GO ALEX!!

Last night the weather was awesome so we took the boys to the church parking lot by our house to let them ride their bikes. Look how far Alex has come!!



And because I am such a proud mama- I am posting 2 videos of Alex whizzing by! :) The second video also has Josh riding around. Zach was there too, just didn't make it into the videos.

Zootime Fun with the Actuallys

Yesterday we went to the zoo, zoo, zoo. How about you, you, you. We're going to the zoo, zoo, zoo. Sorry...every time I start thinking about going to the zoo- that silly song starts going through my head. Must be a teaching hazard. When I taught we sang that song as we walked to and from the zoo. ANYWAY- yesterday we went to the zoo with our friends Bethany, Annalie and Debbie. It was a perfect afternoon for it. The weather was awesome, we both got rock star parking spots, and it wasn't crowded at all!!

We did all the normal and fun things you would typically do at the zoo-like climb on the lion statues.

We walked through the desert.

We saw the seals.

By the seals, there was a pay phone. I didn't know that they had those around still. The boys didn't know what it was. I explained what a payphone was and then they wanted to put money in it and call someone. What is it about putting quarters into something that is so much fun? We didn't do that. Alex pretended to call someone. I asked who he was calling and he said "Grandma and Granddad to let them know we are at the zoo!"

Of course, when my boys saw the train just sitting there they ran towards it.

They climbed on the train.

They climbed on the monkeys. Statues- not the real things.

This time of year it is peacock dating season. So the peacocks were everywhere dancing away and doing their thing.

It was pretty cool to see their feathers up and then shake their tails. Zach and Josh started to imitate the peacocks. It made me laugh.

It was pretty funny! The best part was when the kids were dancing along with the peacock and he started to squawk like they do and all four kids screamed and ran. I wish I would have gotten a picture of that.

We did a lot of walking, as one would do at the zoo.

Annalie wanted to check out the map to plan where we were going.

Alex seemed interested. Josh and Zach did not. They ran off.

At one point we went to feed the fish.

Bethany was smart enough to remember to bring a bunch of quarters to feed the fish. Brilliant I tell you!! I normally scrounge through my purse praying i have at least 3 quarters. Then cursing myself that I didn't have any quarters and then telling myself that the next time we come I MUST remember quarters! Bethany remembered. THANK GOD! The kids would line up and take turns to get fish food.

Bethany and I got to feed the fish too!

We stopped to pet the goats.

And by this time, we were all wearing down....and getting hungry. So we left the zoo and headed downtown to eat at Wheatfields. YUM!

We walked around downtown a little bit after dinner. Mostly because we had to park far away. We were pretty tired from the zoo. Any walking at this point was a have to. :)

It is always fun to get together with Bethany, Debbie and Annalie. We were glad that we were able to fit us into their busy schedule to go the zoo this time!

Dottery and Dinner

Saturday was a really busy day for us. It was jammed packed with lots of exciting events! Like Alex riding his bike (already blogged about here), a repeat house showing (which nothing happened-sigh), and sushi (already blogged about here). The rest of Saturday included dottery and dinner.

Yes you read that right- dottery. Its painting pottery- but we just dot it a lot instead of painting pictures on it. I have blogged about it before here. Wow lots of linking to other blogs in this post! :) Anyway, Bethany, Kassie and I had the opportunity to go paint..I mean dot pottery- dottery.

We had a blast. We got our caffeine, our item to paint, our choice of colors, and were ready to begin. We chatted the time away. Talking about everything girls talk about- life- you know things like home schooling, kids, marriage, alcohol, food, etc. It was perfect...well almost perfect. There was this birthday party that was going on the same time. I have NOTHING against birthday parties. I have been known to attend and throw many birthday events. This one however-YIKES! I felt sorry for the pottery workers. The two parental figures didn't keep an eye on the party. Kids were smashing cake in their faces. Kids were running around a POTTERY SHOP! Big no-no if you don't want things broken. Kids were screaming. It was chaotic to say the least. But that didn't stop our fun. We just tuned them out and talked to each other in outside voices.

Bethany and I dotted cups.

