Happy Happy Birthday David dear!

Happy days will come to you all year!

If I had one wish, then it would be

a Happy Happy Birthday to you from me!

On May 11th 2010, David Bowen Shoemaker turned 2 years old. It was a pretty quiet day. He played around the house while Matt and I cleaned and organized. We were expecting Matt's mom to come over later in the day but she ended up not being able to make it. In the end some friends of ours, Mike and Beka Parman showed up with their little girl, Brianna, who will be turning 1 next month. David turned into a typical guy, kicking her and then immediately giving her a big smooch right on the lips! *sigh*

That afternoon I made him a cake but didn't realized until it was too late that I didnt have any frosting or the right ingredients to make my own. I know it's not going to win any beauty awards, but everyone loved that cake.

The best part was the look on David's face when he saw it.

Now for some reason that I could not figure out, my camera decided to go all fuzzy as soon as we lit the candles. He was so excited when he got to blow them out.

It took him a couple of tries and some coaching from Dad, but he mananged to blow out both of his candles.

He had himself a pretty good helping of cake and then went back when noone was looking and snagged himself a couple more pieces. Little rascal.

Sidenote: The following present was completely his father's idea. Apparently he found it on sale a few months ago and thought it would be a brilliant idea. I...was not as thrilled.

David got a drumset!

And he sang...
and banged away...

...all afternoon long.

It was actually pretty cute. Not as annoying as I originally thought it was going to be. It's been in the house for 2 days now and has been pretty tolerable. Matthew has even gotten on there and banged out "We Will Rock You" and Matt sang along. It was alot of fun.

Now fast forward to right before bedtime. David was chasing his daddy around the house. He jumped up on the couch and when he saw Matt coming for him he tried some new ninja manuver that didn't go as planned.

He ended up smacking his lip right into the corner of the coffee table. Not a good way to end your birthday.

He was understandably upset for quite awhile, but we let him stay up a little later than normal and let him have as many otter pops as he could stand. (which was only 1)

He's still sporting a fat lip, but even with that...

...he's still the coolest 2 year old that I know.

Camera Withdrawals

Short Story: I broke my camera, but I fixed it.

Long Story: One day the family and I were headed into town. I can't recall the reason for our trip, only that I required my camera.

I took out the batteries because they tend to lose engery just sitting in there. In the process I forgot to shut the little door before I shoved it into my purse. The end result was that little door snapping in half. I...was...devastaed.

For awhile I was able to hold the other half of the door onto the camera to get it to work. That worked fine, until I lost the part.

Dang.

So I went on Ebay and ordered a replacement part. My husband assured me that it's an easy fix and I should be able to do it all by myself. (Yay!)

So I ordered the part and waited....and waited, then I waited some more. I checked to see if it's been shipped, nope. So I ask Matt if he can send the merchant an email and find out why the part hasn't been shipped. Come to find out he's been sick and hasn't been able to send anything out. It's understandable, but still frustrating. On the bright side he refunded all of our money and promised to ship it by the next week. I was fine with that, thinking it would get here before Easter so that I could snap away while my little ones hunted eggs.
It didn't get here before Easter. *Sigh* Ok. Well, at long as it gets here before Megan's Prom then I'll be ok. Nope, didn't get here for that either. As a matter of fact, it arrived the day after her prom. (go figure)

Oh well. It's here now and although I was NOT able to fix it all by myself, it is now functioning again. So today I whipped it out and got a little snap happy with the kids inside. It's all rainy and dreary outside so I'll just have to be happy taking pictures of them inside. And I am.

You don't think they're already tired of me taking pictures of them, do you?

Poindexture Popeye

Created by Matthew W. Shoemaker

This is what happens at our house right before bedtime. Matthew is usually singing some little diddy or telling us a story about today that he forgot till the last minute. It's a wonderful stalling technique that doesn't work most times.

Tonight...it worked. Only because it was funny and catchy. Matt and I were singing it all the way down the stairs after we put the kids to bed.

Here it goes:

I'm Popeye the Failure Man (Boo)

I'm Popeye the Failure Man (Boo)

I'm weak to the finish cause I'm allergic to Spinach.

Everytime that I sneeze, my nose bleeds and bleeds.

I'm Popeye the Failure Man! (Boo)

A-A-A-Atchooo!!!

oops...I'm bleeding again.

