Swing Away!

Sammy has officially learned how to swing!  Hooray!!!

We tried and tried to teach him "the moves" involved in swinging, and it just wasn't sinking in.

Then one day, after a yummy picnic dinner of sandwiches (hey, everything tastes better if you eat it outside!), he and Griffin went down the deck stairs, jumped on the swings and he pushed... and pushed... and kicked... and he was swinging!

He was SO proud of himself.

*sigh*

My boys are growing up.

I remember when he used to be this big.

And this big.

Oh, man.  That is one cute baby.

Smart Decisions

In this time of economic crisis and nationwide turmoil, with all of the uncertainty and budget-consciousness and I'm-Making-All-Of-My-Christmas-Presents-From-Scratch-This-Year-Do-You-Have-A-Cow-I-Can-Milk?


Yeah. That was weird.


So. With all of the ever-growing awareness of how much things cost, my husband and I have decided that the best decision for our family is... to get a better cable company. With more channels. HGTV! PBS Sprout! And DVR. So we can watch those programs over. And over. And over again!


Seriously. We're doing it for the good of the economy, people! We'll be spending about $9 more per month, and getting a much faster internet connection, phone service and the best selection of cable channels I have ever had in my life. The excitement! Oh, the pizza-ordering possibilities!!


I am in TV heaven. Well, I will be. After they hook it up on the 29th.


I'm so ready to be done with Com "Do-You-Think-The-Internet-Will-Work-Today?" Cast. But I'm not bitter. Not at all.


Because I have visions of sugarplums, you know, the ones Martha Stewart shows you how to make on HGTV (is she even on HGTV?) dancing in my head.


You thought I was a homebody before? Just wait until I get HGTV and DIY and Lifetime and On Demand. I'll never leave the house again!!

First Time Bowling

Mowing Train

Last night, Mike mowed the yard. The boys first had to pick up all of the toys that were all over the yard from the day's playtimes, and then when Mike entered the backyard with the mower, the boys ran and grabbed their dump trucks and followed him around the whole yard. So fun!



Don't you just love the trail that runs around the yard? Courtesy of Gordon. Well, Gordon started it, but the boys happily play on it for a large portion of their outdoor playtime each day. They kick a ball up and down the slight incline on the trail, and shovel dirt from one place to another -- which involves filling up their dump trucks and then hauling the dirt to its new destination and then, of course, dumping it.


We walked to DQ after the boys were done mowing, and Mike and I were laughing most of the time we walked, watching Griffin hike up his shorts and hold them up in the back. Note to self: take the Levi's out of Griffin's wardrobe until next year.

We have a Wii

Oh my. Do wii ever. I mean we. Have a Wii, that is. So many jokes, so little time.

Mike got a Wii with some of his hard-earned spendin' money, and we have been enjoying the fruits of his labor ever since! For anyone who isn't familiar with the Wii (pronounced "we"), it is a game system made by Nintendo. The system has SO many available games, all priced between about $20 and $50.

When you buy the Wii system, it comes with the Sports CD, which has tennis, golf, bowling, baseball and boxing. You have a handheld device that senses your every movement, and in bowling, for instance, you press a button on the device, act like it is your bowling ball, hold it up under your chin, then swing back and release the button when you want to release your bowling ball. Did you get all of that?

It is very realistic... except you don't have to actually hold the 12-pound ball, and you don't have to wait for the pins to reset themselves after you're done with your first ball. (Unless you are Mike, and can actually get a strike!)

Mike thought it would be nice to get an arcade-type game, so he took us all with him to Best Buy (big mistake). One hundred and forty dollars later, I am a very happy woman.

Okay, well, my stuff was only about $110. So there.

He bought me the Wii Fit. If you have heard anything bad about the Wii Fit, I'd like to know. I am personally head-over-heels in love with this system. The Fit system includes a white board that is about 2 1/2 feet by 1 1/2 feet, and about 2 inches off the ground. It senses your every movement, just like the handheld device. It has a CD with it that includes balance games, aerobic exercises, strength training exercises and yoga. Everything has music and it feels like you are playing games rather than exercising! With the possible exception of yoga. Because I don't know of any games where you hold the Tree pose for as long as possible. I'm working my way up to yoga. Right now I am finding my center of balance.

