Oh and school

I finished up my classes last week. Yippee. I ended with 2 A's for this term and now I only have 2 more classes to take. I will be done in October. Hooray! In August I will begin taking Woman's literature and intro to human resources. These are both electives that are needed before my degree would be complete. Whooohooo only 8 more weeks of classes.

Yeah

Ice cream anyone

With all the warm weather comes Ice Cream. We got the kids their own ice cream bars the other night. Oh my oh my were they in heaven. Ben pretty much finished his and what he didn't consume the dog did!


Ashley on the other hand ate about half and then gave it t0 me because her tummy hurt. She informed me that I was not to eat it but instead save it for her for tomorrow. How cute.


Sprinkler fun. I don't think I realized as a child just how cold sprinklers are. But now when my soaking wet child decides to sit on moms lap I realize that they are far too cold. Brrr.

Ben wasn't much of a fan of the sprinklers but he did like picking Janelle's vegetables and running into her garage, oh and stealing his sister's drink, caught red handed.

Ashley's first chore. She loves sorting and is really good at it so I decided to put her to use. I throw the clean laundry on the couch with an empty basket for each person and she sorts it all for me. It is such a help, all i do is grab the full baskets and take them to the correct room to put them away.

I've got some catchup to do.....

Susan gave me a wonderful book about a year ago full of games, songs, and activities. I absolutely love this book. The other day we made a homemade playdough that the kids loved playing with. They really enjoyed playing with it and only tried to eat it once. Apparently the taste is not so great, but at least I know what is in it. Flour, oil, lemonade kool-aid and water all safe to eat.

I broke out the cookie cutters, rolling pins, spatulas, and keys to play with. They has a blast.

Apparently after my night out with the girls I had left my make up out and my sweet little girl found it. Here she is with my eyeshadow smeared all over like lipstick. I cleaned it all up and put it away only to find out that she had already hidden my waterproof mascara for later :)


We've had great weather lately and the kids have loved getting the chance to hang out in the yard. I encourage it as much as possible since I do know what the GF winter will bring.

Another milestone...

S o here is a picture of Ashley ready to play ball. We picked up the batting helmets on the 4th and on the 5th we received two t-ball sets from Mike's dad. So now they both have helmets, balls, t-ball stands, and gloves. Now how cute is that.

Our neighbor KK has taken to riding a bike and that appears to be just enough to encourage Ashley to try hers. I have tried a few times this past week and it has not been fruitful but yesterday Mike joined us and low and behold she got it.




She still gets stuck a bit and needs a little shove. I think the training wheels need to be raised in the back because she hits a small bump or grass and the wheel just spins.



I am so proud of her. Here is Benny chilling while I was getting his sister ready.



So here is the video from her trials yesterday. Go Ashley

Happy 4th of July

Happy 4th of July! We had a great day! We stayed home until after Ben woke up from his nap and then we headed downtown for the festivities.

First up was the car show, which wasn't all that snazzy this year. Then we headed over to the kiddie stuff. Ben and I got to go on the barrel rides and Mike took Ashley on the Pony rides. They both had a blast.


Then we headed over to Applebee's where we grabbed some lunch in an air conditioned building. Very welcomed by all! While we were there we noticed that someone had left their beagle in their truck. We were bothered by that considering it was 80+ outside. We went in and got lunch and when we came back out the dog was still there. This just made us angry so we called the cops. Then waited there for them to come. By this time we had witnessed the dog in there for nearly 2 hours. Frustratingly they looked at the dog and said the windows were slightly cracked and the dog, although hot was not in distress. Ugggh, just think of how hot it was inside the car on an 80+ day, not good animal owner behavior. The cops said they would drive by frequently to check on him. Poor doggie.

After that we headed over to Target as we had already seen most of the festivities. The kids both walked out of target with new batting helmets....a plastic bat....and a bag of wiffle balls. The helmets were overkill, I know. But Ashley picked hers out, put it on, and told daddy she was ready to play "basket ball". It won his heart, and his wallet. So he picked out a blue one for Benny too!

Then we headed back over to the river for the fireworks. It was already past the kids bedtime so we weren't sure what to expect.



