wip 6.23.12

friday:
can't tell you what i did. oh wait, i knew i would forget so i put it in my phone. i'm a thinker!
and seriously, it was so boring. no wonder i couldn't remember.

the noteworthy bullet? that i only purchased items that were on my list when i went to target. miracle!

made dinner {and corn in the microwave is so good. steamed in 5 minutes. awesome!} and then we headed out to pick up a few things from costco and some new bras for me. tmi? sorry. they're the best bras ever!

ben has always been a fan of corn. he has learned to enjoy it on the cob as of late. apparently, the vertical way makes removing the last few kernels easier, i guess?

not the best pic. just happy nick thought to take a pic and then text me with it since i have no idea what i was doing and missed it!

after the planned costco stop, and unplanned babies r us stop, we hit up the mall.
when we got there ben asked if it was for a birthday party. dude, we went last july to the painted penguin for a party. and we've probably been back less than five times since... can you tell?

ben loved the escalator. couldn't wait to leave vs so he could go back on it!

saturday:
we were all up early. let ben say his goodbyes to orbit. so hard.

almost as soon as nick left, he asked for a bath. so we went!
his bathroom sink has become my new folding station. so nice to pass some time while he plays.  

'look momma. i got bubbles on my nose.'

nick came home and we headed out to see brave.  met up with nick's mom. we were originally going to see madagascar 3 but ben chose brave instead.

ben was distracted by the previews. ignore his crazy face. :)

and yup, he fell asleep during it. nick said it was because i let him climb in my lap and get all snuggly. of course, i'm gonna let him climb in my lap and get all snuggly. what momma would pass that up?

came home and spent some time outside. 

and spent some time in the pool after his nap and after gigi left. 

so funny. wanted to 'ride' the pool. 

have some pretty funny video of nick knocking ben into the pool per ben's request. 

i think we need to figure out a stair situation for shorty.

the tastiest ice cream ever. hello, potato chips in ice cream. genius!

and i did some prep for breakfast. in 9 years, i don't think i've ever separated eggs. loved that they looked like a flower...

sunday:
the boys came over and ate some breakfast before heading out for frisbee golf. {two thumbs up from those who ate it. and wasn't too much of a pain to make. minus the separating!}

his army guys fit in his little house!

playing with chewy.

after naps for ben and myself and once nick was home from golfing we headed outside.
someone wanted to pretend the pool was a horse again. 

racing daddy.

loved when nick made a big splash. 

ate some strawberries from our plant. had to put em higher this year so the gd bunnies couldn't eat them before we could! ate a whole two of em. ben liked em. keeps asking to eat the other ones. doesn't get why we can't eat the green ones. loving our low key garden this year.

back at the sand table. another awesome purchase that has totally been worth the money.

and trying out his new lighthouse slide. were able to get it from is daycare for quite a steal. 

helping nick with the last of the bolts!

perfect weekend. a bit of go and a bit of relaxing and a bit of shopping. :)

ten on tuesday 6.26.12

- i have a pretty good memory. some days it's a blessing and some it's a curse.

- think it's ridiculous that someone would move their car from the target side of the parking lot to the strack's side. seriously. park in between the two stores and walk.

- july is gonna be crazy. i'm overwhelmed just thinking about it!

- we have an incident with a missing library book. i know i returned it and they don't have that it was ever checked back in. so traumatic for me... i've never had a late fee. ever. ugh!

- got a pretty serious jury duty questionnaire. 43 pages.

- was talking to a coworker about the spam ka bobs we had this weekend. another coworker turned to me and said, 'you don't look like you would eat that.' my reply, 'what other misconceptions about me should we clear up?' love all those preconceived notions that people swear they don't have but really do.

- it's official. we are a one cat family. ;( so hard to explain to ben what was going to happen. tried the best we could. told him that orbit had been sick. and he was able to tell us what he had been doing that meant he didn't feel well. so we told him then that he was going to go to heaven to feel better but this meant that we couldn't see him any more. gave him some hugs and kisses and nick took orbit to the vet. ben would periodically mention orbit over the weekend. little things like, 'orbit is in heaven.' 'we only have one cat now.' 'he was sick. he's better now.' yesterday morning before work/school, ben said 'i miss orbit. can i go see him in heaven?' broke my heart.

- must find time to compile a pinterest recipe post. have tried some pretty tasty things the past few months.

- nick was outside staining the deck this evening... trying to find time to fit it in! decided to let chewbacca go out and play in the grass. he got a little carried away and ended up rubbing himself on the newly stained deck. good news. the stain matches his fur! ;)

- am not looking to finishing out this work week. today was a wild ride and the rest of the week isn't looking up. yay for girl's night friday. i'm gonna need it!

enjoying today.

spent a lovely evening at the park celebrating a super, special 5 year old's birthday. ;)
no gifts for our kids. christmas or birthday. instead we have vowed to have some mini vacations and get aways for fun. memories are better than things, right? looking forward to one we have coming up! but back to our evening...
first time at redar park. gasp! i know. bad parents. whatever. will definitely be going back. loved that they have public restrooms!

mr. ben on the spider web section. love that little tongue sticking out.