My favorite "games" or exercises are the balance boards where you have to try to get all of the balls to fall through the holes on the balance board without them falling off the sides of the board (you control the board's movements with your feet), the hula hoops (please don't try to picture ME doing hula hoops, your brain might fall out), the step exercises, the soccer hit-the-balls-flying-at-you-with-your-head game, and the ski jump. Sounds like fun, no? I usually last 17 minutes before my ankles are killing me and I have to sit down. That's my hour of exercise per week! And it's fun. What more could I ask for?

Have I mentioned that I love my husband? He's the best!!!

Zoo Day!

We went to the zoo with Bonnie and Diamond on Saturday, and it was so cool! Well, not "cool," literally... it was actually quite hot... but we walked around the Africa part of the zoo and enjoyed all of the wild animals. Then, when I was about to keel over from lack of water, we finally found an oasis in the middle of the desert. An oasis that charged $2.50 for a bottle of water. Well, I would have paid $5 for water at that point, and I enjoyed it thoroughly.

Then Bonnie had to head home, and we were taking our sweet time, so she went on ahead while we toodled along. Mike even let me take a rest break and sit in the shade while he took the boys on a little walk of their own.

It was a great experience... I want to go there sometime without children and take some pictures. It's a bit hard to line up a shot when you have a little one pulling on your shorts/shirt/arm/whatever he can reach at the moment. The animals were beautiful (with perhaps the exception of the warthog), and SO much fun to watch!

So, forget the kids, MAMA wants to go to the zoo.

A Night at the Ballpark

We had so much fun last night!! Mike's parents' church choir was singing the National Anthem at a local ballpark last night, so we took the boys to see their very first baseball game! Nicolas and Adrienne came too, and it was just a ball. hehe... a ball.

When we got to the ticket booths, we were approached by a man selling extra tickets his church group had purchased. They were $20 tickets, and they were selling them for $10 each. So we got to go up and use a suite!!! Oh, the joys of baseball. And no, I would NOT be saying that if we had not been enclosed in our own little area, with a nice big air-conditioned room (with tables to eat at) behind us. Totally worth the extra money. And I have been saving so much on groceries lately, I feel like we can splurge every once in a while now without feeling guilty! Of course, it was Mike's money we were using... poker winnings and tax rebate spending money... but I think he would say that it was worth it. Even $70 later. Yes, we spent $40 on food. 6 hot dogs, 2 orders of french fries, an order of chicken strips for $7.50 (with french fries underneath them to make the 5 measly "chicken" (mostly breading) strips look like more), 1 bottle of Coke and 3 bottles of water, and 2 frosty malts.

And we even had condiments in a little fridge in the suite, so we could prepare our food in air-conditioned baseball heaven!

And did I mention that the boys were restrained to a small area?

Yeah... we stayed for the whole game. TOTALLY didn't expect the boys to last that long. And we lost. But it was so worth the experience! And then a nice guy sitting in the section (suite) next to us gave Griffin and Nicolas (Sammy was with Mike, who had gone to find his parents and visit with them for a while) a handful of peanuts in the shells, so they sat to work getting the peanuts out, and then they went to pay the nice guy another visit, and came back with two boxes of Cracker Jacks! After many "thank you's" they both settled down and munched away on their boxes of crunchy goodness. Adrienne and I sat and giggled at the joke that was on the little "surprise" inside the box. My "surprise" was a dud... information about a baseball team I don't know or care about. Oh well. The joke was funny, and then she told me some more jokes and had me giggling like a schoolgirl. I love silly jokes!! Here's the one that I remember:

"Where did the General keep his armies?"








Don't know?










"Up his sleevies!"



Yeah, I was laughing so hard! I can't even remember the other jokes she told me, but MAN... too funny... it's been too long since I heard a good joke. Apparently!

A good time was had by all. :)

I Must Admit

I didn't actually "go for a walk" with Mike and the boys yesterday. I drove to Dairy Queen while they walked there, then drove them over to the gas station and they were going to walk home from there. On our way to the gas station, we saw the big "Griffin" tubes (which Mike informs me are not "plastic tubes" as I called them yesterday. Oh well. They looked like big plastic tubes to me. Anyway, Mike requested a photo shoot at the tubes, so I ran (ahem... drove) home and grabbed my precious camera and when I got back it turned into... well, it turned into some big picture-taking fun for me!

I was too tired to walk much after having gone on "Garden Tour 2008" with my parents from about 10am-4pm. Saturday mornings are my time to go do something fun for myself, and I was invited at the last minute to go with Mom and Dad, so I snatched up the opportunity to do something different and out of my normal comfort zone!

