If you are one of those lucky people who I would most likely hit up to buy crap to help raise funds for Aidan’s school pay attention, I have a better solution:
Farmstead participates in several food themed fundraisers. If you find yourself eating any Campbells or Tyson products this may be for you ;). Different labels earn the schools different amounts, and at the end of the year they use it to buy supplies and even classroom furniture. So, the deal is you can clip these labels, send them to me, and I will leave you alone during the annoying fundraising drive (OK, I probably won’t leave all of you alone during that….) Here’s what to look for:
Tyson Project A+ Label Collection Program:
Each label is worth $0.24 and the schools goal is to collect 200 labels over the course of the year to earn themselves $48. On a box look for “support your school 1 2 3”, on a bag “support your school,” and “A+ 1 2 3” on lunchmeat. For more specifics you can visit: http://ProjectAPlus.tyson.com
Campbells Labels for Education:
There are LOTS of these that you can grab the UPC Codes from!!! The labels that apply all have the ‘Labels for Education’ logo on it. These include: Campbells soups, Campbell’s Chunky soup, Campbells Soup at Hand, Pepperidge Farms Goldfish Crackers, Spaghetti Ohs, Campbells Supper Bakes, V8 Splash (a lid), Campbells Select soups, V8 Fusion (a lid,) Prego sauces, Swanson broths and Market Day products.
I would be awesome if you could just take a second to look for some of these things in your pantry and snip the code off (or keep the lid) when you’re done with them. There are so many different things that this applies to! It is greatly appreciated!
Drink Pouch Brigade Program
Save any of these drink pouches, and Aidan will take them to school!
Honest Kids, Capri-Sun, Kool-Aid drink Pouches: Worth $0.02 each!
All other drink pouches (similar to a Capri sun pouch): Worth $0.01!
Yes I realize that this doesn’t seem like a lot of money, and that it hardly seems worth the effort. Look at it this way, if you don’t save it for Aidan it doesn’t help anyone in the trash. Now, picture him giving you a sad yet sweet look with those big blue eyes….how can you resist!?!?
Now, who wants to buy fruit and wrapping paper?!?
We-Ew
So, congratulations to Wade and I: we made it through four and a half years of parenting (two years with two kids so lets say six and a half years to make me feel better,) without one single ride in an ambulance.
We had been to the ER a few times: once because I thought Aidan was having a severe allergic reaction to something which turned out to be heat rash (rookie mistake, we were young and dumb,) one trip for Owen and what seemed like dehydration (waiting 10 minutes I would’ve saved us a lot of money and found that I finally had a wet diaper to change,) and the rest belong to Wade. His ER trips have to do with him doing stupid stuff he shouldn’t have done in the first place ie: playing that second game, running into a fence with his hand, lifting too hard leaving his torn chest muscle to be mistaken as chest pains….you get the idea. This ER trip was a little different. Here’s the story….
To those of you who really know me, I am pretty uptight about letting the boys have a little freedom. This is not because I am holding on to having my little boys close to me forever, nope. That adage “give em an inch and they take a mile”, that is my boys. On the other hand, the crazy lady who always looks frazzled and has no control over her kids that always seem to be running around, screaming and breaking things—that’s me. I still have yet to figure out how to scare them about the street in front of the house, strangers, random dogs, all the things that you are supposed to be a little wary of. So due to their lack of understanding in those areas, we still use gates everywhere in the house, safety knobs on the doors, and even deadbolt the doors from the inside. Aidan has become an unstoppable force as he can get past all of those obstacles. He is even big enough to reach over the safety gate at the top of the stairs to let himself get downstairs for a late night snack. The kicker is that he knows that he isn’t supposed to do it so he’ll re-latch the gate behind him before he goes downstairs.
