12:20 p.m.

Macaroni and cheese and much happier kids (and mama, even without the cupcakes).
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11:33 a.m.

Since breakfast: swim lessons refused, melt downs, snack, snuggles and me wishing I had a good cupcake (or 3). Winding down with trucks.
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8:17 a.m.

Breakfast is served. French Toast.
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8:01 a.m.

Playing, listeing to music and singing along while waiting for french toast.
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7:23 a.m.

Coffee for me
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Getting Up

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Our Day (Mobile Blogs)

I thought it might be fun today to blog all day via my phone about our day. From the mundane to thr cute, I'll post it all.
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A Moment in the Day

At the Farmers Market with cousins, enjoying a snack break.
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Faces of Adison and Cole

4th of July - Fireworks part 2

We had dinner at Micah and Carine's the next night and had plans to attend the rescheduled fireworks. Once again thunderstorms came in, and we realized it wasn't going to happen.

What do you do when you have 6 disappointed kids?

Give them glow sticks and turn on disco music, of course.

Surprisingly, no one was injured during this little exercise. We later found out the fireworks anticipated the storm and went off 30 minutes earlier, but at the end of the night, no one seemed to mind.

4th of July - Fireworks

Or not. Here are, I don't know, 10 kids? waiting in the back of our car as winds grew stronger and lightening came closer. Needless to say fireworks were canceled. We were all disappointed; especially Cole, who kept asking where the "fireworks of flavor" were.

It was on a Clifford episode...long story.

4th of July - Dinner with Friends

We met up with our friends Eric, Robin and Ian for a rousing seafood dinner, complete with Kevin's very favorite, Snow Crab. Shrimps and Bacon, baked potatoes, it was one of those meals you stuff yourself. We really enjoyed ourselves and wrapped it in time to head to fireworks.

4th of July - Random Captures

Some random captures by Kevin and I while downtown.


This first one is by me, using my new favorite random capturing technique: simply holding the camera down by your side, twisting your wrist and take pictures. If you click this pic to enlarge it, you can see my reflection in his sunglasses.



This one is by Kevin.

4th of July - State Capital

After the Museum, we headed to the State Capital, which was just across the street. They had some bands, exhibits, people dressed in old timey clothes and all sorts of food so we strolled through to check it out.

Cole and Adison crawled through a helicopter they had on the grounds; then we listened to some of the band and toured the inside of the Capital. I'd never been, and it was neat to walk around the inside of the building.

Here are a few pictures. I took more and will upload them from the camera a bit later, I thought I'd downloaded more.


Everyone waiting for the band to start playing.



Cole and I took the stairs to the 3rd level of the Capital Building, Cole's checking out the view below.

4th of July - Museum of Science

Kevin had the great idea to head to some museums downtown this morning. We got there shortly after the Museum of Science opened and practically had the place to ourselves.
It was the perfect place to let the kids move and check stuff out, and we really had a lot of fun.

There was so much to see and Cole and Adison really enjoyed themselves and Cole was interested in the exhibits more than he had been in the past. We had a nice snack at the cafe before we walked across the street to the state capitol where they were having some 4th of July activities.

The Busy Girl


Wide Open Space


I love this picture, Cole is pushing some button that's making either an animal or nature sound....



Kevin reading about dinosaurs



Waiting for the butterfly room to open.

4th of July - Morning

For breakfast, donuts of course.

Cole and I got up and drove to Krispy Kreme to check out the donut-machine (it's working) and get some breakfast for everyone.

At 80% sugar, these donuts are a hit and it doesn't take long for the sugar to do it's work. Ten minutes into breakfast the kids were playing a hearty game of peek-a-boo.

$1.00 Worth of Fun

This week's trip to Target included a look at the $1.00 section where I happened to come upon a pack of flexible glo-sticks. I decided to get two, one for now and one for the evening of the 4th.

It was one of those nights that seemed really really long and everyone needed a distraction, so we pulled out the glo-sticks. We had a great time lighting them up, putting them together, and trying all sorts of things with them. It made a perfect night light at bed time.

Goodbye to a Good Friend

We had to say goodbye to our wonderful dog Irbe this weekend. We found out he had cancer a little over a month ago, and the time had come to finally let him go.
Irbe was a wonderful dog. He was our second boxer, we got him a year after we got Bou, thinking it would be a fabulous idea to get her a friend. They couldn't have been more different, but they tolerated each other wonderfully.