It was such a fun time, and I learned a lot about plants, gardens, and what flowers I love. There were 6 homes on the tour, all of them lived in by "Master Gardeners," who are talented beyond belief when it comes to their knowledge of flowers and plants of all varieties, and also their planting and decorating abilities... it was truly amazing to walk through their gorgeous yards and stare in awe at the beauty they had helped to create. I can't wait to go again next year! I'm putting it on my calendar for sure.

And yes, I'll be taking my camera.

Fun at The Farmstead

Bonnie called this morning and invited us all (JJ was here too) to walk with her at the farmstead. After about two hours -- who knew it would take so much longer with three kids instead of just two? -- of getting ready, fixing and eating lunch, and generally just trying to get everyone put together enough to go out, we finally piled into the van and off we went!

The farmstead is a free (run on donations), really fun, very beautifully designed place to take your kiddos. When I was young, it was very simple, with pens of farm animals around a long, meandering trail, and a big barn in the center with a ladder inside and a tall slide coming out of the "silo" on one end.

Well, the humble little farmstead has morphed over the years into this wonderfully designed paved trail with many interesting stops along the way. The first thing that greets you is a waterfall with a pool at the bottom that many people have thrown pennies into, no doubt making a wish as they threw it in. Beside the waterfall are miniature wooden benches with wrought iron backs and arms that have pictures of playing children wrought into the iron. Very whimsical and fun. All along the trail are bricks with writing on them. Anyone can buy a brick for a certain donation amount and have their name carved into the brick, but what many people have done is to donate a brick "In Loving Memory" of a child they lost who loved the farmstead, or a parent who took the "donator" to the farmstead when they were a child, who has since passed away. I'm sitting here getting all teary-eyed just thinking about it.

Anyway, there are so many things to do and see at the farmstead! Feeding the goats has to be one of my favorite things; they stretch their necks out under logs worn smooth by so many little hands touching them over the years. The bigger goats always get more food, but I always tried to find the goat who was hanging back and was getting pushed away from the fence by the big bullies. I saved my quarter's worth of food pellets for the downtrodden, overlooked goats.
Then there are the peacocks. Well, one peafowl and one peacock. I didn't realize that the females weren't called peacocks until last year when I actually read the information board in front of their huge 2-story birdcage. OH! Yeah. Now I get it.

I could go on and on about all of the animals there, but I'll just say that if it's found on a farm, there's probably one at the farmstead. With the possible exception of emus or ostriches. The attractions that have been added since I was a child are a huge playground with a massive play structure in the middle surrounded by those metal animals you can sit on and bounce back and forth on. There is a smooth, slanted concrete slab off ot the side with water running down where you can take off your shoes and let the trickling water cool off your bare feet. In the summer, parents will bring their children in swimming suits and let them frolic in the water to their hearts' content.

There are also a couple of small log cabins with holes for windows and doors that you will often see small girls "playing house" in. And a big sand pit with those metal digger things that all of the boys love. Yeah, the boys usually have sand in their crocs when we leave the play area.

There is a cow barn with bathrooms, water fountains at kid height (no straining your back trying to hold your child while they take a drink!), and a mooovie theatre that plays a short movie narrated by Rosie the Cow about the history of how cows and milk have become so important to the American way of life over the years. When you go all of the way into the barn, you are greeted by small pens with calves in them, brawling for their mothers, and there are a myriad of things to divert little children's attention in there.... A snack bar where ice cream and other dairy (and non-dairy too!) snacks are sold, and two life-sized fake "milking cows" where the kids can hook up the udder to the milking machine, or milk by hand. There is even a big pen at the far end of the barn where one of the "nursing mommy" cows gets to feed her baby on schedule, and there is a sign posted telling you when the next feeding is so that all of us "city kids" will actually get to see a calf eating a meal at least once in our lives.

There is an Indian Encampment, where there is a huge air-conditioned (SO realistic and true-to-life) teepee filled with furs, deer antlers, and many Indian artifacts. It's really neat, but the kids aren't too thrilled with it because they can't touch anything in there.

There is a "mining" place where you can pay $5 for a bag of rocks and dirt with some "jewels" mixed in and throw it all in a pan with some holes in it and sift through all of the junk so that you can uncover your treasure.

