The ZOO!! p.s HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALEISHA!

Get ready for a truck load of pictures. It was such a fun day I could not choose which pictures to put on the blog. DeeDee had the idea that we NEEDED to go to the Hogle Zoo before school started. So..DeeDee, Frank, Aleisha (the Birthday Girl!!), Liz, Annie and all the kids that tag along with us - loaded up into our cars and headed to the Zoo. It was a fun day until we got hot and tired and ready for the air-conditioned car. We ate lunch, had ice cream, saw an amazing bird show and many other cool animals. A little train ride. Choo Choo!

The monkey house. Very fitting for these couple of monkeys.

Oh brother.

We thought the carousel ride was free so we marched right on but Hannah got stopped at the gate, apparently we did need tickets, but by then the boys had sat themselves down. Oops.
Hannah was able to ride AFTER we purchased a ticket.

Luke, Colby, Hannah and some trainer dude with a bald eagle after the way cool bird show!

This leopard was behind glass, but it was pacing back and forth and back and forth just a growling at the glass. The boys just sat and stared and ate their ice cream.

Smoochy smoochy.

The kids with a python. Colby was TICKED they did not have any cool poisonous snakes. He wanted a Black Mamba which is super deadly, nope, just some boa's, rattlers, and other miscellaneous non-lethal snakes.

A perfect ending to our great day. Precious.

Another complaint from Colby was that there was no bat exhibit. Luke had him ALL EXCITED that there was some bat exhibit and Colby would not shut up about "the bats this" and "the bats that", we get to the end of the zoo and NO BATS! I could have punched Luke. We still are unsure about where these elusive bats went.

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

After Sunday dinner with Mom we came home and watched a storm roll into and over Mapleton. The boys are relaxing on the couch watching Shark Week on the MythBuster's tv show. Colby thought when the storm was coming it meant there was a tornado coming. He was disapointed to learn it was no such thing. Then he got all excited when the lightening started and was guessing where it was going to hit - our neighbors? us? our tree? Again, he was disapointed to learn that is hopefully not how it works. Bummer

I thought I would make some caramels to take to some of my friends around here. I was all gung-ho making them, but when it comes to rolling 150+ caramels...I tire a little of the whole process. They are SUPER YUMMY and totally worth it, but I only make them about once a year.

Right before bedtime I got hankering for some meatballs. So I made some meatballs, with a red sauce and mustard sauce to dip them in. MMMM, I like Neatballs (one of Colby's quotes, "Neatballs").

Mom's Salon

It comes from my up-bringing. Not wanting to pay for hair cuts. I don't remember ever paying for a haircut until I was older and paid for it myself. It was always mom with her clippers. As a mom now I totally agree with that thinking. The boys hair grows so fast that I hate to shell out $20 for each to get their hair cut. So I have begun to master the art of the little boy hair cut. Welcome to Mom's Salon where there are only 2 hair styles. Buzzed or Missionary Style.


Colby with his mess of a mane, pre-cut. (Grandma Jan, I wear this Hawaiin dress you gave me daily, lov'n it!)

My Little Handsome Devil post-cut - and I should stress the devil part. He put on quite the tantrum before he would give in to his hair cut. It started out with him not wanting to go first so he went to his room to wait for Luke to go first. Then he threw an even bigger tantrum because now he wanted to go first. His "little" tantrum lasted for close to an hour, where it ended just as quicklyl as it started. So let me say again, My Handsome Little Devil.

Post-cut

Luke, The Little Angel was witness to Colby's tantrum and he kept thanking me for giving him haircut. :-) I can always count on Luke to make sure I am taken care of. XOXO

Luke and Lola. Lola is getting bigger day by day. Her hair is unbelievably soft! Such a cutie. She is Luke's little shadow. If he goes downstairs, so does she. If Luke goes to bed, so does Lola. And if Luke goes into the bathroom Lola follows. funny.

Hello My Good Friend.

