"He's Just Not That Into You"

The boys played poker tonight and I watched the movie "He's Just Not That Into You."

Awesome Movie!! (or maybe I'm just a chick)

However, I'll say it again...Awesome Movie.

briefly....

Today was another pool day. Yesterday I burned the tops of my legs to a pink lobstery crisp so today I tried pretty hard to burn the backs. I came home, however, with only a touch of blush.

Despite my failure to reach my goal...the rest of us had a lot of fun at the pool. We swam, I tanned, Uncle Brian and Daddy threw the kids all over the pool, and we lunched on PB and Honey sandwiches.

Matt and Brian made plans with a neighbor to go see the new Transformers movie so I was on my own with the kids tonight. After the boys left, we cleaned up, had a snack, read some books and then I let L & T watch Alice and Wonderland in my bed. I came to check on them 15 minutes after the movie started and this is what I found.

PRECIOUS!!

I love sleeping babies!

Uncle Brian, Thomas, and Friends

We are loving our time with Uncle Brian. And it appears he's lovin his time here as well.

Just look at that cute smile.

Ladies??????

He's an excellent bedtime story reader!
or Is He?
Remember, he did graduate from OSU.
(sorry Brian, although it's getting old, I just had to get another Jab in)
I guess we'll just call him a good reader.

On Friday we spent some time with our friend Lea.
They were watching a "favorite show" but they all knew the rule:
We Only Eat Snacks in the Kitchen
and isn't this the Most polite, Most adorable snack eating crew you've ever seen?!

That evening Lauren, Tyler, Matt and I left Uncle Brian alone at home

to see....[drum roll]...

Thomas and Friends LIVE: A Circus Comes to Town

at the Fox Theatre.

I think the kids really enjoyed themselves.

Tyler had his eyes glued to the stage the whole time.

Lauren, however, told me her favorite part of the evening was getting ice-cream at

Cold Stone Creamery

after the show.

Dora is coming to town next month...perhaps we'll try again then.

We woke up this morning to about 90 degree weather so we decided to "enjoy" the heat

at the neighborhood pool.

We were greeted by our friend,

"the Biggest, Ugliest, (First EVER!) Cock Roach I've SEEN!!"

We tried to get him off the umbrella but he refused and dug his claws in...so we let him stay.

Meanwhile we had Tons and Tons and Tons of fun (far away from him) in the pool.

Turn your head side-ways to see Lauren being tossed into the air.

more pics of watery fun

I spent most of my time on the side of the pool taking pictures and talking to a friend.

While I did this, I managed to Seriously Fry the tops of my legs.

(who knew the legs needed sunscreen too?!)

Ever since, I've been relaxing on my sofa with a nice and cool bottle of Aloe Vera gel.

This evening Matt and Brian FINALLY got a poker game together. Brian has been requesting one since he arrived and tonight they've rounded up enough friends to play. I believe they've dedicated this game to the late Michael Jackson....because on the main floor I have heard the bass and vibrations of Billie Jean, Thriller and many other MJ hits.

Lauren and Tyler really wanted Tera to come play today and lucky for them....she was available.

They have been having so much fun with their friend.

They even settled down in my bedroom

to watch CARS, just long enough for me to get this picture.

Cinnamon Rolls made by Lauren

Lauren pulled out her favorite cookbook the other day, ("Paula Deen's My First Cookbook") and asked if she could make the Cinnamon Rolls. She looked through all the pictures and settled on this recipe. Since we had all the 'fixins' I told her "of course you can!"

She had so much fun making these cinnamon rolls, I thought I'd share the recipe.

(she absolutely loves this cookbook)

Paula Deen's Cinnamon Rolls

from Paula Deen's My First Cookbook by Paula Deen with Martha Nesbit

What You'll Need:

Cookie Sheet

Parchment Paper

Oven mitts or hot pads

Plates and forks

1 can refrigerated crescent rolls (8 rolls)

8 large marshmallows

Cinnamon sugar; made by mixing 1/2 cup sugar with 1 teaspoon cinnamon

What You'll Do:

1. Turn on the oven to 375 degrees.

2. Separate the dough into 8 triangles. Place 1 marshmallow right in the middle of each triangle. Sprinkle each marshmallow with some of the cinnamon sugar.

