Weekend Fun

We went to the arts fair on Sunday to shop around, eat lunch, enjoy the beautiful day outside, and support Luke's mom, who has a booth where she shows her famous handmade t-shirt quilts. We had a good time, except Patrick was in a rough mood, as you can see by the way he's sulking in his Ma's booth. Obviously he was tired, since both he and Ben zonked out on the drive home.

After a very short nap, both boys felt a little better, so we carved our jack-o-lantern for Halloween. Patrick looks on as Daddy guts it and then as Mommy carves it. And voila...the finished product!
Not half bad, if I do say so myself!

Happy Birthday Dear Dad!

Happy Birthday to my Dad today! Good ol' Dad, who has always been much more than a dad in fact, but also a superb tennis coach when I was a little girl, a stand-in British Lit teacher when I had to suffer through the fatuous rants of Ms. Klister as a teenager, a financial advisor when I first stepped out into the world on my own as a young adult, a deep-pocketed supporter when Luke and I got married and of course, now a champion grandfather to my two little tykes. Have a wonderful and restful day, Dad--you deserve it!

Elbow Room

I have to show off my latest purchase--a new kitchen table! We have been eating off a little round pedestal table for like, years now. It was great when Luke and I first got married and it was just the two of us, but now that we're a family of four, we were feeling a little cramped at mealtime. So I bought my beautiful new Pottery Barn table off of eBay and I'm soooooooo delighted with it! And now Luke's grandma is the proud owner of our old round table, which is perfect for her since she has a small aprtment and you can drop a leaf and it fits snugly against the wall. Everybody wins! So I know this is not the most entertaining of posts, but get over it. I love my table and I wanted to show it off. Oh yeah, also in the picture are those two pesky boys who won't go away...

It's tough being a kid...

...you gotta try and make it any way you can.

Poor Ben was so tired yesterday. It has been ages since he fell asleep in the car, but he has not been feeling well and the nice warm fleece was too much to resist, so he succumbed to la-la land.

Sweet dreams!

My philosophy on early childhood development...

Fed up with your kids? Lock them outside with a household object and eventually they will do something useful...

Watch and learn, young Benjamin...your day is coming.

The Air Show

Sorry it's been so long--I had nothing to say for a while and then Blogger went wiggy the past couple days, so anyway...

Anyway, Luke's parents (Ma and Pa--christened by Patrick--none of us asked to sound like the Clampets) took Patrick to the air show on Saturday morning. Obviously he had a blast. Ma put these pics on a disk for me. Don't you just love technology? I am trying to imagine what it would have taken five years ago to show pictures off of her camera to all of my friends and relatives. Anyway, you can see he had a ball climbing around in the cool airplanes and helicopters...and tractors of course.

He also got to talk to A FIREMAN--who I am estimating to be five or six years older than Patrick--they're hiring 'em young these days! I jest...I appreciate the nice young man letting Patrick wear his hat and giving him a sticker that says "We're Best Friends". How cute. It totally made Patrick's day. When I was looking at the pictures I asked Patrick what his name was and he said "the fireman." Duh!

How cute is that face? Yes, I mean Patrick's...

Okay, so my mothering skills could use some work...

...case in point (three points actually):

Today at preschool, Patrick bit another kid (collective gasp)--point #1.

He also told the teacher he didn't do it--point #2--but confessed to me in the car.

We talked about it and I learned that while the kids were sitting in the hallway, he leaned over and bit Justin's leg--HARD. Justin had not bothered him in any way; I'm still not sure what possesed him to do it. I don't think he even knows why he did it. Anyway, he lost his dessert priviledge for the day and we talked about how he would have to go to school tomorrow and apologize to Justin and Mrs. Cindy for his offenses. I coached him on what he will say to Justin:

Me: Patrick, you will tell Justin that you are sorry you bit him and will he forgive you? Got that?

Patrick: Yes, Mommy.

