Birthday DS...

Sam got a Nintendo DS for his birthday (he says he was one of the last kids to get one). At this time, this is a familiar scene at our house...Sam playing his DS and Jack watching. It is amazing how Jack will sit and watch Sam play. My sister came over last night and SHE sat and watched Sam, too. I might have to check out what I am missing! (don't worry, I don't let him play it for hours!!!)

Almost 40...

I decided on my 39th birthday, which was in March, that I was going to write 40 stories about me, by my 40th birthday. Well, I have written a total of 1 1/2 stories! WOW!! So last night, I was doing important computer work and came across a class called "The Challenge of Me." It is offered on Big Picture Scrapbooking. It is a four week, on-line class that focuses on you. Basically, you get assignments (I think) to tell stories about you and your life. By the end of the class, you will have 26 stories about you. So, that just leaves me 14 stories to write, minus the 1 1/2 I have already written...so a grand total of 12 1/2 stories left, that need to be written! My friend, Janet, told me about an on-line class that she had participated in and it sounded like fun. I cross my fingers that I can keep up...

I know my family reads this each day...would you, my family, be willing to write one story about me that you remember? You can then e-mail it to me...mom, I would love to have the story about the day I was born. I have been working on Sam's..which is taking about a week to write about those 18 hours! (Plus I would only have 9 1/2 stories left!)

Blue Eyed Boys..

I love this picture of my dad and Sam. Sam always says that what makes grandpa and him special, is that they are the only ones that have blue eyes in the family...I am amazed on how much their eyes look the same in this picture! Love those blue eyes!!

Farmer's Market...

On Saturday, we went down to the Farmer's Market. I love to buy fresh flowers and Jas likes to buy salsa and different condiments. At different times, the boys needed to hold my flowers...

Not sure what Sam is doing with the flowers here, but I think he didn't want to get wet...the bag was leaking.

Stopped at a really cool balloon booth. Jack got a monkey (the orange) hanging on a palm tree hat. I have no idea why Jack is so serious in the pic.

Sam got a party hat. He wanted to have it for the evening as we were celebrating his b-day with the family. Happy to say, the hats have not yet popped! And notice that serious Vogue look on Jack!!

Camp T-Shirts...

At school, Sam is having Camp Yagattawanna. This means making a tent out of his desk, taking a flashlight, books to read, a favorite stuffed animal, bottle water and a camp t-shirt. The camp t-shirt was a plain white tee and the campers got to draw a camping scene on it with markers. The teacher (or camp counselor) said that the campers can wear their t-shirts to school every day of camp...which is three days. (ew!) So yesterday morning, Sam put on his camp t-shirt for day 2 of camp. Jack saw the t-shirt with the marker drawings that Sam had on it and thought that was pretty cool. On one sleeve, Sam wrote his name and on the other sleeve, Sam put 2009. Well, we continued with our morning routine...thinking nothing of nothing. Then Jack came around the corner....

Jack had taken it upon himself, to get a plain white t-shirt and decorated it with markers. He was so proud. It has very colorful lines all over it and the word "kcaAJ" (Jack spelled backwards and with 2 a's) on one sleeve...I should say the name is more in his armpit because you can't see his name when he puts his arm down. He looked at us and stated, "I have a camp t-shirt now, too." The three of us got a good laugh out of that one...

as for the 3rd day of camp, I am too tired to do the wash and so the camp tee will not get to see the last day of camp. (oh darn.) I will post pictures tomorrow of the camp t-shirts. I am too tired to go and pull them out of the laundry and take pictures...I also want you to see them on the boys, so you get the full effect. Happy Friday and have fun to all of those who are camping this weekend..for real!

Little Bunny...

I have been working on my garden beds and have fought the rabbits eating all the flowers in them, every year...so this year I put up green wire fencing all around my beds. Well, look what a &*%$& baby bunny did to my flowers...

This one isn't too bad, the little bunny at least left one flower. It's tummy must have been full by now...

This flower was pretty large with loads of blooms...not any more!

And this little flower is the same as the top one...notice this one must have been the beginning os the bunny's eating. You may wonder how the little bunny got through my fencing, (notice it in this picture) he was that darn little...he squeezed through the little wire squares.

Well, I am a bit sad, to share that the little bunny is no longer with us. Let me just say, you don't eat my neighbor's new flowers and think you are going to get away with it!!!

He needed me...

