Boy Discovers Milk Bubbles

Whispering----Don't forget to enter my Country Bob's giveaway!

Visit here, here, here, or here for more Wordless Wednesday!

An EVERYTHING Party

My dad owns a custom harvesting business, and every summer he travels with his business associate, a.k.a. his brother, all over the Midwest cutting wheat. Since he is gone much of the summer, he misses out on several different celebrations including Father's Day, my brother Sawyer's birthday, Colter's birthday, and 4th of July. This year we got smart and combined a Memorial Day barbecue with all the parties Dad will miss when he's gone. We had a Memorial Day/Father's Day, Colter and Sawyer's birthday/4th of July party---an EVERYTHING party! In case you couldn't tell, we're totally into excess.

I was in charge of desserts, so I made an early birthday cake for Sawyer's and Colter's June birthdays. I should have put a times 5 by the three to show that Sawyer's going to be 15, but he's an old dude now, so he didn't mention the three. I made a yummy flag Jello poke cake for 4th of July.Even at a barbecue, my card fanatic family works in some pitch. They're so dedicated to pitch, they'll even play outside. John likes to play as my dad's partner because they usually win, but John's going to be out a partner for a few months. :( Colter had lots of people to play with! Look at all those BOYS!

The older boys took the little boys swimming in a frigid pool.Colter was too wimpy (or SMART) to stay in the icy water long, so he hung out on the ladder and whacked people with a pool noodle.

To end the evening, we shot off fireworks for 4th of July!

It was apparent that Daddy and my uncle Ron always miss the 4th of July as we were shooting off fireworks. Someone handed Ron a fairly powerful firework that should be set on the ground and lit, and then it shoots up into the air and explodes, just like a miniature version of what one would see at a fireworks display. Instead of setting the firework on the gound, Ron held it in his hand to light it and threw it down, and it landed on its side shooting flares along the ground! THANKFULLY, it was shooting away from all of us and no one exploded, so it was just hilarious instead of painful. My uncle is 50ish, and he doesn't know how to work firecrackers! We should have had an everything party long before now because he's been missing out.

We had a fun evening but I was oh, so ready to crawl into bed when we got home. Celebrating four events in one is exhausting!

POOL Time!

I think it's good that my boy's birthday is coming up soon, 'cuz it looks like we may have outgrown the wade pool.

Hammock Hogs

I didn't get a turn on the hammock,

but that's all right.

Someday, I'll have my own hammock to lounge on

and trees big enough to hold it up.

I'll spend summer afternoons reading under the trees

and spend summer nights gazing up at the stars.

I would covet my mom's hammock,

but it's probably broken now.

After her grand kids spent Saturday afternoon

in an epic stay-on-the-hammock battle.

Silly grand kids, hammocks are for ME.

My Boy's First Self-Inflicted Hair Cut

Well, it's happened. Despite my attempts to keep scissors out of reach of little hands, Colter administered his own hair cut. Admittedly, his hair was getting very shaggy and he had told me that his hair kept poking his eyes, but two-year-olds should not cut their own hair, even if they are almost three! One morning last week, I told Colter that we would make an appointment to get his hair cut that afternoon. He must have misunderstood me and thought I meant that he had an appointment to hide in the bathroom with a pair of nail scissors and cut his own hair. I'll be more clear next time.

My boy has gotten sneaky and has started shutting himself in rooms whenever he's doing something he's not supposed to. He will shut a door and sit in front of it so that I have to struggle to get him out of the way and open the door. He also looks for opportunities when I'm not paying 100% attention to get into mischief. When he cut his hair, I was on the phone with my friend Rachel and had spent the first ten minutes of our conversation following Colter around and keeping him out of things or offering distractions, when he slipped away for a minute. As I roamed the house trying to find him, I noticed the bathroom door was shut and knew something was up. Sure enough, he was sitting in front of the door, blocking my way, and cutting his hair with a pair of nail scissors! Ack. Thankfully, I caught him before too much damage was done. He mainly cut hair that needed to be cut off anyway, so it wasn't a big deal, but when I caught him and firmly said, "Colter, you should NOT cut your own hair," he cried and cried and cried. And cried. Poor boy! He obviously knew he had done something wrong, but we'll see if he remembers. I was really tempted to take a picture of his choppy hair, but I didn't want to encourage him and give the message that self-administered hair cuts were cute, even if it really was!

