Superheroes!

It's been all about Superheroes lately as we are preparing for the boys combined birthday party this Saturday. Our theme is "Calling all Superheroes". TMac is so excited. Tot will be once he sees the actual party. Being a mother of boys is so fun!

Mother's day party with the Bains.

We had our Mother's day party with the Bains this past Sunday. Above is 4 out of the 6 sons together. I like when they all sit together and laugh. We spent a lot of time in the front yard practicing the Rip Stick skateboard.

Wrestling time with Daddy.

Dana on the Rip Stick which I have never tried because it looks and is really hard and my coordination is nothing to shout about lately!

Such a cute photo - Uncle Ronnie helping TMac learn to ride.

Tot and cousin E.

Tot receiving a birthday present from Grandma and Grandpa.

I always love a Bain family party - great food, lots of cousins and fun. Ooh - and Mom made homemade ice cream - my favorite

RS birthday garden party.

This past Saturday we had our RS birthday party. I love being on the Enrichment committee. It's the perfect calling for me. Plus, I get to work with my bestie Katherine and also the hilarious Ruth. We had an outside garden party and delicious lunch. We had a demo on gardening in boxes in the backyard, I gave a spiritual thought about "Nourishing your spiritual garden" (it was probably cheesy), we played fun games, ate tons of great food, had a crazy garden hat contest and each took home a strawberry plant in a pot. I really enjoyed it and here are just some of the photos of some of the ladies who made and wore crazy garden hats. I should have taken better pictures of mine. I had seed packets above my forehead and two huge flower wind spinners on each side. After this party I went to my friend Charlotte's pink and strawberry themed Pampered Chef party and had delicious food. It was a girly girl day! There's not many of those in my world with all of the boys in my house - not that I'm complaining! I love my boys but girly days are nice. I even managed to put on mascara and my good jewelry - amazing!

A cowboy in pajamas.

These pjs have always reminded me of the type of pjs that cowboys would wear and this morning I finally remembered to grab the camera and cowboy hats for a photo shoot. So good morning pardner! It's gonna be a busy day on the Crazy Bain Ranch!

Rewind - Trying to catch a leprechaun!

Can you tell that TMac was not in a photo takin' mood? Back in March we copied a fabulous idea from my sister Erin and tried to catch a leprechaun. You have to collect some green items and toys to try to lure the leprechaun into your trap with. We also put in a piece of shiny green ribbon that the leprechaun could keep to remember us by if he got out of the trap. TMac set his trap and went to bed. He had lots of questions about leprechauns. In the morning we saw that we had not caught a leprechaun but he did leave TMac a note and .50 cents! The leprechaun said better luck next year!

Mother's day thoughts.

I made these photos for Christmas and gave them as gifts to the women in my family but I was looking at them today and they inspired some Mother's day thoughts. In a nutshell, I am glad to have lots of family women in my life. They all deserve to enjoy a great Mother's day. I love you gals!

The photo above contains the left hands with wedding bands of my Grandma McArthur, Mom Janine, myself, sister Heather and my sister Erin. It was quite the chore to take the original, uncropped color photo of all our freckly, white/orange hands and turn it into the finished product but it was fun. I am so blessed to have my Grandma here with me still alive and kickin'! My sons are so blessed to know and have fun with their Great-Grandma. Our family is blessed that we are all happily married (most days - hah hah!).

This photo I just love so much. It is 4 generations of hands - my Grandma, my Mom, myself and my boys. I just love Tot's chubby little hand. I am so glad that families are forever and I love that we all live close enough to see each other a lot. This month is one party after another and it's never a dull moment for my family.

Happy Mother's day to the great women in my life including my super-sweet mother-in-law! We need to take a photo with your hand and ours next time we're together!

Superhero Soccer

Today at preschool and soccer the boys dressed up as superheros before soccer time so we played superhero soccer! Katherine's house is a boy toy wonderland and her superhero costume collection casts a huge shadow over our meager collection! My sons love it at Katherine's house. The above photo is TMac playing soccer as the golden Power Ranger. I made the mistake of congratulating another boy S on making a goal and he said, "No, I'm Optimus Prime! Optimus Prime made the goal!" Good times with creative boys.

The lone superherione. Poor I - she is always the only girl at preschool but she handles the boys well and is always willing to share her snacks with Tot the thief. She is so pretty.

Sharing grapes with the dog.

Superheroes work so hard that sometimes they get tired and have to throw a fit. When Tot starts a fit he likes to go straight from a standing position to a full out belly flop which makes a loud noise and can't be easy on his body. He doesn't melt down like most kids. When he started a fit today in costume the sudden action made the cape flare out and then float down which was hilarious but I didn't have my camera on me the first time so I had to purposely annoy him to try and get him to start another fit which he was more than willing to oblige me with. Too funny! I should have taken some video.

TMac is serious about his superhero poses.

Not anywhere in the world is there a more ripped, muscular 2 year old!

"I'm a creator kid!"

