BBQ

We had the Lackes and Atkinsons over yesterday for a bbq...we stayed outside until the mosquitos really started eating everyone alive...here are a couple of pics (the only I took - I don't know why I didn't take more!).

Luke and Ty in the kiddo pool -- Ty was absolutely fearless and was attempting to scuba dive without scuba gear...

Liz and Griff (Griff for some reason was NOT a fan of the pool, don't know if it was the cold water temp or if his boo-boo hurt (he sliced his foot on something earlier in the day).

Monkeying Around

He understands that it's "ooo ooo AAA AAA", but he really loves the AAA AAAH and most of the time when I ask him he yells it. :)

Pool Time!

We took advantage of this absolutely beautiful day and hit the CLCC pool that just opened today! Ben played golf this morning and met us afterward...we were there most of the morning and quite a bit of the afternoon and Griff was an angel. He loved the water (though he was a bit apprehensive about the temperature at first). Griff even took a nap on daddy!

I covered Ben's legs and Griff's feet, don't worry

Griff and his main squeeze Claire

Weekend Fun

It has been another long, and a bit rough, week. Here's to hoping that Ben is able to be home more this summer and all of us are able to enjoy fun time together so I don't have to start another Sunday post with "it's been a [insert not so great adjective here] week!" Griff was home sick Monday and Tuesday and, although he was fever-free and went back to school on Wednesday, he was definitely off for the rest of the week. He was not our happy, laid-back Griffin, until, thankfully, TODAY. I was getting worried for a bit there that our luck had run out and that someone had replaced my always-smiling, always-laughing, always-loving child with one that cried, fussed, and threw fits 24/7. Alas, not to worry. G-man came back with a vengeance today! I think all he needed was to catch up on his sleep...like his father, you cannot deprive the boy of his sleep.

And on Saturday night, Ben and I were able to get out and have a great dinner, great dessert, and great wine thanks to extra-special babysitters! It's our 2nd anniversary this week, and since Ben will be out of town we celebrated early. Thanks to Liz, Dave, and Claire for giving us the opportunity to do so!!

Ben flew out early to Philly this morning (another trial this week) and Griff and I spent the day playing, laughing, shopping, and having a ball at Vanessa's 2nd birthday party! Griff played hard and crashed when we got home (but not until after a quick bath, given the sand-box time and other adventures in the dirt)! I discovered what an actual dirty diaper was -- when I stripped him for bathtime I found dirt, sand, and mulch caked in his diaper. Yum.

And G is sleeping right now fairly well, even though he is cutting teeth BIGTIME (molars...I can feel them on both sides and they are so close). When Griff and I were out today, we stopped into Bath & Body Works; I wanted to get some more hand soaps and also something to un-funk the light funky smell in Griff's room (Ben says I'm dreaming, but no matter how much I clean, lysol, wash and otherwise freshen I think it remains...and no we haven't kept the diaper genie in there for a loooong time). Anyway, I found these cute little items called Scentbugs. Maybe they've been out forever and I'm just now discovering them, but they are awesome! No heat, no plugging them in...just 2 AA batteries, some scented oil, a button to push and - voila - a very light scent permeates the room. And for Griff I got a natural essential aromatherapy oil -- chamomile and lavendar for relaxation and sleep. It's not overwhelming, it's not full of bad chemicals, and there's no more funk. Yay!

For our baby-free dinner out, we took the real Jeep (we don't get to drive it much since we've had a little man this past year). And since it was gorgeous this weekend we didn't freeze and loved the drive!

=Claire and Griffin are dating, and she is SO awesome with him. Age difference? What age difference?!?!? Claire is always guaranteed to be able to get a smile out of Griffin, no matter how tired or cranky he might be.

That's right, DJ Lance Rock HIMSELF came to Vanessa's Yo Gabba Gabba party. What are the odds?!?

Swinging with mommy


And sliding with Claire!

DJ Lance Rock and Dave

On Saturday, Daddy and Griff got some great playtime in - they played in the new tent with the new bubble machine. What a combination!

I think Daddy took the wrong exit from the tent....

Griff decided to raid my underwear drawer on Friday. Not only did he empty the entire drawer, but he really seemed to like this bra. He put it on his head and said "peeetty!"

This Little Boy...

Loves a BIG milkshake!!!

We've Come a Long Way, Baby

I've posted previously about the work we've put into our house: inside and out, since we've moved in. The inside was much easier, it had great bones (a great kitchen) but it was more of a blank slate. Or I guess it was literally a blank slate as in the years the previous owners had lived there since having the home built, they had not painted one single room. Each and every room was beautiful builder white. Very stale. I guess the bonus of that is that we didn't have to REpaint any rooms, and we've finally gotten almost every room in the house painted (recently the living room and dining room were finished); the only exception is the guest bedroom, and we are still deciding what we want to do in there. Next on the list is new carpet, some hardwood floors downstairs, and of course finishing the basement...but those projects might take a bit to come to fruition.

The outside of the house was a different story. Not only was it TWO colors...but the landscaping left MUCH to be desired. Our first step was to invest in a fence, due to the doggies. We then had the outside painted (one color this time, which elated our neighbors). But the landscaping...because the beds had just been sitting there, untended to, for quite some time, the weeds and other vegetation completely took over. We can't take the entire credit for where we are today with the landscaping, however. We owe a lot to Tom ("Juan") Pucci who put in a lot of effort cleaning out the beds last summer...and Ben and I have been slowly chipping away at what needed to be done...and on Mother's Day, my mom and I finished up by putting in a lot of perennials and taking out a lot of garbage plants (in my opinion) from the beds. The result are nice, clean beds which I am happy with. We're not entirely done, but it's miles from where we started!

