Around the neighborhood

 So, I was on my way home from the market the other day when I saw this all-to-frequent and yet still-oh-so-scary occurrence. I was thankful I had my camera with me, because it has gotten to be burdensome with all the other kid-gear. So....check out the fourth floor where a lady is washing the outsides of her windows by sitting/squatting on the 5 inch deep ledge. YIKES!!!

 My windows continue to be dirty.

Happy 4th of July! (Belated)

We celebrated this year with our red, white, and blue at the beach. We had a great picnic dinner with some friends and then the kids did a little swimming with the dads. We let the kids stay out until the sky was thinking about being dark. :) The kids loved having balloon races and red, white, and blue cupcakes. We topped the night off with sparklers! The bakeries actually put sparklers on birthday cakes here, so they sell them in all the bakery supply stores and dollar stores. They are as common as birthday candles. Moo was thrilled with fire. Lu liked sitting with Dad best for her fire spectacular. A great night all around. 

After scrambling for a better 4 year old description, I just decided to tell Moo that we were celebrating America's birthday. He thought a minute, then replied, "If America has a birthday, there will be two Americas: one on either side of the "bosforus" bridge."  There you have it.

Wow.....long time no post

Yikes! Apparently, it has been 3 months since I last posted! How to catch up?? Well....I'll just start where we are. 9 years of wedded bliss today! :) We're celebrating by not celebrating. We have a house guest. But we have the promise of friends staying with our kids overnight one night in the coming weeks such that we can go out on the town. We anxiously anticipate our night away.

Here's what the kids are saying....

Lu's top two phrases:
"I want to ____________ all by MYSELF"
and "I don't want to _____________ ANYMORE"

The filled-in-blanks range from totally understandable to completely ridiculous. I will have to write down the next one so I can report it.

Moo, on his first week of official summer vacation...
"Today is a stay at home day? Yippeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!"
"When will (such and such) happen?" (Mom replies, "tomorrow") Moo: "You mean the next day? Okay"
"Lydia can't sing happy birthday to dad because it has to snow first and be my birthday!"


M:   "Lydia, do you remember when you hadn't popped out of Mom yet?"
L:     "Yep. We went to the park."

We are going to the park or beach nightly to cool off from our hot summer days which are currently in the 80s. I'll post photos when I can find them. :)

Happy July all!

Emergency!!!

Well, an unexpected twist arrived to our Saturday when our biggest monkey slipped while jumping on the couch....he fell off and bumped his head...wide open on the coffee table!! He was a super-trooper though! He cried at first, but stopped as Mom prayed....and then never cried again (about this particular accident). Upon discovering our taxi stand was devoid of taxis, Dad walked Moo out to the main road, caught a mini-bus to the nearest hospital (about a 5-10 minute ride depending on traffic) and stepped right into the ER. While the doctor worked, Moo & Dad told stories under his "surgery-tent" and then headed back home via mini-bus. He walked in the front door as happy as could be, as if his momma's heart had not stopped beating 2 hours earlier. So here he is, with his "happy mac-n-cheese home from the hospital" meal...ready for Easter the next day.

St. Patrick's Day

Another fun day of our favorite green holiday - Moo talks about green milk all year long in anticipation.

We started the day with our traditional breakfast: green milk and green waffles.  We had dinner with rainbow water (ice cubes). The drinks were a bit cold for these "European-Americans"....but they liked those colors!

Aquarium

 Last weekend we had a rainy Saturday and a desperate need to get out of our apartment. We traveled across the city and found a gorgeous aquarium with different rooms/exhibits for all the surrounding waterways. Mom & Dad loved it and the kids liked the stairs and touch screen interactive computers.

The last room was a tropical rain forest with humidity and everything. It was just like being back in Africa. A fun trip out.

Rainy days or not

 Hide-n-go-seek in Mom and Dad's closets!

And fishing off the top-bunk....what better catch than sleepdog???

Up-close, chores, & sillies

 Testing out the small portion of our park that has been completed. (renovated)...catching some rays....but still cold.

 A daily morning activity: making Mom & Dad's coffee. Lu adds the sugar cubes. Micah adds the flavored syrups. They both get to stir. And Mom & Dad get yummy coffee during our Bible study time.

 Lu and Dolly in their matching PJs - thanks Grandma Ginny! (And a monkey hat - because, why not?)

 Moo showing Lu videos of themselves - they must be pretty funny.

 And - our little Lu - reading a book about construction trucks while wearing a fairy dress and babysitting her baby who is learning to use the potty.

Yummy packages!

