Ramsey's First Adventure at Storybookland

The weather couldn't have been nicer this past Sunday afternoon, so it was time for a little family trip to Storybookland!

Since Ramsey is older now and can motor around, we thought it would be fun to get his reactions to all of the fun attractions at the local fun-filled park and playground.

We started off by heading to the train.  We hopped on and let it carry us through the park and the zoo.

Ramsey was extremely wide-eyed and, with so many things to see, not really sure where to focus his attentions.

(I had hoped to get a picture of the awesome red train, but it was a little busy, so not a lot of time for lookie-loos, doddling, and picture-taking!)

After that, we headed to get some Dippin' Dots and refreshments.   Then... into the park we went!

First stop, Smokey the Bear.  Ramsey wasn't quite sure what to think of him at first. 

Then, he just wanted to touch him and grab his nose. 

Here's Yogi and BooBoo 

 He was quite taken with Mary and her little lamb.

 And very concerned for the three little kittens who had lost their mittens.  He had to go to each one and console them.  I guess they looked pretty sad.  

 Ramsey loves to point now.  He wants to know what everything is.  

 With all the walking, he needed to take a load off!

Next stop: The carousel!  The ride went quite a bit faster than I had thought it would, so I had to hang onto Ramsey quite diligently while the horsey went up and down.  Ramsey held on, laughed a lot, and was in awe.   Eric joked that he thought I had more fun than Ramsey on the carousel ride.   Apparently my laughs were quite loud.  It WAS fun to be a kid again!

 We had to say BYE BYE to the horsies and animals for now.

 But, we headed off to see the real animals at the petting zoo.  There, they had miniature donkeys, horses, a baby calf, sheep, and goats.

 Ramsey was very eager to see inside the barn stalls!

 He saw a baby lamb (who was really HOT - poor thing!).

 Then some goats.

 And then outside to get a closer view!

 Knowing how much Ramsey loves to feed Riggsy, we bought some pellets to give to the goats.  Eric gave one to Ramsey, which he IMMEDIATELY shoved in his mouth!  Mmm, protein.  We fished it out and Eric showed him that it was for the goats, not him!

He proceeded to feed the goats, stick his fingers in their mouths (thankfully they weren't biters), up inside their noses, and laugh his butt off.

My camera phone decided it was dead for the day.  And, so were we!

We're planning another trip later on to see more of the park, hit the slides, the castle, and other fairy tale attractions.  

Hail, Hail, Oh Awesome Rainbow!

We got another crazy storm on Saturday afternoon.   The wind had picked up and it was looking quite dark.  We didn't really know what was coming was going to be as substantial as it was.  We didn't bother putting the plants in or anything.

What came brought a lot of wind, a downpour of rain (maybe an inch in just a short time?), and a lot of hail!  Thankfully, this time, there were mainly only pea-sized hail, mixed with a few quarter-sized pieces.

(Yes, I realize I need a pedicure.)

But, at the end of it all, we had the most glorious rainbow appear.  It seemed to start and end right in our front yard!

Bye Bye Apple Tree, Hellllooooooooo Campfire!

Last night, the boys decided to have a campfire.  After all, we had the fire pit all loaded up with small twigs and branches that had accumulated this spring and others that had fallen from the last storm.

As the fire roared, we roasted marshmallows and hot dogs.   In the meantime, Riggs had been [proudly] dragging around a large log, approximately 4' long and 4-5" in diameter.  He seemed a bit forlorn when we eventually had to burn it.
 
After our logs, twigs, and sticks burned down, we were still in need of more.  Connor had an "idea" and dragged back a large branch that he had snapped off from one of our apple trees that was in its last stages of life (99% dead!).

As he tore it apart (laughing his rear end off), Riggsy "helped" by twisting and gnawing off branches.
To see what Riggs was made of, Connor stood on the base of the branch, while Riggsy went to work.  It was quite impressive what his doggy teeth could do!

As they worked together, Connor got a good bicep workout.  :-)

Piece by piece, it got smaller.

Eventually, Dad had to step in to try and break it in half.

And also to stoke the fire....

(Apparently the fire poker was left inside!)

Connor kept going back to the old apple tree and continued to tear branches off.   Branch by branch, he and Riggs widdled that poor tree down from something the size of this (our healthier apple tree, still standing):

~ sans the leaves of course.

To THIS pathetic stick of a tree, bearing only one branch:

Next step: CHAINSAW!  And.... another roaring good-time campfire to finish the good old apple tree's life cycle.  Thank you apple tree!

Happy Father's Day!

Father's Day.   A day to celebrate the special Dads in our life.  Cheers Dad, Grandpas, and Bumpa!  We love you and we are so thankful for you!

The weather couldn't have been nicer for the Father's Day weekend; sunny, warm, and not very breezy.  Too bad Mother's Day couldn't have been that nice!  It was windy, rainy, and we got SNOW the very next day - not fair! :-) 

We started the day by giving Daddy his special presents.  (We gave him other gifts earlier in the week.)  Here are the boys posing with the homemade presents; a framed piece of Daddy Art (made with Photoshop) and a tall mug with Ramsey's hand prints.   His little mitts are getting big!

The rest of the day was filled with lots of fishing, grilling out, playing with Riggs, and playing with Ramsey during his first experience in a swimming (wading) pool.   Good times!