Yesterday was suppose to be "my day" where I could do what I needed to do or what I wanted to do. I had flowers to plant, things to organize, errands to run, and dental work to get done. But, he needed me...he needed his mom, so I stayed with him. And that was okay.

A Definition...

Sunday, Sam asked me what it meant to "blow chunks." So I explained to him, that it means to throw up. If you know me, I cannot handle when someone throws up. Well, lucky me...Sam came home yesterday after school and said that he had felt icky all day. I thought maybe he needed to poo...well around 7:00 pm, he got sick, big time, on my feet, because he missed the toilet. He hasn't gotten sick for some time and he was pretty upset (so was I.) Well, to make a long story short, after the incident (boy can a little guy unload A LOT) he was sitting there and said, "I'm sorry I missed the toilet mom. But, I do feel better. I think I just needed to blow chunks." We laughed. Then I went on the deck for some fresh air and gagged.

Family Photos...

We took these photos this weekend while waiting for Sam's guests to arrive for his party....Not very often can we get everyone to look at the camera at the same time...and I am even in a picture!! Way to go boys!!!

Sam's Party

Sam had an awesome time at his Birthday Party at The Playground. It is one of those inflatable places and it rocked! (JB said that the only thing that could make it better was a cool beverage and I added...a book to read, too!) The people there take care of everything and I mean everything...all we had to do was bring the cake...seriously, they had everything else and even ran the entire party. It was fabulous!! When the guests had all arrived, everyone headed to the first inflatable room for 45 min. Talk about a bunch of sweaty heads and red faces! Then is was off to the second room with HUGE inflatable toys and a HUGE playground area, for 45 min. Just enough time...then we ate pizza (which the place orders for you and has delivered), ate cake and opened presents..It was a fun party and the bonus was that the boys went to bed early!! (that might have been due to Sam being up since 5 am!!)

My Little Guy...

Yesterday, I sat on the porch waiting for Sam to get home from school. As he came around the corner, I took a few pictures and started to think that he is getting so grown up...tomorrow he will be 7 years old! I completely understand now why parents say, "Time goes by so quickly." I know it sounds so cliche, but I cannot believe he is already going to be 7. Seven is my lucky number and so I am hoping Sammy's seventh year is lucky, too!!! We are having his birthday party on Saturday with 10 boys...I am sure I will have some good photos and stories for next week!!

Puzzle Mania...

Sam and I have been putting this soccer puzzle together since last Friday. Just a mere 550 pieces, all about the size of dimes! What was I thinking??? Sam can put 100 piece puzzle together by himself, so I thought we could get one to do together...I think I need to get one that doesn't have so many pieces, next time!

I love to do puzzles! When I was "younger" and would have a snow day from school , my dad and I would put together puzzles. Some took all day to complete....it was awesome! I always looked forward a good snow day for many different reasons!

Mom's Day Album...

My sister and I made a mother's day book for my mom. It was great fun to do and it brought back a lot of memories and some questions...like why did my mom never let my hair grow long. The answer: because once it got so long, it would just be one big matted mess! We used the bo bunny chipboard books with the bo bunny chipboard letters.

Grandma Mother's Day Books...

The boys have complete their first scrapbooks. They made one for their Nanny, my mom, and one for their Grandma Sharon and Grandma Darlene, for Mother's Day. At one point Sam stated, "I LOVE to scrapbook!" JB just shook his head.

I used an SEI 4x6 mini albums and the new Basic Grey Lime Rickey paper...LOVE it!! (so did the boys!)

This is the title page that Sam did for both books.

Just a few example pages from the albums. One side had a photo, while the other side, the boys drew their own picture to go with the photo or wrote a sentence about the photo.

The last page was signed by both boys, with love.

Happy Mother's Day!

Celebrated Mother's Day last night with our families coming over for dinner. Snapped a few photos of the "kids" with their moms. We shared a lot of laughs, good food and just had a fun time. It was a great evening.

My sister and I with our mom. Our faces should look awesome with all our new make-up. Now, JB's mom wants a vibrating mascara!! (A trait in our family, on my dad's side, is that one eye is smaller than the other. You can really see it in my left eye and my sister's right eye in this picture!)

JB and his mom and grandma. His grandma is a young 93 years old!!

Behind the Scenes...

Our awesome pictures from Mother's Day had some behind the scene issues...

