Dishes & Noah's Ark

This past week we had a day that was really humid and hot and according to the weather channel it was not healthy to be outside.  If you know Baby G at all you know that he would stay outside all day if I let him so I knew that this particular day I was going to need to be creative.  I am currently in a wonderful Bible study with a group of amazing women who are constantly giving me good ideas to do with the boys and one of their ideas was doing a Noah's ark day.....so that's exactly what we did.

First we read the book and both boys absolutely loved it....mostly because it had a lot of different animals in the book.  We were able to point out different animals and practice making our animal sounds.

 After we read the book then we reenacted  Noah's ark by using the Little People Noah's ark that Baby G's grandparents got him for Christmas.  We talked about Noah and how he listened to God when God asked him to build a big boat.  We then acted like the rain was starting to fall and we had to walk each animal into the boat.  Then we waited 40 days and 40 nights....actually I think it was more like 40 seconds and then the flood was over.  Then we had to get all the animals back out of the boat.  Both boys really seemed to enjoy playing Noah's ark despite the quick lesson we were forced to have on sharing when both boys wanted a certain giraffe.

 Well....you can't talk about Noah's ark without making a rainbow.  I got out all my construction paper....

And my nephew cut out a strip from each color....with some guided assistance with the scissors, of course....

Then he glued each strip onto a piece of white paper.

He was so proud of his rainbow....and truth be told, I think he did a pretty good job.

Baby G tried coloring himself a rainbow....

 but ended up getting frustrated because I wouldn't let him eat the crayons.

 After we made the rainbow we decided to put Noah's ark on the back of the paper so I cut out a boat shape and my nephew glued it on.

 Then he added star stickers to the sky.

By this point Baby G has found one of his old pacifiers and has calmed down.  Good thing because now it's time for Baby G to do the dishes.  You think I'm kidding.

 I filled both sides of the sink up with soapy water and gave each boy a wash rag and a bunch of dirty dishes.

 Nothing better than clean dishes and clean boys.

 Now I learned a few things from this dish washing experience.  1.)  Wash the cups and bowls ahead of time because they will likely fill up a cup and then dump it on the laminate floor.  2.)  Take off their shirts before they start washing the dishes.
I thought it would be cute to get a picture of the two boys in their wet clothes after they were done washing dishes....

But Baby G didn't like that idea.

But once I turned some Barney on both boys just sat back and relaxed.  I was then able to make them lunch and then we headed off for our afternoon nap.
We had a fun day learning about Noah and washing our dishes and even though it wasn't a completely tear free day it was still very enjoyable.

Hillbilly Swimming Pool

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We were inside watching it rain and Baby G kept taking me by the hand trying to drag me outside so we could play.  My first thought was, "No way....it's raining!"  But then I got to thinking..."There's no lightning....no thunder....it's just a calm warm summer shower....why shouldn't we go out to play?"  So that's exactly what we did.

 Just looking around to see what kind of trouble he can get into.

 It wasn't really raining hard enough for Baby G to notice at this point so I let him feel the rain water falling from the rain gutters.  He got a big kick out of that.

 Then we decided to head over to our ditch where there was what looked like a swimming pool for Baby G to play in.  Mr. G called this our hillbilly swimming pool.  Baby G was skeptical at first.

 But he eventually was daring enough to wade all the way into the water.

 He was pretty proud of himself.

 He would walk out into the water and quickly walk back out.

 Trying to figure out where to go next.

 Checking out what Marley was doing down yonder.

 Back in the water....

 Splash around a little....

 And back out.

 I think Baby G was wanting his daddy to get in the water too.

 I thought for sure he was going to go out into the middle of the water and pop a squat but he never did.

Then we ran around for a while in the wet grass looking for pretty leaves.  I love how excited Baby G gets over the simplest things.  Maybe this is one of the ways God was saying we should be like children....always enjoy the simple joys of life.....even hillbilly swimming pools.

Mozzie is 79

My Grandma Mozzie will be turning 79 on Thursday so we had a big family eatin on Labor Day in honor of her.  I made her a chocolate peanut butter cake that I found at Smittenkitchen.com  It was very rich but very good.

 After dinner Grandma opened her presents, we sang Happy Birthday (I wish I had gotten that on video....we had some interesting singing), and ate birthday cake.

 Grandma's face lit up when she saw her presents.

 Nutty Bars are Grandma Mozzie's favorite vegetable.  She also got a cute great-grandma picture frame with Baby G and my two nieces and nephew's picture in it.

 This is a drawing my dad drew in my grandma's birthday card of my grandma.

 Just a random picture of everyone while grandma was opening her gifts.

 After the meal and good fellowship we all went outside to watch the kids play.  But, of course, I got the brilliant idea of trying to take a picture of all four kids.

 I took lots of pictures....

 Which I won't put them all on here....but by the time we were done I was completely exhausted.  And so was everybody else standing behind me trying to get the kids to smile.

Finally after the photo shoot I let the kids play.  Baby G was enjoying pulling the weeds.....Keep it up, son.  Lord knows we got a lot of weeds that need pullin.

Happy Birthday, Mozzie!  I don't think you realize just how special of a woman you are and how much you mean to our family.  Every moment I get to spend with you is such a blessing.  Thank you for your wonderful example as a Christian woman, wife, mother, and friend.  How happy I would be if you had another 79 years left in you.  We love you, Mozzie!!!

Baby G Playing In The Mud

We finally received a good rain last night so this morning I thought it would be fun to put Baby G in some old clothes and let him go outside to play in the mud.

On our way out to the mud Baby G felt like the grass needed a little trimming first.  Notice the yellow bracelet on his wrist.

 Then we headed over to the garden where there was plenty of mud to dig in.

 Baby G really enjoyed taking his shoes off and walking around in the mud.

 No better feeling than mud between the toes.

Baby G was hard at work trying to fill the hole back up with mud.

 Love this smile.  He was on cloud nine.

 Look at his dirty bottom.  Super cute.

 It didn't take long before Baby G found his way over to the other side of the garden where the tomatoes were.

 Pajama pants, dirty shirt, no shoes, tomato in his hand, tomato juice all over his chin, and knee deep in tomato plants.....classic Baby G picture.

 Instead of the camera focusing on Baby G with a mouth full of tomato it focused on the gray sky and bright green tomato plants.

 I think there might be a little dirt in that grin.

 Playing peek-a-boo through the tomato plants.

 Baby G was pretty proud of the tomatoes we picked.....please note that I was not the one who picked the green tomatoes but I won't point any fingers.