Cornfest Parade and Trolls

We are visiting Michigan just in time for viewing the Auburn Cornfest Parade and Downtown Midland Trolls with the grandparents and great-grandparents!  What fun we had today!

Ready and wating!  M points out the fire engines as they make their way toward us.

N jumped into my lap the second the first engine blasted its horn!  A dum-dum made it all better quickly.

M was GLUED to Aunt M's lap for most of the parade, a bit leery of the fire engines as well.

Cousin E and Grandma collected enough candy to fill the entire Happy Meal box!

Floppy hats and free popsicles help beat the heat

For dinner we met our other great-grandma in downtown Midland to share some pizza and check out the new troll sculptures on display. 

E gets to make his own pizza: pepperoni and "a couple of black olives"

"I love pizza - crust, that is!"

I'm so hungry I'm gonna eat this plate! It sure beats that salad.

M got a little push from Cousin E

My dad and his long lost twin - he's wearing brown in case you couldn't tell!

Cutie Patootie N loves his Papa!

"Smile!" E tells his little cousins. 

Great Grandma K, Grandma K, and the cutest troll we found!

Gimme a kiss!  N tried kissing almost every troll!

We always have fun when we travel to Michigan to visit our families, but it's extra special when we're in town for some of our favorite old "local" events like the Cornfest Parade (I once marched in it!) and the yearly art displays on Main Street.

A Few Pics

This summer has just been crazy!  I remember I hadn't uploaded the Handycam pics for a couple of weeks, so here are some you haven't seen.  This little camera just hangs out in my purse or diaper backpack for quick pics of whatnot.  A few from last weekend's NC trip:

Our first morning - look who slept between us all night.  It was not a good night.

Saying good bye to Grandma and Papa K. M is sad to go (actually, he's sad to be held.  He wants to run around like a mountain goat).

Everyone on the deck!

Cousin L, me and M hug good bye.  L was sad to see us go.

Darn Picasa!  How do I 'save' the pic once I 'turn' it?  Here's why I don't know: I never get a single minute to look it up.  Now that I've uploaded a couple pics and started writing, guess what?  The fellas are stirring from their naps, and I need to hustle to get a snack ready before I get them up because they wake up CRABBY!  I have time for just a couple more:

Cobb Salad with Classic French Viniagrette and Sourdough bread, today's lunch.  It was fabulous.  The boys hated it.  But I am determined to eat real adult food every now and then.

Daddy and the boys wearing their specs at MBS

M driving the playset at a friend's house on Tuesday

As for the Cobb Salad, I took a pic because it turned out so beautifully.  I'm not going to toot my own horn, but it was seriously delicious.  My cooking experiments is another blog post altogether, something along the lines of me discovering that I'm not the only college-educated-professional-turned-stay-at-home-mom who needs a creative outlet. 

As for the specs, it was too cute.  I keep them in their 'flying' bags with books, so they can be all studious while reading on the plane. 

And if you recognize the swim diaper M's wearing in the last photo, thank you. I was unprepared for the swimming party Tuesday (remember the flying debacle on Sunday and Monday) and you saved my sanity by giving me two swimmy diapers at the playdate.

Happy Fourth Tomorrow!  Enjoy spending it with family or friends, which is what I hope you're doing!

Terrific Texas!

Wow, so much has happened!  We spent last week in TX with my sister and her family while they were on spring break (they're teachers) and while Hubs worked at DFW.  Here are some of the pics from the old Sony digital camera that I know how to both operate and upload.  (You should infer here that our new camera, a very beautiful Nikon Coolpix which makes me think of Ashton Kutcher every time I pick it up, is one that I do NOT know how to operate or upload and has dozens of great photos on it from our trip.  Maybe someday I can take a camera class...or read the manual, whichever comes first.)  With no further adieu...

Daddy and N ride the bus from DFW terminal to the rental car.  What a big boy!

N hamming it on the road trip from DFW to Louisiana

Best part of Louisiana?  The hotel, of course!

Waffle House hospitality - free boogers with every meal.

N and his teddy that we had to rescue from the hotel's lost and found

Hubs and his Great Aunt I

Auntie P at her baby shower with Baby L's first bikini

Cutie Pie Cousin L and her custard smile

One of these days I'll figure out how to upload pics from the new camera and I'll show you more good times.  But it likely won't be this week or next b/c I've got to pack! We're moving into bigger "britches" about 30 minutes south of our current location.  Seeing as how there is still laundry in the machine from our trip, I'm already behind.  But keep checking in on us - my Sony Handycam is working just fine.