Kassie chose to dot a vase.

What I love about getting together with these girls (besides that they are both awesome friends and I love to hang out with them) is that they don't mind when I shove a camera in their face and click away. In fact, they do the same thing.

Sometimes I get a little self conscience when I start taking pictures of random or not so random things. So its nice to have other friends around who are doing the same thing.

TA DA! Our pre-fired finished products. I can't wait to see them when they are done!

I just threw this picture in cause I like that you can see how happy Bethany is dotting away. Plus I think my cup turned out cool. :)

That evening Joe and Kassie and Bethany, Annalie, and Debbie all came over for dinner. Bethany was kind enough to take over the dinner plans and even cooked it for us in my kitchen. If you know me at all you know how much I LOVED and APPRECIATED that. So thank you again Bethany!! It was delicious! As were the margaritas!!

The kids love getting together. They always seem to have a good time. They played in the sandbox....

They blew bubbles....

They swung their zhu zhu pets on swings...

And they even had a picnic.

By the end of the night, their feet looked like this:

The adults tried to get lots of awesome pictures of them....Joe and Bethany did a far better job than I did. In fact, click HERE to see some more really cute pictures and read more about our get together by Kassie. She has 2 of my favorite pictures on her post. One of all the kids hugging each other. And the other one is of Joe beating the boys at Mario Cart. And click HERE to see what Bethany wrote about it.

Its like the kids have paparazzi around all the time. :) They don't seem to care at all. They ham it up most of them time.

There was even a little wii playing.

What more could you ask for? It was a really great time! We are looking forward to doing it again- hopefully soon!

Dip Punk!

Saturday was a fun filled, jam packed, day that I am going to blog it in sections. Otherwise its going to be a REALLY LONG post. And who has time to read LONG posts that go on and on? Not me!!

Anyway Saturday I had the privileged to go out to lunch with Joe, Kassie and Jim. Matt was with the boys, in case anyone was wondering. :) I am going to back up a second and talk- I mean gush- a little about Joe. :)

Joe and I met in high school and became really good friends. He is awesome! He is kind, silly, creative, goofy and just plain fun to be around. I have been known to call him dip punk. Why you may ask? Well let me tell you. Back in high school we were in these NCOT (North Computers of Tomorrow) classes. These classes were all done on the computers. Very high tech for the time. Anyway my friends and I didn't write notes to each other on just a piece of paper. We were too high tech for that. We either used an actual notebook- but I don't think we did that did we Joe? or we used the computer screen. Now keep in mind, at this time there wasn't instant messaging or email or text messaging. We would seriously write on a word document and then read off each others screens. I was writing a note to someone else and Joe kept trying to look at what I was writing. I was getting mad and frustrated and wanted to yell "QUIT DIPPIN PUNK!" but was so mad it came out as "Dip Punk!" It was funny and it stuck. I won't tell you what he calls me. Honestly I can't remember why that name came about so its really a moot point right? :)

Joe is awesome and I owe a lot of my favorite things in life to Joe. For example- Nebraska football. I consider myself a fan. But really if I want to be honest about it- I am not. I have friends who are and I am PATHETIC with all caps! I don't know all the statistics and plays and history- nor do I care. I just love watching it. Joe took me to my first Nebraska football game and it was AWESOME!! The crowd! The energy! The hot dogs! I was hooked. Now every chance I get (which isn't often) I go to games!

Joe also introduced me to lots of awesome music. The one that comes to mind right now- and no idea why- is Back to the Hotel by n2deep. We must have listened to that song a lot riding around in his white CRV or something. Every time I hear that song I smile, think of Joe and then bop my head- gansta like of course. :)

Joe introduced me to Mudslides....those delicious chocolaty drinks....yum. Next to the margarita- my choice of alcohol. He also introduced me to spinach and artichoke dip. And it could have possibly been in the same night but I am not sure. Favorite appitizer hands down.

And now for my new favorite thing in life!!! This Saturday Joe introduced me to sushi. Honestly, I have had it once before but I was not impressed. Saturday- TOTALLY impressed!! -and now completely hooked.

