Playdough and Planes

Okay I am starting to get a little stir crazy. We have one vehicle right now that Mike takes to work and that leaves me home with the kids all day after work. I need some fresh air! Maybe this weekend I will sneak out for a bit. Hopefully soon we will be getting a second mode of transportation.

The boys haven't been swimming in a couple days since it is so cold outside. (Their words not mine.) It has been 93 degrees, brrr.. Instead they have been entertaining themselves indoors. Their newfound interests are playdough and paper planes.

Currently our dining room table looks like this most days. They love to create intricate items that I can't recognize but I pretend I can. Earlier Marcus showed me one to which I replied, Oh Marcus that is a cool doughnut. He said, Mom that is a spaceship! Me and my big mouth. Next time I will just stick with, Wow that is cool! Most of the creations end up as ammo for the playdough war that always breaks out at the end. Boys.


Someone needs a haircut this weekend.

Paper airplanes have also been the rage lately at our house. They love to make paper planes and try to modify them with paper clips and scissors to make them faster or spin. I prefer the planes over the playdough but whatever keeps the kiddos entertained is alright with me. James likes the planes too but for different reasons. They make an irresistible noise to him when he crumples them. It's usually Marcus' plane he gets a hold of and that makes Marcus very sad.

I have been trying to find a fun cheap project I can do with the boys. I was thinking maybe a decoration for their room would be cool. If you know of any would you email it to me? I am not creative at all and I need some help.

I guess we got our answer.

After all the problems we had with our next door neighbor at our old house, I was a little nervous to find out what our neighbors would be like here. After a month I think I can say I definitely have mixed feelings. For one thing, the neighbors to our right and the neighbors to our left are like night and day. Complete opposites.

I have never actually seen the neighbors to the left. There has to be someone there because their brown van does disappear sometimes, and occasionally I see a garbage can out at the road for collection but other than that there has been no sign of life. Maybe they are vampires. Remember that movie Fright Night? Maybe our neighbors are like them. Well at least they keep their yard up, sort of.

Our neighbors to the right on the other hand, we know that house has occupants. We just can't figure out how many. I have seen as many as 10 teenagers congregating on their front porch on a regular basis. They can't all live there can they? If so they should get their own tv show like the Duggars. They aren't very well mannered either. They throw their water bottles in our yard and I saw them stab to death a salamander that used to live in our sprinkler system box on their front porch. They don't take care of their yard and they park in front of our house all the time. I have met with who I think is the father? His name is Jim, very similar to our old neighbor John. Coincidence? I think not. He seems like a nice guy but I am really not too enthusiastic about his teenagers.

I was really hoping to get off on the right foot with my neighbors but I have already forbid the boys to talk or play with them. At least I can rest assure they probably aren't the type that will call the police about a ball going over the fence. I can only hope that they will soon fall victim to foreclosure and will soon be on their way. Isn't that terrible of me. Only the ones to the right though, after reading Twilight I am willing to give the vampires a chance.

Blue

That is the color Marcus chose for his room. Marcus and I painted on Sunday. That has sort of been a special project I had planned with the boys. They each get to paint their own room (with my assistance of course) in the color of their choice. That last part was difficult. I had to explain to them why sour apple green and construction cone orange, although very nice colors, are quite loud on the walls. There is a reason construction cones are that color right? They all chose very nice colors but I think I like Marcus' the best.

Marcus loved to paint. He only painted over the light switch twice and the carpet once. I didn't even bat an eye. I am such a cool mom. He loves his new monster truck poster and tells me everytime I tuck him in that his favorite is the one that shoots flames. Whichever one that is.


Their rooms are each starting to become "their room". I can see each of their personalities coming to life. Do you notice a little girl in this picture?


She's not nearly as little as she used to be. She was a naughty little kitty last night and decided to make a mess behind the tv. Three times. How am I supposed to get back there to clean that up? She's lucky she is so cute.

This weekend I am painting Nathan's room. He had to be last since he is still grounded. I still haven't decided what color to paint James' room but I'm not really in a rush to decide. We aren't going anywhere anytime soon.

You missed me didn't you...

Funny how sometimes even though there are things going on, because there is always something going on at our house, I feel like I don't have a lot to say. That was how this weekend was.

I am happy to say that I found a few gifts for Nathan online and I think he will love them. I hope they take a really long time to get here because I hate waiting. As soon as I buy a gift, I get really excited and I want to give it to the recipient asap. Just ask my mom. I gave her a mother's day gift a week before mother's day this year.

Saturday we went over to Sarah's house for the monthly family barbecue. This was the first barbecue my sister had at her house so it was a special occasion.

Nathan got to open a few early presents. You can sort of see James hovering over Nathan's present ready to take it from him. He would do it politely though, he always says thank you.


We sang happy birthday and it was the funniest happy birthday song I have ever heard. Everyone started at a different time within seconds of each other. Good times.


Oh does he love his hula hoop. Who would have guessed. I tried it but I lost that hip shaking magic long ago. Probably around the same time I acquired a closet full of clothes in size double digit.

