Happy Birthday Brian!!

Happy 35th Birthday Brian. Can you believe it? I hope you have a wonderful day. Sorry I have to work tonight! We'll celebrate and have so much fun this weekend on our getaway. No time to write more now.

Because I'm working today, we had Brian's favorite pie last night (German Chocolate from Marie Callendars).

The lighting is terrible. My house gets so dark at night.

Blowing out the candle. I thought I had candles but didn't so we improvised and used a tea light. It worked.

"A little help please"

Yesterday I'm downstairs and M's upstairs yelling, "Mom, a little help please... upstairs". When I got up there this is what I found. I asked him why he did it he said he was just trying to get some toilet paper. He emptied the whole roll!!

The face I got after I told him he was going to have to help me clean up the mess.

That's all for now.

Parascope

M learned about parascopes and being a spy while watching Curious George. It's his favorite show right now. He and Brian have been talking about making one for a few weeks now. While K and I napped he and M went to the store to get the parts and then got started. They had such a fun time. M wanted to use his tools also. They made it using velcro, duct tape, two mirrors a 2x4 and a staple gun. M was so excited he couldn't stand it. I definitely encourage doing this project at home with your little ones. He's taking it to school for show-n-tell tomorrow. Here are a few pictures.

At the start of their project. M didn't want to look at the camera so Brian told him if he would look at the camera, smile and get it over with I would leave him alone!! So he did. I was in the middle of making dinner. (he made his tie-dyed shirt at school)

M helping Dad with his square.

K loved making funny faces and admiring herself in the mirror.

Here it is.

See the huge laugh of M's? Brian leaned down and made a silly face on the lower mirror (see Brian's head). They had been spying over the fence.

... And spying around corners. If you click on the picture you can see M's face in the mirror.

I was talking with M's teacher (Shiloh) today when I picked M up from school. She said that he is doing very well in school and plays with Jack all of the time. They are good together and are much happier when the other one is there. She says sometimes they get too rambunctious and she has to sit down and have a talk with them. I bet you'll never hear another mom say that she was glad to hear that about her child. When M was in the Sky Blue Room Teacher Julie told me that he was very quiet and shy. She said if called upon he would sometimes get tearful and embarrassed easily. I have been wanting him to come out of his shell and be more outgoing and less reserved. Shiloh said she wouldn't worry about him ... he's been fine in her class and not too quiet at all.

Laziness starts very early in life. Before bed I asked M what kind of sandwich he wanted in his lunch. He said with a cute grin, "I want bologna and cheese so then I won't have to wash my face." He always eats the middle of the sandwich first so PB & J gets all over his face and Shiloh makes him wash it. I know he likes PB & J more but he's just lazy.

While we were playing outside today he said he was going to be in charge. I told him I didn't think so. So then he said, "only 4 year olds can be in charge!!"

K is obsessed with a flannel blanket that she saw M using once or twice. She cries for it and carries it around the house with her sometimes. At nap time we forgot it and she began screaming out and crying "need M's blanket" over and over until I brought it too her.

This morning we painted our toenails the same color and she's been talking about it ever since.

Melissa

Painting

The other day while Brian was working I set the kids up outside on a blanket with some watercolor paints, stamps, markers and a roll of white paper that I found in the dollar section at Target (a supermom moment). I took a few shots but mostly just played with them. K enjoyed it for about 10 minutes but M and I painted for about 20 minutes (a long time for a 4 year old). We worked on writing his letters. It was nice (but hot) being outside.

A couple of days ago when M woke me up in the morning with his very sweet voice (he has a sweet voice and an evil voice) he whispered in my ear, "I have an idea, we can go and do something fun today." I told him OK. Well that was the day we went to the pool (FOR 3 HOURS), had a picnic there with Dyan and the kids, and painted outside in the afternoon. Before bed he told me, "we forgot to do anything fun today." What??? You don't call that fun. He said, "no, I meant going to a bounce house or something." Have I spoiled him with all the activities we do? I swear that kid has to be busy doing something every minute of every day.

Funny things they say.

The other day M pulled our alarm sign down in our front yard and K yelled, "now look what you did!"

Yesterday M fell asleep while driving home from the store (I was at work). Brian said he just left him in the car in the garage with the big garage door closed and the door to the house open so he could hear him when he woke up (and left all the windows and doors open... hope we're not bad parents for doing this). Well, about 20 minutes later he heard M saying, "Dad... Dad, did you forget something out here!!" He is so funny sometimes. Brian just said that he had just gotten home and was unloading K.

If you are doing something that K doesn't like (like singing a song she doesn't want to sing) she'll say, "NON'T do dat!!"

