upstairs renovation

We've slowly been taking out all of the carpets in the house and laying down wood laminate flooring and repainting, etc.. We've been in our house 8 years and it's time for some "updates" around here. We decided that we would turn the upstairs open area (game room for the boys) into a private office/guest room. I suggested putting up a wall and some french doors that would close for privacy..Then we'd have a "cute" hallway at the top of the stairs to walk to the boys bedrooms and bathroom. Well, 2 weeks later, the work has slowed down (we've slowed down..) and it's making slow progress. Most of the hard stuff is done, but we've got to get our "2nd wind" back and get this finished. The pictures will show the "before" and the progress since then...Hopefully I can have some "final/finished" pictures soon..

Birthday Boys

Happy Birthday to my summer babies. We had a combined birthday party for Nathan and Kogan. (Their birthdays are "conveniently" only a week a part). Nathan is now 3, which he loves to show you on his fingers and Kogan is 10! We actually took them to the store and let them pick out a few things for themselves this year. (way easier than sneaking out to buy gifts, hiding them around the house and wrapping them...we took the lazy way this year!) But they LOVED it! Nathan got his "Bumble bee" transformer car and a wide variety of "moving vehicles". (some of them quite loud, of course!) Kogan got a video game and an assortment of Star wars "gear"...I was informed they weren't toys. (a talking helmet and light saber, and a new transformer....toys?) Leo got him a clock/docking station/stereo for his i-pod for his room. Kogan thought that we were buying it for our room and was so excited when we plugged it in and told him to see if his i-pod would fit on it..then we started playing his songs and told him that it was actually his..I'm glad we got to surprise him a little bit. Then we got to the fun part..a.k.a..cake! We got Nathan a cute cake with hot wheel fire trucks, ambulances and helicopters on it..Kogan had a white cake that looked just like a hamburger. The meat, lettuce, tomato and mayo were all colored frosting. It was so cute and yummy! He loved it! We have another surprise for Kogan. Leo is going to take him to the Sprint store this week and let him pick a phone. (nothing nicer than ours though!) He's going over to his friends more, and this way we can call him directly when we need to speak with him. He also informed us that 'all the kids are texting each other'..so, yes, even though he is grown enough to text his friends (at 10?), he still is young enough to play with his toys. (I mean his gear) LOL.. I don't want these boys to grow up too fast!