3. Bring up all of the sides of the roll to completely cover the marshmallow, pinching all of the edges together so that none of the marshmallow shows.

4. Cover the cookie sheet with a piece of parchment paper. Place the rolls on the parchment paper, making sure none of them are touching. Sprinkle with more cinnamon sugar.

5. Bake the rolls for about 10 minutes, until they are light brown and puffed up. Have your adult helper use oven mitts or hot pads to remove the cookie sheet from the oven.

6. Serve warm on plates, with forks to eat them with.

see Tyler sprinkle with cinnamon sugar...I wonder who actually got this roll?!

Here are the rolls fresh out of the oven.

While they baked the kids enjoyed some some underwear-only time around the house so for modesty's sake I made it look like Lauren was swarmed by a million flies.

Flies or not these rolls were EZ and DELISH.

Double Feature Wednesday

Lauren and Tyler saw their first movie in a movie theatre yesterday. The local Cinema offers a free PG movie and a free G-rated movie every Wednesday and Thursday during the summer weeks. This weeks G movie was Horton Hears A Who. Our playgroup decided to see the movie instead of meeting at one of our houses this week. I thought this would be the perfect movie since the kiddos have already seen it and I knew it would hold their attention.

Here they are settled in and waiting for it to start.
(Blankie and Cat Baby are not pictured but played a huge roll in keeping the kids quiet.)

Tyler sat on my lap for most of the movie for the movie but for the last 30 minutes he sat by himself. The two did wonderful. They were quiet, they whispered and they watched the Entire Movie. I snuck some snacks in so that helped too, I suppose.

The rest of the day was spent playing with Uncle Brian. He's so good with them and they absolutely love him. Despite the Oregon State t-shirt & degree...he still somehow learned to read.
Later in the afternoon we had a new baby-sitter come over to watch the kids. We saw Olivia and her mom (a Bunko friend) at the neighborhood swimming pool and Olivia expressed how much she would love to baby-sit. Who am I to squash any baby-sitters dreams?! We had Olivia come over about 30 minutes early to hang out with the kids while we were still there. They instantly connected and Tyler was taking her by the hand to show her this and that and anything he could think of to keep her attention. She's a natural and we'll be seeing much more of her.

Soon Matt, Brian and I were off to dinner and a movie. We chose Ted's Montana Grill for dinner because that sounded "Atlanta" to us (we want to expose Brian to all things Atlanta/Georgia) and we also had a $10 off coupon. Dinner was good, although I only found a couple things on the menu that I was interested in ordering. I ordered the crab cakes and they were light and delicious. I guess I'm not that into Bison which the restaurant is famous for. After dinner we still had some time to kill before our movie started so we found a bar by the theatre and had a couple of drinks.

Brian

Matt aka Puppy Dog Face?

Finally we made it to our movie. We saw "The Hangover." This was pretty funny but from what I heard about it I thought it would have been better/funnier/more disturbing. It reminded me of the movie "Very Bad Things" and that's a hard movie to compete with. That's my ultimate definition of a disturbing Vegas bachelor party movie. =)

***the kids' thoughts on Olivia***
they loved her. She took them outside to play tag, they watched Lauren's dance DVD together and they had 2 medium scoops of ice-cream each as a snack. She asked great questions before we left and when we returned the house was picked up and the dishes were in the sink....she's The Perfect Baby-sitter. If any reading this are local and looking for a sitter I highly recommend this very mature almost (in 2 weeks) 13 year old!!

