Fishy Feeding Frenzy

Today we had a very fun family day. This afternoon we took the kids up to the pool for what may be the last time for the summer. After that we came home, changed and went to dinner. After dinner, we stopped by Blue Springs Lake to feed the fish at the marina. The boys had a blast. There were hundreds of fish, mouths open, just waiting to be fed. Here is a video I took while we were there: http://sharing.theflip.com/session/7dc7c6e4c58c5602b3905570d2a70059/video/2134583

Weeks 15 & 16

I'm a little behind since I'll be 16 weeks in just a couple of days so I'll go ahead and post both fruits (is an avocado a fruit?)

1st Day of School

Today was RJ's first day of school for the 2008-2009 school year. He is starting his third year of preschool and I can't believe how much he's changed over the last two years. He was very excited today and has graduated to the afternoon class for the first time. It will be an adjustment but I'm sure he'll do great! Above is a progression of first day of school pics. 2006, 2007 and 2008

Teamwork

The swing set (a very generous gift from G & G Jones) has been in boxes in our garage for about 2 months now. Over the last week it has FINALLY started to take shape. Above is what it looks like now (except it now has a full roof!) and what it is supposed to look like. I keep telling BJ the rest should be a piece of cake.

If life gives you lemons...

I never thought that a lemon was bigger than a peach but whatever!

A Budding Artist

MJ had his "handy dandy" Blue's Clues notebook in hand and said "I draw Mommy!" I couldn't believe my eyes when he showed me what he drew. He's not quite 2 1/2 mind you. Can you tell I'm proud???

Iowa State Fair 2008

This weekend MJ and I went to the Iowa State Fair. He has been every year since he was a baby. This year he was an absolute angel and really enjoyed the animals. All week I tried to prepare him for what we were going to see. I showed him videos on youtube of the fair and we talked about the different animals. He kept talking about seeing a horse. I would ask him what else he wanted to see. He would say "elephant!". I tried preparing him telling him that there aren't elephants at the fair but we'd see many other animals. Wouldn't you know it, out of the corner of my eye Friday night, what do you suppose I saw? Elephant Rides! MJ chose not to ride on one but he did ride on a horse and loved every minute of it!

The Week of the Peach

Out with the Old....

We are FINALLY finishing our basement today by having carpet installed! After an almost two year process, BJ will have his "man's room" and the kids will have a playroom. More importantly, I will have my living room back and toys will be banished to the basement. We have lived in this house for just shy of 3 years and the carpet in the living room looks like we've lived here 10. Since we were able to negotiate a "whole house installation" price, we decided to replace the carpet in the living room as well. No shoes in the living room for anybody who comes to visit--at least not for a couple of weeks!

Notice the beautiful, rectangular, couch shaped clean piece of carpet on the left of the picture? We are keeping that for emergencies since we currently have the same carpet upstairs.

One way to save space

MJ has had a really hard time lately staying in his bed at night. I have a childproof doorknob protector on his door that physically keeps him in his room. He has since resorted to turning on his light and playing at 3:00 in the morning. That wouldn't be as big of a deal if he and RJ didn't share a room. After much consideration I deemed in necessary to tape his light switch down last night. It worked! It really ticked him off but it worked. Since he determined that he would not be sleeping in "mommy's bed" he found a suitable replacement.

Edited to say that this has become a common occurance. As long as it keeps MJ out of our bed and RJ isn't beating him up I have no problem with the sleeping arrangements.