Want a cracker?

Guess not.

And Then...

Our wonderful neighbors have two teenage kids and no need for the wooden playset in their backyard. They generously offered it to us. After Mirra's party had finished our guests went to work taking the set down and moving it through the woods to our house. That was our goal: just getting the set to our yard for us to assemble as time allowed. That goal was attained so quickly that they put the set together as well. It was truly great teamwork and we are very, very grateful! Thank you Dad, Donnie, Wally, Bee, Clara and Trisha!!!! This would have been VERY difficult to accomplish without you.

Drew is a happy camper. He keeps telling us he wants to go outside to "the playground".

Mirra's Party

We celebrated Mirra's first birthday this weekend with family. We had her party a week early so that more of the family would be able to come over the long weekend. It was especially nice that her Great Gram was released from the hospital in time to attend also.

Andy smoked pork and I made the cake. The weather was beautiful so we took the party outside and spent the day. We had a woodland fairy theme which was even more fun outdoors.

Mirra received lots of wonderful presents and loved the attention.
Mirra with her fairy wings

Everyone pitched in to move the party outside

Mirra in her party dress

Opening gifts


MJ and Drew in her new wagon from Uncle Wally & Aunt Clara

Mirra's mushroom fairy house cake

She really liked cake and homemade ice cream and sat very still in Great Gram's lap

MJ & Laci (Grammy & Papa's dog)

Mirra trying out the new swingset (with Grandma Miles' help) and Uncle Bee and Bailey

Suggestions Please

Does anyone have suggestions for reading material? I've read through my A-rotation here and am scrounging around the house for something interesting to read. I haven't had time to peruse my favorite bookstore and I have to have a goal if I go to the library. So I turn to you for recommendations. Books....authors....anyone?

Now the entertaining tidbit of the day:
We were sitting down to breakfast yesterday morning and were offering Drew Fruity Pebbles. Andy comments it has been a long time since The Flintstones have even been on the air. So of course we start trying to recall the theme song. Yeah, we were not even close. God Bless Google. We found the lyrics and got closure.


You know you want them.....

Flintstones. Meet the Flintstones.
They're the modern stone age family.
From the town of Bedrock,
They're a page right out of history.

Let's ride with the family down the street.
Through the courtesy of Fred's two feet.

When you're with the Flintstones
you'll have a yabba dabba doo time.
A dabba doo time.
You'll have a gay old time.


I wonder how long you will have that running through your head. Heh heh...

Scrub-A-Dub-Dub...

Andy's Idea

Have I mentioned that Drew does not like change? Well, we double-dosed him the other day as we prepared for a walk/bike ride. New shoes and no training wheels. It took several minutes to convince him that he needed to wear the new shoes, but he wasn't going anywhere without his training wheels. So Andy put them back, but he jacked them up so high they were of absolutely no help.

The "Other" Milestones

Mirra has now figured out how to unroll the toilet paper from the roll: forwards AND backwards.

I think most parents of boys have a story like this one. Upon retrieving Drew from school earlier this week his teacher told me that she saw him on the playground with his pants around his ankles. She shouted for him to pull them up, which he did, but not before turning around so all the kids could see his 'business'.

It's Done!!!

BEFORE:

DREW HELPING

AFTER:

The living room is finished! The carpet was installed on Saturday. It is darker than before and makes the room look different; warmer, I think. We are very happy not to have the kids crawling around on that old crappy berber. You may not be able to tell the difference but trust me, it looks a lot better in there.

Drew is finishing up preschool. His last day is next Thursday. I had the opportunity to see him with his friends at school yesterday. It's fun to see how he interacts with them.

He has figured out that he can pick up his sister. So when she starts to get into his toys he picks her up and moves her. We are trying to break him of this habit, but half of the time Mirra finds it funny.

His new thing is that he tells us he is scared of everything: the dark, the walrus, elephants, squirrels, frogs, dogs, even the lobster a the grocery store. One thing he is definitely not scared of: speed.

Happy Mother's Day!!!

Wishing all of you wonderful moms a very special day!

