It was too stinkin' cute because you know she doesn't understand that she's the only one that can hear the song. Little J loved it too. He was swayin' to her singing. Unfortunately, I now have that song in my head. It's set to the little diddy "Jungle Boogie" and I'm afraid it's going to be lingering in my head for awhile.

No more monkeys.... no more monkeys..... no more monkeys.......can you just hear it!?

Here is Miss C in all her No More Monkeys glory:

And look at snicker-doo on the left. Just waiting patiently for the right moment to totally piss his sister off. Gotta love siblings!

I have so much more to catch up on including J's new teeth, father's day and a whole bunch of random tidbits. As soon as I can edit the pics, I'll post more!

10 on Tuesday

I'm going to give this a whirl today and see how it goes. I may have some outdated pics though (well from 2 weeks ago). I took a bunch the other night and through no fault of my own, they got deleted after I thought they transferred successfully to the computer. Stupid MAC. My hubby will appreciate that comment. I'm a windows gal and just can't seem to make the leap to this MAC that we've had for 3+ years now :)

1. Miss C had her last day of preschool last week. They had a little "graduation" for them where they got a little certificate. They sang a song and then each got up and told the crowd what was their favorite part of preschool. I swear, there wasn't a dry eye in the house. Miss C's favorite thing was "reading books." She's such a little book worm. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of this momentous day. Why, you ask? Oh, because the MAC ate them. Stupid MAC.

2. About 3 weeks ago (maybe even 4) we went strawberry picking with the kids. I let them each get their own basket and pick their own strawberries.

That lasted exactly 2 minutes before they decided to eat anything they picked. All in all, it was a fun time.

3. This is what happens when you leave your camera lying around. I have no idea what to even say about this one. Why men think stuff like this is funny is beyond me. And why they think that when you teach a kid to do this the kid can distinguish the difference between doing this in front of daddy because he's laughing and doing this in school to an audience of horrified teachers. Or better yet, doing this with something that is long enough to pull out of your kid's nose versus doing this with a teeny tiny piece of food (or toy) that will get stuck up there and require mama to take time out of her day to take said kid to the ENT. Yeah, real funny dad.

4. Here's my little sunshine a couple of weeks back. Someone should have told him it would have been a lot easier to ride the scooter without the rubber boots on. But he just had to wear them.

5. This photo just sums up Miss C lately. At-ti-tude. That girl has got some sass on her. Everyone told me to watch out when they get to be about 3 1/2. Man, they weren't kidding. Sometimes I don't know who she thinks she is. I actually didn't even request this pose for this shot. When she's coping a 'tude she throws those hands on the hips like she owns the place. J and I are trying to figure out how to discipline this type of behavior. I've realized that her behavior is extra spicy when she's tired. So we try to get her to sleep as much as possible. It helps on the days where she decides to take a nap, but that's not very often. So we've tried to be consistent with time-outs. We also give her choices and make her suffer the consequences when she makes a bad choice. It's so hard, but hopefully it will pay off. Some say I'm pretty stubborn (me, really?) so I think I can win in this battle of wills (stop laughing).6. Little J and Miss C have been playing together so much lately. I bought Little J one of those balls that you sit on and bounce (Miss C already had one). The two of them love to race each other up and down the front hallway. Little J is actually getting pretty good at it. They also like to pretend together. Miss C would always want to role play with J and I. Usually it was doctor/patient or teacher/student type scenarios. Now Little J is interested in playing and they take turns back and forth role playing. It's so cute to watch. The other day Miss C and Little J were in their cardboard house (ugh, that thing is still in our house) and Miss C dragged in a stool to sit on and was reading a book to Little J. He will pretty much do whatever she asks, no tells, him to do.

7. Miss C started a ballet class this summer. She cried a little when I dropped her off but the teachers told me she did really well. Here she is with her friend A on their first day of ballet. That leotard was mine when I was a little girl. I started ballet classes when I was just about Miss C's age.

8. We took Little J and Miss C to the mountains to ride the railroad. The day we went, Thomas the Train was there as a special feature. They also had a little amusement park (all the rides were designed for kiddos under 45 inches tall) and various other activities. The kids had a ball.

9. Miss C has been asking for binoculars for her birthday forever. Our neighborhood had its annual yard sale last weekend. We decided to walk around to see if their was anything we couldn't live without. Guess what we found? A pair of binoculars. I only paid $1 too boot. How sweet is that?!

10. Here is a pic of me with the kids taken last week. Consider it my 52 week submission. I know I missed a couple of weeks in there, so I'm trying to get back on track. By the way, did I mention the sass on my 3 year old? Just look at the face she gave us when J told her to smile.