We joked that Irbe wasn't the smartest dog, but actually he was much more obedient, played harder, and was just an all around large, loveable dog. When the kids came around and he moved to 2nd fiddle, there was no difference in his character. Adison has shown the most interest in the dogs, literally laying all over them and petting them with vigor and Irbe would simply sit there and raise his head a little, proudly putting up with her.

These are some of our favorite things about Irbe:
He'd play catch until he passed out.
He thought he was a "lap dog" even though he was 80 pounds.
He loved chasing squirrels and rabbits, even though by the time he scrambled out the door he could only remember where he'd first seen it and therefore never got close.
He loved to lick anyone and everyone to death.
He would howl when the answering machine came on.

He was a wonderful dog, and we miss him.

*One week later Cole came to me this morning and asked where Irbe was. We'd been waiting for his conversation and knew it would eventually happen. Cole had gotten up before us, and had come downstairs to "keep an eye on Bou", which means follow her around. I told Cole Irbe was too sick, that the doctor couldn't fix him and that he had died. He told me we can save his leash until he comes back. When I told him that he wouldn't be coming back, my sweet, sweet boy broke down in tears and cried in my lap for 5 minutes. He also asked if we could pray to God to help Irbe get better. It was a somber time for Cole this morning, but it was so touching to be reminded of how tender his little heart is. We ended up praying that God would help us not to be sad, and to take extra special care of Bou.*

Lost

Yes. I took the wrong subway attempting to get back to the hotel by myself and ended up very far from the city...somewhere on 21st street. Here's what I learned:

1. If you tink you are close enough to walk to your hotel: do it.

2. If you take the wrong subway, stay in the subway and ask the irritated but helpful metro employee how to get back.

3. It only takes about 15 minutes to walk from 1 East 47th street to 248 West 47th street.

4. It doesn't matter how hard I try, I cannot hail a cab in New York City.
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Grand central station

Made a pit stop here on our last day. Haerd to believe this is it! Next: Brooklyn Bridge.
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Wicked

We went and saw the broadway show Wicked tonight which is meant to be a prequal to the Wizard of Oz. It really was a fantastic show and I'm a big time fan now. It was everything I hoped it would be. Here we are at the stage door with one of the main characters. The two girls we went with had already seen it several times, so they wanted to get some autographs and it was really fun to meet them.
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Times Square

We are staying 2 blocks from here.
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Times Square

We are staying 2 blocks from here.
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Cab for Four

Our dogs were barking after Central Park so we hailed a cab to thhe Apple Store. Tight squeeze.
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Subway

We ate lunch at Tom's Restaurant -- of Seinfeld fame -- and now headed to Central Park.

Note: due to technical difficulties this post is out of order.
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Central Park

We walked some of it. I hope to go back wednesday. This bridge was pretty.
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Subway guy with headphones

Wicked awesome.
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New York City

I've been in New York since saturday and having a great time. I'm trying out blogger on my phone. Saturday one of the things we did was go to the top of the rock at Rockefeller center. It was a beautiful day and we could see all of the city.
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First Hair Cut

Today Adison had her first real hair cut at 20 months. It was a decision I made on a whim; we had just dropped Cole off at VBS, and she'd pulled the clips out of her hair and looked like a lion on the back seat.

Her hair is so curly in the back, just super super tight. But in the front for some reason it's just kind of wavy straight.

So off we went to a kids hair salon and she was a champ! She sat there in awe and halfway through asked to get down, but never cried or put up a fuss.

I didn't have my "big" camera, so I took these with my phone.

I Finally Did It.

The I'm-Going-To-NY-In-June-Dress I wanted to make turned out to be a I'll-Just-Wear-It-Around-The-House-Dress.

Mom and I gave it our best effort, but it required so many alterations to get it to work on me, it ended up being kind of a traffic jam of seams and raw edges on the inside and it kind of showed.

Enter Kwik Sew 3599. First of all, I found Kwik Sew's pattern so MUCH easier to read and understand. I got a couple yards of fabric in a few weeks ago and I had two patterns on the list to try. I decided on the Kwik Sew because it really seemed easy.

And it was!!

I started it Sunday afternoon and finished it (minus the bottom hem) this morning during nap time. I am LOVING this dress. I need to tweak a few things next time I make one -- which will be soon, I assure you -- and make it just a tad longer, as it's not Playground with the kids material, but I am totally loving it and loving the fabric and feeling quite proud of myself for actually making an item of clothing for me.

Can't think of a great name for this dress right now but I'm working on it.