Peanuts Are Good: My birthday etc.

A lot has happened since I last posted. I had a birthday and we went out to Chevy's for dinner. I have been trying to lose the last of my baby weight (still have 10 lbs. to go) and I ate too many chips and salsa and a little bit of ice cream that they brought when they sang, "Happy Birthday." (Thanks, Paul!) Here we are at Chevy's:

Here I am in my lovely birthday hat:

Here are some pictures that I took after the birthday festivities:

Here are Ri and J playing basketball:

We went to Grant's Farm on Monday...named after Ulysses S. Grant (did I spell that right??). The first thing we did was feed the goats. Oh.....my....gosh! Let's just say that for the rest of the day, I could tell all of the people who had been in the goat pen by the dirt on their bodies!

As I took this picture, J was saying, "Nithe goat! Nithe goat!" I think he wanted them to back off. Ri saved him.

Feeding the chicken:

Feeding the camels and llamas:

Not so sure....

We visited the Clydesdale barn and went outside to see the babies.

I don't think I wanna pet it.

No, I definitely don't want to pet it!

These horsies are huge!

Look at those big feet!

What's THAT?!?!?!

Wearing big brother's shirt.

I was in the kitchen one day and heard, "Slurp! Slurp! Slurp!" I turned around and saw this:

I said to myself, "OH NO!" I looked in the kitchen sink and saw this (he had taken the grate off of the stove and put it in the sink with the sauce):

He had pulled the chair over to the sink. That's what I get for leaving a full jar of spaghetti sauce next to the sink within his reach. Here's what it looked like after J got ahold of it:

SLURP! SLURP! SLURP! "Mmmmmmmmm!" He was in his glory.

Ok, so tonight we were at Re's baseball game. I was talking to another mother and Paul was watching Jack. One of the dads came up to me and said, "Uh, your little one is running around back there." I looked behind me and this is what I saw (with Paul standing right near him!):

Everyone thought it was hilarious and they were all looking at me, wondering if I was going to stop him. They all looked a little worried like they couldn't believe I was letting him do it. I figure, they're only young once and why not be allowed to run around in mud puddles? He was having so much fun...why spoil that? So he won't get his clothes dirty? Who cares? He had brand new, white socks on and newish shoes. I really didn't even care because he was having such a GREAT time! He kept running back and forth and jumping up and down. He was having a blast!

Once I started laughing, people seemed to relax and they were laughing, too. They thought it was great that I was letting him play in the puddle. I think more parents should let their children enjoy nature like that. I remember how good it feels to walk barefoot in the mud and squeeze the mud between my toes. I wish I would have taken his shoes off so that he could really experience that puddle.

He played in it for about 10 minutes and then got busy playing with a baseball. After about 10 minutes of that, I looked over and saw this:

AHHHHHH....this is the life! :)

Here are some pictures of J in his brother's baseball helmet. He always puts it on backwards. He does the same with baseball hats. If we turn it around, he'll take it off and put it back on backwards. He's making a cheesy face in a couple of these because I told him to smile and he'd give me a phoney grin.