This is the kind of post that happens when you 1. Continue to Take Pictures and 2. Compose Stuff (in your head) for a blog, but 3. Do not actually get around to doing the posts. This should have been 5 separate topics. Therefore, I will try to split them up a bit for easy reading :)

Post 1: Crazy for Crazy Bones
So...I had never seen or heard of crazy bones until I went to our favorite toy store with the boys one day. I was intrigued by this big display of carrying bags, tins, a game book etc....but I still could NOT tell what these things were all about. That's because the actual "bones" come in bags like trading cards and you can't see what they are until you open them. I bought a pack, which contained 3 little guys, to investigate. The "original" game is based on an ancient Roman children's game, played with actual bones, called tabas. I checked out the crazy bones web site and it turns out that there are tons of ways to play with these things. We pull them out every few days and make up a new game (or race them down the matchbox car track or....um....carry them around in a variety of containers <-- Aiden). Here is a game we made up called "Roll a Bone". First, line up the crazy bones on the floor...(aren't they funny!)

The older boys went to a summer camp in the mornings all last week. It was a rough start for both of them. Logan wasn't keen on participating, decided camp was boring and refused to make the craft on Monday. We talked about how fun is often about attitude and that if you THINK something is fun, it's much easier to have fun doing it. If you THINK something is boring, well of course you're going to dislike it. After our talk, Logan decided to think that camp was fun. He participated in all the activities and was excited to go each day. He liked it so much, they are going again next week for "Super Hero Week". Yeah Logan!

Aiden's issue stemmed mostly from the fact that he was at camp with ALL the neighborhood kids including his best friend, and personality twin, AJ. Aiden got written up the first day for wrestling around with "another camper". Since that is pretty much how Aiden and AJ communicate with each other (a big bear hug that disintegrates into falling on the ground...and actually doesn't involve much wrestling...), I figured that "the other camper" was probably AJ. He went to camp for the rest of the week with a list of things he couldn't do. He would name them for me on the way "1. no wrestling....etc" He did a great job and had a "much improved" stamp of approval from the girls running the camp by the end of the week.

On Thursday, I told the boys that I would have a special surprise for them if they both had a good day at camp (which means getting a sticker from the counselors). When they proudly showed me their dinosaur stickers at pick-up, I happily showed them the 2 cans of shaving cream I bought at Walgreen's. After lunch, we dragged the wagon, Brady's car and the cozy coupe around to the back yard to play car wash for a little bit. Ella and AJ came down...we even brought out some spray bottles left over from the get messy party. I was surprised at how fast you can use up two cans of shaving cream!

Post 3: Matchy-Matchy Me

Why am I compelled to make everything match? When I do stuff like this, it makes me think of team sports, pictures of ballet recital outfits....and cheerleaders. Like..is this a trait left over from my own cheerleading days when we all had to wear the exact same bow the exact same way?? ....or is this a god-given trait and potentially one of the reasons why I was drawn to cheerleading?? The bottom line is that I like to match stuff...and by "stuff," I mean my children...and by "match" I think I mostly mean coordinate....cause doing all the same color is too confusing. These are the morning milk cups ready for filling.
Post 4: Camp Invasion

As mentioned previously, the boys went to summer camp last week. Of the 10 campers in the class, 7 of them were from our neighborhood. On the last day, the parents were invited to come for a picnic.

I was dying laughing because my boys never eat hot dogs in buns. Aiden attacked his from the top...like a hamburger. I better get started on proper dog-eating form if they want to represent at the Cubs game next month!
Auntie Denna was in for the day. She came to the picnic too!! Here she is smooching crazy-hot-dog-eatin' Aiden.I took about 20 group shots of our gang...and I have to post several of them because they're pretty funny. Here are the kids sitting relatively still: Now the exodus from the table. This is Ella yelling "Camp is fun!!" AJ jumps off the back, Aiden jumps off the front. Logan yells and preps for his jump.Ella jumps (Aiden and AJ are actually now back ON the table, ready to jump again...Logan is gone...Maddie poses...Jack observes) Jack jumps. Aiden and AJ eye their next move, Maddie slides off the end. Auntie Denna and Brady play around. A few more minutes of fun before we all head home.
Post 5: Family Fun Magazine Rocks

I used to get a magazine each month called Wondertime, which I totally adored. It wasn't about developmental milestones or how to get your kids to sleep...it was about life as a mom or dad and about how to help your kids grow as real people with real experiences...plus it had totally cool activities, crafts and recipes. I almost cried the day I got an email explaining that Wondertime would no longer be published and that I would be receiving, in its place, a magazine called Family Fun. Well...Family Fun rocks too! Same great stuff....same basic feel!! I've been getting the magazine for a little while now. This month's issue came last week. I already have a list of things we need to try. #1 on list were the sponge balls....marketed, if you will, as somewhat permanent water balloons. Did someone say water? Rockin' awesome! I was at the store the next day for supplies!

