My Baby is a Busy Busy Big Boy

B is the best! It's better than the rest!

Last week was B week. It was MUCH better than A week, since so many more things start with B. We were very busy doing buttloads of B crafts, activities, and eating B snacks.

We had blueberries and blackberries...

Made blueberry pancakes...

Rode bikes...

Played with bubbles...

Found burnt bagels...

Had bananas and bologna...

Made a B collage...

Played baseball...

Made bird feeders out of pinecones and peanut butter...

Went birdwatching...

Found some bumblebees...

Colored a B book...

Made banana berry smoothies...

Made homemade butter... And bread...

It was a bodacious B week, not to be beat!

How Much Can You Fit In One Weekend?

This weekend was jam packed with a ton of stuff, mostly fun, and most of it blog-worthy. I always look for fun stuff to blog about so people will actually read it and comment, so I was excited for the weekend not just because it was full of partying, but because I knew I would get tons of cute pics and have lots to write about...

Last week our printer died. Apparently the "print head" is no longer functioning properly, and in order to replace it we would have to pay $80-$85 bucks. Uh...you can get a new printer for about that much, so we decided to forego the print head replacement and go printer shopping. The only problem was it broke on Tuesday and I needed a new printer before Sunday so I could do my sharing time...

So after researching online, I found a wireless all in one photo printer for $150 and we set off to Best Buy to purchase it Friday afternoon. To our surprise the printer was on sale for $99!! YAY! Now I can not only print the right colors, but I can print from either of our computers! SCORE!
Friday evening I had some girls from the dance studio over for an end of the dance year party. This party has been long awaited since LAST YEAR when I tried to have a party and it failed horrendously with only one kid showing up. Since the girls have such BUSY schedules I had to wait until summertime when they were available to have another get together. Even though I invited about 18 kids, only 7 showed up. At least it was a better turn out than last year. I also had one of my fellow teachers come over to help out and she brought her kids with her so Tyler would have some playmates.

None the less, Tyler thought ALL the girls came to see HIM, and by the end of the night he had 3 new "girlfriends" and gave kisses to everyone on the way out. It was a lot of fun.

Then, on Saturday morning we headed over to Madi's birthday bash. Tyler spent most of his time in the pool even if no one else would join him. I felt like paying Anie for the pool since he was the only one utilizing it.

Everyone else was interested in the awesome food and snacks Anie had prepared, but not Tyler! He wanted NOTHING to do with the food, despite the fact that EVERY time we go to the pool he asks me for a snack. Is the pool synonomous with snack?

Anyhow, we got some good pics of the party thrower (Anie) and the birthday girl (Madi).

This is what I got when I told Madi to smile...

After pool and snack time, we had dessert. Melissa made AWESOME cupcakes with worms and ladybugs and flowers. And not only did they LOOK cute...they tasted AMAZING.

Madi wasn't sure what to do with her cupcake. Here she is pondering her next move...

She finally decided to taste it...

And she made her Mommy taste it too...

But she was much more interested in the flower on top. When she blew on it, it spun around. It was so cute to watch her blowing on the flower.

After cupcakes, she opened her present. Tyler's was first and he was excited - he picked out a ball and a "tennis pony" for her and luckily she liked both. She also got a ton more cute stuff, including a new dress, and some food for her kitchen.

Tyler kept encouraging her to "open another present." I think he wished they were for him, but he restrained himself enough not to open them FOR her.

Oh, and this is what the guys did during the party... Josh has bright red burned knees to show for it.

Lastly, Saturday afternoon we hit up the pool...one of my favorite places to be, and I think it is becoming one of Tyler's favorites as well. He played in the water as much as possible before we forced him to go home. He even put his face under the water twice by himself!

That night he fell asleep at the table at 6:15pm. Unfortunately I couldn't wake him up, nor could I keep him asleep. He was up at 7:45 ready to go, and didn't go back to sleep until 10:30.

What a fun weekend!

Help If You Can

I normally don't do this type of stuff, but this woman is a good friend of my aunt's and she asked me to post this up in hopes that someone could help out. My husband is not a federal employee, so we can't do anything, but maybe one of you can?

