Who knew...

that people of middle eastern (Muslim) decent can not have gelatin due to their religious views? Well I do now! We had a family gathering yesterday and we allowed Landon to have some friends over to play out back in the sprinkler. So at one point when I was checking on them, one of the boys asked if we had anything to snack on like chips or Popsicles. So I said, "sure. I have a few Popsicles leftover in the freezer." No big deal, right? Wrong! One of the brother's (5 yr old) ate all of his Popsicle and the older one (9 yr. old) came in and asked me if they had gelatin in them because it taste like it does and they aren't allowed to have gelatin. Well shit! Thanks for sharing that information with me now!! So since I only had exactly 5 (the same # of kids that were at our house including my 2 boys) and the box was long gone I had no idea. Zach and I looked at another box of Popsicles that were the same brand as the kind I gave the kids and sure as shit they did contain gelatin. Lovely. We had a different brand of Popsicles in the freezer as well and Zach looked and those did not contain gelatin. Zach brought two of those out to the boys and told them that we weren't sure if the others had gelatin (a slight white lie)in them but these ones for sure did not. Good save but too bad one of them already consumed his Popsicle! Sorry Landon if those boys aren't allowed to play with you anymore!! Hopefully we didn't traumatize them too much. I also learned that their family has two chicks that they are raising so they can kill and eat them. Oh, and this Friday they are going to some farm to buy a calf to take home and slaughter and it only cost $50! What a deal! Try explaining slaughter to your 5 year old child without causing some sort of damage later in life! Landon did handle it well but I did tell him that he will not be able to play with them on Friday. We don't need anymore damage being done!

BTW: I did take the time to look up why gelatin is so bad and here is what I found out...

"Gelatin is an animal product. Muslims only eat animal products if the animal has been killed according to certain religious guidelines. In addition, a lot of gelatin comes from pork. Muslims don't eat pork products, no matter how the animal is killed."

Now we all know!!!

Picnic in the park

Today the boys and I decided to have a picnic in the park. We ate blueberries, hummus with pita chips, trail mix and grapes. It was perfect! The weather was actually cool since it was overcast and rainy which made the picnic ever better. Take a look at some pictures I got of the boys. Aren't they cute??!!

About Last Night...

Thanks to my great and best friend Heather we were able to attend the Taylor Swift concert last night. Landon is just in love with her and was so excited to see her perform. I got some great shots of all of us before the concert started. See???






Then this happened a couple of songs in to Taylor's performance...



Surprisingly Landon managed to sleep through all the high pitched screams from the little girls there and there were A LOT of them!! I kept checking my ears for blood because I could have sworn they were bleeding. Note to self: the next time I think it is a good idea to take my son to a teenage girls concert think again!!! It was a great show though and the performance was quite spectacular. Thanks again Heather and Mark! You guys are the best!!! Love ya!!


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Art

My boys love to paint and color so this week we had an afternoon of art projects. Here are a few pictures I took. Landon was painting a picture frame for his dad and Dylan was coloring the newspaper.

Pre-K Graduation Day

Last Friday Landon officially graduated from Pre-K. He had a gaggle of people there to cheer him on and even his teacher commented on his "entourage"! If she only knew that this was a normal occurrence when it comes to my boys! He was so excited and is even more excited to start Kindergarten. He told me that he can't wait to start real school because they have a library, computers and he will have homework. I am going to remind him as he gets older that he was really excited about having homework at one time!! I am pretty sure it won't last but it was cute none the less! Here are a few pictures we took of the graduation. Have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!

Bathroom Fun?

Have you ever wondered why people go to public bathrooms and do the things they do??? I have had a couple of "interesting" experiences in the public bathroom here at my office. Last week (or I should say every time this particular person and I are in the bathroom at the same time) a gal comes into the bathroom and she is making some strange noises. Again, she does this every time she is in the bathroom or at least every time I am there at the same time. She goes in the stall and sits down (or at least I am assuming this since I am not spying on her!) with a very heavy sign and says things like, "ahh, uhh, etc". I feel like I am intruding on something as I am sitting there doing my business. So weird. This gal is young and very attractive too and it just makes me giggle every time. Today when I was in there I was washing my hands and a gal (of another ethnic I might add since this may be some sort of tradition or something) was wetting her hands and rubbing them through her hair and she kept spitting in the sink. Not kidding! Totally spitting and doing her hair at the same time! If any of you know if this is some sort of tradition in the Indian culture please let me know. So there you have it...my bathroom fun! Can't wait to see what the rest of the day brings!!

Bubbles

The boys and I spent Sunday morning (before D got sick!)blowing bubbles (or eating them in D's case!!) and hanging out in our backyard enjoying the cool morning before it hit 100. Summer is fast approaching and I am not looking forward to the heat!













We are going to enjoy the mornings and evenings for as long as we can before it get too hot!!

Sick

Dylan came down with a fever on Sunday which lead us to Urgent Care on Monday night when his fever topped at 103.7. Mind you, this is a child that had a fever induced seizure back in November and was rushed to the hospital via ambulance so we were a little paranoid to say the least. He ended up with a viral infection that they couldn't really do anything about. So off to home we went. Stayed home with him Tuesday since he was still running a fever early that morning which broke late morning and my little guy was back to himself. See???

Spent the rest of the day chasing him around while Landon hung out with Papa and GG at their house swimming.



Made it back to work on Wednesday and it was like I wasn't ever gone for 3 days. Sometimes I wonder why I even continue to bother with this job or lack there of!! Anyway, it is now Friday and knock on wood, everyone is healthy and looking forward to the weekend! Happy Mother's Day to all those who are blessed with children! Enjoy your day! I know I will! :)

Peaceful...

The end to a long day. Goodnight!!

School Days

The boys getting ready for school (pre-K for Landon and daycare for Dylan last Thursday.