104 Degrees Calls for...

A Few of My Favorite Things

I've been tracking "Favorite Things" parties on my beloved Pinterest and kinda fell in love with the idea.  My gal pal, Linsy, and I decided to tackle one of our own.  We had some of our favorite girls bring 3 of their favorite things (between $10 - $15) and a favorite appetizer or dessert.  We all went around and chose 3 things from the table of awesomeness to take home.  We ate.  And drank.  And chatted.  And laughed.  It was fabulous little Thursday night.

There was one very sad aspect to the night...I took a boat load of pictures (imagine that) and later realized there was no memory card in the camera.  Boo.  So, we tried our best to take "post" shots.  Some of the girls had already left...sorry girls. 
 

Everyone went home with some "new favorite things" in their purty bags.  Items ranged from wine to gift cards, to hats, to jewelry, to scarves, to party supplies, to hair products, to cleaning supplies, to cake plates, to cook books, to nail polish...you get the idea. 

Needless to say, the sangria was a hit.

I made some delectable strawberry, goat cheese bruschetta.

And of course I included Chai-Luas (my signature fave). 

Tim loves the aftermath of my girly parties.

My cutie co-host.

Our Little Slugger

We've now made it through three successful weeks of T-ball friends.  There have been no tears.  No laying down, hopelessly exhausted, in the field.  No injuries.  No placing of the tee on the head like we did with soccer cones.  There HAS been hitting of the ball, running (Dude's version - a swift jog), chasing of the ball (he'll run from first base to left field if that's where the wind carries that little white object), LOTS of double thumbs up, an understanding of general baseball rules (we hit, we run to first base, we touch first base, we keep running until we get home, we chase the ball in the field, we throw the ball to 1st base when lucky enough to get our hands on it and we line up to do high fives after the game is over). 

All of this our little Dude understands and is doing an admirable job at it I must say.  Sure, he gets distracted by dogs and fire trucks and a dandelion growing nearby, but so do 99.9% of all the kids out there.  We're not aiming for the minor leagues here folks, but this is certainly a great opportunity to learn teamwork, exercise, following direction, hand eye coordination...and we get to giggle a whole lot with our friends.  It's a win, win. 

 I decided it was safe to bring the camera and document the happenings of the morning, so here ya go.  Our bud, Brady, is on our team, along with our friend Cody.  Brady is doing a remarkable job, especially in the hitting department.  He's learning the need to run after smacking the crap out of the ball.  Cody wears baseball pants and slides into every base.  You see why we giggle.  Every child carries his own reasons.    

They all flock to the ball.  At one point, Dude flat out took the ball out of another teammate's glove and threw it to 1st.  He looked at me and gave me the double thumbs up and I just didn't have the heart to tell him that it's not ethical to steal from your own teammate.  He was so proud.

 I love Brady's determination here.  And Dude is ready to tackle anyone who gets in his way. 

 Look at that athlete run.  With his glove on too.  We've been working on keeping it on the hand and not on his head.  He's getting over how "heavy" the glove is on his hand.

"What coach?  I can't hear a thing you're saying with this big red helmet over my ears."  That's pretty much what he's saying here as the coach instructs him to run to home plate when the ball is hit. 

From 4 Wheels to 2...

Dude promised Dad for Father's Day that he would try no training wheels on his bike.  After 2 times out in the grass at the park, we moved him to the gravel path.  And THIS is what happened friends....

 Our little man.  How is he already not needing the assistance of those innocent little black wheels?  I didn't think he'd catch on quite this fast, so give me a quick second to weep inside.  Just a second.  Then I'll move on and be grateful for this new found independence and the promise of much faster night time family walks.  Tim is pumped about this reality.

We hit the park to celebrate his awesome accomplishment.  Look at the faces below.  Oh how I love those faces.  They're quite the team. 
 

Little boys and sticks.  It's a natural friendship.

 Our little thug bug.

 Ready...

 set...

 and...

go!

For all my daily stalkers, I can't promise a ton of pics in the next couple of weeks.  My sad lens is in the shop getting some TLC, so I'm borrowing lenses when I can. 

Thursday Night Photos

These pics were just layin' around in my hard drive, waiting to be shared. 

Give a Baby a Snake Hose...

This child thought we had just given her pure gold when we turned on the snake sprinkler this weekend.  It took her all of 4 minutes to get comfortable with the spraying water in her face, but once she did there was a magnetic attraction.  In fact, she made it a game to spray her brother any time he came within 5 feet of her.  THAT was the funnest part of the adventure - for both of them.  He giggled at her and she giggled right back.  What Dude didn't realize is that she was Queen Bee of that little game.  Oh the ruckus these two will get into down the line. 

I couldn't chose my favorite pics of this little Squirt, so you get them all. 
   

This is the face she gave Dude every time he got close.  I was laughing out loud each and every time.

Dude is attempting to get her back for her antics, but notice how close he's willing to get to her.  Hee hee.

 Oh our skinny little man.  Love that little booty:)

There's a massive, and I mean massive, new park near our house that we took Nana and Papa to.  We seem to find water wherever we go. 

Catching Up

We have an abundance of pics to catch you up on from Nana and Papa's visit, so here ya go.  The weather was awesome, so tons of H2O time was had.  My kids are happy kids as long as there's water involved.  We're finding out that our little princess has no fear of large bodies of water, which is freakin' this mom out a bit.  The girl will just walk directly into a deep end without thinking twice.  Dude would have just sat there, 3 feet back, until we told him it was okay to inch forward.  Oh the differences between our little punks. 

We made Margarita cupcakes, but weren't super impressed with the final outcome.  Not everything from Pinterest is mouthwatering I guess.

 This shot, I love.

 Look at those thighs.  Just look at um.

 The boat was intended for the one year old.  Shocking that the 5 year old ended up tootin' around in it.

 She only fell out of this hazard of a device once. 

 T-ball started yesterday, so we did some practicing at the park.  Yes, I do realize that he's wearing a helmet and hospital slippers.  Just don't ask and don't judge.  We did make him remove his plastic purple gloves.  Where does he get all of these random accessories?  My dear mother. 

 That's a hit friends!  He does pretty well even without the tee, so 5 stars for that department of T-ball.  Now we need to focus on catching.  He's already complaining that the glove is "too heavy and makes his arm sore."  Oyyy veyyyy.

Above is a fun video of Mile High Vogel children and Nana/Papa fun.  Blogger has had technical difficulties loading videos lately, so YouTube will have to be our method of choice for a while.