 Wow - we keep getting blessed by our family! Check out the looks on these happy fruit-snack-filled smiles! Thanks Grandpa Mike! Yum!

 Check out the kids' latest dress-up additions...super Lu and super Moo to the rescue! Thanks Grandma Jane! Also - check out Lu's crazy hair. It is growing...seemingly around her head and not from her head....or straight out...I don't even know. I think her sleepy hair twiddling is causing the stuff on top to grow. Wild woman!

Applesauce, football, & seasons

 Moo is delighted with our apple peeler, slicer, corer. All of the sudden, he wants to make applesauce every week! Thanks Aunt Sara & Uncle Tim! Moo will be ecstatic when we get to visit GranBon again for her famous applesauce.

  

Cooking and dish-washing has become much more exciting with our new aprons from Grandma Jane! "I want to help Mom!" Music to a momma's ears.

Lu getting some touch football practice in "under-the-lights".

 And the other side of Lu - dresses and fairy wings.

 Moo has been asking about Sunday school every day of the week, so we made a calendar for his door. He knows when holidays or friends are coming and when Sunday School ("my favorite!!!") is coming. Lu likes to draw on the wall under the calendar, so I have to remember to put some blank paper down there too....otherwise brother will be all out of sorts if his calendar gets drawn on by sis!

Lazy Winter Dayz

One of my loves: capturing my kids in little corners of the house reading. I hope they always have that love of discovering the world through books.

One of my other loves...seeing my hubby play with our kids' toys while they read books. Just kidding. He is busy constructing the best train map ever for when those kids get tired of reading.

 Dress up time! Typically Moo likes to sell us all the jewelry and Lu and I wear it. Today he wanted in on the action. I'm sure all the train conductors are this stylish.

 I have no idea why, but both kids love playing behind their play kitchen. I think it is like working at a restaurant. We finally turned it sideways so they could both "cook". They got busy right away.

 Two minutes alone...that's it! I have no idea how she even did this.

 Moo was definitely busy driving Thomas through play doh roads. He is not responsible for his sister's wild antics.

 A sweet moment showing doggy and baby doll all the cars driving by.

Snow Day!!

We finally got our three days of snow! We only remembered the camera for the first day of light snow, but we didn't forget the hot chocolate after each snow adventure! Moo was ecstatic for every snow activity. Lu was less than thrilled to wear boots, to get her face cold, to touch snow, to be outside....    and then she found her own snowman buffet bar, and she was in heaven....for about 3 minutes.....then it was back to "care-me!" back home for hot cocoa.

Happy Birthday Rick!

Well, our oven has become rather tricky....so Rick's cake turned out half the height it would have been had the oven baked the entire cake. As it were, I got to eat cake batter, batter-y cake, and cake-y cake! There was still more than enough to go around. Moo helped decorate with the gummy sea creatures on top. And he wants to know when the next birthday is.

Finishing 2012 with a bang

With just a week left in 2012 and a million items on my pinterest bucket list, we set out to finish the advent season with as much forced family fun as we could muster. We started off by getting around to making those ginger bread houses. First Mom and Moo took a trip to the neighborhood store and filled our bag with cookies, candies, and other delightful treats. Then Dad read The Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett while Mom madly beat that feisty frosting for the requisite 7-10 minutes. Then Mom gave one house to Moo and one to Dad so that Dad would not insist that Moo's walls met at perfect 90 degree angles and other such grown-up nuisances. Moo was excited to simply have a train on his. He filled his front yard with gummy bears and took the time to put a few on the roof of his palace/cathedral. Dad's was symmetrical and lovely. Mom just tried to use up all the rest of the candy and frosting so that "none should go to waste".  We've spent the past few days being knocked out by the intoxicating fumes (aroma?) of gingerbread candy and frosting. When do we get to eat them?  

Oh, and Lu was content to just suck on all of the candy through the wrappers. She chewed all the bubblegum through the plastic and sucked on 3 candy canes through the plastic. Perhaps next year she'll make a house.  
 Our final products:

Our New Year's Day adventure was to go see the windows down our version of Michigan Avenue. Our first stop was Vakko - this department store puts fake snow on all their trees and building and then has "snow" (bubbles) come out of a snow machine on the roof to delight all the passers-by. We have only had one snow day this year...so this may be the closest we get to enjoying a "winter wonderland".

 We proceeded up the road to one magical window with rotating snowflakes and snowmen. A telephone store had these cool light-up deer and snowmen. And that was the extent of the decorations....as well as the moment the fruit snacks ran out and the kids declared it was time to go home for dinner.