Quotes of the Week

Upon returning our children from a weekend at her house my mom said "now I understand why Amanda drinks a beer after she puts the kids to bed."

Andy's mom after a few hours at our house "I really wasn't this messy. How did this happen?" I replied "I think it comes with our house." More accurately it comes with our kids.

Andy spoke with a former colleague this week. At the end of the conversation he said as he looked at the rain here "Enjoy that San Diego weather." The guy replied "Enjoy that Midwestern mortgage payment." Smile.

Living In The Boonies

This is the redneck playpen. At least it keeps her from eating the rocks in the driveway when I am pushing Drew in the swing.

Today I was driving to town to get a haircut and had to stop the truck, get out and shoo four ducks out of the middle of the road. Not exactly an ordinary commute...

Life without kids....

It is amazing what can be done when there are no kids around. We managed to paint the living room. I really can't say that Andy is a fan of cathedral ceilings any longer. The carpet is another story. It was supposed to arrive in-store last Tuesday, Thursday at the latest. After hearing nothing, I call on Friday to find out that the mill has none of the carpet we ordered. None. I'm thinking 'why in the **** didn't someone let me know this before now'. After I did some calculating it seemed that the carpet would be installed days prior to Mirra's birthday party. That was unacceptable to me: too much going on and likely things would not go as planned. We then had them call the mill to find out what they did have in stock. Fortunately our second choice was in stock and arrived in store today. Now we just need to call the installer and get on his schedule. Hopefully he still has an opening on Saturday.

So in addition to painting the living room we took care of my phone problems. I am back on the grid now and have a new, sleek little phone.

We also took care of some yard work and did all the laundry in 36 hours (unheard of). We then browsed on Craig's List and found a fabulous deal on bunk beds for Drew. So we cleaned up his room, disassembled his old bed and assembled the new one. Drew is not a big fan of change so Andy and I were laughing as we put it together that Drew would not like it and say "No, Mama!" That was not a problem though. He was so excited. "Cool bed! Tall bed!" He climbs up on it multiple times throughout the day. Now we also have more beds for overnight guests.

The kids had a good time at Grammy & Papa's. Drew keeps talking about them. Good thing Grandma Miles is due to arrive any minute.

Mirra turned 11 months old on Friday. I know! I can hardly believe it. She loves to grin and show off all her teeth. She is also starting to boycott pureed baby food, prefering dices of the real thing instead. She is starting to stand unsupported. Pretty funny because as soon as she lets go she looks at you to make sure you are watching. For now her teeth are giving her a break, but I predict more soon since she is drooling like crazy. She also understands the word 'no'. She just forgets that I said it within seconds. For example, I had to pull my potted plants in last week. Mirra heads to the pots and reaches for the dirt. I say "Mirra, no." She stops, looks at me for 2 seconds, then turns around and heads for it again. This little scenerio repeats itself about 8 times. At least she doesn't completely ignore me like her brother used to.

Other than that I am gearing up for Mirra's birthday weekend. It should be fun with a lot of family here. I just need to start making the flowers for Mirra's fairy cake while Drew is still in school. Only 11 days of school left. Yikes! I better move it.

New Frog Jammies

Marshall Visit

Last week the kids and I drove to Marshall for the afternoon to visit Gram. They put on a show for her. Drew was wired and Mirra kept crawling after him and trying to climb all over him. Then Mirra started crawling for the door and my dad pulled her back. She thought that was funny so she kept heading for the door and laughing as my dad pulled her back each time.

Drew thought Papa's motorcycle was pretty cool and the kids had fun with bubbles at Grammy & Papa's house. I tied to teach Mirra that rocks are not food.

Mirra now has 6 teeth and she may be working on 2 more on top. She finally let us sleep last night. Yeah! Now we will all be a little happier. I just hope the trend continues while the kids are staying with my parents this weekend. Fingers crossed!

Andy and I are going to paint and carpet the living room while the kids are away. It is a big project but we have been wanting to do this since we moved in so we will be very excited when it is done.