It's so hot today that I don't even want to move. It's been awhile since the boys and I have played in the "photo booth", so today it seemed like a good afternoon activity since we don't have to do anything but make silly faces.

"Thimble sized Max"

I promise to keep these kind of pictures to a minimum on here. Sometimes I just can't help myself though.

Yesterday was my birthday. Yippee! My sweet boys and husband made me a special cake and we spent the day on the beach (and the day before as a pre-birthday). We planned to go to our favorite beach, but when we got there it was closed due to the parking lot being already full. Instead we headed back to the trusty RISD beach. Not quite as clean, but we definitely had a great time! The boys practiced their swimming and had a great time riding the "water taxi" (which was R.C.). Russell is getting braver in the water and is catching on to the act of swimming. Max loves to pretend he is swimming and splashing everyone. He is not afraid of dunking which is a big difference from Russell!

Jumping with excitement!

Swim practice.

My special cake. Max picked the pink frosting and blue letters and Russell picked the special princess candles (not pictured. The boys pulled them out to lick them before I could get a good picture of them). R.C. and Max spent time in the kitchen baking it and they all decorated it.

And finally...
It's been really hot here. We have no air conditioning. We could. We have one in the basement, but we choose not to put it in to save electicity/money/our earth. Due to this, we like to search out the coolest place in our apartment and gather there. Sometimes it's the back stairs, sometimes it's the livingroom, sometimes it's the boys bedroom. Last night it happened to be the kitchen floor. There is about 2 feet (give or take a bit) between the counters and R.C. decided, in the middle of the hot hot night, that he was going to sleep there. I awoke to find Max in our bed and Russell was awake drawing in the livingroom, but R.C. was no where to be found, until Russell informed me that, "Dad is sleeping on the kitchen floor. (said quietly under his breath) Weird." I guess it was cool though since he had a blanket over him. In any other room you do not want a blanket, even wearing your skin feels like too much.

Tomorrow promises to be one of the hottest days yet...UGH!

A note to the garbage men in Providence who pick up trash on our street:

Please, the next time your garbage truck breaks down in front of my house quietly wait for the repair truck. I don't want to hear you and your garbage buddies hitting your truck with wrenches and laughing and yelling at 6:30 am. Consider yourselves lucky. Sip your coffee and enjoy an extra (quiet) break.
Repair truck man: When you arrive park your truck, do what you need to do and get on your merry little way. There is really no need to park, reverse, pull forward, reverse, pull forward, reverse, reverse, reverse, reverse, reverse and reverse again. Did you know that each and every time you reverse, your truck beeps quite loudly? This is not something I enjoy hearing over and over and over before 7:00 am.

Thanks! Other than this, you do a great job picking up our garbage. :)

Some child stars get paid big money...and some get paid in ice cream. I'm willing to bet stars who get paid in ice cream are happier than the ones who get paid with money.

Yesterday Russell assisted Alee (a classmate of R.C.'s) by acting in a film she is working on. Russell was reimbursed for his time and cooperation with ice cream. After the work was finished the ice cream man was flagged down and frozen treats were purchased. It was a SUPER hot day (in the house it was 89 degrees!!! Who wants to visit now??) so this was a perfect payment. Max was "paid" also just because he was good and happily worked on his art project while Russell was working.

Ice cream melting down the hand and pooling on his new shoes...this is what summer is all about!!

Russell is an incredibly clean ice cream eater. Slow, but very clean.

I am positive that we do not have any Macaulay Culkins coming out of this family. :)

I had my first celebrity citing last week!

When Mom and Dad Sayler were here, they watched the boys for a day while R.C. and I went to NYC to spend a, much needed, day out. We had planned on seeing a Broadway show so as soon as we step off our bus we head to the ticket booth. To make a long story, some what, short, we didn't want to wait in line, so we decided to walk to all the different ticket booths of the shows we wanted to see, but ended up going back and waiting in line anyways and got tickets to Tin Pan Alley Rag. Good show - great ragtime music.
So, as we were walking around Times Square (a place I will be happy to never go again!! Too many chain stores!!), getting moved along with the crowd of people, I run into someone and turn to say excuse me, but then catch myself. I forget to leave the polite Wisconsin-er at home...no need to apologize...hit all the people you want and just go on with your day. Anyways...as I turned to say excuse me, I realized it was Chris Kattan that I had just hit! I turned to tell R.C. and he was smiling and nodding that, yes, it was him!
Oh, sure, Chris Kattan is not an A list celebrity. He might not even be a B lister...maybe a C, but it was still pretty exciting.

