What's New

Isn't it crazy how a conversation will cascade into new and very different topics? For instance, you start out talking about your flower garden and within seconds the topic has changed to why you graduated from college a semester early. That's what happened a few weeks ago during one of Ian's swimming lessons. The conversation started with who knows what, and eventually moved to my frozen burrito recipe (yum), then to how you make homemade refried beans, and then to a blog called 100 Days of Real Food.

I had never heard of 100 Days of Real Food before, but I was intrigued. When we got home (I still live in the stone age and do not have internet on my phone, I just got one with a camera a year and a half ago!!) I immediately checked it out. I was instantly in love! Cole has wanted us to change our diets for years, but I have never been on board because it just seemed so daunting. I've known the entire time that I needed to make a change; I'm not in denial just lazy. I also know how to eat a healthy diet: fruits, vegetables, lean protein, etc. I've heard the rule of thumb: If you great-grandma wouldn't recognize it, DON'T EAT IT! I just wouldn't do it because junk food is SO yummy!!!

But, 100 Days made it seem SO doable! I need plans and steps and strategy for EVERYTHING I do so this blog is such a perfect match. Within her blog she has a 14 week program of little weekly changes to make that gets your family off of processed foods. It was so exciting to see that by implementing little changes over a three month period, which honestly is a very short amount of time, we could finally make the changes I've known we've needed to make for years without feeling overwhelmed and floundering.

We started on Sunday, and I must say, I am feeling great! Maybe it's the placebo effect, but who cares? I still feel better, and I've lost 4 pounds. I've started obsessively reading every food label in the house, something I've never done before, and I find myself absolutely HORRIFIED by the number of ingredients in all the stuff we eat. I love that this blog goes past just "organic" and really addresses "processed" foods. The more I read, the more into it I am. I'm even starting to look into bread making! I think she says it best when she says, "Why would one want to eat a processed food-like substance that is scientifically designed to never rot?"

So this week has been a smashing success. Next week I have to say good-bye to my beloved Diet Pepsi. My crutch during the mornings when I had a newborn and 16 month-old (don't freak out, I drank it AFTER I fed Eli), my delicious bubbly beverage to kick start my mornings with toddlers, and my old friend who chills my throat while preparing breakfast for preschoolers. But, I'm happy to get back to drinking just water. That was my routine before two kids, and I know that was a much better choice. Stay tuned; hopefully I'll be able to report a deliciously successful loaf of homemade bread soon!

Time to Build

I have a lot of things I need to get done today, and I have to have the chums occupied or I will get NOTHING accomplished. What better way to engage two little boys than building a sheet fort. I did the main structure then dropped the bag of clothes pins and told the two finishing carpenters to complete the task.

Ah. I love moments like these.

Watch out, Michael Phelps.

Ian's last swimming lesson was today which meant, duh duh DUH......skills test. Well, I am thrilled to report that Ian absolutely, positively rocked the test and is saying 'Goodbye' to the Tadpole class and 'Hello' to the Turtle class (beginning July 23).


YAY, IAN BOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


At the end of the test the kids got to go down the water slide. Ian made it half way up the stairs the first time, freaked, and had the lifeguard carry him back down. Then he watched someone else go down, and was 'bout it, 'bout it.

 Patiently waiting for his turn, but the kids in front of him weren't sure about the slide.

There he goes!

He shot out like a rocket and the lifeguard "missed." (He had to crawl out the first time he went)

He went totally under and didn't care a bit.

Crawled out of the water, completely by himself.

And ran up the steps, ready for more!

Yep, that's the slide he went down! And there he is, sitting on the side, waiting to watch his classmates....who weren't feeling it like he was.

How proud is this dude? VERY!!!!!! 

And he got a sucker, so that might have been some of the reason for the cheese-tastic grin.

We went to McDonald's for lunch as a celebration, and in true Eli fashion, 40 minutes into the meal he had eaten two of four chicken nuggets, three apple slices, and less than half of his fries. And have you seen the new Happy Meal portion of fries? It is TINY! Ian and I were bored out of our minds, and when he finally decided he was done at the 55 minute mark, we jumped for joy!

After lunch we took an impromptu trip to the Decatur Zoo. It was nice and hot. The most interesting sight of the day was a man, who appeared to be an upstanding citizen, (standing in line with his own daughter) act like a complete jackass by huffing and sighing as loudly as he possibly could while lamenting to everyone in the other line how he "clearly picked the WRONG line today" because the 8 year old Zoo Campers in front of him were taking too long ordering. Are you kidding me? Act like a man, and shut your face. It was the perfect example of the adage: 'Looks can be deceiving.'