Anyway, we’ve had a lot of wonderful weather here lately. Good for drying out crops and good for park play-dates. Last Tuesday we were collectively getting ready to go to the park that’s a block from the house. Getting ready means that I am running around finishing up stuff and searching for shoes and socks while the boys attempt to kill each other by the door. This time I was finishing a casserole that we were gonna throw into the oven after the park for supper. I was at the foil point (casserole done, about to be covered, but the mess remains,) when Aidan came to me to ask if he could go outside. My answer was no, but Aidan decided otherwise. He took it upon himself to break out, and he took Owen with him. So, while I had noticed them doing this and I was trying to coax them back in, I knew they wouldn’t listen. I grabbed my phone and a bottle of water and was out the door seconds behind them. I got there a little too late, as the next thing I see is Owen crying with a skinned up face. Clearly he had fallen down the cement stairs outside the back door, and had landed on his head. Now, we do get a lot of head injuries between the two boys so I did know what I was supposed to be looking for concerning concussions. Since he was crying, had no change in his eyes and was acting normal (for him) initially I wasn’t concerned. Things went south pretty quickly after that. His crying got weird, and I couldn’t keep him awake. About this point I called the local ‘ask a nurse’ line, and was instructed to bring him straight to the hospital. The hard part was that I couldn’t let him fall asleep. Now, I am left with Owen (who I can’t let fall asleep,) Aidan who is worried about how much trouble he’s gonna get into when Dad gets home,) a broken van, and the closest hospital is fifteen minutes away. There was no way that we were gonna make it without someone passing out. So I called Wade, and told him he needed to come home, called a friend to take in the other escape artist while I had Owen in the ER and gathered up some PJ’s and diapers for Owen. Things went from bad to worse when Owen started throwing up. I can keep my cool through just about anything when it comes to the kids’ bodily functions: blood—no problem; wanna throw up while we’re shopping at target—go ahead (its happened twice.) This time it was different. I very much lost my cool, but luckily ‘ask a nurse’ does follow up calls and Wade drives pretty fast. At that moment, with Owen passed out on my shoulder with a pool of vomit between us, Wade got home and got Aidan from behind the couch. Ask-a-Nurse called back and when I told her that Owen was throwing up she immediately instructed me to call 911. Seconds go by before Wade has Aidan at Sayla’s house and we are waiting for the ambulance to show up….that took awhile. In that time, Owen seemed to almost completely recover and was thrilled to see not only a We-Ew (ambulance,) but a cop car as well greeting him outside the house. By the time we got to the hospital he was fine, but the doctor wanted a CT scan anyway (he explained to us that he didn’t like scanning little kids, but really wanted Owen to have one.) The scan was fine, but the doctor was certain that Owen did have a concussion. We were instructed to wake him up every couple of hours for the first night to make sure he was feeling fine. The first time we woke him up he seemed pretty out of it, but he’s not really one to wake up super happy. After that it was business as usual. We spent a lot of time making sure he didn’t run into things with his head (it is shocking how many times that kid runs into things.) Aidan spent a lot of time in time-out for hitting Owen because I can almost guarantee that the first thing a four year old is gonna do when you tell him NOT to hit his brother on the head—is hit his brother on the head. Owen even got a get well gift from Wade’s co-workers!
Owen is much better now. The cuts have almost completely healed and his head didn’t bruise that badly. Two days ago I found Owen hitting himself on the head with a golfball while laughing. I guess the only thing we can’t keep Owen from getting injured by is Owen. We’re looking into helmets….
We had been to the ER a few times: once because I thought Aidan was having a severe allergic reaction to something which turned out to be heat rash (rookie mistake, we were young and dumb,) one trip for Owen and what seemed like dehydration (waiting 10 minutes I would’ve saved us a lot of money and found that I finally had a wet diaper to change,) and the rest belong to Wade. His ER trips have to do with him doing stupid stuff he shouldn’t have done in the first place ie: playing that second game, running into a fence with his hand, lifting too hard leaving his torn chest muscle to be mistaken as chest pains….you get the idea. This ER trip was a little different. Here’s the story….
