Excursions

I'm so terribly behind on posting lately... my parents visited last weekend and we went some cool places, one of which was the zoo.  They have a cool little place where you can feed the birds and I loved it, I mean, the boys loved it!

The zoo is neat because they do a great job of sharing its history.  There is a home on the property that was in someone's family for 5 generations and they donated it to the city with the stipulation that it be used to honor the environment and educate others.  It's such a gorgeous old house with outdoor kitchen, carriage house, huge garden, barn, etc.  I do not have a great picture of the house itself, shame on me, but we went for a tour inside and for antique lovers like my dad and I, it was heaven.  It was so fun to walk through a home that old with all of its original furnishings. Gorgeous handcrafted furniture, heavy moldings, neat old door knobs... etc.  Oh, and so fun for a 2 and 4 year old.  Quite possibly shaved a year off of my life protecting the antiques from my two rambunctious and curious boys.  But they did a great job with the promise of carousel rides for good behavior!

Excursion number 2 was to Antique Archaeology.  The dude from American Pickers owns it and we are big fans of the show.  It was pretty cool, we saw lots of stuff that we've seen on actual episodes.  Neato!

If you watch the show you might remember this old arrow...

I'm guessing they're going to make a few dollars on t-shirts if nothing else.  If you're on my Christmas list I hope you like American Pickers, ha!

Happy Birthday Big C:)

My sweet husband is a year older today. Hallelujah!! It's our little secret that I'm a tad older than CJ so his birthdays are especially happy days for me. hehe.  He's catching up;)

I'm going to try not to get too sappy.  C is our family hero.  He's a fabulous father and husband.  He's patient (although he might tell you that years of living with me is chipping away at his famous patience), he's kind, he's a good sport (one of the first things I loved about him), he's an incredibly hard worker, he's a great friend, son, brother, uncle, everything.  He is a fantastic cook.  He's a pizza snob (a New Yorker).  He's a gentleman.  He makes a mean egg sandwich and he loves a good New York deli.  He's fun.  He's thoughtful.  He's not perfect, but he's close.

He makes me a better person and the boys and I love him dearly.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEET HUSBAND!!!

PS. Note to self: take more pictures with my husband!

Happy Birthday Jules!!!

I hope you are lucky enough to have a friend who has been by your side from this... days of playing dress up (well, actually I had to force Julia to play dress up, but still..)

to this...(maid of honor at my wedding)

and this...to loving my children and spoiling them rotten..

Dear Jules, You have been my best bud since forever. My favorite childhood memories involve you and your love of ketchup, purple, and Coletrain, etc.  You have been by my side for every important thing in my life.  You put me in my place when I need it.  You love my babies as if they were your own.  You drop your life to visit me.  You forgive me for the years I was a crappy friend.  You make me laugh out loud.  I know I can always count on you.  I love you to pieces and am thankful for your friendship. Have a fabulous 29th birthday friend. You are 29, right?

Let's go racin'

Today we took the boys to their first Nascar race. The Nationwide series was in town and we bought some cheap seats and decided to give it a go.  It's the first time in a looooong time we've been able to go places without packing the kitchen sink and so we're getting a little more adventurous.  We knew we weren't going to stay for the race (it was at 6:30 p.m.) so we thought we'd take the boys to watch qualifying and see how they did.  It was great!  I grew up going to races so I really love the sound of a loud engine and the smell of burning rubber. Strange I know, but I still do.  The boys were a little startled by the loudness at first, but then settled in and decided they kinda liked it. It was so fun--hysterical to watch their reactions to things (and to watch them "people watch")!  And there's always good people watching at a Nascar race.  They kept talking about Lightning McQueen--they were really hoping he was going to be in the race--so cute!!

I used to be Richard Petty's biggest fan--can you tell?

CD was not so sure about the noise.

CJ was a fan!

So classic, I finally get a picture with my boys and someone is picking a nose, HA!!

Swim lessons

Little CJ is enjoying swim lessons. This is his first time taking and he's doing great!  It's so precious to watch as he learns.  He's jumping in now and learning things like how to kick his legs, how to pull himself out of the pool, how to float on his back, and arm skills.  They have adorable ways of teaching them too!  I'm so impressed with how the instructors teach (and how young they are...wow...they make me feel ancient)!  It's our summer goal to have CJ swimming like a champ so we may go ahead and sign up for a few private lessons too. I think he will really benefit from one on one attention. 

We're having a busy summer, it is flying by! We've had some visits from family and have been busy with MOMS club activities and other summer stuff.  Toodles for now:)

Lately

Summertime!

We're having a great summer! It feels like it's been summer forever here because it's been warm for quite a while.  No complaints here.  We've been playing in the sprinkler, painting, getting together with friends, grilling, etc.  Big C and I have even been out on a few dates, yay!

The boys are really at adorable ages.  They are growing so fast though!  CD says 500 times a day "I can do it MYself!!"  When he wakes up in the morning, if CJ isn't awake yet, he can't stand it and he just has to get him up.  It's sweet!  CJ loves to get up and get himself dressed and come and surprise me.  And he always matches his clothes perfectly, ha! I am always kind of surprised by this. Do all children match their clothes?  I find this amazing.  He's such a big boy. He told me today that he was going to tell Daddy on me and I was going to get a time out.  I am having to remind these boys who the boss is because they forget sometimes (but not all the time, mwa ha ha)..

Funny story -- Big C tried to put Little C in time out the other day and Little C said, "Dad, you are not putting me in time out. You are not the boss.  Mom is." This one had us laughing so hard! We are constantly hearing the most hysterical things come out of these little mouths. 

On another subject we had a great Fourth of July.  We walked to the edge of our neighborhood and watched fireworks.  It is the first time the boys have seen fireworks and guess what? They couldn't have cared less, ha! They were just excited to be out after dark and chasing Evie around.

PS  Congratulations to my good friend who just had a precious baby boy!!

Good times

Today I..

• took the boys to the zoo
• wondered if we should be an exhibit instead of visitors
• got tired of hearing my own voice, begging and pleading with my children to listen
• answered a million questions, making things up so often that I, too, am starting to believe my made up explanations
• hid in the laundry room and ate frozen cookie dough
• received a text from my husband inviting us out for Mexican
• have been dreaming of a very strong margarita ever since
• realized it's Wednesday and we are that much closer to Friday, Oh yeah!
• am thankful for my precious, curious, energetic, WILD boys:)