Play Time

Bennett came up to me the other day with his tongue wagging like a little puppy, so I said "Who lost this cute little puppy?" Porter came running up and said it was his puppy. I asked what his name was and Porter said "His name is Hotchie". So we played puppy with little Hotchie all evening. A little later Porter came running up to me and said "Mom, come quick this is so cute" I entered their room to find Bennett (who was now named Bling Bling because Porter wanted to be Hotchie) like this...

Check out those lips. This kid cracks me up!

I wasn't going to exert the effort to photograph it, when Porter said "PLEASE, I want to remember this FOREVER!" How can I say no to that?


Porter is on this big Harry Houdini kick, so we got a few books from the library for him (I like these much better than the KIDZ BOP 14 CD they checked out). I keep finding him hidden away pouring over the Houdini books. I just hope he's not planning some daring excape of his own. He did walk over to me with his hands handcuffed behind his back the other night. He wriggled himself free and walk away looking very self satisfied.

Ok, really I just didn't have any pictures of Maya so (even though it's not the best picture) I included this one. Doesn't Miles look like an adorable baby hippo with is Chicklet teeth?

Miles didn't seem to enjoy playing doggy as much as the other kids.

Not to brag or anything, but...

I did ANOTHER sewing project. I know, what's gotten into me?

Casey had a few work shirts that were stained, so I made Porter and Maya some play shorts. I though they turned out pretty cute.

The pair I made for Maya turned out a little smaller that I thought they would, but they look pretty cute (she and Porter both fit into her pair), Porter's shorts were a little baggier, and he preferred the tighter fit of Maya's.

I'm lucky to have such talented models to sew for. I really should be packing!

Only in Cambridge

Last night the girl from our ward who Maya did the commercial for (I'll post the link as soon as it's finished) babysat AND gave us movie gift certificates so we could have a DATE NIGHT!!! Yippee! So we were running a little late (whats new) and debating if it would be quicker to walk or drive (seeing as parking is tricky), when Casey suggested we take his bike-double dutch. We decided the bike would be the quickest and made complete fools out of ourselves riding over to Harvard Square for our movie. I was laughing like an idiot the whole way (I'm sure we looked like two circus bears riding on a clown bike), and it was kind of scary because the roads are so busy, and there are cars parked all along the side. I kept having to tuck my knees in to avoid injury, and poor Casey wasn't use to a wobbly passenger who couldn't get the knack of pushing off to start. Luckily it's not too far, and we did see another set of adults (both girls) riding the same way (minus the wobbly-ness), but I told Casey "Only in Cambridge. I would NEVER have done this in West Lafayette IN." I guess it's liberating to live somewhere where there is ALWAYS someone weirder that you.

Today there was a citywide effort to clean up the Charles River, and the ward was participating. I signed up the other day when Casey told me he thought he could take the morning off and come with us, but then last night he said he wouldn't be able to make it. Bummer...

I loaded the kids into the van while feeling sorry for myself, and headed to the designated rendezvous point, on the way to which I got lost, struggle to find parking, shove quarters into the parking meter, woke Miles up, loaded the kids into the stroller, huffed it across the bridge to the point where I though we were supposed to meet only to discover NO ONE WAS THERE!

I must have been in the wrong spot. I walked back and forth looking for a familiar face to no avail. Finally I decided to call it quits and take a break at a little park where the kids could play and I could feed a now screaming Miles.

They played for about 5 minutes when Maya came running up to me crossing her legs and doing the "pee pee dance". I rounded up the boys only to discover Bennett had already wet his pants, and we all ventured off to find a bathroom. There were no bathrooms to be found. Maya desperately asked to pee behind a tree but the area was so crowded I couldn't bring myself to let her water the plants .

I still had 1 1/2 hours on my meter and I didn't want to waste it, so I asked Maya if she though she could hold it a while. She said she'd try so we stayed at the park and hoped everyone would think Bennett had just sat in the river.

Even though nothing worked out as expected we had a lot of fun.

Bennett looks like he's about to fall asleep in the swing, but that tired little guy didn't stay tired for long.

