daddy's day

brad.


what an awesome dad.

for real, father's day is such fun because we have such a fab daddy to celebrate.



 yesterday was a day full of brad's choices. 

pig in the blankets for breakfast, a daddy fave.  then we packed up the veen and headed for silver lake.  as we wheeled toward our destination, we were confident that rain would not spoil our fun.  though the temps plummeted and the clouds sprinkled, we found silver lake sunny and hot upon arrival.

our plan was to grab lunch there before hittin the beach.


  our eagerness to explore trumped our hunger and we settled on individual cereal bowls and milk and spoons at a picnic table.


brad's call.

this was my first adventure to silver lake.

 and it was beautiful.

  and sandy. a lot of climbing and walking to find the perfect spot to settle.


 i had ayla jo in my sling and whoa baby whoa.  what a workout! 

we spent the day together splashing,

climbing,

 running,


 and watching the adorables and

 all the dune buggys, razors, trucks and dirt bikes take to the dunes.


the whole day was full of contentment and thankfulness for our daddy extrodinaire.  as a special present, the boys drew portraits of their hero.  then i asked them some questions about bradley.  here are their sweet answers:


maxwell:
my daddy's name is brad alan meiste. 
he is 11 feet tall and weighs 44 pounds. 
his favorite tv show is Tiger Woods. 
Daddy has green eyes. 
he likes to go to Menards. 
Daddy's favorite food is chicken. 
His favorite drink is lemonade from boston market.
For fun, daddy likes to golf.
i love it when daddy goes to the park with me.
my favorite thing about daddy is that he takes care of me.
i'm like daddy because we both work hard.
it makes daddy happy when i paint.

weston:
my daddy's name is Brad Meiste.
he is feet 10 feet tall and weighs 300 pounds.
his favorite tv show is dolphins and sea things.
daddy has brown eyes.
he likes to go to sit in a chair outside.
daddy's favorite food is eggs.
his favorite drink is pop.
for fun, daddy likes to play with us.
i love it when daddy gets the sleeping bags down for a nest.
my favorite thing about daddy is the tahoe and the rzr.
i'm like daddy because we both race fast.
it makes daddy happy when i read the bible.

fire

when i wrote the title i really sang out loud that tonight song. 

you know, toni i i e ight, we are young, so lets set the world on fire, we can burn brighter, than the su uh uh uh uhn

that one.  pretty much i am always listening to/ singing along to a random song now that i can access pandora.  love having that soundtrack to my life! and my cell phone is way easier to locate when it is blaring music than it is hiding silently in the couch cushions. anywho, the song and title are fitting because we had a fire tonight to burn up some of leftover branches and stumps and anything else we cared to get rid of tonight. 

the boys will miss the stump. 

pic taken days before the fire, just so we are clear no children were burned during this event

it was a safe and controlled burn.

hoses were at hand.

with firemen at safe distances.

and one adorable ayla jo who got water on her face.

her newest fave is to ride on my back, like for a piggy back ride.  she will pat my back and say "here. back. on there. ride. mommy. mommy. please. ride. here." until i pick her up and hoist her back to end the incessant repetitive chatter.

the newest thing for baby blue and bear bear is their ringworm.  i know, awesome.  i plan to place a call in to doctey lund in the am and keep you posted.  fun.

so this day. a seriously beautiful start of devotions on the porch, in which the boys both completed our verse for the week of "look to the lord and his strength, seek his face always".  when asked to recite the scripture they both fill in when i pause my talking with random words they think might fill in the blank.  so cute.  so when we said it to daddy tonight it sounded like " look to the lord and his strength (lots of motions and gestures for that part so it went quite smooth), seek strength his face with all your heart always jesus"

close enough.  we invited the thurstons over for a little playing in the morning.  so fun until maxer demonstrated his dependency on popsicles at 10am.  he asked and as oliver cannot have a popsicle i told him we needed to respect our friends by not eating something we cannot share in front of them.  max did not enjoy that idea.  he was starving.  so hungry.  only a popsicle could fill that void within him.  he would not let it go.  at one point, max actually hit the smoke detector test button, then ran to me to tell me he pushed the button so i would know he wanted a popsicle. 

and bear.  he cried in my bed for a good 45 minuted because we could not locate the correct shorts.  not the green ones this time, the blue striped tiger ones.  i started sweetly taking his hand and leading him upstairs to look for said shorts.  not knowing exactly what he had in mind as bear does not possess any blue and orange and black striped tiger shorts, i presented him with blue shorts, blue shorts with an orange stripe, and did he see these nice blue ones with a white stripe, and if i were a tiger i would choose these blue ones with pockets. 

nope, not sufficient. we went downstairs through the laundry and he pleads with me to find the striped tiger ones like tiger who daddy likes to watch golf.  so i found some plaid shorts that look to be golf attire.  no good.  he cried until the thurston's departed and i fed him a peanut butter sandwich.  the shorts he so desired were detroit tigers shorts.  not striped.  detroit.  when i delicately pointed out the difference between detroit and striped bear looked at me with a confused face and told me that's what he said.  detroit.

here is bear bear at the garage sale this weekend wearing his hat over his hood.  the child's sense of fashion is unrivaled.

one more event of note.  i cleaned the fridge this afternoon.  i think i found where brad got his staph infection... not really, but eew.  i woke cupcake from her nap to teach her how to do this dirty deed so she can take over from now on. that is not true, but i definetly want to request jessica klein to have a little heart to heart with my darling daughter about this very subject...  for real though, i had to use an ice pick.  well it was a knife, but still.  gross.  i had to chip disgusting from my fridge.  the good news, it looks very neat and nice. and when beans and austin come over tonight i will very smoothly ask them to retrieve something from that orderly refridgerator only because i am proud of the improvement.

we are prepping to join some friends for a picnic in the park.  i need to go supervise the getting dressed.   i love summer.

trapped

bear is a brave brave boy.


and cuter than the dickens

he fearlessly captures kittens, and courageously traps birds.

unfortunate for the wildlife around here

after church on saturday evening, auntie beans and uncle austin joined us for pizza and root beer floats and cookies.  while the adults continued feasting, the adorables headed outside to play.

mere moments after their release, maxer came running in with the news,

maxer does not dare hold the captive, but does dare to break out into some birdlike celebratory dance moves.

bear caught a bird.

yes, yes he did.

ayla jo may have been more entertained at catching her own cuteness

i have a hate hate relationship with birds.  they are always and forever pooping on me.  just last week while i was pushing ayla jo on a swing in fact, another missle of poo landed on my hand.  eew.  so i was not really excited about the prospect of nurturing this baby bird back to health after whatever injuries bear inflicted in his kidnapping.

so i screamed with what can be interpreted as delight but was really fear/grossness.

and the kids chased the birdie down again and again.

they were very entertained.

until i made them come in for bed and put the birdie somewhere safe.  which bear translated into put the bird under a bowl and then put a pitchfork over it to weigh it down.  in the morning, the bird had flown the coop.

but do not despair.

baby blue and i have the same taste in animals.  the stuffed ones are the best.

memorial day, bear caught a frog.

a big kid playpen, or kiddie pool, or frog habitat

named swimmy.

baby blue only points and says, "bog.  big one!"

 

the boys are really big fans.

seems to me that the pigs have the best chance of survival of all the animals on our farm.  and we eat the pigs.  so that does not bode well for the rest of the zoo.