One H-O-T Weekend

We got a little bit of yard work done this weekend, despite the heat. Rick planted some extra shrubs around the tree in our front yard and started on the trenches in the backyard for the sprinkler pipes. Meanwhile, I was watering my garden like a crazy person, trying to keep my broccoli heads from bolting. Today I decided to chop off the two largest heads and Tyler and I will eat them with dinner tonight. My basil is really doing great, I've got two recipes planned this week that will use some of it up. I'm going to make a pesto sauce to go over some ravioli and then I've got a recipe for avocado basil pasta that is super yummy!

We also went to see Indiana Jones yesterday, but Rick and I are just a couple of dummies...we should have gone to see Wall-E. Now, I've taken Tyler to the movies a good 8 times, but it has always been during one of the toddler only matinees. The one time we took him to a regular showing, it was to see Horton Hears a Who, so it was full of kids anyway. Well, long story short...we had to walk out of the movie, so don't tell us how it ends! Compared to a group of children, Tyler is a pretty well behaved movie go-er, but compared to a group of adults, he doesn't make the cut. He made it about an hour into the movie and then got bored, I guess, and started fidgeting and talking. Once the older couple in front of us got up and moved, that was our cue...we had to leave. They don't have the toddler matinee program during the summer, so I guess we won't be going to the movies again until September:( We'll still go see Wall-E though, next week, when Rick is out of town.

Professor SillyPants at your service

Craft time again...Tyler and I put together these wacky scientist glasses that came in his monthly craft kit. They are made out of foam and as you can see, they are a little big, but apparently very tasty. I don't know why, but Tyler has been chewing on all kinds of strange things lately!

We're getting ready to brace ourselves for the hot weekend ahead. We have been enjoying 80 degree weather here, but this weekend it is supposed to get up to 100. I guess that will give us an excuse to stay indoors, maybe go to the movie theater...Indiana Jones, anyone?

You know it's time to turn off the TV when...

...Tyler can repeat or even beat a commercial to it's own slogan! It's funny, I was giving him a bath last night and while he was playing with his pirate toys, I heard him tell the pirate..."that's the power of Oxiclean"! He also has this phrase that he got from watching Dragon Tales, it goes like this...I just love ____ , it's so ____-y! He'll say stuff like, "I just love diesel gas, it's so...diesel-y" or my personal favorite..."Mommy, I just love your workout clothes, they're so... workout-y". Then there was the time that he told Rick, "Daddy, I'm tired of paying retail", after hearing that on a commercial for a furniture outlet store!

Art in the Park

Summer is finally here and today was the first day of the Allied Arts program...Art in the Park. Each weekday (for 6 weeks) the Arts Van goes to various parks around Yakima and hosts a free drop-in art class. They come to Randall Park near our house on Tuesdays, so we headed over there this morning. Today, the craft was called Sparkling Northern lights...the kids used drawing chalk to color the night sky on black paper, used glitter for stars, and cut out trees and animals to decorate the page.


After we finished with the art project, we went to feed the ducks. The last two times we came here, we forgot to bring any bread, but we remembered to bring some today! Feeding the ducks is my favorite part....especially now that there are so many little baby ducks. They are so cute!

Back at the farm

Our backyard forms an L-shape going along the back and side of the house. It used to be, well all the backyards on this side of the street used to be a dirt road leading to the apple orchards nearby. I don't know if that is the reason why, but the dirt in our backyard is REALLY rocky!



We're trying to get the yard ready to start on the landscaping process, so Rick rented a tiller over the weekend to turn over the dirt and pull out some of the larger rocks.

After two days of hard work, we ended up with a pretty good sized pile of rocks...hopefully, it will be a little bit easier to lay the sprinkler pipes now.

Lotsa tractors and pretty ladies...

This weekend, here in town, Union Gap is celebrating its 125th birthday with the annual Union Gap Old Town Days celebration. It includes stuff like a pancake breakfast, the miss Union Gap pageant, parade and craft bazarre. Tyler and I went this morning to check out the parade...it was his first one and he had a good time. He loved waving at all the floats/people going by, not to mention his stash of candy and stickers he had accumulated by the end of the parade. The parade wasn't very razzle dazzle, just your typical small town stuff. It was basically a bunch of tractors, people running for election, shriners, police, firetruck, a Yakima transit bus, and of course all those pretty ladies...you know, the pageant winners from all the local towns (Miss Zillah, Moxee, Selah, Sunnyside, etc). I was disappointed that there wasn't any local marching bands...I always used to enjoy seeing those!

