Cars 2

When Oliver hangs out with Grammie while Mommy has her "me" time, they do something very special---if Oliver is not sleeping already when Mommy gets to Grammie's house.  Grammie got a special Cars sticker book for her and Oliver to work on.  Grammie gets a new packet of stickers, they open the packet together, read the number on the sticker, then find the number in the book.  They place the sticker on the page it belongs on and they learn about that car/character!  Last night, Oliver and Grammie were already starting to open the packet together before Mommy was even out the door.  Mommy could hear them giggling with excitement over the stickers they got in their packet.  It was pretty cute.  The book will take them a while to fill up, but they are learning a lot and are having so much fun!  

Grammie wants to go with Oliver and Mommy to the Cars 2 movie that is out.  He is one lucky kid, with all the people that want to take him to see the movie, he will probably end up seeing it at least 3 times in the theaters!  Mommy doesn't think he will mind, he has seen the first movie about a million times.  It was really the first thing he ever watched on television!  And Mommy will never forget listening to this song by Rascal Flatts over and over and over.  (It is actually a pretty good song for us.)  In the Cars 2 movie there is this Brad Paisley song on the soundtrack!  (Mommy likes this song too, she loves pretty much everything Brad does.)

All this Cars stuff reminded Mommy of the Cruisin' Grand night in Escondido.  (She still needs to get over there!)  Happy almost Friday!

Their special sticker book.

Cuteness.

Grammie had 4 sticker packets last night.  Usually

they only do one packet each time.

The track and some of their stickers.

More.

And more, Grammie said the sticker book is going

to end up costing about $80 once its all finished.  Thats

a lot, but Mommy thinks that the time they are

spending together is priceless.  They are really cute 

when they talk about their stickers!

Sometimes you get stickers you already have in the packet.

So we are keeping them.  

The book came with this special poster.  In some

of the packets there are stickers of the main characters

and they are special silver stickers.  They go on this poster.

Oliver wants to frame it when its done and hang it in his room.

Donut Wednesday

Donut Wednesday!  The first one of summer!  Yay!  Happy Wednesday!  

The donut window.

He wanted the Oreo donut, Mommy

talked him out of it.

A rainbow of pansies.  (Still like pansies, don't

think that will ever change.)

Oliver's donut.

Mommy's donut hole.

They gave us an extra donut hole, Oliver ate

it all up!

Being a silly donut head.

Texas Style...we are ordering that for 

Oliver's Golden Birthday Bash!  

Wheatgrass Wednesday.

Yum.  (Seriously.) 

(Yum again.)

Summer Solstice

Today was the first day of summer!  We love every season, and summer will be fun!  Mommy will work on getting Oliver into shorts and t-shirts--hopefully it doesn't take too long, he won't be very comfortable in his fleece pants and long sleeve shirts.  We spent the longest day of the year by hanging out with Julianne in the evening.  It is always nice hanging out with friends. We are glad that it is summer because then we get to see more of our busy teacher friends!  

Oliver played a whole bunch.  Took everything out of Amanda's art box again, took everything out of his closet, and played monster truck with his bike in the sandbox.  He was busy and excited that Julianne came for a visit!

Happy summer!  (Excited to finally warm up!  Really.)

Oliver talking about his mean Grinch.

Silly kid.

He piled lots of animals on Julianne.  She

kept calling them funny names.

Playing with Oliver.  

Julianne brought some berries from a friend's home she is

housesitting for...Mommy thought it was interesting where

Julieanne's friends went.  They are gone for 5 months and they are

hiking the Pacific Crest Trail!  (That would be fun!)  

Mommy enjoyed reading this book that Amy gave to her. 

 (Read it if you get a chance, it is cute!)  

Julianne brought some yummy Greek yogurt, so Mommy

put the yummy berries on it.  Yums, yums. 

Treasures

We had a great day with our daycare friends.  Mommy let Oliver discover some art supplies that Amanda gave us.  Oliver was so excited.  He loved the stickers in the box and he was putting them on Mommy and all the babies.  There is so much fun stuff in there, we are excited to add it all to our art closet and start creating!  Amanda always has the best art ideas!

The rest of the day was just pretty normal (nothing really new, kind of slow) but we had fun playing outside, eating lunch, and playing with all our playroom toys!  Mondays are fun!

Discovering our new treasures!  Thanks Amanda!

So excited!

