Sound Effects Face

The face he makes when he does his boyish sound effects.

Right after taking this, we played with Jess's old toys again. Ninja turtle characters this time. Paige put them all in "chairs" and told Cason to look.

Breaking Out the Old Toys

Jess was feeling nostalgic this morning, so he got out a box of his old stuff: toys, birthday cards, baseball cards, and comic books. Paige was very happy to see his cars.
Cason liked some of the ninja turtle toys best.
Tonight Paige got to run in the sprinklers, and follow it up with a tasty chicken quesadilla, chocolate milk, and Dora the Explorer. I said I made her a "quesadilla" and she thought I said "Cason" and "Gia".
Then Jess unloaded the dishwasher for me, and stood up and slammed his head into a corner of a cabinet door. There was blood. He's okay though.

Now I have the Sunday night blues, (Jess was off today, so it's hitting a day late) for which the only cure is pumpkin chocolate chip muffins (again). Or Jess taking tomorrow off, but he can't, so....

Party Weekend

We had a busy weekend. 2 birthday parties, 1 birthday party/4th of July barbecue, and one baby shower. Today was Jenni's shower, and the babies stayed with Jess. Normally I bring them, but Cason is VERY ready to be on the ground everywhere we go, and since he's still crawling I didn't know how that would work out. I missed them while I was gone. There were babies everywhere making me wish I had mine with me. It was a really nice shower though, and apparently they had fun without me.
Then we went straight to Alex's birthday party, and they were WORN out when we came home. Paige napped from 6:30 to 8:15 pm. Cason napped from probably 6 to 8:30.
So I'm thinking it's gonna be a late night. We rented Shrek and a Dora dvd to entertain us all.

Anyway, Barby reminded me yesterday that I should write down Paige's European way of speaking. She almost always puts her nouns before her adjectives. For some reason she'll say "little baby", but in most other cases it goes like this: "ball red" or "cars FAST!" She's cute. She also claims to have found everything lately. Like we'll pull into our driveway and she'll say "I FOUND it, house!" Or like tonight when Jess got her a chicken sandwich and put it in her lap. She goes "I FOUND it!" Speaking of chicken sandwiches, she calls them "naniches" and sometimes "waniches". Haha. So much fun.

Happy Birthday Mollie and USA(in order of importance)

We did the annual 4th of July/Mollie's birthday party barbecue today. It's always fun. Mollie supplied lots of good stuff for the little ones' enjoyment. Like a pool filled with those play balls, a cool wiggle sprinkler toy, and bubbles. Or "blubblels" as Paige calls them.

They both loved the balls, but ESPECIALLY Cason.
Paige's favorite was the sprinkler thing.
Although she also liked juggling, and looking like a goldfish with Alex.
Cason was very into the fireworks. He did his caveboy grunt and pointed at them. He was mesmerized the whole time, it was so cute. I kept missing the good fireworks because he was so much more fun to watch.
He also loved the sparkler toy Mollie gave him.
Paige kind of ignored the fireworks, and kept asking to go inside. Weirdee. Jess did his best to get her interested. His best was not enough.



Anyway, on to Mollie. Aunt extraordinaire. She's a beautiful, sweet, and VERY smart lady. She knows about all things. She's another one who treated us all better than we ever deserved. Ha. I would spend night after night at their house, sometimes for a week or more, and would have longer if they'd have wanted me. Mollie is half of what Jess calls an "iconic couple". She's also the mother of him and also him. She does fine work. Hope your birthday was wonderful. We love you!

Painting Day

Yesterday Paige and I were eating lunch together, while Cason napped. I had a sandwich and soup and she asked for a cheese crisp. Somehow a chunk of cheese fell off, and she picked it up. I watched her look at it for a few seconds, and then she said "Crab." I looked at it, and it really did look like one. Pincers and everything.
The last couple of days have been weird. It's gone back and forth between wonderful gray rainy day and blazing hot and muggy day. So we did NOT spend much time outside. At least not during the muggy parts. Paige and I just sat around the house with frizzy curly hair sticking to our necks. So we painted today for a while.

She did some abstract art. (speaking of which, I was thinking about the time I was trying to tell Chris about some obscure movie, but I said "abstract" movie for some reason. Of course he had to notice and make fun of me. I just pretended I really meant abstract. Haha.)
So back to Paige's painting, she just told me what color she wanted, and I'd pour her a little. She'd paint and then ask for her next color. She preferred red and black today. She must be feeling passionate about something. "Mo wed. Mo back."
I worked on a little portrait of Carl Frederickson that Jess commissioned for the playroom immediately after watching UP. I also have to get to work on Ellie pretty soon. So many projects, so little time.
Sorry, I couldn't get a decent picture without the flash, so there you have a weird, reflective picture of it.

Cason continues to be like this:

Happy 8th Birthday Alexandria!

Today was my oldest niece Alex's birthday. She's 8. She's also a horse lover like I was, and loves to draw, like I did. A girl after my own heart.

She was even our flower girl.
Alexandria is very sweet, pretty as you can see, and smart. She's also really mature for her age, and is very helpful when she spends the night, helping with the babies. She LOVES babies. To learn more about this lovely lady, check out her interrogation.
Happy Birthday Alex, we love you very much!

Caso Curls and a Baby Tail

Lily joined our crew for the afternoon today. They had lots of fun. There was swimming, dancing, popsicle devouring, chicken nuggets, and chocolate milk.

I asked for a smile here, and they gave me these faces. :)
Also, feast your eyes on Cason's starter curls. In the orangey glow of our bathroom last night.
The boy is a dancer all of a sudden. When music first comes on, he starts bouncing if he's in a standing position, or flapping his arms up and down if he's sitting. It's gonna get crazy around here pretty soon. Dance Parties you wouldn't believe.

P.S. a while after I wrote this, Paige did this, and told us the baby was her tail. She's an odd one. Creative and odd.