road trip

i'm such a slacker on this blog lately
we've been sick here off & on so much the past few weeks it's been unreal
but we are on the mend and i was hoping to get caught up on life

but...
this morning tim's grandpa in iowa died (not totally unexpected)
we thought about just having tim fly out -
and actually tim liked this idea... hello, peace & quiet time

but...
why make it simple?
so instead we are packing up the troops and driving out friday for iowa.
after the funeral on saturday we'll head up to minneapolis.
(seriously, there better be NO snow!)
we'll have a few days to see family & friends.
then we'll head home stopping at the wisconsin dells for a few days of waterpark fun

in the meantime..
i need to finish my research paper -
(which is what i was going to do all weekend here at home)
and figure out how to pack for a funeral and a waterpark :)

the funny thing is the kids are totally geeked about this trip.
unfortunately, they don't quite get the whole seriousness of the funeral part.
they keep saying "yeah!!! we're going to iowa to the waterpark!!!"
so somewhere on the looooong car ride to iowa we'll have to break the news to them that waterpark fun is not only several days away but also yet another car trip and many more miles away.

this could be interesting...

and yes, i think car beverages will be forbidden for kids not wearing diapers.
i don't plan to revisit the fiasco that was our christmas road trip!

in case you missed it-
think chicago toll road, no exits, kids needing a bathroom
repeat scenario 2 more times on the same toll road in the span of 15 minutes
thank goodness we had extra diapers in the car!!!

perhaps perfection

we get lots of cooking magazines at our house
i absolutely love looking through them
but lately it seems that that is ALL i do-
just look, as my magazine stack grows & grows...

so tim & i are trying to pick out one recipe to try each week
the goal is to have it be a meal recipe, not just some yummy brownie dessert

but i just might have to try this instead...
(especially since i didn't order any boxes of samoas this year b/c i eat them way too fast!)

pottery, paint and a touch of drama

a few weeks ago we took the kids to the mud room to make a gift for their grandma's birthday.
it was a tad scary...3 kids walking around & lots of pottery...not the best combination!!

after we made the birthday present (platter in picture with olivia), the kids BEGGED to paint something own their own.

olivia painted 2 cats (one's a gift for her girlfriend's birthday)
garrett wanted a skateboard
and ryan did a puppy that he named "blue puppy"



it was all happy times & smiles until it was time to go...
ryan couldn't fathom why "blue puppy" had to stay
he proceeded to start screaming right in the middle of the store
this screaming lasted all the way home :)

...

a week later the kids were so excited to pick up their creations!
the boys even slept with theirs at night

but seriously...

what kind of crazy person gives pottery to little kids?

one day after picking up their beloved creation we had some MAJOR drama

ryan's version of the story is that he dropped it

garrett claims ryan threw it on the ground

either way, a little super glue did the trick -

and the skateboard and "blue puppy" have been relocated to a safer location :)

...

and when garrett gets frustrated with ryan we often hear -
"ryan i'm going to break your puppy!!!!"

gotta love brothers!

candyland, anyone?

have i mentioned...

that he loves skateboards?

garrett found this tiny skateboarder in olivia's highlights magazine -
he cut it out and insisted i tape it to his backpack.

can you tell what he desperately wants for his birthday?
so far, we've put it off for 2 years :)
i'm thinking this year might be "the year"
well... at least we have until october :)

wordless wednesday

sorry buddy

in school last month around presidents' day the kids learned that money has pictures of presidents on it...

so yesterday i'm at meijer with garrett, ryan and josie. ryan found a penny out in the parking lot and wanted to "carry" it around the store. "drop it every30 seconds" around the store was more like it.

at one point garrett picked up the penny for ryan. before he handed it back to ryan, he stared at it for a few seconds. he shrugged his shoulders and with a totally disappointed look on his face said to ryan, "sorry buddy, it's not barack obama."

picture picture on the wall

i'm slightly ashamed to admit it
but this weekend we finally put up pictures of josie
AND
we finally put up some current (non-baby) pictures of ryan

i obviously take plenty of pictures
i'm just not to good at getting them from my computer to frames

i just have to laugh
by the time olivia was a few weeks old-
we had a gazillion pictures of her all over the house :)

all of a sudden...

my little baby looks so big!

wordless wednesday