All in all, an AWESOME day!!!! I am so insanely proud of Ian. He loves being in the water, and I can't wait to see how he does in Turtles at the end of the summer.

Jump, Jump, Jumpadelphia

Cole and I have very, very active little boys. Ours are not of the calm variety. They like to be movin' and groovin' all day long. "Nap" is a dirty word in their minds. During the winter naps can be a really big challenge. That's part of summer's appeal....the ability to run them ragged outside and then bring them in for naps. I still only manage to get a nap out of Ian about once every three weeks, but this at least makes it more likely that Eli will nap. But, we have good night time sleepers.

Anyway, it's extremely common to find us out in the yard by 7:30 in the morning during the summer. The boys will run and jump and yell and play outside until 1:30 or 2:00 in the afternoon when they are finally, FINALLY, tired enough to relax and nap or, in Ian's case, have about an hour of quiet time. We don't even go inside to eat; that's an outside activity as well. To assist in the exhausting process, today I inflated the Jumpoline, a birthday gift for Ian from my parents last year. The boys LOVED it, although Eli was pretty irritated that he couldn't get the balls out.

They started by just jumping around but then realized that it was really, really fun to run and dive through the opening and slide across the bottom of it. It was so hilarious to watch.

Ian told me he was a baby dinosaur and the Jumpoline was his egg

Diving through the opening

Sliding to a stop

Jumping like a maniac

I love summer with the boys. It's really exciting to me that we no longer need to stop to change diapers, and if I choose to let Eli skip a nap I'm not ready to run into traffic by 5:00 in the evening. I'm also very grateful that the boys are so happy playing outside. I don't know how I could ever wear them out if they weren't. And trust me, I need the quiet time just as much as they do.

The Transit of Venus

Well, if you didn't get to see the Transit of Venus last night, you really missed out. It wasn't like it was the most thrilling sight to behold, but it won't happen again until 2117, and it really was a very cool experience. We went to Parkland to see it. The Champaign-Urbana Astronomical Society members were there to share their telescopes with the public, and Parkland's Staerkel Planetarium provided telescopes as well. It was so awesome to use these REALLY expensive telescopes and look at the sun. Plus, all of the people who brought telescopes were sooooooooooooo enthusiastic and ready to educate people about the sun, Venus, sun spots, etc. I also bought a round of solar eclipse glasses. The glasses cracked me up because they had "Solar Eclipse Dec. 25, 2000" and a picture of Santa driving his sleigh printed across the front. Whatever. They worked.

A lot of people showed up for the viewing. I was surprised.

More people

Some people were projecting the telescopic image onto paper or poster boards.

Best attempt at a group picture. That's right. This was the best.

Cole took this picture with the solar eclipse viewer over the camera lens.

Venus is the black dot at one o' clock.

Ian got a little frustrated with the viewing. I think he imagined looking through the telescope and seeing Venus just zip all over the place. He kept saying, "But Venus isn't moving." We tried to explain what was going on, but obviously, he's three! So ultimately we decided to go eat the picnic dinner I had packed for the occasion and then check it out again.

It was so windy (big surprise) that the bread got stale from wind exposure. I wish I was kidding.

Telescope provided by the Planetarium

The large, prominent black spot is Venus. The smaller flecks are sun spots.

Cole and I have learned through helping Ian learn about space that we are entering the max of the sun spot cycle.

He was a VERY happy little boy. Space is his main love....beside his mom, anyway. :)

You can really see Venus well in this picture.

Taken from our yard. The stuff on the side of the sun is just tree leaves blocking the view.

I was so glad that we went to see this. I get really excited about things that happen once in a hundred years. I did feel kind of sad when it was over because that's it, it's over. Ian loved it, Eli tolerated it, and Cole and I were both enjoyed ourselves immensely. I'm so glad that we are in an area where we have events like this available to us.

Ian the Tadpole

Guess who started swimming lessons today. Ian Boy, of course! He is in the "Tadpoles" class. He was a little apprehensive at first, but within two minutes he was kicking and splashing and having a great time.