Brotherly Love

I just found out today that Marcus charged Nathan a dollar to listen to him play the kazoo. And Nathan actually went along with it! Then earlier today I walked into the living room and saw Marcus' fort. That wasn't anything new but the sign he had in front of it caught my attention. It said 177. I asked him what it was and he said we had to pay $1.77 if we wanted to go inside his fort. I'm not sure what to make of all this, but I have a feeling he is going to be a business man when he grows up.

He didn't get any takers this time. I was fresh out of cash and he didn't accept credit cards.

Now onto the real brotherly love that has been going on.

James gives hugs now! I love it. I just ask him for a hug and he wraps those little arms around my neck and squeezes. This morning he was sweet on Marcus. He kept giving him hugs and trying to pull out Marcus' eyelashes. I'm not sure why he is obsessed with eyelashes but he is. It was the cutest thing though to see them hugging.

Nathan wanted to play with James too. He hid under the blanket and James attacked. James loves any attention he gets from his bigger brothers. Look how happy he is in that picture.

I love this picture.

I'm not sure about other families but in our house, brothers showing affection to one another is a rare site. Capturing it on camera is special.

Sorry for all the blurry pictures. I'm not sure what was up with that today.

Real Quick

Just thought I would do a quick post tonight. We really haven't been up to much the last couple of days. Just lots of swimming. The pool water is already getting semi warm and feels closer to bath water than refreshingly cool pool water. That is a-okay by me. I really don't like cold pools.

I was real excited for today to get here. Last week I bought this...



And today it was delivered. Mine is electric blue instead of yellow. I am in love with it! Today was the first time I ever vacuumed my house with enthusiasm. I was actually kind of disappointed when I was out of rooms to vacuum. What is it about a Dyson that makes it so darn cool? I was enthralled and also grossed out at the same time by the amount of dirt it picked up out of the carpets. I figure it was money well spent if it can actually make the mundane task of floor care appealing. Wouldn't you agree?

My sister and her kids also came by today for a visit. I so wish we lived closer and stopping by didn't have to be such a big ordeal. Angel and Ryan are getting so big! Angel got her long curly hair cut short. She looks so cute! Ryan LOVES to play with the boys and be rough and wild. My boys are good at doing that.

They all got to go swimming. Sarah wasn't prepared and didn't bring swim suits so we had to improvise. They had such a great time! The pool was the perfect height and they could all touch the bottom. James didn't get to go swimming since I was making dinner, he got to play with the hose instead.



Tasty!

A few people think James and Ryan look just alike. I must admit I don't see it. But can you believe how big Ryan is now? I remember holding this sweet little boy in the hospital when he was born. Was it really that long ago?

I have also been birthday browsing online for Nathan. I really don't know what to get him this year. He doesn't really ask for things which I suppose is a good thing... unless you are trying to find a present for him. I am hoping that the perfect gift will just magically appear somehow. Wish me luck!

POOL

We started setting up the pool around 3pm on Saturday. It wasn't really too hard but it took forever to fill it up with our little garden hose. The only issue we had was our ground not being exactly level. Instead of being a big circle like it is supposed to be, ours turned into a big oval because two opposing ends were a bit taller. No big deal. I like ovals.

Two hours later



Seven hours of filling later we were almost there. It wasn't until late Sunday morning was the pool all the way full. It was so worth the wait though and the boys were definitely ready.



First jump into the pool! The water was actually very nice and refreshing. Not cold at all.



Noodle time!



James loves the water. He kept trying to lay his head down on the water, once he realized that wasn't working out too well he decided drinking the water was more fun anyway.



Marcus and Grandma





Marcus catching some serious air. I wonder if that hurt when he smacked the water.



Jason and Grandma have the same hair do!





CANNONBALL!



11 year olds are hard to throw.



We spent the entire afternoon playing marco polo, making whirlpools, doing underwater hand stands, and whacking each other with noodles. I learned that even though they are made of some styrofoam like material, getting hit in the face with those still hurts. Jason taught me all about it.

I am so excited for the rest of summer. I am sure we will be hanging out at the pool nearly everyday and are going to have so much fun.

Pools rock!

Noodles

Are especially fun to play with while waiting for the pool to fill up and you aren't allowed to swim yet.

Grandma Mickey

Grandma Mickey flew in Saturday morning for a short visit. We all LOVE it when she comes to visit. Marcus was counting down the days and would tell me every day how many days were left until she came. It felt like the visit was so short but we didn't really pack it full of activities like we normally do which was nice. We just sort of hung out, relaxed, and visited. Oh, unless you are counting the trip Mike and Santa, er I mean Grandma Mickey took to go buy the boys a pool and a Wii Fit!

James kept giving Grandma funny looks and wasn't so sure that he wanted to go to her. By this morning though he was completely fine with going to her. Especially after she was real nice to him and took him on walks and stuff. Maybe by the time she comes out again in October, he will remember her. She also made some desserts while she was here. Some monster cookies that were huge, and some brownies. I love this woman.

We got to show off the house, which she really liked. And since she is our first overnight visitor, she also got to test out the guest room/office. Before we knew it, today had rolled around and it was time for her to leave! I definitely hope the next trip is a little longer. Stay tuned for the next post about the pool!!