Box Of Mystery!

Some of you parents out there may be familiar with a little group called The Wiggles. They are a four-man singing/dancing/acting extravanganza for the preschool set. Each of them has special talents. Greg, the Yellow Wiggle (ex-yellow, yes, I know) is a magician. He would do these silly routines with hankerchiefs and flowers and the Box Of Mystery. Anyway, a Box Of Mystery showed up on our doorstep the other day from Aunt Brigid and much to our delight, it was filled with all kinds of goodies for the sandbox and for making snowcones and popsicles! What a fun summer surprise!

Here's Sarah making her snowcone.

Some of the goodies - a manual snowcone maker AND an electric one! (Did she know we have impatient children?) The sand toys were outside in the sandbox before I even got the camera out.


Ethan, on his third blue snowcone.



Oh yes! Did you know that Jose Cuervo margarita mix goes great with shaved ice? Honey thinks so!

Best buddies - Lucas and Dryden. Doesn't it look like Dryden is asking "Do these shorts make my butt look big?"



Thanks Aunt Brigie for the awesome treats! We miss you!

Birthday Party Saturday

On Saturday we started with Lakyn's 5-1/2 at her neighborhood pool. It was a gorgeous and hot sunny day that melted the frosting on the cupcakes! Here's some of the girls, including Lexie, Bella, Grace, Lakyn, and Sophia and two polka-dotted standing girls I don't know.


Lucas riding on Dad's back while he's underwater. Lucas is becoming quite a little fish. He loves to jump off the side of the pool into our arms and has no problem going underwater!


After Lakyn's party, we were off to Lizzie's party. She has a pool at her house and we went right back into the water! Here's Ethan with some of his school buddies: Rylee, Robert and Kelly.


Birthday girl, Lizzie.

New Neighbors

A new family moved in up the street. They have four kids too. Two girls and two boys. Kiara will be in 2nd grade, Angelina in kinder, Alexander (Bubba) is 3 and Giovanni is 9mos. We all laughed when we found out...seems they were on the two-year plan just like us. I'm sure you'll see pics of them on here as we get to know them better.

And RIP Ed, Farrah and Michael. What a week for the entertainment industry.

Happy Birthdays!

To my friends Honey, Stacey and Tammy all celebrating this week! And the kids have two birthday parties Saturday for Lakyn and Lizzie! Good thing we love cake!

It's Too Hot

to be outside. Over 100 degrees every day with heat index for the last week and no relief in sight. So we went to Dynamoze, an indoor play center. Lucas went for a birthday party a few months back but this time all the kids got to enjoy it.

Remote control trucks.


Tricycle race track.

Roller coaster. I love Lucas' face in this pic.

Fun for Fudge

At least I hope it was fun for Fudge. The boy across the street and Jacob built this maze for Fudge to go through - complete with lettuce bribes and dead ends - in his garage. Every time Fudge went forward, they would take the blocks away from behind him and add them to the front to make the maze longer.






Afterwards, Fudge crashed long and hard. Doubt he exerted that much physical energy but it was probably pretty mentally challenging as he wondered "what is going on here" and went into survival mode.

Happy Father's Day!

Sorry, Dad. I had to do it! haha!! The best part is the caption on the back: "Shannon gets new shoes and a Coors on the same day!" 8 mos. 9/72



And to my crazy baby daddy, Mark: You have such a way with the children. I love that about you.

Don't call CPS

Lucas is apparently extremely sensitive to insect bites. His face, especially, welts up like he's been in a knock-down, drag-out bar fight. This was from a mosquito earlier in the week. Doctor says he'll probably grow out of it.


Fudge gets to run around now without his pen. He races around the living/dining room area as if he's being chased, even though he isn't. He stays on the carpet. Maybe the tile is too cold? Or slippery? I read that guineas like to find things so I hid some carrots inside a bunch of timothy hay inside a toilet paper tube. I think he had some fun trying to get it out.