Memorial Day

I feel like I do the same post every Memorial Day. We always have a shot of Sammy stealing flags from the cemetery. We always have a shot of Grandma & Grandpa with a million little ones. (There were 20 children 12 and under at this years party, and this really is the best shot we got.)

Cute Grandma & Grandpa Richards.

And all the crazy kids in the pool. Andi and Sammy both braved the fun island this year, for a few minutes at least.

Also to follow tradition I have no pictures of the BBQ we had with my family later in the evening. Memorial Day is always a wonderful day of good food and lot's of family. About the only difference this year was that Thad did not get in the pool with the kids. He has been pretty sick the last week, and figured the freezing pool water would not be good. Don't let those kids fool you, the water was COlD!

He's lost it.

Okay, Thad's latest adventure is making me feel like we moved to oildale. Seriously. He brought home one of these this week. No, he did not steal it, and no it was not all nice and clean. It had been sitting on the side of the road on his way to work for a week so of course that meant it was all his. So after he dumped out the homeless guy trash that was still there, he loaded it up in the truck and brought it home.

Why would he bring home a grocery cart you ask? Well to build one of these of course! And he acts like I'm crazy.

That's right people, a grocery cart go kart. We happened to have a spare motor in the garage, and Thad and my brothers found this guy on you tube. So of course now they have to build one. Don't worry, there will be video posted when this thing is finished.

Father & Sons 2011

Thad and Sammy went on the annual Father & Sons camp out this weekend, Sammy's first ever camp in a tent experience. Thad kept telling me Sammy was too little to go. Sure, maybe he snored all night and got up with the sun, but he had a great time. They went with Walter's 3&4, and Bradon, and even though it was only one night, they completely filled the back of the truck with supplies and food. Mostly food.  This is what the little boys looked like before they even pulled away.

 

They roasted marshmallows

And sat by the fire

And ran around with this on his head. 

The next morning they went down to the river and caught a fish for the boys to touch and hold. They threw lot's of rocks in the water, so I think there was only one fish caught.

But they did catch a Salamander. 

Thad said Sammy was climbing everything he could from rocks, to fallen trees. 

 

They came home filthy and smelly, so it was a success. While they were gone Andi and I had some lovely girl time. We went to the craft store to find things for her to paint, we went to Rosemary's for dinner, and got pedicures in the morning. Yes, I took my 5 year old for a pedicure. Mommy needed one. 

Last week Thad told Andi a story about how he used to catch birds in his backyard when he was a kid. So of course she had to do it too. We have not caught anything yet, but she will sit in the house and hold the string and wait for a bird for a good hour before she gets tired of it. Here are the hunters by the loaded trap. They are using bread crumbs for bait, and even though the birds keep eating the crumbs outside of the trap, they seem to be on to this well camouflaged trap and won't go inside. Andi hasn't given up, but she thinks the birds might be too smart for this.

Mother's Day

Mothers day was a little different this year. We didn't have any big family gathering Sunday, we just hung out at home and relaxed. This is what Mothers day looked like at my house.

Beautiful flowers from Thad. 

The "Throw as many stuffed animals on the fan as we can" game. Never gets old with those three.

 

Sammy's swim suit is in the laundry because he's been wearing it as regular clothes. So today he demanded to wear Andi's.  He wore it all afternoon.

 

And this was my craft project for the weekend. I just thought it was super cute, so I stenciled it up and sat it on top of the bookcase.

 

Sammy story of the week. After working out Tuesday morning we came home, I put a show on for the kids, got them snacks and hoped in the shower. I got out to find Sammy had made a mess with the peanut butter celery sticks on his hands, and instead of wiping them on a towel, he used the carpet. He also was checking to make sure there really were no birds in the eggs in our fridge and he threw the whole dozen on my back patio and kitchen floor. The smell of raw eggs makes me nauseous.  It was everywhere, and so gross, and he spent the rest of the morning in his room while I cleaned and calmed down. It took a while ;)

Butterfly Fly Away

A few weeks ago Andi and I  were talking about insects in her school work, and the butterfly life cycle. So I ordered a "butterfly kit" and it turned out to be really cool. They send you  four itty-bitty-you-can-barely-see-them caterpillars, and in 3 weeks you watch them turn into butterfly's. Of course you can only keep them for a few days after they come out of the chrysalis, and Andi was very sad to see them go. But we took pictures of them for her to remember, and video of her releasing them. She was mostly sad that they did not lay eggs in the backyard before they flew away. She was determined to collect the eggs and start over with a new batch.

