"Spray" Painting

Alex asked to paint.  I didn't feel like cleaning it up and I wanted to work on my organization project in the garage.  (I'm attempting to organize all the work stuff I have accumulated over the past ten years. I'm storing it in the garage because I work between a few different places and I'm often pulling things in and out of my car.  That way it doesn't have too far to go to get in and out of my car and will have no reason to clutter up the house.)  The paint was just about used up so I put some watercolor in the spray bottle.  Put something in a spray bottle and for whatever reason kids love it.  He kept himself busy for an hour painting which later turned into hosing down his easel.

A Bit Cooler

It was cooler today, so we hit the park early to enjoy the 70 degree temperatures.  Our typical Sunday schedule this summer has been wear the kids out in the morning, go home eat lunch and go to 12:30 mass.  The kids then typically display improved ability to remain seated with less adult intervention.

I only got one good picture at the park.  Then Alex got stung by a bee.  He is a tough guy.  He just stomped around and yelled that it hurt for about ten seconds.  I actually had one of those instant cold packs in the diaper bag.  I'm horrible with things like that.  I was amazed I had it in the right place, at the right time.  After about two minutes, he was back to normal and you couldn't tell by looking at it he was stung.  I can check off the list whether or not he's allergic to bee stings.  Definitely not.  Either way we headed back to the car to get the ice pack and I left my camera in the car as I had more important things to do.  So, I didn't take any more pictures.  Too bad, it was great light. 

So Hot Out!

We've had 90-100 degree temperatures for nearly two weeks.  But, the good side is there has been nearly no mosquitoes.  I rather have the hot weather than the mosquitoes.  There was about three weeks around this time last year that we could not go outside at all otherwise we would be swarmed by mosquitoes.  There was no solution.  At least with the warm weather, we can go out early and play with water.  We got the large water slide out.  Luke wanted nothing to do with it (as expected for his age) and Alex finally played in the bottom of it.  He loved jumping and splashing.  But no sliding down the slide yet.  I don't blame him, it is pretty chilly. 

Jumping maniac

Luke watching his jumping brother from the sand box

Independence Day 2012

We went to the Ann Arbor Parade, even though it was pretty hot. 

Waiting for it to start.  I tried to get a picture of both boys, but Alex was way too into eating grapes to stop to take a picture. 

I think all the best stuff was at the beginning, firetruck..

police...

police on horses, even better.

Alex was pretty interested

then it got boring and hot, so we headed to the park to splash in the river

Save the turtles!  Kris pulled over and got the turtle out of the middle of the road.

Beautiful view and we were the only ones there, except for the passing tubers and kayakers.

Having some blueberry banana muffins for snack

this happened too fast for me to change the settings on my camera (cause now I know a little bit how), thanks Barb for giving me a few brief lessons, although I kind of like this dark.

Hot day! It was only 90 when we left, but got up to 103 today.

Thinking he found a snack?

Rocks!  So much fun!

Heading back to the car.  It's so hot!

After dinner, when it was back down to 90 degrees, we lit some sparklers and a few other fireworks.

Are you sure I should be holding this stick with fire on it?

Liked the simple fireworks, but the big, loud ones that was another story.

Messy Play

These are two of the most recent favorite things to do outside. Playing with shaving cream and making "sizzles".

We like to wash everything in the backyard, luckily shaving cream is not much different than soap, but it looks messy.

To make "sizzles" spray vinegar (color is for added interest).

And sprinkle baking soda on.  We used a gallon of vinegar and a pound of baking soda the first week.  Luckily both ingredients are just two dollars.

Luke loves it too. 

White Lotus Farm

Last Saturday we visited White Lotus Farm.  It's about ten minutes from our house.  But, this was our first visit (even for Kris who has been to most places in the area).  I heard that they were having a children's day, so we decided to check it out.  We had a great time and bought some veggies and fresh baked bread. 

I love these flowers!  I wish I had somewhere to put something like this.  But full sun is hard to come by in our yard and it seems like anything with a flower gets eaten.  Hanging pots are the only surviving flower in my yard, between kids and animals.

