Overheard

*****

Jacob:  I love you mama.  You're a good boy.  (giggles) 

Me:  What the heck is that?  Seriously, our whole house is falling apart.  I don't even know how that can happen.  (After seeing a screw rising out of the perfectly smooth finish of our desk.) 

How do you even fix that?

Frank:  My lawn owns all these other lawns.


Jacob:  No work, mama.  Hold you.  (reapat at least 10x)


Me:  The cat was looking at me funny before we left the house, slinking around like she threw up somewhere and is waiting for me to find it.
Frank:  That's nuts.
After returning home, I found cat barf on the throw rug in the hall. 


Me:  (At WalMart, realizing that I'm completely blocking this lady's access to the grapes)  Oh, sorry.
Lady:  That's ok.  You were humming "The Old Rugged Cross."  I didn't mind waiting.


Frank:  (Armed with a giant jug of Round-Up) The secret is to get the dandelions before they become puffballs.


Jacob:  (Waking up from his nap and hearing the neighbors' lawn service) Daddy home!  I hear mower!  Daddy have mower!

*****

Shareholders' Meeting

Last Saturday, my extended family got together for a little lunch party.  We call them "Shareholders' Meetings, " because mom and her brothers are shareholders in a land trust... we kids aren't shareholders but we got invited anyway... and saying, "Shareholders' Meeting" sounds way cooler than, "lunch party."  I hadn't seen most of my cousins since last summer, so it was especially nice to catch up. 

The lunch was organized by my Aunt Susie and held at their chuch, which was gave us plenty of room and even a little playground area for the kids.  The decorations were bright and springy!

(Should have gotten a picture before people started eating the cupcakes!)

After we ate, we sat around talking and playing...

 Aunt Susie, Jess, Wil, Kara, and Aunt Susie's mom "Grandma Meister"

 Rob, Wil, Dad, and Frank

 Nate and Rob

Uncle Ron, Uncle Randy and Frank, discussing Frank's encounter

with a judge who knew Uncle Randy, and yes, the story WAS

that hilarious!

Angie and Heather.  Heather NEVER wants her picture taken- this is like getting

a photo of the Easter Bunny, it's that rare.  I was hiding behind a plant at the time.

The party slowly began to move outside.  Guess who led the charge? 

That would be my kid with no shoes.

Colton, 13 months

Colt and McKenna racing down the slide

Shaelah and Sofia

It's possible that after finding out about Dad's door-to-door campaigning skills,

Adam is hiring him as a full-time staffer in this picture. ;)

The Shareholders- discussing business!

Such a fun afternoon!

Happiness Is...

Blue Sky Parfaits- blue jello and cool-whip

A shirtless toddler eating a snack after playing outside

The neon-green buds on my bushes in the backyard

Hope you are having a Happy Friday!

Fun-Filled Family Weekend

Last Friday afternoon we drove down to my in-laws' for the weekend.  That evening, we were headed uptown for a little party when Jacob noticed the fire station.  Those nice firefighters saw my kid pressed against the window like a little bug, so they invited us in, and even turned on the lights on the trucks!

For as brave as Jacob was beforehand, he got a little overwhelmed when they asked if he wanted to drive.  Did someone say, "Drive?" Jacob's favorite activity in the whole, wide world?  He just couldn't bring himself to do it, even if I sat with him.

On Saturday, we did a little shopping

(He literally crawled through Toys R Us pushing a car.  Good mom that I am, I just took a picture.)

We also visited Harrisburg, which was hit by a tornado a few weeks ago.  I think they have done an amazing job with cleanup, but there was still a lot of debris. 

What's totally odd is the randomness of the tornado.  I've always heard that but never seen it firsthand.  Some buildings were destroyed but maybe the building across the street only lost a few shingles.  Case in point:  the WalMart not 50 yards from this building was untouched.

On Sunday, we went to eat at Giant City Lodge.  It has such a neat atmosphere. 

See?  A buffalo!

And an eagle!

On the way home, we stopped to let the kids play at a place my niece and nephew call Castle Park, which is actually a cool little medieval climbing park built by an entrepreneur in memory of his son. 

It has all kinds of bridges and gargoyles and... medieval stuff... :)

It was here that we captured my favorite pictures of the whole weekend.

(The last one still makes me a little teary, hormonal pregnant lady that I am!  How lucky my kiddo is to have such great cousins!) 

We concluded our weekend by celebrating Brett's birthday a few weeks early and having an early Easter egg hunt.

We probably should have practiced hunting eggs, because Jacob didn't really catch on to it until about halfway through! Once he figured it out, he was all about it, though!

It was a fun-filled family weekend!

Enjoying the Warm Weather

It's been so nice outside that I haven't felt like sitting at the computer to blog!  Even though Jacob has had a little respiratory bug this week, we've been able to be outside a lot. 

Here's a quick picture recap of the week...

Lawn care season has started!  (note the somewhat scarcastic enthusiasm).  You can see Frank putting down fertilizer, and Jacob reeeally wanted to help. 

Trying every means possible to get outside.

In his cool-dude clothes for the Dressed to Thrill launch party on Wednesday morning.  You can't really see his canvas slip-on shoes, but they totally made the outfit.

Squeezing himself into the basket of the stroller, thinking he's being funny

and lots of tricycle-playing, even though he can't quite reach the pedals yet!

Friday Randoms

• The wind did indeed rip shingles off the roof over the garage again.  Only a few are gone this time, but since it was just last spring that the roofing guys were out to work on the same area of the house, I'm not really thrilled.  The wind was really strong, though-- some neighbors on another street lost siding on almost an entire side of their 2 story house.  That has to be more expensive than our issue.

• Jacob's words are cracking us up.  The other day he told my mom, "Gimmie kiss, Donna!"  Everything he says is really emphatic; I always picture exclamation marks after his sentences.  This week he's also said, "Wind blow my hair off!" and "Go downstairs!  Watch Clifford the red big dog!" and the funniest:  we were driving in the car and I swear he said, "I feel sick!  I need tea!"  He wasn't sick, I don't think, but I did get him some tea!

• My classes are keeping me fairly busy.  I told Frank a few days ago, that it isn't the academics that stress me, it's dealing with individual problems and situations from 62 people.  (All the teachers reading this just went, "Duh, Lori.") 

• I was invited to a launch party in a few weeks for a new business here in town specializing in little  boy's accessories.  It's run by a friend and fellow boy mom, so I'm pretty excited to see her collection.  Her website is http://idresstothrill.com/ if you want to check it out!

• Have you ever tried these:

We are big into Greek yogurt right now.  A cup has almost as much protein as a chicken breast.

•  The high temp is supposed to be 56 tomorrow and in the 60s next week!  Maybe spring really has sprung!