Saturday, August 30, 2008

What we've been up to...

So please bare with me as I give you guys a marathon post of some of the fun things we have been doing this past month. I have gotten myself SO FAR behind because I have been so busy with school. So, sit back, relax, and enjoy a super LONG post with tons of pictures! =) (I really tried hard to narrow the pictures down, and considering how many I actually have, I think I did a pretty good job!!)First off, at the beginning of the month we went to the free Tulsa Drillers game with some friends. I guess the game was sponsered by the law enforcement down here or something because before you walked into the game, they had all kinds of police equipment and cars out for the kids to look at and climb up in. We saw police men who actually rode horses around downtown, SWAT team trucks and tools (guns, helmets, and all kinds of other things), police cars, police motorcycles, and more! I think the motorcycle was Chase's favorite.
I signed Chase up for a little class at Whiteside Park here in Tulsa called "Snacks and Storytime." He has been to one before with Nuna, but this time I was able to go and we had a fun time. It was themed around bunnies, bats, and milk. When we first got there, the teacher had her pet bunny out for the kids to pet and Chase thought that that was pretty fun. We cut out a bunny puzzle and read a book about bunnies. While the teacher read the book, Chase got to decorate bunny cookies with icing and make chocolate milk! Then we made a little bat (below) and read a story about bats. Next, she had the kids get up and listen to music, Old McDonald Had a Farm and The Hokey Pokey. Chase thought the Hokey Pokey was pretty fun until we started recording him. The last story the teacher read was called "It Looked Like Spilled Milk." Chase thought that this story was pretty fun.On a Tuesday, we drove out to Porter, OK--Oklahoma's peach capitol with Lacey McMurry and Riles to pick some yummy peaches! We had a good time and I think Riley and Chase picked every peach off the trees that were in their reach, whether they were ripe or not. By the time they were done, I think they each ate about 10 peaches!! We got some yummy peaches and I think the boys had a good time. They were both a sticky grassy mess at the end of the trip!Looks like Chase picked a few other things....this picture cracks me up! =)After we got done picking peaches we stopped off at McDonalds for a yummy lunch. Even though they may not act like it sometimes, these 2 boys love eachother and are best buddies! =)Friday after we picked peaches we headed to the Tulsa Zoo with the Briggs, Carney's, and McMurry's. I was hoping that it would be cooler like it had the whole week, but it ended up being pretty humid and hot. We had a good time though. Right now at the zoo, they have the Feather Fest going on where you get to go in a little building type thing and feed the birds with a seed stick. We came at the end of June and did this when the family was visiting and the birds were eating off the sticks a lot better then. Chase still really had a good time feeding the birds though. I had a gray cockatoo on my stick and it decided to just climb right up to my shoulder. I am not a huge bird fan, they kind of gross me out, but it was pretty cool and Chase thought it was funny.Haha, gotta love this picture. Poor Nolan got bird poopie on his forehead.
Jack, Chase, Tressa, and Riley looking at the Jaguar in the Rainforest building. This building is probably my favorite part of the zoo. When you walk in the have little pigmy marmosets that just roam free around you. It is a really cool building.Riley, Jack, Chase, and Corbin looking at some fish!This is probably Chase's favorite part of the zoo...the "GWEEN FWOGS!!" There is a section at the zoo that has tons of little poison dart frogs...green, blue, and yellow/orange. It is opened up so you can see them and is really cool.
Lacey climbed the big rock and Chase thought he needed to be up there too. There was no way I was getting myself up there and Jack is afraid of heights so we just switched and Chase thought he was pretty cool stuff. I signed Chase up for soccer at the YMCA and this is from his first little soccer gig. It was called "skills-n-drills." Chase had a pretty good time. He had a hard time remembering not to touch the ball with his hands, but overall I think he did really well.In this picture Chase is pouting in the net because he had to share "his ball" that really wasn't even his. It was the ball the coach gave him at the beginning to do a few little drills with and when it came time to share he wasn't too happy about it and he couldn't quite grasp the concepts that it wasn't actually HIS ball. This cracked me up!Chase looks forward to Papa coming home from work because that is when the TV (most of the time) gets to come on and he can watch Justice League! He especially loves to watch movies on Papa's Ipod, right next to Papa while he works.Now for the Messy Art. I signed Chase up for a Messy Art Class and all these pictures are a collaboration of the past 3 weeks we have gone. We are done with the class until a new one starts up in October! In the picture above Chase is spraying a coffee filter with colored water to make a butterfly. After the filter dried you put it in a clothespin (the old fashioned kind that don't have a spring thing to pinch) and it makes a pretty butterfly! This was probably by far the messiest day of art class, and probably the most fun! It started out with making visors in the room, then the kids did the rest of their art activities outside. They had the coffee filter butterfly that they made, then they had a spot that had different kinds of goo to play with. In the picture above, Chase is playing with a mixture of water and cornstarch. The teacher told me that this is fun to let the kids do outside becuase once it dries you just sweep it up and it's not a mess at all. Chase LOVED it. Below, is instant potatoes and water which was goopy and a little too chunky for me. Chase wasn't too fond of it either. They also had another mixture that was dream whip and milk that the kids really liked.

