OOOOOOOOOKLAHOMA

Working on Uncle Joey's and Aunt Brenda's deck in Oklahoma.

I think you should get this one Dada!

Hi Mama!

Contemplative Jack

Mattewwww

 

Just cause

Helping Paw-Paw

The masterpiece deck

Matthew pulled him all over the place, Jack was so happy

Jack's awesome toy

So cool!

Whoooo...

Neato skeeto!  Unfortunately, this toy did not make it through the day.  Ah well, at least it was cheap and he had a lot of fun with it!

Deckaleck

We took a trip to the Cherokee National Museum

This exhibit of statues was about the Trail of Tears

Rather startling when you first walked in

Jack liked them

What a horrible time in our history

    Oklahoma was lovely.  No one got ticks or chiggers and the deck is lovely.  Jack had a lot of fun playing outside even though it was super hot.  I'll post more pictures from Texas tomorrow.   

Views from the top level

Cawwwooolllll

I wonder what they're talking about?

Newly shorn

The paint was cheap for a reason.  :-(

First Haircut & What Happens When Jack is Too Quiet

Before

After

Looks like a monk to me.  Why is my camera taking such crappy pictures???

Jack was too quiet & I ignored my brain telling me that I really should check on him.

He got ahold of a pen, forbidden awesomeness to him.

He wanted to make sure Carl had something to play with too.  I was wondering what they were giggling at.

This was my list for packing.  I'm just glad he didn't get to the library books.

Thankfully I got this in the wash in time.

Didn't notice this at first.

   Let's see, what have we been up to?  Well, besides Carl's first hair cut and playing the "find all the things with pen marks on them" game, not a whole lot.  Jack and Da had their hair did.  I made this,  didn't get to try it out yet though.  I also made this.  Wow.  I definitely tried it out.  The batter tasted like cream cheese, not sure how, but it took a ton of will power to not eat it all.  Salmonella?  I care not about thee!  It's hard to think of such things when there's tasty batter to be had!  The cake was good cooked too, a little gummy when hot and fresh out of the oven though.  The texture is much better when it's been allowed to cool a little bit.  I love trying new recipes and I have a hard time waiting to eat it.  My tongue hates when I try new recipes.  You must try this recipe.  It has sour cream in it and that's weird but it's super yum.  (If it's i before e except after c then why is weird spelled weird?)
   Starting to think about our road trip coming up.  What to pack, what to pack.  I don't want to forget anything!  We're heading to OK and then on to Houston.  All of us will be in OK and then just the boys and I are heading on to Houston with Dad, Monica & Matthew.  Should be a fun couple of weeks!
   Da made a chicken & veggie dinner last night.  Used the Sun Bird beef & broccoli seasoning mix and cooked it with chicken, onions, carrots & the squash from the farmers market.  Faaantastic!  That squash is so yummy!  If you see this mix in the store I highly recommend that you get it.  It tastes better than what you get at a Chinese restaurant, doesn't have MSG and is super easy to make with whatever ingredients you happen to have.  Doooo it!
   We watched How to Train Your Dragon & Tangled.  I watched Tangled twice.  Have you seen either of those?  They're both at the Redbox and both are fun movies.  Yes, they're cartoons, what's your point?  Don't let that deter you!  Both have great voice casts and I laughed out loud numerous times with both of them.  Seriously, check them out.  That's about it for now.  I have a craft project in mind for tomorrow.  We shall see how it turns out.

Lazy Days

My boys.

It's a Ferrari!  Who knows what I'm thinking of?  If you need some help, go here and then go here.

Our farmers market goodies.

Pretty flowers...

Plump berries...

Meaty tomatoes...

Crunchy cucumbers...

Cute squash that I'm not too sure how to cook.  The girl in the booth said that they were just like the normal squash (or maybe she meant the patty pan) except that these are sweeter.  Trying something new!

Something else new.  White eggplant.  I was told that it cooks the same as regular eggplant except that you don't need to soak it.  You have to soak eggplant?  I've never cooked with it, trying to branch out here!

New potatoes...

Snap beans...

Hot peppers, as Da found out.  I've never seen him have to try so hard to cool his mouth off.  Anyone know what these are?

Jack in the Safari ride at the mall. 

I happened to have some quarters so we let him have the full experience, not just Da rocking the ride back and forth. 

He seemed to enjoy it.

The Disney store was having a big sale and I was looking at the stuffed animals (as I am apparently still 10) while carrying Carl.  I picked this little mouse up (according to an employee, his name is Bernard and he's from The Rescuers) and Carl went crazy trying to get it.  He's never reacted like that to anything before.  (Such a funny expression)

So Carl got his first toy that he kinda sorta picked out.  We've been reinforcing that it's his to Jack.  "That's Carl's mouse Jack."  "Caaaawwwllll?"  "Yes, can you give it back to brother please?"

These boys are just too cute.

Jack decided that Da needed all his night night things if he was going to lay down.  He brought out his stuffed animals, music seahorse, blankie & pillow in many trips and put Dada down for nap time.

Getting Carl to take his foot.

Sweet brothers.  Carl's hair is getting redder and redder.

This just makes me laugh.  Hope you all have a great weekend.

Tomorrow we end

   We are going to end our self imposed wallet closing 4 days early.  This is in part due to me not planning out our meals very well so that we've now run out of side dishes and it is also because of an email I got from the Memphis Farmers Market.  

 So many wonderful fruits & veggies are available right now!  We're going to get all of our produce there this week, shop seasonal.  Going to get some extra blueberries and freeze them for morning oatmeal and J's snacks.  That boy loves him some blueberries! 

   I plan to do a bit of price comparison while there, find out if the market is cheaper or more expensive than the store.  I want to support local but if I can pay $3 in the store for the same amount of berries that cost $5 at the market, I'm going to have to support the store instead.  We shall see!  The plan is to get up and over to the market by 7am, which is when they open.  Last time we got there a little after 10 and most everything was gone.  I'm especially looking forward to getting fresh peas, I've never cooked with them before and I'm really looking forward to it cause I LOVE PEAS!

   I'll be sure to take pictures to share with y'all tomorrow night.  Here are a few from around here lately.

C has really been exploring the house with his new rolling skills.  He starts out on the blanket in the middle of the room and you never know where you'll find him.  Today he got lodged up by our "coffee table" and couldn't move since he hasn't figured out how to go the other way, so he decided to take a nap.  Cute little guy. :-)

J has been loving this monkey that my momma made me many years ago.

Ooh-oh-AHHHHH!

Trying out brother's chair, still a little small yet.