They had quite a few animals running around.  This is Pumpernickel.  We found that baby pigs are very hard to pet.  When you move they move.  You have to basically sit around and wait for them to come to you.

These chickens were very social though.  This cage was for the dog, but it was one of the main attractions for the kids for whatever.  The chicken is checking it out with Alex.  They have 80 chickens there, so they don't have names for the chickens.

Watching Pumpernickel play with his toy.  Alex also found it pretty interesting of the need for him to jump in the water to stay cool.

We bought snap peas for a snack.  Alex dug right in as usual, Luke was a little more hesitant of this so called "snack". 

"What did they say this thing was again?"

"I'll try it."

"So hard to bite!"

The chicken came to see what we were eating.

He enjoyed watching the "farmer" water the crop.  He especially loved that set-up with the hoses.  He wanted one for the backyard.  He wanted to stop at Lowes on the way home to pick up a post. 

Goodbye Word Wall

Time to say good bye to the word wall.  I will put it in the post so it's not just deleted.  Luke has amazing communication skills.  He easily says four words together (not quite following good sentence structure).  It is typically very descriptive and often pretty witty.  He can easily answer "wh" questions, even about a story.  He can even predict things that will happen in a story after just reading once or twice.  He is very polite and will say "thank you much" for anything that is done for him.  It's great that the boys can play and communicate as peers now. 

Alex:

Dada- 11/08
Mama- 12/08
Theresa (tee-ta)- 3/09
apple - (a-hoe)10/09
throw (toe)- 10/09
cheese (eese)- 11/09
more (or)- 11/09
this (dis)- 11/09
uh oh- 11/09
boom (booma)- 11/09
me- 11/09
kitty- (tea)- 11/09
go- 11/09
poo- 11/09
Lily (weewee)- 11/09
goal- 11/09
bowl- 11/09
owie- 11/09
knee- 11/09
piggie- (peehee)-12/09
ear-12/09
all done (a dun)- 12/09
hmm (a response to most questions, with a crinkle of the nose)
Bernadette (Boo-ta)- 01/10
Margaret (Mo)- 01/10
gentle (en-el)- 01/10
baby (beebee)- 01/10
Tessie (es)- 01/10
easel (ee-ya)- 01/10
ball (baw)- 01/10
phone (moan)- 01/10
hay- 01/10
barn (aba)- 01/10
pretty- 01/10
ew- 01/10
oil- (oy-yo)- 01/10
purple- (ba-ble) - 01/10
yellow-(ee-ew)- 01/10
bead- (bea)-01/10
maybe- 01/10
digger- 01/10
eyebrow- 01/10
window- 01/10
blue- o1/10
elbow- 01/10
paper- 01/10
Burt's Bee's- 01/10
no- 01/10
into- (be-who)- 01/10

Luke:

ada- 12/10
mama-1/11
ball-4/11
cheese- 5/11
deer-5/11
juice-5/11
all done- 5/11
bath-6/11
bottle- 6/11
uh-oh-6/11
kitty- 6/11
shoe-7/11
bam-8/11
bye-9/11
rock (ra)- 10/11
everyday-11/11
water-11/11
hi-12/11
everybody-12/11
boots-12/11
bright-12/11
mommy-1/12
no-1/12
monkey (money)-1/12
tree-1/12
moon-1/12
kitty (itty)-1/12
bubble- 1/12
truck-1/12
dark-1/12

1/12: I can't keep track of Luke's words anymore. He says nearly anything now. However, it's always just one word at a time. Only a handful of times have I heard him putting two words together. It sure makes things easier when they can say what they want. Well most of the time...

Making Cookies with Grandma Porter

Now pretty much any time the boys see Grandma Porter they ask to make cookies. We can put it off a few times, but then we just have to make cookies. Alex loves to make cookies (and just about anything), but not really into eating things. These cookies, however, were a winner. I think it was the sprinkles. He loves these type of sprinkles. When we get ice cream, he requests the sprinkles and then he eats the five first bites off the top with the sprinkles and is done.

Sprinkles became dumpers again