Summer Fun-Father's Day Weekend and More

We left the beach Friday morning and got home late Friday evening. Whew! There's nothing like coming home after being away for a week. I was so ready to sleep in my own bed, drink our coffee, and just enjoy being in our space. 

Before we left for the beach, we boarded Barkley at our local vet's office. We also scheduled for him to be neutered while he was at the vet's office because "ain't nobody got time for puppy business over here". I called to check on Barkley on our way home from the beach and they reported that he was having a blast and that he was full of energy. Tell me something I don't know...haha! Our vet's office was closed when we got home Friday so Eli and I picked him up Saturday morning. Barkley was quite thrilled to be back with his family :) I took this picture of the two of them when we got home. Barkley doesn't understand how to ride in the back of my car like a normal dog. He feels he's got to be touching you at all times. I'd say these two boys were quite happy to be back together :)

Sunday was Father's Day and we enjoyed celebrating Josh all day long. I posted this picture on Instagram of all the fathers in Eli's life. He is one blessed little boy! Each one of these men have poured themselves into Eli's life and he adores them all!

Sunday afternoon Josh, Eli, and I went to the golf course so they could play some Father's Day golf. I went along for the ride and had fun spending time with my boys. 

On Monday life went back to normal-Josh went to work and Eli and I hung out at the house. While I was out in the garden working, Eli had a movie date with all his Toy Story friends. He loves to set them up while he watches the movie so they can watch with him. I came in to check on him and this was what I saw. It was too cute to not take a picture of it. 

After the movie, it was time for us to run some errands in town. First up was the pool store. Our pool decided to turn green on us while we were at the beach so we needed to fix that ASAP. It turns out that our flow sensor on our salt system stopped working so it wasn't producing chlorine like it was supposed to be. Rather than spend hundreds of dollars replacing that sensor, we decided to just add the chlorine to our pool manually until we decide what to do about the salt system. 

I wanted to get a pedicure, so I called Tammy to see if she wanted a "Mammy Day" with Eli after lunch. She said yes so after our lunch I dropped Eli off with Tammy. She's kept him since he was 3 months old and he loves going over to her house to spend time with her and Uncle Clare. 

Tammy and Clare have a couple cats in the house and Eli loves playing with a calico named Matilda. Matilda is B-A-D! She won't let you rub her or pet her and if you try she's going to attack you. She is as mean as a hornet! Eli uses the laser pointer and gets her to chase it around the house. It makes him laugh to see her chase after that tiny red ball of light. When I came to pick up Eli, Matilda was laying across his bag of toys and wasn't budging. I ended up moving her with my foot because I was scared she was going to claw my hand to death. Badness!

When we got back to the house, Eli asked me to draw a new picture of Buzz, Woody, and a martian so he could color it and hang it on his wall. It wasn't perfect but I sketched something out quickly for him to color. He seemed pleased :)

Tuesday I made an impromptu decision to go visit my family for a couple of days, so we woke up and packed our bags for Grammy and Pop's house. We didn't leave until after lunch though because the Snakeman was coming to the library that day and we had to go see him! Our friends, the Atkins, (there's too many of them now to list, haha) were there too and Eli sat with him during the show. The Snakeman showed the kids tons of snakes that are native to Louisiana like the corn snake, the pine snake, the king snake, and more. He taught them about respecting snakes in the wild and he encouraged the kids to use the resources at the library to learn about the things that interest them, like snakes, bugs, space, horses, etc. I sure hope snakes aren't one of the things that interest Eli. Momma can't have a snake in her house!

Cooper and Eli

The Snakeman is always a huge hit at the library and tons of kids come. I weeded my way through the kids after the show to get a picture of him with the kids. I grabbed Eli and two of the four Atkins' kids (Avery and Clayton) and they took a picture with the Snakeman. I love how Avery is looking at him...too cute!!

We left the library and met Josh at a restaurant for lunch. Then we loaded up and made the drive to see Grammy and Pop. We were excited about having a fun rest of the week. 

Christmas at Zue-Zue's-2014

We got back from my parent's house late Saturday night. We'd had such a wonderful visit with all of them and I was so glad we'd gotten a chance to spend the day with them.  Next up for us was Christmas with Zue-Zue. When we got to her house we noticed that there were a lot of presents under the tree. Someone had obviously been awfully good this year :) 

Eli was excited about all the gifts and couldn't wait to open his surprises. 