To those of you who really know me, I am pretty uptight about letting the boys have a little freedom. This is not because I am holding on to having my little boys close to me forever, nope. That adage “give em an inch and they take a mile”, that is my boys. On the other hand, the crazy lady who always looks frazzled and has no control over her kids that always seem to be running around, screaming and breaking things—that’s me. I still have yet to figure out how to scare them about the street in front of the house, strangers, random dogs, all the things that you are supposed to be a little wary of. So due to their lack of understanding in those areas, we still use gates everywhere in the house, safety knobs on the doors, and even deadbolt the doors from the inside. Aidan has become an unstoppable force as he can get past all of those obstacles. He is even big enough to reach over the safety gate at the top of the stairs to let himself get downstairs for a late night snack. The kicker is that he knows that he isn’t supposed to do it so he’ll re-latch the gate behind him before he goes downstairs.
Anyway, we’ve had a lot of wonderful weather here lately. Good for drying out crops and good for park play-dates. Last Tuesday we were collectively getting ready to go to the park that’s a block from the house. Getting ready means that I am running around finishing up stuff and searching for shoes and socks while the boys attempt to kill each other by the door. This time I was finishing a casserole that we were gonna throw into the oven after the park for supper. I was at the foil point (casserole done, about to be covered, but the mess remains,) when Aidan came to me to ask if he could go outside. My answer was no, but Aidan decided otherwise. He took it upon himself to break out, and he took Owen with him. So, while I had noticed them doing this and I was trying to coax them back in, I knew they wouldn’t listen. I grabbed my phone and a bottle of water and was out the door seconds behind them. I got there a little too late, as the next thing I see is Owen crying with a skinned up face. Clearly he had fallen down the cement stairs outside the back door, and had landed on his head. Now, we do get a lot of head injuries between the two boys so I did know what I was supposed to be looking for concerning concussions. Since he was crying, had no change in his eyes and was acting normal (for him) initially I wasn’t concerned. Things went south pretty quickly after that. His crying got weird, and I couldn’t keep him awake. About this point I called the local ‘ask a nurse’ line, and was instructed to bring him straight to the hospital. The hard part was that I couldn’t let him fall asleep. Now, I am left with Owen (who I can’t let fall asleep,) Aidan who is worried about how much trouble he’s gonna get into when Dad gets home,) a broken van, and the closest hospital is fifteen minutes away. There was no way that we were gonna make it without someone passing out. So I called Wade, and told him he needed to come home, called a friend to take in the other escape artist while I had Owen in the ER and gathered up some PJ’s and diapers for Owen. Things went from bad to worse when Owen started throwing up. I can keep my cool through just about anything when it comes to the kids’ bodily functions: blood—no problem; wanna throw up while we’re shopping at target—go ahead (its happened twice.) This time it was different. I very much lost my cool, but luckily ‘ask a nurse’ does follow up calls and Wade drives pretty fast. At that moment, with Owen passed out on my shoulder with a pool of vomit between us, Wade got home and got Aidan from behind the couch. Ask-a-Nurse called back and when I told her that Owen was throwing up she immediately instructed me to call 911. Seconds go by before Wade has Aidan at Sayla’s house and we are waiting for the ambulance to show up….that took awhile. In that time, Owen seemed to almost completely recover and was thrilled to see not only a We-Ew (ambulance,) but a cop car as well greeting him outside the house. By the time we got to the hospital he was fine, but the doctor wanted a CT scan anyway (he explained to us that he didn’t like scanning little kids, but really wanted Owen to have one.) The scan was fine, but the doctor was certain that Owen did have a concussion. We were instructed to wake him up every couple of hours for the first night to make sure he was feeling fine. The first time we woke him up he seemed pretty out of it, but he’s not really one to wake up super happy. After that it was business as usual. We spent a lot of time making sure he didn’t run into things with his head (it is shocking how many times that kid runs into things.) Aidan spent a lot of time in time-out for hitting Owen because I can almost guarantee that the first thing a four year old is gonna do when you tell him NOT to hit his brother on the head—is hit his brother on the head. Owen even got a get well gift from Wade’s co-workers!
