The Park Before the Storm

I can't recall the specific meteorological conditions (as I'm adding this post several weeks later), but the title of the photo album indicates we were expecting some colder weather soon.

What a beautiful, fall day! The kids had a blast, even though the paparazzi was freezing. Didn't spoil their fun. And I'm glad I toughed it out because the kids were darn cute.

Got Chocolate Milk?

Olivia can finally tell you her name! (I'd better get practicing. I'm not sure I've been saying it right.)

Hiya!

Such cute kids.

They must get it from their mother.

Scratch that. It was certainly their dad.

While the Dad's Away...

...the Mom will Play, and Craft, and Clean, Cook, and Change Diapers, and Shuttle, and...

And we eagerly await Dadddy's return.

The Grammys

...inspired a rockin' performance on our center stage as well!

Still A Fan

Even though Scott says Grey's Anatomy is on its way down (I don't like to admit it, but he can be right about these things sometimes, like with Alias), I'm still a fan.

From last night's episode, one of my favorite bits of dialogue was when Derek came to Cristina's house to get her help with Meredith:

Derek: "She's in the car and she won't stop crying."
Cristina's response: "Did you propose?"

Cristina's awesome. Seriously.

(Seriously, though, could the writers stop with the 'seriously'? I can't say the word without thinking Grey's Anatomy - aha! - and how the word now annoys me.)

And Ketchup

I'm sitting here, having lunch with my favorite girl. She's adorable today, if I may say so.

Not always does she make choices I agree with. I suspect this will be true for quite some time, right? Like right now, she's eating her dino chicken nuggets and ketchup. And some roasted fries (if I call them "roasted," do they sound healthier?) and ketchup. And sliced Colorado peaches and -you got it- ketchup.

Ick.

But she's still really cute, contemplating each bite, savoring the flavor. Maybe this indicates there's too much sugar in ketchup? Probably. But I'm not concerned, so I hope you won't hold it against me.

P.S. And cucumber and ketchup.

Have anything else I should see if she'll eat with ketchup??

Mom takes a phone call...

How do YOU eat your DQ?

Things-to-Come?

Lots to blog about, but all that action has left me drained. Couldn't pass up the opportunity to comment on the kiddos' expressions here, though:

"Really, Mom? Couldja just put away that camera?"

or, in a few years:

"You're really not cool, Mom. Could you just drop me off 5 blocks away, and I'll be fine."

Car Wash Kids

Every once in a while, I do actually get the car washed. Not often enough, surely, but that can be said about a lot of things. Maybe it's because I don't do it enough that the kids are still a little wary of the experience.

(We won't talk about the fact that my 3.5 year old is still terrified of the vaccuum cleaner.)

Hello, Butterfly

With a sprained ankle in an ice bath, you can pass the time using your zoom butterfly watching.

A Coupla Extras

My friend (and Jewelry Designer) Carey had a few they-be-so-much-quicker-without-kids errands to run before their trip to MN, so she dropped off Lucy, age 4, and Quinn, age 6 to hang with us for a bit.

I wasn't sure what we might need to do to keep all age groups occupied, so (like the anal nerd I am) I planned out some activities and had them written down:

- bus ride (yeah, believe it or not, I didn't take this one on.)
- scavenger hunt
- painting
- build-your-own ice cubes
- lunch
- making lollipops
- and maybe a few more items I can't remember.

We did accomplish quite a few of the above and a few others. It was fun to have the extras in da house! Poor Olivia napped throught the photo session, I guess. She was there, and she did munch down some chicken nuggets.

Checking out the spider ("check" next to that item on the scavenger hunt list)

Zach, Quinn, Lucy spider-watching
Artistes! (check out Lucy's chic shades and smock)
The innovative painter assembled his own work area
"Voila!"
Zach's Brad-Pitt-realizes-his-ex-stole-his-phone-in-Ocean's-Eleven face
The Thinker
Fixing an owie with the Nemo cold pack
The last Big Project: the fort!

The Moral of the Story?

The moral of the story is...
Don't sleep in, unless you're prepared to deal with the consequences.

Eek, so, yes, I overslept on Monday morning, after a wakeful night. When I woke, I jumped up because I heard some noise in the kitchen.

Here's what I found:

1) One little Poppet, still sporting his pj's, complete with a half-sucked throat losenge stuck under his armpit.
2) The refrigerator door, wide open (for how long, I wonder?).

