Summer Fun!

In an unexpected turn of events, we have actually been busy doing lots of fun summer stuff lately! Usually we are more of the "stay at home and relax" variety, but I have really been trying to get the boys out and about this summer. You know, the whole "we are busy making memories!" kind of thing. Well, that and the "they both take much longer afternoon naps if I wear them out" kind of thing....

Some highlights from the past few weeks include a trip to Honey and Papa's house in the Hill Country, a family beach trip to Galveston and our small group trip to the lake! Our sweet friends invited our entire group (and all our kids!) to spend the weekend at their great lake house. Everybody had a blast!

Playing some golf with Papa!

Stealing Honey's sunglasses!

Matthew did great on his first trip to the beach!

Lunch break!

At the lake! All the little "Mamas" wanted to take care of Matthew!

There would have been more water if my son hadn't thrown half of it out...

The kid table!

We have a few more fun activities planned for our last few weeks of freedom. I think Jonathan is getting pretty used to our schedule of sleeping in later, playing all morning and then resting all afternoon. He is in for a rude awakening when school starts back up! Then again....so am I!

My favorite Pinterest finds!

Since I am so positive that you are all waiting to know exactly what I love on Pinterest, I made you a list! (Hopefully I am not breaking some unwritten rule in blogland by linking to other blogs....I found them on Pinterest, so obviously their information is already out there...)

Brown Bag Pop Corn- Put 1/4 cup of popcorn kernels in a brown lunch bag and fold the top over twice (no staples....you know, what with metal being a fire hazard and all...) Microwave for 1 minute, 30 seconds. Top with your favorite toppings. WAY cheaper and WAY better for you than regular bagged popcorn!

Cheap Foaming Hand Soap- Once you are done with a bottle of foaming hand wash, refill the bottle with about an inch of regular hand soap, body wash, baby shampoo etc....Fill the rest of the bottle with water and shake well. Voila! A whole new bottle of soap for next to nothing. I just did this with some Aveeno Baby Body Wash and it totally worked! That stuff is expensive so I was super happy to find a way to stretch it out. It lathered up really well, smells just as nice and worked the same!

The quote: "Let him sleep. For when he wakes, he will move mountains." I want to find a really sweet print for the boys rooms, but so far the majority of what I can find are vinyl wall decals. Has anybody seen this as a cool printable?

Baby flashcards- These are done by the Wee Gallery brand and I love them. We had hard copy cards for Jonathan, but gave them back to a friend for her own kids. When I found these pinned from the Similac website, I was so excited. Matthew LOVES to watch them as a "peek-a-boo" game and the animals even make sounds. Now, I am not an advocate of putting your baby in front of the computer for extended periods of time, but 5 or 10 minutes never hurt anybody!

Funfetti Cake Batter Cookies- These cookies are freaking awesome. They are yummy, easy to make and look cute too. Obvious win.

So what are some of y'alls favorites? If you are not into Pinterest, have you found anything out in cyberspace recently that I need to be aware of? Please share!

You know you are a mommy when....

I laughed pretty hard writing these today because I realized that I have done ALL of them in the past week! What are some things that you guys would add to the list?

1. You are driving by yourself when you see a garbage truck. You immediately yell, "TRASH TRUCK!" just like your little boy.

2. You find yourself hoping that your little one will wake up to eat around 3:30 am because it means he will go back to sleep and stay asleep much later in the morning. This seems stupid, but all I know is that when Matthew doesn't wake up to eat, he wakes up for good at 6:00. If he does, he will sleep until 8:00! 20 minutes in the middle of the night in exchange for 2 hours? Obvious answer.

3. When you are getting ready in the morning and the baby barfs on you, you decide to wear the outfit anyway and if anybody asks, you tell them it happened in the car and you didn't have a change of clothes.

4. You rush to get all your chores done with both babies crying on your hip so that you can use nap time to catch up on the Real Housewives of Atlanta and not cleaning the bathroom.

5. You justify feeding your toddler macaroni and cheese multiple times a week because you bought the organic kind.

6. You "pin" a bunch of really over-achieving activities for your toddlers so that your friends who follow your board will think you are super mom.....even though you have never and will never actually do them.

7. You don't make yourself your own meal because you are too tired and you know your toddler won't eat theirs anyway so you can just have that one.

8. When you walk into the salon to get your hair cut, your hairdresser says "Wow.....it has been a LONG time since you've been here.

9. You have perfected the "Oh friend, I have sooooo been there" look that you give to the other mama in the grocery store when she walks by with two screaming babies in her cart.

10. You can carry on an entire phone conversation with a baby screaming in the background.

My thoughts about the 4th of July

Let me first get a little rant out of the way...I hate fireworks. Not the beautiful, large city-wide or neighborhood fireworks, but the super loud, super annoying little crappy ones that a million people in my neighborhood shot off last night. I know this makes me sound like a grumpy old woman and I am okay with that. Fireworks serve one purpose, to look pretty. Black Cats and other equally annoying firecrackers are not pretty and they wake up sleeping babies at all hours of the night. Oh and then, my super special neighbors left all their trash in the streets. So let's recap....they are loud, wake up babies, are not pretty in any way and leave a huge mess behind. I guess I can see why teenage boys enjoy them so much.

On to better things....

We had a great day at our house! We spent the morning walking in our neighborhood parade and checking out the fire trucks and ambulances that came to drive in the parade. Later, the Ley's came over to grill some burgers and then we ended our fun day at a party thrown by our sweet friends! Jonathan had a great time at the party and really enjoyed swimming in the pool with his friends!....until he threw all his food in the pool. Hot dog and all.....

Speaking of, I freaking love grilled hot dogs. I wish they were even a smidge healthy because if they were, I would eat them all the time. As it stands though, they are a special treat in our house. Stupid unknown ingredients.

Hope you guys all had a great day too!

Bringing up the rear of the parade!

 Sweet friends!

Jonathan chillin' in the water with all his friends!