So tonight as I was putting him to bed, I asked him one more time:

Me: What are you going to tell Justin tomorrow?

Patrick: Sorry I bitched you!

And there's point #3...

Patrick's Pre-school Art

Patrick brought this home today. Remind you of anyone we know????

Wow, I feel like a jerk...

I was just reading over some of my old posts (in preparation for an upcoming project) and I noticed that Katie's sis-in-law, Lisa (who I know from high school) left me a comment to which I never responded! I guess I had moved past that post and I never saw it! I'm so sorry Lisa, please don't think I was ignoring you--thanks so much for your comment back in April and feel free to comment whenever and I will always acknowledge it! Long live the 1991-1992 JV Squad!!!!

Yes, I realize I have entered into total blogger loserdom, begging a person who probably doesn't even read my blog to comment. Get over it. I'm going to bed.

The Pumpkin Patch

Today is turning out to be a much better day than Friday the 13th, starting off with the fact that Patrick actually listened to the long talk that I had with him at bedtime last night and let us sleep until 8:45!!!!!!!!! I cannot convey to you how monumental this is. Anyway, despite the fact that I paid for this snooze time in the form of Patrick getting hold of my checkbook and a pen and now I have to void ten checks, I was so grateful that I got up and made him homemade pancakes (not the freezer kind!) and then, seeing as how this is the first Saturday in a month that Luke has gotten to spend with us, we took off for family fun at the pumpkin patch.

I don't think I was lucky enough to get a shot as good as Katie's but here some cute ones of the hay ride and Patrick picking out our spectacular $6 pumpkin. We also visited the little petting zoo. Check out Ben's new friend, Butter Bean the Shetland pony. Patrick fed the goats while I marveled at this "Top Hat" hen, which confused me for a while in that I thought the head was actually the tail and vice versa. The head is on the right side of the picture. Who knew???

Happy Saturday! I ain't postin' tomorrow, hear?...see you Monday, maybe.

BOO!

Here we have the kiddies wearing their matching jack-o-lantern shirts and looking adorable as always. Can you tell that Ben's jeans are the same ones Patrick learned to crawl in? Anyway, it's Friday the 13th and my day has certainly been reflecting that, so being a grouch and having nothing nice to say, I''l just wrap it up with one more "Aren't they cute?" and sign off until tomorrow. Of course, I'll be visiting the other blogs and I'll try as hard as I can to be cheerful there (rolls eyes).

It's true what they say...

Same old, same old...

I have not been blogging as much lately, not because I am entertaining the thought of ending my blog, but just to save you all from the monotony of endless pictures of Patrick with his trucks and Ben looking cute. I thought I might slow it down to blogging only when something unusual happens or when we go out and do something special. However, today I got the call from the Blog Nazi and was told to get something new up PRONTO, so even though I have nothing new and different to say, here's yet another cute picture of Ben.

This picture was taken this weekend at a little fall festival at my mom's church. I like it because it's a profile shot of Ben, which can be hard to get. Usually kids are staring right at the camera and hamming it up or running away from you at warp speed. But when I took this, Ben was momentarily hypnotized by a group of Polynesian dancers shaking their groove thang, and therefore did not even notice the camera.

Rip Van Patrick

I am at a loss for what to do about Patrick's naps lately. He is not tired until about 2 or 2:30 and then he is TIRED. Of course, after a 2-3 hour nap, he is well-rested and pumped for a long evening with mommy and daddy. I have tried to let him skip the nap, but this is a child who has never stayed up a full day in his life. He simply cannot do it. He just ends up falling asleep later, then napping longer and as a result, staying up later at night. And no, that doesn't cause him to sleep later than 7 a.m. the next morning, so don't ask. The only thing I can think of is to wrestle him to sleep at one-ish and then wake him up in an hour, but c'mon, get serious...what mom wakes her three-year-old from a sound sleep? Not this one!!! Anyway, at one o'clock it will take him a full hour to get to sleep. Any ideas?