In the middle of the farmstead is a horse barn, and they have recently begun having hay-rack rides with big, gorgeous horses pulling a huge wagon piled with hay. It costs about $3 per rider, so we have only done it once, but it was worth it! Those horses are so beautiful!

There is a nature trail that we have walked through once, but it's not too small-unrestrained-child friendly, so we haven't done that again. They have big cages with bobcats, an eagle, some hawks, a couple of owls, and some other creatures. We always seem to see them right at feeding time, and let's just say that it has caused my stomach to turn over more than once. I kind of avoid that area now.

Let's see, there's a fishing pond where you can buy a rod and bait and go fish to your heart's content. Across from the pond is a "tractor racetrack" with lots of brightly colored heavy little tractors that you pedal like a bike. They are meant for small children, but they are so heavy and cumbersome that it is hard for the little ones to steer, much less pedal around the track. Nevertheless, the boys were heartbroken when we had to leave the tractors behind today.

There are marvelous gardens with trails all around them that are filled with all sorts of flowers, vegetables, bushes, plants, and herbs. They are tended by a group of volunteers, and they are just beautiful! There is even a "butterfly garden" that always has lots of butterflies fluttering around it.

Close to the gardens there is a big pen with groundhogs in it. They have lots of ground to dig their homes into, and some days they are all underground and you'll only occasionally see a couple of noses peek out of the holes. On hot summer days, though, they are often seen lying on their stomachs or lounging on their backs on top of the dirt. They must know they are safe there.

There is a deep pond with HUGE fish in it, mostly goldfish-looking types. They are quite aggressive, and follow you around because they think you'll give them food. If you do throw food for them, they thrash around and fight for it and almost jump out of the water to get it. It's quite amusing!

Well, I think I have pretty much covered everything at the farmstead. We had fun there today and last Thursday, and we'll probably be going back again next week. I don't know, though. Bonnie might just want to go by herself if she wants to get any REAL walking done. It's mostly startSTOP.........staSTOP...........start......stop when the kids go.

It is just so much fun creating memories for them at a place I enjoyed when I was small too. It may just become a tradition to go hang out at the farmstead! In the fall they have a pumpkin patch, too, which will be lots of fun.

Okay, I'm tired now. I should write these things in the morning, but the details wouldn't be so vivid in my head and I think overnight I might forget stuff. :)

Library Times

Christy just came over for lunch with Brianna and Miguel. That's always fun! I made stroganoff, which was really yummy (although I think the adults liked it a lot more then the kids did).

Miguel's personality is developing so much, and he is able to keep up with the boys (well, almost!), and they all have fun running and playing together! He is also learning how to defend himself when he feels threatened by something his cousins (that would be my children) are doing, and Christy is trying to teach him not to hit.

She took Brianna to school and came back to our house, and then we all made a trek to the big central library. They have a huge selection of kids' books and movies, and I can almost always find what I am looking for there. We got 6 movies and 6 books.

Mental note: Never take children to the library when it is their nap time. It's not pretty.

Mike is working from home today, and he is taking a short break, so he is on his way to the gas station right now to get himself a Coke and me some chocolate cupcakes. I know, I know. Not the right way to handle stress. But maybe I'll eat one now and wait until later to eat the other one. NOT

Okay, I have stopped writing this about 5 times to go and put Sammy back into his bed. And now he is out again. ACK!!!! I am so frustrated with him! Time to go put him back again.

Did SuperNanny ever write a book?

OH, there he is again! Mommy is coming back upstairs, honey, and it's not going to be fun to see me.

Is it because I messed with the routine? Hmmmm....

Mental note: DON'T MESS WITH THE ROUTINE.

I'm so glad it's Friday!

Birthday Dinner

Trains, trains, and more trains. When you have two little boys, and you have visitors who are also little boys, trains come very high on the priority list. As in, who was playing with which train, who knocked over whose train (usually Sammy AKA King Kong), which track is the best, which TRAIN is the best (always the one someone else is playing with), who needs to move their train to make way for someone else's train, who stole someone else's train (King Kong) and on and on and on.

