This is the result of a fun night of finger painting. We're so proud that we framed them and they are hanging in the front room for everyone to see. Not bad, I say. Not bad.

This is Peanut's creation:


And Meatball's masterpiece:

The Ants Go Marching 1x1

Hurrah! Hurrah!

Ants are one of the reasons that it takes us so long to complete a walk around the block. With careful consideration, I realize that ants are really pretty cool and interesting. I had lots of time to actually do this considering since we checked them out for at least 15 minutes. The boys were very nice and careful not to touch or step on the little crawlies, but it was hard because they were everywhere! Thanks to a Dora The Explorer video, we’re convinced that all ants are mean (because they threatened to ruin her picnic and they had big snapping jaws). I guess this isn’t all that bad since I truly don’t want the boys sticking their hands in any ant hills anytime soon.

I must admit that I got nice and bored while watching the ants, but since it wasn’t all about me (what?!?!), I bit my tongue and watched and studied and talked to the ants with the boys. It was fun, and I hope it was an important learning experience for them since we talked about what the ants were doing, where they might be going, and etc.

The next exciting time killer: pinecones! Oh, the wonders…


Meatball




Peanut





Meatball watching the ants travel





Checking it out





Peanut really giving the ants the once over

Easter, 2010

The day before Easter, we headed to Th*nksgiving Point for a huge celebration complete with an egg "hunt" (really a mad scramble where parents mostly snatched up eggs for their kids), pony rides, bounce houses, food, face painting, animals, and fun. Unfortunately, the wind was biting cold, and even grown-ups were shivering. Before we left the house, I thought that maybe we were going overboard with the long-johns (top and bottom), pants, shirts, sweaters, coats, hats, and snow boots, but after about five minutes in the cold, I knew that we had done the right thing. In addition to all of that, the boys were wrapped up in their frog and monkey blankets, too! I swear that they were the ONLY warm children.


It was fun, but the bounce houses were wet (which means wet bums and socks), so we didn't do much of that, and the wind was blowing. We did take a train ride as well as pony rides (not as cool as Papa's horse...), checked out chickens, went on a wagon ride, and even saw the Easter bunny!






Easter is one of Grandpa’s favorite holidays. Not because he is terribly concerned with the resurrection of the savior of the world - OK, he’s not at ALL interested in that particular piece of the holiday (none of us are - hey, don’t judge atheists and agnostics are nice people, too). Nope, Grandpa loves Easter simply because of THE EGGS!!!!

As the story goes, when Momma Bub was a little girl (about 10 years old or so), Grandpa and Grandma were dating when she invited him over for Easter dinner – or something like that. He brought his friend, Norris – who was always Bub’s date when they would “double”. Well, while dinner was cooking, they decided to decorate a few eggs. I don’t know exactly what happened next, or why, but what I do know is that they made several trips to the store and ended up coloring something like six or seven dozen eggs. Yeah, there were only four people, and 84 eggs. But apparently, the eggs were REALLY cool. At least that’s how the story goes.

Anyway, for Easter this year, Grandma and Grandpa came out to our house. My guess is that if we were going to make a mess and destroy carpet, they wanted it to be ours! I don’t blame them. We only colored about two dozen eggs, but we really had a good time. In true form, Grandpa was very meticulous about his eggs, and they turned out quite nicely. He really likes to let them soak up the color so they are very rich looking.

Grandma and Momma Bub got into the act, of course, but really they spend more time giggling at each other than anything else. Mommy was behind the camera again. Like always, dinner was delicious.









And, Grandpa got in a little quality reading time:

Making Cookies aka Breaking Eggs

Getting the eggs out of the fridge and whacking them against the counter or bowl is only the beginning of the fun. The gooping of the eggs through fingers results in squeals and statements like "mom, that's gwoss." The real fun begins when mommy gets to wipe hands (pointless - just go stratight to the bathroom sink) and pick egg shells out of the dough.

This batch was actually for lemon bars. The crust is easiest mixed by using bare hands - it was perfect for this duo!

Not so beautiful

Meatball and Peanut got digital cameras from Uncle Norris for Christmas. They are the kid cameras that can be dropped and kicked. They actually don’t take half-bad pictures! Well, Meatball loves, loves, loves his camera. He takes pictures all day long (I had to delete 350 pictures before the end of Christmas day), and while I don’t want to overstate his talent at less than 3-years old, the boy has a really great sense of composition and subject matter. Some of the pictures are very well done, if you ask me.

