Thursday, June 23, 2011

An Egg Hunt on Father's Day?




Blake couldn't be happier to have had an egg hunt with his cousins.  My mom had this egg hunt because for Easter it was only Blake and Ava so we hide 2 dozen eggs that was plenty, so with all the eggs left over mom waited until all of her grandchildren could partake in the festivities.  I must tell on Breanna, whom graciously gave Blake some of her eggs that had candy in them.  She would shake the egg to see if there was money and if she didn't hear money she opened it to see if there was a dollar bill in it.  Any without cash she passed on to Blake making us all go "Ahh, what a sweet cousin".
Ava didn't participate because she was napping.  I was shocked that she fell asleep and napped for 2 long hours.  Good job princess!
It was Father's Day so as a tradition we eat crabs and shrimp and a variety of other foods.  I was thrilled that Ed was able to join us for a little until he was off to work.  We also had a slip and slide that kids slide down and chased one another with water.  It was a little chilly, but the kids didn't seem to mind.





 Uncle Tom, cousin Mary, Uncle Jim, Dad, Brad still eating!
 Brady warmin up!
The Green Nun!
The kids also enjoyed riding Pappy's four-wheeler around the house.  Lauren even got to drive it!

 Blake, Ashley, Brad
 Ava, Lauren, Pappy
Breanna put Ava in the baby stroller and pushed her around!


Power Wheels


Blake and Ava love their "new" wheels!  Luckily Blake doesn't notice or care that he is sporting around in a Barbie 4-wheeler.  As long as it goes he is a happy boy.  Ava is fun to watch because she hasn't grasped that she is controlling the 4-wheeler.  Sometimes she is getting off and hits the button to go, but it makes her laugh.  I blessed to watch them experience the little things in life.

Trading Jillian for Bob

Well, as you know I am on a quest to get in shape so to help get there I have been "faithfully" running.  A couple of weeks ago me and my crew (Holly and Erin) asked a fellow friend that we graduated high school with to join us.  Now this sweet girl, Julie, has been a runner all her life and was warned that we were not runners so this would not be a workout.  Well, let's just say she had me begging to walk!  We had to run every hill we encountered.  When you are on the streets of our town driving you would probably ask yourself, "What hills?".  If you are running the streets of our hometown you would know them well.  It was a real workout and we did complete the 5K route, it may have taken us 44 minutes, but we did it.  Afterwards, I limped away on my poor hurting shins and aching heel and ate a poptart!  Not the best way to get into shape is to go home and eat, but I know my crew confessed to doing the same and eating things just as unhealthy as a poptart:)  Julie, my friend, I can't say that I will see you during race unless it is you on the home stretch and I will still be chugging along.  I also want to trade you in, whom we nicknamed Jillian from the Biggest Loser, for Bob the other Biggest Loser trainer.  Let me also point out that I didn't run for a week after that and yes, I am telling on my crew because they also didn't run for a week or more!  I love my crew!  To make matters worse we have been running on Tuesdays, but this week switched to Wednesday, I hope "Jillian" didn't show up a day ahead and think we stood her up.  We did complete the 5K route again and accomplished it in 43 minutes, which is a real milestone in our books.

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Yard Sale Extravaganza

Over the weekend I headed to my favorite Kid Yard Sale.  This only comes twice a year, but boy do I look forward to it.  My friend Holly is the one that got me hooked on this yard sale.  I was never one to go to them, until I saw all that she was purchasing for a fraction of the cost and I certainly couldn't tell that were "used" items!
My Goods

I came home so happy that I found a train table for Blake's trains and even a power operated car!  I always wanted one of these when I was little so when I saw this one for $30 I had to have it for my kids.  So it is a Barbie one, but luckily Blake doesn't notice and is just thrilled to ride around on it.  When I got it out he said, "Who-hoo, Cool Man!".   When I told him the day before that I was going to a yard sale is there anything he wanted he told me a "goldfish".  Luckily they didn't have any for sale and I don't think he noticed that I didn't bring one home!  Note to my Mom:  DO NOT BUY A GOLDFISH!  Our deal is no more live animals unless approved by Ed and I.  Anyway I had a huge list and was pleased to have most on my list, including a Leapster that Holly insisted I buy for $2!  I am thrilled my purchases, even though I spent more than I wanted, don't tell Ed:)

