Back Yard Bliss

We heart our back yard

It is the reason we bought this house

It is huge and full of trees

We have been spending lots of time outside 

of course the last couple of weeks it's mostly in the morning

It is actually quite shady most of the day

But after dinner the sun shines directly through this break in the tree branches

We have managed a couple of afternoons in the blow up pool

Notice the welt on Christian's tummy

with lots of trees

come lots of mosquito's

He has had several ginormous bites

I finally broke down and purchased a small water table

Caught one on sale at Target for $25

It's one of those things I wished I had purchased with child #1

Would have gotten all my money's worth out of it

But none-the-less

We are loving our little one

And when the big boys take over

Chris just moves his little bottom in

LITERALLY

I'm telling you

little bit can hold his own in this family

Mental note though

Don't put it so close to the flower pots

It just becomes a muddy mess

Then it becomes a game

They take the toys over to the sandbox and roll them around

All the sand sticks to the wet toys

Then back to the mud pit to wash

As long as everyone has fun

It doesn't bother me

You have to pick your battles

And muddy boys is not one of them

But this is the aftermath

And the bath tub after the clean up

How come the heat never seems to bother kids?

I am always soaking wet with sweat and miserable

Of course my white freckly skin can't take much

The big boys have been practicing holding their breath

Connor is up to almost 10 seconds

Probably more than I could do

I think I buy a water gun every week

Always worth the buck

Especially when Mamma wins the water gun war

One of my favorite parts of the yard is the wildlife

OK, just the birds

I wish I could shoot the freaking squirrels and bugs

Here is one of our pretty cardinals

  I used to really like her

Until I caught her pulling apart my basket for her nest

I wanted to attract some finches

So I bought a finch feeder and finch food

They have not come yet

But my once full feeder is now almost empty

Because of the FREAKING squirrels

And if that wasn't bad enough

I left the bag out overnight

and the stupid squirels ripped it apart

So those fat little rodents have eaten an entire bag of food

And I don't have any new birds

And all my plants are dead

OK, so it might be my fault for not watering them

But a little rain or a break in the triple digits

PLEASE

MOTHER NATURE

What are you doing outside in this summer?

First Day of Summer

I wrote this post once already and it didn't save for some reason, so maybe that was a sign I said too much!!! 

So I will try again, friends...

We started our first day of summer break yesterday with 3 snotty noses

Colton woke up at 5:15am and then did not nap

Christian did nap, twice

Therefore, miracles do still exist

We had a playdate at our house

I had a sitter so I could go out last night

I would like to say I planned a sitter on purpose so I could start the break off relaxed and with a plan

It just so happened to work out that my Thursday outing to Cru for half priced Champagne fell on this particular Thursday

I love me some bubbly

Thank goodness I saw cousin Katie at the garage sale a couple of weeks ago and she is home from college for the summer

I never have a sitter, don't know any

Their not cheap

Katie is great

I paid for it today

Christian was up at midnight

Christian was up at 4am

Damn snotty nose

Guess who was up at 6am

You guessed it

#2

That's Colton, not poop

This photo has nothing to do with summer

Just a cutie

Colton licking jelly from the plate

God forbid 1 droplet of sugar be lost

Today, day 2 of summer break was H.O.T.

I was tired

and depressed

so we went to Chick Filet to play

inside

So did every other Texan

I am with Coco

This is gonna get old

FAST

HAPPY SUMMER

Wet-N-Wild Weekend

Saturday was kind of a rough day for us. It was day 6 of Mark's business trip and Connor did not nap (YET AGAIN), and my patience was running pretty thin. But we had a birthday party to go that afternoon for Leah (turning 3) and Alex (turning 1). Their mom works with Mark. So I packed up the sleepless kids-Colton included since when Connor doesn't sleep he does everything in his power to wake up Colton- and we headed out. It was a pool party! She also had an inflatable pool set up for the little ones, which was nice because I sure as heck was not putting on a swim suit in front of anyone. There was also a bounce house which my boys did not find the least bit interesting.

The party went well, except for the bee sting. Luckily it was me and not Connor. He was sitting in a chair for a timeout and asked me to get the bee off of him. I could not see anything but of course swatted. Well there WAS a bee and that swat pissed him off!! He got me good. The whole stinger was left in my finger. By the next morning my finger was unrecognizable. It was huge!!!! I could not even bend it because it was so swollen, not to mention hot, itchy, and swore. Today it is only about twice the size as a normal finger but bendable so that makes a big difference. Another day or two and it ought to be back to normal.

Sunday we took the boys to a sprinkler park to play. Great way to beat the heat-for them anyway, but there was shaded seating for me! Colton never really got into the sprinklers. He mostly walked around the edges and stuck his hands in. Connor was the same at first until his girlfriend, Haley "K", arrived. Then they were all into it. This was after she had told her mom that she would go, but she was not getting wet!

They both look pretty wet to me. And I think they are having fun!!!

First Week of Summer

Well, we survived our first official week of summer break (almost-Mark doesn't come home from this week's travels until late Saturday night). And I must say, I have been spoiled by Mother's Day Out. I have a new respect for all my mom friends who stay with their kids all day without a break. I am ready for summer camp to start. Doesn't that make me sound like a terrible mom?! We did stay busy this week, but today was the hardest since it is day 5 and no one napped. However, my saving grace....the boys went down about 6:30 and then I found "Dirty Dancing" on the WE channel. BONUS!!! OK, sidetrack here. I don't care your age, what female does not find Patrick Swayze all kinds of H O T T,hot, in this movie? And to have a man dance like that...yummy!!!! I was suppose to spend the evening cleaning the bathrooms and mopping the floors (since I did not get to during the non-existent nap time today). But I might be a little side tracked now. Watching DD sounds like a much better Friday night! Yeah I know, I am boring-don't remind me!!

OK, back to our week. Monday we went to my MIL's house to swim. I think I blogged about it already?! (Sorry I have prego brain and my short term memory is shot!). If not, I will post pictures of that later. Colton loved it, Connor hung out on the steps, which was fine by me since I had them both in the water alone. (But this just reminded me I need to post an update on Baby C. I will try after DD).

Tuesday we went to the sand park with our neighbors. And on Wednesday we went to run a couple of errands at a new shopping center in Allen, the one with the new GREAT Target (I have posted on it before). They have the cutest little play area which is what the following pictures are. We mostly played, not much shopping was done. And that's OK!!

It is a fenced in area with the cutest little stores for imagination play. It also has a maze made out of artificial grass. This is the gas station.
Pumping Gas

The bank

Putting out a fire with the fire hose

The fire station. There was also a train station. Such a cute place and well worth the 6 mile drive. We will have to do our shopping up here more often.


Thursday was still pretty rainy so we hung out inside, making huge messes. What else can a 1 and 3 year old do? Today, thanks to motivation from my friend and fellow blogger, Casey, we went to the Dallas Farmer's Market. We have tried a couple of the market's in the area, but they just fail in comparison to the Dallas one. We had a great time. The boys tried so much fruit. Colton can eat, let me tell you!!! He must have had 2 or 3 pieces of every sample they give you, which for those of you who are FM shoppers, you know, about every 3 feet someone is shoving food at you. However, I realized when we got home, we had all fruit. Next time, I must focus on vegetables too!

OK....back to Dirty Dancing!