We (Kassie, Jim (Joe's bro), Joe and I) went to Blue and can I just say YUM. It was delicious wonderfulness. I do have to admit I have to feel a little guilty about all of this. Matt has been trying to get me to go with him for months and I wasn't, shall we say, open to the idea. But I had the opportunity to go to lunch with them and I knew from past experiences that Joe wouldn't disappoint. :)

Here is Jim explaining all the wonderful deliciousness qualities of sushi. My only regret is that I didn't take pictures of all the ones I loved, nor do I remember all the names. Good thing Joe and I are friends and I can call and ask. :)

Joe is awesome to say the least. He is a fantastic friend and I feel very lucky that he is in my life! PLUS he introduced me to his wife Kassie. Another wonderful thing in my life!! Thanks Joe for filling my life with wonderful things! You are the best! :)

Alex's Awesome Accomplishment

A couple of days ago Alex announced that he no longer wants training wheels on his bike. I was a little shocked by this because he hasn't been on his bike this season yet. Also, I am REALLY bad about letting them ride their bikes. They hang on the wall in our garage and are hard for me to get down. So most of the time, they just hang. I need a solution for that. Anyway, after Alex's big announcement, Matt and I decided that we should encourage this and took his bike down and training wheels off.

He started off going down the grass and falling over just before he got to the sidewalk.

Checking for cuts, grass stains, and blood along the way. No serious injuries to report. Just some bruises.

He just kept getting back on the bike. It was great!! I was/am so proud of him. And if you are an observant person, you may have noticed that his helmet is too small. Not to worry, Matt took all 3 boys out to get new helmets. This particular day, we just figured that a too small helmet is better than no helmet.

Ta da!! The new Spideman helmet. Couldn't find a Batman one so he settled for Spiderman. Day 2 he woke up asking to ride his bike. So out we- scratch that- out Matt went...I was doing other stuff which I will blog about later. Matt said he did awesome. When I got home Alex was so excited to show me how much he improved! It was cute. I was amazed by how much better he was in less than 24 hours.

Sometimes he still favored the grass. Who wouldn't?

But is ok with the sidewalk too. I am just so impressed with how quickly he picked it up!

Oh, Johnny! What Happened?

When I was thirteen, 21 Jumpstreet was my FAVORITE tv show. I remember it well. It started out with the neon 21 flashing on and off til finally coming on. Then the spray paint sound that wrote out JumpStreet across the screen. Then Holly Robinson would start singing that catchy little 80s tune. At least I think it was her singing it. Anyway this show was packed with action, adventure, humor and my hero- Johnny Depp! That is where I first discovered Johnny Depp and fell deeply and madly in love with him. My 13 year old self just KNEW we would get married and live happily every after. I had plastered posters of him all over my walls....with a few Corey Haim thrown in there too...oh and an INXS poster. But Johnny was the star. That was for sure!! I think at one point I had 45 pictures of him. Here is a picture of one of the many posters I had:

Here is how dorky I was- I cut out a picture of me, and then cut out a picture of him from TeenBop and then taped us together. Clip art in its beginnings folks. I even had cut out his hand so it looked like his arm was around me. I carried that in my wallet for YEARS. Far past my 13 year old "its ok to be that weird" phase. And if I want to be honest with all of you....I still have it. BUT it isn't in my wallet....its in a safe place now. It started to fall apart. ANYWAY...

You can imagine my excitement when Netflix instant queue had 21 Jumpstreet for my viewing pleasure. Last night I finally had a chance to start watching my hero save all the high schoolers from drugs, gangs, porn, molestation, and robberies. After 2 episodes.....yeah....its no longer in my queue anymore. What was in my head was WAY better than it is now. What happened? It was cheesy, stereotypical, a tad racist, not good acting, the special effects were SO FAKE and just plain -not good. Were shows in the 80's really that bad? No way am I going to watch Facts of Life again!! The only good thing about the show was that Johnny Depp was still as hot as ever. Needless to say, I have removed all episodes from the queue. I think I would rather remember it as I have it in my head than taint it with watching it again. :( Oh, Johnny it just isn't what it was.

pics from google images