See You Late Alligator...

After Awhile Crocodile.  

We're off to camp.  See you in 3 weeks!

SOCK MONKEY CAAAAKE!

 You must read that the way it is written "SOCK MONKEY CAAAAAKE!"  Ever since I wondered if I could make a gluten free ice cream cake with a sock monkey (LMM has a sock monkey he adores that inspired his birthday theme) face on it and told Little Monkey Man about it, he has yelled "SOCK MONKEY CAAAAAKE!" whenever anyone mentions a birthday or a party or cake.  He's been excited for months.

 His birthday started off with Uncle "Alligator" and Aunt Danielle, along with Grandmommy and Pop Pop being at our house.  We had pancakes (his favorite) for breakfast and I added a candle for good measure.  You're only 3 once, right?  My mom gave me a book called "Cooking For Isaiah" that if you or someone you love eats gluten free you MUST check out.  These pancakes are from it, and they are great!

 After breakfast we packed a picnic and headed for the Children's Gardens.  I've posted pictures from there before...in fact we went there LAST year for his birthday.

 Neither the air nor the water were warm, but the kids wanted in anyway.  I love this picture because it looks like LMM has the ball suspended in thin air-like a magic trick!

 I never get tired of taking pictures of Rosebud.  Here she is cuddling with her Uncle Nathan.

 The koi/frog pond in the garden.

 The bees were out in full force pollinating the flowers.

 I think I took as many pictures of plants and bees as I did of the children!

 We'd been there about an hour when it started to rain.  It wasn't exactly lunch time, but it seemed like a good time for daddy and Uncle Nathan to go get our lunch.  We waited out the rain, and then were able to go back out after it stopped.  I know they'll both be pleased I posted this one.

 Snug and Aunt Danielle in the music maze.

 This is one of two doors into the garden...this one is the kid one  :o)

 Outside the children's garden is another set of gardens.  For the next two years this "sculpture" will be on display.  Then it will need to be taken down and turned into mulch as it will be starting to fall apart.  It is made out of saplings that are overgrown and taking over a local wetland area.  I should have taken a picture of the explanation of it all, I don't really remember.  A famous person who does this all over the world made it.  

 Inside the "sculpture" it is like a maze.  The kids played hide-and-seek for quite awhile.

 A view of the formal garden.  (If you want to see more garden/flower pics, click here)

 After naps and the putting up of decorations, it was time to PARTY!  I made his shirt, and his hat was made as part of Faith and Travis' adoption fund raiser!

 Getting ready for the party...

 The "setup".

 And then it was time to eat.  I even made him a sock monkey pizza!  Gluten free of course!  Our favorite pizza crust for him is by Bob's Red Mill.  It is fairly inexpensive, quick, and EASY.

SOCK MONKEY CAAAAAKE!!!!  Yep, this is the final product.  It is a 2 layer ice cream cake that I made using a springform pan.  In the middle is hot fudge.  It is frosted with fondant and the monkey face is fondant.  Which I think tastes like the bottom of a shoe.  But we peeled it all off and enjoyed the "cake".  

Happy Birthday big guy!   You are a special and great kid!!!!

**At his 3 year check up he weighed in at 32lbs and is 38 inches tall.  I don't know if I posted about it or not, but he does not qualify for any special services from this point out.  Although he still has a Sensory Processing disorder (always will) they don't feel it affects his day-to-day life enough to qualify and he is not delayed enough in speech either.  His last day of school was last Thursday.  Yeah for him!!!!!

To see his birthday from last year, click here.

I'm Becoming A Wednesday Blogger

I noticed today I haven't blogged since Wednesday...maybe I'm becoming a once-a-week-blogger.  Maybe I'm a Wednesday Blogger.  Who knows.  What I do know is...

This

We swim quite a bit...lots of bathing suit and towel laundry.

 Is

Reading, reading, and more reading!

What

I'm having a blast making things for LMM's 3rd birthday!  It's a Sock Monkey theme. 

We're

What actually came up in our garden is starting to do well.  Lots of rain and muggy days help. 

Up To

When he gets to stay up till dark, Snug loves to help catch lightening bugs.  This one was on our house in the daylight.  

How About You????

Baby Steps

 Someone took a first official step yesterday.  A teeny weeny one.  But a step nonetheless at her daddy's softball tournament.

 Yep, that's right.  ME.  And today I took two more teeny weeny ones because I REALLY wanted to eat grapes and my mommy bribed me.

So I'm not what you'd call a "walker" yet, but baby steps people, baby steps!

