Jenny and Tom!

We went fishing with our friends, Jenny and Tom, over the weekend at Jenny's parents' house. You may know Jenny and Tom from such blogs as Our friends, Jenny and Tom, and little T3 It was great! I caught 3 fish (my first catches EVER!) and the kids were both able to snag a couple. It was like the fish were just jumping into the bucket. All in all, it was a good time.

How can you say no to a kiss from this guy?

Peek-a-Luke!

Where's Luke?
There he is!

Luke was playing peekaboo with me while he was under the table at the family picnic.

Family picnic

We had our annual picnic today with my Mom's family. The next couple posts will be a barrage of pix from it.

Laugh out loud funny

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0pPwm9POa4

I don't post a lot of stuff that isn't kid related but this is just too funny to not mention.

Yikes.

Mr. Sick-o

Put a shirt on, won't ya? It's a G rated blog.

Aron's (hopefully) on the mend. The MRI came back normal so doctors were able to rule out anything heinous like MS or a tumor or anything. They think that it was just some sort of really nasty virus that got into his system. He's still trying to gain back the 10# he lost and regain his strength.

Feel free to bring the man pies if you see fit. There are rules about pies though: He doesn't consider non-fruit pies to be real pies. Don't try to pass off a French silk or a peanut butter pie on this guy. He's strictly a fruit-only kinda guy. He also thinks that pies require a crust bottom and crust top. He's pretty firm about this but every once in a while if he's feeling weak he'll eat a crumb top apple. Shhh...that'll be our little secret.

Seriously cute. Srsly.

Who needs one? Who needs one? Don't be shy. No pushing to get to the front of the line. Everyone can have one (or three).

I think I might have Myles convinced to take the tiger one (my personal favorite) but shhhhhh, don't tell his mom and dad. I asked him what it should be named. He thought for a second and came up with a brilliant name.

Myles.

I didn't have the heart to tell him that I think it's a girl.

She bedazzled herself

Check out her necklace of beautiful barrettes that she crafted all by herself. She was very proud that day.

Don't you want some kitty to love? Don't you NEED some kitty to love?

The kittens have been found. I repeat, the kittens have been found. Our lovely new buddy, KiKi (you may know her from such haunts as our back yard, our driveway or our next door neighbor's porch), decided to move them into a cupboard in our laundry room.

They are approx 10 days old and have just started to open their eyes. I did a cursory glance and believe (now don't hold me to this) that there is one orange male, one orange female, and one tiger with one orange leg and one orange cheek. I couldn't get a good pic of the tiger to show off the unique coloring but will try to get a better one soon.

Please take one...or two....heck doesn't somebody need all three??

A sign of the times...

Wow. I felt very aged last weekend. We got dinner from Wendy's last Sunday for Father's Day (I know, not very exciting but Aron didn't feel well and it was quick). The kids got a kid's meal (surprise: nuggets, fries, and chocolate milk). I was looking at the kid's meal bag before I threw it away. I saw that there were pictograms on it--great! I used to love pictograms when I was little. First I saw the one on the bottom--simple, basket + ball =basketball. I looked at the top one and thought "Seriously Wendy's?? This is the message you want to convey to the eaters of your kid's meals? I pea (pee). Seriously? That's where our culture has went since I ate kid's meals X number of years ago? Really? It's all come down to "I pee"?!" Then I looked at the bottom of the bag at the answers.

Oh wait. You meant i-pod. The one on the right is a pea pod. I-Pod. I get it now.

Congrats to Kortney and Matt!

Our friends, Kortney and Matt, had a baby this week. She's a little girl who is 8 pounds 7 oz, 21 inches long and her name is Ryan (not sure about the spelling because I haven't had the time to call Kort yet).

UGH!

We've had a long week. Aron's been sick, Luke has swimmer's ear, and I had some oral surgery. Ella's the only one that's been a rock this week. We would appreciate whatever positive thoughts, positive vibes, prayers, whatever you would send our way. We could use them all!

Aron has an MRI scheduled for 4:00 Monday so hopefully, that goes well.

Little bit o' savory, little bit o' sweet

Sweet: Cricket chow
Savory: Corn Cricket Toss
No arachnophobia for this kid!

We went to the Bug Man's show at my Mom's library on Wednesday. He cooked up a little tasty treat for the kids. It was melted butter, cooked onions, sauteed corn, a little bit of half and half and some crickets (pictured above). He also made mealworm blueberry pancakes but I didn't get a picture of that. He brought along some cricket chow, too, which was crickets (duh) tossed in melted chocolate and powdered sugar (you know like that Puppy Chow that everyone makes around Christmas time).

No, I didn't get the kids to eat any of it. No, I didn't eat any of it.

The Bug Man showed the kids plenty of bugs like a praying mantis, black widow spiders, and big fuzzy spiders that were as big as the palm of his hand.

I'll tumble for you

Here's a pic from the second party from over the weekend. It was for Aron's cousin's wife who graduated with her Bachelor's in Nursing (woohoo! Congrats Amy!). There was a DJ, a keg, multiple campers/tents, and probably a good couple hundred people.

.

