Out and about...

We had a busy and fun weekend!  Saturday, we drove to High Point to a big consignment sale - and someone may have gotten a few new toys =)

Then we stopped by the library to return books, and then check out some more!  Colin loves to run around the kid section in the library - and he got to show off his computer skills!

He's so serious.  I mean, wouldn't you be serious if you were putting words together?!

We picked up a few stickers from the library, which ended up on Colin's face...

And don't look too close... the "sticker" on the left is actually the price from one of his new toys. 
Sunday morning, the boys had a bike ride and picnic at a park down the street.

And Garet remembered to take the camera!  Yay!  I love this next picture...

...sometimes when you eat cereal, you need your other hand to help the spoon in your mouth =)

After we got home from church and Colin had his nap, we went to a Greensboro Grasshoppers game!

It was Colin's first game =)  We may have been more excited than him!  He sat for the first few innings just watching everything.

We had seats right behind home plate!  Colin and I had to take a long walk around to stretch our legs (and get some energy out!) but when we got back to our seats, Colin was interested in the game again.

After we had dinner, we went back to our seats and I caught an eye rub!

I said, "Colin are you getting sleepy??"  And he was like, "nope"

During the 7th inning Colin just wanted to run back and forth down, which was fine, there wasn't anyone else on our row.

He was having a great time!  There was a cute little boy sitting in the row next to us and Garet told Colin to go give him a high five... so he walked over to the little boy and just stood there staring at him.  haha  The poor kid was like, "hey"  and Colin just ran back to us with the biggest smile!  We told the boy that Colin was supposed to give him a five, so the next time Colin got his high five.  It was too cute... and the kid was probably like 8 or so.

By the 8th inning we figured it was time to leave.  We had a great time! 

And on the way out, Colin got a little baseball to keep =)

It was a great way to end the weekend! 

The week...

We read our new library books:

We made dinner:

Which turned out perfect:

We went on walks and then played some basketball:

And we made great shots:

We celebrated Daddy's birthday - the day began with the traditional birthday donuts...

And later in the day, going to the pool...

Colin was actually super excited... he just didn't want to smile for the picture I guess =)

We gave high fives:

Of course, we had cake!

We've been running.... all over the place...

We've had snacks, and especially enjoy a cold popsicle on these hot days!

We played with the sidewalk chalk:

I may have gotten a little carried away...

BUT, Colin made me do it!  See:

(he's handing me more chalk)

We have been super busy outside with the wagon and the basketball hoop.  It has just been WAY to hot to stay out for too long.

We've been reading to Suzi:

We played with cars...

I thought it would be a good idea to make a road with tape...
Colin thought it was a good idea to wad up the tape and then run over it with his bike...

.... And now we are ready for the Olympics and the weekend!  YAY! 

Birthday prep...

Happy Birthday Garet!!!  Today Garet is 32!  WOW!  =)  I will be back to post about the day, but there was some work to make this a special day for Garet! Colin, Suzi and I made him a card... we had a lot of fun getting some pictures!  Here are some of the outtakes:

And here is what we ended up with:

And then we got real creative and made him a ping pong table!
But, wow, I didn't know what I was getting myself into!  Here's how it went down:
- the board I wanted was going to be 5x9, but the boards at the store only come in 4x8 - so unless I wanted to buy 2 and waste most of the wood... I was just going to have to have a slightly smaller board.
- after going to the store and coming home, I decided that I would just have a 4x8 foot board.
- I went back to the store to buy it, while Garet was home for lunch - and it took longer than I thought... they cut it in 2 pieces for me... so I made him late for one of his meetings!  oops!
- after a recommendation, I got a piano hinge to put the two boards together - this is going on our pool table, so I wanted to make it easy to get on and off.
- the screws that came with the hinge were going to be too long - they would have gone through the board.  So I decided to glue the hinge onto the boards (also a recommendation)
- the glue was a MESS!  it got everywhere!  but it worked =)
- I clamped down part of the hinge as it dried, but the rest of it I just put a heavy cardboard box on to keep weight on it while it dried.  Well, the cardboard box stuck to part of the glue as it was drying... so there is pieces of cardboard stuck to the edge of the hinge. -at least that part will be on the underside...
- I didn't think about how darn heavy this board was.  I mean, when it was in two pieces it was really hard for me to maneuver... now that it is one big board again, I would have probably hurt myself if I tried to carry it.  My plan was to have the board painted and perfect for G to see when he woke up on his birthday.  Well for me to paint it, I needed it outside.  There was no way I was going to be able to carry it outside, and get it on newspaper (or something) and paint it, and carry it back inside after it dried, by myself.  Without G seeing it. 
- So... I decided to give it to him unfinished, and paint it with his help =)
So, I was still super excited about it... just bummed that I couldn't finish it myself.  Oh, and I "hid" it in plain sight!  I can't believe G didn't see it!  It was propped up against the wall with a few empty, folded cardboard boxes (from the move) in front of it.  The color of the board is the same as the boxes, so it blended perfectly! 

I will post a picture of the table in my next post! 
Happy Birthday to my sweet, wonderful, perfect husband, and Colin's amazing daddy!  WE LOVE YOU!

A, B, C's...