Uncle Brian

Uncle Brian, my baby brother, is here visiting us for 2 weeks. Currently he's sleeping off the long red-eye flight from Portland, OR to Atlanta. He recently graduated with some sort of sham degree offered by Oregon State University and is spending some time with us before he applies for a job at all of the fast food restaurants in Portland. (If only he would have gotten a degree at the University of Oregon, he may have had a chance to make a name for himself.)

Anyway since there isn't much to report on his visit yet I thought I'd plaster his picture all over this post so you can all get a feel for who Uncle Brian is.

Brian is the eccentric cutie on the left.

I am the one in the Bum sweatshirt with my disc-man headphones weighing heavily around my neck.

Here is Brian having a grand old time at Disneyland.

Here are my brothers entertaining the chicas at a bar in Peru

(Brian on the left and Kevin to the right)

it was a slowwww night

And finally here is a picture from Brian's last visit over Christmas.

Him and the Princess are playing Apples to Apples.

WELCOME BACK UNCLE BRIAN!!

where are my innocent little babies?

the Crime Scene

the Evidence
the Accused

the Story

This morning I jogged 3 miles in the basement. I set the kids up (also in the basement) with the movie Cars which they like to watch while I exercise. Unfortunately, they only like to watch up until the point where Lightening McQueen falls off the trailer on his way to "Californa" (as Lauren calls it.) At this point in the movie they went upstairs to play with their toys.

When I finished I came up to a silent house with no children in sight. I called out once to the kids and got no answer. I then called out again with my "you better answer me" tone and Lauren said they were upstairs (her voice was coming from the guest bathroom.) I asked them what they were doing and, after a pause, in a quiet voice Lauren said they were having a snack. (it was 10:00am) Interested, I started up the stairs and about this point I heard a furious ripping and crinkling of paper. Both kids ran out of the bathroom with their cheeks bulging. I took a quick peak in the bathroom and saw the evidence in the garbage can. 6 Now and Later wrappers.

They had positioned the step ladder in the pantry in order to reach the snack bucket and picked out 6 Now and Laters (l/o from Halloween?) Then they had taken/smuggled their loot upstairs and ate it all.

I was too impressed with their ingenuity/sneaky-ness, the fact they threw the wrappers in the garbage and also with Lauren's honesty so I told them they weren't in trouble this time but from now on they were to ASK ME if they could have a snack. And I reminded them that we only eat in the kitchen...definitely not the bathroom.

Where did my innocent little babies go?

Father's Day Love

In honor of Father’s Day I thought I’d do something very special for Matt.

(aka the BEST Father and Husband in the whole wide world)

Should I:

1. Let him sleep in? No way…. I’m tired too!

2. Cook him breakfast? half way... (As you may know I don’t ever cook breakfast. (seriously) I pour cereal and milk. But!! I did fry him an egg and toasted and buttered an English muffin while he cooked some Apple Chardonnay Chicken Sausages in the George Foreman.)

3. Show him how much his children love him by asking them some questions about their Daddy? All the way…

Children’s Questionnaire

By Lauren (5) and Tyler (3)


1. What is something Daddy always says to you?

Lauren: “pickle head”

Tyler: “thank you”


2. What makes Daddy happy?

Lauren: “muffins, cake and pie”

Tyler: “Mommy” (ahhhh)

3. What makes Daddy sad?

Lauren: “when he gets covered in cake”

Tyler: “Lauren”

4. How does Daddy make you laugh?

Lauren: “blowing air on my tummy”

Tyler: “he laughs at me”

5. What did Daddy do when he was a little boy?

Lauren: “swinging”

Tyler: “he played”

6. How old is Daddy?

Lauren: “38”

Tyler: “5”

7. How tall is your Daddy?

Lauren: “36 tall”

Tyler: “this big” [he points his finger to the ceiling]

8. What is his favorite thing to watch on TV?

Lauren: “race car building shows”

Tyler: “Race cars” (he’s referring to Cars with Lightening McQueen)

9. What does Daddy do when you're not around?

Lauren: “works”

Tyler: “goes to work”

10. What is Daddy really good at?

Lauren: “making a brand new motorcycle”

