Ever kissed a wad of frogs?

Blake has. Ok, I know I have more than the average number of posts about frogs, but come on, my boys adore frogs. They are perpetually catching them, so they make a good prop for pictures.

Here's Cullen's 1 year pics. The light was a little weird that day, so I'm hoping to get some better ones soon, but I guess they won't be 1 year portraits anymore!

A Post by the Dad

Kim has been hounding me to blog again, and I just never take the time to do it. I have been wanting to relate a great Blake story. Many of you have already heard it, because I tell it quite often when I'm speaking to people in the real world. It seems I have little else to offer people, as I am often asked, "So, what funny things have your kids done lately?" Well, here's a gem of a conversation I had with Blake a few months ago.
The back story is that Blake truly believes himself to be Superman. Their identities are one and the same to him. I came downstairs one morning to find him rummaging through the pantry, which is dangerous, as devotees will recall the garbage can footprint incident- that also happened when the pantry was mistakenly left open. He had pilfered a bag of Doritos from one of the top shelves by scaling them, and was happily munching away with cheese-dusted fingers when this conversation ensued:
Me: Blake, you know you're not allowed in the pantry, Sir.
Blake: Hi, Dad! I eat now.
Me: I see that you're eating. But that is not what we're having for breakfast. (I took the bag away and he squinted his eyes into a menacing glare and pointed a cheesy finger at me.)
Blake: Superman eat CHIPS a breckuss! (a breckuss means "at breakfast" for those who don't speak Blakenese)
It was, of course, one of those moments when it's completely impossible to keep from laughing. Justice can be swift, though, even if it finds you amusing.

What the ladies want...

Seth: Mom, I crack you up everyday, don't I?

me: Yes babe, you sure do! All the time. Do you know that's one of the major reasons I picked your dad? (then, backpedaling a little bit) Well, he was a Godly man and I knew he would be a wonderful father, but any guy I married would have had to be those things. Your dad made me laugh all the time.

Seth: And you picked him because he chewed with his mouth shut.

me: What was that?

Seth: Dad. When he was eating. He chewed with his mouth shut. Girls notice these things, you know...

Boring Day

This summer when the little boys are napping, Seth has to read, write, or draw. He always picks reading so sometimes I have to force him to sit at the table and write and draw. I know, call the authorities, I'm horrible. This is the book he wrote the other day: (I have to write it out b/c he wrote in yellow and the camera wouldn't pick it up)

Page 1: "Buring Day"
Page 2: big "X" to show nothing is happening
Page 3: "Look on bak-"
Page 4: another big "x" - 'because still nothing is happening' he told me...
Page 5: "I can't beeleeve it." (pictures of kids sitting looking angry)
Page 6: This is the werst day ever.

The end.

Birthdays

We had a joint birthday party for Seth and Cullen a couple of weeks ago, since their birthdays are only 3 days apart. Every year I let Seth pick out his own cake. I do find them fun to construct, but mostly I do it so Seth will always remember them and the trouble I went to. Have you ever read The Five Love Languages? Wonderful book. Really helped our marriage. Well, Friggs is little Mr. Acts of Service. We spend time researching the cake. He got excited seeing me draw it out, buy the supplies, and start baking days in advance. It filled his little love tank. Who knows if it will be important to the other two or not. Blake might rather snuggle.

This year he picked a castle cake - complete with a blue jello moat. It was a snickerdoodle cake with cinnamon buttercream icing, so it was yummy, too. The whole thing was fine - After the jet plane cake fiasco a couple of years ago, I know to freeze it in sections and then ice it together. Well, I put it all together that morning and the cake towers were too heavy (if you are reading this thinking "I could do this..." take my advice and ice some rice krispy treats for the towers instead). So it cracked down the middle and started falling apart! Kate and I (with Andy's engineering expertise) shoved so many skewers through that thing - and zip-tied them together that I didn't know how we'd ever serve the thing! In the end, it looked good, but whimsical instead of tough. It was a Tim Burton castle.

the kiddos around the cake

Cullen's first bite of cake

It's good!

A Second Helping of Blake Doings

Blake is a Messer. He's always been a Messer. He has slowed down a little bit these last few months, but I have a feeling he will always be into something. If you missed the first review of all the things he gets into, click here. He is so hard for me to get mad at for some reason. He reminds me of when I was teaching. There was always one kid who was always in trouble, but I had a hard time not laughing about it. They still got in trouble, but I was also cracking up inside. Around here it is nothing for me to go get a camera, take a picture, and then go get the spanky switch. I try really hard to not laugh, so maybe he thinks taking a picture is just the documentation phase of discipline? Who knows.

Blake helped himself to some cold pizza while I was getting dressed

Another day, another snack: velveeta

Frozen peas and a lid full of water. So refreshing!

Art time

The bountiful harvest. He is always getting into the Cheezits even though he's not supposed to. This time he outsmarted me and stashed them in the barn. Unfortunately, Cullen sniffed them out.

Painting concealer onto my glasses.

Just getting out of the shower and getting dressed.

Boys Will Be Boys

The other day Blake had a play date with a new friend. As is usual with a 2 year old and a young 3 year old, we kept hearing "Mine!" and whining and the general arguing that goes with playing with someone new for the first time. Allison and I sent them outside and a little while later we realized they weren't arguing anymore - they were getting along.

What could they be doing? Oh, well it seems they found an activity they can both enjoy and do in tandem. They were proud of their skills.

Since this bonding experience they have gotten along splendidly for each playdate :)