Happy Fourth of July!

Hope everyone enjoys their day and night of fireworks! I think that we will relax at home and watch the fireworks from our front window (one of the benefits of living on a hill). Alexander is with my Mom and Dad tonight and these other two will go to bed early (I hope). Maybe I can have an evening to myself!

Just hanging out

Today was a lazy summer day at the Efird household- well as lazy as you can be with 3 kids, two dogs, and a lizard to take of. Oh I forgot about the fish. The fish named Spongebob. I did get some work done outside, a lot of weeding and mulching, this morning. It was beautiful today, wasnt it? The kids and I spent a lot of time outside and just made some yummy cookies from the Deceptively Delicious cookbook which you can find on my bookshelf. They have garbanzo beans and oatmeal in them and Alexander just said, "These cookies are soooo delicious!" YES!

One of the special things that Alexander and I do together is sing our dialogue. It is a lot of fun. We get a tune in our head, change all the words to fit our conversation and sing it back and forth! He is really good at it. I try to make it rhyme, like the original song does, but not always. Today Alexander started singing that he wanted to go McDonalds and I sang back, questioning why he wanted to and he sang that he wanted to get Kung Fu Panda Toys and then I sang back that maybe we could get them on Ebay and he sang that he didnt think that they were on Ebay yet and I sang back that maybe we could find them on there. So I diverted the MCDONALDS, MCDONALDS, MCDONALDS!!! chant today. Yesterday it lasted about 5 full minutes. Ugh. "The answer is still no!" I love how the fast food chains entice our kids with their cool toys from these popular movies and then the kids beg their weary parents into going there and then they partake of the non-nutritious, humongo portions of chicken, beef and potatoes just to get that special toy (you like that run-on sentence?). The toy, the object of such hullabaloo is then looked at, played with in the car on the way home, and then left in the car until the next time the car is cleaned out. Then it is thrown away. Such is the life...

Well! I really didnt mean to go on about fast food chains and their toys. On a lighter note, here are some picts from today I found to be especially cute:

Alexander sat on top of the slide for a long time today, soaking up the warm rays, and evidently day-dreaming. He is so handsome, I had to take a picture of him.





Maggie was entertaining Andrew on the deck. I'm not sure what they were playing but I do know that Andrew was getting a little tired of the game. They are having fun in this picture.

Earth 911, etc.

Do you want to know where you can recycle old batteries or electronics? Just type in Earth911.org and your zip code and it will tell you! Very cool and very green!

I have been super busy getting Alexander's Sponge Bob birthday party ready for next Saturday! I have a lot to do and have been busy getting invitations out and doing some shopping! Everything is online for me with these three kids. Speaking of kids, Andrew went to his 9 month check up on Monday and got his two vaccines (we're on the alternative vaccine schedule). He did great, slept 13 hours last night and has been happy all day! I hope it continues... He is so much fun right now. He has started to wave and it is downright adorable! He also loves our dog, Bella, and has started to say Bewwa every time he sees her which is so cute.

Here is the front of the Sponge Bob party invitations that we made:
I superimposed Alexander on the Sponge Bob pic using Photoshop. He thinks it's pretty cool!