When I was young, my friend Brenda and I (like so many others) were completely obsessed with Michael Jackson. I had a photo album with magazine clippings, stickers and anything else Michael that I could find. His pictures were posted up around my room right next to my Ricky Shroeder, Kirk Cameron and Michael J. Fox photos from Teen Beat magazine and 16. I think I was pretty typical. My first 45 was something my cool teenage babysitter played for me and I went out and bought, “Rock with You” Still one of my favorites.
No matter what you thought of him, he will always be the King of Pop, and was a creative, artistic and talented man. My friend Holly said it best “25 year ago me is really bawling right now”

About a year ago I splurged and bought myself a nice camera (Nikon D40) to take pictures of the kids. It’s one of my favorite things to do, always has been. Took it out to the park yesterday and got a few nice shots. I’m thinking of doing $100 photo shoots for people…want to sign up? I won’t deal with the printing, but you’d get the cd of photos to take wherever you want to get them developed. I think it’s a money making idea for sure. You have to take into consideration that I have the cutest kids on the planet so your pics may not come out as nice, but I think you’d be happy with the end results.
Anyhow, here are my 3 favorites of the boys!

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You are SO loved! We are looking forward to celebrating Father’s Day AND your birthday with you today. Also can’t wait for a fun filled weekend at the Pirate Festival.

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So here’s a little shout out to my dad, who got completely hosed on Father’s Day this year. We had good intentions for a nice brunch to celebrate, that was the plan…but you know what they say about the best laid plans.
Anyhow, Dee and I had spent the majority of Saturday at my parent’s house visiting with my aunt, uncle and cousin who were in visiting from Detroit. So much fun! Carlos had a high fever (103+) most the day and slept ALOT but we did make it downtown to do a little shopping and have ice cream at Mora.
After dinner, Carlos was feeling worse, and we ended up at home with Dee feeling really bad (remember Trey had the stomach flu a couple days back?) not too long afterward. I went to bed early with Carlos, Dee camped out on the couch and we were ready for a good night’s sleep. I wish. An hour later I was sick (remember Trey’s stomach flu?) . So, all in all, Dee and I were up off and on all night sick and felt like we got run over by a Mac truck by morning. I did get to say Happy Father’s Day via phone, and had my wonderful dad (and mom!) drop off meds for Carlos, ginger ale, popsicles and saltines but I feel so badly that we didn’t get to celebrate on his special day. Dad…you are the best, I love you and we WILL celebrate!

When we went to get the kitten this afternoon, Trey said from the back of the van “Mamas, I’m sorry for my chicken” and we had NO idea what he was talking about. I asked him to repeat what he said and again he said, “I’m sorry for my chicken.” I looked back at him and he had thrown up his lunch (chicken) all over himself. Poor little guy. We stopped, got him cleaned up and headed onward to get the cat. I made the mistake of giving him a graham cracker and some juice and about 10 minutes longer into the trip he lost it all over the back of the van. I’m sure the kitten people thought we were a nightmare pulling up, stripping down our kid and evacuating the van in a hurry. It was BAD. We got Trey changed again…loaded up the van and headed back home. Trey’s thrown up a few more times and is now resting on the couch. It’s tough because we aren’t “barfers” and our guys don’t know what to do when they get sick like that…and we really aren’t prepared for it. Wish us luck, we’ve got lots of hand sanitizer and fingers crossed that we’ve kept this nasty bug quarantined.

The last couple days we’ve been looking for our cat, Jack (Diane’s brother). He hasn’t come to eat and hasn’t come when we’re down in the basement doing laundry. We broke the news to the kids this morning that Jack probably wasn’t coming back. I thought Levi (our animal lover) would have the toughest time but he said “oh he probably just got eaten by a coyote, we’ll just get another cat and call him Jack”. So much for my sensitive animal guy! Surprisingly, Carlos (who never even pet Jack) was the one who burst into tears. He is heartbroken over the whole thing and “just wants Jack to come back home”
Anyhow, we did a lot of distracting today, ran a few errands and came home to see a post on Freecycle that someone had a 9 week old kitten they had to get rid of. Timing of that one was amazing to me. I called and now we have a sweet little kitten who needs a name. The boys are wanting to call her “Captain Jack Sparrow”….help!

We’re on vacation….summer vacation, that is and making the most of it so far by catching up on our sleep!

Another weekend at the campground…can’t complain, it was wonderful. The babies both left on Friday morning and we got to focus on life with just the boys. Lots of playing, hanging out with friends and enjoying the family time.
My favorite part about camping is first thing in the morning when Carlos comes out to snuggle with me by the fire. Happens every morning (whether we are at the campsite or not) and I love that special time with him.
We were camping with some new friends (who know Mary and Alice) and Rick, the dad/husband, took on the task of helping Carlos learn how to ride his bike. He’s doing great and almost has it down. Thanks Rick!
Got back last night, got the stuff put away and the laundry started and headed over to Nana and Papa’s for a bath. Our tub is small and the boys were so dirty they needed to soak a little. After they got out, Nana said she’d never seen her tub look so bad! The boys helped clean it and get it back to normal, so glad they are willing to help with the cleaning at someone else’s house.
Looking forward to a mellow week, enjoying the weather and gearing up for summer. We’ve got a goal to read a chapter book a day…last night was a Magic Treehouse book, tonight is Junie B. Jones and her Sneaky Peaky Spying.

Nana and I took Levi across the water to the big city to go see my cousins, Owen and Audrey, play at the School of Rock Devo/Talking Heads concert. He was all decked out as a rockstar with a mohawk and rocker tshirt. He looked cool.
The concert was great, Owen and Audrey did a really good job of singing and playing! It was a little loud for Levi, though, and we had to leave after the first set. That’s what sensory issues will do to you. He did like the laser show and the music for the most part, it was just too loud for him. Nana made it up to him and treated him to a couple of rides at the Fun Forest and we had dinner at McDonalds. All in all a great day.

We are still all about pirates here, and some friends of ours got a pirate ship swimming pool for their kids and we knew we needed one for the boys. It’s appropriately named “The Scurvy Dog”, how great is that?
The boys are loving their new boat and even though the water is cold (we had to pay them each $1 to slide down the slide the first time…then they wouldn’t stop) they are having loads of fun.
Be careful if you come by, they may just have you walk the plank!