stitches

Last Sunday we were unwinding from the weekend. Leo was on a conference phone call with his family, the boys were upstairs playing and I was "putting around" doing various odds and ends around here. Michael came downstairs and showed me that he had a small (tiny) cut on his finger. I bandaged him up and scolded him about playing with knives. (he had found Leos small (tiny) pocket knife upstairs and decided to "check it out". About 5 minutes later Kogan comes running down the stairs yelling that Michael was "bleeding all over his band aid". I told him that it wasn't bleeding and that I already had a band aid on his cut. (It's fair to say that I was confused...) Then we heard Michael crying and screaming. Leo and I ran upstairs and found Michael crying with his hand in the bathroom sink dripping blood. (again, I was confused, after all I had just cleaned and bandaged his tiny cut which barely even showed through the skin). I rinsed off his cut and then saw that it was a new (way bigger) cut. I grabbed a towel and put pressure on it and it wouldn't stop bleeding. I even did the old "hold your hand over your head" trick, but no luck, still lots of blood. I knew that this was out of my control, so I ran downstairs and threw on some clothes, grabbed Michael's i-pod and shuttled Michael out to the car. He wasn't crying anymore and put in his earphones and listened to his i-pod while I drove frantically to the E.R.. In the waiting room he said that after he first cut his finger, he went back upstairs to "put the knife away, so that Nathan wouldn't cut himself". **yes, I know, I've raised caring little human beings. It was a good concept, except that he went to close it and pushed on the blade, thus causing his ghastly wound! Leo said that there was blood dripped all over his desk and the floor. THANK GOD we had just put wood laminate floors down, otherwise our white carpet would've looked like a cat had been skinned alive up there! Thankfully the waiting room at the E.R. wasn't very busy (It was 10pm at night by now!) After weighing him, measuring him, taking his oxygen levels and blood pressure (geesh!) they finally put us in a room and the nurse came in to peek. She left and then came in the "money lady". She asked for $100.00 (cash, check or charge of course!). After forking over my debit card, the nurse came back in pushing a cart with all sorts of goodies on it. (thank goodness that they had me pay first, that's very important! blah! ) Michael was so brave. He just watched the Disney Channel on the little TV that they had in the room. The nurse said that he needed 3 stitches and Michael barely even looked at her. She numbed up his finger, and my brave Michael Bug barely even flinched. She quickly stitched him up, all the while complaining about the new "Showtime" cable show about a nurse being hooked on drugs, and how she was going to write to the producers, blah, blah, blah..I was trying not to pass out watching her sew up my baby! She could have been speaking Chinese for all I cared.. Finally we were done and she let us leave. Michael skipped happily out to the car..and I mean literally skipped..It was 11 pm and I was worn out, but laughed so hard at this little boy of mine..I was just thinking how I had a paper cut the day before and was crying (just a little) as Leo "doctored" my finger up..and how much more Michael's cut must have hurt! He came home and proudly showed his bandaged up finger to his brothers. I gave him some Tylenol and sent him to bed. The next morning, I cut off the wrappings to clean his finger and put some neosporin on it and re bandage it. I almost gagged! It looked like he had 3 black spiders crawling out of his finger! (literally!) ewww! he had to go around the neighborhood to show his friends his stitches before he let me bandage him back up. It's now Friday and he's ready to get them out. (The nurse gave me the scissors and tweezers needed to remove them on Monday). Thankfully it's healing and he hasn't had much pain at all. You know, I'm going to start being leery about summers around here now. Last summer Kogan broke his arm the first week of summer, and now Michael got stitches..I guess that I'm thankful that we haven't had stitches before this! People keep telling me that "boys will be boys"..but I sure don't like this part. I'm still very proud of Michael though..brave, sweet boy!

Family bedroom

Leo and I worked hard on "updating" our bedroom. I wanted a more 'grown up' room. A peaceful and relaxing place where I could go and unwind. We are so happy with how it looks..but as usual, the minute that I close the door to have some quiet time, someone is knocking (or meowing) and reaching their fingers (and paws) under the door "dying" for my attention!

Graduation

Congradulations Kogan and Michael.

We're so proud of you.

Welcome to 5th and 2nd grade!

Happy Birthday Leo

Happy Birthday Leo (Daddy).

We love you!

The tooth fairy finally visits Michael

Michael finally wiggled his first tooth out. He just turned 7 and just finished 1st grade. He's been waiting since last year, when all of his friends started losing their teeth. He was so excited to finally get a visit from the tooth fairy, that he put the tooth under his pillow at 1pm! When we finally tucked him into bed (many, many hours later) we looked under his pillow and the tooth was gone! Really, and there was no money there either. He was so upset. So, I did what any good mommy would do. I set up a search crew and went on a mission to find it. It was already past bed time, but I couldn't disappoint him. So, we ripped his bed apart. We started with the sheets and blankets and then ended up lifting and moving his whole mattress. The problem was his tooth was the same color as his carpet. So, I got down on my hands and knees with a flashlight. (I was cursing my decision to put in dim "relaxing" lighting in his room) Finally my hands felt something hard..I had finally found it. Michael was so excited! We got his bed all made up again and tucked our toothless little boy in for the night. In the morning he ran downstairs to tell us that the tooth fairy had left him a dollar, and her glitter all over the bed.. (what a creative little tooth fairy he has). Here's my beautiful Michael with his first missing tooth! Here's to many more!

Silly Kogan (blackmail video)

I walked out of our bedroom and saw Kogan being very silly..so of course I grabbed the camera and had to film him..Future blackmail! Leo said that Kogan must get his "dancing skills" from me not him, but I disagree!

