Happy Birthday Grandma Jane & Bop!

Photos from my old camera

So I pulled out our old camera the other day and found some random pictures from last year.

December 2009

Andrew ready to head out to daycare.

Grace dressed up in cousin Nolan's firefighter gear. Nolan was so generous and patient with Gracie.

Malone Family Christmas - Andrew and Mikey being wild.

Andrew looks like he just ate a LARGE Christmas dinner.

Christmas Morning

Summer 2009

Gracie at the Hippo Class at the zoo.

Father's Day - Ice cream cake for Kevin.  His favorite!

My grumpy men.

My happy men.

Tennis Lessons

With my best friends from high school, Nina and Kelly, at our 10 year reunion.

What time is it?

I have no idea. 

My watch broke last week. 

Let's ask Kevin. 

Oh wait, his was stolen at the gym last Christmas.

So now we are both in the market for new watches.

Since I need time to process any purchase over $100 dollars, I bought this cute one to wear while I search the internet for the perfect watch at the perfect price.

It super sporty and fun.  Just like me.

Very Expensive Entertainment for Toddlers

Remember these trees?

Today, we had our lovely trees cut down by Julius the Hungarian, alpha-male tree service man.  He was a bit more entertainment than I had bargained for today. 

His crew was not allowed to speak to me.  When they would try too, he would tell them to be quiet.  At one point he berated one of them who mentioned something about a warranty.  He said, "What are you?  A millionaire?  You know everything, huh?  I could talk to you for a month about warranties.  You just go over there and be quiet."   It was amusing and uncomfortable.  But mostly amusing, as his crew didn't seem to care.

We started out with a diseased tree, and ended the day with 10 trees + 1 bush down.  All the stumps and branches gone.  All in about 4 hours.  Impressive. 

We watched Julius cut down the first tree from inside.  He took a chainsaw, cut off some low branches, then cut it at the base and it tipped over.  TIMBER!  Andrew and I saw it, and it was really cool.  Seriously.  We got Grace, and headed outside for a closer look for the other two. 

The kids were enthralled.

Of course, little Miss Gracie added drama to the situation by being so sad that the trees were getting hurt. 

And Andrew was like, "Holy Crap Mom, this is awesome." 

Or in his words, "Tree!  Momma!"

Basically, tree removal with heavy equipment (cherry picker, chainsaws, stump grinder...come to think of it I probably should have taken my kids completely off the property) is an excellent way to entertain children.

Anyways, the yard is now a flipping disaster.  There is sawdust everywhere and we can now see what a mess the whole west side of our property is.  We need an old dog pen removed.  We need 20 yards of dirt delivered (That is A LOT, but that is what Julius said I needed.  More than once.  And I am going to listen to him.).  We need new trees planted.  We need 27 lannon stones removed.  We need grass planted. 

Landscaper suggestions anyone? 

Grace and I were parking the car

I was headed to the gym last week and as we pulled into the parking lot this is what happened:

"Oh! Mommy!  There's a spot.  Park there!"
I say nothing and concentrate on driving.  The lot is a total disaster with 2 way parking lanes, kids walking around and aggressive drivers.
"Mommy, Mommy park there!"
I continue to ignore this and look for a spot. 
"Mommy, Mommy listen to me!  I see one.  Park right over there.  See where I am pointing.  There. There. Over there."
Then I find one and pull in.
Cue the hysterics regarding why I never listen to Grace.
"Gracie, I cannot turn around and look at where you are pointing when I am driving.  I need to be safe."
"But Mommy, I was telling you where to park."
"Grace.  I have been driving for 14 years.  I do not need you to tell me what to do."
"Mommy.  I have been driving my cozy coupe for 1 year.  So I know what to do."

Another example of why I am a little crazy.

Grace's New Bike

This Saturday we finally followed through on our promise to buy Gracie a bike for her 4th birthday.  So at 8am we all piled in the car and headed out to Walmart.  Gracie selected the most "princessy" bike they had - complete with streamers, glitter, princess bag, and a bell. 

She is starting to learn to ride the bike...with a little bit of drama of course.  But she LOVES it!

