I'm innocent! It was him!

Mob Museum

We checked out the new mob museum in downtown while Grandpa Jim was visiting. I could not believe how many people were there! It is three stories of exhibits and it's a ton of reading. Noey was over it after 15 minutes and she fell asleep on me. Sleeping baby, crowds, hot....I have to pee. Good times. I left Jim and Dave to explore while I got out of there. Ever go to the bathroom by yourself while holding a sleeping, sweaty baby? I was impressed with my skills. We ended up in the gift shop and she came alive. She got in the hooch and tried out the cigars. She loves dog toys! She ended up leaving with a Tommy Gun and a police baton. Just what every girl needs for her 18 month birthday! Police line up. Who dun it? I say it was the little one! She looks guilty!

Booze Hound

Grandpa Jim.

Throughout Jim's trip I was impressed with all the people that came up and thanked him for his service during the Korean War. Several times we encountered active duty soldiers and they said nothing to him after looking right at him and his hat stating he is a veteran. This just rubbed me the wrong way and I thought it was rude. I'm going to hope they just didn't notice. Teaching a WWII class, I try to instill some kind of respect in the kids for those who lived through the war and our servicemen. I recently went kinda bat shit crazy on them for being disrespectful to those in the Holocaust and making light of things so I guess this has been on my mind for a while. We hope Papa Jim can come out at Veteran's day this year now that his foot is healed, Dave's back is healed and Noey is older so we can go to the airshow!

Getting Ready for Summer!

We ordered Noey a slide/swing/sandbox combo for the backyard. We also hooked her up with the special recycled rubber tire tiles that protect falls up to 6 feet off the ground. I got the yard prepped and laid down the tile. I thought I was going to die! It was 100 degrees and those things weigh 30 pounds a piece! Holy moley! And I got into it with our neighbors but that is another story. My father-in-law went home thinking I am totally ghetto. Woody High made me that way. That is my excuse. And being a frustrated middle school teacher probably has something to do with it as well. Someone has to bear the brunt of my angst and that is who I chose that day! Anyways, Dave worked hard getting the set built. We opened the box and were shocked at the detail required. The quality of the materials was really crappy and Dave documented every warped board and flaw. He is going to be writing a strongly worded letter to Sports Power here in the near future.

Noelle watched the action taking place. She had never actually set foot out back and I think she was surprised she has more space to spread her crap, I mean toys! She busted out her chalk and started making a count of the days we've been holding her hostage from the backyard!

She tried out her swing. Didn't work so well.

We got the rubbermaid boxes set up with sand and loaded them with toys. There is a super nice lady at Michael's that has been giving me awesome deals because I'm a teacher so I got some sunflowers for the flower box. We're talking an extra 10% on top of my teacher discount. Love her! So nice to really be appreciated!

I had been looking at this pirate water table for a long time. Joan has one and I thought it was cool. I read bad reviews about it so I was leery. They finally had them in stock at our local Toys R Us so I picked one up. Other than struggling to screw the legs on, ours works fabulously! Of course it does, I bought the warranty. Playing in the water feel good when it's hot out this summer!

Noelle also has a new tricycle and helmet. She wears her helmet all the time and doesn't mind it one bit! She also has a basketball hoop, t-ball set, mitt and glove and her chalk sets outside. It's going to be a summer of fun! Once Dave gets our misters up around the porch we will probably never come inside!

Nougat

This is the nougat filled Easter egg Noey got. Not quite as much nougat as one would expect.

New Bedding

A few weeks ago I thought to look up western bedding to get some ideas for our bedroom. Well, I found a set I HAD to have right then and there. Dave jokes that my "ideas" go to full blow projects at warp speed. I don't see the problem. I think our new bedding is fabulous. Our room is my favorite in the house...when it's clean and the bed is made.

Our next big project that we are gathering supplies for is our master bathroom remodel. We have the shower curtain and the slate ready to go!

Easter, Where Art Thou?

Dave has been snapping most of our pictures now on his iphone and I find myself taking less and less. The problem with this is getting them uploaded to our server so I can post them. One of these days we will get the Easter pics up and all that he has taken. For now, you are left with my few pics.

Spring Pictures

Noelle hates Portrait Innovations. She loves the lego table they have though. Girl cannot pass up a lego table! They even hid the table for us this time since we were first for the day. I keep buying this girl pretty dresses and have in my head the vision of beautiful pictures and she refuses to cooperate. It is a fight every time we go. I may have to try a different studio. There were tears, falls, and escape attempts. This is the best we could do.

Classic Noey. Time to go.