NCAA Track Meet...

Jason and I love track, so last Friday, we decided to take the boys to the NCAA track meet at Drake.

We had to start the evening with a snack. After a small ice-cream dessert, we headed into the stadium...the next event was to begin at 6:35 pm. Last Friday was chilly and overcast and as soon as we walked into the stadium, it began to rain AND there was lightning spotted in the area...that means an automatic 30 minute delay...UGH!!

We headed over to a lecture hall to wait out the rain...thank goodness I threw in the boys DS games at the last second!


Back to the stadium...FINALLY the races were to begin....at 7:35! Double UGH!! As you can see, Jack was so excited about the news, that I almost had to restrain him! The first race was 1 minute from beginning and it started POURING...but no lightning, so on with the races! The boys and I huddled under a bright red poncho..I looked like Mother Ginger from the Nutcracker! We stayed until 9:00pm...weathering the on and off rain. Sam and I bet quarters on each race. I am proud to say I won 25 cents...Sam won $1.25.

Needless to say, everyone was exhausted by the time we got home...
Jack fell asleep in the car and continued to sleep after we carried him into the house and laid him on the rug....Moose was bothered by him just laying there and not doing anything...that is so unlike Jack!!

The boys headed back down on Saturday...much better weather and great races!! 

So Nice...

This is me doing important computer work, while Moose lays at my feet...love that!

Meet Ed...

Let the frog adventures begin...the first frog of the season has been caught and named...


Meet Ed.

Ed is/was big and grossed me out.

jack loved Ed. He had no problem catching and holding him...and posing with him.


Ed's fancy trick was to climb up the boys' arms. yea.
I finally told the boys to get on the grass. Poor Ed would jump out of their hands and land on the cement with a nasty thump.

Sam could barely stand Ed on his arm...I don't know if it tickled or grossed him out and he was trying to push through those feelings!  Can't wait until more frogs show themselves...love it when I don't know if it is a leaf or a frog in the driveway.

A Rainy Lego Day...

What is a boy to do when his brother is at Safety Town (more on that another time) and it is raining outside? Might as well get your mom to take pictures of your Legos..which she meant to do about 3 years ago!!


Sam LOVES legos! He has several sets he has built. Our challenge was to figure out a creative way to display them all (they tend to take a bit of space!) At one time, displaying was not a problem due to Jack eventually getting ahold of the built Lego set, pretending he was a tornado and the set would end in ruins. No display area needed...well, fortunately for Sam, jack is no longer tornado Jack. So last weekend, we found these shelves at Target and thought this would be perfect for Lego displaying in Sam's room.  Sam completely got into figuring out how to organize each set.

I got this idea on a blog. He displays his mini-figures in this old vintage printers box. I am going to get a larger one so Jack can display his guys, in his room. I am planning on getting two more for Sam, but in different sizes, to add with this one. 
(I wasn't sure about the yellow figure in his undies...Sam said it was a sumo wrestler...beside the sumo is a shirtless "tough" Indy Jones.

Moose had to get into the act also.  Sam thought she was trying to make it look as if she had put together this Harry Potter set!

Another area contains different modes of transportation.

This is Sam' pride and joy.  The Harry Potter Hogwarts School of Wizard.  There is a new "section" of school that he has been wanting, so we stop at Target every other day to check if it has arrived.  Why Target?  He has gift cards from his birthday that are burning in his pocket!

The latest set involves two aliens chasing a farmer!! (this is taken with a flash)

This is what it looks like without a flash.  The red glow is coming from the "mother spaceship" that is hovering over the farmer!

The mother space ship.

Wanted a picture with Sam and his mother ship...guess who had to get in on it...she just cracks me up!! Look at her little smile! 
Now the next challenge is to get all these pictures (plus several more) into the Lego scrapbook i bought for Sam.  Well...at the rate I am going I MIGHT have it ready for his graduation!!

A Hail Storm and a Sleep Over...

Yesterday the boys were really into making forts. They made one in the living room and just as they were getting settled in, a hail storm went through our area....

This is our front walk way...it was solid ice. We had the bright idea of trying to catch some ice cubes...hence the Tupperware.

A good shot of where the hail rolled off the roof and into a pile by my hosta plants...

Jack checking out the ice...Moose thinking it would make a good snack!

Sam ventured out and grabbed and extra large cube....I almost ran to get a ruler so we could send our photo into TV 8!!

Finally, everyone got settled in for the sleepover. It's hard to tell from this angel, but the boys are surrounded by pillows covered with blankets.

I am writing this as they are falling asleep...Jason thinks it has about a 10% chance of working...we have windows in the ceiling in the room (can't remember the name of those darn things!) and they are VERY noisy when it rains...we will see who is up in our room first tonight...

Where Rock Have I Been Living Under?

Last week the boys and I discover REDBOX....where I have been?  This is seriously the best way to rent a movie!! 

All you have to do (in case you are one of the three people that have not tried this out yet)  is touch the screen to get started...touch "rent," choose your movie, swipe your credit card, enter your email...and DONE!!  The movie is ONE DOLLAR and due the next night at 9 pm or you pay another DOLLAR!!  LOVE THIS!!! (as you can tell from the amount of capital letters I am using!) 

THEN...we rented two movies the first night and received a coupon for one free and THEN received another movie free for signing up for RED box...WOW!!!  PLUS...these little machines are all over town....PLUS you can return the movie ANYWHERE in the USA...opens up a whole new bucket of movies while traveling!!! 

I saw that Blockbuster had a special 5 movies for 20 dollars and I thought to myself...I could get 5 movies for FIVE DOLLARS and if I didn't return them on time, i could still get 5 movies for TEN DOLLARS...CHEAP!!

As they say...it is defiantly the little things that make a person happy...

A Different Book Review...

Wreck This Journal is the book that allows you to do everything to a book that you you have always been told NOT to do to a book...the boys LOVE it!!  Each page has an idea of what to do to "wreck" the book...

The book is a bit warped...one day Sam hung the book out the window, while driving to school, in a rain storm.

Sam picked a scab (gross) and put the blood spots on this page.

A dirt rubbing page...

Burnt this page!


Chewed on this page...hmmmm..wonder which boy was willing to do this!!

and Jack has slept with the book...which he found pretty uneventful.

It is actually a good "kid" thing for the summer...the boys will spend about an hour wrecking the book!  Enough time for me to get some important computer work done!

A Boy and His Dog...

The other night, Jack was laying on the floor talking to Moose...he had his nose right up to her nose. I was trying to get a good shot of their noses together, and then I saw how she put her paw on his arm (*sigh*).
i apologize for the quality of the pictures, i took them with my i-pad. I think they need to work on the quality of their pictures!

 

Happy Birthday!!

Happy Birthday Mom and Meg!!

Monday Moose...

Oops..I was going to post these pictures of moose on Monday, but time got away from me, so it's really not Monday Moose, but Thursday???? (Can't think of anything catchy) Anyway, thought I would update you on our Moose...

She has her picture taken a lot...what a surprise!

She loves to play ball and get HUGE belly rubs...look at the smile!

The boys are just eating her up!! Sam calls her "Moosie."

Jack loves, loves, loves her....he takes her where ever he goes. He loves when she is laying down and he will lay nose to nose with her...and then she will put her paw over him (sigh.) I do have a picture of that to post later!!

All three of them have such cheesy smiles!

The ONLY reason I am sharing this photo is to show how Moose enjoys sitting on the steps in the sunroom...
Several people have asked how it is going~as you can see, we are enjoying every minute with her and are so lucky to have her in our family!
(OH NO! My name is Katie Belding and I post "cheesy" dog posts..oh well!!)