(I apologize for this very lazy post. I tried to tell of all the funny stories and good times, but I keep deleting and rewriting. So I give up! Tonight it seems like my brain is ready to shut down a little earlier than usual...so here goes...)

We just finished up with back to back guests. Aunt Jenny came to for a 5 day visit at the end of her U.S. tour and the day after she left, Mom and Dad Sayler came for a 4 day visit. I would write about the fun that we had, but you have already heard it before. I'm not trying to belittle the time our guests spent here, but, you see, with our guests, we pretty much do the same things...downtown, beach, park, lobster, just hanging out, etc.. Each event has a little different twist depending on the person who is visiting, but it is generally the same. We loved doing these things with our guests and were happy to show them what we do here in RI.
We were able to have Korean food with Jen so we could get a very very slight glimpse into her daily eating in Korea. With Mom and Dad Sayler we had DELICIOUS lobster. Oh...and did I mention lobster was only $4.99 a pound! Lobster is cheaper than beef (at least this week).

It has been great having so much company this summer. As of today, hotel Sayler is closed for the remainder of the summer. We are putting extra blankets away and taking the extra leaf out of the table in preparation for "normal" days again. R.C. is heading back to the studio tomorrow and the boys and I will begin a bit of school work again and see our friends on a regular basis again. Thank you to all who came to visit!! We loved having each and every one of you!!

(I will post more pictures from these visitors at a later date.)

"One man's trash is another man's treasure."

I love this saying. I love this idea (now).

When my sisters and I were growing up we would always dread driving through towns on trash day. We would hold our breath, waiting to hear our dad say, "you girls jump out and grab that table (or chair, book case, etc.) and put it in the back of the van." We would do it and then slink down so no one could see us as we drove away. As embarrassed as we were, we never thought it was embarrassing when my dad would then give that table/chair/book case/whatever it was, a little love and a coat of varnish and sell it for big bucks a few days/weeks later.

As I got older I grew to enjoy looking for "trash treasure". Heck, both R.C. and my dressers were on the curb for trash in Greenville. Some Mr. Clean and a coat of paint later and we have "matching" dressers. We snatched a great plant stand (very big...holds 12 plants!), chair (that we use for a plant stand/table), foam mats for the boys bedroom floor, and TVs for R.C.'s studio and another for a friend, here in Providence. R.C. (Birdman) used to take old pallets from companies and make birdhouses to sell or tables for our house. There is good stuff to be found out there on Monday morning before the trash truck comes by. It really is a great feeling to know that you got something for free, and knowing that you saved it from going into a landfill feels good too!

Today, as I tried to do nothing so I could stay cool in this horrible heat, I sat on the couch and turned on the TV. What better way to do nothing, right? Well, we don't normally watch TV during the day, but I found that Rachel Ray has a talk show, and since seeing her face sends the boys into fits of laughter and yelling, "aahhh, not the peppy girl!!", I had to leave it and watch. Anyways...She had some guests on who get items from the trash for their home. Rachel seemed to think this idea was so great, new, and funny and all the members in the audience seemed to think so too. Well studio audience, this is not new. Yes, it is great and fun and something worth clapping about, but new it is not. It seems this studio audience has never used, or even thought to use, a jar for a flower vase or fabric from a dress to cover a pillow (I've never done this one because my dresses aren't too pretty...but I have thought about doing it if I had a nice flowery dress....someday....). Now that Rachel let the cat out of the bag about how great it is to get free stuff from the curb we're going to have to fight for the gems.

As we were watching this program, Russell told me, "mom we don't have to watch this, we already do that." YES!! He gets it, and maybe, someday, will enjoy it too.

(Pops, your legacy will live on.)