And, one of our last projects was to put in a patio, as all we had before was a STOOP. We decided after much debate and research to go with pavers, and we loved the outcome...except we had decided not to take out the stoop, and just to add on to it. The stoop was concrete, and so we painted it a nice matching gray last fall...which didn't last through the winter and peeled and chipped off, detracting from our patio. So, we bit the bullet and had the steps paved over. They just finished today and we love that the patio is finally complete -- good way to start the season! We will definitely be putting it to GOOD use this summer and fall!

The completed steps

This bed is where the previously-posted about hideous bushes lived...and now my azaleas live here. The pink ones have already bloomed (they were so gorgeous) and now the red ones are blooming.

The front was also a mess, it was just blank rocks and dirt, so we created a mulch bed this Spring and planted another azalea

The previous homeowner had countless cut logs thrown around this tree by the golf course and there was no grass at all; we think he was trying to line some of the other beds with the wood (at one point we were going to use it for firewood but the g.course superintendent, Keith, warned us that it was treated with a chemical that might explode our home, so we refrained..we then tried to dig post holes and put the logs in the ground to create a round bench but it ended up looking more like stonehenge so we also scrapped that idea). Keith was then kind enough to haul it off for us, and we then sodded the area, planted some hostas (that either Dobber or the bunnies or both have been snacking on, much to my dismay) and made a mulch bed. Significant improvement.

This bed was also full of scrap plants, dying ugly bushes, etc. Tom and Ben tried to plant a tree here, too, last summer (one that had voluntarily grown in another bed that they transplanted) but unfortunatly it didn't make it. My mom and I finally put it in it's resting place and pulled out all of the other mess and planted some perennial grasses that are supposed to grow tall and wide, so they will hide the ugly boxes. They are little now, but in a couple of years I'm hoping they cover them up.

This area, also, was a whole lot of messy "nothing" so we planted some miniature evergreens and hydrangeas last summer -- I'm thrilled that the hydrangeas are coming back up, especially given Dobber's penchant to pee on any new plant in the yard (as you can tell from a couple of the miniature evergreens). Very frustrating habit. Thank goodness Tucker still pees like a girl! :)

Fevers and Fun Stuff

It's been a long week for us...work for me has been very busy, and Ben was out of town again all week. He got home Saturday, and is going to be in town for the rest of this week, which we are certainly happy about. Auntie Honey came over on Saturday to hang out with Griffin, and we went out with the Lackes and Atkinsons on Saturday night. I knew Griff was a little "off" on Saturday, and as it turns out he woke up this morning with a pretty good fever. He's been off and on all day...sometimes just wanting to lay on mommy and sometimes we get a smile out of him and a little activity.

And, after Griff gets over this fever, I'm pretty sure that he will be faking sick the next few weeekends; Ben went to Costco this afternoon and came back with the necessary items and some fun get-better items for Griff (a bubble machine and a giant tent, tube and balls). AND, Auntie Liz stopped by with some fun stuff too -- books, a DVD and popsicles! Let's face it, G is one loved (spoiled) little man!

We will be staying home tomorrow from school as a result of the fever. Below are some pics from this past weekend and week.

Auntie Honey got this shot of the three of us on Saturday

His cheeks were rosy even yesterday :(

He can't wait until he is tall enough to look out of his window

Snuggling his Mickey hard-core

His new tent, tube and balls!

Quack?

Griffin is VERY into books lately. He will "read" them to himself, "read" them to you, and loves to point out the pictures (especially animals) in the books. He doesn't always get it right...for example, if it is a drawn and not up-close picture of a sheep or a cow, it's always a "doggie" to Griff. He also likes to make animal sounds along with pointing to the pictures...his favorite sounds to make are the ROAR of a lion and the Ooo Ooo OOO of a monkey.

When we were in the car coming home from brunch, he was playing with his recycling rubber duckie that he got from school for Earth Day. I asked him, "Griff, what does a duck say?" to which he thought, then replied, "Hii." So, the next time you are out for a stroll and you see a duck, be polite: instead of quacking at the duck, just say hello.

More Weekend Pictures

Griffin and Mommy before brunch

Took a lot of tries and we got a lot of the back of his precious little noggin.

Skylar and her vampire FANGS

Morgan's fangs, though, were much less frightening...

Better View

I couldn't in good conscience leave that not-so-great pic as the first pic on the blog on such a beautiful day!

Grandma Cathy, Mommy, Griffin and Daddy today after brunch at CLCC

Happy Mother's Day!

In honor of Mother's Day, enjoy this horrible picture of Griff and I from breakfast yesterday. Yikes!

(there are better ones of him below)

Griff is very into playing "ball" right now. He will "throw it" to you, then clap and say "YAY!!!!"

"Hi, Daddy!" Griffin think all remote controls are phones (who can blame him, they DO look like our home phone and most cell phones). He constantly picks them up and says "Hi, Daddy!" (he is used to saying Hi to daddy on the phone when he is out of town).

Dialing up Daddy....

Uh oh, which one is ringing???

Bye Bye, Daddy!

Griffin enjoyed McDonalds for the second time ever yesterday....except "enjoy" is probably not the best term -- he may be the only child on the planet that does NOT like McDonalds! He picked up the nuggets and fries...smiled...and threw them on the floor.

Ready to launch.

Chugging -- every morning Griff chugs at least one full glass of milk....it does a body good!