We went to a third party that night. Again, it was a graduation for one of Aron's cousins. This was the best party for me. You wanna know why? Because it was confirmed for me that I am a blogging rock star. That's right, that's right. I am blogging royalty. Here's why: Aron keeps telling me that I don't need to update the blog so much, everyone wants more pictures and less text (cause no one wants to hear me ramble on about the kids. It's like making someone look at your vacation photos of the Grand Canyon--no one really wants to look at them but they'll usually make a polite attempt to look in their general direction while you poke them in their face), no one really looks at it, etc, etc. Here's the fun part--we didn't get two feet into the party before someone told us how much they liked our blog (that's right, that's you Dawn). The further into the party, the more people told us how much they enjoyed it. The best part? Everyone thinks that I'm funny and wants me to write more. People think I'm funny! Just because people don't write a comment, doesn't mean they aren't lookin', baby! I mean, yeah, everywhere we go, I follow the kids around like they're Britney Spears and I'm the paparazzi. Yeah, I look like a tourist in NYC because I'm constantly taking pictures of this and that but people appreciate it. I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and dog gone it, people like me!

.

IN YOUR FACE, ARON!

(You know I still love you, Aron...some days more than others but most days I would label what I feel toward you as "love") See this is the part where I'm funny.

3 parties in one day is just plain crazy!

We went to 3 parties all in one day over the weekend--madness! Here are the kids eating cake at party number one--a birthday cake for our buddy, Sam. I'm sorry to say I didn't get a picture of the birthday boy. He was too busy running around having fun!

And they said it couldn't be done! And by "they" I mean you, Mary Elizabeth L-N!

Somehow I have managed to make a flower grow! Normally, I have what I call the "Black Thumb of Death." You know, I manage to kill 95% of the plants that I buy. NOT THIS TIME! I managed to get a Gerber Daisy to bloom. I'm so darn proud of myself. I think maybe even a little prouder than the time I got the African violet to bloom (which I haven't been able to get to bloom since but that's neither here nor there).

Roscoe the Clown!

Silently, I wait for thee.
Aw yeah! Don't you just *heart* the blue dinosaur and pink butterfly (that perfectly matches her pink butterfly dress)

Today at my Mom's library there was a kick off for their Summer Reading Program. They invited Roscoe the Clown to help celebrate. He drove all the way from Michigan (yes, Michigan) this morning. He was a little late because he got lost but the kids soon forgave him and enjoyed the show.

Every single kid got a balloon animal. There were 82 people there so I'm surprised that ol' Roscoe didn't pass out from blowing up that many balloons. Luke waited patiently for his turn to get a balloon (aka he stood right next to Roscoe until he noticed that he was standing there).

Stay tuned for next week's entertainer: Mark Berman who is aka The Bug Man. I understand that there will be bugs to, um, taste test if you know what I mean.

Ah, berries!

Myles came over the other night to hang out. We had some fresh picked strawberries from Aron's Granny's strawberry patch. I just happened to have a pint of heavy whipping cream (who doesn't just happen to have this in their fridge??) so I whipped it up into whipped cream and magic happened. Let's just say the three of them ate the entire pint of whipped cream.

Oh the tastiness.

He's over there! No, no, over THERE!

Luke was convinced that there was a bunny in the pond at the outdoor center. He kept calling for it and trying to show it how to swim over to him to say hi.

I couldn't decide which video was cuter--the one where he's showing the bunny how to swim over to him or the one where he's gently calling for the bunny to come over.

Local Outdoor Education Center

Hey! It's Franklin!
Do you really think that's Franklin, Mommy?
Over the weekend, we went to a local Outdoor Education Center to explore. It's one of those places that we've meant to go to for-ev-er but it just never seemed to work out. We found a turtle there and he sat there peacefully until Luke screamed "HEY IT'S A TURTLE OVER HERE!" I told him I thought it was Franklin who is a very popular part of their television viewing schedule.

This one's for you, Jim

I made this cake a couple weeks ago when my family came over after Ella's ballet recital. It is Martha Stewarts variation of a Dobos Torte. It was pretty tasty.

Of note for sunscreen season...

When we went to Florida a couple months ago, we went on a boat ride. The owner of the boat said that if we used a spray sunscreen, then we would need to use it before we got on board. He said he's had passengers use the spray sunscreen while standing in his boat and it eats the paint off his boat. That's right--THE STUFF WE PUT ON OUR SKIN EATS PAINT!

I endorse sunscreen but you may want to think twice before you use an aerosol kind.

My new BFF: Poison Control

Sometimes I forget that Ella was an easy to rear toddler. If you told her to not touch something and leave it alone, she said ok and went on her business. If she really persisted with getting something I didn't want her have, I just put it up and she would look at it wishfully and then move on to something else.

Luke is not that child.

He's more cunning. I can't really say he has malicious intent per se (at least not that I can prove), he's just definitely more persistent and tries to find ways around you, as an authority figure.

Last week, I had given him a dose of Tylenol because he wasn't feeling well. He said he wanted more medicine (let's face it--the stuff tastes like drinkable candy so why wouldn't the kid want to have more?). I said "no" and put the bottle on the counter in the bathroom. Later that evening, Luke was found in the bathroom. Somehow, he got the childproof cap off the bottle and was chugging the contents. That's right, that's right--HE WAS DRINKING THE TYLENOL! We freaked out and called Poison Control. Though a lot of educated guessing, we think he drank somewhere around 4-6 teaspoons of it. His normal dosage is 1 teaspoon. The good news is that, according to Poison Control, a child would have to drink somewhere around 1/2 bottle of the stuff for it to be a "concern." He only drank like 1/4 of the bottle.