We picked a spot on a big hill. (Thinking back now, I would have rathered a spot on flat ground with kiddies). The kids enjoyed the fireworks but were both pushing the limits of bedtime. We ended up staying until 11pm when the fireworks ended and both kids were done. I think they were both passed out in the van within 5 minutes of leaving.

just a note

The other night Mike and I started a movie right after we put the kids to bed. Ashley kept saying that the noise was too loud she couldn't . After about 5 minutes I went in there to talk to her and found her like this.


Here's the kiddies cuddling on the couch.

Check out Ben's new molar. He was yawning in this picture but it shows it.

Looney's Wedding

So one of Mike's friends got married yesterday. We contemplated going for a while but since Benny has separation anxiety we were worried. Last time we left him at the drop in daycare down town he cried (read: screamed, if you know Ben) for 45 minutes. They ended up calling me to come back early. Nice. So this time we were prepared had our phones on vibrate, well rested children, and paid extra for snacks and food. We have found that food is one thing that can help redirect Ben's fits.


So off we went. The kids did fine at drop off but I was expecting a phone call shortly. The kids made it 3.5 hours. When we picked them up Ashley was oblivious to the fact we were there. She still wanted to play. It makes it so nice that she loves to go to daycare! Benny did good. Although he did manage to aggravate the scab on his knee so he was a bleeder. They said he went through 4 bandaids while he was there.

But here are a couple pictures.


Here you can see our new couch and lazy boy chair too!


Mike will kill me if he notices this picture up. He hates it when I blog about him....So if it disappears you know why :)


This one just makes me giggle. We tried to take the self portrait picture and we kept cutting our heads off. I guess the foot difference between us introduces a challenge. hehe

Susan, do you recognize my booster?


Look at my toes. I think I have the longest toes ever. They are so silly.

Smores in the backyard

Here is Boca joining us for smores in the back yard. I think she managed to sneak up a few dropped marshmallows. Yum.



The kids loved their smores. It was the first time they have tried them.



Ben was a horrible sticky mess and ended up in the tub for a scrub down.



smores in the making

Ashley's new guitar!

Both kids have a fascination with guitars. Probably because Mike has a few around the house. We devoted his old one 12 string acoustic as the kids guitar so they played that one. But when Mike went to go pick up our new couch on Tuesday he came home with this little one.

It's the perfect size for her and she loves it. It has a case just like daddy's and they have been playing together in the evening. It is adorable.


We're working on teaching her the chords but she's having fun strumming away to baa baa black sheep and old McDonald (her own versions, of course).



Next up will most likely be a set of drums....maybe for Christmas. Mike already has a set of real drums, just kid sized.

Our Visit with Grandpa

The weather was really hit or miss the whole time Mike's dad was here. We did manage to go to the sprinkler park one day and we got in a few walks as well.

Ben is getting so big. I am shocked when I see him sometimes on how big he is really is.


Here is Ben and Grandpa taking a stroll



Can you believe it. My little babies are running down the sidewalk together. Holy cow. They're almost the same size.



Such a boy. Ben loved sitting in the tree. Ashley wanted nothing to do with it though.



But she sure loved the Dora lego set that Grandpa got her. She has played with it everyday since.

Our new van

So we ended up trading in the Rav4 and we got a new Honda minivan!

I love it and have had it on the top of my list for a while. Mike was not the keenest on driving a minivan but then he actually got in and saw how much room it offered in comparison to the Rav4 and the 4runner which was on the top of his list.

We tried the Toyota dealer first and they were ridiculous in their trade-in offer for the Rav4. Almost $6000 less than the Honda dealer offered us....Something is wrong when they don't even value their own vehicle. Anyway we came in within our budget. We are picking it up today because it needed to be detailed and after 2 stops at the dealers the kids were not in the best moods. So we are heading back up there today to pick it up!

Mike's dad is visiting and will be leaving tomorrow morning. This visit went quite quick but it was definitely nice to have an extra set of hands at the dealership.

Seriously....No Really?

Guess what I woke up to yesterday morning. Oh my so fun. Apparently Ashley decided that it wasn't fair that Chloe and JJ got to play with baby powder and she didn't. Such a blast to clean up too. Sweet darling! At least her rooms smells as fresh as a baby's butt...wait do baby's butts really smell fresh? Oh no, now I am confused.