Thin Air

Remember the frog balloon? The Valentines day present that escaped to the top of the 2 story ceiling back around Valentines day? It finally came down. Or at least I think it did. Frankly it is a mystery. It disappeared Tuesday April 20th - more than 2 months after it floated to the ceiling. Who knew a balloon could last anywhere near that long? I noticed it on the ceiling Tuesday, and Wednesday it was gone. And by gone I mean vanished. We have looked high and low. It still hasn't turned up yet. I am beginning to wonder if it floated down some and then escaped out door at some point because I can't come up with any other explanation as to how it is that a whole balloon just disappears into thin air.

Allergies

Apparently this is what happens when you are allergic to strawberries.

Smelling the flowers

Hanging out with Grannie. Taking time to stop and smell the flowers.

Sidekicks

Just hanging out at the park before we went exploring in the forest. We tried to get them to switch places and let Connor drive and Ryan ride in the sidekick car. They were happy just the way they were.

Begetable

We made it over to the big plant place today hoping to find the purple flowers I wanted for the front yard. Didn't find what I was looking for, but I did pick up some "Begetables" according to the sign including this "Homely Homer." I can't wait to see what the tomatoes on this one look like.

Haircuts

I don't remember haircuts being quite like this when I was a kid...

Look Out!

Be afraid. Be VERY afraid.

Chicken Salad

We had chicken salad for dinner. In the past when we have had chicken salad I have either fed it to the boys or cut their sandwiches into small pieces. Tonight I just gave them a half a sandwich (1 piece of bread folded in half with the chicken salad stuffed inside). Connor attempted to shove the whole thing in his mouth at once. The pictures don't do it justice. I wish I had taken a video. He was so funny. And made such a mess.

Ryan on the other hand took petite little bird like bites and managed to eat most of his sandwich instead of wearing it.

How I found him

I was cleaning up the kitchen after dinner when I heard the crash. I came around the corner and I didn't see Connor. Ryan was in the living room, but the crash had most certainly come from this room. I took a closer look and and out of the corner of my eye I saw the shoes.


Apparently he had knocked one of his books off the back of the shelf so he pulled all the rest out and crawled in after it.

The Model

Ryan is an absolute ham in front of the camera. He poses. He grins. He gets that mischievous little twinkle in his eyes.


And those lashes. And run-away curls. Just too stinkin' cute. Though I suppose I might be a tad bit biased...

Melts my heart

That little face just melts my heart. And makes me ashamed that I don't take more pictures like this to remember it by. He cracks me up with that fake little piranha like smile where he wrinkles his nose. He gets that from me. It's my evil laugh face. I didn't realize it for the longest time, but it's a mirror image.

And the way he laughs - whole heartedly. Deep belly laughs that are contagious. And the two of them together - like this morning. They were eating their second breakfast while I was sitting in the living room and Kevin had wandered off to do something. We heard the laughing. First one, then the other. Some people say you should be worried when it gets quiet. This morning when we heard the laughs we both came running. The deep maniacal laughs from one, followed by real laughter from the other. It is always a sign that they are up to something. And they were. But the laughter was just so contagious we couldn't help but smile and laugh along with them. My cheeks hurt from all the smiles and laughter we have shared today.

For the Smiles

On a recent shopping trip to Costco I was drawn to a giant pile of fluff. The mountain of brightly colored tulle caught my attention and my feet went in that direction of their own accord. Before I knew it I was pulling out different colors and oohing and awwing. And one by one they jumped into my cart. One for my niece. And maybe one for so and so's upcoming party. On and on it went until my cart was a colorful mix of the brightly colored tutu's.

What went wrong?

What went wrong is that the IRS insists that you have a PIN to e-file your taxes. Like I am going to do all that work to file someone else's taxes?? I am sure this is fraud protection in some way or another that I should appreciate. And if it actually gave me a PIN based off CORRECT information I might appreciate it more...

Situation 16?

1: We have never ever procrastinated on our taxes before. I am anal about these kinds of things.

2: There should be a checkmark that says I prefer to just to pay the higher tax rate on fractional shares of reinvested dividend. Those $0.11 cents are just not worth the time it is going to take.

3: Proofs to explain the logic flow should not be required to accompany your taxes. Are there points for partial credit??

And Mr. Turbo tax tip writer, while I appreciate your help in trying to explain, and doing an admirable job at it (even using EXAMPLES. Seriously. KUDOS.) you forgot a few situations. For example, you completely neglected the all of the above case (part qualifying and disqualifying dispositions held under a year, between 1 and 2 years, and over 2 years with some reported by an employer as income, and some not, and no where do you mention those pesky fractional shares of reinvested dividends.)

POP

Full disclosure and all - technically this photo was taken on Sunday, and not even by me. I of course would have taken a better picture to begin with so it wouldn't have needed, ahem, help. Ha! But I was running around corraling children while taking random snapshots with a borrowed point and shoot thanks to a whole comedy of errors. DH was responsible for the pictures, which if you actually knew us would probably be rather amusing... :)

So here's what I started with:

And for comparison purposes here's the original with no changes other than being cropped.