Tyler: “he’s good at my bedroom”

11. What is Daddy not very good at?

Lauren: “playing airplane because he always says it’s broken”

Tyler: “not very good at my light”

12. What does Daddy do for his job?

Lauren: “he drives to work”

Tyler: “I think fixing”

13. What is Daddy's favorite food?

Lauren: “ice cream with chocolate syrup”

Tyler: “quesadillas, it’s more yummier than bananas”

14. What do you like best about Daddy?

Lauren: “playing with him all day and all night”

Tyler: “I like my bed”

15. What do you and Daddy do together?

Lauren: “He helps me make my pretend picnic. He always makes a pony cake.”

Tyler: “we play all day long”

16. How are you and Daddy the same?

Lauren: “when Daddy has girl clothes on”

Tyler: “I think we’re the same”

17. How are you and Daddy different?

Lauren: “when Daddy’s a boy and I’m a girl”

Tyler: “hmm… I think we’re different”

18. How do you know Daddy loves you?

Lauren: “he plays with me”

Tyler: “he just likes me the best”

19. Where is Daddy's favorite place to go?

Lauren: “his friend’s house”

Tyler: “to the store”

20. What is Daddy’s favorite store?

Lauren: “one that has gas for his race car”

Tyler: “a marshmallow store”

As you can tell by the answers we have a Super Special Daddy who is very much loved by his two kids.

Happy Father's Day!!

Friends, Sun, Pool, and Fun

Today was a fun day full of good food.

We started off with a Father's Day Pool Party and Pot-luck lunch at Tracy's house (sponsored by the Mom's Club.) This was one of the rare events where the Dad's are actually invited.

Lauren and Tyler had so much fun at Ms. Tracy's house. Lauren finally! discovered that floaties will really keep her above water. She swam and swam all by herself. I'm so happy she finally realized this as it will make swimming pools much more fun now. Tyler as usual was jumping in the pool and swimming all over. He's learning to keep his mouth closed when he goes under water. He's our little dare devil.I really want a pool now. Matt says it's not possible, 1. we don't have the money and 2. we have a septic tank and the drainage field is in the back yard. (Have you seen our front yard? We could for sure fit a pool in there.) =)

Yesterday evening we invited Dave, Susan, Ian (3) and Eric (8 months?) over for a grill-out. We also had Lea over while her mom enjoyed a girl's night out.
The boys grilled some steaks and I made Pasta Salad with Goat Cheese and Arugula from the June issue of Everyday Food magazine. The pasta salad was okay in my opinion but Susan's Fruit Salad was much better.

The adults and a sleepy, but refusing to go to sleep Eric, had a lot of time to talk and hang-out because the 4 kids (Lauren, Tyler, Ian & Lea) played and entertained themselves the entire evening.

yes, two kids CAN ride the train at the same time


After Dave and Susan left we settled the remaining kids into sleeping bags and watched the
Bee Movie.

What a Fun Filled Saturday!!

Settle In and Get Comfortable

Settle in and get comfortable because this has the potential to be a long, long post. My game plan is to tackle it simply by uploading all the pictures I have taken. It is almost, however, to the point of no return (meaning: it's been so long since I've posted that it seems too much a chore to post again) but I will look past that and just take it one picture/story at a time. Seriously, bear with me.

Last week we took a trip to Montgomery, Alabama. Matt attended a TAPPI Conference and the kids and I VaCaTiOnEd!! Montgomery, is the capital city of Alabama and is a city of so much history. (i.e. The first capital of the Confederate States of America, the location of the Montgomery bus boycott (y'all ever heard of Rosa Parks?) and the finish line of the Selma to Montgomery marches.)) All that being said, upon driving around the downtown area, it was sad to see that it has hit some hard times. Restaurants were closed, parks and other attractions have been left unattended and unchecked. Of course, the suburbs of Montgomery offered the normal Red Robin type restaurants and fancy Outdoor Malls. I did find myself a dress from Ann Taylor Loft but I didn't find the "Montgomery, AL experience" I so hoped to find.

