{the beach, again}

We went back to the beach today, this time with Shauna and her girls. As usual Morgan had the most fun playing in the mud. What is it with her? The big kids spent much of their time building a minnow trap, which amounted to little more than a large hole dug in the sand, filled with water. Eventually it included a large canal system, as they continued to dig, fill, and connect.

Morgan skipped her nap and started to get sleepy at about 2:30. She laid down on our blanket for about 2 1/2 minutes and then must've gotten her second wind, because she was just fine until we left at 4:00. She fell asleep in the car before 4:01 and continued sleeping even while I carried her from her carseat to her crib. She slept through dinner and is still sleeping. Big Gerard and little Gerard are at swim class so I have a few minutes to go through all the pictures and write this post! I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as we enjoyed the lake!

EDITED TO ADD: Morgan woke up at 6:45. Wonder when she'll go to sleep tonight!

{got muscles?}

In case you were wondering, as I was....

ME: What are those little toy men called that you brought back from NY?
BIG GERARD: MUSCLES.
ME: Musclemen?
GERARD: No. Muscles.
ME: Muscles?
BIG GERARD: Yeah, m...u...s...c...l...e...s.
ME: Um, yeah, I know how to spell muscles.
BIG GERARD: NO. M.U.S.C.L.E.S
ME: Like I said, I know how to spell muscles.
BIG GERARD: NO. M.U.S.C.L.E. is an acronym for Millions of Unusual Small Creatures Lurking Everywhere.
ME: Ahhhh. Creepy little buggers.

{now that we're home}

After being away from home for so long, we spent some quality time just hanging out here. Kites, crayons and silly putty anyone?

Aunt Elizabeth gave Gerard a really cool, REALLY big Star Wars kite and of course Gerard wanted to promptly try it out. We thought we'd practice with a smaller kite first. Be on the lookout for pictures of the X-Wing Fighter soon.





Gerard and I also decided to go through our crayons for a little project I've been wanting to do for a while. Here's how we made our own crayons:

YOU WILL NEED:
cooking spray
mini muffin pan
a daughther like Morgan who breaks LOTS of crayons and then refuses to use them




WHAT YOU DO:
1. Spray a mini muffin pan with cooking spray. Explain to your children that only moms who know how to bake actually USE the mini muffin pan for mini muffins.

2. Preheat the oven to 275 degrees.

3. Separate out all the broken crayons that your kids won't use because they're too small. Thanks to Morgan we have many of these.

4. Remove all paper wrappers from crayons.



5. Break up any large pieces of crayon and place them in the muffin pan. You can mix coordinating colors or put all the same colors together.

6. Put in the oven for about 8-10 minutes, and watch carefully. I found out that not all crayons are created equal. Crayolas melt best, while some of the ones we got for free at restaurants never actually melted at all.



7. Carefully remove from the oven and let cool. You can put it in the refrigerator after the pan has cooled a little. Once they are totally cool the crayons will pop right out. I bet it would be neat to use a pan with different shaped molds -- like hearts or something like that.



8. Color!


And finally, Morgan had a lot of fun with silly putty. I HATE silly putty. The concept is cool, but the mess is a nightmare. Have you ever tried to get silly putty out of carpet or couches or clothes or toys? I have. So the rule in our house is that silly putty MUST remain in the kitchen. Of course Morgan, our little angel, follows all rules, right?



I dont' think so.

Here she is pushing the limits. I'm in the kitchen. I'm in the living room. I'm in the kitchen. I'm in the living room. Kitchen? Living room?



How 'bout now. Is this considered the kitchen? Living room? Kitchen?



What if I stand in the living room but hold the silly putty over the kitchen floor? Does that work for you?



Yeah. She's an angel all right.

{it's war!}

We've officially been invaded by various army men, GI Joes and Muscle-men (or something like that). Big Gerard couldn't wait to get his hands on his old toys when we went back to NY. Nothing like a big box of little plastic men to excite a grown man. The IDEA of retrieving said army men caused a war of it's own -- he had to invade Elizabeth's room to access their bunker. And of course I was Elizabeth's ally in all of this, because, REALLY, do we NEED more toys? Sadly, the enemy was triumphant, and little Gerard was more than happy to introduce Daddy's men to his existing army collection.




I'm sorry to report that there were major casualties in the living room.

{fishing}

While we were back in NY we went to Godfrey's Pond with Mima, Granpa G and Aunt Elizabeth. We took the kids two years ago where Gerard got his first official fishing lesson from Granpa G. Last time he had quite a case of beginners luck -- I think he caught 7 fish or something like that. This time he only caught one or two (there was some debate at the end of the day, so let's just say he caught two). Morgan also caught two, although in all honesty she thought she was "fishing" for worms, so each time she brought her hook up she said "I caught a worm!"



















Gerard enjoyed the tetherball as much this time as he did the last time, but this time he got to play with Mima. I think she had a slight height advantage.



After the pond we went to a little local water park and then back to their house for some dinner.






Sadly it was a pretty short visit, but well worth it. The kids had fun and Gerard is still talking about fishing. Maybe next time they'll come to us and we can find a place to fish around here!

{bed question}

Quick question (I already posted this on Facebook, but I thought I'd ask it here for those of you who aren't on FB)....

Should a kid's bed have a boxspring? We're shopping for "big girl" furniture for Morgan and a lot of the beds I come across don't accomodate a boxspring -- they basically have some sort of board for support under the mattress. Should that be a deal-breaker?