Hurray for Dyson!

I think that I'm going to have to write a letter to my vacuum company Dyson. They claim on their commercials that "they never lose suction". I have had my Dyson for several years now and have always been pleased with it. However, today the poor thing was tested and thankfully it passed. I told the boys to clean their upstairs play room. Of course being a boy, Michael decided to do this task in the most practical way. He turned on the vacuum and vacuumed up everything in his path. (I did NOT know this). Later today I went to vacuum my floors downstairs. It was sucking, but the motor sounded like it was revving. Like something might be stuck. I took it apart and looked for the blocked object/objects. These objects are usually toy parts. I was figuring on finding a piece of a transformer or an arm of a "wounded soldier", or even the occasional band aid that gets sucked up..When I couldn't find anything in the tube, I had Leo take the whole vacuum apart. Thankfully Dyson makes their vacuums with easy snap apart parts. To our surprise (and horror) this is what we found stuck in the little tube that goes from the tube to the vacuum. All I could keep saying was "Oh my gosh! Oh my Gosh, MICHAEL!!!". We found :

1. A white sock *this answers the question of where our missing socks are*

2. a white foam Nerf gun dart

3. Several small empty candy boxes (from Halloween? I hope not!)

4. 2 marbles and rubber bands.

5. An AA battery

and your average variety of kids assorted small trash items!

The amazing thing is that this vacuum still was picking up stuff with all of that junk stuck in it! I guess that I didn't exactly tell Michael that he should pick these items up first and then vacuum...Next time I will be more explicit with my instructions! And if you're looking for a good vacuum? Dyson is the way to go!

Body Art or Tattoos

After Nathan and Michael got out of their bath tonight, Michael
came running downstairs and "tattled" on Nathan. He said that Nathan took a pen and colored on himself. So, here comes Nathan running naked down the stairs holding a pen, just as proud as he could be! Yep, sure enough, the child decided to draw on himself..all over his chest and arm! I asked him why he did it and he said "Michael did it". I asked Michael if he "helped" color on his brother and he said "yes, but just a little bit!"... I guess that Michael wanted to check his skills as a future Tattoo Artist? So, I lectured both boys (for the 100th time) on how we ONLY COLOR ON PAPER! I spoke with Michael and told him that he doesn't do something bad himself, and then tattle when someone else is doing it too..I sent Michael up to his room, and then told Nathan to go on the couch to get his pajamas on..He turned around and then I saw his little hiney...Apparently coloring on his chest wasn't enough, and they wanted the art work to show on both sides. Sort of like a walking billboard, I guess? It was so hard not to giggle at him! Oh, and I found a few more marks on his neck too...I'm not even going to try to wash this off either. I'm going to wait awhile and see if it can wear off a little by itself!

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Oh, and I don't know why his hiney looks red..I DID NOT spank him! This was just a rare coincidence! (I swear!) LOL..

Naked Little Boys

For some reason, my boys love being naked..which is fine, but they especially like sharing their nakedness with others! Today was no exception to that. Nathan had been playing out in the back yard with the dogs, sliding on the slide and swinging..also trying to see his bug still swimming from yesterday. I always keep an eye on him though, because sometimes he tries to climb up things or jump down off off things that scare me to death! I looked out the back windows and couldn't believe my eyes. He was outside swinging butt naked! Not a stitch of clothes or diaper on..For some reason, he felt the need to swing "freely". We called him in the house, while all of his brothers and their friends were laughing like crazy at him! We asked him why he got naked and he didn't know. He was covered with dirt and crazy "everywhere!". So, we assume that he wanted to roll around in the grass and dirt like the dogs do outside? So, we got him cleaned up and dressed again...all the while I was kicking myself for not grabbing the camera and taking a few future "black mail" pictures of him... , I sure love that baby boy!

