I will remember you

We had nothing planned for Memorial Day and the Vande's had nothing planned so we did nothing together. Too cold for shaved ice? No way! Shout out to Deanne, I mean my MOPS secret sister for the cool shaved ice machine and accessories.

Here we are in the back-back yard (that's not a typo, that's what we call it) playing a little 1 armed Bocce ball. Even thou I had never played before, Team Lane DOMINATED Team Vande. It was sad really.

The problem with the back-back yard is that we don't control the sprinklers. I guess the kids decided that if it's not too cold for shaved ice, it's not too cold for running in the sprinklers. We decide a quick bath would warm them up and of course Zach wanted to be in on that action too (notice the nose)

Zachy the red nosed...

I hate wounds on the face.

I saw the fall on this one but I have no idea how he scraped his nose. He only landed on carpet an it wasnt even a major fall but he came up with a tiny bit of blood on his nose.

This picture is day 1, day 2 it started to scab over and by day 3 it looks like he fell off a skateboard in the middle of the street or something. And of course we're supposed to take pictures on Saturday at Flipside's MOPS fundraiser here: http://www.flipsidemops.blogspot.com/

Cricket anyone?

Nate's Grandma got him this fun sucker with a cricket in the middle - yum!

He was definitely excited and intrigued. He took some excited licks at first. Then he realized he was expected to eventually eat the bug and became less excited and more into having me eat it - no thank you. Have you tried one of these? What kind of flavor is that? Spearmint? It was nasty without the bug.

In the end Nate took about 10 licks before handing it to his brother who shoved the whole thing in his mouth and took off running. I guess Zach is into mint candy cuz we had to PRY it out of his pinchers of death grip.

Slumber Party

This weekend Nate's cousin Madalyn came to spend the night with us while her folks, bro & sis went to SWC with their youth group. Nate was SUPER excited to have her here. He loves playing with Mei Mei (that's what we call her) they played animals and she read to him and they chased each other around the house.

She even slept on a inflatable mattress right next to his bed.

I decided it would be fun for us to do manicures so me and Mei Mei picked out new nail polishes and cute flower appliques but guess who wanted to join in on the fun? Nate picked out a very manly royal blue glitter and painted his nails all by himself - then immediately wanted it off - then wanted to paint them again an hour later - then immediately wanted it off.

Here are all our new nails: Jane-pink, Mei Mei-red, Nate-non glittery and No, we didn't paint Zach's nails.

An apple a day

Friday was Zachary's 1 year Doctor visit. It was a crazy visit cuz they were actually very timely so I was constantly unprepared. They called us from the waiting room before I filled out their survey, the nurse started measuring him right away so I had to strip him down, while trying to finish filling out the survey and barely got a picture of him on the scale. I totally forgot what his length was(damn) but it was 30 inches when we measured him at home on our door o' height marks. I do remember that he was 80% for length and 50% percentile for weight so they'd like him to gain a little. We also had to get a referral to a urologist for his hydrocele. It hasn't changed in the year but it's still there - look forward to some fun posts about that!

A little b-day free day

Ahh... I love freebies. Today we took Zach to get his portraits done for his Thank you cards (got the FREE portrait and held strong) Then we strolled over to Cold Stone to get his FREE ice cream for his birthday (you gotta join their club online) (yes, I ate most of it) Then we went to have a little FREE fun in the fountain (yes my kids are always the only ones in shirts and hats)

What a nice day!

Whatcha whatcha whatcha want?

On Tuesday we had a rare treat: Disneyland with Daddy! We even took the time to wait for the Nemo submarine ride. It was cute, a suprisingly long ride!

My lip gloss is poppin

How do you deny a little boy who asks for "pink lippies?"

These are the actual photos we used for Zach's B-day invites

Not a baby anymore

Saturday was Zach's first birthday party! It was a cupcake theme but I forgot to take pictures of all the really cute cupcake decor.

Yes, he did keep his crown on for most of the party.

Here are the party people getting ready to watch Zach's first year video that Ryan made, it was such a sweet video (I'm hoping to figure out how to get it on my blog soon)

Zach got alot of great stuff: a share of Disney stock, 2 Cars tables and chair sets, bunch of swim clothes and towels, bunch of balls, clothes, more things to sit on and money!

Zach didnt go "all out" with his big B-day cupcake. He was interested, he tasted, ate most of the frosting, but didnt get nearly as messy as his brother did at his 1st B-day.

Gram's kids

Paul took some great shots of all the kids to give to Grams for Mother's day. We have learned over the years that group shots never work out as well as individual shots in a collage.

Disneyland with the Murdocks

Last Monday me and the boys met up with all the Murdock's at the big park. We had a good time. Nate wanted to go on Monsters, twice, and we took him to see Muppets 3D which he hadnt been in since being a little guy. He liked it alot except he HATED the little animated flying guy and screamed whenever that guy came on!

Rumble Rumble

This Sunday was our 6th Annual Salsa Rumble at Flipside. Can you believe that? 6th Annual?

It was awesome, we had a great group of very diverse salsas and very diverse competitors. Thanks to everyone who took part in the Rumble and everyone who tasted the salsas!

This year I decided to make my first HOT salsa. It was a Peach Habenero Salsa called "Salsapocalypse" Every one's tastes are so different, the whole time I heard: "That's hot!" then "That's not hot." Two past winners reigned supreme again, the Martino duo took the morning vote and Pam took her third salsa trophy home after the night vote.

Zach didn't try any salsa but he thought this cookie sure was good. This year there were more sambreros at the Rumble then I'd ever seen, maybe it's just a fashion statement.

Chris brought his dog Bowser to the Rumble so I used a picture of him for my thank you cards. Funny.