Dress up

Well, as the weather gets a little cooler, we spend more and more time indoors. On Thursday afternoon, the boys' neighbor friend Tori came over for a bit, and we played dress-up. It started out simple enough with the regular old pirate hats and the like, until I remembered my old Halloween costume of an Olympic Gold Medalist figure skater hanging in my closet. I brought it out, and Tori wanted to try it right away, while Mace just wanted to wear the medal. When Tori took off her shoes to go and change, my little shoe thief, Lex, headed straight for them. The photos are the end result of this little game of dress up!

Celebration of Life

At Mace's preschool, they have something called a "Celebration of Life," instead of just a birthday party. The teacher has candles representing the sun and the years of the child's life. She has the months of the year as sun rays if you will. The child walks around the circle while a story of his life (Mama and Mace did this together) is read aloud. At the end, the child blows out the candles. Mace really enjoyed this as it was the first time I stayed at school with him (Lex and I were there for the ceremony and cupcakes afterward). I really enjoyed "writing" the story together. Pretty cool thing, if you ask me!

Happy Birthday Mace!

Mace turned four on Sunday, and he had a Star Wars party (just like Papa did when he turned four). I finally got a chance to upload some random shots from that day (you might notice no cake pictures-my camera went on the fritz right as we brought the cake out-UGH!) :)

Two down, one to go!

Okay, now that my birthday is just about over, we've just got Mace's left!

Pretty low key day. Here are some pics from my 37th!

Who let the dogs out?

How do we counter those Tuesday morning blahs. Play dogs and cats. In this case, Mace and Lex were the dogs, and the chased our poor cats around the house!

Who needs ice anyway?

You can "ice skate" in CA in the middle of summer. Just check out these pics of Mace, Lex, and, yes, even Mama (Mace took that picture) "skating" around the kitchen floor in their socks/slippers!

Afternoon at the park

What do you do when Papa has to work late? If weather permits, go to the park of course. What better way to wear two little boys out then swinging, sliding, and running around a ball field?

One birthday down, two more to go!

Even though Papa and Lex are both sick, we still celebrated Travis' birthday with cupcakes (breakfast of champions) and gifts. Mace got Papa a Star Wars Transformer

(wonder if he had ulterior motives). And Lex got him a hammer (of course Lex needed his own right away too).

Happy Birthday Papa!

Deer outside my door

I so tried to get a pic of this, but nothing came out right since it was getting dark out :(
When I was putting clothes in the hamper on our back porch/laundry room, I heard something at our gate, so I opened the back door, and saw a family of deer right outside our fence. I immediately got Travis and Mace (Lex was already asleep), and we watched for a few seconds. I couldn't figure out why one of the deer was trying very hard to get into our yard until I looked over to my left at our apple trees. Eureka! They were looking for something to eat. Travis quietly walked to the trees and threw several apples over the the deers (Mace even got one good throw in). We quietly went back inside and peeked out the window at the deers munching away. Sometimes, it really is cool to live up in the "wilderness."

Wednesday is "Dusty Baker" Day

For those of you haven't been out for a visit yet, thought I'd let you know what goes on every Wednesday morning: "Dusty Baker" day; translation: dusting and chores day!

In order to do a good dusting, I've chosen to let the boys take part, and remove the cushions from the couch for them to play on while I dust (plus I get to clean out the crumbs in the couch)!

We put on 80's music and dance and jump around while cleaning; why not make cleaning a little less tedious, right?

Just like Papa

Can you tell Mace wants to be just like his Papa?

Birthday Party invitations

Okay, here is a picture of the birthday party invitations I made for Mace's party (the actual invites look better irl)! Mace loved the light sabers being used as birthday candles, but now, naturally, he's hoping for "real" light saber birthday candles on his birthday cake (guess I'll be surfing the net in search of).

Oh yeah, in case you haven't figured it out, Mace wanted a Star Wars birthday this year (think he's being influenced by his Papa at all)!

Saturday evening at the "Museum"

After a very difficult day of working on getting Lex down to one nap a day (can you say crabby?), Mace and I headed to our sandbox for some "fossil digging." We "dug up" dinosaurs, frog, snakes, lizards, and bugs. Then we displayed them in our "museum." Mace was so proud of our "museum" display that he even tried to take a picture of it himself (a little blurring, but a decent picture all the same).

Who says parents of young children miss out on exciting evenings out?

Friday morning fun!

I'm so excited! Mace and Lex FINALLY played together this morning (and I mean together, not side-by-side)!

Travis brought this big box home from work the other day, and Mace started playing with it right away. He's been playing a game called "Back from MI." Basically, he lays down in the box and I close the lid. The I say something like, "I wonder what's in this big package?" Then Mace pops out and says, "It's me, back from Michigan!"

Well this morning, Lex decided to join him in the box. They both got inside and laid down. Then I closed the flaps and said my part. Both boys popped out on cue! It was so cute!

Made my heart full of happiness!

Got Milk?

This is the reason I've been avoiding putting much milk in Lex's cereal!

Lex and baths

Lex has moved from the cramped bathroom sink to the bigger kitchen sink and he's much happier about bath time now!

Mace's first Day of School

Honeymoon's Over, Grocery SHopping, and other Thursday events

Okay, so the honeymoon period of a new school year is OVER for Mace. He started part-time preschool last week, and both Monday and today, he didn't want to go to school. He cried on the way there, and cried when I left, but when I picked him up, he was contently listening to a story being read aloud; just the beginning of the joys of schooling I suppose!

And while Mace was at school, Lex and I did the dreaded grocery shopping. When I was a young adult, I SWORE that I would not do the type of grocery shopping my mom did when I was little (buying huge amounts all at once). But the distance to the grocery store and finances have dictated, that I have once again become my mom. I don't know who i feel worse for during these excursions: the store employees, Lex, me, the other shoppers; let's just say that at least I'm happy it's done!

What will I do without a "Think You Can Dance" results show tonight???

And that's a wrap for the day folks...