Right before going in to shower off before lessons began

The Tadpoles work one on one with a lifeguard. Class started with each Tadpole letting their lifeguard hold them above water in the pool, moved on to laying on a boogie board and kicking, then swimming on a boogie board to retrieve toys floating in the water, and finally they were all swimming around with just the lifeguard's arm supporting their tummies.

Ian did SOOOOOO well. He was an absolute champ, especially since it was barely 70 degrees when his lesson started. Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! He can't wait to go back tomorrow.

Toting him to and from swimming lessons REALLY made me feel like a mom. This is the first structured activity he's ever had. I've enjoyed our carefree days, and now that he's old enough for activities I feel quite sad. He's a little boy, not a little baby anymore.

After his lesson....happy as can be and freezing his hieney off!!

Touch a Truck 2012

We went to Touch a Truck on May 16th. This year was much warmer than last year, and we didn't have Ian's gaping head wound to look at. Last year he got his stitches out the day before Touch a Truck and he still looked pretty gruesome. We had a fantastic time even though Eli jumped out of the cab of a cement mixer. That's about four feet off of the ground.

Worden Martin Race Car Simulator

John Deere Backhoe

Cement Truck

School Bus

Petting the firedog

Limo Driver

The Solid and Liquid Vacuum Truck.....a.k.a. The Sewer Truck. Gross.

Sleeper Cab

An Impressive Display of Endurance

Sunday was CrAzY around here. Cole made plans with some friends to have a night out on Saturday, so Sunday I got up with the boys at 5:00 a.m. (somebody PLEASE tell me how you make your kids late risers.....PLEASE!!!!) and tried to keep them happy and quiet while Cole slept in. By 8:00, however, things were, ahem, not going well. In fact, it was getting ugly. So I got the boys dressed and took them on a bike ride. They lasted an hour and a half! At that point, Eli had to use the restroom so we came home. Cole was still sleeping, so I loaded the boys in the car and we headed out to Allerton Park. We walked some of the gardens and then I decided to take the boys on a trail. It was 0.8 miles and the boys were amazing! Ian was the Colonel, and Eli and me were his soldiers. He led the way the entire time and never stopped to rest. After two hours we decided to head back home and get Cole.

We went back to Allerton, ready to take Cole "trailing," as Ian calls it. I suggested going on the same trail again. Cole on the other hand, thought we should do a 2.3 mile trail. I protested saying I didn't want to have to carry a kid after they decided they no longer wanted to walk. In the end Cole won and off we went. Well, somewhere along the way we inadvertently switched trails. We walked and walked and walked and walked. Of course, our pace was matched to the boys' pace so we were going really, really slowly. Finally, the boys were done for so Cole and I each picked up a kid and walked and walked and walked and walked some more. We eventually ran into someone and asked what exactly we had done. She told us to turn around and watch for this other fork in the trail. The boys got heavier and heavier. I finally had to give up on carrying a kid and just became a walking motivator instead.

When we finally got back to the gardens, we looked at the trail map and realized that we had walked well over three miles, and Ian hung in there almost the entire way. And this was after an hour and a half of bike riding, an hour of running through the gardens, and a 0.8 mile walk earlier. I was SOOOOOO amazed by his energy! For Cole and I the distance was nothing, it was the time and then the extra 35 pounds of kid that was so exhausting.

We finally headed back and stopped at McDonald's for an early supper. The boys DEVOURED their meals, which was amazing since Ian only eats once every four days and Eli routinely takes an entire hour to finish a meal. If you think I'm kidding, you are more than welcome to come observe a meal at our house. As soon as we got home it was bath time and the boys were in bed before 7:00. I was so ridiculously exhausted from getting up early and then eight solid hours of go, go, go, go, go that I had to resort to slapping myself in the face in order to stay up to watch Mad Men. (And by the way, it was AMAZING and totally worth it.) I was so zapped by the time it was over that I went to bed at 10:00 and my darling husband let me sleep until 7:40 this morning.

Here are the pictures from our awesome day.

Building a "campfire"

Ian is going to be an amazing Boy Scout someday. NOTHING makes him smile more than being outside. He is just euphoric.

I have NO idea how, but Cole spotted this snail (about the size of a quarter) while we were walking the trail. We were both in awe because neither of us had ever seen a snail in nature, just in a terrarium.

End of the three mile walk and Ian is still going strong. I am SO proud of this kid!!!!!!

I had to coerce Eli into walking more. I promised to carry him up the staircase if he would walk to it all by himself. He ran.