Fantastic Friday

Ok I know I'm biased but I'm pretty sure I live with the cutest superheroes in the universe.

After Owen woke Scott up this morning (and everyone was changed and fed, fed being operative, someone is major grouch pants until he puts food in his belly) the boys had on their masks.

Sweet "super hug"

Less than impressed when I tried to get them to sit and pose for a picture.

Important superhero planning in progress:

We went and worked out, did a quick errand for daddy, then came home for lunch and a nap for Owen.  A sweet friend stopped by to pick something up and I was blessed by her presence, although for a short time, we had fun adult mommy conversation.  Its always so wonderful to connect with people who just get you, and what happens to be going on in your life at the moment, and its just effortless.  I call them my soul sisters, you know who you are.

Then we went to the library.  We didn't stay too long because Owen is really into pulling ALL the books off of the shelves.  Awesome.

 Then it was pizza night at Casa de Campbell.  Scott did an amazing job of making our dinner tonight and I think he really enjoyed the process.  I'll make a chef of him yet (wink wink).

Sneaking a taste.

I decided it was a perfect night for a backyard picnic so that's just what we did.

 Watermelon....

 ....or pizza?

Pizza!

Mommy's yummy treat.  Have you had this stuff?  Reed's ginger brew.  Amazingtown.  You have to really like ginger though.  Brian drank it once expecting ginger ale.  I finished his.

After dinner we played soccer and "frozen tag" (freeze tag, but Scott calls it frozen, and has his own rules, get excited to play next time you come over!!) and rode tricycles and drew with chalk until past bedtime because how do you stop the fun for bath and bed?  I couldn't.

Happy weekend!!!

Prom 2028

Mimi has been taking the big boys on "dates" recently.  Just some special one on one time with Mimi, and the boys have really enjoyed it.  Scott has also recently started to understand the concept of money a little bit (mostly in the "its fun to put pennies into the piggy bank" sense).  We have started giving Scott all of our loose change for his piggy bank (which he calls "penny bank") so when that started happening I figured I would start introducing the concept of saving.  When I asked him what he would like to use his "pennies" on he was a little stumped.  So I made some suggestions:  a new matchbox car at target, go out for ice cream, a new coloring book etc.  When I said "go out for ice cream" I hit a winner.  Then, totally unprompted by me, Scott said he would like to take his Mimi on a date for ice cream.  I almost died of cuteness.   So of course I said we should call Mimi and tell her that (so she could join me in dying of cuteness).  And he has been saving ever since.  The other day when putting a few more coins in the pig Scott said, "I just know I have enough to take Mimi to ice cream."  Cuteness overload. (And at that point even if he had only had 25 cents and he thought he had enough for a new bike I would have made sure that he did.)  With the help of a "BOGO" coupon for menchies (our local fave) Scott was able to take his Mimi out for an ice cream date last night.  And no ice cream date would be complete without a stop at the bookstore too.

Scott and Mimi counting and sorting the dough.

Mimi sent me this picture from their ice cream date.  She said he was the perfect gentleman.  Scott paid for the ice cream with all his change from his ziploc baggie (the employee must have loved that, but probably the cuteness of the situation made up for it) and he even had money to spare (to be put back into the pig for next time of course, sidenote: the boys favorite phrase: "we should do this again sometime.")

After ice cream, a potty stop, the book store, snail watching and tending to the needs of a lost puppy, Scott rolled in 15 minutes after bedtime (we aren't super strict about bedtime in these parts, can you tell).  I can't help but fast forward in my mind to dates in the future.  Before I know it he will be going off to prom (tears!).  Brian you should be ready with a big bottle of wine and some tissues when that night rolls around.  For now I'm happy with these dates, its just all too cute.   Scott and Owen: please don't grow up too fast!

Good morning brother...

 Owen wakes up before Scott by usually at least an hour.   Lately its all I can do to keep Owen out of Scott's room to let him sleep longer.  The past few mornings we have had to wake Scott up to get ready for school or whatever we happen to be doing that day.  Owen absolutely LOVES getting to wake his brother up.

Scott not so much.

Swordsmanship

Sword fighting is big in our house.  BIG.  Owen already knows how, we have four actual {foam} swords along with other items deemed "swords" by Scott (spatulas, magnifying glasses, drum sticks, actual sticks, etc.).  The other morning Scott brought a sword for both himself and Owen in the car for the drive to preschool - commence carseat sword fighting (witnessed above).  I convinced Scott it was not a good idea to bring the swords to class (you are welcome Ms. Dana!!!!).  The rules of sword fighting are 1) you do not sword fight someone (or "sword them" as Scott calls it) if that person does not have a sword 2) you must ask other person if they want to sword fight if they are holding a sword, you do not just jump right it and "sword them" out of nowhere. 3) swords must only his swords, not faces or other body parts.

 Early morning pajama sword fights...

Getting ready for preschool, mickey ears, spider man chonies and spatula "sword"...the makings of a really great dance party.

Which leads me to some of the funny things I find myself saying lately:

"Scott mommy has a hard time sword fighting while nursing your brother."  "No, that doesn't mean Owen should sword fight while he is nursing, please wait."