Cute but not his real smile.

She made a really long paint brush.

He was having fun.

K and D (Dyan's son)

The funniest thing. Dyan called me and said that the other night Monte (her husband) was talking to M (their daughter) and saying, "where's the prettiest little girl in the whole world." Over and over, kind of a little game they play together and D (Dyan's son) said, "Dad, she is not the prettiest girl in the world." Monte said, "well then who is D?" Then he said, "K is". I know I've talked about this before... these two are just so cute together. She screams his name when she sees him, runs over to give him a hug and talks about him all the time. The other night at the State Fair she wouldn't eat any of her food and wanted to sit by D. So we sent her over to him with her food and he helped her eat and the little SH#T almost ate the whole thing!! Whenever they walk anywhere they hold hands.

I decided to get a few pictures of them together. This is totally on their own. I never encouraged them to cuddle or anything. Finally I had to say it was enough. They played together in the pool the entire time. She does whatever he does. He would get out of the pool and lay on the side and so would she and they would talk. It's very cute... not weird in anyway (just in case anyone was wondering).

Best friends. I love her expression here. (you can click on the picture to make it bigger).

Happy. Is he photogenic or what?

M. Look at those red cheeks. It was hot outside.

M and M played together a lot also.

Beauty school drop out

The other day we were getting ready to go somewhere and Brian said he was going to try to do K's hair (completely shocked me). He said that way if he needed help I would be there. Well, let me tell you... this man can fix anything. He can look at any kind of machine or engine and figure how it works in a matter of minutes and fix it (washing machines, garage door openers, dishwashers... everything). He absolutely CAN'T do K's hair. It was the funniest thing. We laughed so hard. I don't know if his hands are too big or what. It took him forever and she's not the most cooperative. I don't know what we're going to do when she starts school and I'm not around.

It started out OK.

Laughing.

Poor thing... I had to take it out and start over. There was hair sticking out of the pony-tail holder everywhere and the pony-tail was going the wrong way!! I told him that the key is lots of water.

My mom came up for a quick visit on Thursday. She bought the kids Moon Sand which was so much fun. It molds very easily and is pretty easy to clean up. We found a shady place on the back patio and played with it for a long time. (I can't wait to get a patio cover built... someday $$$)

That's one of the things I love about my mom. She's not afraid to get her hands dirty. She really entertains the kids when she visits. Last time she came, she and M played trains for an hour!!

Love for Granny.

K made a "cupcake." Here she is blowing out the candles.

Stories before bedtime. We've already been reading our Halloween books. I just bought some great ones from Scholastic.

My dollar store find that he's played with for 3 days. Some of their stuff is just junk but every once in a while you get lucky and find something like this. He has been hooking everything since he got it including his sister!

Something funny... last night while I was fastening M into his car seat he pulled my shirt down and said "so... what are those for?" I tried playing stupid and said "what?". Then he said "those" and poked one of my breasts!! It caught me so off-guard so I said "for feeding babies" and closed the door and got in the car. He's been extra curious about the female anatomy lately.

M knows his days of the week now. He sings a song about them. K is wearing a size 7 and M is wearing a size 11 in Vans shoes. My mom got them each a cute pair. He was so proud off them, he showed all his teachers at school the next day.

M has been an absolute angel this weekend (Brian's been at work). I was worried because last week while Brian was at work M was just awful. We fought the entire weekend... he was very challenging. I would describe his behavior last weekend as bratty. Nothing worked... putting toys away and time-out didn't phase him. He even brought me to tears! He has been so helpful over the past 2 days that tonight he offered to help me pick up the playroom, went in and turned on the light and said "let's get started." He's been nice to his sister (somewhat) and has listened so much better. That's my boy.

I'm exhausted. More tomorrow.
Melissa

Go fly a kite

Brian and I took the kids to the local park to fly a kite yesterday. We've never done it before and M sure had a blast. After the kite crashed he would run over and throw it back up into the air again and he even controlled the kite for a while. He sure got his exercise and even fell asleep in the afternoon (of course, it was a day that I was at work). K was interested for about 3 minutes but then she was more interested in the play area.

Setting up.

After it crashed and almost got him.

The only good picture of K. This is in one of the tunnels in the play area. Peek-a-boo.

M's turn.

My turn. I had a great time. I've never flown a kite before. We'll do this again for sure.

Nothing funny or witty to say this morning. I worked last night and then had a terrible time getting to sleep so I am groggy. At least the kids are both gone this morning so I can wake up slowly and Brian and I can just chill together.

Melissa