Summer Fun

Before school ended we went on a picnic to kick off the summer of fun!  Now that Blake and Ava are getting bigger we have had some new experiences and today was no different.  My girlfriends and I loaded the kids with old clothes and PB & J sandwiches and headed to one of our local parks.  We let the kids wade through the stream to keep cool.  My two have never waded in a stream before.  Blake was a little cautious, while Ava had no fear or problem diving right into the cold water.  They had a wonderful time helping their friends fill their bucket with water and rocks.  Mine even enjoyed climbing up and down the bank of the stream.  Blake said he liked throwing the rocks...little did he know we did that to ensure if there were any snakes that they headed downstream!  Then we headed to the picnic table to eat the popular PB & J sandwiches, goldfish and peaches.  After eating the kids chased butterflies.  Blake also liked when his friends Kate and Ethan chased him. We cleaned up and headed home.  I was feeling great about another outing that I have accomplished with my little babies.
Ava and Blake in the stream.  Note that Ava is wearing her birthday t-shirt!  No it's not her birthday, but I needed something old  and I figured that she wouldn't be able to wear next year!  My mom said we celebrate our kids everyday!

Blake filling Ellie's bucket. 

Ava splashing around in Ethan's bucket of water.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Strawberry Picking

Holly and her girls (Kate & Ellie), Erin and her two (Ethan & Emma) and me and my two (Blake and Ava) set out to go strawberry picking.  I would highly recommend going to pick strawberries.  This was Erin's and my first time attempting to pick berries, let alone bring a gang of little ones.  We had a blast and I can't wait to pick blueberries in July!  We left my house a little after 9am and were picking by 9:30am.  The weather was picture perfect, after the last couple of days of heat and humidity, we had 75 degree temp with no humidity ,we were the only ones picking and no bugs!  The kids had a great time.  I was nervous with Blake and Ava, but they did a great job.  I had Blake picking out red objects around the house in the morning and wearing a red shirt to help remind him of picking only the red strawberries.  Ava picked one, squished it and tried to eat it.  All in all they were content and happy the entire time.  We then came back to house to play and ordered pizza (we sent the male runner to pick up...thanks honey).  It was a lovely morning.  Thanks Holly, Erin and kids!
Blake, Ava, Kate, Holly, Ellie, Emma, Erin, Ethan (hiding behind "mom")


Markers for a 1 year old? I must be CRAZY!

Yesterday, Blake wanted to "paint", which means use crayons or chalk or dry erase markers or water colors.  He got an art easel at Christmas and the one side uses chalk the other dry erase markers.  I got him four markers out and showed Ava what to do.  I thought great that will keep the two of them busy while I get dinner on the table.  How much of mess can they make in 15 minutes.  (Dinner was in the slow cooker, I am not a magician)  Blake as usual paints and uses the markers correctly (I take very little credit b/c he usually does the "right" thing with little instruction from me).  Ava, well she is another story.  She is the crafty and creative one in the group.  She wants to know what else she can do with these markers.  The pictures don't do it justice, but know that she had marker on her lips (she "tries" everything), on her toes, outfit and of course on the floor!
She looks like she feels bad, but she more upset that I wanted her to hand me the marker!
Ava's floor art work!

Beauty School Dropout!


Yesterday I decided to "do" something with Ava's hair.  She has the cute baby fine hair that is not real cooperative and usually hangs in her face, much to her Grandmother's disapproval.  But I have gotten much advice from my friend who has two beautiful red-headed girls and she assures me that it will get better and NOT to cut it.  I have taken her advice because I feel like I can get away with her hair looking untidy right now, plus I want her to have all one length hair...so that maybe she will look a little like her mommy.  This was my first attempt to pull her hair into a ponytail.  You can tell it is far from a stylish do and looks as if I need to take Hair 101.  Blake has easy boy hair that takes no time to do and very little to manage.  Holly tells me that I should greatly appreciate this fact, because "doing" hair can set me back a half hour!  Me I can't wait to curl Ava's hair, put berets in it and just have fun.  Maybe that's because I haven't had the opportunity to do much with it.  I may regret saying that.  Anyway here's to having fun with hair and styling it!

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

4,269...

That's how many steps Holly, Erin and I took last night on our first run together in Holly's neighborhood!  213 is the number of calories we burned.  80+ was the temperature outside last night.  36 is the number of minutes it took us to run that far.  By my calculation we ran 2.25miles.  Of course I say ran, but we also walked.  Did I mention the heat let alone the humidity.  My body did okay, but my stamina and breathing in the hot outdoors is something I really need to improve on.  Let's just say when we ran I barely contributed to the conversation and when we walked I secretively prayed that Holly and Erin would get lost in the topic we were on and forget that we were to run too:)  After running we picked up our water (which we had at the end of the driveway) and collapsed in chairs in the back of the house.  We were soaked and complaining of blisters, sore legs and an aching shin.
We have 34 days until the big 4th of July Firecracker Race.  Let's keep it up ladies!