Thursday, May 31, 2012

Basement Progress

I only got one picture today of what they accomplished, and it isn’t that great, so I’ll explain just a bit about what you see:

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They put in some insulation, got all the electrical up and running and also cleared out the remaining junk so that the guys could come in and start hanging drywall tomorrow. I guess that doesn’t sound like much, but they worked all morning and afternoon down there, and I can’t believe how awesome it’s all coming together.

They put in tons of outlets and lights and I think it’s really going to be enough considering there won’t be any natural light in that area. (I was worried about there being ample light and now I’m feeling much better about the whole ordeal.) After the drywall gets hung tomorrow it’s going to look a WHOLE lot different! Can’t wait!

Another Day at the Pool

We didn’t have much going on this afternoon, so we hit the pool again. I have a feeling we will be spending a good amount of time down there this year. It’s just a nice way to blow an hour or two before dinner and it gets everyone out of the house and away from the TV and/or iPad…or iTad as Harper calls it.

The kids were taking their sweet time getting in, so Tony decided to help them get used to the water.

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I don’t know if he actually got any of them wet, but Zoe thought it was pretty funny!

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Landon impressed Zoe and Brandon with his mad handstand skills.

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And Zoe and Landon made their best attempts to dunk Brandon. Neither of them was successful though.

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Harper played toss the animals again with dada. But only for a minute or two because he was much more interested in walking around the pool area and climbing through the hand rails.

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Zoe kept trying to get Harper to get in the pool with her but he just wouldn’t go. Then she suggested that he get in the pool with Brandon and after a few seconds of contemplation, he walked right up to Brandon and got in!

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We laughed and laughed and Zoe is convinced that Harper hates her. I know he doesn’t, but he is just fickle like that sometimes!

Once he was in the pool, Zoe grabbed him and started tossing him in the air which he loved…and I guess Zoe forgave him. :)

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Finger Paint

Harper got to do a little finger painting yesterday. It turned into elbow, hand, and face painting, but it was fun nonetheless.

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Mema was over helping with Harper, so she got to help with the painting. I wonder if she’ll ever decide to let him do it again after she saw what a mess it was!

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He sure seemed to take his work seriously.

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He is my first child that doesn’t seem to mind getting messy. Zoe and Landon both liked to finger paint, but would try to just keep the paint on one or two fingers. As you can see, Harper was happy to get both hands in it and go for it! Now if I could just get him to quit touching his mouth and hair when his hands look like that!

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Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Wordless Wednesday

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Blanca

The other day Tony started cleaning out a part of our garage and came across a small fish bowl. I decided to take Harper to the store to let him pick out a Beta.

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Beta’s come in so many cool colors, but he was set on this white one. He chose the pink plant too though, so I let it slide that he chose such a boring fish.

BARE book

Tuesday morning, Tony, Zoe, Harper and I attended Landon’s last BARE book reading.

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(BARE books are empty books that the kids write and illustrate each year through elementary school. Each year there is a topic or theme and that they must stick to, and at the end of the year, each grade has an “authors tea” where the families are invited in to hear the books.)

This year’s book was based on the Oregon trail. Each child was placed in a “family” group where there was a mom, dad and children and then they came up with a story to tell about their adventures. The books were terrific (as usual) and some of the story made us crack up laughing. Landon was the father in his group and he was married with 4 kids!

I loved hearing the kids read their stories and we were amazed at how great some of the illustrations were. Landon isn’t big on drawing, but his story was excellent. I could tell he’d worked really hard on it, and he was very proud of his book.

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He was a little embarrassed that I kept taking pictures of him! Can you believe that?!!

BBQ and Swimming

Our holiday weekend wouldn’t have been complete without attending at least one barbecue. Lucky for us, Tony’s brother Chris invited us all over to his house for some food and swimming.

First up, was the swimming.

Zoe got herself a new bathing suit…I think it is so adorable!

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I don’t think Lea could have looked any cuter with her sunglasses and hat!

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After spending the past couple days in the water, Harper was more interested in Lea’s sunglasses than the pool.

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Tony ended up grabbing Landon a few times and tossing him into the pool. Landon absolutely loved it!

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After about an hour or so out in the pool, Harper was done. We headed inside and he just couldn’t wait to play with all of Lea’s toys! He especially loved playing with her kitchen set, and I couldn’t stand how absolutely sweet he was playing all by himself. I just watched him play while we all ate dinner, and he was as happy as a clam.

