Annandale Carnival

Around Memorial Day weekend, Annandale held a 2 week carnival in the parking lot of our K-Mart. Our friends, Mike and Sarah Merrill and Alex Goode, came along with us one weekend and it was everything we expected.

There were tons of scary rides, including one that the guy running the ride convinced me to go on for free. Then he proceeded to turn the ride on full speed until I was screaming for him to stop.


Brett and Mike went on some really stomach turning rides:




And Peter and Aaron got to ride some of the kiddie rides including the carousel:





After we rode $50 worth of ride tickets, it was time to play games!

We managed to win a stuffed animal for each kid (monkey for Peter, and fish for Aaron Fish), and a gold fish (Dale) for the family (Dale has since taken a trip down the toilet to fishy heaven).


Next is my favorite part of every carnival - FAIR FOOD! We chowed down on corn dogs, cheese steak, cheese fries, fresh squeezed lemonade, and ice cream before heading home for the boys to nap.

It was all you could expect out of a town carnival in a K-Mart parking lot, but we had a great time. Hopefully next year the kids will be tall enough to ride on a few more rides!

July Curves Schedule

For my ladies who are interested in coming to work out with me at Curves in McLean, here are the dates and times I am working in July:

Sunday July 5 - 3:00-6:00pm

Thursday July 9 - 6:00-8:30pm

Sunday July 12 - 3:00-6:00pm

Thursday July 16 - 6:00-8:30pm

Saturday July 18 - 9:00am-12:00pm

Sunday July 19 - 3:00-6:00pm

Wednesday July 22 - 3:00-6:00pm

Thursday July 23 - 6:00-8:30pm

Free 10 day membership to all new comers, so please come give it a try.

Potty Humor

The following conversation took place this morning when I went to get Peter out of bed.

Me - Good morning Peter!

Peter - Mommy! Poop? Poo poo yucky!

Me - Yes, it is. Do you have a poop? (picking him up and putting him on the changing table)

Peter - Where's the poo poo? (as I take off his PJs and diaper) There it is!

Me - Yes, it is.

Peter - Where is pee pee? (pointing) There it is!

Me - (trying not to laugh) Yes Peter, and where is your nose?

Peter - (momentarily distracted from the potty talk and pointing to nose) nose!

Me - Yay, good job (as I put his clean diaper on)

Peter - Bye bye pee pee!

And another day begins...

I love YOU!

We recently taught Peter the sign language for "I love you"



Now anytime we say "I..." he follows it up with "...love _____"

The _____ can be replaced with "You" "Mommy" "Rusty" "Daddy" "Sally" but usually he follows it up with "Aaron!"

The other day Brett and the boys were dropping me off at Curves to work and as I was saying good bye, Peter looked at me and said "Bye, Bye Mommy! I love Aaron!" (doing the signs and pointing to his brother).

So freaking sweet!!!

Another music lover?

We bought Peter his music table for his first birthday, and I have never felt like my money was so well spent. He STILL loves that table! And now, Aaron has found it and is just as fascinated:

More from the bath...

I don't think my kids like each other very much...

Dog sitting Emma!

A few weeks ago we had the chance to watch our Emma again for a few days. Emma is Aaron's God Parent's dog, and a family favorite for all of us.

Whenever she is here the kids have a blast playing with her, and Emma gets GREAT exercise (we hear she sleeps for 2 days after she leaves)!



We got MANY videos of Peter and Emma; as you can see both parties get a lot of energy out!!!

Clap your hands!

Aaron has another new skill in his bag of tricks:

Finger Painting and other outdoor fun!

Now that the patio is complete, we are LIVING in the backyard!

This includes Peter getting to paint more often with his finger paints (which he hasn't gotten to use since Christmas because my carpets are already dirty enough).




Peter painted a couple pictures for his God Parent's home office (as they requested!), while Aaron played the piano and watched from his high chair.

Afterward I caught some videos of Peter running around, learning to count to 3 (though he wasn't really working with me), and entertaining us with his antics.




Enjoy!

Latest home project - Back Patio!

When Brett and I bought our house there were MANY things that we knew we wanted to renovate SOON. The back patio was in the year 2 plan, and it is now complete!

When we first moved in the space was not properly used because there was a 3 foot flower bed around the entire fence taking away a lot of the small yard. Plus the stones had weeds growing between them, and it was a big muddy mess. We also had a large tree that took up a huge amount of space.

Our fix - get rid of EVERYTHING and utilize the entire yard by making a patio that goes all the way to the fence.

During the project, our back yard looked like a mud pit:


But soon, it was a paradise with three distinct areas.

Our custom storage shed and kid's area:


Adult sitting area (furniture that I bought at a yard sale, re-finished and got new cushions for):


And dining area with new picnic table:


We LOVE the patio and have been using it almost daily!