Of course since we've had them, and it's spring so all the bug are out and about, Sammy has been loving the backyard. He goes bug hunting everyday, luckily he's smart enough to stay away from the bees. The way he says lady bug is so funny I had to get it on video.

I used to think it was weird that he and Andi would growl at and chase birds, but I've been paying attention, and tons of little kids do it, so it doesn't bother me much anymore. Don't get me wrong, I don't love when they do it in the parking lot of any and every store we are at, but at least I know it's pretty normal.
Yesterday was a lovely lazy Sunday, and I heard Thad and Andi in the front room. I had to take pictures when I saw what they were playing. Ignore the floor debris, I told you it was a LAZY Sunday.

We have ripe strawberries in the garden today, and rasberries on the way, it's going to be a lovely week.

Easter

I felt like Easter was pretty anit-climactic this year. I remember as a kid waiting by the backdoor in my PJ's fighting to be the first out the door to find eggs. For some reason my kids don't seem to care about it. In fact, we didn't have the egg hunt till 5 pm Easter Sunday, and they were perfectly content to wait. Don't get me wrong, as soon as we opened the door all the kids were running around like crazy squealing as they found eggs, they just weren't waiting in suspense all day. But Andi did tell me this morning, that Easter was the best day ever, so I guess she really enjoyed it after all. Here are the kiddos in their Easter outfits. Sammy actually had shorts to match the shirt, but I felt weird having him wear them to church. And yes, he was in that kind of a mood all morning.

We had both Thad's family and mine over to dinner at our house Sunday evening, and it was a great time. Of course we ate out back, because I can't fit 20 people anywhere in my house, let alone at a table to eat. Since everyone was bringing parts of the meal and I only had ham to worry about, I made these table decorations. My first attempt went pretty well I think.

I did try to get pictures of the egg hunt, but the kids were literally running the entire time so it didn't really work out. I managed to get one of Andi looking at me though.

And Sammy is into glasses these days. He is always taking them from people. These are Uncle Bradon's and yes they are pink. Weird.

 

Sammy is talking so much more since we've been back. That week away from Mommy really forced him to talk I guess. Although his favorite phrase still seems to be "Andi, no" or "let go!" as I'm trying to hold his hand in a parking lot or crossing the street. I discovered this week, that at some point in the last few weeks Sammy dumped a bucket of dirt and worms in the jacuzzi. It was gross, the worms were floating.

Andi is getting too grown up for her own good. She asked me a few days before Easter if the Easter bunny was real. Me:" What do you think?" Andi:"I think you hide the eggs." Me:"Why do you think that?" Andi:"Because bunnies don't talk, so they wouldn't hide eggs." I didn't ever give her an answer because I was hoping her imagination would win over her logic and she'd be excited for Easter goodies. But like I said, she wasn't really excited until the hunt began, and most of that was just because Paige and Walter were there to play with her. I'm pretty sure she didn't care where the candy came from as long as there was candy. We'll see what next year brings.

Maui

Maui was beautiful, and relaxing, and perfect. We took a bazillion pictures, mostly nature and underwater, but I'll just post a few of them. I'm going to apologize now for the length of the post, and the details you'll all be bored with, but for journal keeping sake, I've got to put them in.
We flew out of Bako Friday morning, had a quick stop in San Francisco and got to Maui just before lunch, Hawaii time at least. We ate and got checked in and before we were totally unpacked Thad ran down to the activities rental place by the pool and rented our snorkeling gear for the week. He was really excited to get in the water with his camera ;) So we went straight down to the beach and within five minutes saw this guy.

