Camping

 We've been on the first "camp out" of the season. I use the term loosely as we visited campers, but we didn't spend the night. :) The Benza Grandparents camped for the whole Memorial Day weekend. We just went out on Sunday for a handful of hours.

 The boys like helping build the fire and roasting marshmallows best.

 They also roasted their hot dogs on a stick.

 Every morning since this Gus has asked me if we can go camping and roast marshmallows.

I am so not looking forward to it, but I think the need to take the boys actual camping may be upon us. Or I may be able to convince Kyle to take them for a boys night out on an overnight trip and let me stay home with indoor comforts. :)

Summer has Arrived

 FINALLY Summer has arrived and we know this not because of the balmy weather but because the drive in is open! 

The boys play on the playground before the show. You can see the screen behind them on the swings...yes that's Gus in my shadow...oops.

 They also get in some kicking and catching practice with the soccer ball and football.

 We've been showing up at about 7:30 to make sure we get a good spot...I try to park away from the smokers. That gives us plenty of time to play.

 Usually we eat some pizza in the back of the van and then get the boys' jammies on.

Then we dole out our snacks and get the boys in their sleeping bags.

So far this season we've seen the Hunger Games/The Lucky One, Men In Black 3/Ghost Rider 2, Dark Shadows/Wraith of the Titans, Snow White & the Huntsman/Battleship. We love that it's a double feature for cheaper than the regular theater for one show. While we did have a babysitter for the Hunger Games it's awesome that it's not a requirement. We can play, eat and get the boys ready for bed then watch in the front seats while listening the surround sound on the car stereo. Perfect summer fun!

Best Buddies

 With Daddy back on day shift the tv is off all day most days.  Reese was traumatized by this at first, but I need some quiet. With swing shift we wake up mostly rested and function at an easy pace, get ready for the day, have breakfast and dinner before Daddy goes to work. There's plenty of time for battles and rough housing. After Kyle is at work we putter, play, watch a movie, eat a dinner that is really like a lunch. Even if the boys stay up until 10pm I have a solid 2 hours of time ALL BY MYSELF before Kyle gets home and we watch our shows. On day shift there are literally no minutes in the day where I am alone and it's totally quiet unless I stay up later than Kyle, but I find I really enjoy a solid 8 hours of sleep. It's a good thing! SO...no tv in the day has been working super well for us. These sweet boys have been playing so well together. Yes, sometimes it is loud super hero battle type play, but lots of times I think uh-oh what is afoot in this quiet. And then I find them engrossed in something. 

This day I found them playing Scooby Doo.  Of course the nano second I got the camera out they stopped playing so quietly together. But they did get back to it. 

Which allowed me a lovely few moments to linger with my latte and William Sonoma catalog.

The Avengers

 Yes, I know there's been quite the controversy: to take your underage child to the PG-13 movie or make him wait. Since my husband has been grooming the boys to be super hero fans essentially since birth we went to the theater.  We decided to wait until Monday night so we weren't freaks with a 5 year old in the opening night crowds...mostly so i could avoid the judgmental people. But we needn't have worried. Reese, aka Iron Man, was not the youngest audience member. The weekend before Poppop came over for a hero marathon (Thor, IronMan, Hulk) and a few weeks before that they watched Captain America together so everyone was up to date on the heroes' individual stories.

Reese attended in full costume (I made him leave the noise making weapons at home though). He thoroughly enjoyed the show. He commented on quite a bit and yelled at the screen a time or two. But it didn't seem to bother anyone. One human good guy was killed which distressed me, but I'm not positive Reese even registered it since he wasn't a character that mattered to Reese. He did take a few minutes to sort out why Hawkeye, who Reese LOVES, was a bad guy for awhile, but he was able to sort out the particulars pretty quickly and "get it."  I was happy they addressed (although briefly) the various romances from the individual story lines. ;)

We all really enjoyed the movie and Reese is anxiously awaiting it's release on blu-ray. In the meantime he superhero battles with Gus and Daddy daily.