Well, Mike and I were offered a break from the "train-talk" for an evening, and it was wonderful! Bonnie and Caleb invited us out for dinner ***without*** the boys, and we had an awesome kid-free time at the Cheesecake Factory. Now, anyone who has ever been to the Cheesecake Factory knows that the food there is absolutely delicious. I have ordered their Orange Chicken a few times, and it has always been superb... just the right blend of sweet, tangy, crispy chicken bites mixed with carrots, squash and

Okay, I have been interrupted about 12 times since I have started writing this post, so if this is not flowing smoothly, you'll understand why. I hope.

so... carrots, squash and those chinese peas... what are they called? My coffee hasn't kicked in yet. And a big scoop of white rice that is so pretty next to all of the colors of the chicken and veggies. Everyone else's food looked wonderful, too. Mike got the Spicy Cashew Chicken, and it looked and smelled SO good. He asked for extra of the sauce they had made it with, and the waitress was happy to bring that out for him. Bonnie got a *small* Chicken Caesar Salad, which was the biggest *small* salad I have ever seen. Her plate was piled high with fresh, crisp greens covered in a tangy, creamy Caesar dressing, with pieces of grilled chicken surrounding the salad. And Caleb's meal... well, let's just say that I will be ordering this next time I go to Cheesecake Factory. He got the Chicken and Biscuits. It looked like something out of a magazine. Chunky vegetables in a creamy sauce with several biscuits surrounding them, and a mound of mashed potatoes with a biscuit next to it also covered in the sauce. Oh. My. Goodness. It looked like heaven on a plate.

So yeah, that's my next meal to "conquer" there. Or, as the guys were saying, the meals conquered us because no one was able to finish their food. We don't go there very much (you get what you pay for at this place) but I will definitely be looking forward to a future visit.

We got presents from Bonnie and Caleb, too, along with having our meal paid for and a kid-free night out! We'll definitely have to do that more often. hahahaha

Since Bonnie is due to have her baby in exactly three weeks from today (yay!!!), it was kind of a "final fling" for us and for them. Because you can get a babysitter so that you can go out to dinner after you have a child, but your time is not your own anymore, so you feel pressure to get home to take care of them. As if the babysitter wasn't doing a perfectly fine job. When we went to pick up the boys last night from their friend's house, we had to drag them practically kicking and screaming out the door. Because he has lots of trains.

It is lunchtime. Sammy has asked me nine times for cereal within the last 5 minutes, so I think I'll go feed my children. We won't be having cereal, but the little bean and cheese burritos in blue and red tortillas will make them happy.

Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep

We had Bonnie and Caleb over the other night for "tacos"... I make flat shells, so what would that be? Tostadas? They all just get crunched up into taco salad anyway. It was a yummy meal, followed by a multitude of various kinds of ice cream and Italian Gelato.

Then we all migrated into the TV room and snuggled up on the couch to watch The Little Mermaid. Can anybody say "Under the Sea"? da-da-da-daaa-daaaa-da-daa-daa-daa-daa

Yeah. Good times.

The movie was almost over when I glanced at Sammy and saw this.

and this...

Oh. My. Goodness. It was just too cute.

Play-Doh Fun

Mike went by himself to Pickering's Pub last night to watch KU beat Missouri at basketball (Beak 'Em, HAWKS!!!), since we didn't have the appropriate channel on our ghetto cable, and no one could babysit for us. We seriously need to find a permanent babysitter. Also known as a live-in nanny. I'm sure that would help everything tremendously. Except perhaps our financial situation.


I was very gracious and allowed him to go because what I had planned as a morning out with Bonnie quickly turned into a whole day out, and it was a BLAST!! (more on that later) But I felt a bit guilty for having been out for so long, so I told him to just go and watch the game while I stayed home with the boys. It was a fun night for all of us, as Mike got to stay at the pub and play free poker -- one of his favorite things to do -- and I got to spend time with these two precious little boys. Sammy wanted to be right next to me most of the night; I guess he was keeping an eye on me to make sure I didn't leave him again.



Anyway, back to my day with Bonnie. We had breakfast at Einstein Brothers, and it was so amazing! We both got the Vegetable Panini sandwich, which is layers of eggs, tomato slices, spinach (they forgot the spinach on my sandwich, but it was still yummy), cheese and a spicy cream cheese that I seriously need to learn how to make, all sandwiched between crispy crunchy, um, panini bread? Not sure what the bread is actually called. Is it ciabatta? Yumm-O!



