There's no crying

We bought a fathers day card last week, the kind that talks when opened up. This particular card has a movie line quip by Tom Hanks from a league of their own... you know the one "there's no crying. There's no crying in baseball!" James and Ben are obsessed with that card and have been going around all week repeating that infamous line, which makes me laugh cuz Ben says it "der no eye-ing. der no eye-ing in bey-balls." and its just fun to hear him talk- but things got even better when at swim lessons James told him "there's no crying. there's no crying in swim lessons!" after Ben broke into the saddest cry when it was his turn to swim. Now James, Ben and I all say it on our way to swim lessons- although it hasnt helped. Ben still cries whenever its his turn.
We made a quick trip to San Diego last weekend, and spent a few hours at the beach. I got everyone all sunscreened up, but the wind coming off the ocean managed to interfere with my spray on protection. The kids had some interesting designs from some of the sunscreen working, and other parts of their skin being exposed to the sunrays. Ben was the best though- his swimsuit covered his buns when I sprayed him up, but as he played and ran his swimsuit kept slipping down, exposing his cheeks quite a bit- so his little bunz have been red and white striped this week.

James has been obsessed with Mario Galaxy-(Daniel bought it for some family Wii bonding time a couple of weeks ago) and whenever I tell him his time is up he has been throwing tantrums equal to those of his 2 year old stage. Not fun. I have been told at least 100 times that he hates me. I think I hate video games. They seem to be turning my sweet loving boy into a gremlin. So one would think that I would just ban my 4 year old(he says he is anyway) from the wii, but the reason I let him play is cuz it gives me 30 minutes to take my shower and get dressed and do my hair for the day without him and Ben upsatirs with me, schmearing toothpaste and bagbalm on the mirror the whole time. So the gremlin behavior is easier to clean up, and doesnt pose as much of a threat that my arm will come out of its socket in the process like cleaning that mirror does. Which has happened several times in the past few months, but I have been VERY LUCKY that its gone right back in. I really should hire a maid to clean my house, as its obviously hazardous to my health to do it myself. :)
Toast and Kylie have been doing a day camp this week. Daniel and I thought it would be something fun for them to do, but we are kinda disappointed with it. It's been lame-o. Just my opinion. I dont think we will be investing our time in that again. It feels like a day care. Which I dont need or want for my kids. We have lots of fun together doing our own "day-camp" things throughout the summer, but I thought this would be a good way for them to be more social as they are both very shy. And they have made a few new friends-Kylie has met 2 other girls her age named Kylie, which is fun cuz she has never met anyone yet with her same name- but all in all- it has not been what we were thinking it was going to be like. Live and learn I guess.

We have the leap frog alphabet letter fridge magnets on our fridge and for the past year Daniel and I have been exchanging love notes by taking turns rearranging the letters into creatively spelled messages of love. We are so cheesy sometimes it kills me, but I love it. Its fun to go to the fridge throughout the day and see something like- Kimmys my favorite- with upside down L's or sideways w's to make up for missing letters. We have had some pretty good laughs at some of the  messages we come up with, like- Daniel is magically delicious- or Kimmy is my love heroine- but what has made this even more fun is that the kids have gotten  in on it. I had arranged Kimmy really loves Daniel-(one of my rather basic and simple messages, but heartfelt just the same) but Toast decided to spice it up with this..

All I can say is, yes I do. It is a rather nice rump, in my opinion.

Toast to Toast

Daniel really likes to channel Bob Parr aka Mr Incredible when the kids have any kind of recognition program- such as kindergarten graduation. He thinks "its psychotic- they keep creating new ways to celebrate mediocrity." So he was not very excited to have to go to Toasts graduation  last night. It didnt help that we were in the very back row, and that  I left him with the 2 yahoos aka James and Bennie-boo, and crept down the aisle to the front so I could snap a few pictures. (there were a bunch of other parents who had the same idea, so I was still pretty far back and then ended up with pictures of the backs of other people heads from them popping up the exact moment I was trying to snap a picture, so my effort was pretty much wasted anyway)
But Toast was very excited and that made it worthwhile. Now for some squint your eyes and try to find him pictures.
                                                 (T is for Toast- does that help you find him?)