"I don't think its a good idea for you to play your harmonica while you have lollipop juice in your mouth, then your harmonica won't work as well."  (first of all: "lollipop juice" gross but if you have toddler you know what that is.  Second of all harmonica: worst gift in the history of the world! Thanks a heap auntie!  I mean don't get me wrong Scott loves it but I want to run it over with my car!)

Scott: "Can I have strawberries on my yogurt?"  Me: "Of course, do you want anything else?"  Scott: "jellybeans?"  me:  "jelly beans are not for breakfast."   On another occasion "No honey, pirate booty is not for breakfast."

On another occasion when I was arguing Scott about getting dressed Scott: "Does batman wear chonies?"  Me: "Yes, batman wears chonies so I think you should too."

Just a few of things I never imagined coming out of my mouth.

And just for fun, a daily dose of cuteness:

Sunday Funday

We had a great "fun in the sun" weekend.  Mommy got to workout on Saturday and Sunday, I hadn't all week because the boys had had colds, so a big shout out to daddy for letting me go these last two mornings.  Its my sanity.  Saturday we went to the pool for some swim practice.  Brian and Scott have been going every weekend for the past few weeks but this was the first chance Owen and I had to join them.  I got to see Scott in all his swimming glory, the kid LOVES the pool.  I wasn't sure how things were going to go down with Owen.  He hasn't been in a pool since last summer, so I figured we would get in for a few minutes, splash around, maybe dunk his head and be done.  Wrong.  Owen loves the water just as much as his brother and was ready to "swim" back and forth to mommy and daddy after being in the pool for a couple of minutes.  I let him stay in until he was fully shivering then he and I got dressed and it was all I could do to keep him out of the water for the last half hour we were there and Scott was in.  I don't know how I'm going to keep him out when Scott does some swim lessons this summer, a "mommy and me" swim class might be on our agenda during that time.   Speaking of swim lessons, I asked one of the parks and rec directors if she thought Scott was signed up for the appropriate class, she thought not.  Based on his age I signed him up for the highest class I could, well it turns out that class it doing "choo choo" along the side of the pool and blowing bubbles.  Yeah, we are past that. So now we are wait listed for the next level class.  Fingers crossed, if not, well I'm fairly confident that Scott is progressing just fine under the careful instruction of his daddy.  And of course I don't have a single picture to document all of the pool fun yesterday, you'll just have to take my word for it.

Today included some playing in the sprinklers, lots of naked time, an early dinner followed by an impromptu trip to the beach.

Incase you haven't seen enough pictures of my family at the beach, here are some more: 

Sweet father and son moments

Owen coming to get in on the sand castle building

Please tell me how they are this big already????!!!!!

This picture was coerced.  I'm no ashamed of that.  I'm sure this is just the beginning of me pleading and bribing my kids to smile for a picture with me.

The boys loved playing in the waves.  And Scott loved helping Owen and holding his hand.  They really are the sweetest brothers.

We stayed until Owen was starting to fade and it was getting chilly out.  Would have loved to make it until sunset, but that is after bedtime so maybe another time.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend too!

Lately...

Happy Thursday ya'll!

Here is what our week has looked like:

Scott made this beautiful sun catcher as a craft at school on tuesday.  I could not be more excited about it.  1)He rarely does the craft at school 2) he told me he made it for me! LOVE.  Sorry the picture isn't great but its hanging in our playroom window and it will probably stay there until it disintegrates.

Scott has been asking to learn letters more lately.  Every we have sat to practice he ends up liking the idea more than the actual learning of the letter.  Until this week when we made our letters using chocolate chips.

SOOOO attentive

Mommy WIN!

 For the record they were actually vegan carob chips, but Scott is none the wiser.

This guy turned 13 months. SAY WHAT?!!!

Love this little face.  Just have having some pears after his nap.

Scott has been sleeping in lately (no shock there, but even more so as he has been fighting a cold and or allergies) so Owen and I have been having fun morning play time.  The other morning that included some "batman basketball"

We have also had several play dates with Parker John.  On this particular day the big boys had a fun outdoor picnic lunch with Mimi.

Happy {almost} weekend friends!

Dreaming of fall

We had an unusually chilly and overcast weekend, which was just fine by me.  We ended up doing lots of house projects and hanging out and it made the weekend seem to last just a little bit longer.  The cold weather had me dreaming of fall, I even dipped into my stash of pumpkin spice tea on Saturday afternoon.  I know we haven't even had summer yet (which I am looking forward to in its own way) so fall is a long way off.  With summer just around the corner I truly am excited for all that it has in store (vacations, camping trips, swim lessons, soccer for Scott (for the first time ever) and heaps of outdoor time until late in the evening).  I made what will probably be my last batch of chicken broth until the weather turns cold again permanently and the whole house smelled like Thanksgiving.  How can you not be nostalgic for fall with all that going on.

 And these 3, well they just made my weekend, LOVE LOVE LOVE!

Watching Peter Pan for the 50th (?) time. 

If it was gloomy in your neck of the woods I hope you enjoyed the heck out of it like I did.  Warm temps are on the horizon and we have a fun summer ahead, I was so thankful to slow down and snuggle up this weekend!

