Greetings!  Shaeleigh went to a bowling party today for one of the kids in her class.  Big hit!  All the kids were about the same in terms of what made it fun - apparently it's mostly about picking up the giant ball.

Half the time they're all just standing there holding balls - all lined up for their turn.  50% of the time they cheered for knocking down pins and 50% of the time they had already turned their backs and were on their way to get another ball.

"I got it.  I got it myself."

I thought gutter guards were a great touch but check out the ball ramp.  Actually, I would have to say that shoving the ball down the ramp was also a top contender for the best part about bowling.

After a horrific morning for Shaels (resulting in the lose of computer priviledges for the week) she was an awesome big sister at the party.  She kept calling Chance over to help her push the ball.  Chance was good too and he could not have been more thrilled than he was when the birthday girl gave him a goodie bag.  He was so proud - just like the big kids I guess.

Chance has been talking like crazy the past few weeks.  He's been singing too which is funny.  I think what's funny is that in the past he hasn't really done much singing.  Shaeleigh was singing from the start but you couldn't really make out the words.  Chance, I've rarely heard humming a tune or anything and suddenly now he'll bust out into, "The wheels on the bus go round and round all through the town" as if he's been doing it for ages.  I'd have to say, he's been putting together some pretty big sentences lately - and some of them don't begin with "no." 

Yesterday he was down for a nap but woke up after 10 minutes.  I hear a voice shouting, "Mommy, mommy.  I awake.  I slept all night.  I slept aaaaaaaaaaalllll night." 

Yeah....  funny guy. 

Shaeleigh has traded in ballet for art class.  It was a big step since art class is two hours long and I actually drop her off (at ballet the parents just hung out outside the door in a lobby area).  The first two classes have gone well - dropping her off has been a bit sketchy (pardon my pun bwah hahahaha) but she's all smiles when I pick her up and both weeks had a really good time. 

The bigger news is that Shaeleigh is reading.  Really reading.  And of all books - she latched on with "Dick and Jane."  Shout out to Aunt Lorraine for giving her a big three volume version of the book.  I knew she was really reading when she started reading chapters that I hadn't read to her yet.  Rock on Shaels!

Never, ever turn your back on a skinny paint boy.

Not sure what was up with this but one night Shaeleigh announces that she and Chance want to eat on the floor with chopsticks because, "We're Chinese people."  I decided to just hand them the chopsticks and leave it at that.  They were laughing too hard to even try to come up with a meaningful comment.

The two of them have become quite a pair.  They've started playing together.  Well, mostly Shaeleigh has learned that Chance will pretty much do whatever she says so it's "Hey Chance, let's [insert bad idea here]"  It's fun watching seeing them buddy up though. 

Batter up.  Maybe next summer we'll need to find a t-ball team.

Happy Fourth of July!  We started out in the chairs.

But ended up huddled in a row on the driveway.  Shaeleigh initially wanted to sit in the car like last year to watch the fireworks (the neighbor street variety) but we convinced her to sit in the driveway and while she kept a tight grip on those ears, she did enjoy them.  Chance did too.

Well, there was one that sent him packing.

Guess who made 7 dozen cookies on Wednesday night using a big tub of Nestle's Toll House Cookie dough?  Kenn was checking phone messages yesterday when he got a strange look on his face.  It was a message from Costco informing us of the recall due to potential E-Coli contamination.  That was actually pretty nice of them since we didn't even buy our tub from Costco - guess they are just calling everyone.

At anyrate, I'm good about not letting the kids eat raw cookie dough but I must admit, when they are not looking....  I brought most of the cookies to work - the cooked ones are supposedly fine but I have to say, we have about 3 dozen left here in the house and not one has been touched since Costco called.  To quote our good friend Swiper, "Aw maaaaaaaan!"

Check out this robin:

I don't think I've ever seen a pregnant bird before but geez this lady better go find herself a nest!  We watched her for quite awhile before she flew off.  We've already had a few robins hatch there little ones in our back yard (and they appear to have flown off safely this year - Kenn witnessed two of them perched to make their first flight). 

We had to go out and play in the rain yesterday.  We're drowning around here - rain, rain, rain!!!

Our poor garden.  Our beans, sugar peas, carrots, and mammoth sunflowers are toast.  The rain pummeled them last week and then between thunderstorms someone ate what was left of them.  Too sad.  I'm afraid our zennias didn't fair much better.  They survived the rain but last time a checked they'd been gobbled up as well.  Sigh...  I guess I'd forgotten why I've only been planting marigolds.  They don't taste good.

Shaeleigh's tribute to Adam Lambert (hahaha - just kidding)