Pictures

It was bothering me not to post any pictures.  But other than baseball, softball, and more softball not much is going on here.  We do have passes to a local pool, but taking 3 kids by myself I do not even dare take a camera to take pictures.  I have to be on vigilant watch.  

 So I visited other blogs and stole their ideas.  I mean, got inspiration.  Doesn't Snug look young in this picture?  I see what he looked like when he was LMM's age in this shot.

 Jenilee posted a picture of their summer reading program the other day.  That gave me the idea to take some pictures of Snug reading.  He loves to read, and spends quite a bit of time every day being read to and "reading" to himself.  He actually can read quite a few words, but cannot just pick up a library book and go at it unassisted as of yet.

 We are also doing our library's summer reading program.  Snug is almost 1/2 way done with his.  Today is our family's first official day of summer :o)  Rosebud and Little Monkey Man have a different program than Snug and theirs isn't so much time spent actually being read to as it is doing pre-reading activities.  There are 40 squares on their papers and each one is an idea of something to do together that promotes literacy, works on fine motor skills needed for writing later, starts conversations, along with of course, being read to.  This is the first year for the toddler program and so far it is going well for us.  Obviously there are more things that LMM and I can do together than Rosebud (who won't be able to finish hers, she's just too young) and I can...but it is still nice to have a specified activity to do with each one of them one-on-one every day.

 And this idea was from Mama Bear.  She was very brave and let her two little ones use her camera to take pictures of her and each other.  I have to admit I am a little possessive of my camera as it costs more than I'll ever even think of spending on another one.  However, when Snug said "Mama, can I take YOUR picture?" I remembered this post and said "um...sure.  TWO HANDS, and the strap goes around your neck.  OK?"  He listened well and took this picture of me.  We'll call it my 14 week pregnant picture.

And then he looked up into the tree and took this one.  I thought it  turned out pretty good!

Whew!

I am getting worse and worse about posting.  Summer will do that to me.  However, I have been getting really bad about even taking pictures of the kids. Haven't taken one since Memorial Day!  That is very unlike me.

What have we been up to?  Well, the weather has been hot and sticky.  My parents came down for part of the week to help #1 install a new water heater.  It had been leaking gallons of water onto our basement floor for about a week.  I've always heard you do NOT want to drink the hot water from your tap as if you saw the inside of your water heater it would make you sick

Guess what.  What came out of the bottom of our water heater looked like someone had GOTTEN sick all over our floor.  DO NOT DRINK THE WATER OUT OF YOUR HOT WATER TAP.  Trust me on this one.

In other news, we've been doing 4-6 ball games a week.  I knew when I married my husband sports would be involved.  I'm not sure I knew to what level.  Snug himself had 3 games this week.  And oh has it been hot.

We installed an alarm on Little Monkey Man's bedroom door (ok, in all fairness it is also Snug's door, but he needs no alarm).  He has a habit of waking up in the middle of the night and finding things to do.  We don't even wake up and hear him.  What sort of things are there to do in the middle of the night?  Well, you can put pencils in your sister's crib, remove pages from board books and regular books alike, eat mama's snack for Sunday School, find scissors, and then I shared some documentation of the great nail polish mess.  For all of you out there who may need a solution to similar problems...the alarm works great.  We know each and every time he gets up and runs around the house.  And due to the fact that his sensory needs include HATING loud noises he isn't making...he hates the alarm and just stays in his room!

Today is my last day of Draycare for the summer.  I am very ready to be done.  Not ready to live off of one income, but I am tired.  I'm ready to head out for daily outings with just my biological children.  Not that I don't like my daycare kids, I do.  I am just ready for summer!

So that's what we've been up to.  What's new with you?

Moms...Don't Forget...

5x7 Folded Card

View the entire collection of cards.  

The End of the First Trimester

On Sunday I will begin my second trimester of pregnancy #4.  Either I'm getting GOOD at this pregnancy thing or I am definitely, 100% having another girl (we're opting not to find out this time...who wants to know what they're getting for Christmas???)

There are many days I forget I am even pregnant.  I don't FEEL anything.  Sure, my jeans are too tight and I'm much more comfortable wearing maternity shorts.  Anyone would be wearing maternity clothes if they ate as much as I do these days.  It's going to take awhile to lose this baby weight!

But I don't have morning sickness, sometimes smells bother me, but that is normal for me anyway.  I don't have cravings per se.  I just want to eat ALL the time.

As far as I can tell I'm not emotional.

I am TIRED all the time, but I think any mother of 3 who has 2 extra children 40+ hours a week, 2 dogs, and 4 ball games a week would be tired.

Baby is the size (supposedly) of a lime.  I'll let you know when I feel her (or him) move-it should make me feel more pregnant when that happens!