Fountains

We finished our day with a trip to Auntie Joy's house. Grandma Carolyn wanted to meet Sullivan. We forgot our camera for that part of our trip. Oh well...

Since we were close to some really neat fountains, we decided to take Grandma Carolyn on by for a little penny throwing.

When our pennies were gone, we decided to take our shoes off and cool down our feet.

It has been so hot here! The cool water felt good on our tired summer feet.

Before we knew what was happening, Jack jumped in that fountain for a swim! Mom still doesn't know how Jack got in the water so fast. We're just glad the fountain wasn't deep and Mom was able to retrieve Jack quickly. We headed to the car to get Jack cleaned up and dried off. Silly kid!

Tired and hungry, we headed to the food court for a quick dinner. Veggie sandwiches are a good dinner choice on a long and busy day.

We all slept great last night. Today we're sticking close to home. The time has come for us to start packing up for our long trip to Colorado! Dad's working from the Rockies for five weeks this summer, and we get to tag along. What fun that will be!

Blueberry Pickin'

Yesterday was a super long and busy day. It was lots and lots of fun. We started off our day with an early morning trip to the blueberry farm. We had planned to go last week, but there weren't enough ripe blueberries.

Here we are with our buckets in search of blueberry bushes.

Jack and I were great pickers. We even put the berries in our buckets before we ate them. I liked picking berries that were blue, and Jack preferred the green berries. He'd say "icky" every time, but he still kept eating. So far those green blueberries haven't bothered Jack's tummy.

Mom informed me that we were supposed to be picking the berries to eat at home. The farmer needed to weigh ALL that we picked so we could pay for the proper amount. "I really do want to listen to your words, Mom," I assured her. But I kept eating. Oh my. The farm added a few ounces to our grand total to compensate for my snack.

Pretty soon Jack was ready to go home. "Ready," he yelled at Mom! Mom kept picking. She was bound and determined to head home with at least a half gallon of berries.

I guess back in the old days, Mom could pick a gallon all by herself in about an hour. I'm not sure why, but Mom seems to getting slower with age.

Man, oh, man! Those blueberries are y-u-m-m-y! We've been enjoying them at home.

Pictures

This afternoon our friend Spike's aunt came over to take our pictures. Mom has lots of good pictures of Jack and me individually, but we're still trying for the perfect one of us together. Hope agreed to give the challenge a try.

Mom and Grandma Carolyn got us all dressed up. Then they made us practice. Here's our try at a together smile. Frightening, huh?

Hope took over 300 pictures. We're thinking there has to be at least one good one in the batch!
Thanks, Hope!!!

Ice Cream at the Diner

Yesterday we were still having our garage sale, but our friends said Mom could take a break. We decided to take Grandma Carolyn to our local 50s diner for ice cream. Yum!

Ice cream is really, really good.

I even ate my cone!

Jack had fun goofing off with Grandma Carolyn.

What a nice treat!

PS: Mom made lots of money at her garage sale. She sold a bunch of stuff including our kitchen chairs (she never really liked them). We're happy because she made enough money to get some new chairs. Thank goodness! I was starting to wonder how we were going to eat dinner.

Garage Sale Day

Yesterday (and today) was our big garage sale day. Our sale is at a friend's house (our new house is too small). Mom and Dad left the house at 5am while Grandma Carolyn stayed with us. After getting Mom set up, Dad went to work. Mom came home later in the afternoon. She was tired and dirty! A quick shower helped her feel better, so we were able to get on with our evening.

After all, we had plans. Charlotte was coming over for a dinner date! Everyone in Charlotte's family had different places to be, and we were happy that Charlotte's place-to-be was at our house! We made due with our few chairs, and had a wonderful time.

Did you notice that Jack is sitting in a big-boy booster? Jack decided he didn't need his highchair anymore (a.k.a. he refused to sit in it), so Mom sold the highchair at the garage sale and got Jack a booster seat with a tray just like mine.

After Charlotte went home, we all went to bed. Well, all of us except for Dad. He had to help some of our friends move into their new house. Poor Dad had a very long day yesterday! That's why we're letting him sleep this morning.

We're trying our best to be quiet. It's really quite hard, but Grandma Carolyn is helping us. She's drawing pictures on our backs. She draws and we guess what she's making. Sometimes shes gives us clues. So far she's drawn a tree and a star...

Maybe Dad will wake up soon, so we can have some loud fun with Grandma Carolyn while Mom goes back to the garage sale.

Digging

Sure we did other things today, but digging with Grandma Carolyn was the most fun part of the day.

Mom lets me get dirty--she even encourages it--but she doesn't really get all that dirty herself. Grandma Carolyn, on the other hand, digs right there with me!