Yesterday the boys wanted to go to R.C.'s studio to "do some work" so R.C. told them that we could go after supper. Then, as R.C. and I were talking he suggested that he take the boys down so I could have a few moments of quiet (very nice of him, but of course I decided to go with them...what can I say...I kind of like this group.). Maxwell was listening and said, "yeah, that's a good idea. We can go with dad and you can stay and jump on your bed." I asked if he thinks this is what I do when he is not around and he very seriously told me, "yes".

Fast forward to this morning. I awoke with a Bruce Springsteen song in my head. R.C. was kind enough to find it on the computer so we could listen to it and it could get even more embedded in my mind. As I voiced my aggravation with being able to think about nothing but this song, Maxwell had a perfect idea for how to stop singing this song. "You need to bonk your head. It will leave your head if you bonk it." He did, a little later, inform me that it would be best to bonk my head on a pillow and not on something hard. What a nice little boy.

And finally, this afternoon as I was making lunch we were trying to figure out what music we were going to listen to while we prepared our meal. Russell wanted to find something on youtube. Specifically he wanted to listen to the Dinosaur King theme song. I quickly put the kibosh on this since I have heard this song several times and quit frankly, it is annoying. So his second choice was the Pokemon theme song. Oh brother! He knew what I was going to say and he quickly started coming up with reasons as to why it is such a good song and why I would like it. His number one reason: "I think I've heard a trombone in it, and you love trombones." I love trombones?! I don't know when I would have made him think that I love the trombone, but obviously in the last six years I at some point made him believe this.

This is an old picture, and I have already posted others from this day, but they just make me laugh...when they talk and when I look at them!

It was a beautiful night in Providence last night. A perfect night for WaterFire. We enjoyed a leisurely walk down to the canal and through the throngs of people. We found the origami man set up making paper magic, as he is at every Waterfire, and the boys each got an origami bird from him. We got a frozen lemonade and found a place to sit and enjoy the night. After a bit Russell was beginning to doze on my lap and Max said he was tired and thought we should go home and get to bed, so we started our walk back to the car and got home and in bed by 10:00 pm.

"Origami man"

R.C. trying to fix Max's paper bird after he pulled on it too hard trying to make it fly, and Russell clinging happily to a light pole.
The first boat coming down the canal preparing to light the braziers. There was a man dancing with fire on the front of the boat, although it's hard to see.

As I said before, baseball is our sport of the summer. This is happy news for me. I understand baseball and I like baseball. Previous summers we would coach/play soccer and I didn't know what I was doing. It was probably apparent to the parents who watched me coach and saw that I was more clueless than their kid out on the field. Soccer is a great sport and all, but I prefer the all American sport.

We have been trying to fit in here, so we have been following the Boston Red Sox this year. It would be great to get to a game but we will never get to a Red Sox game due to seats being hard to come by and the cost of the seats that would be available. We can still pretend we are at the game though. Last night R.C. and I pulled on our baseball shirts and we all wore our Boston hats and turned the game on. We yelled and cheered as loud as we could until the very end. Max kept asking for peanuts but unfortunately I did not have any for him. This doesn't seem like anything too exciting, but we had a great night.

Russell was watching the game but was more interested in drawing.

It really was a great time. Don't let their faces fool you!

Max took this lovely close up of me. There were about 34 extremely close ups and in most I was making crazy faces as I cheered. There is a reason I am on the taking end of pictures. :)

Talk about a relaxing night.

Before my day had a chance to begin, I was a failure.

Before I could even get the coffee made I had Russell on the verge of tears and Maxwell was obviously concerned that he too would feel this same sadness that Russell was feeling at some point in the near future. I like to try to start the day off with happy kids and accept when we have a steady decline in attitudes until bed time, but today we started off at a very low point. Tears, or almost tears, is not how any mother wants their child to start the day, but when Russell emerged from his bedroom this morning his eyes were filling with tears.

"My tooth is still in the pillow..."

SHOOT! Now I understand why I couldn't sleep last night! I was so angry when it was 2:00 am and I was still awake, and I was even more angry when I finally did fall asleep only be awoken for no apparent reason at 5:00 am. (Or it could have been the espresso at 8:30 pm...) Obviously my mind wouldn't let me rest because it knew I was supposed to play Tooth Fairy last night and deposit a quarter into the pocket on Russell's tooth pillow...but I forgot.