And thanks to my Photo Editing class and 2 minutes worth of work (seriously - I did a dozen or so trying it all out so I didn't spend a whole lot of time on any one in particular) here's what I learned how to do. Ummm... Yeah. Wow. :)

It's still there.

It is still there...

Yep - that's the Valentines Day Balloon. Again. And it is still there. Though thanks the fan and the AC it has now floated across the living room to the other corner to highlight the fact that there are cobwebs up there that I had never noticed before.

Just one smile

It's bluebonnet time again. There were so many gorgeous bluebonnets out 290 last year that this year we decided to head in that direction instead of our normal photo grounds. This year, however, bluebonnets were a bit more scarce. Where patches did pop up there were hundreds of cars pulled over on the side of the road. There were several places where the freeway traffic slowed to a crawl with cars pulling off, and back on, and others looking to see what the commotion was all about. The first time it happened I thought there had been a massive fender bender.

We found a place with big fields of yellow flowers and another of bluebonnets side by side well off the freeway on a country road. Connor sat and played in the yellow flowers for a minute or so then spent the rest of the time attempting to de-head or trample the flowers. Ryan just cried. And cried some more. As we moved on to the bluebonnet field it was obvious that neither of them was interested in sitting still for a photo so we gave up and went on with our day. After dinner just before we headed back home I saw a hillside covered with bluebonnets behind a gas station. We tried once more and managed to get a shot or two before the boys dissolved once again into a uncooperative fit and game of catch me if you can.

Bubble Mania

The boys had a blast chasing bubbles today at Wyatt and Willow's birthday party. Connor loved the bazillion bubble machine though he kept wanting to stick his fingers in it...

And Ryan and a dozen other toddlers spent half an hour chasing ginormous bubbles one of the parents was making with a neat bubble wand until they managed to pop them or they floated too far away.

Quack!

No wonder the ducks run in fear...

Beauty

I have no idea what exactly this tree is. I got it a couple of years ago at a plant sale because it had such beautiful flowers. It blooms for about a month every spring. Offshoots of it have started popping up in the surrounding flower bed. I was debating what to do with them when I noticed they they were covered in thorns. Why is it the pretty ones always have thorns?

Hmmm...

Hmmm... I am not sure if I should be worried by this or not. We have had some teacher churn at school. So I can only guess that this was to help the teacher figure out who was who. Though if they need labels to tell the boys apart I think a better plan might be a visit to their opthamologist.

At long last...

At long last... or so I thought. Saw this in the floor. Thought the balloon had FINALLY come down from the ceiling. But nope. It's still up there. This was the other one. :)

10 for $10

He's been priced by the checker at Kroger. 10 for $10. Quantities limited, better hurry in. I am fairly certain I am required by law to disclose any known issues - fair trade practices and all. So I suppose we should start with: itchy spreading rash, cranky disposition, known to screech at such a high pitch that glass would crack and the neighbors in Alaska can hear him on a good day. Red Chief has nothing on him. And did I mention a prognosis of strep throat despite a negative strep test?

He broke out with the rash Saturday evening. No fever, just a rash. It started on one side of his face and neck then spread overnight and throughout the day on Sunday to encompass most of his face and a 2 inch wide 360 degree swath around his neck. I called the nurses line. We did everything but take him to a foreign country (new food (umm.. more food allergies??), new skincare product, in the 80 degree heat for 5 hours (heat rash?), traipsing through the woods (poison ivy, poison oak anyone??), and my all time favorite - encouraged him to play in a stream (toxic chemicals from the plant of your choice?)) so we really helped narrow down possible causes.

Trust me on this one - don't google rashes. Especially not poison ivy rash photos. Seriously. Don't do it.

Happy Easter!

Okay - I confess we were pretty much bums today. The only thing I came up with today was Daddy "keeping an eye" on the boys and a losing battle with a deflating helium balloon trying to get it to look the way it did when I actually went to get the camera. So today's image instead comes from our egg hunt yesterday. They are growing up overnight. How much longer do you think they will willingly carry those bunny baskets?

For those of you who insist on truth in labeling - be careful what you ask for. Here's how Daddy kept an eye on things this morning.

Waterfall

It started out as a short detour on our way home. We were just going to look. And maybe get out and get a little closer look. Before long my flip flop clad feet sunk into the mud. One thing let to another and before long the boys and I were sitting on a rock at the edge of the stream with our feet in. 10 minutes later, having long abandoned any pretense of just looking, I was encouraging the boys to reach out and touch the water coming off the rock waterfall and Kevin was eying two soaked children from the dry safety of the bank lamenting ever letting me drive.

Eggstravaganza

I am not sure I sat down all day. It was one busy day. And you would never know it by looking, but this was our first time dying eggs. Ryan is an egg dying pro. He was a huge help getting everything ready and did a great job dying his eggs.

Oh for the love of baskets

I will reign it in once Easter is over. In the meantime, I have to go make me one of these...

According to their teachers the goodie bags were a big hit at school. Though Ms. Hollie said that she thought that the other parents were intimidated and now they are all afraid to volunteer for goodie bags as it would be a tough act to follow. :)