To get Jack to look at the camera, I said, "Oh no, Jack! I have a big booger on my nose!" (I know ...pretty gross.) But if you look at the picture, everyone thought it was funny, except for my mom...

Megan has an issue with keeping her eyes opened in pictures. Now I see Jack has the same issues!

JB and his mom scared my little guys!!

Part 3: oh my....

This is a bit embarrassing to blog...but I did it anyway. This is a before shopping picture and an after shopping picture. Please remember there are three suitcases, pillows and a cooler included, so it is not all packages. Plus, we don't buy much else for the rest of the spring and summer...all done in one big spend. But, it gives you an idea of how hard we shop. (I think we would have had more room if Meg wouldn't have bought all that make-up!)

Part 2: Buyer's Remorse...

So, we buy make-up...lots of it. We got swept up in our faces!
At one point, mom looked at me and said, "You don't have to buy it all now. You can think about it and we can always come back." I looked at her with a glare and stated, "No, I am getting it now!" Just like a three year old!
One of the best things we all got that dya was a vibrating mascara. (It really is awesome!) While I was watching Meg get her make up done, I overheard my mom ask, "How much is this vibrating...thing?" I looked at Meg and said, "Hmmm, interesting..."
So, again, we all buy way too much make up (well, maybe mom didn't.) and buyers remorse hits Meg about...oh, I'd say...3 minutes out of the store. "I have 11 items on my receipt..I only bought 10. They slipped something in my bag!" We had to finally go out to the car and review her purchase....

If you count the items, there are 11...just like her receipt. So we started looking at each item to see if she could return something. We would say, "What's this, oh, bronzer, you could return that." Meg: "Oh, no...that is really good stuff." She said that about everything!!! I got the giggles.

This was the miracle sauce. It is suppose to get rid of your eye wrinkles in about a week, or visibly diminish them. A mere $100. (sorry Meg!!) We told her she could take that back. "Oh no, that worked really well with my eyes." She ended up not returning anything!!

Since we bought so much, we each got several free gifts: 2 large tote bags, a medium size make-up bag and a small make-up bag. When our friend, Ashley, showed the bags to Meg, Meg said, "Oh yea. Those are real bags. They won't crack in the winter like the last bag I got at a make over." (she was completely serious...I did see the bag crack) I got the giggles. Megan referred to her totes as her "prizes." She now refers to her totes as getting the biggest "dumb-ass prizes" for buying the most make up!

Before we head into back into the mall for more shopping, Megan asks us one more time to look at her eyes and tell her how good they look. (This is the way Meg looked at me all day (and I looked at her... if we weren't checking ourselves out in a mirror!)
After all this remorse, we walked back into the mall. Megan is still saying, "I still can't believe that I spent all this money on make-up,"...then she spotted something..."OH, a Fossil store...I do need a new watch!" and off she went! Remorse gone.

Minn. Trip Part 1...

Each year, my sister, mom and I head up to Minneapolis for a weekend of shopping and loads of laughs. One of the highlights of the weekend was on Saturday morning. We walked into Bloomingdale's, so mom could get some eye shadow...I went outside the store and sat down on a bench, Meg went with mom. After a half an hour...I went back in the store to see what waas taking them so long. Well, Mom was getting a make-over!! (she has never done this.) When I walked up to the mom and Meg, Megan mouthed the words, "OMG!" and pointed at mom. She looked awesome! Well, who could pass over such an opportunity? As soon as mom was done, I hopped into the chair. Then Meg did...

This is Ashely, yes, we were on a first name basis by the end of this, applying Meg's make up.

We decided we should take a "before" picture...Megan posed like all "before" picture people..looking sad and low down.

This is Megan with a fresh layer of make up...she should look darn good, only $300 worth of make up on this face!!

Here's Megan and I with our new best friend, Ashley. Hope she got paid commission on this day!

Tomorrow...buyers' remorse hits Megan...HARD!!!

112 Dixie Cups...

The boys have been building things with...Dixie cups! Cheap entertainment! This was one of the "highest" towers the boys made...on the foot board of our bed... so you know it won't and didn't last long! What sums up this picture is Jack's face...who do you think knocked this one down?

Happy May Day!!!

The May Day "baggies" are done... monkeys for Jack and smiley faces for Sam. Sam's were to be footballs, but each individual lace on the football needed to be cut out. My sister, who helped me make them with he boys, and I decided that smiley faces were much easier!