sunday at Larabee......

This past Sunday was a Gorgeous sunny day here in the Pacific Northwest. i LOVE this state! kath and i decided it would be a perfect day to take the kiddos out to one of the best parks in this area. Larabee. i have a special place in my heart since this is the place where the hub proposed to me, 14 years ago. we hauled all the kid's coats down by the water,thinking that it would surely be cold down there.

wrong.

wrong.

wrong.

it was hot. hot. hot.

thanks wubs for a fantastic day, making great memories with us.

the hub and i. he thought i looked 'a little scared and a tad naughty'.
the wubs. you must look close at mr. wubs face. he was being a dork. posting this picture is my revenge. sorry kath. he needs to learn that he MUST smile NICELY when i'm taking his pic!! :)


why yes, those are our children 'getting their ankles wet'.

the hub says he was "puckered up" while watching them gaze over the edge.

funny sam, real funny.

most of the motley crew.

analyzing the world with my bestie.

sam doing the macarena dance. kaiden having a hard time containing his laughter. as did all the people sitting, watching the show from the grass. this kid loves being in the limelight. he was awesome. :)

mud

we spent all day doing what Saturdays are good for-work. the hub brought all the 'big guns' home from work. spent the day pushing around dirt. rumor has it, there WAS a method to his madness. we're working hard over here at trying to establish good work ethics with these boys but the dirt pile did nothing but lead them astray. after all, when there is opportunity to go DIRT SURFING, one must do it!!!

it quickly 'went south' when they realized that i wasn't going to yell at them, instead grab my camera and start snapping.

jacko getting a run at it.

daddy showing max what REAL manual labor is.

the bush that wouldn't die...

you must know that this bush was probably the ugliest thing i had planted in my yard. i admit, when it would bloom, for about 3 days i liked it. other than that, it was big and overgrown. and we won't mention the time the hub took half of it off when mowing around it. (opps, i just mentioned it).

but, in a weak, (stupid) moment, we garden-taped it back together.

last year, at the end of the season, i hacked the crap out of it.
i mean i REALLY 'went to town' on it thinking that in the spring, the hub would come and dig it's sorry carcase out to the burn pile.
you can imagine my surprise when i went out there last week and saw flowers!
2 pretty little blooms.
amazing shade of pink.
so pretty.
what? are you kidding me??
now what am i going to do???
i can't burn it now. that would be mean.
but....
i would be willing to donate it.
come and get it. it may look good in your yard.
or on your burn pile??

smoothie madness...

we are going thru a little phase here. (this one among MANY others).

it's smoothie central over here at the likkels. i'm sure like many of you out there, your children get off the bus with these words...."i'm STARVING!! if you don't feed me something SOOOON, i'm going to DIE of starvation!! please FEED me! " as if they hadn't eaten in days. no mention about the fact that a mere 4 hours earlier they had consumed more calories than i do in a 2 day period. boys do that.

they eat.

they eat much.

so i'm a sympathetic mother. i feed them when they are hungry but somedays i feel like they eat because they are bored? or they are stalling on homework?

my children do that.

they like to eat.

i struggle with healthy food for them. i hate to admit this but somedays it's easier to just let them eat something instead of something good for them.

can i hear a 'amen' here?

anyways, the point of this post is to show you how thrilled they were when they walked in last week and i had these pretty little things sitting on the counter.

fruit and yogurt.

'healthy food'.

NOT CHIPS.

NOT COOKIES.

but something somewhat healthy!

oh, maybe i should have omitted the BIG glob of Cool Whip.

nope, i need to ease them into this eating 'health' food......