Travelin' Men

It's Spring Break for us! So far we've visited Hubs' extended family in Louisiana, where we got to visit with his 95 year old great aunt, who met our boys for the first time.  Then we drove to Texas, where we're staying with my preggo sister and her family while Hubs works at the airport down here this week.  What fun!  We're halfway through our visit and are having a blast.

The fellas were great little riders both in the airplane and the car and LOVE playing with their cousin.  In fact, M is pretty attached to a pink VW beetle toy car...and to making a little plastic chicken drive it!

Chekmate, cuz!

Peek-a-boo!  N is loving the outdoor playtime!

"Too coe!" M says after a bite of Chick-fil-a ice cream

Apple slices + BBQ sauce = happy boy

Uncle J and cousin L play slides with the boys

They were having too much fun to stop for a photo!

Daddy and N enjoying the warm TX weather

Ride 'em, cowboy! 

We've been able to visit some outdoor playgrounds, feed the neighborhood ducks (we'll take the camera next time!) eat some Chick-fil-a (yum!) go to library storytime, where the best part was coloring at the end, color sidewalk chalks, and just plain old have fun with our families...including chops and dogs on the grill.  Mmmm...summer.  Our little travelin' men are having a great time down south!

Bookworms

Cousin S, Aunt M, our little M, Grandma and Grandpa K with N, and cousin E on the floor at the Grace A Dow Memorial Library in Midland this weekend.  What a FANTASTIC kid's section they have!  Midland Mommy friends, you should know that you are blessed with a state-of-the-art children's library.  I haven't seen anything like it around here!  I remember studying there from time to time in college, but I never spent much time perusing the kids' section - wow.  The boy cousins had a lot of fun reading, playing puppets, trains, toys, and roaming the aisles.  I even taught my nephew how to use the "card catalog" (it's the little sign taped to the screen of the computer!) to find his Scaredy Squirrel books.  Project Bookworm appears to be working. 

Gymnastic Geniuses!

That someday has come.  Auntie L won lots of gymnastics awards - all-state-all-around-champion 2001 & 2003- in her golden years and was ecstatic upon reading our previous post.  She immediately discovered that her local gymnastics center has a preschool open gym time, too, and it just so happened to be TODAY! 

We packed up the boys and took cousin E along for another workout.  The fellas "got" it a little better this time and LOVED running down on the tumble track (apparently, it is NOT called a sproingy thingy - who knew?).

Effervescent N plays peek a boo!

Mmmmph!  M works on pull ups

A spirited game of Crush Your Brother By Octagon

"Whoa, cuz!"  E liked being a "big brother" to his cousins today

M got "shir-shee" so took a drink of "wawa"

Tumble Track Racers: N wins!

Auntie L jumps into the "pit" to show them how it's done!

My boys have had so much fun "doing" gymnastics this week!  I see now how it's the perfect preschool winter activity - not only do the boys enjoy themselves, but I get quite the workout as well.  Lessons may well be in their future. 

Mid-Michigan Children's Museum

After a grueling okay, mostly boring 12 hour drive, we made it back to home-sweet-home last night with enough time to whip up a frozen pizza and bathe two little wrestling baby alligators before bed.  Now that I've had a good night's sleep and got some laundry going, I thought I'd pop in and show you a few pics from our super-fun morning at Mid Michigan Children's Museum with the aunties, uncies, and cousins.

Green means Go!

Vroom!  Vroom!  Mommy and N on the go-cart

N and the cousins posin' for a pic

N, M and Aunt L lost in the maze

Moooove Over!  Daddy and M

Drying off after the waterworks

L listens for her sister-to-be

Busy Boys

Too little, too late, sis!

My sister got some funny ones of us trying on outdated spectacles at the "optometrist's" and I got one of my brother in law weighing himself on the real scale at the "doctor's!" but I'm too nice (*snicker, snicker*) to post it.  And I know my sister would KILL me if I posted the measurement of her belly pic!  The kiddos had a great time, but we had to skedaddle out of there early b/c my little fellas can't maintain the crazy pace set by their big cousins.  They stayed and played even longer! 

This is seriously a very cool place to take the kiddos and I'm sure we'll be back!  Love you, sisters! Thanks for the good time!