Owen is much better now. The cuts have almost completely healed and his head didn’t bruise that badly. Two days ago I found Owen hitting himself on the head with a golfball while laughing. I guess the only thing we can’t keep Owen from getting injured by is Owen. We’re looking into helmets….
Welcome Back Blog...
Okay, so its been a little while since I got this done….OK a LONG time since I have blogged. I am gonna go with the ‘better late than never’ policy on this one, and do my best to catch up.
Let’s see, when I last blogged we were in the middle of a busy week, Aidan was in school and the kitchen wasn’t done. Good news, not much has changed (with the exception of the date!)
Aidan started school last week, and we are finishing his first full week as I type this. He is doing really well, and still loves this preschool. He is back at Farmstead, and the only problem we have had so far concerns the fact that he gets pretty bad allergies (or allgeries if you ask him.) That hasn’t stopped him from riding ‘Shortcake’ or playing with the animals. He is getting pretty good at writing his name, but right now it looks like Aiban. We’ll have to work on the difference between the ‘b’ and ‘d’. Owen and I are still adjusting to the school schedule as well. I am typing this blog from the front seat of the Yukon with a sleeping two year old in the back seat. We are trying to be frugal about this so I am gathering up enough stuff to do in Cedar Falls while Aidan is in school. Otherwise, the drive home (and back again,) becomes a little cashy. It won’t take us long to get on a good routine, but by then it will be cold out and we’ll have to start with a new plan!
On a random note, Aidan was to bring snack last Friday (September 11th.) I thought about sending a 9-11 themed snack (like something red white and blue or twin-tower cheese sticks.) It suddenly occurred to me that not one of the kids in that school was even born in 2001….Where did those years go? I sent raisins, graham crackers and apple juice.
Also, be looking for a blog about ways that you can avoid buying crappy overpriced wrapping paper and still help out Aidan’s school!
Let’s see, when I last blogged we were in the middle of a busy week, Aidan was in school and the kitchen wasn’t done. Good news, not much has changed (with the exception of the date!)
Aidan started school last week, and we are finishing his first full week as I type this. He is doing really well, and still loves this preschool. He is back at Farmstead, and the only problem we have had so far concerns the fact that he gets pretty bad allergies (or allgeries if you ask him.) That hasn’t stopped him from riding ‘Shortcake’ or playing with the animals. He is getting pretty good at writing his name, but right now it looks like Aiban. We’ll have to work on the difference between the ‘b’ and ‘d’. Owen and I are still adjusting to the school schedule as well. I am typing this blog from the front seat of the Yukon with a sleeping two year old in the back seat. We are trying to be frugal about this so I am gathering up enough stuff to do in Cedar Falls while Aidan is in school. Otherwise, the drive home (and back again,) becomes a little cashy. It won’t take us long to get on a good routine, but by then it will be cold out and we’ll have to start with a new plan!
On a random note, Aidan was to bring snack last Friday (September 11th.) I thought about sending a 9-11 themed snack (like something red white and blue or twin-tower cheese sticks.) It suddenly occurred to me that not one of the kids in that school was even born in 2001….Where did those years go? I sent raisins, graham crackers and apple juice.
Also, be looking for a blog about ways that you can avoid buying crappy overpriced wrapping paper and still help out Aidan’s school!
Night Out with Thomas
For a graduation/birthday gift for Wade, Mom and Ray sent him to see Thomas LIVE!!! Clearly, this was more for the boys than for him (or, at least it was supposed to be,) but we all enjoyed it.
Kitchen update
Wade, has trap-league tonight, packing and studying tomorrow night, a final on Friday (oh, and um...it's his birthday,) set up for Aidan's fundraiser Saturday morning and then catching a plane by 2 out of Waterloo--then, Italy.
Me, cleaning house to get ready for cupcake-pa-looza, thursday is cupcake-pa-looza, Thursday night is a clean up night at Aidans school, friday is field trip day, set up and fundraiser on Saturday...and then single mom for awhile.