My whole world right here :)

Eli 's first gift was a blue beanbag that he'll keep at Zue-Zue's house. Now he'll always have a comfy place to sit when he goes to visit her. 

Josh's big gift was a cover for his Big Green Egg and table that he'd built. Sadly, it didn't fit :( Josh built his table according to the specifications on their website, but the cover was incredibly short. He had to take it back, but he ended up using that money to get him some new golf shoes so it worked out in the end!

Eli got some new Converse sneakers. If I had it my way he'd have every color of these. I think he looks so cute in them. I love me some Converse :)

One of my favorite gifts was the blanket scarf I had been drooling over on Pinterest. I found it on Groopdealz one morning and sent the link to Zue-Zue. Magically, it appeared in my Christmas loot :)

We all got new comfy blankets and Josh loved his. 

Eli loved his martian from Toy Story that glows in the dark. I think he now has all the main characters. It's crazy how much he loves all the guys from Toy Story and still plays with all of them. 

I also got this "designer inspired" herringbone vest from Groopdealz and I can't even tell you how many times I wore it this past winter. It was definitely on rotation in my closet each week. 

I didn't get a picture of it, but Sue's big gift from us (kind of a birthday gift and Christmas wrapped all in one) was a new vacuum cleaner. She's been lugging a pull around canister type vacuum cleaner around all these years so we bought her an upright one. She's over the moon about it. It was pretty funny because the night she opened it she was pretty much shooing us out of the house so she could use it. 

We had a wonderful Christmas with Zue-Zue. We packed up our stuff and headed back to our house late that night. The next night was Christmas Eve and we couldn't wait to get ready for Santa Claus to come!

Summer 2014-Update #4

June passed way too quickly and before we knew it July was here! Several years back Eli got one of these build-it-yourself kits for Christmas from Jordan and Addi. He was kind of too young then to use it so I put it away until he was old enough. One night when I had to leave for a little bit, Josh and Eli built the train together. Eli had lots of fun! The next morning he decided to paint it :)

The Saturday after the Fourth of July two of our good friends, Ms. Lori and Ms. Jenn, came over to visit and spend the day with us in the pool. Eli was shy at first but then warmed up quickly to them. We ate yummy food, played in the pool, played basketball, ate more yummy food, and spent lots of time catching up and visiting. It was lots of fun!

Eli has been wanting to learn to tie his shoes for a long time. We've showed him how to do it before, but he lacked the coordination to make the loops and do the wrapping around. This summer it all came together for him. We showed him about 3 times how to do it and by the 2nd or 3rd time Eli had it. We were so proud! I listed all the big kid milestones he's achieved so far (tying his shoes, riding a bike without training wheels, snapping his fingers, blowing a bubble, and reading) to him and told him that my job as a parent was almost done ;) We sent a video of him tying his shoes to all the grandparents so they could see Eli's latest accomplishment! Way to go, dude!

I was washing clothes one morning and came in my bedroom to find Eli watching Toy Story 2 with all his Toy Story friends. These are moments I will remember forever. Anytime he watches a Disney movie and has the characters from that movie they have to watch it with him :) 

He loves Woody and Buzz!

Our zucchini plants are making zucchini like crazy so I'm finding lots of ways to incorporate zucchini into yummy dishes. My favorite is chocolate zucchini bread. IT'S. SO. YUMMY. Plus, it has a vegetable in it :) Also, even though it tastes like cake it's called bread so you can totally have a slice warmed up in the toaster oven with melted butter spread over it every day of the week...if you wanted to that is. It's not like I've ever done that ;)

My zinnias in my flower bed in the front are huge and beautiful so one day I cut some and brought them inside. It was like a vase full of happiness for me :)

My friend Sarah and her family went out of town to Disney World and before they left she told me that we could go out to her house to pick blueberries because they'd be ready while they were gone. Eli and I had fun picking and eating the yummy blueberries. 

On the way back home, we stopped by the library so Eli could get some new books. He's still in the early stages of reading but the Level One books are perfect for him. They're the right mix of known and unknown words. We sat on the floor of the library and read a couple before checking them out and bringing them home. 

I'm very very proud of my beginning reader! I hope he falls in love with reading at an early age :)