Our Sweet Little .... Monster?

This is our sweet, precious baby Paris . . . .

AND THIS . . .

is when she turns into a scary marker-eating monster!

Austin is appalled that his adorable little sweetheart Paris is starting to act just like the boys used to! We have been at Cooper's baseball games almost every night for the last few months and Paris' favorite thing to do is to dig in the dirt and find rocks and other delightful morsels to eat. She gets covered from head to toe and has leaves and other nice items sticking all over her bottom as she bear-crawls around the bleacher area. Austin was freaking out last time, trying to keep her clean and and saying, "my little princess is turning into a boy!" I figure if she is happy digging in the dirt so we can watch the game, more power to her!

The Garden of Eden

This is what Austin calls our front yard everyday when he comes home. Here are some night shots he captured that I think are pretty cool.

Heaven is a pair of red boots

Anyone who has seen Will lately knows that he is into dressing up like Indiana Jones. This includes tan corduroy pants, a brown belt, a white long-sleeved shirt, a belt slung around his chest and shoulder, a navy blue suit jacket, a cowboy hat and his beloved red rubber boots. Oh, did I forget to mention that his long-sleeved button-up shirt is unbuttoned to his belly button? Indiana does this in the movies too you might have noticed. Anyway, his rubber boots have seen better days, they even have a couple of tears and holes in them - I didn't know rubber boots could get holes, but they can if you wear them long enough. Well anyway, we needed some new boots and yesterday we found these at Karrousel Kids - a local consignment shop.

These boots are six dollars and ninety-nine cents of pure happiness for old Willy.

Will's a good motivator

So today i REALLY don't feel like going to the gym - which suits Will just fine because he doesn't enjoy the childwatch much. I have been waffling all morning about whether to go or whether I could justify not going because my head is super stuffed up from allergies and my nose is a faucet. So I decided to do a couple of push-ups and sit-ups on the living room floor - I did about 6 push - ups and then said, I just don't feel like working out today! Will gave me a big smile and said, "That's my girl! Let's just stay home!" How can I argue with that? I think we'll just go shopping.

Handipoints

I've been wondering how to create a schedule for this summer so it doesn't turn into a total Wii and TV - a - thon for the kids all day every day. I want to work on chore charts but haven't been real successful being consistent in the past. So today I was looking online for some ideas and I came across this really cool website - www.handipoints.com. Yes, the name does sound a little pedophileish (actual spelling) at first, but it is actually a really great site. You can sign up for FREE and get cool ideas for chore charts and print them out or actually keep track of them online. But here is the great part, the kids get to track the completion of their chores and they earn points to be able to play games on the site - actually they choose a cat that they name, etc. and they earn points to play games for the cat, feed it and other things. Kind of like Webkinz! These people are geniuses - maybe I'll get Cooper and Will to do chores after all! At least Cooper, Will will probably just say, "NO, I DON'T WANT TO DO THAT!" in a loud, shrill voice. This is what he says about everything lately - whether it is pool, park, YMCA, ice cream whatever. Except for maybe dressing up as Indiana Jones.

Bye Mrs. Ruhe, The Greatest Teacher in the World

Today was a graduation party for the end of 1st grade for Cooper and also a farewell to Mrs. Ruhe. She is moving to Ohio and we are so sad! (I am also INFURIATED that I forgot my camera and have no awesome picture to document this moment). Mrs. Ruhe has been Cooper's teacher for the last two years and she is amazing. She has taught him how to read, write (and I mean poetry and short stories and chapter books) how to be a good person and many other things. I am nervous about who Cooper and Will will get for teachers next year. Thank you so much Mrs. Ruhe for being such a positive influence in our lives!