Bath time

The other day at 10 in the morning, I decided I would treat myself to a soak in the tub...bubbles and all. I knew as soon as they boys heard the water running they would come running too....yep, they did. They asked if I was filling it for them. "Nope, it's for me". Wow, the couldn't believe it because it was the middle of the day and the last time I took a soaking bath was around Valentines Day.

I was in for about 2 minutes when they asked if they could get in too. "Nope, it's just for me". Ok.....give me about 10 more minutes and then it's all yours."

EXACTLY 10 minutes later they were back....naked and with Lego boats and as soon as I was out, they hopped in.

Max (our cat) decided to check out the bath tub....and yep, he fell right in!!!! I scooped him out and dried him off. He didn't like that at all!!!

Cleaning

Tyler has been asking for things he can do around the house to make money. One thing we came up with is unloading the dishwasher. He earns $1.00 for this job. The other night Jon and the boys were cleaning up the kitchen and this is what I walked in on....Ryan vacuuming the floor and Tyler wiping down the counter tops. How sweet I thought.....not so much.....Daddy got suckered into paying them each $1.00 to do this.

Robots

The other evening we went with Jon to Lowes to pick up some supplies he needed for our new gate.

We were in the pluming isle and this is how the boys spent their time waiting for daddy to find what he needed......building robots!!!

Monster Legos

I almost forgot....we each made Lego Monsters On Monster Monday.

Circus

Jon and I took the boys to the circus again this year. They had a great time and the show was amazing.

Monster Bed Time

Monster Bed Time:

Well after a fun filled Monster day, it was time to put our little Monsters to bed. But we couldn't go to bed with out a Monster Bed time story. So we read Where the Wild Things Are and kissed our little monsters good night.


I hope I created a day that they will remember for ever. I have to say that I told them a couple of days before Monday what we were going to be doing. They were so excited about it....you would have thought it was going to be Christmas. They couldn't wait for Monday to get here.

This monster mommy is tired...she is going to take a monster shower and go to her monster bed. Daddy Monster is tired too. Good night.

Picture is of my little monsters.....they wanted to dress up like Monsters....this is what they came up with...

Monster Pizza

Monster Pizza:

After our Monster Hunt we went swimming again and then it was time to make Monster Dinner. We made a Monster Pizza.

Monster Hunt

Monster Hunt:

Daddy made each boy a monster out of wood and then made a scavenger hunt for them to find their monsters. When they found them they had to color them.

Monster Cookies

Monster Cookies:

For snack time we made Monster Cookies. The boys helped me make sugar cookies and then we each decorated the cookies. We then put on our Monster Masks and went to scare daddy and his workers and gave them some of our Monster cookies.

Monster Movie

Monster Movie:

After lunch I made a fort in the living room where the boys snuggled up with their Monster Pets and watched Monsters Inc.

Monster Lunch

Monster Lunch:

After making crafts we went Monster swimming then we came in to make Monster Lunch.
I once again let them "play" with their food.

Monster Crafts

Monster Crafts:

Next we colored pictures of some monsters and we made Monster Masks out of paper plates.

Monster Breakfast

Monster Breakfast:

For breakfast I allowed the boys to "play" with their food. Each one created a monster out of their breakfast. This is Tyler's.

Monster Monday

Monday we had our first annual Monster Monday. From sun up to sun down our day was filled with fun Monster activities.

Monster Adoption:

The boys woke up and to their surprise they found 2 monsters waiting for them in the kitchen to be adopted. I made each boy a monster sock pet and printed out an adoption form that they each filled out. This is Ryan's.

sprinklers

We made a sprinkler course for the boys. We had about 4 different types of sprinklers set up. Jon even made a custom sprinkler creation for them to run through. It turned out so neat we decided to have some friends over to play.

the box

What is the fascination with kids and boxes?????? Tyler found this one in the shop and they played with it for ever!!!!!

hide- a-bed

We have a hide-a-bed in our living room. The boys love to take it out to have a slumber party. We don't do it very often. I had promised the boys that the first day it rains this summer we would take it out (to celebrate the rain....it is soooo dry here). We would celebrate by taking out the bed, staying in our pjs all day long, popping popcorn, and watching movies.

So about the 3rd week of summer it rained. As soon as the first rain drop hit the house the boys were screaming for joy..."time to get the bed out!!!" I wasted no time.....they were so excited I dropped what I was doing to get it out and make it up. Wouldn't you know that just as soon as the final sheet was on the bed.....the rain stopped and the sun came out in full force. We even ended up going swimming later that day. The bed stayed out for 2 days...they had a blast.

Do yo notice how many pets Tyler has on his side????? Remember the story about his pet store.....he loves pets!!! Look at Ryan's side....not a single one....just his "night night" blanket on his head.

Clay

We bought clay at Hobby Lobby for some more craft making. We came home and the boys spent hours (at least 3) creating the cutest things….that’s a picture of Ryan’s little penguin and Tyler’s holding a flower in pot.

