A few more art projects

X wanted to show Daddy and Mamo his newest art projects from playschool.

"Its a happy face!"

So Mommy wasn't up for much cooking tonight.... Does that shock you?! It probably does, but tonight was just not my night! So I thought about making grilled cheese, or mac and cheese.... I just felt like it wasn't "nutritious" enough for the boys. I hate just making mac and cheese for them, makes me feel guilty! That's when it hit me, breakfast for dinner! "BRINNER!" Quite possibly the greatest invention ever thought of! When I was a little girl my mom used to make "brinner" all the time, and we LOVED it! I don't do this "tradition" as often as I should, if I loved it so much as a kid, why wouldn't my boys?? Now, what to make? Pancakes sound easy! I wanted to make it a little special for them, so I decided I'd try my hand at happy face pancakes. I've never made it before, but how hard could it be to figure out!? So 3 HUGE pancake patties later, 1 which was thrown away due to burning I was ready to put my faces together. Bananas for the mouth... What for the eyes and nose?! I hadn't thought this through apparently! Whip cream would work, but that meant making it homemade style.... Did I really want to put the effort in? Sure, why not, they'd enjoy it! 3 dollops of homemade whip cream, eyes and nose, and a brown mini m&m for eyeballs, and this is what it looked like.

X saw his pancake and said, "Hey! It's a happy face! It's the head, with the eyes, and the nose, and the mouth..... Where did his arms go? Where is his penis?!" Hehe.... Funny story! Ready for it?? Here goes:

So I had been told by Katrina that if your child at 3 drew a person with their arms coming out of their body then they were advanced. Where else would the arms come out of you ask? Well, if your 3, the head! So I STUPIDLY told Daddy about this, and we asked X to draw us a picture of a boy. So he did, and unfortunately (and I say this because he was forced to redraw this over and over for another hour!) the arms came out of the head, as did his legs. So Daddy sat with X and his drawing board and showed him how to draw a person with their body, and the legs coming from the body, as well as the arms. I'm not sure where he got this brilliant idea, but Daddy decided that the best trick to get X to learn this drawing method was to add a "pee pee" to the drawing..... Hmm...... LOL! So I catch a glimpse of Daddy drawing a head, a body, 2 legs, 2 arms, and then a "pee pee" between the legs. He asked X, "Ok, do you understand? Can you do it?", X replied, "Yeah, I got it! I can do it now! My turn!". So Daddy handed the drawing pen over, X drew a LARGE head, which is his norm. Then 2 legs coming from the head, 2 arms from the head, and a "pee pee" hanging from the chin of the head. OH MY F'ING GOD! I thought I was going to die! I know I peed a little in my pants, and almost passed out from laughing so hard and long! Backfired on you, didn't it Daddy?! So this is why tonight, X asked where the penis was on the smiley face head.

X seemed to really enjoy his meal, especially the whip cream, Little L hasn't been much into eating lately, but I'm sure it has nothing to do with my cooking skills!.....?

Hoop dreams.... If they ever get taller!

So I've been thinking about getting the boys a little basketball hoop for a while now, knowing they would "love love love!" the new toy! Daddy wanted me to get them the bigger hoop set, but when I saw this one at Walmart, it was such a good price it was hard to resist! So the impulse shopper that I am, I bought it! Boy was I right when I said they'd love it! X couldn't wait for me to set it up, and they played for at least an hour while I cooked dinner. They even shared, no requests by Mommy needed! X was an expert at the game right away, Little L was a lot more excited by the new "Piderman!" ball he got!

X got shot after shot! He's going to be the next Larry Bird.... Is that right? Yikes! I'll have to google that to make sure I'm not looking like an idiot! Woot woot! Nailed that comparison!

Better be on your A game Daddy and Mamo when you get here, X is about to school you in the art of hoops! At least according to him he is, not in so many words!

CAUTION

So don't say I didn't warn you, but it's about to get really sappy on here!

Daddy had to leave us today, headed to Iraq for work. As Daddy explained it to the boys, "I have to leave for a very very long time!" With X responding, "Are you going to get the bad guys?" Daddy, "Yeah buddy, I'm going to get all the bad guys."

We had to drive him to base this morning, and I sat in the car wondering why I hadn't broken down in tears yet over the situation. I found it strange, but I thought, "Hm, maybe this is what they refer to as growth?".

Nope, probably just delayed reaction!

Daddy gave X a lecture on, "listening to his Mommy while Daddy is away"... PFFFT! Yeah, ok, we'll all keep dreaming on that one! Then got in his hug and kiss. X apparently wasn't understanding the situation all too much, which isn't such a bad thing!

I think to myself, "Still ok? Strange!!"

Daddy heads to Little L's side and Little L just loses it, "Dada! I want out!" Daddy asks for a hug and kiss, which Little L gladly gives.

Self check, nope, still holding strong.

