We checked off one thing on our summer to-do list already today. Item number ten was painting in the bathtub with homemade finger paints. I used the Wilton gel colors that can be found in the cake section at Walmart and barely dipped the tips of a fork in it. I used it very sparingly and cautiously in other words. Just don’t hold me accountable for your bathtub walls! I did use more cornstarch than it called for, but I also used a very watery soap. Make sure you use something that you know won’t cause a rash or skin irritation. I just mixed until I got a consistency that I thought was appropriate. It dripped a lot, and kind of washed itself as he went, since he splashed so much. But I didn’t even have to wipe down anything, I just rinsed the tub with the detachable shower head. He had so much fun with it, I may go get some containers from Walmart to make our own paints to keep in the bathroom. I’ll let you know if I make some sort of floating artist palette, the ice tray on the edge was a little precarious.

(Sorry if the colors in these pictures look off to anyone.  They look okay on my monitor which is calibrated fairly accurately, but they were edited heavily to reduce the lovely yellow-green glow of compact fluorescents.)

Starting to get a little wild and crazy

Hmmm, face paint

What should I do next?

HAHAHA, you don’t even want to know!! What’s that? You do want to know? Oh, well in that case…I’m painting my butt!

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    = Done = Click to read about it = Pictures included
  1. Build a sandcastle
  2. Have a picnic
  3. Lay in the grass and find shapes in the clouds
  4. Paint those clouds see link
  5. Plant some flowers
  6. Hang swings from a tree branch high above, and swing as high as we can
  7. Take our first camping trip (which will probably be in the early fall, because Mommy doesn’t do hot well)
  8. Build a campfire, cook hot dogs and smores
  9. Make a Nature Box see link
  10. Paint the bathtub see link
  11. Make an ice treasure see link
  12. Use a Chore Bucket see link
  13. Paint with puffy paint see link
  14. Make a treasure map and go on a hunt see link
  15. Make a dress up corner with lots of gaudy, fun clothes
  16. Two words: homemade popsicles
  17. Three more: homemade ice cream (in a bag in just five minutes!) see link
  18. Make a big batch of colored rice, all different colors. see link Make rice art.
  19. Fly a kite
  20. Feed the Charleys (giraffes) see link
  21. Catch lightning bugs and figure out how to make them light up in a jar
  22. Build/make a wooden boat, tie a string and sail it on a lake
  23. Ride a paddleboat
  24. Wave sparklers around for the 4th of July
  25. Make bubble solution and giant bubbles
  26. Put out a bird bath
  27. Bake Cupcake Cones see link
  28. Play hide and seek with flashlights at night
  29. Celebrate National Ice Cream Day (July 20th) with friends
  30. :More To Come:

I’ll admit, this list is more for my own benefit than anything…my computer is in desperate need of restarting. When internet browsers came up the the ‘tabs’ idea to contain so many open windows into one item when minimized on your taskbar, they had me in mind. Only I tend to abuse the privilege and open so many tabs in one window that I actually have to hit the arrow to scroll over, because they cannot all be shown on a 24 inch monitor! I didn’t want to bookmark all of the pages, as my bookmarks are already a semi organized mess. One single link from a blog already on my blogshelf turned into a two hour adventure hopping around blogland last night while everyone else was sleeping. I will be adding a button to my sidebar within the next couple days to have a visual (reminder) link to this post. I found so many excellent ideas last night. I’m off to restart my computer before it curses at me. I’ll continue adding to this list as I come up with more ideas.

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quick, I need a party

Jun 27

Posted by: Scott in: blog, crafty, me myself and i, ramblings

I have absolutely no reason to make any of these, yet I want to make all of them! I was on the hunt for some patriotic M&M’s today. I wandered all over Walmart (for the second day in a row), but had no luck. It seems like a lot of the candies adapt for most of the holidays. Don’t you think our country’s Independence Day holds slightly more significance than Valentine’s Day, when they have an 2+ entire aisles hosed down in pink candy? I came home and went to the M&M’s website to see if they did indeed make them, they do, but while I was there, I got completely sidetracked looking at all of their ADORABLE sweet treat ideas! I wouldn’t have expected to find so much, but wow! Here are three of my favorites, now all I need is a reason to make them!

