Diego book!

Grandma & Grandpa got here at about 4pm on Monday. By 4:45, both kids were up from nap and had suckered Grandpa into reading the longest Diego book EVER! Note Kate's "thsetsosope" that she wears around the house on a daily basis lately.

 

Mother's day

As promised, a few pictures from Mother's Day...

Kate helping me to open my presents...

Brett helping Memere open presents

Brett & Kate fighting over my "music" card

Kate gave up on the card - bows are better anyway!

Ally's Jumpin' Beans Birthday!

Our friends, Brad & Sarah, had their daughter's 4th birthday party at Jumpin' Beans - it's one of those indoor bouncy house places. They had the entire place reserved just for Ally's birthday party, so the kids got total run of the place and had an absolute blast!



A few of the kids in the main bounce house



Kate wanted nothing to do with the "toddler" bounce house... she would only play with the big kids!



That big slide is fun, Mom! (Even if I do protest LOUDLY on the way up!)



Isabella loved the slide, too!



Happy girl



The birthday girl, Allyson!



Getting ready to sing "Happy Birthday!"



Birthday Girl Allyson



One of her sisters... Ava or Olivia?!



One of these days I'll learn which is which!



Daddy giving Kate some help with her purple cupcake!



Yummmm!



Allyson with her mom, Sarah

Hello?

Are you there? We are, barely. It's been a CRAZY busy week in the Lopez household. I'd like someone to back me up to where I said I'd work 4 days out of 5 during the week and hit me with a baseball bat, or shovel, or at least the back of their hand. Kate still isn't sleeping through the night, even after her 10 day course of amoxicillin, so I'm just going through the motions in a sleep-deprived-doesn't-that-spot-on-the-floor-look-comfy state of mind. Thank God it'll be done at 3pm today! Yahoo!

I'd like to say that I have some pictures for you, but I don't. I didn't even take any on Mother's Day, but I think my sisters did... hello? sisters? Are you out there? Can you post those or something??? Thanks!

We've been busy getting things ready for a certain little boy's BIRTHDAY!! Yep, Brett will be 3 next Sunday... seriously, 3. When did that happen?! We're *thinking* of getting him and Kate a playset as a combined gift since their birthdays are less than 2 months apart. I also bought him some cool big-boy underwear... anything to convince this kid that diapers are bad. His little sister is out-doing him in the potty-training department. The end of August (when school starts) is actually just around the corner, even though it seems like it'll never come right now. Speaking of school - I made some fun little car cupcakes for Brett's class on Wednesday. I'm sure the teachers appreciated it - NOT! Haha. Brett appreciated it and made me feel like super-mom, so that's all that counts!

We have another busy weekend of birthday partying coming up, and we're getting ready to have Grandma & Grandpa here to help us out for a whole week! Yay!

I will post some pictures sometime soon, I promise! Have a great weekend everyone!

Storage

I love my switch flops - it's like having 8 flip flops in 1, but the random tops of the flip flops thrown everywhere drives me crazy. I can't ever find the match when I'm looking for it. Now, I have a solution! Sweet! A long piece of ribbon with velcro strategically placed, a pretty paper flower on top, all attached to ponytail holder so that I can hang it anywhere I want!

Man Time

On Wednesday night after work, the IBM guys came over with their chainsaws and stuff and helped Todd take down two GINORMOUS pine trees that had started to block our satelite's ability to receive HD channels. The first one came down with a loud thud and no injuries - it even landed on a Coke can without tipping it over! The second one came down fine, to a 45 degree angle, leaning on another tree. It took the 4 guys and a heavy-duty pick-up truck to pull it off, and then it ALMOST hit the house, but didn't. Whew.

They ended the evening with a few beers and some tacos, courtesy of me, and the kids' ability to entertain themselves long enough for me to make them :)

Harrington Grove

Now that we know that we can walk to Harrington Grove park (without getting lost IN Harrington Grove), this is our new favorite afternoon time-filler. I get 2.5 miles of exercise, pushing the 85+ pound stroller/kid combo, and the kids get a nice ride and time at the park. It's a win for all!

Airplane Fun

The kids, ready to go for a stroll around the 'hood... shades and all!

Brett, the airplane, taking off down the runway

Kate is a much smaller airplane, but just as energetic!

Little airplanes get tired quickly!

You never know...

when a camera may come in handy. For me, it was about an hour ago, when I heard this ear-piercing scream coming from Kate's room. I ran in, and there stood Kate, holding onto the edge of her crib, tears streaming down her face, her jacket off, pants off, arms pulled out of the sleeves so that the shirt was only around her neck, diaper off, with a puddle of PEE in the middle of her favorite blankie, soaked down through the sheet.

I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried, seriously.

Quack! Quack! Quack!

I didn't have to work until noon yesterday, so I took the kids over to my parents' house to get them nice and worn out for mom. We went for a walk down to the pond to go feed the ducks. (Or were they geese??) The kids had a great time throwing pieces of stale hot dog buns at the birds and watching them fight over the little snack.

Ducks? Geese? I never can remmeber the difference...



Memere and the Munchkins



Some random dog that thought we looked like good company