Mr. T

Lately, Peter has been reminding me a little of yet another '80s icon:

No, not because of Peter's awesome mohawk or thick beard.  Petey Boy has developed a love for Charlotte's Mardi Gras beads and suddenly knows how to get them over his head.  For instance, I walked into the bonus room this afternoon and found him like this:

And, I just realized I took the photos a little too soon.  Since then, he has added at least four or five strings to his collection.  I heard that my friend, Joslyne, was potty-training Zoey using strings of beads as incentives.  Perhaps Peter will respond to a similar incentive...

(And yes, I know they are a strangulation hazard.  They will all be put safely away unless Peter is supervised from now on!)

The new/old bed

Once upon a time, Corey's Grandma Stringer slept in a beautiful wooden bed.  Then, she handed the bed down to her son, Larry.  Larry then handed the bed down to his son, Corey, and now Corey has set up the bed for his daughter, Charlotte, to sleep in tonight.  The bed is probably close to 100 years old, and we had to build a special base for the mattresses since the modern ones wouldn't fit within the old bed rails anymore.

Funny story -- when I first started dating Corey, I was told the bed was hand made by someone at the farm when Grandma Stringer was a girl.  Later when we were in an antique store in Rochester, I found an identical headboard and footboard.  Larry was a little surprised when I called him over to show it to him.  Corey and I bought it and have been storing it at Barb and Larry's until such time as Peter is ready for it.  We'll just pretend that one was hand made at the farm too.

Daddy's little helpers

What does a woodworker need more than anything while he's building a platform for a bed?  Two toddler assistants, of course!

CJ took a break to check on the bird feeders.

Time to help with the sander.  This didn't last long, though.

Petey woke up from his nap and decided to ride through Daddy's workshop.

It got to over 60 degrees today, so it was actually warm enough to run around without coats on!

This was the longest Peter had spent outside since learning to walk.  He was in heaven!

As you can tell, CJ and PJ were LOTS of help.

Ready for summer to come!

The kids received this in the mail today (click to enlarge):

Looks like fun!

Go Cougars!

Our neighbors' son was nominated for the Coming Home Court at the local high school (this is like basketball homecoming), so we packed up the kids to go watch the game.  Corey put Petey in his "Centennial Prom King - 2027" shirt, of course.

"DID YOU HEAR ME?  I'M GOING TO BE PROM KING IN 2027!  ALL BOW BEFORE ME!!!"

Charlie Jo (wearing her spirit pigtails), loved bouncing around in the stands with Dan & Alicia.

Peter scoped out all the pretty girls.

Our little animal rescuer found the cougar mascot mural on the wall and proceeded to rescue it.

I'm not really sure what was going on there, but it looks like the Prom King is getting attacked by a cougar.

Our friend, Dawn, also came to watch the spectacle.  She took CJ down to meet the Cougar mascot.  CJ was both fascinated and nervous at the same time.

Here are David and his escort at the half time presentation.  David's good buddy, Ricky, won for the freshman class, but David will always be king to us!  Corey thinks I'm a dork for writing that.  Shut up, Corey.

More high chair photos

Why do I take so many pictures of the kids while they're in their high chairs?  Because they are captive, that's why!  They also get into really goofy moods while stuffing their faces.  Earlier this week, all I had to do was look down for a few seconds, wait, then suddenly look up and say "HUBBA!", and then Peter would dissolve into giggles.

Meanwhile, Charlie Jo was telling what I can only describe as the world's worst knock-knock jokes.  I am sorry to report that I can't remember any, but at least I took a cell phone picture of her guffawing at her own hilarity.

Lunchtime is a microcosm of oddities and far-flung food.  H E L P ! ! !

Fun with Granny Great and Grandpa Great

Charlie Jo and Petey Pie had the best time this weekend when their Granny Great and Grandpa Great came to visit en route to Florida.  CJ and PJ are counting the days until they come back!

First, Charlie Jo had to teach Grandpa Great how to manage the ranks of her duckie army. 

Then, Granny Great taught Charlie Jo how to make bird feeders from hollowed-out oranges and suet.

The monkey puzzle that GG & GG brought for CJ kept her busy for a long time.

For lunch, we took GG & GG to jail!  The Battleground Brewery is located in an old building that was once used to house criminals.  Perfect for our little darlings.

It's still a mystery why GG was feeding CJ cheese sauce with a knife.

When we got home, we tromped around in the melting snow to hang up the bird feeders.

After naps, GG took Peter for a ride on a bobsled!  (Well, it was on the Wii, but he still seemed to have a lot of fun.)

