A Funny From Stella

As I was leaving to go running this morning, Mike and the kids were loading into the van to go buy paint for the house. We are painting the exterior of the house. I was jogging down the cul-de-sac and Stella was in the drive way waving good bye to me.
Stella: "Bye, Mommy"!
Me: "Bye, bye, Stellie"
Stella: "I hope you don't get hit by a car while you are running"!!!
Me: burst out laughing, "me, too, honey"

Random. Just random.

The Escape Artist

Yesterday Porter realized he could reach the door handles. He kept trying to get out of the house. Luckily he can't reach the dead bolt!

Trying to escape.

Thinking he is SO funny! :)

Of course, Stella had to get in on the action. :)

Daddy's Little Helper

Mike finished up trimming out all the new windows on the sun porch this evening. Porter is 100% obsessed with all of Mike's tools. He could not stay away from them. He was also trying to hand Mike random tools while Mike was working, it was really funny and cute. Here are a few photos of him inspecting Mike's stuff.

My Blonde Moment (no offense to my blonde friends!)

Okay, so this morning we were leaving to run some errands. Mom spent the night with us b/c she was up here buying light fixtures, faucets, etc for their new bathrooms. So, Mom, Stella, Porter and I were leaving out the garage door to get loaded into the cars. Stella had been messing with the locks and we were locked in the house, we have dead bolt and a separate lock on the door handle. We were messing with both locks trying to get out of the house!! It took a few tries (how many people does it take to unlock a lock!?!?!) but we got out of the house. We ran our errands and mom went on her way and the kids and I came home. Porter fell asleep on the way home and we pull into the garage, I get Stella out of her car seat and go to open up the door to get into the house....it's locked. Most people would say, just use your key! Well I do not have a key to the garage door. Oh, did I mention that my cell phone battery died about 2 blocks away from my house? So Stella and I go around to all the doors and and they are all locked. Great, just great. So I head over to the neighbors and call Mike from Cheryl's phone. Yay, he's actually on his way home for lunch. In the meantime, Cheryl thinks she can pop the screen off a window and get us in, but we can't. By this time another neighbor, Sarah, comes to see what is going on. She takes my key, puts it in the front door lock and BAM! The door swings open. Hmmm, did I mention that I didn't try to unlock the front door?!?!?! So there it is, my brain has officially turned to mush. I don't think I'll live this one down for a while! And even with all of this commotion Porter stayed asleep in his car seat, bless him! :)

Meow

Stella had another birthday party to attend this morning. She's loving all the birthdays lately!! :) Her friend Claire had a face painter there to paint all the little ones faces. She did a great job. At first Stella didn't want her face painted--but she came around and decided she wanted to be a kitty cat. I forgot to take my camera, so here she is after we got home. Her face was a little smeared after eating cake and just being a 3 year old! :)


Mike's been out of town since Saturday staying at my parents. He was in a golf tourney on Sunday and then started laying tile in both bathrooms in my parents house. They are doing complete remodels on both bathrooms. Since he was gone I let Stella sleep with me. :) I went up to bed last night and this is how I found her. Completely under the body pillow and surrounded by all her "friends" that she *has* to sleep with each night. She also *must* sleep with her special blankie too, which is in there somewhere!! :)

Iowa's Golden Girl

Iowa's Golden Girl, Shawn Johnson, returned home today. There was a HUGE welcome home gathering for her this evening at Wells Fargo Arena in downtown Des Moines, over 7,000 people attended! Crazy! It was really neat to see so many people out to support her. My neighbor is friends with Shawn's family, so we scored front row seats to the event tonight! It was very cool to be so close. Sara and Hannah also came with us. :)

Hannah and Stella in front of a Shawn cut-out.

Shawn!

Hannah and Stella again. Porter was there, but was running wild by this point in the evening!!! :)

The Nadas were the opener. They are my fav band from my college years. It was great to see them live, it had been a while---although it was different seeing them without a brewski in my hand!!!!!! :)

Hibiscus

I have a beautiful Hibiscus plant that is blooming right now, Stella and I cut off a couple stems today while Porter was napping.


Stella with a tomato from our garden.

Stella asked me to take a picture of her hugging Porter!

Another cute shot!

Porter loves playing golf, here he is right after he hit the golf ball, he was very happy! :)

Gymnastics Party

Stella's little friend, Hadley, celebrated her birthday today at a local gymnastics studio. Stella had a BALL. On the way there she kept asking me if Shawn Johnson was going to be there! LOL! It was a lot of fun and the gymnastics studio was definitely a few steps up from the Jane Lawhead School of Dance I attened in MA! ha ha!
Oh and the best part was BOTH kids fell asleep on the way home. WHOO HOO! I actually got about an hour to myself today...unheard of! :)

Trying out the uneven bars, the yellow panties really make the picture pop!!! :) And yes, Stella insisted that she needed to wear her leg warmers, I mean it is really cold out in August, right?!?!

Porter didn't really enjoy the foam pit like I thought he would!

P-man checking out the balance beam.

Stella swinging into the foam pit.

The cute kiddos.

Pudding Paint

We met up with some friends today at a park to paint with pudding. Stella thought it was cool!! Afterwards they played in the wading pools and on the playground.

Stella creating her masterpiece.


Sitting on a sprinkler.

Running through the water. She loved the wading pool this time and Porter not so much, any other time we've gone he's loved it.

Stella and her friend Berlin.

Zoo

We went to the zoo on Monday morning and met up with some friends.
Here are Stella and 2 of her friends checking out the jelly fish. Stella LOVES to draw jelly fish so she was very excited to see them in person.

Stella and Porter checking out the tropical fish.

Porter getting a closer look.

P and his buddy Court, P kept stealing Court's cheerios from his tray!

Zonked out on the way home!

Feather

We found a big feather on the walking trail that goes through our backyard.


Stella tickling Porter with the feather.

I LOVE this photo. Porter laughing after being tickled, I wish I had a better angle of this shot b/c he was laughing SO hard.

Same day, Porter shoving 2 cookies in his mouth!

Stella picked a bouquet of flowers for me, aren't they pretty?!?! :)

Bubbles

I got out the Gazillion Bubble Machine the other day and the kids had a blast chasing after all the bubbles. :)

State Fair Time!

It's that time of year again. Time to load up the family car and head to the fair. This year Mike and I's challenge was to count fanny packs....Mike won 5 to 1. I wasn't very on the ball this year. In years past our challenges have been counting Nascar T-shirts (I think I won that year!), mullets, etc. Yes, we are classy like that. :) Anyhoo, the kids had lots of fun and the weather was great, not super hot like years past. This was probably the first year I didn't run into someone from Ringgold Co, but then again we didn't go into any Beer Gardens, which is where we normally run into peeps we know!! :)

Like Father Like Son.

Clones to the bone.

Meeting Clifford the Big Red Dog.

Butter Cow, there was also a butter Shawn Johnson this year and a butter balance beam---only in Iowa!!!!!!!

Stella and I on the sky glider, she loved it but I was the one who was scared! Getting wimpy in my old age!

More Fair Fun!

Here is Stella and Mike going down the giant slide. All Stella would talk about at was going down the giant slide! She was so excited!!!!

Stella is still soaking it all in.

Here she is realizing she didn't like it!

Moments after the giant slide...not too happy. But 10 minutes later she was asking to go again!

Stella running through the Children's Garden area.