My Dorky Side Rides Again!

Pete's boss Bert is crazy for cake. He loves cake SO much, but only when it's made from scratch. Last year for his birthday, Pete asked me to make him a chocolate cake and he loved it. Since then, he is a regular customer of mine and Bert buys cakes from me for every single birthday in his extended family. It was his birthday last week and he ordered a cake from me for his family party. He had a special request though - he REALLY wanted a cake with a habs (Montreal Canadiens) logo on it. Well, I tried super hard, and I think it turned out good enough to photograph!

My Grown-up Little Men

Here's a pic my dad took of the boys as ringbearers in my cousin's wedding. They're so adorable!

Involuntary Reference

For those of you that haven't seen the movie "Up" this will probably pass over your head, but it made us laugh.

The four of us were driving, and Nathan was telling us about something. As he is looking out the car windows, but emphatically telling us his story, mid-sentence, even mid-word, he all-of-a-sudden stopped and said, "Squirrel!" And then he went silent. I forget what he was telling us before that because Pete and I burst out laughing. Just like Dug (and all of the rest of the dogs) in the movie.

It's Like He Knows What I'm Thinking...

I read a very frank, honest, and rather scathing column today about discipline. It really expresses what I feel about discipline, as well as what I feel about my kids (and other kids) and the way that they act. Especially in public. Here's the first paragraph.

"If you're the kind of parent who allows your 5-year-old to run rampant in public placces like restaurants, I have what could be some rather disturbing news for you. I do not love your child. The rest of the country does not love your child either. And the reason why we're staring at you every other bite is not because we're acknowledging some sort of mutual understanding that kids will be kids but rather we want to kill you for letting your brat ruin our dinner."

I never wanted to have "those children." You know the ones. The ones that NOBODY wants to have over. Pete and I have worked hard and been extremely dilligent in our efforts to make sure our boys are respectful to people and their property. Having no boundaries for our children doesn't show them security. It will only make them try harder to get some type of reaction, other than the monotone repetition of empty threats I hear in the grocery store lineup. Like the article says; "I don't believe making a child's wishes top priority is a demonstration of love. Nor do I believe I, or the rest of the world, should act as a surrogate parent for somebody's bad-ass kids." If I tell my children, "If you do that again, we are leaving right now," they believe me. They know that we will drop everything and leave. I wouldn't tell them that if I didn't have the intent to follow through.

There. That's my rant for the day. If you would like to read the article, click HERE. **Please be aware that this is an OPINION. If you don't like what I or this article have to say, it's not my fault. **

Nathan is 6!

It was Lego Birthday Party time in our house again! Nathan turned 6 on June 21st, and on the 26th, we had not one but TWO parties! Nathan had 5 friends come over for a fun time on the jumpy slide and cupcakes in the afternoon, and then family and family friends came for supper and the evening. We had a great time with everyone celebrating Nathan.It took me just over three hours to make this sign. But it stood all on it's own, and I'm unnecessarily proud of my handiwork... It's harder than you think to make all those letters!

Lego colored cupcakes and Lego block sugar cookies!

Nathan's favorite part of the day (of course) - PRESENTS!

We borrowed the "jumpy slide" from my parents, and it was a big hit especially with his afternoon party guests!

And here's Nathan at the end of it all, just so excited to build all of the new Lego sets he got.

The Heinbuch Family Arsenal

We started off with a dry Nerf arsenal, but recently have expanded to wet as well. We decided that, with the amount of water fights we had last year, that we would get some really good water guns this summer. Now that the Nerf brand has purchased Super Soaker, they are turning out some super fun stuff. We got 4 (oh yes, one for each of us) Nerf Thunderstorm water guns. They are really cool because they are fully automatic (no pumping required) and have removable magazines full of water that you can change in and out of the gun, and you can also purchase extra magazines so that you've always got an extra clip of soaking power! :) We have already had a blast with them, and it's only the first week of summer. Here's some action shots I got of the end of a major family water fight we had today. We were all soaked. It was great!

When the boys were babies I wasn't sure about them having gun-like toys as kids, but after reading the book "Wild At Heart" by John Eldredge, I was completely fine with it. The book gave me a look into a boy's heart and the reasons behind why boys seem to always want to play with guns (whether they have them or not).

(By the way, I highly recommend this book to read as a woman - it really gave me good insight into my husband's heart, too!)