Car Wash Day

 The boys have been asking and asking to wash the car for ages. It was finally warm and sunny enough to get it done.

Gus really enjoyed the scrubbing.

 Reese preferred using the hose.

 They worked outside with Daddy for about an hour on the car scrubbing. I think Reese mostly watered the lawn and toys and side of the house.

 They were so excited to finally put our zombie family stickers on the van.

 SO we've officially joined the ranks of the parent mobile crowd with a family sticker on the mini-van. But we didn't want to cross over entirely. :)

Summer Shoes!

Get a load of these new shoes for summer.  We can't wait to wear them!

 Kyle and I found these awesome doodads for crocs at the crocs store in Waikiki. I've been saving them until I could buy the boys some new crocs for this summer.

 We finally busted them out and the boys are so excited!

 They've been wearing them with their socks since it's really too cold still for bare feet.

They are so funny about it. They've been hoisting up their foot to show everyone we see. SO on all our errands someone is craning over the counter to see and decipher the story about all the add-ons to the crocs.

Menu Plan Monday

MONDAY: Aidell's hotdogs with our pickles, baked beans and star fruit (yuck, none of us liked it)
TUESDAY: Pork Stir fry with brown rice
WEDNESDAY: Cajun Mac and Cheese with ham, broccoli

cheese sauce: melt half a stick of butter, 2 TBLS white wheat flour, cook a couple of minutes, add approx. a cup of milk, heat, add handfuls of cheddar until you like how it looks, add a TBLS or so of sweet chili sauce and 2 teaspoons of Cajun spice. Pour over cooked, drained whole wheat pasta mixed with cubed, cooked ham. Bake for about 20 minutes at 350.

THURSDAY: Sausage, Quinoa, Veggie concoction--I'm winging it.
FRIDAY: Baked Tilapia, baked potato, broccoli
SATURDAY: spaghetti and meatballs
SUNDAY: roasted chicken, mashed potatoes with gravy, curried cauliflower

Get more meal ideas at Organizing Junkie.

Return of the Jedi

No words required.

My Arteeest!

Today I walked past the easel and did a double take. I looked again and called Reese. I asked him who drew this picture of Hulk. He said "I did it all by myself. Are you impressed?" Except he says impressed funny. In a cute little boy with a new word way.He has spent a good chunk of time every single day for months working on coloring, tracing and now free hand drawing. And YES I am totally impressed. I feel like his heart is as good as one I'd draw. He wrote his name and the X to "sign" his work. I haven't figured out why he needs both. The letters at the bottom "OAM" apparently they say "HULK." The black bumps he drew on Hulk's arms are his biceps. Reese was very adamant that I notice the biceps. I love that he has teeth and hair and toes!!

He is very proud of his artwork and we must save EVERY.SINGLE.PAGE he draws or colors, even coloring book pages. He discovered one in the recycle bin once and had an absolute conniption fit. I assured him I had no idea how that outrageous mistake could've been made and we pulled it out...hooray.
I am sure we are neglecting some other skill to focus so much on this one, but I am so happy with his drawing. This time last year I was a little worried all his preschool classmates were drawing stick people or other things that looked like beings while Reese's artwork looked like scribble. I am quite relieved that not only has he caught up but I think he's doing super well. We are very proud of our in-house artist!

Menu Plan Monday

Monday: Smoky Chicken Tacos (using leftover chicken from Sunday's dinner)
Tuesday: homemade chicken soup using broth from Sunday's chicken
Wednesday: Ham, Cajun macaroni and cheese, mixed veggies
Thursday: leftovers
Friday: pork and veggie stir fry with brown rice
Saturday: leftovers
Sunday: Pork Chops, mashed potato, broccoli

Get more diner ideas at Organizing Junkie!

Happy Easter!!!

We started the morning off with our egg hunt!

Then we hunted for the Easter baskets. Gus excitedly showed his dad his Angry Birds shirt. He was SUPER excited about it.

Reese has been asking for this Spiderman dvd since Christmas. He asked again on his birthday. The Easter Bunny finally came through. He loves it!

