Holding On

.

Here we are, the last weeks of Summer. Sigh, sigh, sniff, sniff.

I figure we have until the end of Sept until the water is too cold and no longer enjoyable. Until the stores  have full on Fall AND Christmas decorations. Until it gets dark way too early. In fact, tonight it was almost all the way dark at 7:30. Breaks my heart. I mean, it seems like I just got Lane used to the fact of wearing shorts (I finally had to hide all of his jeans so he didn't have a choice). That didn't stop him from continuing to wear long white socks with shoes with his shorts. Should have hid those also.

Lane had is first day of his 2nd year of preschool! That was a nice little treat. Sending him to the SAME school, with the SAME teacher and almost all of the SAME kids in his class, with the SAME routine. It was so nice to not have to deal with a melt down child who doesn't except change very well. I think he felt the same way. He even wanted to ride the bus on the first day. He came home like there was never a 3 month break. Go Laners!

Since we don't have to wake up early to go to school, we can still have our late Summer nights. Grandpa had to have surgery on his hand. We went over to visit and also brought them dinner as a thank you for our CA trip. The boys got to swim with Grandma while I finished making dinner. Casey grilled us some yummy carne asada. The highlight of the night was while playing the game Psychiatrist. Our "problem' was that we were all supposed to answer like Marcie would. So ironically Marcie gets asked the first question which was: What is your favorite animal? Her answer back: um well I don't like animals but my favorite animal print is zebra. She was serious and we seriously had a good laugh. Love you Marcie and I'm so glad you are sharing the brunt end of the jokes with me now.

This little guy, oh how I love him. He has definitely taken on some character lately. Most days I squeeze his cute little guts out but some points in some days the only word that I can describe him as is destructo.  Let's just say he has learned to get his voice heard by screaming. Like high pitch aunt Stephanie screaming.  My sincere apologies to all who camped next to us during family camping. Don't get me wrong, he is still sweet as can be. I pretend most kids go through this phase to make me feel better.  I thought I would nip it in the butt by putting soap in his mouth each time he did it. By the end of the day I was seriously thinking I just needed to quit or go to Trader Joes and buy some all natural soap so he wouldn't some how get soap poisoning. Heaven forbid he ended up like Ralphy, blind with a cane. "It, it was...soap poisoning". To make you all feel better, I hardly put any in his mouth and I actually think he liked the way it tasted. Darn you Bath and Body Works. I switched to Tabasco, no worky either. Go figure, he eats homemade salsa straight up. Any ideas?

If any of you are wanting to catch up on your Flipper episodes, come on over anytime and watch with the boys. My mom bought the last season on dvd for our beach trip. It had them both by the opening theme song. Every day on the trip they begged to watch it.  We watched for 3 straight hours in the car on the drive home. I keep forgetting to return it so everyday you can find my kids parked on the floor, eyes glued to the faster than lightening, king of the sea, no one is smarter than he Flipper the dolphin.

Exhibit A: Lane is at school. Rusty handing me the dvd case saying fwappar. Sure, why not son.

Exhibit B:  Home from school for about 2 minutes

Maybe they just appreciate a good tv series. My mom pretty much has Blockbuster in her basement so I'm thinking I am going to swap Flipper for a season of Gilligan's Island or the Brady Bunch or Little People Big World or the Dog Whisperer. Her Disney VHS's have saved me this summer!! It sure paid off (in my benefit) for her to have kept them all these years. Thanks mom!

.

California, Carlsbad Edition

We ate at our traditional favorites: Mary's, Harbor Fish &Chips, Phil's.

Found new favs: Carlsbad Danish Bakery, Cessy's mexican.

Wore zero makeup 7 days out of 8.

Made a Shelley record and read 2 books in a week: Harry Potter and The Help.

Played at Sea World.

Shopped at T-shirt Mart and the Closet

Enjoyed early morning runs with Rusty while everybody else enjoyed sleeping in.

Beach days x's 4

Watched every episode of Flipper on dvd.

It was great. It was wonderful.

 It was memorable. It went too fast. 

It was a much needed break of fresh CA ocean air.

It is too far away until we can do it again.

Thanks once again mom and dad for the super fabulous vacation!

.

"Eesh, You're Old"

.

Is what I was told by my nephew when he found out it was my birthday and that I was turning 28. Haha, I really laughed hard.

For some reason it gave me the giggles.

My sneaky boys surprised me with this super cute birthday cake! Yes, made by them! Seeing how the beach is pretty much my favorite thing ever, they hit the mark just right. 

I think it is way creative and the attention to details impressive. Especially my well endowed torso...measured perfectly to scale:)

My actual birthday was a little different than the norm. I woke up to my birthday present, a huge scrolly picture frame from Poppy's that I have been eyeing for months. Then the boys and I took off to family camping. Casey came the next day since he was busy with work. I must have felt older and braver because embarrassing to say, this was my first ever roadie. By myself. And WITH kids. And Jefferson:)

The trip up went great, thanks to the dvd player. I don't know how the pioneers trekked with no virtual entertainment to be honest. It's a forever must have!

Camping of course was enjoyable.

Cooler weather.

Pine Trees. Games. Cousins.

 Deluxe breakfast/lunch and dinners.

Dirt and dirty smelly boys.

.

For Your Entertainment

Rusty prefers the north end of his crib.

Every night when I check on him he is somehow scrunched in one corner of that vicinity.

He must be getting too big for that area. And sadly too big for his "save the whales" jammies.

We had to move onto the footballs...so sad.

Lane is a pizza-holic. I have a rule (that nobody knows except me)

 of  Little Caesar's/Hungry Howie's only once every other week.

That being said I have to get creative with the "pizza" dinners.

Pizza Buns are a huge hit around here. Only they have been renamed to pizza rolls.
I wanted to try something different so I found a recipe for pizza braids. Also renamed to pizza twists.
The braid thing goes way over a boys head.

recipe here.
a few alterations:

I used half wheat, half white flour.

 One was stuffed with pepper jack cheese and ham,

the other turkey pepperoni and mozzarella cheese.

We dipped them in pizza sauce (I bought walmart brand)

and stired in finely diced spinach leaves to trick my non green eating monster. It worked!

A new lady I visit teach sent me home with some of her aloe vera plants.

 Casey coincidentally decided to get sunburned that very day!

They sure smell bad but definitely work.

He had almost no peeling which normally he sheds skin like a snake after being sunburned.

The real stuff really works:)

Please meet our newest daughter, Rustella!

Haha, dressing up your boy as a girl is a must...for every mom.

How come the dad's don't think it's as cute?

.

Flow Rider

Yesterday we went to Rhodes Jr. High for some swimmin' time.

They have a FlowRider that I have always wanted to try out.

Since you pay for an hour session on the FlowRider we decided to swim a bit first.

 

Then it was Flow Riding time! It really was fun. Lane even did it.

 You could either surf or boogie board.

I tried surfing aaaand face planted after half a second so I stuck to boogie boarding;)

If you are looking for something fun and different to do this summer, I highly suggest it!

.