little boy are awesome...

The boys just brought me a handful of books each and told me they wanted to buy them. I asked where their money was. They looked around the room and found an outlet cover, a balsam pillow, and a vacuum extension, which they felt would be adequate funds. The transaction was thus completed and they went on their way.

Until thirty seconds later, when we repeated the purchase with the same books and the same money, which they took off the table to give to me again. We repeated this once more, but with pretend money this time.

Ya. Little boys are awesome.

don't worry, not dead

We've just been... absent. I decided that you, my friends and family, would probably be able to survive a brief blog hiatus while I attempted (attempted) to get our home whipped into shape with a Spring cleaning. It is an ongoing process.

Anyway, I'll try and get back on the ball. In the meantime, here are some cute pictures of the boys watching TV while playing with sleeping bags. Enjoy.

Ben

Sam

Sam and Ben

how does my garden grow?

With lots of toddler interference. That's how.

I purchased two spray bottles to water the seeds that we planted (spray bottles are better for seeds because the fine spray doesn't jostle the seeds the way a strong stream of water from a watering can does. Just FYI). I only really needed one, but luckily, in a brief moment of complete lucidity, I bought two.

Because the boys LOVE them. Utterly and completely. The first day they spent over an hour outside playing with them. It started with helping me water the seeds. Then moved onto the well established plants (more on them later) and ended up with spraying each other, until their shirts were almost soaked. Then they came in, asked for their jackets, and went back outside to spray their jackets.

Sam (in black) and Ben (in gray) watering the plants.

While these shenanigans were going on outside I chatted with my Mom on the phone for a while and asked what the weather was like there. It was forty degrees and she said that was something of a warm spell. And there was snow and ice everywhere. Our weather was sunny and bright and in the sixties. That is why our rent is so much, people.

And because of this. I planted these at the end of January. And Voila! Tulips! Well, tulip leaves anyway. It'll be a few more weeks till we have flowers. And when you see them and you're completely jealous, just remember: that's why our rent is so high.

Seed starting
(these come inside at night, but I was giving them some sun today)

I got a bit of a late start with my seeds. I should have started them inside a month ago, but I just got them planted a couple weeks ago. I've never (successfully) started plants from seeds before. It'll be interesting to see how it goes. Also, which device starts better seeds: egg cartons or toilet paper tubes. I'm putting my money on the tubes. I already have a couple little thyme sprouts. Yay!

We also started radish, carrot and lettuce seeds outside. The radishes are already sending up sprouts. Hurray!

Radish Sprouts
(when I thin these, I'm going to put them in a salad. They are yummy. Just another FYI for you)

Ben watering tulip plants

Of course, when you allow rambunctious toddlers into your garden things are bound to go awry. Especially when you turn your back on them to make a delicious dinner to feed your starving family. The following is such an example:

These used to be robust lemon thyme and parsley plants, bursting with life and culinary possibility.

The boys ripped off most of the parsley's leaves, pulled up half of my green garlic, and my rosemary cutting. They striped half of the lemon thyme. Sadness. Despair.

I guess I need to get some new plants. There's really nothing else to be done about it.

Oh, and here's a little movie of the boy's playing with their water bottles. My favorite part is when Sam starts drinking it and looks at me to see if I'm going to stop him. Classic Sam.

8 weeks later

You may or may not remember when we wrote about our exercise program. Well, guess what? We stuck to it. Now we can run 30 minutes without stopping. Maybe not as impressive as what my Dad's up to, but not too shabby if you ask me. The only problem now is now that we achieved all our goals we don't know what to do with ourselves, any suggestions?

Craftiness

Craftiness - In the form of pillows

I mentioned to a friend of mine that one of my goals this year was to be craftier. And she said, "Do you mean crafts, or...like being crafty" So, yes. I mean the creating of crafts, not being cunning, artful, or wily. Though there has been a significant lack thereof on my part, lately. Especially wily.

Ben - jumping onto the pillows

Anyway, a couple of months ago, the boys' pillows erupted in a cloud of fluff. They had been washed too many times, and it was all too much for them to handle. They were just cheapies from IKEA, so I wasn't too upset about it. But, I didn't want to just throw out two pillows worth of stuffing, because that just seemed wasteful. And I just hate to throw things away when I think they can be useful for something. Which explains our upstairs closet.

Ben lounging, King-of-Persia style

So, all that fluff sat in a big plastic bag on our dryer for several months. Until Friday, when I broke out the sewing machine and got to work.

What we started with: a bedsheet and a bag full of stuffing

I used my old fitted bedsheet from my college days, when I had a single bed and which now serves no purpose in our house (we're planning on keeping the boys in their crib sized beds with one side taken off for as long as humanly possible).

I just cut four circles out of the fabric and then found the circumference (which was probably the hardest part and required a google search. In case you were wondering, Zach still remembered the formula. He's awesome and annoying like that. It's , in case, like me, high school math was wasted on you.)

My goal was to create pillows that they could use as little chairs for watching TV and reading books and the like. And because you can never have too many pillows.

Watching Pocoyo

As you can see, they have fulfilled that original purpose.

But, they have also used them as soccer balls, projectiles, layers of a cake and trampolines. And I don't know why I was surprised by that.


After all, we're dealing with wily little boys here. Next step: Make removable (and washable) covers.

Temple Trip

Sam and Ben in front of the Oakland Temple

We finally managed to make it up to the Oakland Temple. The boys thought it was pretty incredible and reveled in the multitude of things to run around, jump on, and be all-around irreverent towards.

So, overall, it was definitely a success.

Ben, running around and around the (emptied) fountain.

Zach chasing Sam

Ben (a.k.a. Little Imp)

The temple is nestled among the multitude of hills that make up this area. There are some pretty incredible views to be had of Oakland and San Fransisco.

The a fore mentioned views.

And there was a plaque with a picture of a ship on it. Which was way more impressive to the boys than any silly old view.

My Boys.