Summer Time Fun

We are less than two weeks in, but summer so far has been pretty amazing. We've got a great routine in the morning where the kids do their chores and practice piano and things like that, and then when Peter gets up from his morning nap we play. We've gone swimming at the grandparents several times already, and love taking pictures under water.

Sammy and his buddy Hudson

Andi all the way at the bottom

Andi practicing her diving skills

Turns our Peter LOVES the pool. We bought him one of these floaties with the shade because it's so crazy hot and no one wants a sunburned baby, but this picture shows how he feels about it.

He just wanted out, and had to be submersed in the water up to his neck to be happy.

Peter also has a few new tricks, like opening doors.

And unrolling the toilet paper rolls.

He keeps us on our toes.  Thad taught the kids a gross and disturbing new past time. Apparently he did this as a child, which makes me second guess leaving the children home alone with Daddy.

Yes, those are flies with string tied around them. How did this happen you ask? Well apparently you catch the fly and then drown it, or freeze it. Either option will stun the fly long enough for you to tie the string, then for some bizarre reason it comes right back and will fly in circles while you hold the string. Sick and wrong.
Onto more normal summer activities. There have been play dates and picnics.

 And pirate birthday parties that just wear you out.

And now we are preparing for the big recital, which means an entire week of rehearsals and costumes and late nights. Pictures to come!

Fun with Mommy

Okay, so this post is a bit of a milestone, and probably not in a good way. Every picture in this post has been taken with my phone. I got an instagram and that has been the beginning of the end of my camera.
It's been an interesting couple of weeks.  Thad was out of town for work last week, which for some reason always makes me start projects, It also means I have to come up with fun things for the kids to do to take their mind off the fact that Daddy's gone.
We went to the park,

Found some play glasses for Sammy so he could be just like his friend Hudson,

 Made some homemade facepaints that were mostly washable,

Played Diaper Ninjas,

 

And most importantly, Sammy got his cast off and has been loving life. I had been promising to take him swimming the day he got his cast off, but wouldn't you know it, Bakersfield was having unseasonably cool weather. It was only 70 degrees that day, not ideal swimming weather. So he settled for a swim in my tub, which is a decent size, and stayed in till his fingers and toes were beyond pruney.

Peter also got a hair cut while Thad was gone, which was a trying task. I finally sat him in the sink and turned the water on to drizzle and he sat and played while I trimmed the mop.   Here is the shaggy guy before the cut.

And here is the clean cut after, where you can also see the second tooth that arrived that week as well. Fun.

My project for the week when the kids were in bed was to tackle my bathroom. I painted the cabinets and walls, as far as I could anyway. Thad has to take that huge mirror down so he can install two medicine cabinets over the sinks, and then I can finish the painting. Also, I need to find new fixtures, I think I'm going Bronze. And yes, there's a walker in my tub. It's where Peter plays while I get ready for the day.

Here is a progress shot of our room as well. All painted and waiting for stuff to be hung on the walls and new lamps and things.

Andi participated in her first track meet today, running the 100 and the relay.  Her relay team came in first and she was super excited to get a blue ribbon.

And you can see that Sammy was not happy to be leaving the school. He really missses Andi while she's gone.
Tonight we get to see my little brother graduate from high school, which makes me feel really old. He started Kindergarten the same day I started college, and now he's graduating. Ug. 

Family Fun

It's been another crazy week around here, but with more fun and less trauma. Tenille & Tanya came down with their kiddos for a week and we were able to squeeze in quite a few family gatherings while they were here.  We had a birthday dinner at Tara's, a BBQ at our house, took pictures by the river, and had a swim party and mothers day dinner at Mom & Dad's.  My kids loved getting to play with cousins all week.

 

Peter went swimming for the first time at Grandma Bulkeleys and wasn't sure about it at first. The water was a little cold.

After getting used to the water, he thought all the splashing was great. And I love this picture because you can see his one little tooth that finally came in last week.

Thursday Sammy got a new, shorter cast put on and he was so happy to be able to straighten his arm and swing again. 

