K, part 2!! Lots of stuff in this post...
Tammy found a "groupon" for an art class and thought it would be a fun activity. Turns out she was right!! The class was for anyone, regardless of age or experience, to paint with acrylics on big 16x20 canvases. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera BOTH times we painted AND I forgot to take pictures of Liz's "best" painting before she went back to Utah. She didn't like her first one (I think it looks really cool with all the paint gobs) but I figure she'd rather I didn't put it on my blog anyway. Lanae didn't like hers either (the orange background was so cool!!! Guys!! Come on!!) so I'll play it safe... again.
This is my first painting. The original I used for inspiration was actually done in browns and oranges. I like the blue better. :) Kind of a creepy, ethereal look.
My second painting. Again, the original picture was a real peacock with blues and greens and yellows. This is more of a 70s, retro peacock.
The other artsy thing I did with Lanae and Liz was painting pottery. So fun!!! (Thanks for babysitting and funding, Tammy!!) We went to a little place on the square and picked out a couple things for just under $20 in total. It was so much fun to look through inspiration books and compare pictures and colors and ideas with Liz and Lanae! Again, I failed to get pictures of Liz's pottery before she left (she had a super cute little black salsa cup with a tomato and jalapeno in the bottom and a red and yellow catch-all cup that she decorated with her fingerprints!) and I think Lanae wants to put her pottery on
her blog, so you only get the ones I have rights to. :)
I love the way these roses and baby's breath turned out! So cute! The outside of the bowl is a dark green but only from the white lip down.
The other thing I made: a plate. I love the colors around the border!
Tammy found out about this really cool water fountain place in downtown Dallas that she wanted to check out... so we did! Man, I can't imagine being able to work in a building right next to this place - it was beautiful! Lots of water jets like the one below and waterfalls and trees. All the water made for a very cool (as in temperature, but also just plain cool as in AWESOME) place to sit and wait for Jeff to meet us for lunch. The boys loved to watch the water jets spray up and it was fun to watch them flinch when the water blew like Ol Faithful instead of just being mild mannered little water towers the height of my leg.
WOOSH!
Hmmm... look at tall tower or water jets?
Two of my three beautiful sisters-in-law! "And now as dear to me as sisters ever could be." Name that movie. Hint hint: Lanae knows how much I watch this movie.
Speaking of Lanae, isn't she such a good mommy? I didn't want to get that close to the water for Derek. Especially when it was so unpredictable.
Isn't it just beautiful? And serene...wink wink ;)
K, so Liz found this ginormous mess of animal cracker and I decided, in my trigger happy mode, that we should take a picture of it. :) Liz had already taken one of the heads off the giraffe-lion-other-four-footed-animal mess, but it was still a pretty good size. Mmm...
Isaac and Derek loved walking up and down the stairs with Mitch and Tammy. Lots and lots of stairs and smiles.
We heard Jeff calling for help (I think "rescue" was his exact term) and this is what we found. Logan was already in bed, but the other boys had besieged Ganka and were demanding to be taken for rides in the spinning office chair. What a sweet memory!!
The Ganka Chair
The "Big Balls" on the TV series Wipeout
Ok, so I know this apparently has nothing to do with anything you expected to see on this blog, but it should be funny if I tell this right...
So, Lanae, Liz and I stayed up late one night watching this TV show (Wipeout). Hilarious. Absolutely hysterical watching these people biff it on a series of giant obstacle courses. Anyway, it's super late and we go upstairs to get ready for bed. Liz and Lanae are speculating on who in our family they could envision competing on Wipeout and actually doing well. Liz is saying that she'd definitely want to work out and get in really good shape months before she actually competed and Lanae wondered if she could get David to compete with her... and I wondered out loud if they provided lunch for the contestants. Toothpaste started flying, sides started splitting and Lanae and Liz dissolved into hysterical laughter. Tammy did too when Lanae told her the next day. :) In fact, she's still laughing about it as she helps me right this story.
Moving right along...
There is a little park near our house (not the one on Cotton Ridge) that has miniature water jets for kids to play in. Derek LOVES this park. It's called Aviator Park because it's right next to a small airport. We had the park almost to ourselves and had a lot of fun chasing the boys through the water, pushing them in swings and helping them slide down the slides.
Logan loved this particular water spout. It stayed about this size most of the time.
Poor Andrew. He was woken from a nap, strapped to a car seat and plopped in cold water. He was a pretty good sport about it though. :)
Drying off in-between bouts of tag with the water spouts. The big boys loved these huge plastic airplanes.
Logan cracks me UP!! He didn't want to crawl on the warm concrete, so he started bear crawling like this on his hands and feet. I think he liked playing Peek-a-Boo like this. I sure did! :D
Toddler... James Toddler. No barrel of a gun, but a plastic crawling tube. dundundundundundundundundundundundundun DUNDUN DUNDUN!! (James Bond Theme)
Derek chasing Isaac and Isaac chasing Derek through the tunnel
Blank face, cheesy grin, blank face, milk-drunk face
I think Liz and Lanae were doing the Macarena...
... and of course they go straight for the pool
This is what happens when you have a clean fresh diaper that is submerged in water for 5 minutes.
This is what happens when the diaper explodes and the baby still wants to play in the pool
Isaac didn't want to be left out, so Liz took his diaper off, too
He didn't think it was as cool as Derek did
Isaac made his car take a pass at Devil's Crack.
No amount of coaxing would get Isaac onto the slide after the first attempt. He only wanted Mommy.
Derek went down that slide a lot faster sans-diaper... sans-anything, really
I love his expression! So excited!! And going so fast he almost fell off the slide!
Conveniently placed splash
His little baby bum is so cute!
Isaac was scared after going down the first time
Liz helped (made) him end the day on a good note. Way to go Liz! And way to go Isaac!
Derek sharing his love of movies with Isaac... ahhh... silence
I loved doing this with my baby sister. They were a little wobbly but we had a lot of fun!
When one boy has something, the other has to have one, too.
They sure don't look like babies here!
Aww.... my little baby is growing up so fast!!
Poor Andrew only fit grandpa's hat. :) Sure is cute though!!
Gangsta Girls!! Ow OW!!
Riding off into the sunset
Isaac hated these on sight back at Christmas. He warmed up to them after a while though...as long as they didn't make any sudden movements. That's kind of difficult when Derek is obsessed with squeezing the buttons in their ears and making them whinny, flick their tails and move their heads up and down.