Boys and their bugs

Look at what Nathan was so excited to show me tonight! I was cooking dinner and he ran in just as excited as can be, I thought that he was bringing me my usual weed (flower) but no...ewwww! At least the stupid bug was dead. I said "Wow...a bug" and he was just so happy! I told him to take it back outside, because it "probably wanted to play outside!" LOL.. I watched him carry it back out and he flung it into a bucket of water. He said that "it wanted to swim"....I told him to just let it swim and to come in and wash up for dinner! Boys, aren't they just great..my boys just love bugs..Kogan still has his "pet beetle" in his jar upstairs....

Pepperment Patty and Hamburgers

My boys crack me up sometimes with the things that they say. I've been told by my parents that I've said a few "choice phrases" when I was younger too. Let's see.... This week we were watching the Charlie Brown Easter show on t.v. Kogan asked me if "Peppermint Larry was a boy or a girl"..LOL.. So, I had to explain both of his errors..HER name is Peppermint PATTY..LOL... All of these years, my boys actually thought that she was a boy. Secondly, when we were in McDonald's drive thru...or as Michael calls him 'Ronald the Donald'. I asked Nate if he wanted a hamburger or nuggets...He always wants nuggets, but I still ask him, because the one time I don't, he'll be expecting the opposite.. So, after asking him, he very seriously says "I want a Hand-a-berg"...LOL..He said it so fast that I thought that I had misunderstood him..so I had him repeat himself. Nope, he wanted a hand-a-burg! I was laughing so hard that I almost peed in the car! My boys always seem to make me smile or giggle, especially when I most need it. Today we had a good day and finished it off by going to the movies and watching Monsters vs. Aliens in 3D. Lots of fun!

Michael and Nathan making a video.

Michael and Nathan playing with the video camera..a future Steven Speilberg?

Pranks and Visitors

**Michael playing with my caramel mini rice cakes**

This has been a fun week for us. First we had April Fools Day. Now that the boys are a little older they understand the idea of "tricks" and jokes..So, I tried to do my best to get these little guys of mine. I waited until they were sleeping the night before. I snuck in their rooms and stuck tiny little red heart stickers all over their faces..It looked like they had chicken pox..Michael was sleeping so hard, that he didn't even flinch..Kogan would twich every time I stuck one on his cheek. I was almost busted! Then I came downstairs and stuffed their toes of their shoes with tissues. I then turned their school clothes all inside out, even their socks. Then I poured their cups of juice for their breakfast and put them in the freezer to freeze them. I could barely sleep, I was so excited. Unfortunately, I couldn't take a picture of their faces (with the stickers nicely decorating them) because they had taken the stickers off before they came downstairs. Kogan said that he woke up in the middle of the night and felt them. He started pulling them off..He said that he thought that it was HIS SKIN coming off, because he saw the red and thought that it was BLOOD! So, of course that makes perfect sense. If you wake up in the middle of the night and feel your skin peeling, and you think that you see blood on that "skin", you're going to keep just peeling it off and then go back to sleep!!! He had all of the stickers stuck all of his floor. So, then they got dressed. Kogan figured out that his clothes were inside out and got dressed while Michael was in the bathroom. When Michael got dressed, I had to keep from laughing, which was really hard because he was so tired that he didn't even notice that his things were inside out..he went ahead and put everything on!!! He was having some trouble zipping and buttoning up his pants. Yeah, that's a little dificult with an inside out button and zipper..LOL.. He didn't even notice that his pockets were flapping loose on the outside of his pants..So, I finally let him in on the secret..and he's such a good sport that he changed his clothes and put them on right this time. (thankfully this didn't cause him to be late for school, he's a very slow mover in the mornings...he's definately not a morning person). Kogan caught onto the frozen juice cup on the table too. Michael actually tried to take a sip out of it.. I guess that Kogan is just at that age when i'm going to have to "up" my jokes to the next level next year! They put their shoes on and Michael didn't even notice and kept trying to shove his feet in..but Kogan just laughed and pulled his tissues out. So, after school they both walked in the door and were looking around and asked me if I had any more tricks..LOL.. Kogan said that he checked the mail and there was a letter for me in there...(I had already checked the mail earlier..) He handed me an envelope and it said To: Mrs. Rachael From: ???? I opened it and there was a letter stapled shut with about 100 staples. (his usual form of closing letters) It said: You've won $100.00 I opened the letter and there was a plastic $100.00 bill in it.. He said very seriously, 'who could've sent that to you'? Ha! My boy is learning! LOL... When Leo and I were younger, before we had kids I would always pull the 'i'm pregnant' joke..I don't do that joke anymore, because i'm thinking that it would probably give him a heart attack now! That would really not be a very nice joke...that's too scary! ha ha... This weekend Uncle Lyn came for a visit from Florida. My boys just love him. (we do too). He's so much fun for the boys to play with. He loves playing video games with them and riding bikes and just being silly. (He's the one that gave them those killing machines) I mean motorcycles.. They think that he's the coolest guy ever, besides their daddy. He had to leave to drive his truck to his next job and the boys were pretty sad..but he'll be back soon enough to visit again. I let the kids run around with the camera and the video camera for the week and they actually took some pretty good pictures.