 
Friday was camping day! The annual father & Sons camp-out that Sammy has been counting down for weeks for.  He was so excited Friday morning that he was dressed and packed by 8am. Too bad they weren't leaving till 2. They drove up with Sammy's buddy Hudson and his dad, and the boys had a blast.

But sharing a tent, they didn't get much sleep, so they both took a nap on the way home.

While they were gone Andi and I had some girl time with friends, and Peter. We did dinner and a movie friday night. And Saturday I got a sitter for Peter so Andi and I could get our yearly pedicure and I could do some mothers day shopping. It was a great morning.

I also got my room painted before everyone came. I've been itching to get it done since I finished the quilt and finally got paint and got started. I painted 3 walls before I realized I hated the color. I was trying a pale grey, because I was trying to lighten up the room, but it was so washed out and bland and I hated it. So the next morning I went and got a different color that I loved and re-painted the ENTIRE thing. Luckily I really did love it this time and I love how bright and cheerful my room is now. I also got some new drapes up and we hung the mirror that has been sitting in a corner since november.  That is progress people. 

And here are a few cute shots of peter to wrap up the post, just because he's cute. He loves to hang in his jumper outside. 

And this is what happens anytime you have food or a drink. Puppy Peter begging.

Longest Week Ever!

Really, I can't believe it's only been a week. And what a week we've had. Thad left early Monday morning for the east coast and didn't come back till late thursday night, I guess technically friday morning. Usually when he's is gone we have lazy low key weeks, and it started out that way. I even planned to put off all my cleaning till Thursday. Then Wednesday rolled around and Sammy decided to spice things up a bit by breaking his arm.
We were at dance class with Andi and there is a hallway where all the little siblings play. There is also a large stack of metal lockers in the hallway, and Sammy decided it would be a good idea to climb them. It was not. The lockers weren't anchored to anything and he brought the whole thing down on top of himself and another little boy. The other boy got away with some bumps and bruises, but Sammy broke his arm. Luckily the first mom on the scene happened to be a nurse, and before they got up stairs with the first aid kit she had checked him over, found the fracture and splinted it for us before we left for the hospital. I couldn't exactly take all three kids with me to the ER, so I called my mom to come get Andi and Peter from dance and left them both with the other dance moms while I took Sam to the hospital. And my brother happens to work at the hospital, so I didn't have to do the ER alone. Sammy is so tough. Here he is after x-rays awaiting the Dr. to come reset him arm.

Since they had to reset the bone, they used "conscious sedation", which are some wicked strong drugs that they gave him a shot of. I think the sedation stressed me out more than anything. They had him all hooked up monitoring vitals he whole time. It was just very disconcerting watching him go from screaming because they gave him a shot, to twitchy eyed slow breathing in less than a minute. And it took forever for him to come out of it.

When he did come around I kept talking to him and asking him things to get him fully awake. The poor guy was so loopy, the first thing I understood was "Lot's of eyebrows." Meaning he was seeing double, or triple. So I kept asking him how many noses and mouths I had and it took a while before we got the right answer. I thought he wouldn't remember that because of the drugs, but the next morning he told Andi that when he woke up mommy had lot's of eyes and two noses.
True to form, by the next day Sammy was back to normal and bouncing around the house like nothing had happened.  Which made me a bit of a wreck. At the hospital they could not put a hard cast on because they had to wait for the swelling to go down, so he was in a splint with a soft cast. Which meant one wrong move and he could pop things out of place again. He was making me crazy. Luckily we only had to deal with that for a day, and friday morning the Dr. put a hard cast on. Of course, because of the way the bone was broken, they couldn't remove the splint or the bone would pop out of place, so they casted on top of the splint. It's huge. I had to seam rip his sleeve that night to get his shirt off.

 

He hardly notices it's there though, which is good and bad. Good because it's not bothering him, bad because he still tries to climb and do all of his usual nonsense.  He just can't understand why I won't let him ride his bike or scooter or swing or swim. Or why I kept pulling him off the climbing wall at the park. It's gonna be a long couple of weeks. He also doesn't love his bathtime waterproofing.