Adventures in crafting

Lately I've been wanting to be crafty. I've tried my hand at scrapbooking, it just doesn't come naturally to me. So I've resorted to kids crafts. I used to have so much fun with Matthew when he was little. We'd get out my craft drawer and make silly little things all the time. He's gotten older now and it's gotten harder to get him to sit down with me and craft. Usually he wants to go play with his friends or go be a kid in general. I haven't really pushed it though, I figured he's just not interested anymore. After all he's going to be 10 in August. Aah!

So although I'm contemplating enforcing some craft time with Matthew, I decided today that I would try to be crafty with David. I went online and perused Family Fun, they have so many cute ideas for crafting with toddlers. I found an easy recipe for oatmeal playdoh that seemed like a good idea at the time.

So I sit him down at the kitchen table and set down all the ingredients in front of him. I add the oatmeal and flour and he helps me mix it up. I got the water and made a big deal out of adding the food coloring. He thought that was pretty cool, oohing and aahing every time I dropped it in the water.

We mix it up and he seems ok with it. I start making a snowman and he smiles, picks up the head, and takes a big bite. I try to tell him no, we're not eating, but he takes another big bite and this time says "Mmm!!"

So I clean it all up, I guess he's just not ready for craft time, especially when it looks perfectly good to eat. Maybe next we'll try something with paper. I'm pretty sure he won't try to eat that. But then again, this is David we're talking about.

Wait...did I say that already?

Have I mentioned how much I love Spring? If not, let me just say that I LOVE SPRING!!
I love being able to walk outside barefoot and feel the grass beneath my toes. It reminds me of Summers at my Grandparents house in Florida. I don't think I ever wore shoes when I was at their house. Which resulted in lots of stubbed toes. I was a very clumsy child. Unfortunately, some things just don't change.

So back to Spring. Today the kids and I went outside and decorated the sidewalk with lots of colorful chalk. We had a blast. Laughing and having a chalk fight. (Matthew is looking very orange these days...hehe!!)
Afterwards we retired to the porch swing and Matthew started up a game of "I Spy." During one of my turns I said "I spy with my little eye something white" (it was the neighbors little white dogs.) He guessed a few times. "the clouds" "no." "that car" "no." "hmmm, I don't know, I don't see anything else!"
At this point I decide to give him a clue. I hold up my hand to my ear like I was listening. (the dogs were barking.)
He starts frantically saying "Ear! Is it ear?! Ear! Ear! Is it ear!" "No." "Ear! Ear!"
I couldn't take any more, I burst into laughter. He says "What? It's not ear?

"No baby, it's not ear."

Pinewood Derby 2010

Today Matthew participated in the Pinewood Derby. He was so proud of his car. He modeled it after the Bumblebee car on Transformers. A few weeks back we made a trip to St. Joseph where we passed by a car dealership. They had a real life Bumblebee car, complete with the Transformers decal on the side! Matthew was instantly in love and couldn't wait to make his Pinewood derby car just like that one. I think he did a pretty good job.

Of course he had plenty of help from Matt. They spent many hours cutting, painting and putting it together. They really had a good time together just hanging out in the garage. I didn't really help too much with the construction of the derby car. I just let it be a father/son activity.

Matthew couldn't wait to see what his fellow cub scouts had done with their derby cars. I have to admit, I was impressed. We had some pretty cool looking cars. There was even one made to look like a shark! (it's in the very back)

He was only slightly dissapointed that he didn't win...any of the races. But he got the award for Most Fuel Efficient Car, which is an awesome award in itself.

Pack 400

A pretty awesome group of boys if you ask me.

Last but not least. A special thanks should go to these two ladies. These are the Cub Scout Leaders.

Kelli Holman

Karri Henderson

Thank you for putting up with a rowdy bunch of boys week after week!

Here's a short video of one of the races.

Spring Mini Photoshoot

Lately my trigger finger has been itching to take some pictures. So when we had a beautiful, sunny, wind-free day, I was quick to usher the kids outside to snap some pictures.

Matthew and I had a little talk after our little "photoshoot." He's been complaining lately that he doesn't like his picture taken. But I explained to him that I take these pictures not only for myself, but for him. So that when he gets older he can look back on himself when he was little. He agreed that he didn't want sad pictures of himself. So we'll try again here soon and hopefully I'll get to capture a happy Matthew.

I think this picture completely captured both of their personalities at the moment. David with his mischevious sideways glance. You know he's up to something...