Pets

Aren't these faces just precious? These are our furry little friends. The lab on the left is "Cheyennne", but we call her "Shy". She is so sweet but came from a shelter and is still a little nervous around loud noises and fast movements..(I'm sure that my 'quiet' home is the perfect therapy for her...not!) In the middle picture is "Sam" He thinks he's half human/half dog..We love him. He is very spunky and will stand up and box you with his paws, like a human would hit someone in a fight. Nothing really scares him, and he's overly nosey. He's pretty much just a laid back and lovable cat. We have another cat, but I can't find a picture right now. She's pretty old and crabby hates everyone and everything, very neurotic..After $500.oo in vet bills we finally nailed down why she pees around the house...it's because she needs calm and quiet. She has anxiety issues. Again, I don't know what the problem could be. I ONLY have 3 boys and their friends running crazy around this place! So, she's pretty much grounded and is being kept away from everyone so that she can enjoy her peace and quiet and be calm and happy. Our dog on the right is Heidi. She's another yellow lab, although she's not related to Shy like everyone thinks she is. We've had her since she was a puppy. She's a very nice dog, pretty smart too (although Leo would disagree with that) She is an adult now and was still so full of crazy energy..she was driving us nuts! So, we got her Shy to play with..They absolutely love each other. It's quite a good mix of animals and the boys couldn't be happier with their pets.

Ok..so what's wrong with this picture. It's an animal that has no hair, you can't pet it, carry it around or cuddle with it..But Kogan has decided to keep it. (I don't think that he's named it yet) It's some sort of beetle thing. You see the small black dot in the middle of the jar? Trust me, this thing is HUGE up close! It looksl like a cockroach or something...eww! Someone please tell me how this animal qualifies as a pet? This is from his class project. (Thanks Mrs. S.) The teacher gave the kids a baby food jar and they put holes in the lid. Then they filled it with Oatmeal..then they put in the bug in its pupa stage. (cocoon)? Well, the thing actually lived and has been with us ever since. It's been about a month or so. Kogan has to leave this thing up in his bedroom..I was tucking him into bed the other night and peeked in the jar. I just saw a little bit of it poking out of the oatmeal. It wasn't moving! Hallelujah!! I was so happy..I was even forcing a fake frown on my face for when I turned around and told Kogan that his beloved pet had finally died. I was even preparing the funeral for the little guy in my head. (all of our pets get a proper burial in our back yard, no matter if I liked them or not..We have a Hermit Crab grave yard back there) As I picked up the jar to hand it to Kogan, I saw it move. I actually saw it's little tentacles twitch. So, I put the jar down, and it stopped moving. So, I handed it to Kogan and he looked. By now it was buried deep under all of it's oats. I told Kogan to shake the jar really hard to make it come out..I was secretly hoping that it would give the thing brain damage. "Shaken Bug Syndrome" or something...but nope, here it is all of these days later just sitting in it's jar living the good life. One of these days I might be tempted to just get rid of it. I wouldn't torture it or kill it..although I have thought about sucking it out of that jar with my vacuum cleaner..but no, I would free it into the bushes outside and then replace it with a raisin or something and bury it under the oats. Kogan would just see it and assume that it was his bug. Now, where can I get a raisin that BIG! Did I forget to mention that I HATE bugs. I don't even like lady bugs.