                                           (This is him shaking the hands of the tattooed principal)
                             (I tried to figure out what her tattoo was of, but my vision is horrible and my best guess
                                      is a mosquito- as the schools mascot is just that- but I could be wrong)

(and here he is using his certificate as a spotting scope)

 

                                           He looks all innocent and charming as we head out

                                              But he turns into gremlin mode very quickly

                                    Kylie was bored by the whole thing. Note her pirate look
                  She had a pirate party and this was the best "costume" we could come up with
                                          Personally I think its more "punk" than "pirate" but oh well.

Since we made a big deal about Kylies kinder graduation 2 years ago we had to do the same with Toast, so after his little program we let him choose his favorite place for dinner. He chose Olive Garden- weird cuz he isnt a pasta fan, but whatever floats his boat. So we took all 4 yahoos to dinner. Madness ensued. They sat us in a booth right between 2 parties of 4 made up of those 60 and older. They were none too pleased with my Bennie boo turning to them and growling/yelling/and calling them "grandpa". Nor did they appreciate Jamseys continual head bonking against the side of the booth,  (this is why we dont take them out to eat unless its a one on one date-) But again- Toast was so excited that we couldnt be too irritated, and thankfully the old people werent mean about it.

So now we finally get to join the rest of the world on summer vacation. WOOHOO!

Over night

While putting away laundry, I was talking with my Bennie-Boo and asked him why he was so silly. He says, "ohhh just cuz!" That kinda threw me for a loop. When did my baby start talking? A few minutes later he ran into his room and shut the door. So I took a break from the laundry and went and hid against the wall so when he opened it I could jump out with a loud "boo-ya!" and see him jump a mile high. Which he did- and we both laughed. But then he says, "you scared me mommy!"  My jaw literally dropped and I looked at him for a good minute trying to figure out when did this happen. When did my baby go from "goo goo ga ga" to "you scared me mommy"? I think it really must have happened over night.

Since Monday was a holiday, the kids didnt have school, but Daniel had to get some work done, so he stayed home while Ben took a nap and I took the kids to see Shrek 3. When I asked James if he liked the movie this is how he responded: "well the bad guy has really big spikey hair and he has the witches on his team, and he gives Shrek a map that makes Shrek fall out of the sky, but when he hits the ground the witches throw skeleton balls at him and he gets some owies, and then the other shreks dont know him and they go fight the bad guy with the big hair and then everyone breaks into sixty five pieces and then they have a party...the bad guy doesnt like Jesus. But I do. He's so nice."  Shrek in a nutshell.

Toast has yet another loose tooth, but he wont let me pull it out. I snuck into his  room while he was sleeping to try to get it out, but even in his zonked out zone he swatted my hand away and turned his head into a position that wouldnt allow me to pry his mouth open. It's really bugging me cuz his big front tooth has been growing in and its knocking right into the loose one and I just need one good pull and it would be out, but Ty believes in letting it come out on its own. Its going to drive me insane if it doesnt come out soon.

2 weeks ago Kylie was tested at school because of her "academic achievements."(what does that mean? she's finishing up 2nd grade- what academic achievement?) Anyway they sent her results home and she is "an accelerated learner"- in the area of non verbal cognitive abilities-(what the heck is that?) and "above average" in verbal and quantitative cognitive abilities. Shes a smart one, no doubt, but what I find kinda funny and kinda worrisome at the same time is that she was slightly miffed she wasnt at the "genius/gifted" level. What to do with that girl.
I was having some fun the other day with google translator- you can put in any word/phrase/saying and have it translated into the language of your choosing. So I sent Daniel several love texts in Spanish, just to mix it up. He responded with "no comprendo." So I text him to have his Spanish speaking loan officer translate. Which I was kidding about- I figured he would have googled it himself, but  since sarcasm doesnt come through texts very easily he took me seriously and had her translate my love texts to him. I am rather embarrassed now.(not cuz I was inappropriate or anything-  I just really dont think having her translate "you are smoking hott" to Daniel was the best way for that to be said. She thankfully has a sense of humor, so no law suits will be filed.