Don't you love the camo?

He can see! No more eye pokage. :)

Hand Print Chicken

A Chicken Book and a Chicken Craft--Bawk, Bawk.

I LOVE books that make my boy laugh out loud. We recently discovered a book at the library called Big Chickens Fly the Coop by Leslie Helakoski, a sequel to a book we already have and love, Big Chickens. Every time we read these goofy stories, Colter cracks up. I LOVE IT! Due to the apparent monsoon season we appear to be imprisoned in, we've been looking for a lot of inside activities, and we decided to make this chicken to go with the books we've been reading A LOT lately--like 11 times everyday. We're bookworms at our house. Squirmy ones.
It's cute how this paper plate chicken uses Colter's hand prints to make the wings and the chickens comb, or hat, according to my two-year-old. It's also cute how my boy decided that his chicken should have orange wings instead of white ones. He's creative like that.

For this project, all you need is some scissors, glue, construction paper, a paper plate, googly eyes (or draw your own), and a some cute kid hands to trace! Colter and I just free-handed our chicken feet and stuff, but there are some templates and better directions if you need them at this site.

On an unrelated note, the pictures I posted yesterday were taken on a trip to Arches National Park in Utah last spring. Kel is a genius and guessed it right! Or she's been there. :) Everyone should visit Arches at least once; it's a surreal place. We went at the end of March, and it was a little chilly but still a great time to visit. Go in spring or fall, so you can enjoy the awesome wonders without suffocating!

Adventures at Our House

This week, I caught my boy...

emptying out the linen cabinets... eating a yellow crayon...
fast asleep in front of the door in his room, blocking the door so it was a real challenge to get into his room to put him in his bed without waking him up...
and piling all the stuff that he wanted to pack for a trip to Grandad and Grandma's in front of the front door.

This is just a glimpse of the crazy fun times at our house if the boy is unattended for over two seconds. Have a nice day.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Dear God,

Thank you for the rain that You provide us. Thank you for the water for the plants and the water we have to drink. Thank you for cloudy days that teach us to appreciate the sunny days more. We really are so grateful for all the water You provide us, but Lord, when you get a chance, could you send the sunshine back for awhile? That would be awesome.

Amen.

A Quick Note to Make You Smile

Today, as John was filling up our lawnmower with gasoline, our boy wanted to know what he was doing. John explained that the lawnmower needed gas to work just like our cars need gas to work. Colter went on his merry way, and a bit later, John noticed him unscrewing the gas cap on his toy Radio Flyer car and putting GRASS into the hole. When asked what he was doing, Colter said, "I'm filling my car with grass to make it go!"

Here's Colter with his car in October 2008.

I hope you all had a great Mother's Day!

A Bit Domineering, Perhaps?

My two-year-old is turning into a fashion control freak. He's been very enthralled with my hair his whole life (he used to hold onto my hair while he nursed or while being rocked to sleep, and I've always said my hair is his security blanket), but over the past few months, he has taken to telling me how to wear it. Some days he insists on a ponytail, other days he wants me to wear my hair down. A couple days ago, I parted my hair in the middle instead of on the side like usual, and the little goofball freaked out. It seems odd that that a almost-three-year-old boy cares about his mommy's hair, but whatever.

Lately, his concern for my appearance has moved to other areas. He's decided that I must wear a bracelet anytime we go to the church for any reason, and he likes to pick out which one. He also loves picking out my earrings for me. Last week, I put on what I thought was a cute top, and as soon as he saw me, he said, "MOMMY, I don't like that shirt!" Today, I had on a pair of gray flip flops, and he said, "NO, Mommy, you need to wear the pink ones!" So even though, there was absolutely no pink in my ensemble, I wore the pink flip flops; it was easier than arguing with the shoe Nazi. When this boy grows up, he is either going to have a career in fashion, or be a very controlling husband.

P.S. Those of you who know about my mission to blog every day for thirty days didn't think I was going to make it, did you? I've still got three hours to spare. :)

For Your Sunday Evening Amusement

While looking through some photos, I found this picture

that I took TWO years ago.We thought it would be funny to see if Colter still fits in the flower pot. He does, but oh, how things have changed!