Saturday, May 29, 2010

Skate City

It is birthday season for LTs friends, turning the big 3! Last weekend we had two birthday parties, one for Joe and one for Mia. Joe did his at skate city with his friend Maggie. Neither Bri nor I had been to skate city since we were kids and honestly, not much has changed. The carpet has clearly been replaced, but only by the same confetti eighties carpet. The music is the same old 80s dance party, the lights are the same and even the skates are the old brown heavy heavy skates. Needless to say, it brought back a lot of memories!
LT had never been rollar skating before. I think he was a little unsure of what to think when I put these heavy clunkers with wheels that are hard to control on hi. He was a good sport about it though and we even managed to make it around the rink one time!

Mostly he just enjoyed playing skeeball with Ewan and Z. I don't think anyone actually got a ball in the target, but they could have cared less. They were finally allowed to throw balls, inside!
The skating and skeeball was followed by some yummy pizza, ice cream and cake.
The ice cream was a huge hit because it had sprinkles on it, rainbow sprinkles. Who doesn't like those??? LT didn't eat a bit of the ice cream, just the sprinkles.
Then it was time to blow out the candles. Joe and Maggie each had their own side of the cake. LT talked about the red frosting for a few hours after the party, must have been pretty special.




One of the funnier parts of the party, for me at least, was Joe and LT jumping like little beans through the food service area. Yes, I am a bad mom to and let the do this while I took videos rather than stopping it, but it was funny! The videos don't even do it justice, but they were having a blast.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Pulling up

Adler learns things in secret, by practicing his daredevil moves when I am busy with LT. I am not entirely sure when he learned to pull himself up to standing, but I know he can do it by himself now. These pictures are a few days old, but I turned around to get the camera to capture another funny thing the boys were doing and noticed in the moment I had my back to him that he pulled himself up on LTs playground/house thing.
Knees first...
Then all the way up on your feet. Adler doesn't do anything the regular way. When he finally gets himself all the way up, he stands on his tippy toes.

Silly things the boys do

Get yourself stuck under a table and laugh hysterically when you try to sit up and hit your head.

Practice early morning splits.
Ride your big brothers bike with a passy you don't even like.
Crawl backwards to get under the excersaucer.

Wash the sink with lots and lots and lots of soap. When the sink is clean, you can wash the wash clothes and towels in the same manner.
Get yourself dressed in all plaid. Shawn asked if Bri had dressed LT, he didn't, but I think LT is headed down the same poor fashion path Bri leads (not that my sense of style is much better). When getting dressed its always a good idea to wear full Bob Builder attire (ALL plaid is Bob Builder apparently), some Thomas shades and a glow necklace.
When daddy is out of town, its always a good idea to walk around in his shoes and no pants.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

a boy and his dog

Baby Adler (the youngest kid) trying to interact with Hailie (the oldest 'kid'). As Adler gets closer and closer to legitimately crawling, I think Hailie is about to spend a lot of her time running away from him.

Back to baby playdates

I joined the second half of 09 subgroup of the highland mommies so that Adler could have some buddies his own age (besides the kids we already knew). Unfortunately, we haven't been to very many playdates with LTs schedule. The past two Friday afternoons, however, I have taken Adler to the afternoon play dates. It is deja vu for sure.
The first playdate we went to, I left LT with Baba and Grandpa, but he came with us to the second one.
Adler is quite the party man. He is definitely not shy and will maneuver his way through a baby crowd to get whatever toy looks to be the best. I am not sure if this is simply Adler's personality or if its because he has learned to get what he needs to survive with an older brother, but its humerous to watch. These pictures were taken from a play date last Friday and I took LT with me. LT was amazing with the babies and loved all the baby toys.

After crawling through a crowd he managed to get this pretty cool toy.
All the babies just sitting while the moms talked. The days like that are long gone from LTs play dates.
The best part of all for LT was the food! The babies couldn't have any, but the host put out lots of yummy food for the moms. LT scored an m and m cookie. He ate only the colored m and ms and then brought me the remainder of the cookie crumbled in pieces. It was lovely.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

I am a lucky mom ...

to have these cute little guys as my sons. Just a few shots from mothers day brunch.
Could I have two happier kids?
Sweet little LT who is so good with Adler.
I just thought this one was funny.
And at the end of probably 30 pictures being taken, we noticed LTs pants had fallen down.

Beginning stages of crawling

This video is a few weeks old, but shows Adlers early attempts at crawling (or reaching for something in front of him). He sure has a lot of energy for such a little guy! He did this over and over and over and over again. He is now crawling backwards and scooting all over.

Monday, May 17, 2010

Few more from Arizona

I can't even try to compete with Brian's big fancy camera. But, the nice thing about mine is that its easy to take places. These are just a few random pictures that happened to be on my camera from Arizona.
Adler slept the entire way both flights.
LT said he wasn't tired the whole flight home. Then, on the bumpiest decent we could possibly have had, he passed out, with 5 minutes left on the flight. He slept through the landing, taxi and slept through every other person leaving the plane. Only when they basically kicked us off did we pick him up and he woke up. Funny kid.
Adler soaking up some rays at the pool.

