Independence Day

This year we kept the 4th pretty simple (seems to be a common theme around here)...Jamba Juice for breakfast, the traditional homemade ice cream and BBQ salmon, and it wouldn't be the 4th without listening to Dale's Patriotic medley.  Nothing puts me in the spirit of Independence Day like hearing him play that song! 

We went to Riverton park to check out the kid's carnival and games...it was scorching.  We only stayed a few minutes and we were practically melting, so we beat the heat by hiding out in our incredible ice box basement apartment for the rest of the afternoon.  That night we went back to Riverton park and found our firework watching spot and played games and blew bubbles until we were blue in the face.  Then Trey made an awesome friend with an even more awesome toy...a bubble gun.  Who knew such genious toys existed?  Trey was a bubble poppin machine until all of the kids within a 50 yard radius tried to get in on the action.  Where were these kids parents while their children were shovin our toddlers out of the way and gettin up in Dale's face?  Mayhem I tell you.  It was brutal.  Finally the fireworks were about to start and the other parents came and collected their children. 

I thought for sure the fireworks would be a huge hit with Trey this year, but not so much.  He yelled "Whoa!" for the first 10 minutes which completely entertained the older couple next to us, but he was done after that.  He just wanted to socialize with the neighbors and talk about the latest episodes of "Dudu Why" and "Emo" with everyone.

Loved spending the 4th with these handsome fellows! :) 

Trey is 2!

 

Trey's 2 year old fun facts:

His favorite color is...well, I'm not really sure, but he says the words "bwue and gwee" alot :), so I think it would be safe to say blue and green are his favorites.

His favorite foods are definitely cheese, apples, and any treat.  He also loves the word pizza...apparently a lot of foods are "pizza" at our house.  In fact I've learned that if I want him to eat something I just tell him it's pizza.  We may or may not have had "pizza" five times last week :).  He also has to have "2" of everything...2 nanas, 2 pieces of cheese, etc.  One for each hand.

Trey's favorite TV show: Super Why (dudu why) and Sesame Street (Emo)

Favorite toys: Choo choo, cars, and alphabet magnets

Favorite thing to do: Trey LOVES to learn...he loves the alphabet and can say them all in order (even though he does forget J sometimes).  He loves to count to ten...1, 2, 3, 4, 5...10! :)

Dad's favorite thing about Trey this year: You love to "work out" with me!  Whenever I start my workout you get super excited and yell, "wook out!  wook out!"  Then when I get down to do my pushups you lay on my back with a grin on your face.  You love wooking out with me!

Mom's favorite things about Trey this year: I can't believe how much you've grown up! You are still super out-going and love to say hi and make friends wherever we go. You love to be outside. You are not completley happy if we don't venture to the park at least once a day. You have this silly little run you do where you swing one leg in a cirlce as your run...dad calls it your "gimpy leg run" :). You've learned to love taking baths, which we are thrilled about. I love your fun loving personality. You are becoming more of a tease all the time and love to play the "that's the mommy's" game...where anytime I tell you something is mine you laugh hysterically trying to take it away :). Most of all though, I love that I get to be home with you and not miss out on any of this amazingness!

We kept Trey's birthday pretty low key. We just invited his "gragog and gragog" (grandma and grandpa) over for an alphabet themed dinner since Trey loves the ABCs so much right now. Poor Grandma got sick and wasn't able to make it, but Trey loved playing with Grandpa!

 

 

 

 

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K mom, enough pictures :)

 

The aftermath...

Keepin it Real

I am by no means a neat freak.  In fact I'm a little bit of a slob.  Last year and the year before I won the cleanest classroom award at school and Dale just laughed.  And laughed.  Hard.  And then he laughed some more.  I didn't understand it myself...until one of the teachers came forward and said she got her whole team to vote for me because she spent an afternoon in my classroom and noticed all of my labeled bins.  I have somewhat of an obsession with bins.  5 years ago the 2nd grade team ended up with a surplus of textbook money and no one else wanted to spend it, so it landed in my lap.  I went a little crazy with my Really Good Stuff Catalog (awesome place for cheap teacher stuff), and ended up blowing most of the money on bins.  I spent an entire week of my summer vacation going through all of my teacher stuff and organizing it into these beautifully labeled colorful containers.  I didn't realize how many I had until I started sifting through my stuff in preparation to become a stay at home mom...54 bins folks.  54.  Now I have the fun task of finding them new homes.

Looking back I've actually been pretty organized at school...not always clean (my kidney table always has a pile on it), but organized.  Home is another story.  I can't keep it together.  I don't know how people do it, and honestly I haven't really cared until recently.  I've kind of been living by the mantra "Working moms are too tired to clean."  And I was okay with that.  I considered my off track time sacred.  I couldn't possibly taint it by cleaning floorboards or scrubbing toilets.  Then the thought of being a stay at home mom started looking like it could actually become a reality.  I started thinking about what I wanted our home to be like.  And the changes that would have to be made...because if I'm being completely honest, there are a lot of them.  So in December when I went off track I made myself a chore chart (must be the teacher in me :).  Then I stuck to it- and I loved it.  Our house wasn't perfect (18 month old on the loose), but I actually started letting people in when they came to visit instead of speaking through a 2 inch crack in the door so they couldn't see inside.

Now I've been back at school for awhile and once again I can't get a grip on the whole cleaning your house thing.  And I honestly don't know if it will get better once I quit.  I can't quite seem to figure out how to keep up with my 2 year old.  And I only have 1 kid!  I don't know how you moms do it with more than one.  So I guess that's my question- how do you do it?  How do you keep your keep your house clean with kids without spending every spare minute of your day cleaning?  Because I did that, and it's not for me :).  Wish me luck my friends because I'm about to dive into a whole new world, and I'm hoping I can stay afloat!  

Excited to be home with this little one...even if I can't keep up with him :)

  

Park Playin'

I love taking Trey to the park...mainly because when he gets home he's nice and ready for a LONG nap.  This kid has got energy- one of the parents of Dale's piano students assured me that my next kid would nice and calm, because nobody gets 2 crazy ones in a row.  Phew!  Now we can have another one :).

Trey loving the park...

Throwing a fit because he didn't want to leave...and yes, 

this does happen EVERY SINGLE TIME we go.  

 His shoes kept falling off- then he kept getting mad at me because I was taking his picture :).