Instructions: take 3 sponges (mix up colors if you like...for fun). Cut each into 5 strips length wise (seems like it won't work, but it does). Oh, and they need to be fresh from the pack, like sort of damp. I had a pack that was dry so I just remoistened them, then stuck them in a zip lock for a while before cutting. Here, Aiden and Auntie Denna prep the sponges! I bought 4 packages of 4 so we made 5 sponge balls (enough to share!)
Here is a picture of the article. You can see in the bottom right corner how you sort of "reassemble" 3 sponges on top of each other and tie them TIGHT TIGHT with a string...fan out the "arms", trim the excess string and away you go! (TIE THEM TIGHT...one of ours sort of wiggled loose once it got wet)

Totally fun!

They turned out larger than I imagined. We took them straight outside for a test run - A+ (except the one that wasn't tight enough)

Sort of like pom poms (kidding daddy! kidding!)

I still haven't found the time to put together our 4th of July weekend post, but I took some great pictures today that I have to share.

Monday, during neighborhood playgroup, Bray got a little boo-boo. One of the neighborhood girls was playing with a bat and Brady just walked right into her swing. Owch!! I took him to the pediatrician's office the next day and everything seems just fine. Our very first shiner! Poor little man!

Yesterday, Memaw and Grandpa brought over a GREAT new hand-me-down for the boys...courtesy of Aunt Diana, Uncle David and cousins Max, Zach and Jack. AWESOME!
Of course the boys had to take it for a spin this morning as soon as humanly possible.

Luckily, our neighbors don't seem to mind a few track marks in their yards...yikes!

Our favorite babysitter brought over her brand new, beautiful baby girl this afternoon for lunch. The boys were totally ga-ga for Lyla! Logan perched himself on the couch and asked if he could please hold her. He's been through this whole "gentle with the baby thing" before!

This is Brady after lunch (shirt removed for peanut butter filled celery). He was SO distraught that he couldn't hold the baby (wrapped in the pink blanket taking a nap on the couch). When he first saw her, he tried his hardest to push me out of the way so he could grab her like a little baby doll (something we didn't let him do) and kiss her (something we did let him do!)

After the boys were in bed tonight, I was straightening up and went to close the curtains to the back window. While I was pulling them shut, I saw a beautiful, BIG rainbow outside! I said to Brian, "go get Aiden quick!!" We knew he was still awake because we could hear him knocking around in his room. Of course you've got to get the rainbow-lovin' kid up for a peek at this beaut! The picture doesn't do it justice...but Aiden appreciated it!

It's that time again....time for another birthday party! Aiden turns 3 in 2 weeks, but his party is next Friday, the 3rd. It's "get messy" just like last year, but with a Hawaiian Tiki theme. Logan and Aiden have been helping me get everything ready for the crafts we have planned. I'm posting our "tests" on the projects page. I took a couple funny pics of the big boys helping me out though plus one picture that makes me quite worried for the future....

Before I get to those, I needed to post this one. I didn't realize that I never added a picture of the front of Aiden's UP house to my last post. Idn't it the cutest?? Yes...I do mean idn't :) I still can not fathom the amount of work this must have taken!! P.S. Nana, all the balloons are still attached (no longer floating, but still inflated) and all three boys are still happily dragging it around!
Here is the picture that got me worried (I took several like this with my iphone one day while we were playing outside). This is Susan's big battery-powered jeep toy. As you can see, it's supposed to fit 2, but no one wanted to be left out. Logan was driving and was being quite reckless....which I'm pretty sure was by design. He ran into: AJ's scooter, his bike, Mackenzie's bike, the tree in our front yard and almost his brother. Aiden and AJ, to add to the drama of the situation, were hanging on the back and would nearly fall off every time Logan would jerk forwards or backwards (and we're talking falling off on the hard sidewalk or driveway). I looked at Susan and said "we're in big trouble when these kids have actual driver's licenses!!" It's hard to tell, but Logan has himself in a pickle right now...he's trying to turn around after having run into our tree so that he's back on the sidewalk.
Here are the boys washing out 24 little water bottles for me. We're making sand art palm tree people and needed the labels off the bottles. Logan was in charge of opening them, putting the caps in a cup, dumping out the water, and giving the empty bottles to Aiden. Aiden's job was to put each bottle on the stick end of a mixing spoon and submerge it into the hot water on the other side of the sink until it filled up and sunk to the bottom (the water was pretty hot so I didn't want him to hurt himself....hence the spoon).

The palm tree people have googly eyes....the boys were playing around with them...

....now that's pretty funny....and kinda weird!!