Keeping all of this in mind, Wade skipped a couple steps in the kitchen progress. I have a functional sink and dishwasher, but not completed walls. The progress is nice, but it will be wonderful when its done.
Thankfully, the best part about this project taking so long is that I am allowed to change my mind about details a LOT!!! Wade hates this, but lets just say that I am almost always right...Stay tuned for more pictures.
Earth Day 2009
This is Earth Day 2009: We crashed the Elliott-Ott Earth Day project. They were walking around town picking up trash, but after they picked us up--not much trash was collected! On a serious note, it freaks me out to even think about what kind of mess the boys will be living in as adults. So, grab a reusable bag, eco-friendly cleaner or brush up on your recycling techniques...every little bit counts!
Kitchen!!!
Okay, this blog would be done better by Wade, but I will give it my best shot!
Once upon a time, two young newlyweds/parents of ONE bought a lovely house. There were only three major problems with the house: 1) no (functional) garage; 2) the lovely peach color outside with the teal/magenta trim; and 3) the KITCHEN!!! We (and by we I mean me) promised that we would make the best of the situation until we (and by we this time I mean Wade,) got a chance to fix any of those situations. Fast forward three and a half years--add one more little boy, two masters programs, preschool, job changes, a wedding or two....and there are STILL three major issues with this house! We have figured out the garage situation (it is going to cost a LOT of money, and it is in our five year plan,) and the color (you'll see, things should be different by labor day.) The kitchen is the problem currently being addressed.
Once upon a time, two young newlyweds/parents of ONE bought a lovely house. There were only three major problems with the house: 1) no (functional) garage; 2) the lovely peach color outside with the teal/magenta trim; and 3) the KITCHEN!!! We (and by we I mean me) promised that we would make the best of the situation until we (and by we this time I mean Wade,) got a chance to fix any of those situations. Fast forward three and a half years--add one more little boy, two masters programs, preschool, job changes, a wedding or two....and there are STILL three major issues with this house! We have figured out the garage situation (it is going to cost a LOT of money, and it is in our five year plan,) and the color (you'll see, things should be different by labor day.) The kitchen is the problem currently being addressed.
Now, I don't want to sound ungrateful, but here were some of the big complaints that I had with the kitchen (NONE of them were cosmetic!) First, I had no counter top space. There was a fold up 10 inch flap next to the sink, but that was it! Everything was free standing in the kitchen so it didn't call for long counter tops. Secondly, I had a sink that only had one basin and wasn't deep. It made it very hard to do dishes (which directly relates to the fact that I didn't have a dishwasher.) Next, my stove is almost original to the house. As far as I can tell by my research it is an early 1940's Tappan gas stove. I very much actually love the stove, and it works very well, but in the early 1940's they didn't exactly engineer the glass not to burn little hands. Fourth, apparently giant amazon people lived here before us. The cupboards that I did have were on the wall--none on the floor--and they were attached to the ceiling. I could only reach one of the shelves without a stool. And, last but not least, the kitchen had a door that connected to a bathroom. The problem with that was that it just took up so much space, and the door helped create a loop through the downstairs. Don't get me wrong the boys loved the loop---many, many, many hours have been spent running through the house, but it had to go.
So, about six weeks ago, having taken all of this into consideration, the kitchen renovation began! Keep in mind, Wade and I are both in school, Wade is busier than ever with work, and Aidan's new school requires me to spend at least six hours a week driving him back and forth...this is definitely not a sprint! To help at the beginning, I took the boys for a long weekend away. I think Wade and I had a few too many 'extreme home makeover' visions in our heads, and we both thought it would move a little faster and smoother, but the kitchen was not on our side! Originally, we were just going to add paint and appliances to what was already there, but....
I returned the first weekend to find that Wade had decided to gut the whole kitchen (see the pictures.) He wasn't terribly thrilled with his progress on the weekend, but he did at least get a chance to expose ALL of the wiring. That would come to be very beneficial to him later.