At grandma’s house recently, Meatball was commenting on how beee-you-tiful the flowers outside were, so he and Bubba went outside to see the pictures. Later, he took beee-you-tiful pictures of the flowers with his camera. Then, he walked around for about an hour talking about how beee-you-tiful the pictures were.
He then proceeded to take some pictures of grandma.

Grandma: “Are those pictures beee-you-tiful?”
Meatball: “No.”
Grandma: “Do you think that grandma is beee-you-tiful?”
Meatbal: “No. But, maybe later.”

“I want to…”

Peanut is a little sassy pants. One, or both, of the mommies made the mistake of responding to something like “I can put you in the naughty corner if I want to.” I’m sure that it was followed by some brilliant revelation like “because I’m the mom.” But the point is, that “I can do it if I want to.”
Now, Mr. Sassy Pants thinks that he has the same right.
Mommy: “Lay down and go to sleep.”
Peanut: “I open my eyes I want to.” (He forgets the “if”.)
Mommy: “You use nice hands!”
Peanut: “I hit I want to.”
Mommy: “Please make your food go inside your tummy.”
Peanut: “I spit out I want to.”
Here’s an idea: mommy will go insane if she wants to!

Sharing Sucks

Well, it’s official. Our kids are brats. Since we have not sent them to any kind of day care and have had the forced “luxury” of a stay-at-home mom for the past year, the boys spend most of their time with each other and a bunch of grown-ups. They play with little Carl once in a while, and it’s a GREAT day when Zack comes down from Logan for a visit. Otherwise, our playmates are few and far between. (I blame much of this on Sarah who moved Rowan, Camilla, and Kalli back to Louisiana. Rowan was our best friend and the same stinking age!)

So, anyway, Bub took the boys to the park today since the weather was beautiful. She packed a lunch and a bunch of stale bread for the ducks. After feeding the ducks, the boys were very excited to go play on the slides. However, when they got there, other kids were playing (gasp)! Instead of playing, they sat on the bench with Bub and pouted and sulked and whined. They kept telling her to get the other kids off of the toys. They wouldn’t have anything to do with any of the other kids.

Dammit! We have BRATS! We really need to find a play group.

Body Parts

While recently spending the morning with Papa, the Meatball walked in on Papa as he was making a pee-pee in the potty. For sure, Meatball was impressed that Papa could do all of this while standing up. The conversation had Bubba in stitches (after she got over the horror of my dad saying “penis” to her). It went something like this:
“Papa, is that your penis? Papa, is the pee-pee coming out of your penis? Papa, don’t make a mess. Papa, are you shaking your penis? Papa, are those your big boy underwear?”

Last Saturday, we all snuggled up on the couch to watch a movie. Meatball was curled up on my left side. During a commercial, he looked at me and this exchange ensued:
Meatball: “Mommy, that’s your chi-chi.” (boob)
Me: “Yes. That’s my chi-chi.”
Then, he lifted his shirt and pointed at his own nipples.
Meatball: “This is my chi-chi.”
Me: “Yep. Those are your chi-chis.”
Meatball: “Mommy, your chi-chis are bigger.” Looking down again he said “My chi-chis are smaller.”
Me: “Your chi-chis are small. That’s right.”
Meatball: “Your chi-chis are big,” then he quickly cupped my left boob and said “and HEAVY!”

Be careful, don't fall!








Peanut playing at the duck park with Nana







Nana catching Meatball at the bottom of the slide







Headed home from the park







What a fun slide!







It only took one small piece of chocolate







After a hard day of play, Heavy needed a nap. I love how Meatball has covered him up and even given him a milk.

Train Wreck!!!

For some reason, a really big accident has happened and is preventing Thomas the Tank Engine from delivering his Troublesome Trucks to their destination.

EVERY crayon in the house is involved in this disaster:

April Fool's joke for lesbians

This may fall under the category of TMI, but seriously, the best/worst April Fool's joke that could ever happen to a lesbian is receiving that monthly dose of hormone induced magic. Trust me. It's bad enough when it happens to a straight woman, but it's just a monthly irritant for lesbians and a reminder that we're not pregnant and can't be without some serious intervention. To have it happen on April 1 was just too ironic.