In fact, she taught me how to sift the dirt, which is awfully great.

Dirt. I sure like dirt. And grandmas. I like them, too.

Today's Happenings

Well, today was another full day!
Mom spent most of the morning catching up on the last of the moving details. It went well, so she moved on to errands. Jack and I stayed home so we could play with Grandma Carolyn. We went on a walk and found some construction trucks. We stopped to watch them work. Trucks really are pretty great.

When Dad got home from work, we had a little wrestle.

Then it was time to put the stickers on my temporary responsibility chart. My real one got moved to storage on accident. Oops!

Next up was a story and a snuggle on the sofa with Grandma Carolyn.

Off to bed we went! Jack's been sleeping with his donkey. Cousin Noah put it in Grandma Carolyn's suitcase. It's Jack's early birthday present. Thanks, Noah!

We had best get to sleep. Tomorrow will be another fun day and we want to be ready!

She's Here

Last night Grandma Carolyn arrived...with all but one of her suitcases. Regardless we were outside waiting for her when she and Dad pulled into our pretend house driveway. Here we are in our underwear eating popsicles waiting for our grandma. (It's been REALLY hot here. We've been breaking heat records left and right. And we haven't been wearing many clothes.)

We played for a bit, and then headed to bed.
Refreshed, we headed downtown first thing this morning. We picked up our weekly veggies at the farmer's market, and then swung by the candy store. We were pretty sure Grandma Carolyn would enjoy a lollipop. She opted for gelato instead.

After heading home, we opened up Grandma Carolyn's suitcases so we could see if our California relatives sent us any presents. They did. First up, gummy penguins from Uncle Tommy! They're all natural penguins, so Mom let us have three each!

Thank you for thinking of us, Uncle Tommy!

But mostly, thanks to Grandma Carolyn for coming all this way to see us. What do you want to do next? Blueberry picking, perhaps?

Happy Father's Day!

Yes, we're a day late.
And, yes, we forgot to send Father's Day cards to our grandpas.
Perhaps that means our Mom isn't quite as settled as she thinks she is.
Perhaps she's still recovering from the move.
Hum...
At least we remembered to get some new sunglasses!

I'd been asking for some for quite a while. Yesterday we headed out to find a Father's Day present for Dad. We found just what he wanted, and we found sunglasses for me and Jack.

We hope your Father's Day was just as fun!

Today

This morning a friend and his mom came over for a little bit. We had a hard time figuring out what to do. That is until I spied a mud puddle!

Mom was more worried about staying away from the mud than taking pictures, so she just captured this one of me. I was glad Mom had a friend to distract her from completely focusing on the mud so I could go ahead and get really dirty!

Jack, it seems, doesn't like mud. He was pretty upset when he realized mud was on his leg. Mom hosed him off, and he ran inside to sit on the sofa with his Blue. I think he may have been traumatized by the mud as he had NO intention of coming back outside! He sat amongst the pillows with Blue for about an hour. Jack doesn't sit for anything, so mud must have made quite an impression on my brother!

What a funny little guy! He sure keeps us hopping!

Thursday

Yesterday Oliver and Sullivan came over to check out our pretend house. We played in the water and had a great time. Even Sullivan got in on the fun! Auntie Joy propped him up so he could splash for a little bit.

Then Dad got home just in time to help Oliver and me "relieve ourselves" in the yard. Talk about fun! Being a boy definitely has some perks!

After play and "business", we headed off for dinner and a walk. Playing with cousins sure is fun!!!

Wednesday

Well...we've been a bit behind due to being tired and recovering from the croup and colds. Jack seems to be doing fine as of yesterday. We're glad about that!

As you know, our family l-o-v-e-s our little downtown. We usually spend quite a bit of time down there throughout the week, but with the move that lessened some. Mom promised after papers were signed, we'd hit downtown just as soon as we were able. Wednesday was the day, and we were ready!

We stopped by the cafe for a drink before heading down the street to check on the progress of the new gelato shop. We were happy to see the world kept right on spinning in spite of our move. While we were busy packing boxes, the gelato arrived! YUM!!! And, best of all, that icy goodness is served in super cute bowls with funky spoons that remind our Mom of her trip to Europe way back in the day...a day when she wasn't packing boxes or chasing monkeys...but we digress...

On our way back up the street, we happened upon a crane doing some work in an alley. Of course, we stopped to take a look!

We got pretty hot watching that crane, so we popped into the children's clothing store to cool off. They had just received a shipment of these really neat-o wooden kids' toys. They even had a display for Jack and me to play with. What fun! Mom was quite enamored with these "classic" looking toys, and she made an impulse buy right then and there! She picked out a wooden version of Memory for us to take home. Jack and I wanted to play right away, so we headed back to the cafe to borrow a table for a quick game.