We then headed over to a resale children's clothing store where I looked for clothes for Griffin. I do believe he has been getting a couple of inches taller in his sleep every night. Bonnie even found a few things (can you say cute baby shoes and baby bunny slippers???) for baby Diamond Giselle, who will make her appearance in April. The shop was having a dollar sale, everything that had been "gently used" was only $1. They have new things too from overstocks at children's clothing stores, and those are marked at half the price of what the store was selling them for. DROOL... I found some really cute stuff that fits Griffin now and that Sammy will be able to grow into. The beauty of having two children of the same gender!



When we were done at the resale store, we headed over to Whole Foods, another store I am completely enamored of, and we walked up and down aisles, drooling (I drool when I'm excited, kind of like Gordon) and sniffing perfumes and shampoos and soaps and remarking over the prices of the vegetables, which weren't too much more expensive than you'd get them for at Wal-Mart, only at Whole Foods they are Organic and are displayed so temptingly and beautifully... The gumbo soup sample was so amazing that we both bought some kale so that we could attempt to make a soup that will be as delicious as that gumbo was, even though they didn't actually have the recipe for the soup they were handing out samples of, and couldn't actually tell us what all of the ingredients were in the gumbo (what's up with that!?).



We went back to Bonnie's house after stopping at my house to put my groceries away. When we got to my house, we realized that everyone was sleeping, even Mike, so we just left quietly and I left him a note telling him where I'd be. Bonnie made me (...well, and Caleb) the yummiest Eggplant Parmesan ever, and a spinach/mixed greens salad with raspberry walnut dressing and TOASTED PECANS, Y'ALL!!! And Garlic Texas Toast, and for dessert a blackberry (it was blackberry, right Bonnie?) and apple pie with ice cream with a drizzle of maple syrup and Toasted Pecans on top of the ice cream. Oh, the yumminess of it all. Talk about drool.

So then we headed back to my house, and Bonnie went home to prepare for a visit from her mother. Yes, people, the woman is 7 months pregnant, was expecting her mother to arrive that very evening, and still hung out with me and cooked me a fabulous meal while making more dishes and work for herself. WOW... now that's a friend!! We haven't had the chance to hang out for a very long time, though, so it was a visit we both thoroughly enjoyed.



Anyway, on to the pictures from my Play-Doh filled evening with the boys. But first, a short explanation must accompany these pictures. I am attempting to use my camera without the flash, as it tends to make people look washed out and gives them red eyes which take me a very long time to edit out of all my pictures. The drawback to not using flash is that the slightest movement causes the subject to blur, so most of my pictures turned out blurry. So I apologize in advance for any dizziness or squinty-eyes you may experience while gazing adoringly at these photos.



And now, without further ado... our Play-Doh Evening.

Fun, Fun, and more Fun!

What a weekend! We spent most of this weekend at Worlds of Fun and Oceans of Fun. We are all exhausted but happy and filled with some great memories! Unfortunately we didn't take a camera, and even if we had brought one, the opportunities to use it would have been few and far between. Chasing two little boys who can't swim around a water park full of hidden dangers is enough to keep two people very, very busy!

I thank God for Mike's family, who all helped watch the boys. Yesterday, Mike's parents kept them while we went with the other adults and a few of the children to Worlds of Fun and had a blast closing the park down. I rode on the Spinning Dragons (a roller coaster with a four-seater car a lot like the Octopus cars (remember those?) that spin while moving at a very high speed along the coaster track), the Mamba (Twice! It is the tallest roller coaster in the park -- yeah, I'm scared of heights -- and goes 70 or 75 miles an hour) and the Ferris Wheel. I got to sit by Mike on the first rides, and the Ferris Wheel I got to ride with Jerica, who is just as precious as she can be. We talked about how fun the ride was, how scary it was, which ride was her favorite (the Spinning Dragons, which she rode again after the Ferris Wheel and I politely declined because the Ferris Wheel had scared me so much, but she'll never know that), how someone would have to be crazy to go on the RipCord (3 people laying on their bellies, wrapped sardine-style, are hoisted WAY up into the air and then someone has to pull a cord, which sends them free-falling almost straight down towards the ground, held only by two cords that look very tiny and not very sturdy when you are sitting at the top of the Ferris Wheel holding on to a little girl and her teddy bear and pretending to be The Brave Aunt), and other topics of immediate interest to us both.

Wow, that was a long sentence. I need to take a breath.

So why am I sitting here typing away at the computer at midnight when I am exhausted, worn-out, done in, and pooped? Because I had a Coke this afternoon (yes, I broke my "No-Coke-Except-With-Pizza" rule), and then made myself some Plantation Mint tea when we got home to relax. Apparently it has caffeine in it. Bonnie told me that it did, but silly me, I made it anyway!