They created lots of cute things and when they were done I popped them in the oven to bake. Set the timer (supposed to bake at 250 degrees for at least 45 minutes)...but at about 10 minutes into the baking, Tyler starts shouting that the kitchen is on fire. I ran into the kitchen to find smoke billowing out of the oven. I grabbed an oven mitt, threw open the oven door and this is what I found......a melted mess!!!! See picture above.

I felt soooooo bad!!! I almost cried. You should have seen the look on their faces...they had worked so long and hard on their creations. Take a look again at Tyler’s sweet picture…..see that face…..see how happy and proud he was of his creation for me!!! I melted that flower and that sweet face (I turned it into a very sad face).

We ran to get Jon....he brought in a huge fan…we opened doors and windows to try to blow out the smoke…the picture is not blurry, that’s the smoke in the air. I had to re read the clay package. I couldn’t understand what happened. We did this project last summer and no problems. We’ll after reading the package I learned that I bought the wrong kind of clay…this was play clay, not OVEN BAKE clay. OOOPS.

Needless to say we ate out that night. And headed back to Hobby Lobby the next day to buy the correct clay.

Mommy crafts

We have been keeping busy this summer making crafts. I search the interent for ideas then we hit Hobby Lobby for supplies. These are 2 pictures of some crafts that mommy has made.

first picture: I took a plain bag and found the stencil at Hobby Lobby and pained it on the bag.

2nd picture: I found plain wooden blocks at HL. I then bought some cute scrapbook paper and found some photos of our family. I decoupaged the paper and photos to the blocks. Let it dry. Then sanded the edges to make them look worn. I them put a second layer of decoupage on. Let that dry, then glued those cute silver buttons on that say 2011.

4th of July

We went to a neighbors for a 4th of July picnic. We went for a boat ride in his pond (it's a BIG pond)....daddy and Ty rowed. And then the boys (Jon included) went for a swim.

Do I see a pond in the Dahl's future?????

Dessert

Here in our house we don't eat dessert right after dinner. We eat dinner, play or do homework, take showers, then snuggle up to watch a show and eat dessert.

If mommy makes the dessert its usually just a popsicle or maybe some ice cream with sprinkles.

But now if daddy makes it, its a DESSERT!!!!!! The boys usually request for daddy to make their dessert....I wonder why? Could it be the ice cream pyramids with chocolate sauce rivers and sprinkle rainbows or how about the brownie surprise creation pictured above??????? This dessert creation consisted of: a bottom layer of brownie, topped with a scoop of ice cream, topped with another layer of brownie, topped with magic shell and sprinkles and then a brownie shaped like the letter T standing on top of it all!!!!!!!

Father's Day

We celebrated Father's Day with a scavenger hunt for daddy's presents, then breakfast, followed by watching a soccer game, then a wonderful dinner at Bob and Suzi's.

I think watching the game with Tyler was Jon's favorite part of the day.....

Tyler and Max

If you remember we started off our summer last year with a trip to the emergency room. Well this summer we started off with a trip to the doctor. It seems while attending Sonshine Days at church Tyler came down with Tonsilitis. Some antibiotics and rest and he is feeling much better.

Here's a picture of Tyler and Max napping.....L O V E !!!!!

The fake Rose, the Dirty Bear, and Seaweed

Sunday was Mother's Day. I love Mother's Day, well the truth is, I LOVE all holidays and celebrate them all with gusto!!!! My favorite thing about Mother's Day are the home made (or should I say "school made") gifts I get each year.

Ryan came home with a plaque made from the mold of his hands and a beautiful card made from his finger prints. Tyler came home with 2 great cards each one naming reasons why he loves me.

But one Mother's Day tradition that I love, breakfast in bed, was put off this year due to a change of plans. This year my mom and Tony were leaving on a cruise from Galveston. So instead of a relaxing morning in bed, the plans were to go to early mass (which meant a quick breakfast), and then drive down to Galveston to eat lunch, drop off the grandparents at the ship, take the boys for a walk on the beach to look for sea glass and sea shells, and then head home.

Well all went as planned till we got to the beach. With sand buckets in hand we walked upon a seaweed invested beach. There were no seashells to be found. It was pretty gross. We did make the best of it and took a little walk anyway. Promising that we would be back again this summer and have another chance to play on the beach and look for shells, we left.

On the way out of town we stopped at a gas station for water, snacks, and Gatorade. Daddy came out with a bag of treats in hand AND a little pink rose wrapped in plastic. He handed me the flower and said Happy Mother's Day. I thought this was sweet. My husband is a romantic and often surprises me with flowers (I love them, even if sometimes they are from a gas station or a road side vendor). But this time I busted out laughing when he handed it to me. Not only was it a "gas station rose" but it was a "fake" gas station rose with a very tiny dirty toy bear hot glued to the stem. It even had a scratch and sniff sticker attached to it. Tyler asked to see the flower and said, "daddy it's fake!!!! and dirty!!!). Bless Jon's heart, he had no idea it was a fake rose. He said he was paying for the goodies when he noticed a bucket of roses. At the last minute he saw one pink rose among the others (pink is my favorite)....so he grabbed , handed a couple of bucks to the cashier and left. Not realizing it was fake. We all laughed sooooo hard. Oh he felt so bad. But it's the thought that counts and we got a really good laugh at it....and the boys learned a very valuable lesson, never buy your wife a fake rose at a gas station on Mother's Day.

