Thursday, July 16, 2009

Pictures pictures pictures...

Okay, so we've been working on the cedar chest (remember the green velvet?) and here is our final product...(I hand-painted the whole thing--NOT)We are really pleased with the result.  It didn't take too much work, either.  But it looks really cool.  Very antique-y looking.  Now we just need a place to put it....

This next shot is just to show you all Tyler's incredible tan line.  The boy is half Indian, I think.  It is even worse in person.  He could probably get away with going to the pool without a swimsuit on--he's got one built in!  And for all you mothers freaking out--we wear minimum of SPF 50--it's just THAT sunny here...everyday.

So the relaxing party at Chuck E. Cheese is over and done.  And boy, was it soooo relaxing.  Felt like I was getting a massage with all the kids tapping my shoulders for more tokens.  And there is nothing like the soothing music that they play there.  So nice.  (note the sarcasm).
The kids did have a really good time though.  Maggie especially.  Like I mentioned earlier, she is getting a little bit of a 'tude so in order to keep her happy, my mom and I tried feeding her tiny bits of pizza.  Yeah, she loved it.  But that was our fatal mistake.  For the rest of the party we had to keep her constantly happy with pizza.  It got the point where we would let her gnaw on some crust, but when we'd have to switch it out (for one that wasn't a soggy mess) she woudl scream until she got a new one.  As abruptly as an on/off switch.  It would have been kind of funny if it wasn't MY child.  Here is one of her content moments.
This a picture of a totally RUDE Tyler with a disgusted look on his face saying, "Ooooh man!  I don't want THIS toy!"  
Just kidding!  He loved ALL his gifts--I just happened to snap the pictures just as he was making this sour looking grimace.  Thought I would play a little joke on you.  He wanted cupcakes--"a lot of bright cupcakes--red, blue and green" were my instructions.  So that's what I did...I did not think about the repercussions.....(more to follow)  By the way, I did have them arranged in a number 6 design, but they slid all around in the car and I just never got around to fixing them.  It would have been lost on the kids anyway.
Here, my friends, is the "repercussions" of my naively frosted cupcakes--6 mouths that looked like this (see below) in varying shades of (you guessed it) blue, green and red.  His expression is a perfect example of the stupor that comes from 2 1/2 hours of lights, music, rides, games, pizza and lots of sugar.  The red eyes must have been a side effect of the overstimulation as well.
We were out in the backyard the other day (don't ask me why--it was 110 degrees) but the kids were playing so well together I waited until I could no longer stand the heat before going inside.  A side benefit?  A couple of super-cute pictures.  The queen, of course...
The destroyer (who actually hasn't destroyed anything for a few weeks--knock on wood laminate (my cheap computer desk))....
And my boys.  This is how they get away with beating each other up.  They pretend like they are hugging each other or something but really use the hug as a decoy to fool me.  So when Jacob starts to cry after something like this, Tyler can say with his most wide-eyed expression, "But mom, I was only trying to give him a hug."  What do you do?
And you all know by now that my pictures are all out of order--but here is Maggie at the party (pre-pizza) keeping happy playing with the balloons.
And here is the whole gang.  Lots of noise, lots of craziness, lots of messes, but lots of smiles.  Totally worth it.

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Summer Stuff

Well, summer has been keeping us busy.  I've been working on some more toes.  Here is my favorite 4th of July...Here's one I did on myself last night.  I think it came out pretty cute.  I like bright colors.
Anyway, Craig and Sharee came down for a couple days this weekend.  They brought down Grandma Lee's old cedar chest.  She had covered it in a velvety green fabric (way too froo-froo for my taste) but it is going to be our family project.  The kids and I took all the fabric/batting off today and filled in some holes with wood filler.  We are going to try to paint it.  We will see what happens...   But it is nice to have something of Grandma's.  We have the rocking horse Grandpa Lee made, now this is a great keepsake of Grandma's.  She had written on the bottom, "Bought for myself in 1954, paid about $50.00."  So it is a real keepsake, if we can make it look decent.  We may end up having to recover it.  I will keep you updated.
Also, I was skimming through some old pics and saw this one of Jacob.  I thought, "Man, that was sooooo long ago!"  Then I realized that this was taken about 2 months after we moved here to Fort Irwin.  Can you believe it?  This is what he looked like when we got here~it just seems crazy how fast time passes.  (P.S.  I remember that Mickey Mouse shirt too--it was bought the first time we took him to Disneyland, not as a keepsake, but as a replacement for the tee-shirt he pit up all over.  It stunk so bad we were willing to pay $20 for a new shirt just to not have to smell him for the rest of the day.)
Maggie is getting a little bit of a 'tude these days.  Gone is the baby who was happy with whatever was in front of her.  She now is opinionated about what she wants--and it is usually something she can't have.  She is still really good and sweet, but turning into a girl for sure!
A couple of funny things--the other day Tyler and I were talking about his birthday party.  We are having one here and in Utah (since he hardly has any friends left here).  We had it planned to go to the bowling alley with a couple friends, but then Tyler came into my room and said, "Mom, I don't think we should have my party at the bowling alley.  We should have it at a place where moms can relax."  I answered, "And where is that?"  "Chuck E. Cheese!"  So it was such a convincing argument I relented.  Although I highly doubt I will be able to relax my cares away at a Chuck E. Cheese birthday party.  He will have fun though.  

We have been cracking down on the kids on a particular thing they are doing lately, so Tyler surprised me and wrote a new rule on a piece of paper and taped it to the bottom of our rule list.  See if you can decipher what it means, "Notadlin."  He didn't put a space in it so I won't either.  I will tell you what it says later...

Another funny thing Tyler said was when I gave him a box of crackers to munch on one afternoon.  He said (very excitedly), "Mom, this box is a specially marked package!  We win a prize!  We should always look for specially marked packages."  Oh boy.  You'd think he watches 10 hours of tv a day talking like that, but no.  It's crazy--so often we say that bad images on tv/movies don't influence us but advertisers are making millions on the fact that only 30 seconds of tv definitely does influence us.  My son is saying "specially marked packages" for Pete's sake!  Oh dear.

By the way, the new rule is "No tattling."  Did you get it?