Almost done

I don't know if you know this but Brian is handy.  Like super handy.  If you'll recall we had some electricity work done about two weeks ago so we can move the TV above the fireplace (I've said it before and I'll say it again, not my first choice, but it really is the best option in this house with our furniture set up).  

Below is what it looked like then, above: now! I don't know about you but I'm impressed! We still have a mantle and facade to build (we!!! I'm really funny.) and serious decorating to do.  I will be referring to pinterest regularly for "tv above mantle" inspiration.  If you have any suggestions send em my way!

But seriously, bravo Brian!  Your drywalling skills are second to none (well maybe second to Jeff, come on now, its Jeff. WINK WINK) and certainly better than my iphone photography skills.

Adventures with the Richie girls (+ their dad)

Friday we had plans to be up and outta the house early...and this was of course the morning that not one, but both of my kids probably would have slept until 9 (murphy's law of parenting right?)

This is Scott after I opened the blinds and turned on the lights at 7:15 (we were trying to get out between 7:30 and 7:45, I was letting them go as long as possible)

Owen: lights and blinds, "five more minutes mom"

We finally made it to AZK's house (that's Andy, Zoey and Kenzie).  The boys waited patiently while we (ahem, Danny) loaded all the carseats into the same car (shout out to Andy for driving and having a sweet car we can all ride in together, its the little things truly, like a 45 min drive with one of your best friends, girl talk while the babies nap and the big kids watch Dora - bliss!)

 The baby littles

The big littles (Scott shoving his face with food, we may or may not have bribed them to get into their seats with chocolate.  Look at Zoey's face, yep that's a bribe face!)

Destination:  Pasadena's Kids Space Museum.  We arrived just in time for a little music concert.  Kenzie's face says it all.

My kids could not have possibly cared less about the music, they were too busy climbing.

Kenz got in on that as well.

Then we made our way to the next part of the museum.

  But not before crossing courtyard with these lovely fountains.  Owen LOVED it.  The grate he is standing on below shot water out of it at intervals (apparently none of which I captured).  Thankfully Andy, who had been here before, warned me about how much water play was involved so we dressed in our swim trunks and brought lots of changes of clothes.

There was so much to explore inside.  All 4 kiddos found so many fun things to get into.

Digging for dinosaur bones:

Kind of a terrible picture but there were several of these climbing structures inside.  This was in the "bug" section.  It was made of giant "leaves" you could use to climb to the ceiling, surrounded by these nets of course so it was perfectly safe.  I really wanted to climb all the way to the top but I couldn't get anyone to join me :(  Next time I hope.

Scott on his way up.

The art area was really neat

Owen waiting for his brush

There was a stream of water going down this leaf and a few tubs of water colors so the kids could paint on the leave and the colors would run together and then be washed off shortly after in order to start again.

It was really neat.  I participated too...I kind of want this in my house, or my office, it was amazingly therapeutic.

A real bee hive!  There was a tube that went up through the ceiling (like a tiny chimney) so the bees could come and go as they pleased.

Giant insects in "Bugsy's Cafe"

Zoey and Scott had a chance to order off the menu which included "water beetle sushi", "head louse salad" and "mosquito smoothie" to name a few.

Andy served them up in style and they thought it was HILARIOUS!!!

Then it was off to explore the physics garden outside after we ate our picnic lunch.

Shooting off bottle rockets

Racing weighted wheels

Building marble tracks

Quidditch (just kidding, but I wish)  Shooting ping pong balls through hoops (this was a little hard for our kids)

The giant lever station (the employee would not leave Scott alone and kept quizzing him on why one was harder than the other,  lady he's 3,  we are not here for him to walk away with he physics thesis written, we are here for him to learn through play, let the kid play.  Scott would answer with "I don't know" and she told "well think about it." We avoided her after that.

Ball bouncing station

After the physics forest (that Scott cannot wait to take his Papa (the physicist) back there soon, and Papa feel free to teach him what you will because I know you won't do it obnoxiously like that one employee) we found the bike track.  These two cruised and cruised and Scott was so happy to have Zoey as his passenger.

 Next to the bike track was a play area for the baby littles which kept them entertained while the big kids rode around.

Water table

When S and Z were all done riding, then playing on the play ground with their younger siblings, we continued our outdoor exploration where we found these water guns to spray onto a full drum set.  Can you think of anything more fun?  S and Z loved it and it really sounded so pretty.

There was also a spider web to climb.  A garden to explore and water and a creek to wade in and wade we did.  Probably what we did could be more categorized as swimming but since the water wasn't deep enough to really swim I will say wade.  Lets just say we came out SOAKED and hence why I have no other pictures, all cameras and phones were stored somewhere safe and dry for our water escapades.  

All in all it was a great adventure.  I highly recommend the museum if you find yourself in the area.  So much exploring and learning for all ages.  I know my two had a blast and we are already making plans to go back (Mimi and Papa in tow - we know how much you'll love it!!!).  If you go just avoid any wannabe physics teachers and bring dry clothes! Yay science!