Below are some shots of Montgomery.

This is the view of the 3 elevators from the lobby/lounge area of the Embassy Suites. Every day from 5:30pm to 7:30pm they have a "Manager's Reception." This literally means "free booze." While I enjoyed a glass of wine Tyler sucked down a Sprite and munched on some complimentary Goldfish crackers.

While Tyler enjoyed his Sprite, Daddy and Lauren (were "Those People" and) played on the elevator...going up and down and up and down and taking a picture along the way.

While Daddy worked the kids and I explored downtown Montgomery. I google searched Montgomery's TOP 10 restaurants and found the Montgomery Farmer's Market Cafe listed.

This place was Awesome. We had a Spectacularly Kid-Friendly Server. It was a local hangout full of railway workers and local folk who all knew each other and knew we stood out....And they were very welcoming about it!

(I LOVE restaurants such as these!)

and so does Lauren...

After lunch we braved the suffocating humidity and ventured to a downtown park.

(tilt your head to see Tyler in the tree house)

We could only handle so much of the humidity so we made some pit stops back to the hotel room. Here they are watching either Disney Channel or SpongeBob Square Pants

(let's hope for the former!!)On our last day there. We took a Riverboat Dinner Cruise on the Alabama River. This was a lot of fun....especially for the kids.... After dinner was finished the captain/pilot/who-the-heck-is-driving-the-boat asked Lauren and Tyler if they would like to navigate.

Tyler was very specific as where to go....."that way."

Lauren went more for the "Titanic" smile shots

Towared the end of the cruise they had a second wind...

but that quickly turned into a "snuggle into bed" scenario.

And that concludes our Montgomery, Alabama recap.

When we arrived home we unpacked and then immediately headed over to Dave and Susan's house for a grill-out. (Sorry, no pictures from this event.) We had fun there and ate some great food but I recieved about 20 bug bites up and down my legs.

I'm just so sweet and irresistable, I suppose. (wink)

Wednesday was Emma's birthday party. Emma and Lauren went to Pre-school together at PTC First Baptist. She was so happy to see Emma again and absolutely had a great time...

as did Tyler!

Here's Lauren hitting the Pinata.

On Thursday we put on our lightweight clothes and headed out with Kylie and her family to Six Flags. It was about 95 degrees and 100% humidity but that didn't stop us from having a most

AWESOME

time.

I talked Tyler into wearing his Tennis Shoes instead of his usual Red Racecar Crocs...and he agreed.

I had to document this occasion with a couple photos.

Six Flags was FUN!

Here is just a teaser of the fun we had.

(from left to right: Tyler, Kaden, Kylie, Lauren, idk, idk)

that ride got CRAZY!

Kylie and Lauren

Six Flags was so much fun. We are planning on getting together with Kylie's family again and very soon.

Today, despite ME! being so tired from the previous day, the kids were up bright and early....

7am !

I dropped them off at their friend Lea's house while I did some shopping at Trader Joes in the city. When I came home I picked the kids up from Miss Maria's house and brought them home with me. (all two doors down) I'm so happy to report that they like to play the same games that Matt and I like to play.

i.e. Clean Up Your Toys

for fun (and without my suggestion) they found some old toothbrushes and started scrubbing down some of their sandbox toys.

I Just LOVE These Kids!

For dinner tonight I tried to sneak some TOFU right under Matt's nose. As I was preparing it I would cover it with a towel whenever he walked by.

However, at dinner he called me on it but he said it tasted pretty good. S0 good that he actually left about 5 mushrooms but ate all of his TOFU.

Don't you think my tofu looks more like diced potatoes?

Corn on the Cobb

(I butter a slice of bread and then roll the corn over it)

Tofu mixed with Asian Veggie Stir-Fry.

with Corn on the Cobb and served over Basmati Rice

YUMM!

(even the kid's cleaned their plates)

(so Matt, no more BAD-MOUTHING tofu!)