Memorial Day: More of the cousins

I'm not much for conversation lately, so here are a few one liners and some more pics from Memorial Day. These cousins are getting plenty of time together.

Cole loves to copy Rhett, pushing trucks. Truckts.

Can you feel the pre-teen angst and brooding?

Another round of truck pushing.

A quick break from Wii playing. Note the big kid playing with her in the background.

And where is Grady while everyone is playing in the play room? Oh, that's right, he's in another room, playing with the door. When does this phase end?

Memorial Day: Cousins

Happy Birthday, Scottie.

It's his birthday, and Scottie wants to play peekaboo with you! Happy birthday, old man.

Memorial Day: Meet our Hosts

I can't lie, this week has been hard. We have a new daily routine that I am truthfully not liking one bit, so as I adjust to the new routine I'm not finding to time to blog. Keith can attest to me stumbling around the house in a zombie state after dinner and the boys' bedtime routine. I don't even want to talk about the routine, so let's all pretend all is happy in the world and let's talk about fun times. Like, Memorial Day weekend.

So last weekend (or was it the weekend before that?) we headed to Karen's. While I always refer to her as just Karen, we know she comes in a pair. But trying to get a picture of her other half is easier said than done. I think there's more documentation of the Loch Ness monster or the Chupacabra. So most attempts at getting the pic look like this, because Scott runs away.

Or, he pretends to play along but then ducks at the last minute. Sorry the pics are a little dark, I'm dabbling, mostly unsuccessfully, in our camera's manual modes. Here you can see Scott ducking away, while at the same time being OK with his beer being seen. If I were into literature I could go on about symbolism, etc, but I'm really more of a math and science girl.

And then sometimes, just sometimes, the contents of that can wins and he lets you get a picture of both of them. Thanks, Mr. Bubbles. Speaking of Scott, it's his birthday tomorrow so I am saving the best picture I got of him for tomorrow. Mwwahahahahahaha.

As a sidenote, notice the reflection of their backyard in the glass. So serene. 

So, these two let us, and the grandparents crash their house for the weekend in the name of good ole fashioned family fun. More, soon.

Top 5

I don't have my act together enough yet to share pics and a recap of our Memorial Day trip to Aunt Karen's, but I saw a fun post at another blog that inspired me to share a few new favorites of the Ellerman household.


1. Desserts. I love trolling websites for fun desserts. Right now I'm in a quick and easy phase, but from time to time I like to dig into something a little more complex. For easy my current go-to is this dessert blog, and for more complex I'll be exploring this book Nanna and Oupa brought us back from South Africa. 


2. Spin class. Because of #1, I am needing to do more of #2. Have you spun? Spinned? It's a crazy fun workout. I hate riding a real bike on the streets because cars scare me. Don't judge, I can't help it, I'm timid. But put that bike on a platform, and I'll ride going nowhere for hours. 


3. Independence. I've been enjoying mine for quite some time, but Cole and Grady really are getting into the "no, ME DO!" phase. I have to tell you, I love it. 


4. Fuller paychecks. Next week marks my return, albeit just for 4 months, to full-time work. I welcome the pay and additional hours at work to do the work I've been cramming into part-time hours and work from home, but I'm apprehensive about being gone from the boys more. I'm thinking because of #3 they'll be just fine. 


5. Craftiness. Work is busy now, but in 8 weeks when the craziness subsides, I'll be attempting a quilt. Again. Not a second quilt, just a second attempt at finishing quilt #1. In the meantime, I get my homemade fix at this online homemade-goods store, Etsy. I could window shop for hours here. 


Good ole fashioned family fun coming soon.