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When Lea finished eating she joined him in the kitchen and showed him how things worked. He was happy to observe.

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We ended up staying pretty late that evening (for Harper especially) but it was really nice getting to see everyone and just hang out. I hope that much of our summer will be spent just lounging around enjoying good food and better company!

Sunday at Six Flags

Since we decided to pull Landon from the soccer tournament on Sunday, we thought it was a great opportunity to hit Six Flags. We bought season passes again this year and we never know how often we’ll get to go, so off we went.

It was sizzling hot when we got there at 10am, but instead of hitting the water park first thing, we went for the Merry-Go-Round because we thought Harper would like that.

As you can see in the next picture, we were wrong. No one was sure why he didn’t want to ride, but he cried and cried and didn’t want a thing to do with it.

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Tony, Zoe and Landon went on ahead though since they were already on.

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After the fiasco at the Merry-Go-Round, we thought it best to just go on to the water park. On the way we saw a fine mist coming from one of the park signs and that was all it took to get Harper to cheer up!

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In his excitement over the spray, he accidentally smacked Tony across the jaw. I think this photo is just hilarious!

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After about 5 minutes of running back and forth through the water, I told Harper it was time to move on. In the next picture, he’s holding up one finger telling me “one mo time'”. I swear he could have played with that thing all day!

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We did actually make it down to the waterpark though, and the water was so nice and cool! I don’t know how hot it was that day, but I’d guess it was around 800 degrees.

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We only ended up spending about 4 hours at the park, but it was long enough. Zoe had spent the night with a friend the night before so she was dragging, Landon was disappointed that Zoe wouldn’t hang out with him and ride water slides, Harper needed a nap (which he never took) and I was about to spontaneously combust from the heat. I guess Tony could have stayed longer…but I’m sure we’ll all have our fill of the water park before the season’s over.

OPEN!

As of Saturday, our pool is officially open for summer. After Landon’s games Saturday morning and Harper’s afternoon nap, we decided to head over to the pool for a little bit.

Last year the water was absolutely freezing when the pool first opened so we were all a little worried that we were going to be too cold to enjoy it, but it just so happened that it was extremely hot and the water felt really nice.

We got to the pool when there was only about 10 minutes before adult swim so they got a few minutes then had to wait 15 minutes for it to be over and get in again. But, as soon as adult swim was over, Landon ran and jumped right into that refreshing water.

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Harper was happy to have dada hold him and let him splash around in the water. He had some little squirt toys to hold and throw and fetch too, so he was enjoying himself.

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At one point Landon challenged Tony to a race across the pool. And, since Tony’s only 10 years old at heart, he accepted the challenge. (He did let Landon get a good start though!)

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While waiting for dada and Landon to finish showing off, Harper found a good puddle to jump in. He was even able to get dada to splash around with him.

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And, as is expected, Landon and one of the neighborhood girls did a few thousand handstands…how else can they perfect them if they don’t do them over and over and over again and say “Mom, was that straight?” after every single one?

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Saturday, May 26, 2012

Saturday Stuff

Our day started out with a 10am soccer game. Landon is participating in the Heat Cup tournament this weekend, and boy is it hot!

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He played extremely well and although his team lost the game 2-1, no goals were scored while Landon was goalie. :)

Like I said, it was terribly hot so after the first game, Harper and I headed home for some AC, lunch and naptime. Landon’s team ended up winning the second game and will have at least one more game tomorrow. (But, because of some serious issues with his coach, we won’t be attending tomorrows game(s) and instead will be going to Six Flags for some real fun!)

After such a long tiring morning, we decided to hit the pool with the boys. Today is the first day it’s open this season and I thought we could all use a little cooling off. (Zoe worked again today.)

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I realize it looks like there isn’t anyone there except us, but really there was. This shot was just taken right after adult swim ended and we were the first to get in.

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There was a swim race between Tony and Landon.

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And some handstands with one of the neighborhood kids.

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And Harper did some puddle splashing.

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We were really surprised that the water wasn’t all that cold, but even so, we only spent about an hour at the pool because we were heading over to Tony’s parents’ house for dinner. I’m sure we’ll be getting plenty of pool time in this summer though, so I’m not worried!

April Fools Pranks

The two little kids made me laugh yesterday morning.  I was upstairs getting things ready for school when I heard them talking about how ...