It was cool, but a bit unnerving at the same time. You have zero peripheral vision in those goggles, and he kinda just came out of no where. And then you realize how big those suckers are and start wondering what other large things are just hanging out too. We swam around for a while longer, and then got cleaned up to wander around. Out hotel, Royal Lahaina, was really cute, and our little stretch of beach was lovely.

Less than a mile down the road was Whalers Village, which had a bunch of shops and restaurants, so we went and checked that out. We walked there almost everyday, mostly to catch the bus because we did not rent a car. But also because the pearl factory was there and I kept eyeing the black pearls. I ended up with a necklace and earrings as my souvenir ;)
Saturday we went snorkeling again in the morning, but in a different spot. The hotel next to ours was on this point called black rock, and there was a great reef to explore. So I swam around, and Thad chased fish with the camera.

Later in the week we found these guys in the tide pool at black rock. I don't know what they are called, but they are cool looking.

We went on a super long walk up the beach, as far as we could go, then circled back home on the road. We found this hotel on the way back and had to get a picture of the sign.

 We also discovered the Royal Scoop ice cream parlor right next door to us, which had some delicious Macadamia nut ice creams. Yum.
Sunday we hoped on the bus to Lahaina, which was just a few minutes down the road. There is this massive Banyan Tree that takes up an entire city block, and had all these arts and crafts booth set up underneath. And they had several blocks of cool little shops. That night there was a Luau at our hotel which was pretty fun. But it was packed, like 400 people there.

This little Hula dancer was so small we had to get a picture with her. 

And Thad made me take a picture with this guy, because his boss told him that once I saw the fire dancers I'd forget all about Thad.

Monday was more snorkeling, relaxing, walking around, and picture taking. These are the flowers they use to make the leis and hair pieces, and they were everywhere. They also smelled lovely.

Tuesday we went on a rain forest hike. They picked us up at the hotel at 6:30, which would seem early, except that we weren't totally adjusted to Hawaii time yet so it wasn't bad. It was 2.5 miles round trip, and in that short distance we saw 5 different waterfalls,(Yes Thad jumped off some of them) and all kinds of cool/weird trees.

 

Wednesday we went on a snorkeling tour out to Molokini, which is this teeny uninhabited island surrounded by tons of reef, and turtle town, another reef named for it's inhabitants.  We discovered that day that I get wicked motion sickness, and I totally threw up the lovely breakfast they served us on board. After that though I was able to enjoy the snorkeling. Thad did some more turtle and fish chasing while I floated at the top the the water and watched. 

 

We also got a free concert on the golf course courtesy of allstate, who was having a company retreat that week at the neighboring hotel. I can't imagine what they spent flying 2200 people out to Maui and shutting the golf course down for a full week for their events, but now I know why insurance is so dang expensive. No one knew who the musical guest would be, so we totally camped out outside of their roped off area to see who it would be. Huey Lewis and the News. Thad had no idea who that was until I told him they did the Back to the Future song "power of love". All these old people were jumping around in front of the stage. so it was pretty funny to watch.

Thursday we went back to Lahaina to wander the shops and buy stuff. We had a dinner cruise scheduled for that evening and after the previous day's boat ride I almost made Thad cancel it. But we picked up some Dramamine and I'm so glad we went. The food was awesome, and the Hula show was totally better than the one at the hotel.  Here we are on the boat.

 

Just another lovely sunset from out patio. 

Friday morning we checked out of the hotel and rented a car because we had 8 hours to kill before we needed to be at the airport. So we drove around to all the little shopping areas, hit up the aquarium, and got to the airport the same time everyone from the allstate convention did. And guess what, they were all flying united with us. It was nuts.We flew all night and came home to some munchkins who were pretty excited to see us. We were happy to see them too. It was a fabulous week, but after a few days we really did miss them. Everyone keeps asking how the trip was and really the only way to describe it is "aahhhh" big sigh.Everything was beautiful, everything we ate was amazing, it was so relaxing and mellow. We can now check Hawaii off our list of places to go. Thad says Brazil is next. We'll see ;)

Are we done yet?!