I am going to lay down and pretend to sleep now, and hopefully I'll fall asleep in the process.

Day Out with Thomas the Train

We have had so much fun this summer! One of Griffin's favorite things was going to the Day Out with Thomas in Baldwin City. A half day of fun in the sun with Griffin's favorite train of all time! The train ride, the (removable) train tattoos, the gift shop (Mommy had fun in the gift shop, and Griffin found a Thomas hat that he absolutely adores), the hay maze, the bus rides to and from the parking lot ("The Wheels on the Bus" really came alive for him, as he realized that the people actually DO go up and down, up and down, up and down!), the funnel cakes, and the company all made for a very fun day.

Aunt Sherri was a big help in keeping the boys corralled and out of trouble. They just love her!

Our niece Carissa. She's a hoot! The boys love her, and Mike and I have a lot of fun with her, too!
Here's Carissa with our niece Amanda and nephew Tommy. They are so good with the boys, and so fun to pick on... I mean, play with!

Mike's sis Laura and her hubby Thomas, along with little Kyle, the youngest of their clan. We have a blast with these folks! There is never a dull moment when they are around. Isn't Kyle cute in his conductor's hat? He was ready to jump on the train!
Cousins Jerica and Josh with Griffin and Sir Topham Hatt. They were in awe! And a tad bit shy.
Posing in front of Thomas the Train. Josh and Jerica tried really hard to get Griffin to look at the camera and smile.

The hay maze. Carissa was a big help directing a very lost Griffin where to go.

We climbed onto the open car on the train, and all of a sudden, Griffin wasn't so sure of this whole train ride thing. He gritted his teeth and tried to smile, and I did by best to help him to be brave, and by the time the train started to move, he was ready to roll! I, on the other hand, was nauseous and had a headache to beat all others by the time we got back to the station. Motion sickness... yikes! It was fun, but next time Mommy will wait on the ground, thank you very much.

Sammy loves to ride on Daddy's shoulders. And he hates riding in the little stroller. So guess where Sammy was most of the day? It makes for a very cute picture, and a very sore back! Thanks, Daddy!

Griffin and his best buddy Josh, all decked out and ready to go!

Kyle wasn't too sure about the train ride, and he held his monkey (and his daddy!) close for comfort when the train went fast.
Sammy was scared, and this is one of the few times he has willingly let me snuggle with him, so I took advantage of the opportunity. It was a sweet moment...

And here's another one. Kyle and Thomas were exhausted after the long day, and not very much sleep on Thomas' part, caught up with them both.

Pumpkins and Cake

Today was my mom's birthday, so we went to my sister Christy's house to celebrate. She has 4 children (3 girls ages 7-4 and a baby boy) who love to get together with Griffin and Sammy and have fun. Christy's house is very close to ours, as is Mom and Dad's, so we can see each other as often as we want to, which is nice. I know some people don't have that luxury, and it makes me appreciate it even more!

The kids made "pumpkins" out of paper bags, and they all ended up with paint all over their faces because Jorge, Christy's husband, put a drop of paint on one of the girls' cheeks and then they all HAD to have paint put on their faces too.

While Mom and I helped the kids with their art project, "the guys" -- Dad, Jorge, Mike and Wesley (my 17-year-old brother) -- played pool. Then we went upstairs and played poker. Well, the guys and I did. I was the only interested female. I'm learning a lot about playing poker, and it's fun! I would never play with money, I don't like to gamble, but free poker is nice.

After poker, Christy and I started cooking. She made a delicious pot roast and I made some yummy sour cream and onion mashed potatoes. We also had veggies and dinner rolls. A very tasty meal! We had already had the cake and ice cream when we got there 3 hours earlier, so we were pretty full when we got done eating.

I had fun listening to Mike and my family banter about math-type problems. Okay, here's one. If you have 3 doors, and there is money behind one door, and you choose one door and then one of the wrong doors that you didn't choose is eliminated, is it better to switch doors or stay with the one you originally chose in order to end up with the money? The men said switch, the women said it didn't matter... Wesley is going to write a computer program to do a trial and see which one works more often. And Dad and Mike did their famous card tricks on each other. They both know one, so they did them on each other and then *gasp* explained how they did them for us! Now I know how it's done... at least until the next get-together, I tend to forget these things quickly.