Our New "Fountain" ...

A few weeks ago, I was strolling through Costco, feeding my children their dinner out of plastic sample cups when ... Joshua started shouting, "A fountain!  A fountain!  I NEED that fountain at my house!  Can I have that fountain at my house?  PLEEEEE-ZZZZZ!!"  To which I replied, "That is a cool fountain J How but I think we'll leave it here."  To which he replied, "Okay.  I'll call Cake (Ben's mom)."  Ahh ... so young and so smart :)  So for Easter ... the fountain magically arrived at our house ... THANKS, CAKE and PapPap!

The fountain is enjoying its new home amidst all the other primary colored plastic pieces that grace our front porch.  It's the current favorite and why wouldn't it be??

With a working faucet ... it entertains young minds while we do our share for the environment (it recycles the water ... I think that offsets the fact that it's made out of plastic, right?)

The only downfall to this new toy is that it seems to evoke a sort of Pavlov type experience for Eli.  Once his eyes behold the plastic wonder ... he looks as though he hasn't had liquid nourishment in weeks.

He feverishly hunts for any tool that will allow a drop of refreshing (and sometimes a tad old) water to hit his lips ... and while Joshua once thought this was a bit gross ... 

Eli is pretty convincing ... 

And so ... How took a leap of faith, deciding to pass on the use of extra utensils ...

And go straight to the source!  

And since the temperature is rising, Eli will make certain that you are well taken care of if you decide to pop by.  However, if I may offer a word to the wise ... he's not easily fooled by the "pretend sip."  Give me a heads up and I'll put some fresh hose water in there for you!

Cheers!

He's Eating ALL MY FOOD!

For almost 18 months now, Eli and I have had three daily battles: breakfast, lunch and dinner. I put up a good fight at breakfast but by dinner, I'm exhausted and have the battle wounds (usually some type of food product on my shirt) to prove it. As Eli screams, "Allll dun," I raise the white flag in surrender.

But the other night, we had a breakthrough. It was a breakthrough on a variety of levels ... one, I actually suggested making a picnic and taking it upstairs so my children could watch ... hold onto your hats now ... the NASCAR race. Ben was at the race and Joshua was dead set on watching the cars. Okay, not really. He likes the wrecks. Plan and simple. He's ALL BOY!
So ... I busted out my gourmet cooking skills and prepared a crustless PB and J sandwich, pear slices and blueberries ... on orange and blue plates.
The first miracle ... they're both sitting and not touching each other. And what's this ... Eli has taken a bite! I was actually content with one bite and would have considered that a victory but ...
Then something strange happened. Eli lunged towards J How's plate and began stealing more food. As if he'd been starved his whole life and this was his one opportunity to make a go of it ...
Hmmm ... there seems to be an added sandwich and a few extra pears ... and lots of blueberries on E's plate??
And Joshua's plate ... food kept disappearing. At one point Joshua yells out, "Stop E-why. You're swiping all my food!" To which I replied, "Joshua. The kid hasn't eaten in 18 months. I'll get you more. Let him swipe."
And so he did. He completely cleaned Joshua out of all his dinner ...
And licked the plate ... just to make sure all those crumbs landed in his tummy!

I now believe we'll be having a picnic ... EVERY night!

Ever Have One of These Kind of Weeks?

I Can Hardly Wait ...

To spend MANY evenings like this .... 

When these guys move to Mayberry!  Hurry up, will you??

They're Brown and Green and Sometimes Mean ...

Last week, while Ben was hunting down leprechauns in Ireland, Joshua and my mom went to the Dinosaur Museum.  Joshua requested that he wear a dinosaur shirt.  If you remember correctly, I am usually against adorning clothes with characters.  Characters should stay at their respective theme parks or on their television shows.  With that being said, I'm still not sure why we don't own a dinosaur shirt?  Perhaps I have this hidden hatred towards reptiles too?  I tried to convince him to wear a shark shirt (going with the whole leathery skin connection) but that didn't cut it.  So ... out came the box of felt and this is what he got:

Just like he wanted.  Brown and green and a "googly" eye.  Ahhh ... my days as a kindergarten teacher paid off.  (They were very numbered ... 6 months to be exact.  I couldn't hack all the nose blowing and whining).  Not bad, eh?  Plus, it covered up a nice red stain just left of the pocket!

Joshua was really trying to be brave ... but he wasn't digging the gigantic mammoth ... 

He picked this up and my mom said, "Joshua, look at that huge tooth!"  And this ten year old volunteer said, "Um .. That's a claw."  

And then he saw this ... 

And did this.  For days he kept saying, "The dinosaur tried to scar me!"  And I would say,"What did you do?"  And he said, "Don't worry, Johnny.  Dinosaurs can't scar you.  They're ex-inc."
Hopefully he had a bit of success panning for gold.  I just fell in love with a new pair of shoes at Whole Foods (did you know they sold shoes there??) and could use a few gold nuggets!

Thanks for taking me, Bella!  I had the best time seeing the "dinosaurus!"

Happy Easter ... He Is RISEN!!!

Ben got home safe and sound. We thought of going to church at 8am. Um ... let's just say that didn't work out as planned. We cruised around the house ... hunted for our Easter baskets and finally walked out the door at 11am. But ... not before our neighbor snapped a few shots of the crew. Good thing these were taken before church. Eli didn't make it in his class for more than 5 minutes. We brought him to "big church" where I gave him a mint with red food coloring which he DROOLED all over his shirt. And ... at lunch ... I dropped a pile of noodles on my dress. I told you ... if you want us looking good ... you have to catch us early!
And these ... are some fancy shoes that my sweet friend Emelye sent me. They didn't quite make the full body shot picture but something so cute needs to be shown to the world! Thanks, Em!

HAPPY EASTER!!!

Easter Egg Hunting Time ...

Every Spring, the people of "Mayberry" have an Easter egg hunt. Sure ... it was raining this morning but that didn't stop us. It just gave us an opportunity to bust out our rain gear (or sea jackets as How called them) and strut our stuff in our highly underused rain boots. We are in Day 9 of Ben's Trek to Ireland and NOTHING was keeping me inside with these two all day long.

Besides ... when else is your mom going to allow you to eat so much sugar before 10am?

A little balloon smacking to make the time pass more quickly ...
Like our Easter baskets? Yep. I can't find the cute rabbit ones I bought last year ... so I found some nice pastel colored paper ones. Eli didn't care ... he was too busy licking the umbrella to notice.
Trekking through the mud to find those fancy eggs ... and hoping to get a GOLDEN COIN!!!
Eli was the best egg finder. He had a hard time staying on his feet (as can be seen by his SOAKING wet pants) ... but he threw eggs in his bag at lightening speed.
And as the rain started to do less of a sprinkle and more of a downpour ... we headed inside to meet the Easter bunny. I have one brave child and one "I'm not going near that thing" child. But I can't be too upset with the "INGNTT" child ... because he found a GOLDEN COIN and won us a $20 gift card to The Coffee Shop. YIPPIEE! More sugar ... here we come!