The last week or so has been so full of Dr. and Dentist appointments it's not even funny. I already posted about Andi's ridiculous performance at the lab. Today she had her physical, and shots. She did a little better with the shots, but not much. I've been to the dentist 3 times in the last 10 days. After almost a decade of not going, I had to get my first root canal. I know, most people go to the dentist every 6 months, and I'm not afraid of the dentist or anything like that, I've just got a lot of other things to do and it didn't happen. So now I'm paying for it. Andi goes to the dentist for a check up tomorrow, and then all her school paperwork will finally be finished. phew!
Sammy had been a bit out of control lately, and I had a list of things he's been doing to post about, but after the hair incident of last week I forgot all about the list, and the only thing I can remember now is how he dumped a carton of eggs at Costco. Don't worry, we had already paid for them and were headed for the door when he reached behind himself into the cart, and picked up the egg container by the lid. All 18 went tumbling into the back of the cart. Luckily most landed in a box so the nastiness was contained, and I only had to carry one broken one in my hand to the door, where I got a weird look from the highlighter guy. He did the exact same thing a few weeks ago, only with strawberries, so it wasn't as bad.
The weather has been Lovely, and we've been outside a lot. The kids love to put the hammock on the swing set. Andi likes to turn it into that swashbucklers ride at the fair, but since she almost dumped Sammy out on his head, we've really had to tame it down. Sammy likes to sneak out when no one is looking and just rock gently in it, which is kind of strange, considering his behavior 99% of the time.

Thad has come up with all kinds of names for Sammy and his new hair, none of which are entirely PC, so you can all make up your own.

It has grown enough in the last week to trim it up again and make it even, which sounds like it grows quickly. But in reality it means it's grown less than 1/8 of an inch, and it's going to be 2 months before his hair is back to normal . Dumb.
It was conference weekend again, and we actually got to watch both Sunday sessions. Saturday's attempt was a big failure, because the kids just knew it was Saturday and there was no way they were going to let us sit in front of the TV. So we put the Garden in instead. They got muddy, we got something accomplished and everyone was happy.  We tried something different again this year, and I think this might be the way we do our Garden from here on out.

We put a lot more space between the rows so the plants won't be so interwoven, and put those big bricks down so we have a non-muddy place to stand while we weed/harvest. We planted Tomato, zucchini, cucumber, green beans, peas, strawberries and raspberries. Hopefully it works out better that last year.
T minus 3 days till Hawaii. Hallelujah!

A Day of Trauma

Today was stupid. Completely stupid. I have been dreading today for about a month, since I got the lab slip in the mail from Andi's Dr. saying she needed to have her blood drawn a week before her physical. The mere mention of the word shot puts her in hysterics and gives her nightmares, and they wanted me to have her blood drawn. UGH!
So I didn't tell her until right before we left what was going on, and immediately she's in tears and hyperventilating. So I calm her down and tell her if she tries to be brave we will buy tangled on the way and a milkshake once she's done. She was calm enough until they called her name and then it was "I don't want to be here, I don't like needles, I don't want to go to school anymore!"  Then we get back to the room and all I did was put her on my lap in the chair and she's flailing and screaming. I think she screamed worse than Sammy did when he cut off his own finger! Anyway, it took my mom and I and another worker to restrain her long enough to get the 1 vile of blood and a tb test.
We put the movie on in the car, got her a shake, and she calmed down. But it was a couple of hours before she would straighten out her arm. She was convinced it would hurt if she did. So that's stupid number 1.

Stupid number 2 is Sammy. This kid get's hysterical over having his hair cut. He cries, and shakes, and fights me all the way. So imagine my surprise when I found Sammy in the bathroom like this.

 

And it really only took him seconds to plug the clippers in himself and do this. I had just put his shoes on in the front room and was getting the bag ready to go and went down the hall to find him. Seconds!!!  Ugh, so I put a number 1 on the clippers because I couldn't bear to do it without a guard like he did, and shaved the rest of his cute hair off. 

Obviously this look is better than leaving it as he did it, but i hate it. And yes, his face is covered in dirt. There was just no way to save it. It better grow quickly!