I step out of the passenger seat to say goodbye, and to get into the drivers seat. Big L gives me a hug,and I......LOSE......MY.....SHIT! Where the hell did that come from?! I don't know, but I'm crying like a baby all of a sudden! I have to wonder though how much I'm crying because he's leaving, and how much is out of self pity for being alone for the next 6-7 months with 2 little boys!

So Daddy, this parts for you!
We miss you already! Little L has been looking for Dada all evening, and X wanted you all evening to get him a "magic stick", (a glow stick for everyones knowledge). The boys have been pretty good, although Little L isn't sleeping in his own bed, but I'm sure that not a surprise to you! We'll keep you updated as much as possible though the blog! We love you!

HEHEHEHE

So we are all fully aware that Little L will grow up to hate me, but for now, we can all enjoy in these pictures!

Splish Splash

Since Big L was set to deploy he decided he wanted to give the boys a day of fun. He asked X what he wanted to do, and X decided on the park. UGH! What a hot day, and he wants to go to the park?! DAMNIT! So off we headed to to the water park on base. It was hot! So so so so so so HOT! The boys had fun though, so I guess that's all that really matters! Here are a couple pictures of our adventure.

Happy Happy Birthday!

So it was Big L's birthday yesterday, and although he won't like me saying it, gasp! He's almost 30! Ok, so he's only 28, but everyday he's getting closer to that big 3-0! Don't get mad Spam, there's nothing wrong with being in your 30's, or even you 80's like yourself! HEHE!

Funny story- We went out to eat last weekend at some local restaurant, and Big L ordered a beer, as he always does. Now the law is that if you look younger then 80 you have to be carded, or something to that effect. Our waitress though went out of her way to amuse me! She said to Big L, "Can I see your ID? I mean, I know your waaaaay older then me!" OH......MY.....GOD!! HOW STINKIN' FUNNY IS THAT?! I thought I was going to pee myself! She tried to fill the hole she dug by quickly stating that, "everyone is way older then me, I'm only 19!". I looked at her and was tempted to say, "Yes sweet child, there is no one in the world younger then you! In fact my children sitting here are actually 20!" I digressed though, only because she completely made my top 10 burn list of the year.... Damn, I'd go as far as to say the top 10 of my entire life, from before that day, until way after! Aw, I love you Big L, don't be mad! :)

Still so funny.... Moving on....

I decided to make Big L a birthday cake this year instead of buying one, since my fathers day cake wasn't a huge hit. I started to think about what I could make him. I remembered I already had a box of chocolate cake mix in the cabinet, so I had to think of what would go well with it. Raspberry? Maybe. Vanilla frosting? Of course! Then it hit me, Big L LOVES peanut butter, there just had to be a recipe for a peanut butter frosting!! I hit up my favorite site, allrecipes.com and found exactly what I was looking for. So here it is, my proudest cake creation... Ok, well maybe not my proudest, but close to it!

I'm not a big fan of cake, or chocolate, or peanut butter for that matter, so I was not impressed with the resulting taste. It seemed to be hit with my boys though!

If anyone is interested, here's the Peanut Butter Frosting recipe:
1 stick butter

1 cup creamy peanut butter

2 cups confectioners sugar

2-3 TBSP. cream or milk
Cream the butter, and peanut butter together. Add sugar and cream/milk. Whip 'til consistency that you desire.

Fireworks galore!

This is what most of my night looked like. Poor Little L just wasn't enjoying any of this annoying waste of money, blow out your ear drums, inhaling smoke, getting burned by sparks type of fun! What's up with that?? He didn't mind the before part when there were no actual fireworks going on. He actually seemed excited!

Don't mind the onesie, I know its tight! Little L has been having "self touching" issues again... Lets not get into that! It should be a whole blog in itself, but I think I'll spare you all! Your welcome! :)

This is what most of the night with X looked like. He kept saying how loud the fireworks were, though it didn't stop his excitement and enthusiasm for the light show! So much to see, so little fireworks to put off..... Oh who am I kidding?? There were TONS and TONS of fireworks to put off. I couldn't stop myself from buying more!

Footnote:
I'm sure you've noticed X's outfit change... There is a reason for that! The night of the 4th we had lightning, thunder, rain, and tornado sirens going off all evening long! We had to call the night a bust way before we wanted to, so decided to come out the next night to set the rest of the fireworks off.

Big boy cup!

Yay Little L, a big boy cup! Although when tested again..... Not the greatest idea! Especially when he's wearing a white shirt..... And it's chocolate milk..... And we're not at home, but at walmart, with no diaper wipes to clean up with! Lets just go back to, YAY LITTLE L!!

The Boys go to "Play school"

I recently signed the boys up at CYS on base so that when Big L deploys I have a place I can take the boys to if I need to go grocery shopping, or what not. The boys got new backpacks that they are modeling below to put their change of clothes in, and Little L's diapers and wipes.