His Darth Maul Pop bobblehead joined his Star Wars bobblehead family.

Reese announced he knew a good place for them to be. He decided to put them on top of his preemie diaper, hat, wristband shadow box.

He was very happy with his Easter morning.

We went to church with Kyle's parents. I should've asked his mom to take more than one photo because I hate the double chin look I'm sporting!

Then we had dinner at Kyle's parents house with both our families and Kyle's mom's best friend's family. I couldn't get my camera to focus on my mom's deviled chick.

We finished with the individual rainbow cakes.
Easter turned out to be the best weather of 2012! It was a perfect sunny day and the mountains were crisp and clear. Why can't I remember to take photos of the people and the mountains?!?!!?

Easter Prep

Saturday night we did our Easter prep. We did potluck style Easter dinner with our parents and Kyle's mom's best friend's family. Our potluck contribution was dessert. We made individual rainbow cakes.

Gus is not much for taking turns. He screamed "NO, me do it! Me do it, too!" every single time it was Reese's turn to add something. Reese doesn't like to crack eggs so he let Gus do all 3, but it was not enough. Of course the nano-second the bowl came back to Gus to add something it was all sunshine and rainbows again.

We made white cake, divided it into 4 bowls, added pink, purple, yellow and blue dye then layered them into 8oz. wide mouth mason jars about half way. I baked them on a cookie sheet about 3 minutes more than the cupcake instructions.

Since we were taking them to Kyle's parent's house the next morning I just put the mason jar lids and bands on to keep them fresh and easily portable.
*****
Once the boys were in the bed we did our Easter morning prep...egg collecting baskets in the bedroom doorway. Since I wanted them to go to sleep I didn't tell them there would be an egg hunt. So I wanted to make sure the boys didn't miss the baskets.

The eggs were "hidden" with care.

I was awakened I am sure before dawn to Gus' face and a basket in my face, "what's this, Mommy?!?!?!" I about hit the ceiling I jumped so far. So we got up and egg hunted. Since we didn't see any baskets I told them they must've caught the bunny in the act of hiding the eggs, so they better get back in bed and close their eyes so he could finish with their baskets. And they did!!! We slept for about 2 more hours!
When we got up I asked Reese if he found an Easter basket. He said "No, but we did our best to close our eyes, we really tried." He seemed to completely accept that there would be no Easter basket. Bless his heart he was so sweet. I suggested we check the basement and they quickly found their loot!

The Easter Bunny left a little candy, a C3PO Pop bobblehead, angry bird shirt and Muppets Treasure Island for Gus.

The Darth Maul Pop Bobblehead, angry birds shirt, Season 1 of the Amazing Spiderman cartoon and a Scooby dvd. So glad we got only a few candy items because the bunny left a TON of candy at the grandparents' houses.
We have so much candy it's ridiculous! This year we discovered no one likes Junior Mints. Really, none of them will eat them. They aren't my favorites or anything, but who doesn't like Junior Mints in pretty Easter colors? Gus was overjoyed with his purple peeps though. He carried them to church and to the grandparent's house.

Menu Plan Monday

Monday: Chicken Sausage Pasta Bake - YUM!
Tuesday: leftover pasta bake
Wednesday: Jambalaya with turkey kielbasa
Thursday: Ham and Potato Casserole
Friday: Nachos - I use ground beef, green chiles, corn, black beans and diced tomatoes
Saturday: leftovers
Sunday: Roasted Chicken, baked potato, broccoli

Check out what's for dinner around the blogosphere for more ideas at Organizing Junkie.

Awesome Deal

The April Special for Thirty-One is a great one!! For every $31 you spend you can choose apurse for 50% off!! This photo shows the skirt purse with a pink skirt (50% = $22.50) and the retro metro bag (50% = $26)

The snazzy new cargo purse (50% = $31)

The demi purse (50% = $14.50)

There are more purse styles and fabric options to choose from. You can see a catalog online at my site. Send me an email and I'll get your order for you!