Sprinkler

We had the chance to play in the sprinkler this past weekend.  I believe this is the first time our front side yard is being shown on my blog. We don't use it so much, but it's the best grass on our property and was a perfect location for sprinkler fun.


In between turns of Brian holding each of them and running through, Benjamin returned to his spot, nicely nestled in the tree trunk. Here's my vantage point of him.
You know you have a cool Daddy when he'll jump through the sprinkler in his regular clothes.  Addie and Ben thought that was hysterical.

I had to join in too.
Finally, I think Addie may soon declare that her career ambition has been added on to, yet again. I believe she may now become "a songwriter, storyteller, princess, Cirque du Soleil acrobat."  She's happiest spinning around, upside down.  

Words

Before I forget, I wanted to make a list of words that Addie and Benjamin say incorrectly. It's not like a mispronunciation; they actually just don't hear the word correctly.  And honestly, they're young and it's cute, so I don't correct them.  I don't think they'll be 2nd graders talking like this.

soya sauce- soy sauce

swontons- wonton noodles

cheer-liter (like a liter of soda)- cheerleader

tabtoo- tatoo

There are more...I just have to remember to write them here!

My guys

Love them. Love this picture!

A boy and his dog

Dogs

We will never own a dog. Both Brian and I have zero interest in owning a live dog. Biscuit is enough for us. With that being said, we have a new nightly ritual:
Each night after dinner the three (or four, depending on if Brian is home) of us take a walk to "go see Uncle Rob and Aunt Erin's house," which is four and a half blocks away. Honestly, Addie and Ben couldn't care less about seeing their house. They're actually interested in walking one block up and stopping at Cooper's house.
Cooper is a little 15 month old Pekinese/Shih Tzu looking pup. He's very cute, and loves Addie and Ben. And much to my chagrin, Benjamin LOVES Cooper. I mean, L-O-V-E-S him. Like sit down on the ground and let this little dog jump and lick all over him. He's gentle with Cooper and just doesn't want to let him alone.
Addie, on the other hand, likes to look at Cooper from a distance and thinks it's cool to get close to Cooper, as long as Cooper doesn't move towards her. If he does, she does her high pitched squeal of half-excitement half-fear and sort of runs away...which prompts Cooper to chase her.
I thought maybe Cooper was an anomaly with Ben. This weekend I got a chance to test my theory, because Miss Nay graduated with her Masters degree and had a party. At her party were Tasha and Cocoa. Tasha is Miss Nay's dog and Cocoa is her sister's dog. Ben immediately went to them and was quite happy to stay there with them the whole time.
My bet is that he's a dog person. Too bad he was born into a family that does not have dog parents! :-) Maybe there's a good excuse for a certain little bug-eyed dog to visit us...
Meanwhile, we'll play with Cooper each night. I think Ben may start dog-sitting Coop as soon as he's old enough.

Professional Wedding Pictures revealed

Ok, below is the FUNNIEST picture ever of Brian. The photographer told the wedding party to "jump on the count of three." She took several action shots, which all captured the same thing. Keep in mind that Brian was a soccer player since the age of 3. While everyone else do a joyful jump, Brian jumped like he knew how- like he was going for a header! Look at that picture! He looks like he's photoshopped in! And don't forget to notice just how much air he got too! I practically wet my pants looking at this shot. It's simply priceless in our family now!

A nice shot of Benjamin and me. Notice my camera is in my hand, where it stayed virtually the whole night.

Ahhhhh, gotta love these children of mine. What a beautiful family photo! Addie is doing what we call her "seizure eyes," since that's what she looks like when she seizes. Ben was doing his "happy face" which is actually a little pouty-runway-model-ish, don't you think?

This is Addie doing her Marilyn Monroe. She's standing over an air vent, and loving it.

Sweet shot of Graham and Addie slow dancing.

Doesn't she look so happy and proud to be so mature?!

Getting the crowd into her rendition of "Juliet."

Ben and she holding the microphone during Juliet.

Sweetie Pie Sugar Pop on the dance floor.

Brian's parents were for real dancing and SPSP kept running under their arms as they spun out. He is having so much fun here! And Brian's mom did wear matching heels for the wedding- she changed into her comfy dancing heels at the reception. :)

More out back pictures

We got the swing set revitalization complete and had three happy kids! 

Addie LOVES the swings.  MomMom is quite happy to stand behind a swing and push all night long. Addie spent a lot of time on this one


I should mention that our children don't drink soda.  Brian and I never order a soda at a restaurant. The only time we have soda in our house is after an event, like Addie's party. 

Benjamin has discovered that he LOVES soda. He spent the afternoon roaming around the backyard looking for any unmanned soda cans.  He was quite proud of himself whenever he found an almost empty can.

How could I take the can away from him when he flashes that winning smile?!?

Then he ended up with lots of soda down the front of his shirt and had to take it off.  I bought the pool noodles for the corners of the swingset posts, since they can be run into while on the swings.  Before I had a chance to put them up, they were used as jousting posts, in and out of the moon bounce.

After we put the moon bounce away, we all (MomMom, PopPop, Uncle Scott, Uncle Rob, Aunt Erin- Graham had returned to his mom's house) took a walk down four blocks to a house that's for sale that Aunt Erin and Rob are thinking about buying.  Well, actually, in Erin's mind, she's already bought it. She's SO excited. It reminds me of looking for our first house and the energy I had for it. Compared to the first house that I "fell in love with," this one is actually worthy! :)