**Oh, and Kogan doesn't normally just sit around reading books to our dogs..He was doing a book report on the book "Winn Dixie", which is a story about a dog. So, we thought that it would be cute to take a picture of him reading the dog book to the dogs and include them in the report. No one was actually reading or listening in these pictures..The best part is that he got an "A" for his grade..woo hoo!

Not again!

We live in a good neighborhood. There are always kids out playing, it's safe to be outside, and most people are friendly. BUT....Leo's truck was broken into for a 2nd time! (Are those bad odds? 2x in a year and a half?) Our nice neighbor even chased some kids away looking in his truck at night once...grrr! What is it? It's a nice truck, but that's it..it's not some super duper fixed up, tricked out way too expensive truck! We did everything right. We are well lit around the yard. In fact we have a street light at the end of our drive way. 2 outside garage lights, a porch light and tons of landscaping lights in our yard. (the brightest house on the street in fact) Last time they broke his side window and reached in and tried to pull out his radar detector and i-pod. They were plugged in and couldn't be pulled out of the plugs very easily..so the kids (assuming that the misfits that did this were kids) ran away and left them dangling outside of the truck, in the rain. So, we repaired the truck and the rain damaged radar detector..and upgraded the truck alarm. Also installed all of those expensive landscape lights.

This time they broke the same window and reached in for the radar detector..it came unplugged this time and they ran off with it. Thankfully it wasn't raining that night, so no water damage was done to the interior. So, as we were cleaning up the broken glass and giving our info to the police man (who wasn't at all interested in our sad story), Leo shut the passenger door...and guess what? The alarm was armed..and it never went off..Apparntly the alarm company installed the alarm on the drivers side, but not on the passengers side? aye, aye, aye.. Thankfully we were able to get someone to fix the window that same day. Yesterday we had a shop tint the window, and fix the "half working alarm" and also install a glass sensor. If those brats try it again, hopefully they'll get scared off this time! Leo has been online researching new radar detectors (I secretly think that he's happy about this). We could just park his truck in the garage with my car, but there's just too much stuff (junk) in there right now.

Big and Chunky

***PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT***

For the health and safety of everyone, please read:

I just want to be very clear and make it known and that the song playing on my song list called "Big and Chunky" in NO WAY referrs to me! This is from the movie "Madagascar 2"..Moto Moto is singing to Gloria (the hippos). So, no one even needs to wonder or ask what this odd song is about! (my boys absolutely LOVE this movie!)

cowboys and fried twikies

Yep, it's that time of year again. The time when all of the city folks dress up and get to play cowboy and cowgirl. Yes, that means that the Rodeo is in town! We have never been to the Rodeo, so we decided to go. We had a blast. We didn't go see the actual rodeo stuff..we went to the carnival part. The boys rode rides and ate their way through the night. Some of the gourmet food included: Deep Fried Twinkies (actually very yummy!), ice cream, dots ice cream, hot dogs, cheese fries, nachos and their beloved blue cotton candy. (they will fry anything here: cheese cake, twinkies, snickers bars, moon pies, pickles) I was so happy that there was a Starbucks there too! Of course, those cowboys get awful thirsty and nothing quenches their thirst like a Vanilla Late. Thankfully after all of that junk food, no one threw up on any of the rides! The boys got to use their first porta-potty, which is a nice way of saying an ugly, stinky, germ infested green box, where you potty in front of other people waiting in line right outside the door that can hear everything! While I was changing Nathans diaper (on my lap, not letting him touch ANYTHING), I could hear Kogan and Michael in the next door porta-potty. This is what I could clearly hear "Whoa..there's a big hole where you poop! Cool..there's a lot of poop in there" And then lots and lots of laughing. So, I get up as fast as I could, without dropping Nathan and knocked on the boys door and told them to hurry up and get out of there! I smiled at the 20 people waiting in line and hearing the boys playing in there.. They just thought that it was the neatest invention ever created. Yep, it doesn't take very much to please my boys.. So, after a good dousing with my hand sanitizer (I would've stripped them naked and bathed them in it if I could...you know that I would too!) we were off to ride the traveling death contraptions..I mean rides and roller coasters..All in all, it was a lot of fun..and we will be going again next year.

