Can He Fix It?

Last week I was able to sneak down to the central valley for a few days to visit with friends. It is always so much fun and a special treat to spend time with good friends that I don't get to see very often.

The Metropolitan Museum in Fresno was holding a "Bob the Builder" kids exhibit so we packed up the four children, plenty of snacks and headed out for the morning. There was so much to see and do, that even after 2 hours the kids were still going strong. Everything was hands on, exploring and "building" so it was perfect for our gang. Eli especially loved the tools and one exhibit where you put a golf ball in a shoot that sucked it up and spit it out at the top, all to watch it ping-pong its way down through a maze of nuts and bolts!

Another Week

I can't seem to type fast enough these days to keep everyone up to date on the little crazy boy running around our house. Here are just a few highlights from last week:

Nana and I returned to the Jack and Jillybean Salon for Eli's second hair cut there. I was curious if the first time was a fluke, but I guess he really does like this place! He chose the police car and the end result was a great haircut and a pretty cool little mohawk!

"Big Brown Truck" ~ Ever since the UPS delivered Eli's cowboy hat, he has often used that experience to problem solve current ones. When the store is out of something, or more importantly, when we couldn't find him an orange hockey puck (to complete his Guitar Man show) Eli offered this advice..."maybe the big brown truck bring one?!"


"ABC remix" ~ Eli's love for the ABC's is going strong and in honor of his favorite letter 'O' he has created his own version. It goes something like this: a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h,i,j,k,O,O,O, nother O,p,q,r,s,t,u,v,w,x,y,z!

Bits & Pieces

Last week there were a ton of little things that I kept thinking, "I should blog about this", but they weren't related at all. So here are all the bits from last week:

~ "Ah fooey" - Eli's new phrase (compliments of ???) to use when something doesn't turn out quite right.

~ Nicks - The name of Eli's new imaginary friend whom he only talks to via his cell phone. So far, we have discovered that Nicks lives at Home Depot, he often "doesn't know", and he was a girl on Sunday, but today is a boy again. Should we be concerned?

~ The week of peppers - Last week we tried several new recipes and they all seemed to use red peppers. We figured out we used a total of 7 in one week! Turkey burgers stuffed with roasted red peppers and mozzarella cheese (super yummy!) and Penne with sausage and roasted red peppers were the best. Click here for the recipes!

~ Third Times a Charm!!! - Grant and I got a king size bed (hallelujah) a few months ago but have not had a frame. We had ordered two frames previously on-line but when they arrived they were damaged. The third one came last week and was in perfect condition! We love it. The only problem is that it is meant to be a platform bed so you wouldn't need to use box springs, but since we had them already, our bed is currently very tall. We are still deciding which way we like it better. Here's a picture. Isn't it pretty? We don't have the right size duvet yet or a bed skirt, so excuse the mismatched bedding.

~ Safety First - Always remember to wear your "safety helmet" while delivering mail (see photo). Nana and Papa provided this super fun cardboard house. We put it together last weekend and Eli loves peaking out of the windows and most of all, delivering mail, "just like on Bob & Larry!"

A Night of Twilight

A few weeks ago, I joined this awesome group of ladies to celebrate our friend Megan's birthday...Twilight style! It was one of the most fun nights I've had since my days of junior high sleep overs. Due to our most recent obsession (uh, I mean, interest) the entire evening was based on a Twilight theme. We have all read the books (all 4!) and loved them. The cake, the tank tops (yes, we actually made them ahead of time) and of course the movie (including ALL the bonus features!). We talked too loud over dinner, probably making the restaurant staff blush, giggled, ate junk food and stayed up way too late. All the things that girls do best!

Can't wait until the second movie comes out in November...another girls night perhaps???

The cake

My tank top

The Hat

In light of Eli's recent obsession, I went online and found the perfect hat (he specifically requested a black guitar hat) to complete the ensemble. When Eli woke up from his nap today you would have thought it was Christmas! The "big brown truck" had dropped off a special package just for Eli. He was so excited, he was shaking as he tried to get the box open.

After a few tries, he found a fit he liked!

Doing his first performance with the hat...I think we might have created a monster!!!

Warning:

Do not attempt to arrange alphabet cards on less than 6 hours of sleep!!! Every so often I'd glance up and realize that the letters were not quite in the right order (even though they came in a stack that was in order). That certainly might hinder Eli's ability to learn the alphabet!

Anyways, if you happened to be up early this morning (or have google reader) I posted about this earlier, but then the post reminded me of these adorable alphabet cards I purchased at Michael's months ago with the intent of hanging them on Eli's wall, so here is my updated post:


"The Letter of the Week"

The ABC song has been on Eli's mind lately (when he's not singing "Guitar Man", that is!) and he has become very observant and loves to point out whenever he sees letters. That is quite often, as he seems to notice the letters on every single sign, picture, book, etc. that we come across. The first letter he can recognize and knows by name is the letter 'O'. He gets sooooo excited when he sees an 'O' and immediately shouts "oh, I see 'O'"! or "oh, oh, there's an 'O'"! like he's just won the lottery or something. And usually the discovery is then followed by "what those letters say mama?" I just continue to be in awe of how his little mind works and I wonder what triggers these obsessions?! :)


So, when I remembered about the alphabet cards, I hung them up a wall in his bedroom while he was playing and so he didn't know they were there. Later I was changing his diaper and he stopped mid sentence and said, "oh, those letters right there! I go check it out!!!" He hopped down and was so excited about these new letters that just magically appeared on his wall that he was doing a little dance (spin around, plop down, repeat). And wouldn't you know it? The first letter he points out is 'O'! After looking at all the pictures, singing the ABC song and pointing out all the O's he could find it was time for us to go. As we left his room he waved at the alphabet and said, "Good-bye cards. Good-bye 'O'. See you later 'O'!"

Lofty Prayers

Lately Eli has been volunteering to be the one to pray for dinner. His prayers are always very sweet and obviously from his heart but sometimes I have to bite my lip to keep from giggling. One prayer went like this:

"Thank you for this burger. Thank you for this burger. I love you. AMEN!"