Above is what TMac's room looks like every day and when we clean up for bed we pick up hundreds of little pieces of cut up paper. TMac is constantly bringing me creations to look at during the day that come with lengthy explanations, games, questions, plays, shows, etc. When we got home from a several day trip to the river this week, TMac went straight to his room to color and create. Today I mentioned how pleased I am that he loves to color for hours and is so creative and he said, "Well yeah - I'm a creator kid!" Translation - duh Mom! Today the project was Power Rangers. Yesterday it was all of the insects that he could think of which resulted in 30 plus drawings which were cut out. It keeps him really busy and quiet in his room but poor Tot wants in there so bad and will stand at the gate in the doorway and whine. Poor guy. Thankfully my Mom gave TMac the huge roll of paper (Sam's club if you want some too) for Christmas which we have only used 1/3 of and it gets used almost every day (I use some for preschool too) and we have tons of old paperwork from Tracy's home inspection days because the creator kid goes through a ton of paper. Now we need a bulk package of tape because he's using all of my tape lately. It's so great when kids are old enough to cut out all of their drawings themselves instead of needing you to do it. Keep on creating kid!

Our 1st annual Easter egg hunt at the river.

This Easter we had many Easter egg hunts but TMac wanted to know why we have never had an Easter egg hunt at the river. I don't know why! We just never have! TMac pointed out that we should have egg hunts at all of the places we live and hey, he's right! I enjoyed it and I love the combo of swim trunks and egg hunts.

I hid the eggs near 3 trees like this that had really cool hollows and nooks and crannies to hide the eggs in.

It's fun to start new traditions. Next year I want to hide some along the actual river banks and shores.

River R&R - the best way to relax!

It's relaxing for me just looking at this picture. My river rat boys enjoying their spot. We returned from almost 5 days at the river this evening and we are reluctant to get back to reality. It was great to have a lot of time with Tracy.

A chairs and towels fort on the deck.

Someone added this beautiful green wrought iron bench to a road next to the river recently and I was so happy to see it and instantly planned the photos I would take with it. There is some of our stretch of the Colorado river that we love.

Look really close - there is a white shell on the end of his pointer finger.

Dana, Genni and my little baby niece who took her first trip to the river this time.

Flyin' kites and hangin' out at our favorite river beach.

It was windier than normal on this trip so we got several good kite flying sessions in.

TMac and his cousin flying kites. They were really good at it.

There are 5 little black tadpoles in this sand bucket. Usually the tadpoles swim away too fast and we can't catch any but there were hundreds of tiny tadpoles that were really lazy and totally catchable. It was weird how they didn't move at all, even when you were going to step right on top of them. I bet we did step on some because they were that lazy. In almost 7 or 8 years of going to the river I have never seen lazy tadpoles like this. TMac was loving it.

Tracy was able to get some good fishing time in several times and one afternoon Tracy and TMac fished for almost 4 hours while Tot and I napped which was so great for me!

The boys loved to run on Dana's boat while it was anchored on the shore (don't worry - you can't tell from this photo but below the grass is several feet of dirt/sand and then very shallow water for a few feet so no lifejackets are needed). I love how Tot is just laying down and relaxing while staring at the water. It was a simple trip this time with no pontoon boat or jet skis because it's maintenance time for all of our toys but it was great to have Dana's boat there to cruise in.

Popsicle time!

Nap time!

More playin' on the boat at the shore. The photo looks so dangerous but it's just the angle of the shot. I have plenty of photos of crying boys who are unhappy in their lifejackets!

More kite flying.

Blanket fort in one of the motorhome bunk beds.

I don't know why I get such a kick out of cutting open those little cereal boxes to make the cereal boats where you pour the milk right in but I do!

Strawberries, marshmallow dip and some TV after a fun filled day. Life is good.

When we get to our park and motorhome we usually just drive right by it to go straight to the water and see what the water level is and say hi. Well, when we got to the water the boys wanted to go straight in without changing out of our driving clothes and into swim trunks first so that is what they did. It's still a little cold this time of year in the water since it is snow melt run off from the mountains of Colorado but that doesn't stop my boys. Look at the joy on their faces (it took TMac a little longer to get out to Tracy's depth from the shore because he was reluctant at first but Tot was laughing and all smiles). Another side story is that whenever Colorado is getting bad snow storms Tracy is so happy because their snow becomes our river water so when he hears on the news that there are blizzards and schools shut down in Colorado he is cheering!

The very first dip of this trip = happy boys.

Good times. We hung out, we swam, fished, ate, BBQ'ed, napped, slept in, laughed and lot's of playing and relaxing. We can't wait to get out there again!

One other story that cracked me up - One of the nights TMac had played hard all day and right before falling asleep said to me, "Mom, I want to go home." I was shocked. Then tears start rolling down his face and he's doing an honest, heartbroken cry and he says, "I have to color every day!" He really does spend hours every day coloring and cutting out his paper creations so he was upset that days had gone by without coloring. He told me that we could never go on a trip again without his art supplies and huge roll of paper. It tugs on my heart when he is honestly sad. It was so cute that I was trying to be serious and not laugh. We did so many fun things while we were there but he must color every day!