For Colin's birthday I wanted to give him a magnetic alphabet.... and what better way to do that than to make it myself?!  - Just a side note... his birthday isn't until September, but I didn't want to run out of time, so I started really early!-

It was actually really simple, and I love the way they turned out!  I had most of the fabric on hand, and I had a stencil that I had used to make his birthday banner (which I just realized I never posted about...)  I just traced the letter onto the fabric (the reverse side, of course, so the front of the letter wouldn't have trace marks).

Then I folded the fabric in half, so I would have the letter covered on the front and back.  In between the fabric I put batting and a magnet.  Then I just used my sewing machine and stitched around the letter I had traced.  Once I had it all stitched, I just cut the excess off, and viola!

Don't look too close =)  This was a nice way of doing it because it didn't require me to be too detailed, which I am, and the letters will fray a bit as they are worn, but that will just give them some personality!  I just love the way they turned out!  Can't wait to give them to Colin!  And I figured I would make a small magnet board (out of a cookie sheet) so they won't be all over my kitchen floor =) 

Outside for the weekend...

Sidewalk chalk!
Look!  Colin wrote his own name!

That is so good sweet boy! 
=)

The chalk lasted... maybe 10 minutes... or maybe 5... whichever, he had fun with it for the few minutes that he was playing with it.  But, then he spotted his wagon.  And you just can't compete with a big red wagon!

water... check
snack... check
branches.... check, check, check
I love this next picture... I was sitting on the front steps while Colin was pulling the wagon all over the place.  He came up to where I was and I kept trying to get him to look up at me and the camera!  Finally I said, "Say yay!"  and he threw up one hand and looked up and said, "Yay!"  I'm sure he would have thrown up both hands (like he normally does) but he had a little branch on the other hand =)

It seems that when Colin isn't wearing his [big 'ole] cloth diapers, his pants sag...

We put him in disposable when he is in nursery (either at church or at the gym), since they don't do cloth diapers.  Poor Colin, every few minutes I would have to go pull up his pants! 

Today, after church we played a bit inside, had lunch and a nap then headed outside to the lovely, muggy, overcast, wonderful July afternoon.  And got right back to the wagon... In the yard of this rental house is a mound of ivy of some sorts... Colin decided that he needed to pull his wagon through this mound... 

... which I thought was a bad idea.  I mean, snakes could be in there!  Right?  So, after I snapped a picture, I hurried him outta there!  Then he wanted to "dump" his wagon.  

He's spinning his tire =)
I knew Garet was on his way home (he had to go out to a camp this afternoon) so when I heard a car coming over the hill I kinda figured it was him... I got my camera ready...

"Daddy!" 
He knew exactly who it was!  It was so cute!

We had a great weekend!  It rained lots, but when it wasn't raining it was nice to hang out outside.  And I'm looking forward to this week... someone has a birthday.... =) 

Random...

Colin does so much now, and so much of it is so funny!  I just don't want to forget any of it!  I figured I would try to write down some of the Colin-isms =)  He is almost 22 months old.  And the pictures are just as random as this post... it was snack time one day after his nap and we sat out front eating a popsicle.

- he will hold up his cup and say "shears" [cheers] and tap everyone's glass that is sitting in the room
- when he wants something he will say "Peas??" [please] and when you give it to him he will say "tank" [thanks].  If he does something and you say "Thank you" he will almost always go, "mmmhuh".  Guess I do that a lot. 
- if he hears a sneeze he will say "bless" [for bless you] - the other day in the store, we walked behind a woman and she sneezed... Colin said "bless" to her =)
- pointed at my boob and said "ball?"... I couldn't help but laugh
- when we are on walks and a car drives by he will throw up his hand, like a wave, every single time.
- if he is finished eating, he will stack his plate/bowl/fork/spoon and hand them to me and say "done".  If I am not there to get it, he may throw them...  I make sure I am there!

- he loves to say "bye bye" to people, things, animals... it helps when we are leaving somewhere when he doesn't want to leave.  Like we left the pool the other day, he was really sad to be leaving, but when we tell him to say "bye bye" to the pool, he waves and says "bye bye" and that seems to make him feel better about it.
- he LOVES Suzi.  He will run up to her and lay down, then he will pat her and say "goo gurl" [good girl], I guess we tell her that a lot when he is around... she really is so good!
- when we are doing something he likes he will say "more" if we stop.  When we were driving home from the family trip a few weeks ago, we went through DC.  We drove through a tunnel, which Colin thought was really neat... when we were through it, he said "more" because he wanted to do it again =)
- in our basement, Colin will push around our computer chair (that has wheels).  I sat in it the other day, and he pushed me around and around the pool table!  He thought it was hilarious!  And I was having fun just sitting there!

- he totally gets what the bathroom is for (not that he is using it himself yet), anytime he sees a toilet he will say "pee pee" and want you to flush it.  Then he will wave and say "bye bye" as the water is flushing. 
- we have one of those boxes that you put the shapes in their corresponding holes.  He will put the shape on the wrong hole and shake his head and say "nope", then he will put the shape in the correct hole.  Guess that's what I used to do when he was learning it!
- I snuck up on him the other day while he was playing in his room - he was throwing a ball into his toy box.  When he would make it, he would clap really big.  All by himself =)
- Anytime he is watching something/someone/anything and they go away, or he just can't see it/them anymore he will say "Go?" and shrug his sholders really big

That is just want came to mind... I will have to remember to write these things down as they happen!  He is just too cute!  We are so blessed!