More Moderated Mischief

Here are some of our latest adventures into moderated mischief. My kids love to make messes. So, why not? I'll stand by my theory of as long as it cleans up easily, go for it.

Suzy started out wanting to paint her feet and make foot prints on a roll of paper. I'm not sure she ever made the footprints. She did, however, enjoy painting the rest of her body.
Andy was more interested in detailing his car.
Then he got hot and decided the hose was a good thing.
Suzy loves the rainbows from the hose. Here she is trying to "catch" it.
Rob turned the hose on the swing and entertained Suzy for a very long time. She LOVED this.


The red paint started to wash out of her hair and dye her eyebrows. I think she looks like a Gatorade commercial.
Our good friends joined us last minute and we had even more fun. Katie was pretending to fly.
Uncle Andy was the spinner. I love our new swing. It's like a merry go round when there are lots of kids over.
How do I handle a particularly stressful 4-6 pm when Andy didn't nap?

I make it productive and make my children do manual labor. I taught them to shred paper.
Of course, to make it fun, I allowed them to then dump said paper all over the toy room.







Good fun was had by all.

Here's Andy's latest busy activity. He and Suzy are both loving the letters from Ramona, Rob's godmother.
And just because I have no idea where my kids get their mischief......

I wouldn't DARE of embarrassing the best man of our wedding.... ;)
We love you, Uncle Mike! You are a very good sport! (I conned him into taking this photo with a promise not to put it on facebook. Check.) On a side note, Suzy told me the other night that she was going to marry Uncle Mike because he needed someone very pretty. She said I was pretty enough but when I told her I was already in love with her daddy, she decided that she would have to marry him because she is as pretty as me. Ha! I figure I will have about 13 more years to do some eHarmony fraud with Heather, Mike's sister.... :P

Sweet "Puppy"

This is my first "baby". Sweet Nala found my friend, Jan, back in 1996. Jan and I worked together but did not know each other personally. She came to work and asked if anyone wanted a sweet stray. I was single and traveling a lot so I wasn't sure I wanted the commitment. Her husband didn't want the long term care of a dog. But, Nala had already found a home in the hearts of her and her children. So, we made a deal. We would dog share. I would take on all the responsibilities of dog ownership. Her family would provide free pup sitting on a regular basis. At one point, her then young daughter told her teacher, "I don't really have a dog. But we share one."

Well, fast forward 14 years.... She has completely stolen my heart and the hearts of many of our family and friends. She was even a therapy dog for me up in the Indiana schools. She's not just any dog. She's my buddy. My first baby.

And she's aging. I will be a mess when something happens to her. Last week, she gave us a big scare and I was sure we would lose her within a few days. I emailed my sweet friend, Erin, with tears in my eyes. "Will you help me get a good photo of my Nala?" Without hesitation, she showed up the next night with camera in hand and we took Nala out on what I thought would be her last long walk. We fed her as many treats as she could eat. Erin got some amazing photos. You can see them here.

I got a few myself that aren't half bad.


The light was gorgeous. It's a great way to honor my sweet first little angel. Oddly enough, I think she is smart enough to know I was worried. She has since stopped pooping in my house and shaking so much. Silly Nala. I won't do anything until I HAVE to. Then, dear blog readers, I will be a mess......

Someone get ME a calendar. ;)

Has it seriously been a month since his birthday? Shhhh... don't tell him. He's already growing up too fast. My sweet little birthday balloon boy. I mean, seriously, how perfect is this shirt?
He still goes crazy about balloons.




So, our theme was all about Andy's favorite things. Balloons and trucks. Specifically his favorite book, "I Love Trucks" by Phelimon Sturges. He's not a big fan of cake (except Ethan's birthday cake....) so I made my edge brownies to look like a road with little cars. I also made peanut butter and jelly cut into truck shapes with a cookie cutter.
With the help of Grammy and Pawpop, we FILLED the house with balloons.
We even had a cute balloon craft.
The kids are still enjoying making the leftovers.
He loves to say, "Cheese!" so we bought him his very own camera. It was a big hit with all the kids.

I think he liked the singing.
But not the birthday hat.
As a fun treat, I read everyone his favorite truck book.
"But the truck that I like best... brings Ice Cream to my Door!"
Did someone say, "Ice Cream?" OK, so Andy doesn't really love ice cream. But most kids do. The thought of Rob dressing up as an ice cream truck had me giddy with excitement for weeks! Sweet Rob, you are the BEST!
Rob and Andy handed out "Uncle Wob" treats to all the guests. Rob said he felt like he was in a toddler mob. At any point, the truck was going to start shaking.

Ezra even got his first taste. I'm not that terrible of an influence. He is the third child....
Does he like it?
Why yes, yes he does.
Rob decided it would be a fun tradition to try and start taking Andy to a baseball game on his birthday. I'm not sure it will stick. (July is sooooo hot here.) But, it was a great innaugural game with Pawpop.

He even got a ball from the bull pen. A lucky day, indeed.

Such a sweet little guy, he gave the ball to Pawpop.
Suzy's favorite part of baseball is the funnel cake. I'm not sure where she gets that.... cough... ahem.... well, maybe I do!
I love you, my sweet little sugar. I will hopefully do an update / stats post soon.

My Lobster

Happy Anniversary, My Sweet Rob. I love my lobster. (Reference to Phobe's description of Lobster Love from "Friends". Rob was so sweet when we met that he bought me all 10 seasons and then we watched every.single.DVD together. Yes, he's my Lobster.)

So, what do I do with MY Lobster to celebrate six years of marital bliss? Why, we go to the Lego Store, of course. I would much rather have a night home together at this stage of life than any fancy outing. Let's face it. My kids are little. By evening, I'm exhausted. We are both doing the P90X and wanting to loose some serious poundage..... so.... we Nerded In instead of going out. We figure we saved a bit in babysitting and fancy dinner, so we splurged and Rob bought two big Lego kits. (Plus the two fill a cups for the kids, of course.)

After bath, the kids were anxious to dive in and "help."

1600 pieces.... ooooh, that's a lot.
When they went to bed, we put on some good country music and went to work into the wee hours of our anniversary.
We each completed a little part of the village and left the little extras for Suzy this morning.
It was like Christmas morning to see our kids faces.

We also bought a new blue fish. Maybe now "big" orange fish won't think he's so "big"....

Happy Anniversary, Rob! These have been six of the happiest years of my nerdy life! Love you!

Super Fun

http://milasdaydreams.blogspot.com/

Have you seen Mila's Daydreams yet? I sooooo wish I would have done that! Hmmmm... gives me an idea.... maybe I still can! I wonder how I could do it with awake children and make it some sort of fun/educational part of our daily routine????? Ideas?