Rain or shine

Rain or shine there is golf at our house. On this day it was REALLY REALLY hot. I took James outside even though I despise the heat. Really. Luckily there was a bit of shade from the tree and I sat and watched James. After about 40 minutes I could see that he was really flushed and sweaty and I had to carry him inside kicking and screaming. He didn't want to stop playing golf! He doesn't mind the heat. He's like his Grandpa Roger and Grandpa Frank like that :)





Wow! A construction vehicle. James calls all of them "school buses" because they are school bus yellow. I have tried to tell him they are trucks but he just argues with me. I have settled for calling them school bus yellow.



This is when I noticed he was getting really hot. I took off his baseball cap to find a sweaty red head.



Crying because I said we were going inside the house.



Today I made use of my herb garden. We are leaving tomorrow and I thought it a shame to let the basil go unused, so I trimmed all that I could and made pesto. I can't believe how much its grown in a week! My chives are out of control too. You can see the long pieces that I didn't cut, that's how much they've grown in a week too.



In another pot I planted cilantro seeds. James calls them "babies".



I bought two more basil plants and put them in one pot. I hope to make pesto weekly!



So tonight we had pesto chicken (chicken baked in pesto), mashed red potatoes with chives, and then steamed broccoli (infused with oregano and thyme).

We leave for SB tomorrow! Don't worry, I have a neighbor kid watering my herbs :)

Happy Dada's Day!

Last week:
James liked the Rainbow cupcakes too!



James was also very helpful when I cleaned the refrigerator last week. I am glad that I use non-toxic cleaners like vinegar and water so that James can help :)

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Uncle Joe is trouble. He brought over some water guns for James. I've reluctantly filled them a few times and here is the fun.

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James and I played at the Coon Rapids Lion Park. I really like this playground because the playground equipment isn't too scary and high up.











It was pretty hot. We found some shade for water and a snack.











Yup, I'm on the other end of this see-saw. I took care not to throw James up into the air!



Happy Dada's Day! Jim requested this Chocolate Intensity cake for Father's Day.



I told Jim we couldn't cut into it until dinner at my Mom's.



On Saturday Jim went golfing with the guys (Larry, Rich) and James and I went shopping with the girls (Rosie, Ana). James had a great time with Grandma in the middle of Marshall's. They found the drums and had a little concert for everyone.

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At lunch Tia ChaCha entertained James with this cool hamburger toy. James loved cutting the burger into pieces. (They stick together with velcro.)




Wow! A PGA exhibit at the mall! James loved it! Lots of golf pictures to see, a practice putting mat, and he brought his own balls (Grandma Rosie couldn't resist buying the big bucket of balls :)







Tiger Wood's hat, golf club, and picture.



Exhausted and still clutching his bucket of balls.



Happy Dada's Day! The actual day on Sunday. James said "Happy Dada Day, Dada!" probably about 20 times this day :) He also wore a "Dad is my Superhero!" tshirt.



Grandma Laura came over for dinner. We had Jim's favorite dinner of Chicken Scallopine and then we had Cupcake Kebabs for dessert. A very simple idea that I stole from the internet- mini marble cupcakes, chocolate covered marshmallows, and strawberries. Mmmm.





We're off to Santa Barbara on Thursday!

Twins Tuesday

Yay! Dada is home! James was probably barely awake when he greeted Jim this morning, but I know he was happy to see him. He talked about his Dada often in the day or so that he was gone.

Jim had a webinar this morning so I made plans to get us out of the house and out of Dada's hair while he worked. The Mall of America has Toddler Tuesdays and today's theme was the MN Twins so I thought James would like it, since its sports related. (Anything to get him interested in something besides golf!)

But first, here is James at the park yesterday. I didn't get many pictures because it was so hot.



James painted. Top secret project.



At the MOA this morning. I think the crowd scared James, he was content and happy to stay in the stroller, despite my attempts to get him involved in the activities.



He did color some baseball themed coloring sheets, but back to the stroller pretty quickly after that.



Some Twins employees were leading the kids in stretches and dancing.



I baked cupcakes for one of my student's graduation party tomorrow. They are Rainbow cupcakes, an idea I saw online. Using a white cake mix, I made five colors of batter.



Added one spoon of each in layers.





They look perfect!



So cute!





And the inside is impressive too!



I even thought the wrapper looked artsy. Of course Jim and I had to share one as an experiment, to see if they were worthy of a party. I was also curious to see the inside of the cupcake.




Something funny. James was so cute in the car, on the way to the MOA. I never noticed how many bridges/overpasses there are on the way to the city. James exclaimed over each and every one of them! "Watch out... a bridge!" at the top of his voice!! "There another one!!!!" "Look! A bridge!!!!" And sometimes we counted them, especially in Minneapolis where there were several right after each other. James loves his bridges!