Isn't she such a big girl?

A busy day

We had a wonderful and busy Memorial Day weekend.  We had some parties, did some yardwork and headed out to the pool for the first time this year. 

Instead of laying low on Tuesday, we decided to head to the zoo at 9am!  Luckily JuJu was available to come with us.  Lucky for the kids because their mom was CRABBY. 

(Note, we are all bigger than the baby gorilla)

But my mood improved after a ride on the zoo train.  So fun!

Then we headed out to run errands and back home for lunch and a rest for Andrew.  During lunch the kids played peek a boo with each other.  So cute.

Grace got to go to Best Buy (aka the giant tv store) and pick out a movie with Grandma Jane.  She chose a Princess Sing-a-long video.  Then she got an ice cream cone.  She is one lucky girl. 

When she got home she decided to get out the giant box of art projects and made a cute puppet.  Because otherwise her day would have been totally boring.

Andrew practiced sitting on the potty.

Then the kids went outside and spent about 30 minutes playing with the hose and watering cans. 

Grace and I made some muffins

Last week Gracie and I made lemon blueberry muffins.  They were OK.  So no recipe here.  But I will share what happened while we were making muffins. 

Gracie was sitting at the counter helping me.  She wanted to stir the bowl of dry ingredients.  The problem is that the bowl was overflowing and my counters are tile.  Yes tile.  With thick grout lines.  That means that any time ANYTHING gets spilled in those lines, I have to scrub it out.  Flour is the worst. 

"Mommy, can I stir?"
"No Gracie, you can stir the next bowl."
"Mommy, can I stir this?"
"No Gracie, it will spill over the sides and get all over the counter and floor.  You can stir something in a minute."
"Mommy, can I stir this now?"
"No Gracie."
"Can I stir it now?"
"No."
"Can I stir it now?"
"No! Please do not ask again."
(10 seconds of silence)
"Can I stir it?"
"Grace!  If you ask again, you will get a timeout."
(5 seconds later).
"Um, can I stir it now?" 

Now you all understand why I am crazy.

Guest Blogger Gracie Malone: "A Gracie Flower"

Yesterday, I picked flowers with Mommy.  We found the white flowers in our garden.  We picked sixty.  I like them because they are white.

I love the pink flowers.  I found them by where we turn the sprinkler on.  I need to ask before I go back there again.   

We put them in a little cup that is gold.  Then we put them in my room on my desk. 

Now we are going to talk about princesses.  I like my princess water bottle that we bought at the dollar store.  That is all I want to say about princesses.

Finally some great weather

Today the kids and I had a wonderful day. We ran some errands in the morning, but then spent the rest of the day outside. We finished our planting, went on a really long walk, played on our neighbors swingset, and then ate dinner outside.

Andrew was acting like quite the big boy today.  He kept walking into the bathroom saying, "I pottty!" and trying to take off his pants.  So we would put him on the potty and he would "try" to go. 

Also, Andrew was banging on the china cabinet glass and after telling him to stop twice I asked, "Do you need a timeout?"  Andrew paused, said "Yeah", and walked over to stairs (our time out spot) and took a seat.

Now I know you all are thinking that Andrew is surely a genius.  So I will tell you that he also drank bathwater, repeatedly slammed his hand in a drawer and got ketchup in his eye.



Grace will be guest blogging about today at some point this week.  Stay tuned!

Grace's Last Ballet Class

Last week Gracie had the last ballet class of the season.  The parents could come and watch, so my mom and I came to see the performance.  We had a little bit of drama when Grace decided she didn't want to perform and wanted to sit on the sidelines and watch.  I let that go on for about 10 minutes, then I told her that I was leaving.  She threw a fit and then agreed to perform. 

  She jumped right into the performance and did a great job.  Here she is pretending to be a doll, so she is frozen in place.  She took it very seriously.

She won't be taking dance class this summer.  She will be too busy with her swimming, tennis, safety and sports classes.  But in an effort to increase my chances of achieving my lifelong goal, I will probably sign her up for ballet class after school next year.  My lifelong goal is to keep her OUT of Irish dance, but you all knew that.