Last Monday, Memorial Day, we went to see a parade in our little downtown area. It was very small, but really cute and the boys had SO much fun waving at the fire trucks, the ambulance, etc. etc. The two town High Schools both had bands in the parade. I didn't realize until today that Logan even noticed them. This morning, he brought me a recorder (a "flute" he called it), he had a drum and Aiden had one cymbal and a stick thing. We had a parade around the house. I accidentally went to step in front of Logan and he said "no mommy...I'm the leader of the band!" Here are some pictures from our band practice this morning (I tried to upload a video, but I can't get it to work):


Here we are last Monday at the parade

L.A.B. Updates: Aiden and Logan both had fevers last week. Logan's was on Wednesday, Aiden's was on Sunday and Monday. Well, A broke out with a rash on his feet, inside his mouth, on his legs, bottom and feet so I took him to the doctor yesterday just to confirm what I already thought: Coxsakie virus (spelling?) also known as hand, foot and mouth disease. He's fine...just cranky for a few days and waking up entirely TOO early. Brady has been having HORRIBLE nights of sleep. So bad that, on Saturday night, I just put my pillow on the floor outside of his room, put a blanket on myself and slept there for a few hours so I could just get up, go give him his paci back and lay back down. I guess I was sleeping a bit heavily though because Brian said he stepped over me twice to go into Bray's room! Anyway, since I took Aiden to the doctor yesterday, I paid another $20 co-pay to have Brady inspected. Unfortunately, nothing was wrong. I only say this because, as I feared, it's just because he loses the paci and can't get it back in. We did this drill with Logan too and I took his pacifier away at 6 months which finally (finally!) got us a good night of sleep. So....Mr. Brady had his first night without the paci last night. It took some crying, screaming, back patting and even a little cuddling to calm him down, but he fell asleep and had a pretty good night. He did wake a few times, but nothing like the 15-20 times the night before. YEAH!

Look mom - no paci!! B cuddles Bro-Bear in his crib during nap time


Conversation at the Doctor's office:
(aiden is playing with a puzzle while we're waiting for the doctor to run a test then come back and look at Bray. A is on the exam table, L is sipping a Sprite in a chair...soda pop purchased to keep him still!)

A: look mommy...car! (holds up a piece of the puzzle)
L: I like cars!!
M: Haha - I know you like cars Logan!
A: I like balls!
M: Yes, you do like balls, don't you?! Hey...what do you guys think Brady will like?
L: Um...maybe....he'll like cars like me....and trucks and trains too!
A: no....balls!
M: I think Brady will probably like something totally different. Maybe he will like dinosaurs. Do you guys like dinosaurs?
L: no....we don't have any dinosaurs.
A: no....balls!


Memorial Day weekend: We had a lot of fun this past weekend. Saturday we did a BBQ with neighbors. Brian cooked on Jeff's grill (we didn't want all the kids in our neighborhood to have access to the mud behind our house in the empty lot so we did the cookout down the street, but Mr. Chef Boy-R-D here did the cooking...which was fabulous!) Bri made tri-tip steak sandwiches with roasted garlic mayo and chicken sandwiches on cibatta with roasted red pepper, fresh mozzarella and basil. Everyone brought tons of sides, desserts, drinks etc. Sunday we did dinner with Bri's family and Monday was the parade, our first trip to the pool this summer (and first EVER for Brady) and a BRLAB Memorial Day picnic on our front lawn a la KFC.

Logan and Aiden enjoy popsicles at the neighborhood BBQ


Brady at the BBQ in a borrowed exersaucer. It was actually pretty cold outside.
The men stand around the grill and grunt (not really....but almost)
The kids were all playing in a sandbox that was full of pink sand (house full of girls!) Some of the kids decided to pour sand on each other. Here is Logan's pink sand-filled head.
Aiden on the neighbor's play set climbing around
Our first trip to the pool. Logan goes down the slide in the kiddie pool. Sweet goggles dude! Aiden plays in the kiddie pool.
Our Memorial Day lawn picnic
Our sad little "shade tree". It's only 3 years old, but we did set up the blanket in the small shaded area it made on our lawn.
Aiden wasn't feeling well at the time so he just wandered around our picnic drinking water
This is Brady in his Bumbo chair (where he eats his cereal). When I walked around the table to clean Aiden's face after dinner one night, Bray wanted to see what we were doing.