Vera

Oliver came home around 1:00 today.  Mommy was glad to see him.  We just hung out at home for the day.  Oliver took a lot of rests, played with some blocks, took care of his baby doll, and played outside while Mommy played in the yard.   Before bath time, we read one of Mommy's favorite books.

Mommy loves the author and illustrator Vera B. Williams. We read A Chair for My Mother.   It is about a Mother and daughter who lose everything when their apartment caught on fire.  The Mother is a waitress and once they move into a new home they decide to put all her tips in the biggest jar she can find at the diner she works at.  They are going to purchase a comfy chair for the Mother so she can rest after she works all day.  Family members and friends sometimes put a few coins in the jar too!  It takes them about a year to fill up the jar.  Once they do they roll up all the coins and take them to the bank.  Then they find the most beautiful chair and they bring it home.

Mommy likes this story a lot.  Oliver liked listening to it too...but towards the end he had a tired melt down.  After we finished reading Mommy showed him the jar we are going to start collecting coins in.  Since Mommy takes care of Oliver, babies, toddlers, our home, and our yard all day- we decided we will save up for something cozy and comfy that Mommy can rest on.  We aren't sure what yet, maybe a cute chair.  (But Mommy would like something that takes care of her.  It will be a little longer she guesses...) The jar is pretty big.  (But at least she can see there will be a happy ending...) Once we get that jar full.  If any readers have some cute ideas for something cozy for Mommy send them her way! 

Another favorite book.

The beginning.

The happy ending.

Oliver was so concerned.

Shopping for the perfect one.

They found it.

Listening to the story.

The beginning of his meltdown at the end.

Our Jar.  We've had it for awhile and Mommy

decided to make it pretty by putting some paper 

in it.  (The jar is from Mommy's favorite bean salad. Yum!)

More meltdown as we were looking at the jar.

And more meltdown as we were waiting for the bathtub

to fill up.  (Mommy definitely needs that jar to get filled.  After

days like this, it would be nice to have something cozy caring for her.)

Happy Sunday!

(Mommy hopes everyone had a wonderful father's day!)

Rachel's 1st Birthday

 Today we went to Rachel's 1st Birthday party, Mommy got to bring Oliver for a little bit.  He had fun while he was there- he missed the cake and singing, but we will make that up to Rachel!

Rachel is such a bubbly, beautiful little marshmallow!  We are so happy that she is so healthy and sweet!
Happy 1st birthday baby girl!

Jim playing peek-a-boo with Rachel.

Cuteness!

Aunt Ali makes the best guacamole and they found a great

place near their home to get yummy ceviche!

Mister wanted a coke, he didn't like it too much.

Good.  But he did like Sprite.  Not good...

Aunt Jess, Oliver, and Kate playing.

Uncle Kelly doesn't like when Mommy takes

pictures of him.  So, sometimes she takes a lot, just to be a pest.

 This one is pretty good (don't you think?),

 kind of mysterious and he has his favorite drink in his hand.

Happy birthday girl!

Mommy was getting ready to take Oliver back to his

Daddy.  Oliver was not happy with how Rachel wanted

to play, we all thought it was pretty cute.  She is such a

love bug.  

Mommy came back after dropping off Oliver.

Mommy likes this "R" it stands for Radford.  Sweet.

Aunt Jess and Uncle Chad.  Uncle Chad doesn't

really like Mommy's camera either.  Oh well.

Rachel's smash cake!

Grandma Shannon giving Rachel her cake!

We sang to her and then she ate a little bit of her cake.

Her Daddy had to help her, she wasn't sure 

exactly what to do with her yums!

She was more interested in playing with

the plastic balloons on her cake!

Cute icing face.

Rachel, her Mommy, and her great Aunt Melissa.

Rachel's 1st birthday cake! (Can't believe it has

been a year.)

Kate and Rachel.

Uncle Matthew and Rachel.

Sisters.

Uncle Matthew took a few of these pictures, in every 

single one, someone is closing their eyes or looking away,

But Grammie looks super cute in the one!

This would have been a good one if Aunt Jess

hadn't pinched Mommy's (you know what.)

Birthday girl getting a kiss from her Mommy.

Playing raspberries with Mommy and Jim.

Grammie and Grandpa gave Rachel this

beautiful kitchen for her birthday!  Uncle 

Kelly put it all together for his sweet baby girl.

She loves her new kitchen!  

The Radfords.