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Caleb discovered lightning bugs recently. He is truly amazed and fascinated. It has become somewhat of a nighttime ritual to go outside (after dosing our bug spray!) and catch lightning bugs. We happened to be out there last night early doing dog duties and adjusting the pool levels. The lightning bugs seem to start out very low, right at his level. The excitement in his voice is just priceless, “Dare’s one over dare! I see one!” He runs along behind them with his hand out giggling and grinning from ear to ear. I can speak from experience, a good way to work out your lower back is to lean over your toddler, hold his hand out and run around the yard in this position after bugs. If you’d like an added challenge, carry a phone – while talking on it of course, a dog food scoop (which is a 1 gallon bucket when you had a ginormous dog) and some cream to keep the bugs off the dog as well. Did I mention I had a glove on one hand with cream all over one finger? We caught many this way though (more so once I put down the added challenges), his sheer delight made it all worth it. He even managed to catch a couple by himself!

See Charley on the other side, looking in, his eye is magnified

“Wight up wightning bugs!” – I saw ONE light up the whole time we looked at the jar! Who has the secret? Bigger jar?

Still fun examining them none the less

Today is my best friend’s birthday. Let me back up though. We met in preschool when we were only three years old. How many people can honestly say at 26, that they have been best friends for 23 years? I can’t imagine it happens too often. She is turning 26 today. We are exactly three months apart, but I always said she had the perfect birthday, exactly halfway between Christmases. She sent me an email yesterday…

“…I was looking at your pictures from this weekend and I can’t help but feel like I’m looking into the face of my childhood. I just can’t help but see you in him! Even his mannerisms. The second pic with his lips pursed – you do the exact same thing, to this day. The exact same expression. Maybe that’s why every time I see him I want to go play…”

As kids, we used to always go outside and catch lightning bugs in the evening. It is one of those sentimental ties to childhood. I had this little wooden bug box shaped like a mailbox with a frog on it. We would fill it up with as many bugs as possible, thinking for sure they would survive on leaves and twigs forever.

Isn’t it strange the memories that your mind can string together from your childhood. As I am writing this, I suddenly recalled getting Mexican Jumping Beans from the checkout counter at Roses (which I recently learned from my son’s cartoons actually contain little bugs). We put them on the table between to two twin beds in my room and jumped on the bed while eating Ludens Wild Cherry candy cough drops. Clearly my mom must have been outside, as she would have never allowed jumping on the beds!

We had a deck attached to the back of our house, and Amber and I took our bananas out there to eat. Really, we were probably just eating them to get to the dessert that might follow. So instead of eating them, we tossed them under the deck near to foundation of the house. All these years later, my mom busted me, she was probably watching us out the window. We patted ourselves on the back for being so clever and getting away with it.

Here we are catching lighting bugs in nineteen eighty somethin’ Her looking all cute in her girlish nightgown, me looking all…God knows, there aren’t words, thanks Mom. Looks like I’m rocking the Daisy Duke bloomers or something. (Pardon these pictures, I had the hairbrained idea to make a crappy scrapbook during my freshman year in college, so I cut up a bunch of pictures. Ack.)

We’re still laughing hysterically to this day. In fact, just yesterday, we had an in depth discussion about the different class of people that go to Target vs. Walmart. Really, it was funny, to us.

Almost all of my childhood memories are wrapped up with hers. Beach vacations, massive tents using our four poster bed, playing house in the weeping willow tree in her front yard, sunbathing on the trampoline, her puppy fitting in my softball glove, all these recollections that trickle in like a tiny stream as I think back over memories long since stored away. Just little pieces of the past that individually hold little significance in the present, but when woven together, make up the fabric of my childhood. Since I know her so well, I know she’s probably going to kill me for posting these pictures (at least I didn’t post the beach one with the goofy expressions), but I should be so lucky to leave this world with a best friend of 23 years. Happy Birthday Amber!