I talked my (or rather the Tooth Fairy's) way out of it, but I still know that I failed last night. The Tooth Fairy will be stopping by tonight and hopefully we will wake up happy tomorrow.

Mom/Tooth Fairy: 0

Last week, before our guests came, the boys and I headed to the beach with some friends while R.C. tried to catch up a bit in his studio. This was a beach that we had never been to, but our friends knew the kids would have a good time and they did. It was a beach with a park also so the kids could splash around in the water a bit and then go play on the playground until they got hot and then go splash some more. What more could you ask for?

I keep writing and writing and writing and deleting and deleting and deleting. There is so much to tell and I don't want to keep you all day so here it is in quick form:

• Shane came to visit on Thrusday
• Took Shane to the beach
• Our wonderful little car hit 100,000 miles!!
  
• We all played in the huge waves and got ice cream
• R.C. and Shane went to the Paw Sox game
• Melissa spent the night painting the apartment upstairs
  
• Chris came on Saturday
• Melissa and Chris spent the day out at the outlet mall
• Chris, Melissa and boys went to the beach
• R.C. and Melissa finished painting the upstairs apartment
  
• R.C. helped the new tenant move in
• Rainy day spent mostly at home
• Weather cleared up so we could enjoy a seafood supper on the water
• Russell lost a tooth!

It has been such a great week having both Shane and Chris come to visit!! Thanks guys for such a fun couple of days!

Get ready folks...
Good grief!! This boy is growing up way too fast! This is his 3rd tooth lost and thankfully I can already see his "big boy tooth" coming in so he won't be toothless for too long!

Catching up on odds and ends:

Our sport of the summer is --- baseball. R.C. has been teaching the boys how to play catch and it seems Russell is a natural (so long as he keeps focused on the ball and not on something in the sky that he is certain is a UFO.). Maxwell was interested the first couple of times playing, but has lost interest. Most evenings we head to the park so R.C. and Russell can play catch and Max and I play at the playground. Russell received his first black eye a few weeks ago due to not watching the ball. Since that episode he has done a much better job watching the ball. His throw is fantastic though!! The boys are enjoying watching some games with R.C. in the evening and listening to the games in the car. We are hoping to get to a Paw Sox game before summer is over and R.C. and I were able to play a game of catch the other night as the boys played at the park. I was pleased to show R.C. my hidden talent of baseball after all these years. I had the disadvantage of using a kids glove, but was still able to out throw and out catch my dear husband. I'm not one to brag, but come on, when you're good, you're good.... (hahaha)As Russell is working on his ball skills, Max and I enjoy the playground where he has finally mastered the "fireman's pole". He was so proud of himself when he was finally able to go down without me holding him and he proceeded to go down the pole at least 20 times until he was invited into a game of tag with a little girl playing on the playground also.

We received a package from Korea a few weeks ago (I know, I'm really behind in blogging...) that had little things for the boys, along with some Korean chocolate and treats. One of the favorite items (aside from the elephant watering can you can see in beach pictures in previous postings) was a pair of soft gloves that we assume you are supposed to use in the shower/bath. Max, however, felt they work best on his feet. He loves wearing them on his feet so he looks like a frog and was taking a picture of them himself when I took a picture of him.

This morning Maxwell brought me the dry erase board and said he "did something".
That's right!! Max wrote PET all by himself and when I asked him what he wrote, he told me, "pet". Yippee!! He wrote it and he knew what he wrote!! Preschool here we come!!

The 4th of July. The day that Americans celebrate their independence. People get excited to wear a flag shirt, hat, shorts or even in some cases a flag bikini (why people do this I may never know). All kids get excited to see fireworks, hold a sparkler, and sing some American anthems. All kids that is, except my 2 little boys. All they cared about was seeing Spiderman. We woke up early to go to the Bristol, RI 4th of July parade. This particular parade has been held since 1785 and is the oldest continuous Independence Day celebration in the United States. We walked a little over a mile to find the perfect (only) standing spot to watch the parade go by. The boys stood in their matching Spiderman shirts unimpressed with much of the parade. The only time Russell felt the urge to wave/clap/look alive was when a cute girl waved at him from a float. Tell me that time is not here already!!? Soon our long wait was over and the man of the hour (or 3 hours) walked past. That was it. He walked past, the boys watched with their mouths hanging open, gave a little giggle, and then it was over.