Then, a long timeout...Aidan, Owen and I all fell to the flu (the real kind, not the tummy version.) Somehow, Wade escaped it, but considering that I had become pretty much useless and that the kitchen sits right below the boys room, Wade's duties changed from contractor to Mr. mom. Once everyone was better, he dug back in only to find that he had NO IDEA how to deal with the wiring. On a side note, to anyone who is a realtor, don't give buyers half truths--especially when there is little kiddos in their family. When we bought this house, from a baptist minister no-less, we were told that the wiring had been re-done. No, it said that it had been 'updated,' and there's no way a minister would lie right?! Nope. In our house, updated meant that they had put ONE FLIPPIN LIGHT SWITCH into the kitchen, and it wasn't even done right. So, Wade bought a lot of books, spent a lot of time researching knob and tube wiring, and called a LOT of electricians. The best we could do was wait six weeks for the earliest available electrician to get to us. While waiting, we sanded, stained and varnished the cupboards. I also got to take my new dishwasher out of the box just to look at...it's so pretty! Suddenly, one day (while reading another book) Wade figured it all out, cancelled the electrician and got back to work. Now, this freaked me out a little bit, but I made him promise that if he came to anything that he was questioning even a little that he would stop and call an electrician. No calls were ever made, and we got power back. Did I mention that during those weeks, we didn't have lights in the entire downstairs and we were living off our microwave upstairs...yep, way fun!
So, with electrical done we were onto plumbing. This meant another weekend away with the boys for me. It worked out to coincide w/ Dad and Lynne's garage sale--and everyone knows that the best thing to help with a garage sale is a stressed out young mother and two little boys with a combined age of five! ;) When I returned, not only did I find some pipes sticking out of the ground, but DRYWALL!!!! Woo Hoo!!! Finally, the drywall has moved from my dining room to the walls of my kitchen. That is where we are now: working through getting all the drywall up. Now, if Wade were writing this, and remember I mentioned at the beginning that it should be him doing this, he'd tell you about how the walls aren't plum (?) and how the plumbing was a mess, and don't even get me started on how much the electrical was run wrong....but, you got me writing today, and now you have a short story about the kitchen! We are in the middle of this tail right now, and so the pictures are from the beginning and middle. I can't wait to get 'end' pictures up! To be continued.....
Finalized plans for the month
Well, Wade has finalized his trip dates, final dates and kitchen dates. After that, I finalized my final date, fundraiser scedules and sitter arrangements. For the record, you won't find us BOTH in school while taking on a major home renovation again. Those elements (with the boys thrown in,) make us a little crazy. Anyway, as it stands, Wade will leave for Italy on May 2nd and return on May 9th. He has to take his final on Friday (also his birthday--happy 32nd; have a final), and I get to take mine at the scheduled time that following Monday with the help of a sitter. We have Aidan's big school fundraiser that day, so we'll go for set up, take Wade to the airport and then come back for tear down. The day that Wade gets back is also his graduation. He should be somewhere over the ocean at about the time he's supposed to graduate. He hasn't decided yet what he's gonna do about graduation. He would like to walk, but he'd have to wait until December...stay tuned.
So, in the middle of all of this we are still working on the kitchen. I say we, but Wade does most of the work. My job has become wrangling the boys...this makes for some very long days! The weather is finally clearing up so we are able to spend more time outside, and this helps. It is going well, and I can see how much Wade is enjoying it! He didn't even go to bed Saturday night because he got too excited about the progress he was making, and decided to work right on through! He is hoping to get the bulk of it done by the time he leaves for Italy. I think he feels bad for me...having to go around to the bathroom for water and washing my dishes in the funny bathtub.
On a fun note: I did get my passport in the mail yesterday. So, the next time Wade is sent on a fun work trip that is at a more agreeable time for our family--I'm ready to go!
SCATTERED!!!!
So, it's horribly late at night (for me anyway,) and I was all prepared to list ALL the things that we have going on in the next couple of weeks....
