Birthday Card from Ben & Rachael

Check out the coolest birthday card Paul got for his birthday!! He got it in the mail last week from Ben and Rachael. They made some CDs with new music for us and used them as the bike "wheels." They added to Paul's awesome bike fund! You guys know how to put together a rockin' cool card!!!

Cutie!

Just a couple favorite pictures as of late of the cutest one on my earth!


These are from last week co-op day. He got right into those nectarines!


I also stole a pic from Beth's blog (thanks Beth!) of our produce from last week. We got some great stuff... bananas, nectarines, red plums, strawberries, kiwis, plum tomatoes, yellow onions, green pepper, red leaf lettuce, spinach and beets! The beets were by far my FAVORITE!! I have never before cooked a fresh beet and I do believe I have been missing out on something! I baked the beets to put into salad and then I cut up the beet greens and sauteed them with a little butter, onion and salt... WOW, yum!! They are now my favorite cooking greens!

What is he gettin' into???

Zane has gotten so mobile and so interested in everything! One thing he has learned how to do is open cabinets. I only have the cabinet under our sink locked up because of cleaning products but all the others are free for him to explore. He loves to open them up and take out the contents. His favorite is the tupperware cabinet...






Cute! Of course I put that on his head, but one day he will probably do it all by himself!

He has also discovered that the bathroom has these cabinet things too! So every time I am in the bathroom (yes, he has to come with me most of the time. oh, the luxuries of being a mom!!) he loves to open up the cabinet and he goes straight to one thing... a box of tampons! He sits there and takes them out practically one by one. Hey, it keeps him busy!!

Check out his silly findings!

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Last weekend we had a really FUN party at our house for Paul's birthday which was actually Sept. 1st but we celebrated it a bit early. Many friends and family came over and we ate yummy lasagna, bread and salad followed by THE Chocolate Ganache Cake! We showered Paul in generous gifts and music full of love. Many family members pitched in to put cash towards a "New Bike Fund" for Paul. He is really siked because he has enough to start shopping!!

Zane helped Daddy get the beer cold before the party.

"Thanks Dad. I think I'll have a cold one!"

Sam arrived with a really cool gift for Zane! It is a lunch box everything in it to make Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwiches! It has a little wooden jam and p.b. with a knife and magnetic pieces of bread. And to top that off, a wooden carton of milk! It was so cute. Sam showed Zane how to spread the jam on the bread!

Chocolate Goodness!!!

Kim, Chris & Margaret having a good time.

Brian, Beth & Dexter. (Thanks, Beth, for taking so many GREAT pictures for me!!!)

Sam and Frankie loved playing with the doll house.

Pete entertained us all with a tune he wrote just for the occasion.

"Giddy up, Moosey!"

"Do you know how this thing works?"


"I look sooo good with this thing!"

The party was so much fun!! Beth Ellen, Keith, Sam and Nona stayed the night with us and we got to wake up and visit and have a great breakfast together.

"Good Morning, World!"

"I got your toy! Ha Ha!"

Sam & Beth Ellen got the crayons out and made me some more wrapping paper!

Uncle Keith showed Zane how to jam out with his new band set! Mimi & Papa showed up with a little present to Daddy from Zane! It was a drum full of fun instruments to play!

Blankets, Blankets Everywhere!!!

Well, it has been a little while! I have a bit of fun to catch you all up on but first of all we have to do a little showing off! The week before last Zane got a package in the mail FULL of new blankets his Nana made him! 11 OF THEM!!! All different sizes... little tiny ones for the car and my purse all the way up to a crib sized one! She also sent him some squirt tub ducks too, one of which Dylan already enjoyed a little too much.

Here is a quick little video of him lovin' his blankets just for you Nana! I promise to get more soon because at night when he is really sleepy and he sees that blanket come out, he just lights up and gets so excited.

Blanket Video

Kitty Wrestling & Yummy goodies...