It sure is good to get back to our downtown routine.
If only there was the perfect house for sale right in the middle of downtown...

Lots of Stuff

We have lots of things to catch you up on. Our Internet was acting goofy, so we got behind. Here goes our long update...

Croup
Saturday night Jack started barking like a seal. Mom wasn't comfortable with the noise, so we headed to the doctor first thing Monday morning. It turns out Jack has the croup. It's viral, so we're waiting it out. Jack's feeling a bit under the weather, but he's still just as cute as a seal! :-)

Ladybugs
Dad came home yesterday for lunch accompanied by a ladybug. First I took a turn with the little bug...

...and then Jack took a turn. We suspected Jack wasn't a fan of bugs, but yesterday the suspicion was confirmed. Jack does NOT like bugs. (Over on the movie blog you can hear and see Jack's feelings. And, let me tell you, he's got lots of feelings regarding bugs!)

Postcards
Grandma Carolyn is on a short-term missions trip to France. Yesterday we found some postcards in our mailbox. They came all the way from Amsterdam. Apparently Grandma Carolyn had a layover in Holland and was thinking of us.

We taped the postcards to the empty wall in our room. Finally we have a few decorations on the wall!

Bread and Jam
This book is one of our favorite books. Mom thinks Mrs. Z. out in California sent it to us a while back, but she could be mistaken.

Anyway, yesterday for snack we had bread and jam while Mom read us the book. It was very fun to eat bread and jam while reading a book about bread and jam!

Closing
Last, but not least, we officially closed on our old house this morning. Due to some last minute changes, we had no babysitter. Jack and I tagged along for the fun. We're fine about the whole thing, but Mom is feeling a little bit sad. She knows it was time to move on, but she really did love that house! The people who bought our house seemed very nice and promised to take good care of it. Mom's trying to remember there is probably something just as perfect out there waiting for us. We'd better start looking!

The Duplex-Part 2

Moving right along...
Here is the kitchen. You'll notice there is no dishwasher or garbage disposal or microwave. Mom says living in this kitchen is sort of like camping. :-) In Mom's opinion the gas stove makes up for the missing appliances.
Just so you know where things are...Mom's standing in the eating area. The sofa is to her left.

Now we're moving down the hall. On the right at the front of the hall is a big closet. Half is our toy room and the other half is where we keep our mop and vacuum. Mom's standing by the desk in the living room while taking this picture.

Continuing down the hall, just before heading straight into the bathroom, there is a door on the right. That's Jack and my bedroom. Our room is kind of like camping, too! It's a SUPER tiny room. Just big enough for Jack's pack-n-play and the crib mattress that I'm using for my bed. I was trying to do a somersault in this picture, but it didn't come out right. You'll have to use your imagination.

Directly across the hall from my room is Mom and Dad's room. Their bed doubles as Jack's changing table. It's a tiny room as well. It's just big enough for their bed and two small tables with lamps.

I hope you enjoyed the tour of our pretend house. It's tiny, but we have really been enjoying our time here. We only brought minimal items with us, so we're making do. It's been a fun challenge. Sure there's a few things that we miss (previously mentioned kitchen appliances, a second bathroom, some of Mom's pretty dishes, and the garage), but all-in-all it's confirmed for us that we are small house people. Less to keep up means we have more time for friends and books and crafts and imaginary play. And that's just the way we like to live!

The Duplex-Part 1

We've been busy finishing up stuff with our old house while settling into our pretend house. We think we're finally settled enough to show you pictures of the duplex (a.k.a. pretend house).
Please come with me. I'll take you on a tour!
(Note: these duplexes were built in the 1960s, and very little has been done to update them. However, they are clean and in a great location.)

Here's our living room. Mom's back is at the front door in this picture and she's facing a little bit toward the left.

Here's the hallway. This picture is taken with Mom's back against the front door facing straight ahead. The living room is toward the left and the kitchen is on the right. Remember our duplex is t-i-n-y (as in 800 square feet), so we have had to be creative with space. The little shelf in the hall is where we store our toiletries because the bathroom is on the small side.

This is a picture I really wanted Mom to take. I posed especially for you! For this picture, Mom was standing in the kitchen eating area (the front door is on Mom's left). We don't have a pantry at the duplex, so the tub contains a few extras that wouldn't fit in the kitchen.

This is the eating area in the kitchen. Mom's little craft/project desk is in there along with my booster and Jack's high chair. We keep our "to-go" stuff (backpacks, ice chest, etc.) in there too. The front door is to Mom's right, the hall to her left, and the sofa directly behind her.

To be continued...