Concrete Shoes

The town stupidly planted oak trees along the strip of grass between the sidewalk and road about 10 years ago.  The roots of these beautiful trees cracked much of the sidewalk around the trees.  I had to leave the house as they began to cut down all the trees… huge oak tree gone in an instant. 

They have now been removing and replacing the portions of sidewalk that are cracked, which leads me to… soft cement… who could resist the urge to write and place handprints in just poured concrete.  So, I oh course attempted this with a 2 ½ and 1 ½ year old (this was another moment in my life as a mother where I said, "what was I thinking").  I picked up a stick and told the kids that we were going to write their names in the sidewalk. I definitely wasn’t specific enough as to which portion of the sidewalk we were to be writing on.  Korben walked down to the sidewalk and walked and walked right into the cement.  He was so scared for some reason.  He cried and cried that I eventually took the kids inside.  Unfortunately the cement was still too soft when Korben walked through it that the cement just splattered around… I’m still trying to get those handprints.

Some people bronze their kids baby shoes, we put ours in cement.

Hot Pizza

Our neighbor’s granddaughter brought over a play pizza pie for the kids.  She had played with it growing up and wanted to pass it along to us.  The kids loved it right away.  I have really been enjoying watching them as they pretend play.  We don’t have any play food so this was the perfect hand me down toy.  And although we do have a play kitchen outside (one we fished out the garbage) we don’t have one inside.  So yeah I let them play with the real deal inside henceforth always finding plastic pizza slices in the oven.

Jeff: “We should always check the oven before turning it on.”

Jill: Yeah, yeah I will.

Yeah yeah, well I didn’t when I turned on the oven today to bake Korben’s clay creation.

The smell of 3 melting plastic pizza slices suddenly hits me and then I hear Jeff’s words like a broken record, repeating in my head over and over again… check the oven… check the oven.

So we had a well done pizza that smelled far worse than anything else I have ever burned.

Hot Summer Daze

Hot Summer Days

Feeling Frustrated

Today I want to throw in the towel, call in sick, take a vacation day. I’m just down right frustrated.

Here is why:

• If Korben takes a nap for a little as a half hour it takes us 2 hours to get him to sleep at night but if he doesn’t take a nap at all he is unbearably cranky by 5 pm.
• The town decided to remove the huge 10+ year old beautiful oak trees planted along the road because they were breaking up the sidewalks.
• The doctor recommended lotion for Kenzie’s irritated skin. I was ecstatic to know that I could purchase it at Kmart. The lotion cost $11 for a small bottle which we will finish off in less than a week.
• The mosquitoes in the back yard are horrific again. The kids have welts all over their bodies.
• Oh yeah… and I am tired, tired, tired all the time

Looking on the bright side:

• I had a great swim with the kids today. Korben is getting more comfortable with going under water and Kenzie loves to go under water.
• Tomorrow is gym class which tires the kids out and they sleep at the same time which gives me a nice break.
• I am going to a Pampered Chef party tomorrow. It not so much that I looking forward to looking at kitchen gadgets, I do that all day. But I am looking forward to a little me time; some nice kid free adult conversation time.
• I finished the blanket I have been working on for Scott and Christine’s baby. The baby is due in September and I have the blanket finished in July… this must a record for me

Ok, I feel a little better getting that out

New Discovery.

Kenzie has a light brown birth mark on her elbow that is in the exact shape of a star.  If she ever attempts to get a tattoo I can tell her that she already has one... end of story.

New use for an umbrella...

an afternoon break for a story and a drink.

Lots o Blueberries

I think we picked about 15 lbs. of blueberries.

So far we had made a blueberry pie, blueberry muffins, and blueberry cake... oh yeah and just plain ate lots.

New Record.

Kenzie didn't pull out her hair tie the entire time we were blueberry picking.

This is the record for longest time the hair tie remained in her hair.

To the Moon.

While playing with our big Lego blocks today Korben and I had the following conversation.

"Mama Mama". exclaims Korben.

Yes Korben". I say.

"I am building a tower all the way up to the moon." a very excited Korben says.

"Cool, I want to be a part of your tower." I comment

Save the Tomatoes

I forgot to post that we trapped the groundhogs. First the Mama (we think), then the baby. Our tomato plants are thriving while groundhog free, that is until we spotted Papa groundhog eyeing up the goods today. I think we are doing the Papa groundhog a favor by trapping him because then we can reunite him with his family. The trap is set once again…

24 hours and counting.

Kenzie made it 24 hours without a bottle.

More Critter Comrades

While weeding a few days ago I discovered that we have a snake living in our flower bed in our front yard. The snakes that I have seen in this area before have been really really tiny, not this one. It is at least 2 feet long and rather thick. It is not poisonous; I cleared it with animal control. Just add snakes to the list of critter comrades that have been spotted in our yard (rabbits, groundhogs, squirrels, chipmunks, birds, and turtles).

And people think it rains in Seattle.

I was watching the news this morning and weather man gave the following fact:

It has rained 11 of the last 16 days... not a light mist or drizzle.... rain, rain, rain.

Our Brownie Making Mess

Critter Catching

I was getting really frustrated because some critter outside was eating our tomato plants.  It had already eaten all of our eggplants so when it moved on to tomato plants it was time to take some action.  After some observing we determined that this critter was a groundhog.  Jeff made a Home Depot run for a Have a Heart animal trap, we decided to spare its life (not that I have any great compassion for groundhogs but I figured we didn’t have to kill the thing).  The trap was set for several days and nothing.  Then one morning we saw some movement in the trap… we trapped a turtle.  It was cool for the kids to watch the turtle.  I know what they say about turtles but when we opened the trap it moved rather quickly.