Summer 2011

Also known as HAPPY HAPPY: PART TWO, THREE, AND FOUR

Hi friends! 

Where have y'all been for the past five months?

I know, I know.  It's me, not you. 

My only excuse is this thing called life. 

That's a good excuse, right?

And now it's been over a month since Luke started kindergarten. 


I'm taking that as an indication for me to catch up on this summer's happenings. 


I need deadlines, people. 
This stuff doesn't post itself.

Ok, so where did we leave off? 


I was bragging about my husband and showing lots of cocktail pictures.


 Classy broad, eh?

Technically we were in May!  MAY?!  Man, this is going to be a long one. 


Better grab a cup of coffee or a stiff drink if you're gonna try to stick with me.

 

 These shots were taken with my phone at Sweet Berry Farms while Luke was in school.  I love this place but I'll spare you the details. 


You can read more about it here, here, and here.

After picking berries, we stopped at McDonald's for a yogurt parfait...

Not sure why I felt the need to give you the play-by-play on this.

May also meant that school was coming to an end (sniff, sniff)...

Zach at some end-of-school party that I don't really remember. 

It was in May, people. 

I can't even remember what I ate for dinner last night.

These were the gifts we gave the teachers for Teacher Appreciation Week...

Can you tell I thought they were pretty cute?  I took like 80 million pictures of them.  

Be thankful I only posted three.

The following pics were from Luke's graduation.  He was in two classes (MWF and TTH) which is why he's wearing two outfits.  And I'm lazy busy so they might not be in any particular order.

Trust me, I wanted to have him dressed up a bit more, but you know how the boy feels about buttons. 

Issues.

Aren't you thinking they would totally look cuter in little gowns and caps not made from cardboard? 

Me too. 

I like to say our preschool is focused more on the academics and less on the cuteness. :)

 Which is fine by me, but caps and gowns are in the works. 

(Steve and I are plannng to purchase them as a gift to the school.)

Zach with his teacher, Ms. Cindy...

Luke with Ms. Minshew...

 

I think some of the moms were a little sniffly at the thought of their kids finishing preschool.

I was all,

Alrighty then, where do I sign up for kindergarten?!?! 

 And when does it start?  What, September??? 

Crap.

May was also the month for Mother's Day, also known as the "Jessica, suck it up and have the kids make a craft" holiday.  We mailed off framed pictures of the kids holding up a We Love You sign...

We also went to Huxley for the Boese Biannual Bash.  Unfortunately when we got there I discovered I had charged the wrong camera battery. 

This was the only shot I took before it went dead...

This is one of the boys' cousins.

Just call me Annie Leibovitz.

(I am so bummed!  Maybe I'll try to snag some from the other Boeses.)

 Next up was June, which also happens to be the birth month of Kid #2.  We asked him what he wanted to do for his birthday and he chose Chuck E. Cheese. 

Great. 

I 100% blame PBS for this. 

They may offer educational television without commercials, but somehow they've started sneaking in "sponsors".  This overgrown rat happens to be one of them...

Being bashful.

His gift from us was bunk beds. 

We surprised him with a big room reveal, which may or may not have been an attempt to fulfill some sort of interior design show dream of mine. 

Either way, he was very happy.  Here's the room (unstyled)...

It wasn't 100% done, but my client didn't mind. :) 

We also made him that pull-out Lego table on casters for under the bed.

Hmmm, what else?  Oh, Father's Day...

We surprised Steve with a digital cable box so he could finally watch TV in high def. 

I know, I know, we are some of the last people we know who are still watching regular old cable. 

Call me old fashioned, but I just don't get it. 

I still feel fortunate to have a remote control and to not move bunny ears. 

Am I sounding a little, we walked barefoot to school in the snow uphill both ways, or what?

I also still own (and use) a VCR, so I realize I'm a tad behind.  Sue me.

These were the packages sent out to the grandfathers...

And their coordinating cards...

Oh, that Martha.  She knows how to bring back origami. 

Then came July.  These pics were taken at a little shindig we threw on the 4th...

Our neighbors had us over for a lobster boil, but first they came to our house for swimming, appetizers, and carnival games. 

The games were borrowed from my sweet friend Arleen. 

She is adorable and throws the most wonderful over-the-top parties,

so I jumped at the chance to use her games.

The kids were given tokens to play the games and earned tickets to later cash in at the prize table. 

Even the older kids loved it!

And because I'm dorky, I took pics of some of the food and decor.

Would you really expect any less?

Arleen also brought over the fondant for the stars on these cupcakes because you know, it was only the due date of her THIRD child. 

Hello?! 

Is that not a sweet friend? 

She also brought over a little vase filled with red, white, and blue flowers, all which were picked from her garden.  I'll let you decide whether you love her or want to smack her. :) 

And speaking of cupcakes, would you allow me to geek out with some more cupcake photos?

Sure you would...

These were made for a summer party at our friend Dina's house.

And these were for Arleen's baby shower...

Pretty stinkin' cute, huh? 

I can't really take credit for them since the idea came out of a book. 

I'm just the crazy lady who spends waaaay too longing trying to make cupcakes look like babies and ants. 

Weirdo. 

If only I would put that energy to better use. 

Like say, cleaning my baseboards or finishing Zach's baby book.

(Did I mention he turned three this summer?) 

Maybe I should get a job. 

I wonder if Crazytown is looking for a mayor. 

I've always been intrigued by politics. 

OK, snapping out of it now. 

Where were we? 

July. 

Hmmm, I'm totally going off pictures at this point...,

It's a bird.  It's a plane.  It's SUPER LUKE...and ZACH!

The boys were in a summer program for a few weeks on Tuesdays and Thursdays. 

And thank goodness for that summer program or things could have gotten ugly uglier around here. 

I mean really, I just don't think people are made to spend that much time with one another, especially when two of those people are nearly impossible to reason with,

and one of those two does not yet wipe his own bum. 

You know what I'm sayin'? 

So anyway, there was a day where the boys were supposed to come dressed as their favorite superhero. 

I always thought it would be fun to make the boys capes but had never gotten around to it,

so I thought this would be the perfect occasion.

I totally had visions of the boys wearing them around the house and coming up with their own superhero traits.

Yeah, well the capes have been hanging in the playroom collecting dust for the past three months.

Oh well.

Oh my goodness, I totally just realized looking at this picture that I sewed the Z on backward. 

How did that happen? 

And to think I've been entrusted with teaching the alphabet to these two little people. 

Nice job, Supermom.  Not.

Moving along...

Apparently August was a rough month. 

I have only a couple pictures to show for it. 

I guess it's just not as much fun to pull the camera out when the kids are whining and fighting.

Seriously, between the heat and the tantrums I was over the summer. 

I mean, like take these children away from me before I go all Andrea Yates on them. 

Oops, that's not really appropriate, is it? 

Well I'm leaving it because I can and because it sums up the dark place my humor went that month. 

I think I might still be experiencing post traumatic stress symptoms.

But back to August...

I did try to keep my composure and I did continue to attempt Happy Happy activities with them...

On this day we painted cute little birdhouses. 

(This was also the day I first moved off the auto setting on my camera.)

June Mommy would have put them in "painting clothes",

but August Mommy said,

Screw it. Just take 'em off.

November Mommy is now cracking up that my kids were painting in their skivvies. 

Classy stuff going over here. 

Our neighbors probably wish we would move. 

So, there you have it:
Summer 2011. 


I feel better already. 




Peace and chicken grease,
Jess




----This post was made possible by two children taking an unusually long nap.----