Now the EVENING.... that was another story!  The boys came in late from fishing, had some grub, then hung out for a bit, waiting for the big storm to hit.  We brought the plants and bird feeders in and picked up toys and such from outside.  

The storm hit at about midnight with lots of lightning and thunder (I love a summer storm).  Then we started hearing big whacks, thunks, and thuds (still love? not so much)!  I turned Ramsey's white noise machine up, hoping he'd stay asleep (which, miraculously, he did).  With all of the noise, I figured that maybe branches were falling on the house.  When we looked outside, it was hailing quite substantially.   Here are some of the nasty buggers that were causing all of the ruckus:

At least it wasn't snow.

Pillow Fort Parties

The boys have a new favorite evening game; "Pillow Fort Party".    Connor covers Ramsey up in pillows and then Ramsey busts through them.   This has become an evening ritual as of late.
Last night, Connor retrieved nearly every single pillow in the house to bury his little brubby with!
They're adorable and so fun to watch.  :-)

Precious Moments

Nope, I'm not talking about the ivory and pastel-colored collectible porcelain figurines with over-sized craniums and big sad-looking doe eyes, I'm referring to sweet glimpses in time with my super adorable, ever-endearing, and positively lovable boys!

I didn't have one main focus for a new post for my babes, so here's a few pictures and videos that I, biased as all get-out, find utterly beautiful and charming.  As a mother, I am allowed.  :-)

Big Brubby Connor and Ramsey were hanging out, watching some YouTube in Daddy's chair.
Connor plays so nice with Ramsey!

Ramsey loves his puppy.  Ramsey loves feeeeeeeeeding his puppy.  Good thing he doesn't like to taste dog food anymore.

Ramsey has figured out that, if you spin around a lot, you get a dizzy head rush.  Oh, what an achievement!  I don't think my online toddler forums would name this as a milestone!  lol 

The perfect chocolate pudding mustache:

Muah-hahahahahaha!

Chillin' out with Daddy... playing the "beep beep nose" game.

Happy Birthday to ME!

Yup, another year has passed.  And, I am officially announcing that I will be staying this age for the rest of my life.  I will happily lie from this day forward!  :-)

All jokes aside (well, that really wasn't a joke - I meant it!), I had a really nice birthday.   A few days before my birthday, Mom and Connor took a little hiatus to hang out and go shopping.  They came home with a yummy chocolate birthday cake with buttercream frosting.
The night before my birthday, I opened up my cards (I got my presents early from Menards!) and we dove, head first, into the cake.
YUMMMMMMMMM!

The night of my birthday, I was treated to a date night with dear hubby, where we had a nice (fattening and of course delicious) supper and shot pool.   We're definitely going to have to do that more often!

Ramsey's First "Real" Haircut

Ramsey's always had a boatload of hair.  Over the last sixteen months, his locks have changed from dark brown to light brown and now, he's most definitely blonde.  His fun hairdo and crazy curls have always been part of his spunky personality.

Alas, it was time to give him a "proper" full haircut (to this date, he's had a few bang trims), as his hair was so long that it hit the middle of his back.  Yes, yes, he'd been "mistaken" by more than one sweet little old lady of being "a beautiful little girl" (even though he was dressed head-to-toe in blue boy-looking clothing)!

His Godmother Shana had an opening at 1:00 (normally nap-time - whoah boy!), but it was necessary (and I had the afternoon off anyway).  When he we arrived to Shana's salon, I wasn't sure how Ramsey was going to react; certainly the idea of him sitting in a chair for twenty minutes was preposterous in his current state!

Having raised two toddler boys of her own, Shana knew what to do.  She ran for her "goody bin" and brought out a ton of multi-colored plastic curlers for Ramsey to play with.   Jackpot!!!

As he sat so nicely on the floor playing with the new rainbow of fun, she sat down beside him and went to work!

 Bye bye curls!!!

SNNNNNNNNNNNIP!

Um... a little more off the sides, please!

He sat so nice the entire time!

 Ta Da!  No, it's not military short, but INCHES were cut and he looks like such a BIG BOY now!

We won't have quite as tall of a spikey mohawk during bath time now.  I guess there are worse things.  :-)

Tiny Dancer

So Ramsey is a ham... a ham who loves to dance... and be applauded for his mad skills.  Below are a few videos of his talents.   A Fred Astaire he is not!  (Yet!)  :-)

He has quite a range in music (some that you'll see below); ranging from The Oak Ridge Boys ("Elvira") to the 90's dance club hit "Cotton Eye Joe" by The Rednex, Mylie Cyrus (this pains us, but she has catchy tunes), the Gummy Bear Song, the Hamster Dance, and a comedic made-up song about a "Guy on a Buffalo" (YouTube this one - it's hilarious - all four parts!).

Speaking of Tiny Dancer... we haven't introduced him to Elton John yet!  Hmmmm.....
He's just now entering a Michael Buble kick!

(Give this one about thirty seconds for him to get warmed up.)  Note: Due to copyright infringements that YouTube found with the video, I had to delete the sound (Cotton-Eye Joe by The Rednex) and I had to insert this alternate version.

He'd been dancing to this one for a while.  Of course, I didn't get the really funny bits on camera.  Of course!!!!

He's still a big fan of barber shop/A Capella, AC/DC, and Sesame Street songs.