ben and wynn rocking out on the bridge.

my love.

i'm totally jealous of ben's swing.

self photo in above mentioned swing. :)

birthday girl and her rapunzel cake.

of course, he only at the icing.

played some ball with the boys.
i swear, this ball did NOT hit ben. it just looks that way and was too funny not to post.

we worked with him on moving the 'mitt' to 'catch' the ball. he finally got it.

checking out the big boys playing football.

back to the bridge with his little accomplice. however, i believe there was a troll hanging out under the bridge which created some pretty cute giggles and lots of smiles.

concentrating hard on not falling off!

and time for some football.
ben held it for nick.

and now it's his turn.

king ben wanted to try out braiden's new crowns. and of course he picked the purple one, pink wasn't an option. it was that or yellow.

walking back to the car, ben pointed and said, 'look at that big button momma.' had to snap a quick picture.

have gotten away from documenting things other than the weekend. must try to be better. but i'm always torn since i usually have the point and shoot. i'm thinking i would rather have not so great pictures rather than none at all...

wip 6.16.12

friday:
gonna skip photos for this day. not much too exciting and i'm sure the warrior dash is gonna make up for today's lack of photos.
i stayed home, shopped {yes, i made it to goodwill!}, cleaned. we had dinner for breakfast when nick had to go back to work. a lazy evening.

saturday:
decided to head out for breakfast. yes, ben ordered a hamburger. or a hangaburger as he calls it. ;)

and then he swiped a sausage link from nick. was quite funny.

walking out to pay our bill. i love it when he asks to wear his pack pack.

checking out the turtles in their little pond.

then we ran a few errands. i was hoping to find a pair of cheap shoes to wear for the warrior dash. apparently, i donated all of my old tennis shoes last time we went through out closets. so i only had two pairs of tennis shoes! normally, i have like 7 more! no luck. but i found a pair that could replace my oldest pair at home for only $35, yay!

also, stopped at old navy for some flips. ran into one of ben's school mates. talked about  the daycare closing. ack, decisions.

then it was time for the warrior dash!
nick debated wearing this crazy hat beard combo, but decided against it. he said it was too heavy and too hot. so ben wore it instead. ;)

made it to our destination. had some time to walk around and check things out. was nice to go later in the day and not be rushing so early in the morning.

we couldn't decide who was going to go with who. we thought about all sticking together, but the boys got bored and wanted more of a challenge, so it was just chris and i. 

our second obstacle. the rope bridge. a bit tricky with everyone else on it with you!

crawling under real barbed wire. {next year, if we do it again, i think knee pads are a must! crawling in the trenches one really hurt!}

nick met up with us after the barbed wire. said they still weren't going as fast as he would be if he really pushed himself. thought it would be fun to hang back with us. aw. so sweet.

 

my least favorite obstacle. so tricky, until they told me to stick to the one side. thanks friends.

 

we are still clean. ;)

not anymore! thank you grown up slip and slide. and the drop that you don't see was a doozy. the amount of mud in my contacts was insane! 

couldn't stop giggling. so fun! wanted to do that part again now that we knew what to expect!

the mud felt so good! it was almost 100 degrees out that day!

sigh, group shot.

nick took a good one of chris.

so hard figuring out how to climb over and get situated on this super high obstacles.

now steph was catching our final steps! the obstacle right before this part, was a huge hill. i hate hills. my ankles do not agree with them. at all. so i was dragging ass. :)

i don't mind the rope ones. more to hold on to! i like having options.

jumping over the fire from two perspectives. love that you can see nick taking our picture in the bottom one!

ah, more mud.

nick was freaking free style swimming through it. i was avoiding the mud splashes!

we made it.

love this picture.

hosing off.

with our medals.

and beers.

group shot after.

my ruined bag. felt bad that steph was our pack mule!

the boys on shoe hill.

chris and i wanted to join them!

they clean and donate all the shoes. pretty cool!
and i'm not sure if this link will work. it's warrior dash's facebook page with the photos from the illinois race. strange to see how clean everything was when it started!

crashed when we got home. but can i just say, i was dirty. oh my goodness. the amount of hay, and dirt, and bugs, and who knows what else that was left in my sports bra and underwear even after we were hosed off was disgusting!

sunday:
father's day.
nick slept in. ben and i practiced his letters.

once nick got up, he decided he wanted to go swimming at my parent's house.
we had to run a few errands before hand and ben ended up falling asleep in the car. 

we decided to have a picnic lunch out front, so we didn't have to wake up mr. benjamin. ;)

somebody finally woke up and joined us.

the water was a bit chilly at first.

dad and lad goggles.

someone getting used to the water.

can't believe i chopped off their heads... bad photographer!

grandma and grandpa came home early. grandma brought out some bubbles.

and when we were done swimming and while nick and uncle kevin were in the 'hot pool' as ben calls it, grandpa had ben plant pumpkins.

nick grilled some super good triple play bbq chicken. yup another from our weber book.
ben and i made kale chips. yum. but salty. next time i'm using half the salt. just saying. ;)

i think nick and i caught up on some around the word in 80 plates once ben was asleep. love that show. and we turned in early since we were both a bit tired and sore!