Here's my grand plan to let him play through naptime backfiring today. This is how I f0und him at ten till three. He does have underwear on, and as much as I would love to let my friends and loved ones see how cute Patrick is with Spidey blazoned across his butt, I felt a little wierd displaying said butt on a public forum where any random pedophile could ogle it. Hence the sunburst. This is also a good time to point out the spectacular carpet that my boss Stephanie recycled from her growing kiddies to Patrick. He loves going zoom zoom with his cars all over it. And as you can see, it makes a great bed, too. Thanks Steph!

A Day at the Fair

We went to the good old county fair last night and had a kickin' time. Brian, Jenny and Mary Kate joined us, but you'll have to visit their blog to see any pictures of them because we weren't smart enough to get an obvious keepsake like a picture of us all together (even though we did run into someone who could have taken it for us--*wink, wink*). Anyway, we all had fun together watching Patrick ride the kiddie rides and eating cotton candy. Here we have a family portrait, Patrick going solo on the caterpillar ride and Luke helping Patrick fish for a prize.

I know you can't see Luke's head in the top picture, but that's the way he would rather have it anyway. I have to use Picasa picture piles for multiple photos because it's so much faster than uploading three pictures with my slow dial-up, so get over it.

It's been a while...

...but I'm back to blogging. I honestly don't know what the deal was, but I needed a little vacation, so I took it. I wasn't the only one MIA though...I am starting to wonder if Virenda has died. Hope not. Anyway, here are some pics from the aquarium on Friday. We had a great time and it was not at all crowded, so that was good. Luke and I both agreed that the sea lions were the best attraction, but the way they were laying in the shade just out of the sunlight made for a bad picture. And forget about snapping one in action!!!! So here are a few of the pics I took, the ones that I thought came out pretty. We have a group of stingrays, a group of jellies and me looking like a deer in headlights in front of a beautiful school of African reef fish.

Happy Anniversary to Me!

Today is our 5-year anniversary and Luke and I have dropped the kiddies off with his parents and are headed out for a day of fun! It's a beautiful day, just as it was on my wedding day, and I'm taking the camera, so I'll post about all the fun later.

For now, I'll just say that my wedding day was the best day I ever had and all the days since have been great. Here's to Luke and me and many more years! Love you Luke!

Best ten bucks I ever spent.....

Patrick modeling his new "fire boots"...and boy am I loving them! They cost ten bucks and I bought them a size too big so they will fit next year too. They slip on and off easily (good for the hundred times a day we take our shoes off--and by "we" I mean "Patrick") and as long as he's in them, he's happy. Plus, I have to admit, he looks totally cool in them!

Happy Birthday Mom

Well, it's my turn to have problems with blogger, so no pictures, but I want to wish a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my mom, who today turns...ha! Like I would say!

Seriously, aren't we all so lucky to have such wonderful moms who raised us to be smart, kindhearted and (sometimes) gracious women? And for those of us currently experiencing mommyhood ourselves, isn't it true that our moms could not have been a better example in raising us, and when oh when are we going to be able to put a decent dinner on the table every night like they did? I'll tell you what, my mom sure set the bar high. My kids will be lucky if I turn out to be half the mom that she is.

Okay, this is starting to sound like Mother's Day instead of her birthday, so I'll just wrap it up with Happy Birthday Mom! Sorry you had to work, but hope you enjoy your cake with yogurt but NO peanuts!!!

JC Penney, here he comes...

This morning, we took a short little family outing to good old Berry College. When we got there, we decided to take the boys on a walk starting at the Old Mill and heading up towards the reservoir lake. Patrick was pretty impressed with the mill, so we walked around it for a while, checking out its size and sounds and noticing all the little fishies swimming in the pond below. I asked Patrick if a picture would be good and he said yes, but then when I got out my camera, he refused to look at me. Apparently he decided it would be more natural looking if he completely ignored me and gazed out over the lake into the distance like some sort of JC Penney model.
So voila...the boys and the mill.