3) Aforementioned Poppet crouched under the table with a sopping wet napkin, "Ine cleaning up da mess, Mama."
4) Above the Poppet, the source of da mess:

* Not one, but two gallons of milk, pretty much empty.

* A 1.75 quart pyrex bowl (because they're low enough on the pantry shelf) filled to the brim with a half a cup of Cheerios and most of the rest of the milk that didn't overflow onto the table and floor.

* The box of Cheerios, in case more were needed.

* One of Daddy's bike bottles filled three-quarters full of, yes, more milk.

* Several other kid cup options, that probably weren't cool enough for a breakfast made made by the "aww-by-mysewf" Poppet.

* Various other random things that maybe we can chalk up to the toddler too?

5) Close up of the spread.
6) In other morning activities (seriously, this all occured in less than 20 minutes. Why can't I be that productive?), Little Poppet had retrieved the craft scissors (note to self: store these higher up) and some paper to do some cutting.

We all need to go through this at least once, right? At least it wasn't pancake batter and a hot stove???

And we wonder...

...why meals take so long. There's a lot of other stuff that goes on, at least at our house, during mealtimes.

Oh. Is that not how we're supposed to run the breakfast show? Hmm...help, please!

Participation, Pretty Please!

Hey, Faithful Readers -

Many of you are all over the country and around the world. Stateside, the headlines have been wrought with crazy weather reports. I hope you're all safe and as comfortable as can be.

What's the weather like where you are? You should be able to leave an "anonymous" comment if you don't feel like signing up for a Google account. Please?

Lakewood Report: Today was sunny with patchy clouds and lots of wind, which seems to be the staple of our spring here. The tallest blooms in my flower baskets are leaning to the east from all the blustering. Our high was 71 degrees, and we're expecting to get down into the high 30's for tonight's low. Thankfully, we're not in any extreme weather situations here.

GOTC 6/10/08 still $3.89

In other HIGH news, today's high was 93 degrees!

It would have been a great beach day, had we a bit of shade and a cool drink to sip. As it was, we kept the shades drawn and stayed out of the heat. Olivia has an open wound on her toe, so we couldn't go cool off in "the drink." Soon, my friends, soon.

"AC? What's that?"

Olivia was quite fascinated with the cold air flowing out of the air duct!
Tap, tap, tap, giggle. Walk away. Walk back. Tap, tap, tap...etc.

G.O.T.C. 5/30/08

That is, Gas On The Corner:

May 30th: Regular Unleaded = $3.89

Let's see where this is in a few weeks. Yesterday it was $3.83. I've heard Denver is in kind of a protected pocket because of the oil and gas industry in this area (who knew?). So, our gas prices are lower than the national average.

Still took $63 to fill the tank tonight. Ugh.

Back Yard Picnic and Shenanigans

Yep, *gasp* the kids are wearing the same outfits two days in a row. Should I be embarassed? Hardly. Just amazed that the clothes weren't stained beyond all comprehension from Day 1. Hee, hee. (Even in that case, sometimes they get worn again!)

We had a picnic dinner on our fancy new tray-plates. It's the beginning of the season, and it's still novel to eat outside, so not much gets "et." (Who am I kidding? Our kids don't really eat, ever. I'm just hunting for excuses. The docs say, "They'll eat when they're hungry." I guess. I guess we'll take advantage of this while the price of groceries is so high, right? JK.)

How much is gas where YOU are? On our corner, it's $3.69 for Regular Unleaded. I think I heard the price of oil reached a new high (is this just a repeat recording on the news, these days?) again today, so I wonder what it will be tomorrow.

Scott said it was 110 degrees in Phoenix today. Whew. He'll be glad to be home tomorrow. It's only supposed to be 90 here.

De plane, de plane!

After dinner wiggling
The sideways, slanting back yard hill is a bit of a challenge for the Toddle Doll.
So much to do, so little daylight.
See the concentration-tongue? Also notice the "routered" (sp) edges on the former dirt-pit, current play area border.
It's almost always necessary to get all the way in the toy bin to find the right toy. And then also quite frequently necessary to yell for help to get back out.
Our "new" play land. Thanks, Christine! (No, Zach didn't fall off the top. That's still to come, surely. Thank goodness for the routered edges on the railroad ties...)