Next, we tried some Wii downhill skiing.  This photo is cute because you can see a framed photo from GG & GG's wedding day on the wall to the right of Granny Great.

We ended the day with an art project using super cool stamping markers and wearing a snazzy art smock.

Come back soon, GG & GG!

Charlotte and the navel orange

Charlotte was pretty impressed with the size of the navel on this orange and wanted to compare it to hers:

Anxiously waiting!

Granny Great and Grandpa Great are on their way driving from Michigan to Tennessee!  I cleaned the kitchen floor this morning and couldn't bear to see CJ and PJ mess it up, so we went out for burgers at lunchtime.  CJ asks me every five minutes if GG and GG are almost here.  I told her they would get here after her nap, and she furrowed her little brow.  Life is hard for an almost-three-year-old.

Footsies

One of the things I had forgotten about Charlotte as a baby was how she used to brace her little chubby feet up under the lip of the far side of her booster seat tray while she was eating.  It all came back to me once Peter started doing it, and I finally remembered to take a picture of it.  The sight of his chunky little Fred Flintstone feet wedged up there always makes me smile and causes an irresistible impulse to tickle the exposed soles.  (Yes, it's winter and snowing here, but I can't keep socks on this kid to save my life so I just don't bother if we're inside the house.)

More of the cutest playgroup on the planet

Our numbers have dwindled as families have moved away or started preschool, but the core group remains super cute and totally goofy.  After visiting a preschool today and realizing that the weekly playgroup days are probably numbered, I started getting all sentimental.  Wouldn't you get sentimental about these three monkeys?

I have no idea what they were looking at.  Their futures, perhaps?

Strangest grocery store ever

The same day Charlotte was playing with her Sequence game, Charlotte decided it was time to reopen her grocery store (featuring the play cash register she received from NanaB and GrandDad for Christmas).  She instructed me to go buy some "good food" for my "hungry kids".

She rung up my groceries by entering in to the register the number of each item.  She was methodical and very enthusiastic.

She put all my groceries into gift bags.  At least she didn't hassle me about bringing my own reusable bags.

CHEESE!

After my first trip to her store, she informed me that my kids had eaten all the food and that I needed to go and buy some more good food fast.  I jumped up and obliged.

Charlotte is one bossy store owner!  I would take my pretend business elsewhere, but Peter hasn't yet opened a competing establishment (unless you consider his complimentary toy-tasting services a business).

The board gamer

Charlotte LOVES board games.  She really has only just goofed around with the playing pieces and game boards, but she is fascinated by them.  She got two different games from Grandma JoJo and Grandpa Spike for Christmas, so when Peter took a nap yesterday I opened one up for her to explore.

She went nuts, because this super cute game combines three of her favorite things: animals, colored tokens, and cards.  I peeked at the rules, but decided it would be more fun for her just to play with the pieces that day.  For nearly an hour, she hunched over the board and shrieked with joy at each new card she drew.  She got up and danced around in between placing tokens on the board.  I think she may still be a few months away from really playing this game by the rules, but she sure had a terrific time with it.  Again this evening, she insisted on playing it.  Thank you so much, Grandma JoJo and Grandpa Spike!

And yes, Charlotte is wearing a shirt that says "Kyrene de la Mariposa Challengers", which was the elementary school my siblings and I attended in Arizona.  Corey found a cool site where you could get t-shirts printed for virtually any school in the nation.  He knew I had a soft spot in my heart for KDLM (we were among the first students to attend this brand new school and even contributed to the writing of the school song), so he got a shirt printed up for Charlotte for Christmas.  He's so good at picking presents!

Weird Science

Remember the 1985 movie "Weird Science"?  In it, there was a scene where the main characters had bras on their heads for some reason.

It's been a while since I saw the movie (nor do I have a desire to see it again anytime soon), but I had major deja vu when I was sorting laundry and my son toddled up to me like this:

I admit my memory of the movie's plot is fuzzy, but I sure hope I don't wake up tomorrow morning and find Kelly LeBrock downstairs.

Charlotte and her minions

When we began opening the presents Uncle Dave, Aunt Lisa, and Ellie sent Charlotte and Peter for Christmas, we had no idea that our peaceful little house was about to be transformed by the arrival of . . .

. . . an army of rubber duckies -- minions for Charlotte!

Charlotte divided them into squadrons to assist with taking over the world.

Squadron one -- CONFUSION! Squadron two -- DELAY!

They lined up, ready for battle.

Peter surrendered to them within minutes. The battle hadn't begun, actually. He's more of a cuddler than a fighter.

We are now under siege by the duckies. If anyone can send supplies through their blockade, we need chocolate and beer.