4 wheels and a helmet

Before Shawn left, he insisted on buying Caleb a bike (a little seperation guilt). It's a really nice bike too, with brakes on the handle bar and trick bars on the front tires (because Caleb is all about the tricks...NOT).

Caleb really likes the bike, but I think he may like his knee pads better. He has been doing a lot of falling, but thankfully he gets right back up and tries again.

He thinks he's like one of the big boys in our neighborhood who do tricks off ramps.

The pedals are hard to find sometimes..

And hard to push sometimes...

Twilight Zone

I put 4 rugs into the washing machine, two brown, one beige, one blue. Before I went to bed, I put into the dryer 4 rugs, two brown, one beige, one blue. This morning, I pulled 4 brown rugs out of the dryer....WHAT IS GOING ON?? I swear it the freakin Twilight Zone! Where did 4 brown rugs come from!

Fruits of our labor

We are finally getting some produce from our little garden. It consists of several pots filled with cherry tomatoes, beef tomatoes, and eggplant. The cherry tomatoes are producing the most right now, but we have at least 4-5 eggplant almost ready for harvesting, and one 8 inch that we've already cut. And before we eat them all, Shawn wanted to capture the fruits of our labor.

Cherry tomatoes

Basil

Beef Tomato

(still green because one of the birds knocked it off the plant)

More cherry tomatoes

Spoonin' it

Riley is starting the new adventure of using a spoon. It's probably more of an adventure for me as I'm always trying to explore new ways of cleaning up the mess.

He's getting pretty good at maneuvering the spoon upright... although he doesn't quite figure it out until the spoon is directly under his lips and the food has left a path of dripping yogurt or applesauce down his arm and across the high chair (which he likes to smear into an Abstract Impressionist piece of art).

He loves to eat. Between Riley and Caleb, I can't keep food in the house!

If he ever wants to run for president one day, I'll have proof that he DID inhale! And after he did it once and the pain of having yogurt in his sinuses subsided, he did it again and then once more.

Summer Fun

What's better than a summer afternoon playdate with your bestest friend jumping in a bounce house????

Getting sprayed down with the waterhose while your jumping and sliding.

Watching these two made me miss being a kid and the fun of summer.

Riley has also had some playdates, but his are a little less exciting than Caleb's.

4th of July

2 weeks prior to the 4th of July, I woke up at 4:45 to put my name on the list for a pavilion. I was determined to have a party at the sea wall, especially after I was told that certain people were given the opportunity to pick a pavilion before the general public. Yes, those with rank do seem to rank higher in privileges...and I don't like it! However, that is how the community is organized on base.. everyone is meant to feel separated or at least less significant than others.

Anyway, I was the first person in line for a pavilion. And was approved. So the party was on. Shawn and I arrived 2 hours before everyone else in order to get charcoal hot and decorations up. The boys played on the sidewalk drawing pictures and sometimes eating chalk.

The weather was beautiful. There is always a breeze at the sea wall that cools the air from the heat of the sun.

John and Riley, they look like they could be brothers.

The night festivies inlcuded sparklers, red white and blue lighted bracelets, and flash lights for the kids.

Spiced peach tea, Mojitos, Jack Daniels Cooler, and Cherry Amaretto jell-o shooters for the adults.

It made for a great party and the fireworks were shot off from a barge in the water sitting basically right in front of us. It was so worth getting up early to give everyone we know the same opportunity as those with more privileges than the general public...

Quick Update

It's been awhile since I've posted, I KNOW. I've been having some trouble with my computer and I'm too cheap to replace it right now. I bought a king size bed instead!

Anyway, so here is a quick update of the last couple of weeks:

Father's Day was pretty uneventful because it rained all day till about 5:00pm. We did make it out for some ice cream after the rain. The boys got a chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich to share, but Caleb didn't want to share. We told him that he could either share or have none at all. He chose none at all...OMG he is so stubborn.

I had a girls' night out to celebrate Jen's birthday. We had a lot of fun. I haven't been out on a Friday night till 10:00pm for a LONG TIME.

Jen and Amy

Me and Jen

We've been busy having BBQ picnics (when it's not raining). Caleb has discovered the joys of frozen food coloring...he probably had 6 frozen pops one right after the other and loved each sliver of ice.

I was too interested in capturing this moment of the boys on the slide together that I didn't even think about catching Riley at the end. This is no little slide, it stands about 12ft tall and when Riley hit the bottom....let's just say that I have guilt every time I see this picture and felt guilt for about 3 days afterwards from looking at the bump on his forehead.

I'm a great mom...

Caleb has learned how to shuck corn and has decided that he doesn't like the thin strands of the husk on his hands, but really enjoys pulling off the outer part.

And we've had some mud time. The boys are very different when it comes to mud time. Caleb doesn't like to get dirty and insists on spraying off every couple of minutes, but Riley loves to get dirty and run around until the mud dries and flakes off....

And that's what we've been up to.