Unfortuneately, a national holiday in Italy has thrown this blog off course. I was about to tell you all about our kitchen progress (which there is a lot of,) Aidan's BIG school fundraiser, Wade's work trip to Italy, finals week and Wade's big graduation weekend. APPARENTLY, Italy has a Labor Day as well and it coincides with Wade's work trip to Italy in a couple of weeks. It also throws a wrench into our plans for: the kitchen, finals week, Aidan's big school fundraiser AND the graduation....so, when things get finalized I will know more. As for now, all of those things will happen, but Wade won't be here for any of them--including his own graduation! This is why I feel so scattered in this post. So, I will leave you with what I got today, and that is a good laugh from Aidan:
The boys and I were singing a song this morning. It goes along to the same tune as the song about the dog named bingo, but it was about being 'happy.' I was spelling out H-A-P-P-Y, and I asked Aidan if he knew what I was spelling. He replied, "God? Jesus?" I said no. He then said, "boobs?" His spelling needs some work, but he DOES already know his right from his left....so, there's that!
Unfortuneately, a national holiday in Italy has thrown this blog off course. I was about to tell you all about our kitchen progress (which there is a lot of,) Aidan's BIG school fundraiser, Wade's work trip to Italy, finals week and Wade's big graduation weekend. APPARENTLY, Italy has a Labor Day as well and it coincides with Wade's work trip to Italy in a couple of weeks. It also throws a wrench into our plans for: the kitchen, finals week, Aidan's big school fundraiser AND the graduation....so, when things get finalized I will know more. As for now, all of those things will happen, but Wade won't be here for any of them--including his own graduation! This is why I feel so scattered in this post. So, I will leave you with what I got today, and that is a good laugh from Aidan:
The boys and I were singing a song this morning. It goes along to the same tune as the song about the dog named bingo, but it was about being 'happy.' I was spelling out H-A-P-P-Y, and I asked Aidan if he knew what I was spelling. He replied, "God? Jesus?" I said no. He then said, "boobs?" His spelling needs some work, but he DOES already know his right from his left....so, there's that!
Owen
Awhile ago I added a post w/ a video clip titled "Meet Sweet Owen." Well, a few months later....and....this is my sweet Owen!
Bathtub Antics
I think every mom takes these pictures at one point or another, and I am no exception to that rule!
Farm fun before the big party
On Aidan's birthday we had time to stop by Dad & Lynne's for a little while. Both of them were still at work, but the boys did what they could to get a start on the chores for them. As you can imagine--they're aren't the best farmhands just yet. It was a VERY windy day, so we didn't stay outside too long. Wade took both of the boys on 4-wheeler rides, Owen terrorized the chickens and Aidan visited with Cowboy and Cutter. Once Dad & Lynne were home, Aidan got to open his birthday presents from them as they weren't able to stay at Happy Joes too long. Aidan is now equipped to fish. Thanks for the worm farm, but good luck explaining to Aidan what it is that you want him to do with his 'wormies.' That conversation may break his heart, but he'll get over it when he catches a fish---but, then we kinda have to have the same conversation with him don't we? Enjoy the pictures!
BIRTHDAY! BIRTHDAY! BIRTHDAY!
Our little leprechaun is four...I always thought it was a cliche, but I must've blinked! Due to the fact that the kitchen was non-functional and we were coming off a bad case of the flu (which Wade luckily escaped) we had Aidan's birthday party at Happy Joes in Burlington. This will probably be the last year that the grown-ups out-number the kids. Next year, we'll have to break down and do the dreaded 'kid party'. Aidan had a blast! Thank you to everybody, he is loved! On a side note, we got pulled over for a headlight on the way home. It was hard to explain to the state trooper why it was that we drove so far for a birthday party. Luckily, the truck was packed to the gills with pizza, presents and cake. He was pretty understanding after he looked in the back and saw Aidan with a balloon and birthday hat still on. Wade wouldn't let me ask the trooper to pose for a picture with Aidan. Fun-hater!
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