My Birthday Picture

Howie drew this picture for me today in honor of my birthday. It's me... As a princess.

Changing Verbs into Nouns

Recently, Johnny has been really into the rips he finds in paper books.  

He has been known to destroy a page or two with his toddler ripping capabilities and we have sternly communicated that this is frowned upon.  We say, "Johnny, don't rip it."  

So now, he likes to look through books and point out all the "rip-its".  

"Yook Mommy, rip-it.  A rip-it!"

Here's to you, Grandma Sue...

Grandpa Jim was in town this past weekend.  

Well, "Great Grandpa Jim" to Howie and just "Jim" to Johnny.  

I decided to "try a little experiment" (hmmm... Dad!) and try out the famous recipe of Grandma Sue's chop suey for the crowd.   

There were a few modifications made (such as I just used a 1/3 cup of brown sugar instead of a WHOLE CUP, thank you) and I used fresh mushrooms instead of canned (sorry, I can't stomach the texture of canned mushrooms).  

Naturally, I was nervous about the approval of the two Wallace men at the table.  

Here is what Dad thought after his second helping....

And I believe Grandpa Jim felt the same.  

Sarah, Johnny and Howie are still thinking about it...

Not really, they gobbled it up too!

We love you Grandma Sue and miss you dearly.  

It was a nice night of remembering you and talking about days gone by...

Early Literacy... at the Breakfast Table

This morning, I asked Howie what he wanted for breakfast.  

Instead of verbally telling me, he says, "Mommy, I am going to write it down."  

OKAY!  Hooray!  

He makes this little note and hands it to me.  It reads, "toast".  

I love it.  

This is like a literacy teacher's dream come true.  

DC 2012

Our summer 2012 trip to DC was filled with lots of cousin love and toting around town.

Day one was filled with airplanes, space shuttles and the water park.  The boys enjoyed exploring the Dulles Air and Space Museum in the morning.  Well, Johnny mostly ran around and stopped to say, "Hairplane!" (translated as "airplane") or "Helicopter!"  But there were an impressive amount of flying objects in there, stacks and stacks of them.

Good thing Don Engen was enthusiastic about flying (see below).  

By the looks of this picture, Howie sure doesn't seem enthused about much.  

In reality, he actually loved the museum.

This was the perfect ending to our HOT day in Gaithersburg.  

Day Two: Uncle John was SO kind to take a day to show us around the capital.  Thank you Uncle John!  Unfortunately, I managed to miss a good picture of John with anyone. You can see him walking with Rick and Howie below.  Perhaps this the best way to portray John, on the move in DC?  Am I right?

At the Lincoln Monument, looking at the Washington Monument.

Exploring the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History.  

They had some *COOL* bones there.  

Walking about... yep, that's the capital building.  

And Uncle John.

Entertainment for the Car

The trip to DC from our front door is approximately 8 hours.  This does not include excessive poddy stops or Twizzler breaks.  

Of all the packing I did, preparing activities for the car was one of my top priorities.  Here is a list of what was in the "bag of fun": 

• TONS books on CD from the library
• Ziplock bags filled with various Lego puzzles
• Some of our favorite music CDs
• A baking sheet for each boy with coloring books, tracing paper, palydough and magnetic letters
• Scavenger hunts to find letters and objects on the road
• Pages of stickers (the kind that are reusable and peel off the windows easily)
• And lots of snacks.  Lots and lots of snacks.  

...And we made it!  The kids survived for 4 hours before we had to use the DVD player and no one had a total meltdown.  We found ways to talk, interact and entertain ourselves that otherwise would not have happened if not for being stuck in the car.  

One of the biggest mom compliments from Howie? 

"That long car ride was fun."  

And here is Johnny entertaining himself with a marker.

Cousin Luv

We had a great visit with family this week.  

We love you Nate and Danny!  

And Uncle John too!

More details on the trip to come, but here are some shots of the cousins for now...

Don't you love great neighbors?

We are so blessed to be surrounded by great people.  

How nice to have phone numbers for trusted people who are literally 10 steps from your house!  

The Augorts on one side, Robertsons on the other.  

It's the best.

Here are some examples why.

Sandy has all the pictures I have sent of the boys plastered to her fridge.  

They are delighted to see their faces in her kitchen when we visit.

Upon returning from Chicago, this sweet message was chalked into our driveway...

And I had the delight of photographing this sweet sugar...

"Love thy neighbor" is an easy one for us.  

Touch a Truck 2012

There is this sweet little event that happen every year in Montgomery.  

The children are invited to come and "touch a truck".  

Many vehicles show up and it's like a little boy's dream come true.  

The operators are so kind to the kids.

It's like watching big kids showing off their toys to the little kids.

Johnny tries out the baseball field maintenance equipment.  

Buddying up in the digger.

Yep, Johnny in the back of a police car.