Here's Nathan looking at the rabbits! He kept calling them "kitties" And Yes, I have taught him the difference..

"Please, please mommy can we get a tractor?" Of course, I'm sure that we could use it for many things, like walking the dogs, scooping their poop in the back yard, playing with the other neighborhood kids,..very practical for the city. Michael was mad that Kogan jumped into his picture. (can you even see Kogan?? Far right... way over there)

Last but not least..you can tell from the excitement bursting on my boys faces, that this was the prize winning cow/steer? It was auctioned and sold for $300,000!!! A lot of money, but it was pretty and very nice too! Of course we can have it..it's only practical that you'd need it to go with the tractor..Do I have some future farmers here?

Peanut Butter and what?

Nathan being silly while waiting for his lunch - Peanut Butter and what???

****YOU CAN TURN DOWN THE MUSIC PLAYER AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SCREEN IF YOU CAN'T HEAR HIM..****

To the moon

Yesterday was a very fun day for us. We went to Space Center Houston. The boys got to play with their friends while I got to catch up with my friends. The boys got to see Sponge Bob..(I don't know what he has to do with space exploration?) Ronald McDonald was also there doing magic tricks..again, the whole space exploration thing?? Michael being the ripe old age of 7 said "Theres Ronald the Donald"..LOL..As much as he eats at McDonalds, you'd think that he would know the correct names for the "executives in that company".

Today "Ronald the Donald" was looking a bit chunky..time to cut back on those Happy Meals?






Kogan doing his best Sponge Bob impression???

After a long day, we decided to get some ice cream before heading home. (I think that it was just an excuse for me and my friends to get some..Yummy Cookie Dough! mmmm...

And last BUTT not least, our view as we left (please enjoy)"Ahhh....Houston, we have a problem!!!"

Happy St. Patricks Day.

The boys were on Spring Break from school this week. That meant lots of staying up late, lots of sleeping in and NO SCHOOL! It was also St. Patricks Day. With a last name like ours, we had to celebrate..(although i'm pretty sure, that we have no direct links to the Irish) I decided to make the boys a great, green breakfast to surprise them. I put green apples and green candles on the table just to get a little more green into the scenery. But the food was the big hit.

Here is their delicious green eggs and green pancakes...The boys looked a little scared at first when they saw this creation. I believe Kogans exact words were "It looks like barf...COOL!" You have to love boys and their thinking. You can't really see it, but there are also green cookie sprinkles on those pancakes. mmmm...Just to add a little more sweetness to their feast. I added some more of those cookie sprinkles to their cups of milk. What could be tastier than a cup of green milk?

Here are my leprochauns waiting to dig in...see their big smiles? 2 of the 3 of them already had dressed in green...because yes, you do get pinched in this house when not wearing green on this holiday. It's funny that the boys remembered that little detail from last year..LOL..


And I saved the best for last..After my green kiddos were all stuffed, I got to sit down and relax and enjoy my coffee in my big green cup..This cup is actually huge! It can hold 3 regular cups of coffee in it. Heavenly! After Leo came home from work we all went to the movies and watched "Escape to Witch Mountain"..very good. And then we walked around the mall and the boys got to ride their favorite indoor 3-D roller coaster..We all looked cute in our green clothes..(sorry no pictures)