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***FEDERAL EMPLOYEES- PLEASE DONATE LEAVE TO RYAN HESS***

My name is Margie Hess, my husband Ryan was diagnosed on June 12, 2009 with a rare and aggressive form of Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Since this is an aggressive form of T-Cell Lymphoma, his doctor has put him on an aggressive chemo regimen that will result in him being unable to work for the next 4-6 months and possibly longer. At the time of diagnosis he was finishing up his 1st year as a Podiatry Resident at the V.A. in Tucson, AZ. Ryan is a devoted husband and father of two children, Hallie (5) and Max (2). By the end of this month (June 2009), Ryan will use up the last of his vacation and sick leave and will have to go on unpaid leave. Ryan is the sole provider for our family; I stay at home with both the kids. Without him working we have no income. I need to stay home to help care for him, so I cannot get a job right now, either. As difficult as it is for our family to have to ask for help, we have realized that we must do so at this time.

We were told that any federal employee (ie: military, Border Patrol, DEA, FB I, Dept of Justice, EPA etc. EXCEPT Post Office employees) can donate vacation time to be used as sick leave for another Federal employee. We would be so thankful for any number of extra paid days we can accumulate. Thank you so much.

How can you help if you ARE a Federal Employee?Go to your HR department and request to donate leave to Ryan Hess who works for the VA. (Your HR person will know the form that needs to be filled out- each Federal agency has their own form to donate leave)

Once filled out and signed, the HR person will then need to fax or e-mail the form to:
OLIVIA McCLURE - Benefits Specialist (TUCSON V.A.)
Phone #: (520) 792-1450 x 6076Fax # : (520) 629-1849
E-Mail : olivia.mcclure@va.gov

ALSO, for those who are federal employees, please print out this message and post it in break/lunch rooms to help get the word out as well as emailing it to co-workers! How to help if you are NOT a Federal Employee:PASS this along to ANYONE and EVERYONE that you know and then ask them to pass the message along. Post it on blogs, Facebook...whatever you can think of. Thanks again everyone- this will help SO much!

GO TEAM RYAN HESS!(E-mail teamryanhess@gmail.com to receive updates or to send a message!)

What's Up, Doc?

Today my Mom, Tyler and I went to a farewell "party" for Dr. Mella. He's retiring from practicing medicine, which is bittersweet for many reasons. For starters, Dr. Mella was my doctor from the time I was 3 to about 20 when they forced me to quit seeing a pediatrician. He is the only doctor I have really trusted and respected, and felt like he cared about me as a person. He also worked with my Mom for 20+ years, so I saw him more than just when I was sick. AND I worked with him for a few years as a summer job, then later a full time job. And, lastly he was Tyler's doctor as well.

He has been a great doctor, one that really spends time with the patients and gets to know them. He answers questions patiently, and makes the kids feel comfortable before he starts poking and prodding around. It's hard to find doctors out there that are good, let alone on his caliber of knowledge and care.

Anyhow, we will miss you Dr. Mella! I hope retirement is good to you!

A is For...

This past week was the letter "A" week at our house. We focused on learning different things that start with "A" by doing crafts and activities, singing songs, and eating food. This letter was pretty hard because not a lot of stuff starts with "A" but we did our best.

We made an airplane out of paper towel and toilet paper rolls. We tried to glue it together, with no success, so I sewed the wings on and taped the propellors to the front. Tyler finished it off by coloring it with markers.
We cut out big letter A's in capital and lowercase, then found things in a magazine that started with A and glued them to the letters. It was pretty hard to find things to cut out, so we started using brand names, like Aussie and Aveeno.

We played Animal Charades. Tyler's favorite was pretending to be a frog. I had to keep reminding him that I was supposed to guess which animal he was - that he wasn't supposed to tell me.

We ate snacks, like apples and dip, animal crackers, American Cheese, and Applesauce.

We traced the letter A onto paper.We made a Letter "A" book.

We did apple stamping.

Other things we did that I didn't get pictures of were: we went on an airplane hunt; we made an apple pie; and we did acrobatics. It was a very fun week and I am looking forward to "B" week since SO MUCH MORE STUFF starts with B. Now if I can only get feeling better and fix my dumb printer, we will be set...