Friday Wrap-Up: August 10th

Did you know that there is such a thing as "National Root Beer Float Day"?  Well, there is. And because I consider myself a true patriot (and a daughter of a root beer lover), I HAD to celebrate.  How's this for the boys' dinner? Super healthy, right? Best mom ever! :)

They were both smitten with root beer floats (genetics, I'm guessing).  I admit it...sometimes it's pretty fun to introduce your kids to something fun and tasty. We work on veggies and fruit too...I swear!

I'm not sure how many "Beckett Sleeping" photos I've taken, but they could probably justify a full album.  He's definitely my sweet boy, and him sleeping increases his sweetness by about 50%...so, off the charts.

We busted out the "whale shark pool" this week.  I used a sponge to clean the bottom before filling it.  Turns out baby pool + sponges = happily playing boys for about an hour.

Hamilton is "swapping the decks" here. :)

Our adventure for Wednesday was going to South Coast Botanical Gardens. I'd purchased a "Groupon" for an annual pass months ago and figured it was about time to cash it in.  We went with friends, and the boys spent almost an hour climbing a tree and finding "lucky beans."  Pretty nice for the mommies.  Here are the boys in the children's garden...where plants and figures correspond with nursery rhymes.

Old Navy was having a crazy $10 jean sale, so I took advantage...Hamilton is both growing and putting holes in his pant knees.  While there, I "accidentally" bought jammies for Beckett. Totally unnecessary purchase, but my boy loves Batman and deserves some "non-hand-me-down" items once in a while.

Thursday was beach day.  A lot of friends showed up, which means I got to chit chat, and the boys had lots of people to play with.  At the beginning of the summer, my friend Mackenzie made all the little kids into "mer-people."  Ever since then, the boys have me do that for them whenever we're at the beach.  It's pretty fun to just get in there, dig in the sand, and play with your kids.

On Friday, we "borrowed" my nephew Wesley for a couple hours.  His mom is having a baby soon, and I'm hoping to be somewhat helpful and steal him on other occasions post-baby.  She's due really soon, so I thought we'd better get a practice run in pre-baby.  We headed down the freeway to the Discovery Science Center.  Wesley was pretty shy and cautious at first (those kids exist?!?!), but then we found a submarine slide, and all was well.

 Lunch!

Sitting on dinosaur toes.

Cheese!

Show-off.

On Saturday,  I got to cross something that's been on my "to do" list since I've moved here: bike up the Strand to Santa Monica.  Round trip, it was about 26 miles. People have asked if we'd been training, which mostly makes me laugh. I wore my Rainbow sandals.  Does that tell you anything about the "chill level" of this ride?  We had a really nice time: beautiful coast, crazies in Venice, yummy Thai lunch, and nice conversation. Yes, it lasted about 4 hours longer than we led our hubbies to believe, but it was SO nice to be out and about together sans kids on a lovely Saturday.

Facebook Statuses:

• Dishes in the sink and time for dinner, but I'd rather just watch these two enjoy a $12 pool and a couple sponges. That's cool, right?
• The guy bagging our Costco purchases overheard us having our usual "who's turn to be in charge of the receipt" discussion and had the cashier print out an extra one. Might seem like a lame status update, but it was a welcome miracle at the end of the day. :)
• Favorite Olympic story and race: David Rudisha. Wow.
• Celebrating Alex belonging to us again! (we couldn't afford his billing rates) — at The Cheesecake Factory. [He pretty much disappeared for 2 weeks.]  
• The downside to living near the beach is we don't have a/c. Yuck. The upside, clearly, is we live near the beach. Biked down and back to Santa Monica today with nice ocean breezes and good friends. I'm a lucky girl (with a really nice husband who spent the day with the boys).