Chase REALLY liked this part of Messy art. He got to paint with feet! Finger painting is always a winner with Chase too. I bet you can only imagine how many posterboards we have hanging around the house!
This picture sums up our art class in 2 words...MESSY and FUN! Chase had a blast and was a totaly disaster at the end of the class. His feet were died a light blue for the rest of the day from painting with his feet!One day at art, Chase got to paint a wooden snake that he really likes to play with now.This was really cool. In the little cup looking things is melted crayon wax. The kids then used q-tips to paint with. Chase painted on this yellow tray and they also made a butterfly magent out of cardboard that they got to use this "wax paint" on.

The kids were able to use A LOT of glue and Chase liked the idea of glue. He placed HUGE globs all over everything and I had to keep telling him that the object of glue is to stick things to paper, not paint things. We made a smiley face with noodles, beans, and rice in the picture above. This was our last messy art class.
And, on the last day, they had shaving cream to play with. Chase LOVED that idea the first time they did it and had a blast the second time. I think this would be something fun to do at home because you can just hose down the aftermath...outside of course! =)
There aren't any pictures to go with this story, but the other day I took Chase to McDonalds to get an ice cream cone. As we were getting ready to leave there was a homeless man sitting in the little lobby area. I always hate walking by the homeless people because they kind of freak me out, but I held my breath and we walked on by. Just as we were walking by, Chase asked me, quite loudly, "Mommy, why hims teef missing?" I just said, "I don't know Chase" and kept walking praying that this homeless man didn't hear us and wouldn't come attack me for what my kid said! A few seconds later he was behind me as I was walking to the car and I kind of freaked. He asked me if I had any change and that every little thing would help. I told him that I didn't really ever carry cash or anything and Chase usually uses up all my change in the candy machines, but that I would look. I then proceeded to pull out my wallet and I know he heard the change jingle. I gave him a nickle and a dime and told him the rest was zoo coins, and that I didn't think that they would help him out too much. I really didn't have any zoo coins...in fact, I really didn't have too much change at all. I had another dime and quarter, a ring, and some of the flattned pennies that you get at the zoo/aquarium. He told me thanks and said "God bless you, every little bit helps." I told him no problem and hurried to the car. Once Chase and I were locked inside I buckled him in and drove off. I am pretty positive that he wasn't going to hurt us, but I get myself freaked out easily. Chase's comment made me giggle and the whole few minutes of it all makes a good memory.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

A Sensitive Day

Yes, we are still alive...we have just been so busy! I started school full time last Monday and spend a lot of my time doing homework! All I have for today is a quick little post. I don't think Chase has been feeling too well today because he has been a bit on the fussy side. But a couple little stories happened today that made me laugh because of his sensitiveness. (Is that a word?)

Anyway, Chase had a postcard that came in the mail and it had a picture of the back of a kids head with a sucker stuck in the kids hair and Chase found this quite hilarious. He went to show Abby and she just replied and said "Yeah, Chase." And he said "No, look, it's funny!" Abby said again, "Okay Chase" and that just did it for him. He yelled at her "you NOT LAUGHING!" and fell to the floor crying. It just made me laugh with the whole way it played out.

Later, we were driving to go and get some dinner and dad couldn't find the place he wanted to go and Chase asked "Where we going?" and I told him that I wasn't sure and that we were just driving right now. He slumped over and started crying and said, "we not getting any dinner tonight." It made me giggle...poor little guy! He was so hungry! Luckily, I proved him wrong and we did, in fact, get dinner!

On a lighter note, after church on Sunday Chase went into the gym to play with a few of the other kids that were in there and he climbed up on the stage. We told him to come down and that it was time to go home. He decided that he was going to get off of that stage by JUMPING off of it! It was the funniest thing I had ever seen and I know I will never be able to give it justice by just trying to explain the jump but I'll try. Anyway, before I knew it he lunged right off of that stage and landed on his feet, butI think the impact of the jump made his feet fly up behind him and he rolled up onto his face with his legs in the air. I held my breath for a second to see what his reaction would be and he jumped right up and started laughing, so Lexi and I let it out and just cracked up. It was a classic...one that you wish you had on camera!

