Lions & Tigers & Bears Oh My....and a monkey's doodle?

I think this is the one you can kind of see the spider's monkey's little penis!! he he We thought it was pretty funny, and gross, and disgusting. Kind of like a train wreck -- cannot keep your eyes off of it no matter how hard you try.

So this is Liam doing some of his first jumps. He's so little for his age so he was really proud that he could lift the front end of his bike up enough to even do this. Kudos to him for persevering!

This is what we've done this summer that the kids, including ALL the neighbor kids, really like -- we make our own sno-cones. Fast, cheap, did I mention cheap? And fast. Then when you hand out about six of these things they are already wanting more then you make more and they want more then you have to say "Ah, I would but my blender's on the fritz." -- go home and tell your momma to make you one you little sponge!! Nah, just kidding. I wouldn't really call them a sponge! LOL

The boys in front of the fountain in downtown Lafayette, after eating at the Blue Dog Cafe. Y'all think Liam needs a hair cut before school? Maybe just a trim eh?
This white tiger's pic is a little smoky/hazy/blurred because I had to take it through the glass which was soooo dirty and she kept pouncing up against it. She/He was totally po'd at the voyeurs. I would be too!!
Ian seems to have a forced smile. Liam loved the tortoises but I think they really grossed Ian out -- although he did love the alligators.

Outside the Blue Dog Cafe with, yup, you guessed it... a blue dog. It actually had a yellow dog and a red dog on the other two sides of it. Why stop with one color right? We said if our dog, Ivy, was blue, it would look like her. Only Ivy's not blue, she's kind of peppered I guess. She's a Catahoula Leopard dog. She's our totally cool dog. Ivy. Not this big blue one....

So we went away for a few days. Our little mini-vacation with the boys. We ended up in Lafayette, visiting with sister and having fun and staying busy. We took the boys to the Acadiana Zoo on Sunday and they really enjoyed it. Of course, let's just say, the animals were waay too hot, not excited in the least to see us! Ian thought the baby bear we saw was dead, but actually he was just sleeping, probably because he was so lethargic because of the heat. It was about 150 degrees, nah, not really, just about 96, 97, 98 give or take a few degrees. We were all hot, yet the poor animals looked really miserable. The Siberian Tiger was ( I guess, it was white!) was EXTREMELY agitated and would lunge at the onlookers only to be stopped by the plate glass windows. It was pretty exciting though and made me jump for sure. Liam's favorite things were the old tortoises, Ian really like the tiger because it scared him and I absolutely loved the giraffe. He/She was so graceful and content. Oh, Ian told me to put on here that he loved the lemurs. He has a soft spot in his heart for lemurs since we did a huge report complete with pictures and geological information for his first grade class report. We love lemurs. They were pretty funny. The spider monkey was soooo funny because as he hung upside down and would swing from one side to the other, his little penis was protruding. Needless to say, it was hard to get my three boys (yes, Brent included) away from spectacle. Well, I think I was the one who wanted to stay around to see what that spider monkey was actually going to do about it! LOL I crack myself up sometimes. So we went to a fresh produce market, tried some new restaurants that were great by the way: Serrano's, Blue Dog Cafe. Brent was really impressed with the places we went and even a quick meal heading out on Sunday at Raising Cane's was really good. The chicken was sooo good I'm craving it again. Brent and I got to spend some quality-much-needed-alone-time together and we did grown up things. We bought grown up movies and grown up toys. It was too fun and actually felt naughty. Oh, and it will definitely be repeated. We had a blast. Learned that I want to start doing things we enjoy without the kids. NOTE TO SELF: hire a babysitter and go out and have fun. I have always been against people outside the family watching the boys, but they are much older now and can tell me everything so I figure a little high-schooler might want to earn some extra money. We need to get away more often.