They stood like this through almost the entire parade. Their shirts are the same, their hands are the same, their hair is the same, their stance is the same. They are such great boys!!

The reason we went to the parade...

Pirates!

Later that evening the Anderson family came to town and we headed down to WaterFire on the canal. It was a beautiful evening and we stayed downtown until 11:00ish. With 5 kids, that's really pushing our luck, but attitudes were good and I'm sure it felt nice to stretch their legs after such a long car ride.
The rest of their visit was spent doing the normal "visitor" activities (you will see, if you come, that we do the same thing with everyone! Next week we have a visitor coming who has already been here once, so we will have to come up with something new....stay tuned.)
We enjoyed a walk to the park and a couple of laps around the track. We had a picnic at the RISD beach (could not swim due to contamination from all the storms) and ran around the field for a few hours. The next day we went to the beach and relaxed in the sun and played in the water all afternoon. Our day at the beach was followed by strawberry picking and a lobster dinner. A good visit from the Andersons. It was great to be able to see Christopher before he is deployed and see how all the girls are growing.

Christopher and Quinn after a run around the track with Alannah and Alyssa bringing up the rear. Yes, little Quinn was trying to (and doing a good job) keep up with the big kids on the track.

Stacia and Russell coming around the last turn...

Chris bouncing the kids on the bridge.

Maxwell and R.C...

Alyssa and Alannah playing in the sand.

Russell trying to bury himself.

It was hard to get a picture of all 5 kids at the same time, but this one is pretty good...

As we all know, kids say that darnedest things. Let me share with you just a few quotes that were said during the past week.

"Sometimes life goes wrong" -- Maxwell

"I smell fruit snacks. Wait, mom, I think it's you. You smell like fruit snacks, but don't worry I don't eat human fruit snacks." -- Russell

(looking up at a bird house mounted to a tree out back) "Is that a pencil sharpener?" -- little neighbor boy

Neighbor kid:"What are you grilling?"
Me: "chicken"
Neighbor kid: "what kind of chicken?"
R.C.: "grilled chicken" (duh)
Neighbor kid: "yeah, I know, but it smells like chicken."
HUH!!???

neighbor boys: " You grew up in Illinois?"
R.C.: "Yes"
Me: "I grew up in Wisconsin"
neighbor boys: " So you guys were in different states? Aren't Illinois and Wisconsin close to each other?"
R.C.: "Yes, they are close to one another."
neighbor boys: "So is that how you met? You were just driving down the road and saw each other and were like, hi, let's get married."
Other neighbor boy: "dating sounds easy".

The weather has finally warmed up and the rain clouds have gone away. Last week we went to the RISD beach twice.

The first day was cloudy and we ended up leaving earlier than we would have liked due to thunder and rain moving in. We decided to head back to the beach the next day also and what a great idea that was!! It was a beautiful day. We could not have asked for a more perfect beach day! It was not windy, the water was warm and the boys were ready to swim. During the 2 days we spent on the beach we found several horseshoe crabs and a jelly fish which made the boys very excited. Of course you know that horseshoe crabs were around during the time of the dinosaurs so Russell was just beyond happy to find these. He was very sad when I told him he could not take one home with him. Sorry, but I wasn't too thrilled with the idea of riding home with a huge, dead, stinky, crab in the back of my car!

Max trying to swim

Russell and the horseshoe crab he wanted to take home.

Wading through the water to get to another part of the beach...

These boys are like little fish! They haven't caught on to actual swimming strokes yet (we're working on that), but they are not afraid of the water or any of the muck that floats up now and then. Each time that we go to the beach Maxwell tells us, "I am not afraid of the deep sea!" as he runs up and down the sand as fast as his little legs can go. We look forward to others coming to visit so you can join us on a beach outing.