It's my birthday and I'll smile if I want to:)

Happy Birthday

Not that he would act a whole lot differently any other day, because he's such a happy bubber, but it certainly makes me feel good.

Fletch and Sawyer working on the birthday brownie (they'll do just about anything if dessert is involved:)

Saw-Dog actually loves to help in the kitchen, he's a natural:

In other news, I'm really proud of Niles, he's been volunteering at a day camp this week (waking up at 7:30! in the summer!) and has been really enthusiastic and good about it. He's so good with little ones (even his brothers, some times;)

Smile

Random

Remember quicksand?

  When you were a kid and a connoisseur of cartoons, it was a major deal.  Like, weren't you afraid you were going to go on a walk in the woods, stumble upon a huge vat of the stuff and your siblings would (mysteriously) not be able to find a stick long enough to pull you to safety?  (I just know I'm not the only one).

I remember having huge conversations about the stuff.  Was it real?  If so, how long would you have to try to make your way to safety before you'd be completely submerged, was it alive or did it just really have a strong, strong pull?   The whole thing was almost as scary to me as the idea of people sleepwalking (yikes).

Just so you know, I've worked through this quicksand fear/fixation, as I really never encountered any to speak of.  I mean, I have sunk pretty far down in beach sand before, but it wasn't anything I couldn't handle.  

The awesome thing is, I just quizzed my kids on it and the EXACT same conversations I used to have ensued.  I love that childhood is and will always be an examination of very important topics.

DID YOU PACK THE SUNSCREEN?!?!?

It's hard to tell how much fun you'll have on a day trip when you are scrambling around to get a million bathing suits/change of clothes/sweatshirt/towel/toys/snacks/the baby's diapers, bottle, wipes, blanket/the kitchen sink together and the entire time you are yelling, "do you have both shoes? well, you might know where they are if you took them off and put them in the same place every day!  That toy is not my responsibility, if you want it, you'll have to find it"  Like, you'll question yourself if it is even worth it.  Because there is the possibility that the kids will just whine all day and beg to go home, or someone will throw up and you'll have to turn around anyway.

But, you take it on faith, that you'll have a good time when your husband's friends invite you to their place on the lake to do some fishing and playing.

and guess what!?!  Sometimes it just works out and EVERYONE ends up having a wonderful, happy, relaxing, great day. 

 I guess the fact that Roy's extremely nice friends have 5 grown children, so they sort of know how crazy kids can be, helps.  Two gigantic sand hills and water fun didn't hurt either.

Sawyer asked to get his picture taken with the dogs that were there, he was pretty sweet on them:

Bill and Barb (our lovely hosts) talked us into letting Niles take the fellas in the paddle boat, he is a natural paddle boatist:

How many times do you think this little pup napped while we were there from about 12:30-8:30?  If you guesses 0, you'd be right!  But why on earth would he when there were at least a million new sights and sounds to take in?:

A little blue gill fisherman:

Another little blue gill fisherman (who was looking directly at me 2 seconds before this was snapped, but HATES the camera these days):

So yes, all of that scrambling was well worth it.  It was one of those kind of days that I'll think back on and sigh happily at how much fun we had and be grateful to our hosts and smile, especially because I'll just have my husband unpack.

Sorry for the absence.

So, maybe some of you noticed I made my blog private for a while. I haven't updated since, well, just about forever and I was job searching. I got the idea that maybe a potential employer would google my name, read my blog and realize I am totally off my rocker. However, my potential employer decided that with out the help of my blog, so yeah, I'm still a stay at home mom (but things happen for a reason, in my estimation).

Niles is home and will be starting high school here in the fall (gulp, that's big time!). We're still working on stuff and I am glad to have him here, challenges and all.

Fletch and Sawyer have become thick as thieves. In fact, Fletcher was grounded last night and he had to go to bed early. I thought Sawyer would enjoy some time having us to himself. I was wrong. He snuck into their bedroom and was caught red-handed yukking it up with his brother. I guess you can't fight city hall. Especially when city hall is run by two 5 year old boys (except Sawyer had to come out in the living room and we watched a show about octopus with us, and he asked at least 32 billion questions).

And this guy?

Actual words are starting to come out of his mouth, he says the usual Momma, Dada. He also tells us anytime we are in the proximity of a dog or ball and he sound exactly like a squeaky toy when he is happy (which is much of the time). He is EVERYWHERE and has a very UN-sophisticated palate...ANYTHING will go into this boy's mouth, but he is very laid back and silly and brings lots of smiles to my day.

It's been awhile...

I know, I know.  I get plenty of flack from my family, but it just feels weird to blog lately.  My photo situation (i.e. the billion + photos bogging down my iphoto) is making my computer run at a snail's pace, Niles not being here on a daily basis and being a busy mom (on Facebook) all make for awkward storytelling for me (it makes perfect sense to me, thank you very much).

I will share this little slice of my life.

I was cleaning the boy's bathroom (yes, I do that).  Sometimes I'd just like to put an "out of order" sign on the door and seal it off...but then, well, they might use my bathroom.  Upon cleaning it, I found, (besides an overwhelming odor):

~~3 empty cups (so, so grateful they were empty)

~~a book about dogs

~~a very wet (but not soaking wet) folded towel on the counter underneath a perfectly dry towel

~~6 rocks, varying in size from small to medium-largish

~~a chicken bone (I wish I was making that up)

They are now responsible for cleaning their own bathroom.

Have a great day:)

A very cute and incredibly random alarm clock

This is how I started my day today...

Fletcher: (sitting very quietly in a chair in my room, wrapped in his Spiderman blanket)  MOM!  (me jolting awake) You know what would be REALLY weird?  

Me:  Hrhm?

Fletcher: If the drains in the sink put soap in your hands while you were washing them.

Me: ...

I hope you all have a great day.