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I wonder if my hair will be green by the end of the summer? We are loving our pool! Caleb is doing amazing, I’m am anxiously awaiting a hot weekend so I can take pictures of him jumping in! Obviously Scott has to be here to catch him. But trust me, the pictures are coming. I just stare at him while we are swimming, taking pictures in my head. The sun sets on the left side of our house and pours late afternoon sunlight into the pool. I keep seeing all these backlit photos with him splashing and the sun reflecting in every drop of water. I am longing to capture that on camera! I swear it is almost like his eyes change colors in the pool. I guess because the is so much aqua blue and reflection. Okay I’m done speaking photographer!

We went to the grocery store bright and early this morning. Major thing on the list? BUG SPRAY! You cannot step outside without being eaten alive! Bless his heart, one got inside his shirt and bit him six times!! So we found some Burts Bees, love them, and even better, they are somewhat local to me, so most grocery stores carry their full line (which is expanding bigtime)! I have bad eczema and their Milk and Honey lotion works miracles for me! Best of all, it is natural, not hydrocortisone that will make your skin paper thin after long term use!

I seem to be getting off subject quite a bit tonight. So yeah, we dropped off the groceries and headed to the library for storytime. We pulled up and Caleb said, and I quote, “Lets go get library books but no storytime. It’s awful.” I didn’t know what to say! We went anyway. No kidding, our small town library probably had 50-60 people for storytime! We got absolutely nothing from it. I guess I shouldn’t say that. But we couldn’t see, couldn’t hear. I am very visually distracted and I think I see that in Caleb too. We had a lady beside us with four kids. A newborn and what looked to be a 20ish month old, a 3.5 year old and a 6 year old. She was trying to feed the baby and the middle two kids started running around her in circles. She remained surprisingly calm, but conked that baby’s head on the stroller trying to gather up the kids and leave because they wouldn’t settle down. I always want to help people like that but it is such a touchy area. You never know whether the mom is dying for someone to offer or going to be offended that you think she could use a hand. One little girl stood up and dropped her pants mid story! Never a dull moment with kids!

Anyway, we just headed straight for the pool after naptime, and stayed there for several hours. I always do the ‘five more minutes…two more minutes…” before we get out. He never wants to get out! I’m thrilled at his confidence level. He has figured out how to spin in circles in his floatie, and can do about one rotation per second! He likes to gloat because he is quicker than me!

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We took Caleb’s pedal car out to the street this afternoon to practice…well…pedaling. We had no major breakthroughs, but he did enjoy being pushed around. After Scott exhausted himself pushing Caleb around and trying to teach him to pedal, we resorted to starting him at the top of the neighbors driveway, and letting him speed down the hill (the house next door is vacant). Sounds safe, right? And what do you think I was doing? None other than standing straight in his unpredictable path with my camera snapping pictures, then dodging out of the way at the last second.

I can’t decide whether this one is my favorite weekend picture:

Or this one:

For once I decided not to be so picture lazy.  99.99% of the pictures I post on my blog are straight out of my camera.  Occasionally, I will crop something or brighten it with the Windows Photo Gallery (extremely simplistic tools on the side).  Despite having probably 50GB of RAW files on my computer, I play in the digital darkroom once in a blue moon.  Today, I needed some therapeutic me time, after getting some incredibly frustrated with my adorable subject over dinner.  More specifically the dinner he refused to touch and dumped on the car floorboard.  Food side down.  Anyway, all of these pictures have been edited to suit my slightly larger than life color preferences.

Speeding downhill

Instead of trying to pedal the heavy as a VW Bug pedal car, I think I’ll just pick a flower for Momma

(This grass is in the neighborhood median, seriously, we do cut our grass, in fact, Scott did so today)

I’m sitting still…

…and I’d like to go thataway…

…and I’d like you to push me.  I’ll handle the steering.

I use Adobe Lightroom for my editing.  Here are some side-by-side comparisons of the before and after pictures.  Obviously the edits are on the right.  A few adjustments I made to each picture: exposure, increase vibrance, increase saturation, a little sharpening, bumped up the blue saturation in several pictures, and adding some lens vignetting to most pictures.

These next two had some blown out spots on his cheeks (spots where the sun was so bright it made his skin look white) that I was able to mostly correct

Last but not least, Bobbis (he used to be Bubbus, but Caleb changed his name)  And if you look at his eye closely, you can see my reflection (I was wearing an orange shirt).  Scott said, what are you doing, scratching your head?  No, I’m holding the camera!  haha

I cropped out the majority of this photo, this flower (that Caleb picked for me) was probably about twice the diameter of a pencil.  I thought I missed the focus, but it came out perfectly clear.  I thought it looked kind of cool.