They enjoyed the park, but I think they were a little disappointed that they didn't get to clean up the river. Porter kept asking me if they "do this every year". I told him they did and he said "Good, cause I didn't really get to clean anything up" I would beg to differ. He came home with his pockets full of bottle caps, metal tabs, chapstick tubes, and other random treasures.

Porter is getting to be such a good little helper. When it was time to go I asked him to go get Bennett. Next thing I know I look over and there is Porter pretending to be a train engine. He's chugging away and Bennett is following behind him holding onto the other end of a stick Porter was pulling along. I wish I was as creative a parent as Porter.

Benny had the best time with his stick collection. He kept making shooting noises while jabbing them in the direction of things. We did have one close call when he jabbed a little too close to a runner.

Happy Earth Day

We spent the ACTUAL Earth Day at the Museum of Science. I really like that place. I wish Casey could go with us so we could split up and the kids could get more out of it. Porter and Maya love asking the workers questions and learning about the different exhibits, and Bennett loves following them around and making me crazy. I think it would be ideal if one person could keep the babies in the young children area, and one person could take Porter and Maya around to see the other exhibits. It was still fun, but just a little more chaotic. I didn't loose anyone this time, so I guess that's an improvement!

The museum is HUGE! We had a blast last time, but I realized we didn't see hardly any of it, and this time we saw a few more things, but still have tons of stuff we haven't even seen. We got to see the DINO area this time, and that's always cool.

They had a butterfly area where the kids could make butterflies out of pipe cleaners and coffee filters. Porter was really cute to help Bennett, I think the workers were wondering where his parents were.

You can barley see it, but in the right hand bottom corner of this picture is a HUGE frog. Bennett thought it was so cool.

Poor little Miles always has to get pictures while I'm holding him, so they are not the best. And I got Bennett to hold still long enough to snap a quick picture of his butterfly.

I've probably had this shirt for 5 years (my mom bought it for me), and have never wore it much. I've always resisted getting rid of it because I really thought if I could just loose a few more lb's I'd dig it, but today I decided to see if I could find a way to get a little more enjoyment from it. So I took an old paint shirt of Mayas and made an owl outline on it. Unfortunately the paint damage was pretty substantial so the owl didn't cover it, but I'm debating painting the word Hoot on the shirt, to make the paint look more intentional? Who know (no pun intended).

And Miles also benefited from my generosity and received a super cute pair of lounge pants. I love them so much. They are soft and have these cute little details I love. The shirt had a tag on the waist and an embroidered emblem at the hip, and now his pants have those at the cuff. Also because there were slits in the sides of the shirt the pants have these cute little splits at the ankle. OK, so if I'm being honest, maybe the pants aren't that cute, but that baby is stinkin' adorable!

I took the waist in a bit after taking these pictures, so they fit a little better around the waist now. WOW, that was fun!

Why don't I do these kinds of things more often?

A beautiful spring day

After my ranting about yesterday I though I should post something a little more upbeat. Today's been pretty great (maybe because my expectations were pretty low). It's beautiful outside and we've been loving it.
Doesn't the sky peaking through this crab apple tree kinda look like a heart. It was a happy accident, but I guess I was feeling so happy being outside I couldn't help but to capture the sappy loveliness.


Our neighbor Chloe is the greatest girl. She is always so fun with the kids. She plays with them and actually seems to enjoy it (imagine that). She's the one who let them use her pogo stick, she plays hide and seek, kick ball, freeze tag, red rover, and all kinds of other fun games. I love that girl.

I also love this guy. Check out that cute little chubby baby.

Bennett wanted his shoes off, oh and I put his hair in a pony tail for fun, but then he wouldn't let me take it out. I'm sure people thought I was crazy.

I can see this tree from my kitchen window. I guess if you HAVE to watch dishes you might as well have a view like this to look at!

The other great thing about this area is that it's is ringed with lilac bushes. The smell is heavenly.

Porter kept putting hats on Miles, I think the one of him in the yellow one is HILARIOUS!

Of course Maya found a little friend. Luckily her face is blurred in the background because it's covered in strawberry cream cheese.


Maya thinks she is a baby jaguar lying in the tree.

Porter is an injured Jaguar and can't even get onto the branch.

He finally made it up to the high ground. Survival of the fittest.