Day Four and holding....

Finally, finally, finally it looks like Tyler is on the road to becoming a "big boy". He is wearing big boy pants now (not pullups, mind you...but real underwear) and he has gone four straight days with no problems!! I'm so relieved....I was beginning to think that it was entirely possible that Tyler would grow to adulthood and still be wearing diapers! Phew, time to move on to the next challenge!

Speaking of Tyler being a big boy... and by big boy, I am referring to his weight. Although his weight is perfectly normal for his age, what else would you expect to happen when a 30+ lb boy decides to hang from a towel bar like monkey bars on the playground.....


...goodbye towel rack, hello beautiful hole in the master bathroom wall!

The good, the bad and the ugly!

The good news...I have some good looking tomatoes and a few decent heads of broccoli growing. The bad new...it looks like an unwelcome guest has been munching away on the broccoli plants. The culprit... worms of some sort, maybe cabbage worms? I don't know, but maybe the broccoli is more trouble than it is worth. It takes up a LOT of room to grow and I've already had trouble with some of the plants bolting (flowering prematurely when the weather gets too hot) and now the bug infestation!

Art Project

Here is our crafty handiwork from today...cool, huh? Tyler helped me last night cutting up pieces from old magazines to use on our project, but hmmmm.....it looks like somebody didn't use very many of those pieces! Oh well, I'm sure he still enjoyed cutting up my magazines!

Newest scrapbook pages

These are my latest pages....I'm just now starting to work on the pages for our trip to Portland(when we went for Tyler's birthday in March), so I'm not toooo far behind :)

The illusive Po

Let me just preface this story by saying that Tyler and I went to see Kung Fu Panda last week and we both really enjoyed it. I was surprised that I liked it so much, because I hadn't been too excited by the trailers. So, today we were out grocery shopping at my favorite super center (I'm kidding...I was being facetious...I hate that place!) and on the way out we stopped to get a Happy Meal because they had Kung Fu Panda character toys. Before ordering, I asked what toy would be in the meal and was told that it would be the snake...unfortunately for me, Tyler wanted Po the panda bear (I mean REALLY wanted the panda bear). I was told that if I went to a different McDonald's I could ask for a different toy...so, off we went. Thankfully, we only had to stop at one other store before we found it. We almost never eat fast food, unless we are traveling away from home, but we just might have to become McDonald's regulars in order to collect the rest of the Kung Fu Panda toys!

Friday Night Fun

We are such dorks...we live right around the corner from a family fun center, but we had never gone in before (I kept forgetting that it was even there). It's like a Chuck E. Cheese, but better and cheaper! They have pizza and an arcade where you can win tickets, but they also have a lot of outdoor activities like bumper boats, miniature golf, go karts, and batting cages. So, we went for the first time tonight and had a great time. We topped the night off with an ice cream from the Dairy Queen next door.

Buddies?

Now that Tyler is getting a little bit bigger he wants to do everything all by himself (with no help!!) which includes holding the birds. For the most part, Marceau is too smart for his plan and avoids him at all costs. Max, on the other hand, (as much as I hate to admit it) is not the brightest bulb and doesn't see any danger in being held by a 3 year old child. So, he is much more willing to be held by Tyler, than Marceau.

Yesterday, I had the pleasant chore of cleaning the bird cage and when I brought out my trusty squirt bottle, it meant 1 thing to Max...Bath Time!!! It's a good thing that Max loves getting wet and much as Tyler loves squirting him...it makes for endless entertainment!

Vegetable Garden

I am so excited about how my garden is turning out, considering that this is my first real attempt at it. We way over estimated how many plants would fit in the garden boxes, so the plants are growing a little close together, but hopefully they'll turn out fine. Here are my tomato plants....



and some broccoli....

and here are the zucchini...