 

 You know who else has made me a bit of a wreck. Peter. He's progressing through the mobility stages way too quickly. He's doing this all the time now, end even letting go!

And then Saturday he started in on the stairs, and I don't have a baby gate yet!
 

 

So, last year when we inherited some ducks, the kids thought it was the best thing ever. Since the same ducks came back to our friends house and laid eggs again, we told the kids we'd get the ducks again. But a raccoon attacked the duck nest and ate all the eggs before they could hatch. We didn't tell the kids that so they kept asking when we were getting ducks. Friday Thad decided we should just go buy a couple.

And it has been a much better experience so far. Sine these aren't wild ducks they aren't afraid of people, and they follow the kids around the yard like puppies.

So far, they are really cute and fun. I'll let you know what I think as they get bigger.

Oh, and here are some of the family pictures we took while my family was in town.

Now to get them printed and framed.

The Fun Never Ends

Wow, it's been a crazy couple of weeks. Fun, but crazy, and now I need to sleep. All of my siblings were in town last week for Alexis' wedding. We managed to have a birthday BBQ for my Mom and Emmie, take family photos, the boys spent a day paint balling, set up for the reception, went to LA for the sealing, then back to Bako for the reception, and I managed to make a quilt for my bed. Once Thad and his Photoshopping skills are back in town I'll have family photo's to post, but for now here are some shots from the wedding festivities.

These girls make me feel so old. I started babysitting all three of them 20 years ago! Oh, and when my children saw Alexis at the reception Andi gave her a "Whoa!" and the next day Sammy said "Mom, remember last night at Alexis' wedding? She looked so beautiful in her white dress." They were definitely impressed.

The fam, minus Mom and Dad (who spent the week in the Bahamas) and minus my kids who we left home with a babysitter.

 My primary partners in crime.

But before all the fun could begin, and only days before we took family photos, my children tried their hardest to mess things up. Andi was riding her bike in the back yard and rode in between the swings. One of the swings caught her bike handle and she went down, managing to land her eye directly on the end of her handlebar, and I'm pretty sure giving herself a slight concussion.

After the initial freak out she calmed down, we iced her eye, and she was fine untill bed time a few hours later. The she got crazy hysterical and made herself so upset that she threw up, twice. What makes me think it was a bit of a concussion was that she was just out of it, and when she threw up the second time, didn't remember that she had just done that 30 minutes before. It was really weird.
The next day Sammy and Ellie were playing in the backyard and somehow between the two of them he took a big wooden bench swing to the head. By the time I got over to him he had a huge knot sticking out.

Luckily my children have some amazing healing powers, because 3 days later neither one of them had a visible bruise or scrape and we didn't have to put make-up on them for pictures.
Sammy has also been doing some weird things at night, I guess he's not that tired when we put him down, so he plays untill he crashes and I usually find him asleep on top of books and toys in his bead.One night however he pulled all the blankets off his bed and made his won bed in the corner.  I don't know why. But I do know that he is SO HEAVY, and I can barely get him back in bed these days.

Peter had his 9 month check up today. He's still above 97% for height, but only in the 27% for weight. He's such a long skinny little thing.

He is crawling like crazy now and is in to everything, and of course most interested in things he should not be. Like paper, and rocks and power cords and things that are hazardous to be putting in his mouth. A few days ago I found him in the office like this.

And then last night he finally pulled himself all the way up in the crib, so we had to lower the mattress to avoid the whole falling out problem.
The kids have also found a new pet. I don't know where this bullfrog came from, but it lives in our pond now, and the children terrorize it from time to time. Apparently it is not smart enough to leave, because it's been there for a week now.

I finally had a wave of inspiration hit two weeks ago about a quilt and plans for my bedroom. So I drug the boys to three different fabric stores and got to work. I finished it last week and I love it. I brightens up the room so much, but now I have to decide on a paint color for the walls. (suggestions welcome) And I'm still trying to figure out what to do for throw pillows and what not. But mostly I just love the quilt, and love that I'm finally getting to work on our room!