For anyone who knows me well enough knows that I have a long-time friendship with pizza. My first real job was at a pizza parlor, where I could make my pizza's just the way I like them - loaded with cheese and toppings. I used to buy a whole pizza from Pizza Hut for lunch in High School and sit in my car with the doors locked so I wouldn't have to share. Stuffed Crust Pizza is right up there with electricity. Well we had pizza for lunch yesterday (and pizza for dinner at Leo's party, what a good friend) and today Luke was warming some pizza up for me and he got really excited over this piece. He brought it over to me and I saw why. It is a sign from the Pizza God's.
Complements of my good friends at Two Jacks Pizza. Some very yummy pizza and cheese bread!

You do see what we are excited about...right? On the crust...

My name in the melted cheese.

It is a sign from above. :-)

Swimming With Hannah!

We went over to Hannah's house today to have a "swim party". The kids had a great time and Aleisha made everybody quesadilla's! Hooray for Aleisha Luke and Colby floating in the top-side of a sand box.

This worked out fine until Colby rocked the boat. Of course.

Leo was a bit overwhelmed with the whole pool idea. He was much happier with a hose and a bucket.

Corey holding Chris and Aleisha's baby Addison, sitting next to Pa Frank. :-)

Hannah in her new surfer girl swimsuit that "doesn't give her wedgies"! We are all SO excited!

p.s. you can see some more of our swim party at Chris and Aleisha's blog

Our Little Leo is 1!!

Leo turned 1 today! Hooray! Annie had a semi-forced birthday party for him. I think she is new to the Mother's Club and wasn't aware that the 1 year old birthday party was non-negotiable. Little Prince Charming in awe of all the attention and singing just for him.

It took a minute for him to realize this whole cupcake was just for him. A little timid at first.

Annie and Kevin had pizza, watermelon, cucumber (from Annie's garden), drinks and cupcakes. Corey is enjoying his dinner WAY too much!

Leo chowing on his pizza.

Friends, cousins and more cousins. Kids eat cupcakes OUTSIDE, no questions. :-)

Trouble Maker.

Colby is not on my good side these days. He is pushing boundaries and arguing with EVERYTHING I say! He has spent more time in his room over the last couple of days since I can't remember when. If he wasn't so cute I would consider military school - is 5 too young? Here is his room with the door missing. Why is his door missing? I will tell you why. He is a stinker - that is why. He has been working on perfecting his stomping away, slamming his door and then locking his door and then throwing things against his door to show me just how angry he is. So, his door has been taken away.

This is what he got to do while he spent his 2 hours in timeout today. He is not asleep, he is just being a grump and showing his irritation by ignoring me. His timeout did not start at two hours but he just kept adding to his time. I finally closed my eyes for a quick nap and let Corey deal with him when he got home. Little booger.

This is what Lukie did during Colby's timeout. My sweet Lukie does not get many time outs. He usually sends himself to his room if he is upset with himself.

Polar opposites. I love them both, but Colby is testing that love right now.

Summer Lov'n, Had Me A Blast.....

I know this is not what the song is about, but this video is what summer is about. I remember jumping on a tramp with the sprinkler under it when I was younger. This is our version of high-class water fun!

Chill'n

The boys had been outside on the tramp and in the sprinklers. We brought them in and had them shower and here they are in their "pj's" (I use that term loosely) hanging out watching a movie, Hoodwinked (so funny), before bedtime. Nice cheeser Lukie. Notice he pulled the blanket up to cover his bare chest. heehee

Colby is in the zone and couldn't be bothered to look at the camera. He didn't care at all that he was bare chested, in fact.....

I couldn't resist snapping a picture of him. He LOVES sleeping in his tighty-whities. Well these are gray with trucks on them and they are TIGHT. I probably need to go through his underwear drawer because he comes downstairs wearing 2T underwear. That is for a 2 year old toddler for all you who are not down with little boy underwear sizes. FOR REAL - 2T. I should be embarrassed, instead I cannot resist pinching his cute little bum. I think I get that from my Grandma Jan who still cannot resist cute little boy bums, even when they are grown little boys.

Stay Awake Lola!

We try and keep Lola awake from 6pm on until she goes to bed at 9pm with the boys so that she doesn't get up at the crack of dawn. Corey is so funny in all the ways he tries to keep her awake and alert. By the time 9pm rolls around Lola is SO glad to go to her crate and sleep so Corey will stop bugging her. :-) He is being 1/2 way successful. Corey is holding Lola up for this picture.


Poor little thing. Please let me go to sleep!