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My poor husband is still scratching his head over why I continually bring up the “next seat” decision, because he still fits in his current seat. Right now he rides in a Fisher Price Safe Voyage Deluxe (He is 2.5 years old and rear facing in these pictures – You can find out more information about extended rear facing and extended harnessing by watching a compilation of videos here). He still fits nicely, but it is somewhat difficult to get him in. He can climb in himself, but when you’re in a hurry, this can be…taxing on ones nerves. When you’re in a hurry, he moves like a slug, when you have plenty of time, he running ahead of you getting into things fast than you can process in your brain. The Safe Voyage Deluxe sits high up on a base, where are the next two seats I’m considering are for bigger kids and sit lower on the vehicle seat.

His current carseat was made by Britax and marketed under the Fisher Price name as a watered down Britax Marathon. Unfortunately (they were sold an an excellent price), they were discontinued and are no longer made. Child Passenger Safety has turned into a bit of a passion of mine. And by passion, I mean obsession. I peak in other people’s cars constantly. I read any and everything I can get my hands on. I look at seats in stores, and I always think about “what’s next.”

For several months now, I have narrowed my choices down to two seats. The Britax Regent or the Frontier. Both seats harness to 80lbs, and the Frontier has a 9 year lifespan (as opposed to the Regent’s 6 year), and it also turns into a belt positioning booster. So theoretically, the Frontier would be the better buy since it has a longer useful life and becomes a booster. But since I don’t care about that (meaning, I don’t mind buying a dedicated booster later), I’m back to square one. Although both seats harness to 80lbs, few children actually make it to 80lbs in the seat. Carseats are usually outgrown by height first. By height, I am referring specifically to torso height, not overall height. The harness slots must be at or above the shoulders when they are forward facing. With that in mind, the harness slots on the Regent are taller, thus it would last longer. And since I’m so obsessed with passionate about his safety, I would have a hard time buying the Frontier knowing that the Regent would keep him harnessed longer. The saying goes, “Each graduation is in carseats is actually a demotion in safety.” Rear face as long as possible, harness as long as possible (most kids are not mature enough to stay seat properly in a booster until at least 5 or 6 years old), use a high back belt positioning booster as long as possible when harnessed are outgrown and be sure that your child passes the 5-step-test before putting them in a seatbelt alone.

I do think I know a good way to resolve my dilemma. Go to a store that carries both seats and install both seats and measure the growing room he has left when they are installed. But this will likely require a 1.5 hour drive. One way. With gas this expensive, I can’t justify a trip. Maybe if I start compiling a list of things I “need” to do, I could justify it ;) We could always take in a children’s museum while we’re there.

Regent or Frontier

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I may have mentioned here and there that I find toilet humor funny. Probably more so than most people. Some people say it is inappropriate. I say lighten up, you fart just like the rest of us! I mean, I’ll go ahead and admit I laughed until I cried this morning when my toddler leaned waaay over to one side and pooted right in my husband’s face (no wait I’m not supposed to share that. It never happened. Pretend you never read that) during the toilet scene in Dumb and Dumber.

I must say though, my child is is perhaps the most polite and intelectual pooter I have ever met.

“Mommy I pooted two times, no three times. Scuse me!”

He actually has the presence of mind to count the number of times and is always sure to excuse himself immediatley after giving you his grand total. Makes a mother proud.

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I can’t decide which is worse, this Walmart experience, or a few months ago, when they bagged a glass bottle that I broke and sent the chard home with me. We went looking for the below mentioned bike today. Hubby had to work all day and we’re a bit lonely, so I figured, why not? We went to the closest Walmart and they didn’t have it. We tried out a few bikes there, wandered around the store and came out with the grand total purchase of a Dinoco helicopter from Cars.

I tried to call Scott and find out when he might be home. I didn’t get an answer, so I figured we’d head down to the Walmart about 15 minutes away. We headed straight back to the bike section and spotted the bike we were looking for on the very top rack, about ten feet in the air. I couldn’t even come close to it reaching my arm above my head. As I was pointing to it and showing Caleb, a young guy walked by and turned back and asked if we needed a bike down, in a very friendly, helpful manner. I told him yes, but of course he couldn’t do it, he had to page someone in that department.

So I stood and waited. And waited, and waited. About 15 minutes later, the same guy passed by again one aisle over, and I saw him cringe when he saw me still standing there. A few more minutes passed and I walked to the closest desk and told the girl I had been waiting for 20 minutes already, could she please page someone for bikes again. And I resumed my waiting post. Caleb was extremely patient. He just toyed around with everything in the area, and besides keeping an eye on him, I didn’t have to do a thing, he completely entertained himself, thank goodness.

After another 10 minutes, MY THREE YEAR OLD spotted a ladder. He kept asking me to go get the ladder to get the bike down. It was hanging on a pole just four aisles down. I called Scott, and waited a few more minutes. I went back to the same desk again and told her I was still waiting in bikes (straight in front of her desk, I kept seeing her looking at me) and now I needed someone to get a bike down and a manager. So I went back and I waited ANOTHER TWENTY MINUTES!!!! By point, I was livid, and I was not about to leave without letting someone know it. I had been standing there a damn hour!! Just as I was about to head to the desk for the third time and tell the girl to call her manager and give me the phone, a girl comes up that had passed by me no less than seven times walks up and says “somebody here need help with a bike?”

I said, “Yes that’s me, I’ve been waiting for an hour.”

Lo and behold, here comes the same guy that first asked me if I needed help. Yep, he’s the assistant manager. “Oh, nobody ever came over here to help you?” he asks! Well you see the damn bike still up there on the top shelf don’t you?!

“Nope, I’ve been waiting an hour,” I reply in a flat voice.

Turns out the girl who works in bikes, yet completely ignores the store intercom service, is afraid of heights. So she asks her manager if she can stand on the huge flat part of the ladder that is clearly made to stand on (it was sort of like a paint tray, only made to hold a person instead. Trust me, it was really obvious). She struggles with the bike until her manager offers to do it, and she immediately takes him up on the offer. So as we finally try out the long awaited bike, I ask about a discount for the last hour of my time. Do you know what he says?

“I could do 10%. $6.50.”

I told him it wasn’t worth it. And that his store’s service was absolutely ridiculous. I grabbed Caleb by the arm and we walked away, him crying because we weren’t getting the ‘con-stwuc-shun bike’ we waited an hour to look at. We marched straight up to the customer service desk. I composed a new text message contained the store manager’s name (who I assume was not present today) and the district manager’s name and phone number. After the returns line was cleared, I asked if the D.M. was the proper person to file a complaint with, or whether there was a 1-800 number.

“Yeah you can call 1-800-WALMART or call the district manager, but I don’t think that name is right anymore,” the girl replies. So I wait some more to find out the D.M.’s name. The customer service manager comes over and gets on the phone and calls…..who do you think? The assistant manager.

“What’s our district managers name?”

There is a pause, some more conversation and then I hear her voice lower (although not enough) and she says “I don’t know, blond hair, a white shirt…”

The other girl interrupts loudly and points and says “No not her, that girl over there.”

I announce loudly to the whole returns area that I’m the person that waited in bikes for an hour and got offered $6.50 for my time. One girl in the return line actually started laughing and shaking her head.

“Yeah, gray Carolina shirt, little boy with her. Yeah.” She hangs up. “Is there anything we can do to resolve the situation.”

“Obviously not at this point,” I said. We determined that the D.M.’s name was right after all, so I left.  I felt so bad for Caleb. He asked several times on the way home, and I told him we would talk to Daddy about the bike. Sad thing is, I didn’t even go there to buy it today, we only wanted to look at it!

If gas wasn’t so expensive, I would absolutely quit shopping at Walmart (with the exception of grocery stores, there is nowhere else to shop here). I find, in some instances, Target is actually cheaper. And they have better customer service and nicer stuff. Raise your hand, how many people have asked a Walmart employee where something was and been told they didn’t carry that item and walk away with the distinct feeling that the person was too lazy to find it?

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