I have been wanting to get a couple of our Zane and Spivey videos loaded so finally it has happened! Zane has lots of fun lovin' on his favorite kitty, Spivey. She, for the most part, tolerates it. She will sometimes get fed up with him and give him a little warning "nip." She sure does put up with a lot though...

I love my Spivey kitty!

... I wanted to add one more but I am having a hard time uploading that one... I will try again later.

And we got our yummy produce in for week 2 of the co-op. It has gone so well and is so much fun! We both just feel like we are doing something good by the end of our Tuesday when we know that not only is our homes stocked up with great organic fruits and veggies but so are so many others! We had 21 other people get a bag this Tuesday! We got apples, plums, nectarines, cantaloupe, strawberries, rainbow chard, romaine lettuce, celery, crimini mushrooms, and potatoes!! Tonight I made some soup with the chard and dessert with apples and strawberries! We just scooped out all the chunks from the soup for Zane to eat so he chowed on some chard, navy beans, kidney beans and carrots.

More terrific photos at our friends site... In the Key of Life. Beautiful pictures of the Rainbow Chard!!!

We miss our Chloe!

We had a very sad evening yesterday... we had to put our sweet Chloe to "sleep." She had been sick for a couple of days. She was just not herself. She was tired and not very social. We took her to the vet yesterday afternoon and found out her kidneys were failing. We couldn't do too much except put her through weeks of therapy with no really good outcome for her.

This house misses her so...

Our sweet Foot Fetish Princess, Our Chlo-Bear...

Jazmin will miss her so much! The two of them were such little lovers, always snugglin' and lovin'!

... and she just loved to sleep with her Daddy! When Paul went to bed, Chloe went to bed.

Day 1 of the Co-op Adventure!!

... AND IT WAS SO FUN!!!!!

So, we had such and exciting day today that I had to write about it right away! I, along with my friend, Beth, have started an organic produce co-op! We have been putting the plans together for a couple of weeks and today was the day for the big order to arrive and all the participants to come get their produce.

The way it works is we collect $25 from anyone who wants to participate and then come Monday morning we put in our order with Albert's Organics. Then, Tuesday comes and we get the delivery of produce. We then, with the little boys in tow (she has little Dexter who is 15 months), divide all the produce up into bags (soon to be bins). Then everyone comes to pick up their goodies. It is a way for everyone to be able to get organic produce at a very low cost to their families. Everyone gets the same bag with basically the same amount of produce in it.

We will now be doing this every week right out of our very own garage. It will be so great to have Zane grow up around this all the time and to become such a helper. As Beth puts it... "they can put their sorting hats on." (A little Harry Potter for some of you out there. How 'bout that new book, heh? Please don't say anything though because I am only about a third of the way through but it is SOOOO exciting and GOOOOOD!)

Our little helpers getting right to work.

Sorting...

As soon as we got ourselves set up, both of the kids went straight for the flat of apricots and pluots! They both were eating them and loving it! Beth and I were on major pit patrol!

Lovin' it!

Sharing is fun!

He ended up eating about 1 and a half of these apricots! He loved just digging in to them!

The overflowing bags of healthy goodness!

Look at all we got! Broccoli, spinach, butter lettuce, carrots, tomato, banana, apricots, apples, strawberries and pluots, oh my! Already tonight we had a spinach quiche and a butter lettuce/tomato/strawberry salad and I made Paul a spinach/strawberry/tomato/apple salad to take to school tomorrow!

I really encourage all of you out there to track down someone doing this in your area. It is really worth it! It is fun keepin' the family healthy!

The cutest guys around...

"What ARE you reading!!!"

I found Zane taking books off the book shelf the other day and take a look at his reading choices!! Even BOTH of the books! Maybe a little too advanced for this kid!!??!! It was just the funniest thing!

Sweet Potato Fries are GOOD!

"Have you ever stuck your finger in your mouth like this? Pretty cool, heh?"



"Mmmmmm!"