Gotta luv this face!

I was looking through pictures the other day for a project I was working on. I came across this one of Ryan. What a cutie pie!!!!

Happy Friday!

More craft day pics

From top to bottom:

Tyler's art collage: It says "warm time and live life outside"

Ryan's art collage

My art: although the picture is sideways for some reason....but you get the idea. I hung this in our kitchen and it is a constant reminder of all the things I love.

Craft Day

Saturday morning craft day......the project....make a collage of your favorite things from pictures torn from magazines. Right after breakfast, still donning pjs, we went to work.

My picture consists of my favorite things: flowers, favorite words and sayings, pictures of the boys, if you look really close you will find all of our birthdays and initials.

Tyler choose to tear out colors and make a flower with the pieces.

Ryan tore out pictures of stuffed animals, toys, and such....then had daddy turn his artwork into a table.

Good times!!!!

Easter Eggs

A good friend of mine recommend a new way of coloring eggs for Easter.

1. Boil eggs
2. While eggs are boiling, shave crayons with a cheese grater
3. When eggs are ready, while hot, roll them in the crayon shavings
4. Let cool

The boys had a great time doing this and didn't miss the good old fashioned egg dye. And we think they turned out pretty neat.

Kitten in the Cabinet

We are the proud owners of a new 6 week old kitten…..and last night after kitty proofing our kitchen and laundry room (meaning, I had Jon cut and install tiny pieces of wood around the fridge and washing machine....anywhere I thought he could hide). Well I guess we missed a spot. In the blink of an eye we heard meowing, but couldn’t find him anywhere. Our kitten crawled up and over the toe kick of the new kitchen cabinet in the breakfast nook. The only way we were going to get him out was to cut a hole in the toe kick….which we did. We didn’t tell the boys until after he was back safe with us. And as this was going on….I said to Jon, “doesn’t this scenario sound awfully familiar to you……remember a story about a hamster in the wall!!!”

This story is dedicated to sweet friends of ours who had to cut several holes in there wall to fish out their new pet hamster.

Catch

Some of the simple things in life make me so happy.....like the boys playing catch outside. I am not a great photographer, but I love this picture....can you see the way the sun hit the ball, making it shine?

Hair

Yes, I am one of those moms that must do my sons hair before we go anywhere....they NEVER leave our house without gel in their hair. I feel kind of bad for the kids that show up to school that look like they just rolled out of bed....hair sticking up everywhere??? Who sends their kids to school like that? Anyway my boys know the routine....breakfast, dress, brush teeth (on their own), and then I do their hair. The other day they decided that they wanted to do each others hair.....so I let them. Made for some good pics and they didn't do that bad a job!!!

Snow

Finally uploaded some pictures from this past February. It's been a very cold winter in south Texas and we even had a school closure due to the threat of snow and ice. We got the ice, but not the snow. So leave it to daddy to make some snow for the boys.

The snow man is still in the shop fridge.

Spring Cleaning

Spring Cleaning

Upstairs is our play room. And in the play room we have a little nook that it probably one of my favorite spots in the whole house…it holds my desk, craft supplies, and 2 little nooks that each boy has claimed as their “pet store”. The pet store is filled with all their stuffed animals. My children are in no short supply of stuffed animals….they have tons.

I thought today was a good day to go through Ryan’s pet store. Together he and I went through each one of his “pets” and we made two piles….one to keep and the other to donate. He didn’t hesitate at all….he would say “keep” or “donate” and we watched his donate pile grow and grow. We put the keepers back in his pet store. When we were done and putting the donated ones in a bag to take to Goodwill, he said, “mommy tonight some child will have a new pet and be so happy!” Yes, they will I said. And looked at him and smiled as he helped me put the rest in the bag. Needless to say, I was very proud of him!!!

Now Tyler…. his clean out wasn’t as successful. He cleaned out his pet store yesterday. Can you guess which pile is Ryan’s and which one is Tyler’s? I have to say he is more like his father when it comes to cleaning out and giving away. It’s hard for him to let things go. But that’s ok…at least he gave up a couple. And if you picked out any pet in his pet store, I know he could tell you exactly where it came from and the story behind it.

I encourage all to take a look around your house…are there things that you haven’t used in a while, may never use again, or simply do not need anymore? Then grab a trash bag and give it to someone who would love it or to someone less fortunate than you.

Happy Spring Cleaning!!!!

Treasures to Trash back to Treasures....

Picture of the boys after they dug through the trash.....notice the bag in Tyler's hand