Marshmallows

Yesterday the boys and I made a real treat...homemade marshmallows! The recipe is really easy (and very sticky)! They had some in a mug of hot chocolate this morning and they were delicious!! I can definitely see this being a recipe we do again, especially in the winter when we can enjoy hot chocolate and it isn't 110 degrees outside!

A Fun Filled Evening

Jake and Brady spent a little time this afternoon with Grandma so I could get some coffee with a friend (Thanks Mom and Bridget!). Then it was off to watch J & B's cousins play some basketball. The boys always enjoy being with their cousins, especially when there is an hour to kill between games and they get to go to McDonald's too! Here are some highlights from our evening.

Good game Mike!

Jake loves his cousin Mike

Brady and Uncle Steve

Brady rubbing Jake's leg, making sure he feels ok.

This is what a tired boy looks like....

....until you tickle him!!

Crazy B


And THIS is what happens when the boys have the camera...

Jake The Football

Claymation 2

Getting Ready for School

Since the school supplies are already out in the stores, I figured the boys and I would do some fun practice in their workbooks tonight. They really had a great time reading, writing, and coloring. And I might be a little biased, but boy are they smart!!

Wall-E....Crap-E

Well, that was a good idea in theory. Get off work early, go have a little supper, and see a new movie. Supper was good. The movie...a fat steamy turd. Halfway through, I got up and got my money back. The Disney/Pixar folks fell in love with themselves and their animation skills and forgot that movies need a story not just pretty moving pictures. I/we have never been so bored so quickly. Now I know how all those ADD kids feel. The boys sat there with blank expressions on their faces, not even cracking one smile. Jake left the theater angry. Brady looked like his brain had melted. Awesome. High five for me and my big ideas. On the bright side, since the wonderful folks at AMC gave us a full refund, we get to go see Iron Man again in the morning. Now THAT is a kick-A movie that will hopefully let the boys forget about this little misadventure tonight.

Donuts With Brady

This morning Brady was itching to "do something fun" (as he put it). We decided to make some homemade donuts together. Brady loves to cook/bake and I hardly have to help him much at all these days. I have never met another 4 year old who can crack an egg with one hand! Jake didn't feel much like baking, so the big guy sat and read the recipe to us. We covered some of the donuts in powdered sugar and some in cinnamon sugar. They were pretty good but not as light and fluffy as I had hoped from a yeast donut. The boys still loved them and for me it was all about spending some time with my boys doing "something fun!"

Mohawks

Daddy gave the boys a new summer 'do a couple of days ago!

Vaccacion

Dude on a tube.

Probably...he's whizzing in the pool.

Totally not posed. Totally.

We caught Brady working on vacation.

Checking in with Uncle J.

Fashion aside, they love him like crazy.

Mackin' in the sandbox.

I dominated the coffee press.

Reeled it in. Dehooked it. Grabbed it. Released it.

Reeled it in. Dropped it. Slapped it back into the water.

You wanna race?

Brady caught up on his texting.

Bowling under the lights.

Buttcrack Junior.

Brother Putter.

Fudgestripe Peepers.

Evil Fudgestripe Peepers.

I am one ugly...I mean lucky guy.

Jake the Fish.

Brady the Fish.

We got back from our annual mini-vacation at the Princess. Dadgum great time. We went through two cans of spray on sunscreen. The boys each caught a fish...All by themselves. We watched two dive-in movies. Ate room service ice-cream last night at 11:45PM. Did a little lawn bowling. Practiced our putting. Saw a blue heron catch a fish. The boys learned to swim by themselves underwater. Jake got over his fear of staying underwater for more than a few seconds( I think he now holds the under 6 World Record). We took naps together every day. Uncle Jarrod gave us all free rides around the hotel and from our room to the pool and back. Brady got to slide down the slides all by himself this year...about a thousand times. All that and a bunch more I can't remember right now. My brain is sunburned I think.

Thanks for a great extended Father's Day weekend guys. The best ever!

Claymation

Today we learned about claymation. Not because we really wanted to. We HAD to. Turns out Brady was watching Pee Wee's Big Adventure, and happened to see the whole "Large Marge" scene. That apparently freaked him out to no end. He got himself so worked up about it last night that he couldn't sleep. It took both of us pulling out all the Jedi mind tricks we could think of. Nothing worked. One of the only things that calmed him down was promising to show him how clay animation works. So, this morning we busted out the play-doh, camera, and computer and got to work. I wasn't sure how it would turn out, but it was actually way easy to do and now we are all hooked on it. Brady wants me to animate all his creations now. If you are bored and have access to a digital camera, play-doh, and a computer with video editing software...I highly recommend taking 20 minutes out of your day to do it.

Kung Fu Panda

Now THAT was a good movie. The boys liked it and the grown folks liked it. Now Jake is running around the house putting a smackdown on invisible bad guys. I get a feeling there's going to be some serious battles that will end in tears and, "He kicked me in the face"! Ahh well, it was worth it.

Fun with Chinese lasers

I'm not so sure these rockin' tops will ever make it to the American market. They have what I believe to be military grade lasers inside of them and play an insanely fast version of "Axel F" from Beverly Hills Cop. But thanks to "O" who brought them back with him from China, we got a kick A little light show tonight. Maybe our retinas will be a little worse for the wear...but what the hey? Fun is fun. Thanks man.

Woo Hoo!

Been a bit. No big deal. We've just been enjoying the start of the summer together. I just haven't gotten around to blogging about any of it.

Anyhoo, after today I have 9 straight days away from work to just hang out with the fam damily. Next week we are going to be taking our 2ND annual almost-vacation to the Princess. You would not believe how excited the boys are for that. Four days of swimming day and night is right up their alley. We might go through a couple gallons of sunscreen before all is said and done. Maybe a couple gallons of room service ice cream, you never know.

Then, there's all the summer movies we get to watch. We've already seen Ironman and Indiana Jones. Next up is Hulk, Kung-Fu Panda and Dark Knight later in the summer. Finally a summer with some really cool movies to go see. I think the movie execs finally figured out that if they want butts in the seats, they need to make awesome movies for the whole family more than just once every 5 years. Nice job, suits.

After our little family fun fest, the Mrs. and I are taking a few days for ourselves and going to Vegas. The boys get to go to their own version of Vegas called, Ma and Poppy's house. Cindy and I get to spend a few days remembering why we actually like each other so much. The boys get to remember that they actually do like most if not all their everyday rules relaxed. A lot. Win-win.

So that's the story I'm going with for now. I'll post some pictures soon when all this wackiness really starts.