Tonight, Chase is wearing a new pair of jammies he got at a consignment sale here and they are, of course, BATMAN!! He went to show Nuna his jammies and she said, "Chase, are they comfortable?" Chase then said, "No, they not Kung Fu Panda, they Batman!!" It's funny to hear responses to things like these because you never know what they really hear sometimes...obviously this time Chase heard "Kung Fu Panda" instead of "comfortable". =)

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Another yummy ice cream flavor!

So I LOVE mint chocolate chip ice cream and decided to try the recipe below with a few adjustments...so try it!

Okay so instead of adding chocolate powder to the sweetened condensed milk, add 1 tsp plus a drop or 2 more of mint extract and some green food coloring if you so desire. Add the rest of the ingredients like usual then freeze it in the ice cream maker. Halfway through add mini chocolate chips! It's YUMMY!

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Homemade Rocky Road Ice Cream!

Anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE LOVE LOVE homemade ice cream more than anything. I also really like rocky road ice cream so today we decided to try some homemade rocky road ice cream and let me tell you...it was AMAZING! It was so creamy and yummy...so if you're in to homemade ice cream and rocky road...TRY THIS!!

Homemade Rocky Road Ice Cream!

PREP TIME 5 Min
COOK TIME 5 Min
READY IN 1 Hr
Original recipe yield 2 quarts

INGREDIENTS:
1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 cups heavy cream
1 cup light cream
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1 cup miniature marshmallows

DIRECTIONS:
-In a medium saucepan over low heat, cook and stir condensed milk and cocoa until smooth and slightly thickened, about 5 minutes.
-Remove from heat , and allow to cool slightly.
-Stir in heavy cream, light cream, and vanilla.
-Refrigerate until cold.
-Pour mixture into the canister of an ice cream maker, and freeze according to manufacturer's directions.
-Stir in nuts and marshmallows halfway through the freezing process.

Thursday, August 7, 2008

So apparently...

So apparently, I am pretty huge. It seems that almost everywhere I go someone makes a comment about me being ready to have a baby soon! For example, at the gym the other day this conversation took place...

Worker: Wow, it looks like someone is going to be having a baby soon!
Me: Yeah, I am due in the middle of October.
Worker: (With HUGE eyes) Oh! Wow!
Me: Yeah, I have big babies, my 3 year old was 9 lbs 1 oz when he was born and both my husband and I were 9 lbs 9 oz when we were born, so I am doomed with big kids!
Worker: Wow, well good luck!

It seems anytime that anyone asks me when I am due and I tell them October 16, their eyes get huge and they just tell me good luck...what a condfidence booster!

Fun! Fun! Fun!

I have been trying to sign Chase up for different classes, sports, and activites lately. So far I have signed him up for 2 little activites called "Snacks and Storytime". I didn't get to go to his first one because I had to teach swim lessons, but mom got to take him and they had a good time. They read Skippy Jon Jones books and had different snacks and crafts that related to each of the stories. Skippy Jon Jones are a huge deal here in OK! From what I know it is about a little siamese cat that wants to be a chihuahua...(I think). They had quesadillas, pickles, marshmallows, chips and salsa, and more! They made a Skippy Jon Jones puppet, wrapped up their mommy's like mummys, and got a cool hat! This is the only picture I got...I have also signed him up for a class called "Messy Art" and we had our first class this past Monday and Chase had a BLAST! It was pretty fun. We got to the class a little late, but they had about 5 different crafts going on and you could choose what you wanted to do first. The first table they got to paint a paper towel roll and decorate it with ribbons, then they got to paint a paper plate face, next, they had a table where you could color some pictures to put inside of sippy cups, and at the last table they had paper with sponges to paint with and fish magnets to paint. Along the wall they had shaving creme for the kids to paint on the wall with...we spent most of our time with the shaving creme and by the time Chase was done with it his crocs were full of shaving creme. =) Everything Chase did ended up completely green since that is his "favorite color".
Painting fun begins!

Painting his paper towel roll...I love the concentration in his face!

Playing with shaving creme!

Painting the fish magnet...again, love the concentration! Like I said, everything ended up GREEN!

On August 24th, Chase starts soccer! It will be fun and he has been so excited about it! He will have practice once a week and games on Saturday!

So this is completely off of subject, but last night I had a little pregnancy hormonal breakdown and Chase came to comefort me and told me "It's okay mommy, you can eat a bowl of cereal and watch Transformers all day." and just gave me a big ol hug! It melted my heart and made me feel so much better. Oh the things that solve problems for the little ones...cereal and Transformers! =)