Whew! I made it. Now off to watch one of my guilty pleasures. The Real Housewives of NJ. Gosh, I love my trash TV :)

A boy and his tractor

This little guy just loves his tractors.  I took him out last night at sunset and tried to practice using light in a different way.  Not easy if you ask me!  I'm kind of mixed on the results, but I love the image because it captures little J to a T.  This boy is so content just sitting and rolling his tractors (or trucks, cars, trains, etc.) around.  He'll sit like this for hours and just study how they work.

heeellllllooooo out there

Is there anybody there?  I'm pretty sure I'm losing readership as we speak.  I've been so bad about updating and I missed another 10 on Tuesday.  This might be a drive by post, but at least I'm posting!

This is little J in a get up he put on all by himself.  Sometimes I worry about him :)

The kids were in a good mood tonight so we had a little fun with the camera.  We set it on self timer and did some goofy poses.  It was all fun and games until both of them wanted to take over position as camera man.  I guess pushing buttons on expensive electronics is so much fun.  Amazing how that works.  Anyway, here are a couple that we got before things started to go awry.

Enjoy!

Catching up

I don't even know where to start, it's been so long!  We've had a busy last couple of weeks and I feel like I'm really getting behind on this.  Maybe I need to not do 10 on Tuesday for awhile and do mini posts throughout the week so it's not so overwhelming!  Who knows.....

1.  Our good friends the G family moved to Connecticut this week.  Boo.  We miss them already.  I had a little farewell playgroup last week to give them a proper chaotic send off. I think there were 17 kids running around.  But that's so our playgroup--chaotic.  It's amazing that when we first started having playgroups, we all only had one child (and they weren't even walking yet).  Playgroups were relatively tame and more for our personal socialization.  It's been fun to see how much things have changed.  Unfortunately I didn't take many pictures (and the ones I did are crappy) so I can't share any here.  Double boo.

2.  Little J has really started to want to "accessorize" himself.  It's so funny with some of the stuff he comes up with.  Usually he puts on his boots with just about any outfit.  He's finally into his boots and not Miss C's pink ones.  Thank goodness.  He did feel the need to mow the lawn like this though

He also likes to wear hats.  J got him this Boston Red Sox hat so that he could look just like daddy.  It's so funny when he realizes that J is wearing his.  Little J will run right to his B Town hat and ask to put it on.  If the Boston hat isn't around, anything else will do

3.  This is a typical Saturday or Sunday morning at our house.  Daddy usually makes pancakes for the family.  With two toddlers, we always have someone ready and willing to stir the batter

4.  We celebrated Little J's birthday this past weekend with a party.  It was a joint party with his friend B who turns two next week.  We had a whole train theme and even planned for a trackless train to come to the party for train rides.  Well, it didn't go as planned.   It was supposed to rain on Sunday, so we cancelled all the train plans and had the party at Monkey Joe's instead.  All in all, the kids had a great time.  Here's Little J playing hoops

Here are the two birthday boys getting ready to blow out the candles.  Look at that snickerdoodle on the left.  I was just waiting for her to jump in and blow it out for them.  That is something she totally would have done.

Here they are enjoying cupcakes

Finally Miss C having a good time

5.  Nana and Aunt K came into town for the festivities.  Here is little J with Aunt K

6.  We also had our good friends the P family come in for the weekend and stay with us.  We had a great time with them as usual.  Here is little J and his buddy K taking time out for a few snacks.  Playing all morning is just so exhausting

7.  We brought out the sprinkler and Miss C and her friend M had the best time running around in it.  As a bonus, it's cheap entertainment and it waters the lawn at the same time!

8.  I'm not sure what she is doing in this picture, but it is so her for some reason.  She's been really cracking herself up lately.  

9.  Again, I have no explanation for this.  We had to borrow a ladder from a neighbor to help get a balloon out of the fan (don't ask).  I left J and Little J to take care of that task.  When I downloaded the pictures, this is what I found.  Looks like they had the situation all under control, doesn't it?

10.  No, I don't have my stinkin 52 weeks pic.  I'm really slackin in that department.  But I do have a great #10.  I'm going to have a nephew!  Uncle M and Aunt J are going to have a baby boy in September.  I can't wait!

Celebrate!

What a big day!  Not only was it Mother's Day, but Little J turned two.  You know what that means?  One extra minute in time out!  Just kidding.  I feel like my baby isn't really a baby anymore....

This morning we headed to brunch to celebrate Mother's Day.  It didn't go as well as planned since the restaurant didn't have a very kid friendly menu.  So my munchkins had dessert for breakfast.  Little J I could justify since it was his birthday and all.  Miss C just got lucky.  

Then we headed home for naps and a party for Little J in the afternoon.  The kids played in the pool, we at pizza, had cupcakes and then opened presents.  All in all, it was a good day.

Happy Birthday little buddy!  I can't believe you are two already.  We love you!