Happy Friday

This is unprecendented! Carson using the pedals on his big wheel! When he uses the pedals he ends up in the grass because he forgets to steer:)

Our new toy. A sand/water table. I can tell it's going to be a hit.

Family Vacation Dream of the Day

Today was a great day. I spent a lot of time with my kids and added one more thing to my Mom repertoire. Hosing poop off the back patio. Man I love being Mom. I really do mean that. It's all of the little weird things that roll into the fact that there is nothing like being Mom. And as my kids get older and I start to see all of their little personality traits and quirks come out I am loving it. All of these little things that come together to make Kate who she is and Carson who he is.
I have been  thinking a lot about my family lately. My brothers and their families and my Mom. I spend a lot of time wishing we could be together. Wishing my kids really knew their cousins. Wishing they could talk about them by name. Wishing my kids could know their Aunts and Uncles for the amazing men and women that they are. I was thinking today that we should all go on a family vacation together. All 18 of us. To some place where none of has ever been. I've been looking at little beach towns. We could rent a vacation home and all stay there. Go to the beach together, ride bikes, walk into the quaint little town. Just spend time together. Just a dream I am having  today.

The town I am dreaming about is called Seaside, Florida. I was reading a blog that I love and they had just been there. Here's a house we could stay at. 5 minutes from the beach.:)

Seaside, FL. Think about it. :)

 A classic beach town

My Neighbors Are Throwing Me a Party

Today I know that my neighbors are planning a huge party for me. Long ago I (we) used to tsk tsk that certain neighbor on our street that could not keep his yard mowed and weeded. His yard was always in a state of disrepair and we wondered "How could you live like that?" Well in the past 10 months through a series of unfortunate events I myself have become that neighbor. So many times I have wanted to knock on that previously ridiculed neighbor's door with some cookies and say, "I get it now. There's just no time is there?" My front yard looked like a foreclosed home except we were definitely living there. The weeds were so tall Kate called them our trees. He was so meticulous about our yard. He loved doing it. We used to have the best yard on our street. He used to offer to mow our neighbors' yards. And now....well and now I have the worst yard on the street. Well I should say HAD because today I got myself in gear yardwise. I pulled the big "trees" but didn't fool with the little weeds that would have taken me forever to pull. I bought this cool stuff called landscape fabric and some bags of soil and just made a fresh start. Throw in some begonias and I have my yard back again. So dear neighbors, no longer do you have to raise your eyebrows at me. I've got it together now. Well at least my yard is together. And as I walked out my front door to take this picture I almost cried because it was such a relief to have a normal looking yard again. Plus the kids and I spent the entire day outside. We all have pretty impressive farmer's tans to prove it. Carson helped me plant each one of the flowers. He was so into it. I would make the hole and he would pull the flower out (by the flower mind you and I cringed each time) and place it in the hole and help me cover it up with the dirt. And as my neighbors walked out their front door on the their way to eat out the wife said, "You did a good job Betsy." Which in neighbor speak means, "FINALLY!!! We didn't want to have to call the HOA on you. " :)

So much better. I'm a yard outcast no more!

Inspired by Mary Poppins

When I want my kids to do something I sing that song from Mary Popping "Let's go Fly a Kite" except it's more like "Let's go night night" "Let's go take a nap" "Let's go take a bath" You get the idea. So I thought it might be fun after years of singing that song they could actually hear me sing the right words. So I bought these $1.00 kites at Walmart to try it out. Let me just say that if you do buy a cheapo kite they actually work out pretty good but here's a tip: the tail or streamers are the key. They must be because Carson's kite still had the tail on it and it flew a lot longer than Kate's which had no tail. