Thursday, October 9, 2014

Birthday party, new camera, and stuff

A fair warning, this post will contain pictures of a disturbingly messy house.  There are days when the babies make it their mission to drag out everything they can get their hands on.  It is not worth trying to clean up until they go to sleep, so some of these pictures show quite a mess.  Sorry.  I have 2 toddlers.  We're messy.
 
Also, I got a new camera because my cell phone camera takes awful pictures indoors, so some of the lighting in some pics is weird.  I was playing with the settings. 
 
Alex brown.  Ben orange.
 
Relaxing together
 
 
 
They like to wear Cody's shoes now.  They also walk in his sandals and his hiking boots. 
 
Ben
 
 
 
Driving the van.  Alex
 
 
Ben comes to help
 
 
Our friends have a boy that is a few months older than our boys.  He was turning 2 in September.  I offered to do a little mini party at our house for him because she also has a newborn.  It was a lot of fun.  He really, REALLY, likes Thomas the train,  so I did some minor decorating with a train/Thomas theme.  All but one of his gifts was Thomas stuff.  Lucky boy!  Here is my pushy Ben helping him unwrap a gift.
 
(I covered his face because I don't know how other people feel about pictures of their kids ending up on my blog. He is very cute.)
 
 
Ben grey.  Alex blue.  Trying to get all 4 kids to line up by the Thomas scene setter.  My two managed to do this by accident so it was a rush to get the others.
 
 
Here was the birthday boy.  There was also a girl there.  She is 3ish and was not in the mood to sit with the boys.  My boys were nice, but she was not used to having kids in her bubble.  My boys have no bubble. I completely agree, little girl.  They would've driven me crazy too.  So we did manage to get the 3 in one shot.  They did not pose together though.  Alex was cute here.  Another Ben was cute.  You just never know.
 
 
I made these signs (Obviously).  One says "Chugga Chugga Two Two" which I think is the most hilarious thing EVER.  I found the idea online, so I can't take credit for it.  The other just says "Birthday Crossing."  I didn't take pictures of any other decorations though.  I'm not sure why.  I made the food dishes look like a train on a track. There were Thomas party hats and tablecloths.  It was glorious.
 
I let the birthday boy take home all my decorations except this, so he walked away with a lot of giant Thomas stuff.
 
 
After the presents and cake, we went outside.  Luckily my mom has outfitted the boys with so many ride on toys, that there was more than enough for everyone. 
 
 
 
It was actually a little warm, so we pulled out a sprinkler.  Of course my boys were all over that.  Alex and birthday boy completely soaked Ben.  Again, the girl kind of wanted to join, but not how the boys were doing it.  Poor girl.  This is actually all 4 kids, but birthday boy got lost in the bubble.  Cody helping the boys with a beer in his hand.  As usual.  :) 
 
 
 
The boys have demanded that we hang out outside for hours every day now that the weather is nice.  This is fine, except they also want the back door open.  We have ended up getting a lot of flies.  It is not worth the fight though, so I've just been on fly patrol.
 
Anyway, one day this plane flew over and drew this baseball in the sky with some sort of trail.  I don't know what it was, or why the plane did this.  They boys love air planes so they watched it closely for the 20ish minutes that it took to do.
 
First the plane drew the black circle.  The circle looks way tighter in the earlier pictures.  Then it came around and drew the yellow line.  Finally, it drew the green line.  It wasn't an accident.  It made a really good looking circle, then the lines started and stopped right on the lines of the circle.  Weird.
 
 
 
Proof of my excellent gardening:
 
I found this weed on the other side of our detached garage.  It is as tall as Cody.
 
 
This is some sort of tomato plant that never ripened and that I never planted.  Also on the other side of the garage.  Maybe I need to check it out more often.
 
 
Ben
 
 
Alex
 
 
 
Toddler feet
 
 
Alex's toddler yoga
 
 
Alex with a meat tenderizer.  I took a few of these.  In some he looked innocent, in some he looked like he was plotting, and in some he looked very guilty.  Yes, he was using it to hammer the floor.  And the cabinets.  And a window.
 
 
Playing with the camera settings.  The camera takes pictures in sepia.  Baby tears look much sadder in sepia.
 
 
Alex showing how he feels about the potty chair.
 
(We still haven't really tried potty training.  I put them on the toilet if they ask.  Having the two makes it hard though.  One will ask to sit on the toilet, and then the other will sneak up behind him and start whacking his head with the toilet seat.  That is no way to learn to use the potty!)
 
 
Alex angry
 
 
Ben checking out the camera
 
 
Cody and Alex
 
 
More settings.  The camera will shoot selective colors with the rest being black and white. Here it is with blue.  It picked up the blue in his eyes.
 
 
Alex.  This round is a bit Alex heavy.  Not on purpose.  A lot of these were taken on the same 2ish days.  I think Ben just hung out in the bad lighting way more.
 
 
 
Please excuse the baby markings on the fireplace glass.  I try to remember to clean it, but they really like hanging up there, so it gets dirty again quickly.
 
Alex.
 
You're probably thinking this couldn't get any cuter, right?
 
 
Oh yeah, that is cuter.
 
 
 
Alex.. again.  I'll go out of my way to get Ben pics for the next couple of weeks.
 
 
I let them back in the can cabinet.  They've handled it pretty well so far.  They've done some stacking.  Only a few can labels got torn off.  Now it is going to be like post-apocalyptic movies when they have all the unlabeled cans and they just have to like roll the dice with what they get.
 
 
 
 
 
Ben lost interest and snuck under the table
 
 
 
 
Alex really concentrating
 
 
I don't like taking them out front because they always run away.  Luckily our street gets very little traffic.  Ben.
 
 
Ben 
 
 
Alex walking over to check us out
 
 
 
Ben looking at Cody
 
 
Alex looking at another inappropriately tall weed
 
 
The boys like to peep through the neighbor's fence.  They have a smaller dog.  (Not tiny, just smaller than Shep.)  So they will run at the fence yelling, "Doggy!  Doggy!  Doggy!" even if he isn't out there.  He is friendly with them though, so that is good.  They don't try to poke him in the eye and he doesn't try to bite the kids... so I'd call that a win.  I try to discourage the behavior, but sometimes the siren call of the dog is too enticing.
 
 
 
Pointing at Shep and talking to Cody about it
 
 
 
Shep was really excited.  This was an action shot.  It happened right before he body checked me.  He's heavy! 
 
 
Swinging around Ben
 
 
Ben running 
 
Alex made a break for it.  I circled him in red.  They are fast.
 
 
Alex digging in a dirt patch on our driveway.  They like to crush bugs with their fingers.  I did not teach them this, and I'm hoping that doesn't mean they will be serial killers when they grow up.  He wasn't killing here... just digging.
 
 
 
Things have been going fine.  Nothing exciting has happened.  Just enjoying the fall weather.

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