Last week was really busy with Brent being off all week and then decided at the last minute to leave town. At least I didn't overpack with so little time to prepare. We rented a nice car and had great conversation all the way there. The boys napped and watched movies on their PSP's. LOVE THE PSP. We have a dvd player that I'll bring but the PSP's allow them to watch different movies and they seem to stay quieter longer which is best in the long run for all of us!

Took Liam school shopping yesterday for a few things while Ian went to Jump Zone for a few hours. You pay a flat fee and they can jump on the giant indoor inflatables, play basketball and dodgeball. He had a great time and wanted to go back today but...... it's after 2:00 and I still haven't gotten dressed yet so I told him he could go back tomorrow. I was cleaning the bathroom and kitchen today which ended up taking longer so I'd rather him go for the full three hours. Hopefully it will be open next week also and he can enjoy that with his little friends before school starts. His birthday is next Monday, the 18th, so he's trying to decide what he wants to do with his friends. I want him to wait for a big party until after school starts but he just wants to invite his little posse and swim and cook out so we may do that for him Sunday. I need to think about that today. NOTE TO SELF: think about Ian's birthday and go change out the clothes in the washer. See, if I don't write it down and see it in black/white, you can forget it. I am a visual learner. You can show me once and I'll have it down or you can tell me a thousand times and I still won't remember. Oh, and while driving to Louisiana we asked Ian what he wanted for his birthday and this is what he said, "Well, I've been thinking about that and I want Pokemon cards (him and the neighborhood boys are all over that) and a load of sand. Not regular sand but 60/40." What the hell? Is there a difference in sand? So I guess he'll be getting his load(s) of sand because that is what their track needs to get it stabilized so he can ride his dirt bikes on it and start practicing some jumps. So if he wants sand, let the child have sand, although it's kind of sad. Why couldn't he ask for a new xbox 360 game or WII game or something a little more tangible? How the hell am I going to wrap up a load of sand? I guess I could have it delivered on his birthday and not tell him then he'll be all surprised? Any suggestions?



New movies coming from Netflix: Pippi Longstocking and Bedknobs and Broomsticks. Yeah, I'm all over that with excitement. Neither one of my babies have ever seen either of these movies and I am going to make them sit down and watch them. We watched Field of Dreams this morning on HBO and they both loved it. Who knew? Trying to stay away from all the sex, drugs, killing movies and there's not a lot to choose from that will keep Liam interested so he's just going to have to grin and bear it. Also putting in my que for netflix: The Princess Bridge. They should really like that one and I do not think either one of them have been it before but I probably made Liam watch it at some point.


Heading into Beaumont tomorrow to take Ian shopping. We got him a few under armor shirts at Academy yesterday but he needs some shorts something fierce. All of his are getting too short because he has such long legs. Hopefully I can scope out Kroger for Farmland Bacon since I have about 15 coupons for $2 off each package. I bought 10 pks. at Super H-E-B in Beaumont last week but I want to use the other coupons up before they expire at the end of the month. Hey, you can never have too much bacon right? Brent laughs at my deals but all the jars of spaghetti sauce, peanut butter, jelly and bacon sure have come in handy lately when meal planning. Going to attempt chicken parmesan this week although I'm not too big on it, we'll see if I can manage. to cook it. Any good recipes for the crock-pot using canned sauga? I think I have Emeril's and Classico. yeah, the Classico was the Target special with the coupon so I think I picked it up for about $1 after the $1 coupon. It seems like all the prices I see on different websites for Target, Walmart and HEB are more expensive here. I cannot remember exactly what it was but the website said their Walmart carries it for $1.69 and I found it at ours for $2.12. Eh? WTF? That just seems wrong. So, off to call the pedi and make an appt. for Liam's school physical. YIKES, it's that time again. Liam has soccer practice until school starts three nights a week then it goes down to 2 plus games on Saturdays. He was exhausted after his 3 hour practice Monday and 2 hours last night. He's one of their fastest little runners and he loves running. Who knew MY child would like running??