Boys group hug one evening.
A friend of mine went to ASU for college, not far from where we were staying. I asked her for a suggestion for a restaurant that was kid friendly. She mentioned Oreganos, which was an excellent suggestion. We went two times. The second time, the boys decided to dump out all the salt and pepper shakers and drive their cars through it. Luckily the waiter and waitress were very kid friendly and approved this activity.

Mom and the boys ready to celebrate Dad's birthday at Oreganos.
All you really need is a bottle, right?

Sunday, May 16, 2010

playing make believe

I like to play make believe photographer and Adler humors me and is a pretty good make believe model. At least he sits still more than LT, Hailie or Bowen.

Baby Adler

Back seat driver

2 toofs

humoring dad

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Almost like one of the boys

A few weeks ago we had Phoebe over for a play-date (and the rest of her family for a BBQ). LT doesn't get to see her very often these days (they moved out of the neighborhood and little sibling's nap schedules make things hard) which is too bad because they get along really well. Phoebe plays hard and can hold her own with the boys.


Sunday, May 9, 2010

Mother's Day

baby mama
Mom and her baby on a mother's day morning coffee date at Tenn Street.

mad skillz

skillz
LT went over to Riley's house for dinner and a play date yesterday. They've always gotten along really well and last night was no exception. They had fun playing all kinds of games and toys together with only one exception. LT wouldn't play basketball with Riley and, guessing from the picture above, he wisely chose not to take on a very talented player.

Friday, May 7, 2010

Amateur Month

"Blue Steel" Jr.

I've had an on again, off again interest in photography since taking a couple classes in high school and having LT and Adler has given me a renewed interest in the hobby and a good excuse to buy myself some fun toys. Baby Adler (above) is usually a pretty good sport about sitting (maybe 'cause he can't crawl yet?) and letting his dad play pretend photographer.

This month the local coffee shop that LT and now Adler are regulars at, Tenn Street Coffee & Books, is also going to be a good sport and let me play pretend photographer. Like many of the local shops around here, Tenn Street displays and sells art by local artists. This month they are doing a show on travel photography and apparently they've relaxed the requirement that the artists be actual artists because a few of my photos will be hanging on the wall.

If you are in the area this month, stop by Tenn St., support a nice local establishment, and check out some pictures.


Here's my "artist statement" that will, I think, also be on the wall. Click here to see a bigger image.

And this is the flyer for the show.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Return to AZ

We went back to Arizona this year in what is starting to become an anual family vacation.

bacon!
LT enjoying some bacon at "The Farm."

rocks and cars
Sure AZ voters just passed some troubling legislation (troubling to most people I know anyway) but I'm not such a principled person as to forfeit non-refundable hotel/airline tickets and my family vacation in a protest that would fall on deaf ears anyway. Besides, we went with the Gallegos and taking a few more "suspicious looking" people down there, if only for a week, is kind of a protest in its own right. Z and LT shown above playing with cars, trucks, buckets and rocks.

goof
LT paying around in the hotel room while I played around with a new lens I got for my camera.

running wild
Z laughing and smiling as he ran, with LT chasing him, down one of the resort's outdoor pathways.

what's for dinner?
What's for dinner? This menu is a little dry...

dinner conversation
The boys waiting on dinner at one of the nicer restaurants at the resort. LT apparently trying to appear sophisticated. I don't even bother with it anymore but he's still young.

signs of water
The sign outside the water park has a little waterfall over it. I think the boys would have played with it forever if we'd let them.

AZ sunset
An Arizona sunset. Unfortunately the weather wasn't as warm for us this year - in the 70's and windy most of the time rather than the 90's like it was last year. The last two days warm up for us but until then LT mostly just wanted to swim in "the hot pool."

chunky monkey
Baby Adler and his chubby cheeks seemed to adapt well to the vacation lifestyle.

morning playtime
Sometimes I'm not sure why we have to fly someplace to play with cars and trucks...

ready for a big night out
Excited for a big night out to celebrate dad's birthday!

watching Max & Ruby
LT must have watched "the muffin" episode of Max & Ruby at least fifteen times on our trip. I brought a bunch of different DVDs but that's all he wanted to see.

gun show
The boys playing in the desert (or the desert like features of the resort) while Z shows off the "Buddha belly gun show."

LT @ Sunset
LT running around excited after dinner one night because he and Z saw a "speed boat airplane" in the parking lot.

the life
I got a new toy - indulge me!

fountain
A little more indulgence.

rather be golfing
LT watching either ducks in the lake or golfers teeing off #1.

fun in the sun
I think this is my favorite shot from the whole trip - LT & Z definitely had fun on what LT calls, "daycation."

OASIS
Playing at the waterfall sign one last time.