Cupcake, Anyone?

Look what Evan made out of Legos!

I thought this was so cute and ingenious, I had to immediately post it. :)

As Most Children Do...

I know it's very common for small children to put things in their noses.
Jaren chose a tiny Lego piece.  He stuck it so far up, I couldn't reach it with tweezers.
After about 5 phonecalls back and forth with a WONDERFUL Kaiser nurse, we had one last chance before they sent us to the emergency room.

She instructed me to lay him down, cover the unaffected nostril with my hand, put my mouth over his, and blow into his mouth. This was much like a CPR blow - quick and somewhat powerful.

After two tries, Ryan suggested I cover his nostril a different way. When I did, out flew the mini Lego bouncing on the carpet!  We celebrated!!  Hopefully he learned his lesson.  :)

Mr. Mischievous

I know there's a reason why Jaren is my last child. He gets into EVERYTHING!
Here's what I found one afternoon - he'd only been alone in his room for 2 or 3 minutes.

 Desitin on his face

Desitin ALL OVER his pillow and blanket.

Self-Photo

I guess Evan has seen me demonstrate the

hold-the-camera-as-far-away-as-you-can-and-take-a-pic thing.

This is what he took when I wasn't looking. 

MELT MY HEART!

Oh Happy Day!

This has been a LONG summer (for Mommy)!

Happy SECOND Grade, Evan!!

What He Hasn't Been Doing Much Of

Here is Jaren - SLEEPING. 

Wow. What a sight!  He sure doesn't seem to do a lot of this anymore.

Sigh.

Evan Rhymes With...

...SEVEN!

We had a family potluck on Sunday to celebrate #1: Evan's 7th birthday AND the 4th of July.  It was a great celebration!

 Super-simple brownie bites w/ melted vanilla chips and m&ms

 Aww... :)

 Evan & Anthony

 Loving on Auntie Poca

 Mariah, Shauna, Chante & Evan

 Rockin Out with Grandma Pat

Brownie Bites!

Seaside, Last-Minute

We ended up in Seaside yesterday afternoon!  Thanks to Evan, who exclaimed, "I want to play in the sand. Let's go to the beach!"  We didn't get there until about 3:30 - but the boys had a blast playing in the sand for about an hour before we headed to dinner. We got home at 9:00, showered the sand off our bodies, and promptly fell asleep. It was nice to be spontaneous!

Something New!

Look what I did today!  I bought the stuff to do embroidery awhile ago, and finally had an hour today to try a design from a book I have.  I LOVE HIM!!

Peaceful Play

I snuck this video yesterday of the boys playing on the stairway. It's moments like these when Ryan and I look at eachother and just smile. :)

Goodbye 1st Grade

I have to say that so far, this has been MY favorite year for Evan. He was blessed to have such a WONDERFUL teacher, Mrs. B. She "gets" him, you know?  He responded really well to her, and actually cried a little bit after getting off the bus yesterday.  He said, "I'm going to miss Mrs. B.!! I love her!"

Anyway, here are the 1st day and last day of 1st Grade for Mr. Evan...

Evan's School Birthday (early)

Here are some pictures of Evan's "school birthday". We celebrated in class on June 6th (instead of July 6th, his regular birthday - when they will be OUT of school!).  Jaren and I brought cupcakes, and the kids sang to Evan. I think he really liked being the center of attention. :)
He requested chocolate cupcakes with pina colada frosting. They turned out really yummy!

 The cupcake without a topper was Jaren's. I didn't want him to have a toothpick.:)

 Mmm...

Mrs. B. & Evan

She is an AMAZING teacher - we love her!

Jaren at 2 1/2

Just thought I'd post something about my littlest man. We were shopping yesterday, and he absolutely HAD to have this hat. I tried to sell him on a plain-colored one (preferably white, with the impending summer) - but NOOOOOO!! This one was non-negotiable.

At 2 1/2 years old, my baby boy:

* loves to play with diecast cars

* wants a smoothie every day, calls them "Hmooomie"

* uses word "sandwiches" ("Come on Mama, come on!" and "Hi Brother, Hi!")

* only naps about 4 times per week (grrrrr!)

* is still shy, but is slowly getting better

* loves to say "diarrhea" in public

I LOVE YOU, JAREN PARKER!!

"It's Just a Chocolate Bunny"

So my cousin Karla said.

She is always so thoughtful with my boys. They couldn't have been HAPPIER receiving these guys...

We love you Karla!!

This is Jaren AFTER we took it away. He was furious that we wouldn't let him eat it all at once!

Little Giants

Evan had his 1st T-Ball game last night. Thankfully, it was (almost) perfect weather the whole time!

The whole team did great, and I think the parents were equally or MORE excited than the kids. They looked so adorable in their uniforms!

There are 4 T-Ball teams this season: Giants, Mariners, Red Sox & Yankees

Dugout stud :)

Kudos from Daddy, one of the coach's helpers

Playing Pitcher - he saw a lot of action in this position.

Foul ball!

My Handsomes

Dirt & Worms

Sometimes I feel like such a bad mother, because I rarely do projects with the kids. It's like I don't want to bother with the mess, or cleaning up after it. Since Wednesday was a half-day, I promised Evan we would do the Dirt & Worms kit I'd purchased for him (on clearance - yay me!) a few days ago...

It was a quick project, but we had a great time together - just the two of us. :)

Pouring & mixing

His "Ick, it's dirt & worms!" face

The poem that came with it - recipe on back

The (small) Happy Part of Spring Break

We had BIG plans for Spring Break last week.

First, we were going to spend our first night ever at Great Wolf Lodge. This was a Christmas gift to us from Ryan's parents.

Then, we were going to spend two nights with my Dad & Barbara at their beach house.

We can thank a dear, nasty stomach bug for putting an abrupt HALT to our plans. Roughly midnight, while at Great Wolf, Jaren decided to throw up (on me too). He was still going at 2:30 when we threw in the towel and checked out at 3:30am. We were there less than 12 hours.

All day Wednesday was touch-and-go with Jaren's stomach, so my Dad was on alert that we may not be making it to the coast. Thursday morning, I got the bug. Friday night, Evan got it too. We spent the rest of the weekend recovering, and FINALLY (Monday morning), I feel back to normal.

So, without further ado, here are some pictures of the FUN time we had at GWL...

Just a couple of hours before the vomiting started...

Oh, and in case you're wondering - there AREN'T any photos of the swimming and water fun! We thought, "Oh, we'll get photos tomorrow morning". "Heh, heh, heh...." laughs the stomach bug...