Prelude: As we were going out to the car to leave for play school little X was messing around and I had to keep telling him to get into the car and into his seat. Of course he didn't listen to me, which seems to be a Barrus trait. I closed the passenger side front door in order to grab X and put him in the car, when all of a sudden I hear X let out a loud wail, and then start crying in pain. He had put his fingers in the door jam as I was closing the door (and believe me I am cringing the whole time I'm writing this). His 3 middle fingers had gotten caught, and the middle one was bleeding under the nail. I kept apologizing, "Mommy is so so so sorry! It was an accident!", "No it wasn't, you did it on purpose!" Oh my god! That just about killed me right there! I thought I was going to start crying along with him. 10 min. later and 3 bandaids on his hand and he was set to go to play school. **Update- As of this afternoon, there is no blood under the nails, and he says that it doesn't hurt at all.

I dropped the boys off at 9 am so they would make it in time for breakfast, because if you know anything about my boys, you know the quickest way tot heir happiness is through their bellies! I figure if they were eating, they wouldn't notice me leave. I didn't realize how right I would turn out to be! They didn't fuss a single bit when I left.... It was almost hurtful!? Sick, right?! I headed off to the grocery store feeling sick to my stomach thinking about them finally realizing that I had left them there, and then they'd get upset about it. It took about 90 min. at the commissary, before I was able to call CYS to check on the boys. They reported back to me that Little L had been crying for about 5 min. or so because he was made to come inside from playing since outside time was over. They assured me he'd calm down, and when I called back 30 min. later he had. I ended up having a nice lunch of sushi at Sams office, and then headed to pick the boys up around 1. X's report was that he had nap time issues, which isn't surprising since he had nap time issues at home as well. From all I gather though, he seems to have done well other then that. Little L's report had been that he had melt downs on and off throughout the day, but had done relatively well. So well in fact that when I went to pick him up he was asleep one of the cots. His teacher told me she had rocked him to sleep, which is amazing since its hard for me to get him to sleep that way sometimes! X made an art project today, he says its a flower..... Sure, I see it! Don't you??

Snake in a box..... or 2

A couple days ago, around 7 am my cell phone goes off, I roll over, hit the ignore button, and go back to sleep. Around 8 am we decided it was time for everyone to wake up. I grab my phone only to realize that it had turned off when I had hit the ignore button. I turn it back on, and instantly get a message from Sam. I don't remember the exact message, but it was something along the lines of, "OH MY GOD, THERE'S IN A SNAKE IN MY GARAGE!", I'm sure there were a few shrieks in there, but I can't remember exactly. I called her as soon as I got the message and I'm greeted with the shrieks that I can only assume have been going on for the better part of an hour. I'm finally able to get a grasp on what Sam is freaking out about. Apparently she had walked outside to the garage and heard a funny noise. She shockingly went to investigate, and found a snake with its head stuck in one of the bug boxes the pest control companies put out.

Sam says she's called her pest control company and they had said they were headed out to deal with the issue. Although it had been almost an hour since she called. So I sent Big L over to go help her out. When Big L gets there he discovers that the snake is actually stuck in 2 of the sticky bug boxes, and that it had been going after a dead field mouse that had gotten stuck in there a couple days prior.

Big L gets to Sams house, and this is where the story gets a little fuzzy since I had to hang up and feed the boys breakfast, and Sam had to "supervise" the snake extraction. From what I gather of the events, Big L picked up the snake from the garage and took it around to the back of Sams house with the intentions of releasing the snake into the woods. I had warned Big L of how sticky the boxes were, but he never listens to me, although I tend to be right 100% of the time! :) He tried to remove the snake (and this is where it gets a little graphic folks) but because the box was so sticky he ended up ripping the skin off the snake. He put the snake out of its misery by cutting its head off. I don't like snakes AT ALL, but I certainly felt bad for it that it had its skin ripped off while still alive. You can't fault Big L for trying to do the right thing by setting it free.

Making our way homeward bound

So it's been so busy since we've been home from out MN. trip that I haven't gotten a chance to blog about our drive home, so here it goes!

The day we left "Tampa's" house Little L decided that he wanted to become best friends with Lucy. I do have to say that I don't think Lucy felt the same way about him, what with the Lucy burrito Little L insisted on turning Lucy into.

We decided to leave around 6pm from MN. rather then leaving during the day. Big L wanted to drive through the night in one straight shot and make it home by early the next morning. Wow, what a night!

The boys definitely don't like the whole "sleeping" idea, which became very obvious when they decided to stay up until 1 am watching movies.... Well, one movie over, and over, and over, and over again! I..... HATE..... EINSTEINS!

When the boys finally decided to pass out from exhaustion they slept for only about 5 hours or

so, OUT OF THE 13 HOURS WE WERE ON THE ROAD!!!

We got home around 6:30 the next morning, took showers, and headed off to bed for about 5 hours or so. It was a loooong, exhausting trip, but it seems that the boys certainly had a lot of fun, and in the end thats all that really matters!