Guess Who's Two!

Our little man has turned TWO! It's amazing, I know.

On his birthday weekend we helped Grandma and Pa move into their new home. Grandma provided lemonade cake squares for the little man's birthday. He devoured them, which wasn't a surprise because he has such a sweet tooth, but I was surprised that his poop was exactly that color. Hot pink. Seriously.

Later that week, we decided to make a vacuum cake because, well, he LOVES everything about the vacuum. So... how was I, one who is not very good at cakes in the first place, going to pull off a vacuum?!

I cooked in several different cake pans- 8x8, mini loaf, and loaf pan. The upright portion of the vacuum was thinner than I wanted, so I had to stick bbq skewers through the cake to keep it upright. Then I attached an aluminum foil handle with a hose connected to it. It's a great touch and one of W's favorite attachments. It's actually the tube to pump up E's inflatable bed. The wheels are brownies.

The blue icing was E's idea. It's her favorite color. Red is also a favorite, and pink, and yellow, and green...but blue is her favorite color. She said W would really like it. There's an arch of aluminum foil where the vacuum light shines and then there's a chocolate cord.

We planned on having cake after dinner, but daddy had Scouts. So I kept the kids up until he got home. Unfortunately, gravity started working on this vacuum the second I put icing on it. It SLOWLY started to fall. By nightfall, it was pretty crooked, but still very tasty.

He loved it.

So did O.

So did Monsieur E, I mean Miss E.

A Box Full of Fun

Our dishwasher went kaput after only 4 years. Lovely, eh? So when we brought home our new one, the kids had a fantastic toy to play with...a huge box. It was so great. I loved it so. The kids were occupied and having fun. They had a fort, store, cave, and a well. They filled it with cushions, blankets, or toys. They rolled it over and turned it upside down, both while in and out of the box. Tons of fun.

Filled with couch cushions for a trampoline.

However, W didn't like it when things got a tiny bit out of control. He was done until things mellowed.

The other two didn't mind the craziness. They kicked, banged, and just about demolished the box. I had to enforce a few rules after awhile because I realized I could lose the box soon. That would be horrible! I needed to hang onto that box as long as possible.

One morning I heard a big thud, then whimpering, then laughing. I came to investigate and found O. This box is about 3 1/2 feet deep and O was at the bottom, looking up at me with a big grin. He climbed onto the living room chair and threw himself into the box. After explaining that he could hurt himself, I moved the box away from the chair and hoped he wouldn't do it again. Yeaaahhhh.

I heard the wrestling of the box and Big Sis was now involved. I soon heard more giggling. This time they had a pillow at the bottom and they were jumping into the box from the Little Tykes play castle. Very daring.

After about a week of entertainment, the kids were busy loading toys, blankets, and books into the box. They were planning to snuggle inside and play. How fun. I loved our box. Within a few minutes of play time inside the box, E exclaimed, "Mommy, O's stinky!" Did I jump to it and retrieve him right away? No. But when E shouted, "Eew! Mommy! O's REALLY stinky!" I came over to change him. To my absolute horror, the child was covered in poop. He had an enormous blowout that seemed to spray in all directions. E must have been under a blanket because she was spared from the blast. Unfortunately, the blankets, books, and many toys were not so lucky. It was everywhere...and the stench...gag.

That, my friends, was one sad ending to a fun filled week
with our glorious box. I bid farewell.
Sniff, sniff

This Year's Garden

Every Spring we plant a garden. But every year we seem to have more and more guests who are extremely unwelcome. For the past two years, A has put so much work into the garden, yet, we haven't eaten much from it. The varmints get to it first. We've tried fencing, flying plastic bags, flying pie pans, bells, crisscrossing wire, extra posts throughout the garden, specific scents to deter animals, even urinating around it. Yip. A relieved himself nightly in hopes to keep deer away. Nothing worked.

The other problem we face every year is keeping the plants alive and heartily producing, despite our cement like clay. We treat it with manure, lime, sand, compost, whatever...By June, it's back to it's clay state and extremely hard. So this year, A built garden boxes. They're filled with real dirt and manure and we're hoping we'll have more success producing our vegetables. It will be easier to pull weeds and we can actually sit down as we work the garden. I say "we", but I'm rarely out there in the garden. Seriously, all credit goes out to A.

We still don't have a solution for our critters of the night. But I have heard of Liquid Fence, so I think we need to try it. It's that or an electric fence with extreme voltage.

Daddy's helpers on the day we unloaded the dirt. Late March.

E wearing sunglasses (good girl) and becoming best friends with worms.
O being helpful by sweeping up the dirt and wearing E's pink shoes.
They fit.
W drawing in the dirt, trying not to get too dirty.

Biker Babe

Oh, the thrill of riding her bike around the entire neighborhood!

Pushing...

up...

the hill!

Pride and joy.

Balloon Fight

Balloons filled the house for a few days after Daddy brought them home from a work meeting. Yeah, that's how cool A is. When he has a boring meeting at work he tries to help the mood by having fun decorations and snacks for everyone. Awesome.

The kids went crazy over the balloons. We volleyed them, we had static hair, and of course, there were balloon fights.

So funny.

Can You See This?

When E was a baby, we laughed over the fact that she couldn't see a Cheerio placed directly below her nose. A few years later, we were somewhat amused by the fact that she couldn't find her toy that was directly in front of her toes. But when she began to squint and cock her head to the side when pointing things out, we got a little concerned.
I gave her an eye test here at the house and she seemed fine. She even passed the eye test at the doctor's office. I wasn't satisfied though. The doctor's office didn't seem to try very hard to discover what she can or can't see. So, I finally made an appointment to see an ophthalmologist.

The visit started off great thanks to the Little People toys that filled the lobby. She was a little nervous, but did exactly what was asked of her.

The boys looked on in great interest.

Calling out her letters without difficulty.

Working with the doctor...and giggling.

E showed off her prized spiky ring. Because her eyes were dilated, E had to wear these super cool and stylish sunglasses for several hours. She was really great in the car as we ran errands, but once we got to Walmart, she didn't want to wear them anymore. After several attempts to take them off or the glasses accidentally falling off her face, I ran her over to the sunglasses and told her to pick her favorite pair. The only catch would be for her to wear them. She proudly strutted herself through Walmart wearing her new sunglasses.
From our visit, we learned that E has fair eyes to match her fair hair and skin. The doctor told her to always wear sunglasses outside. We learned that E can see just fine, although she does have a slight astigmatism. It's so slight that they aren't concerned at this point, but possibly in the future. We also learned that yes, she can see her cluttered room, she can see her food on her plate, she can see her coat in the closet, and yes, she can see her shoes in the garage....she just chooses not to.

Last Storm of Winter

We all enjoyed our last winter snow storm earlier this month.
It was a surprise and so beautiful.

I guess since the boys could walk normally and not fall in cold wet stuff,
they were pretty happy.

W loved the excitement.

He is so stinkin' cute! Look...snowflakes are landing on his eyelashes.

You can see more melting snowflakes on his eyelashes. So cute.

This is our final goodbye to winter. Ahhh...it was a good one.
Now finally onto Spring.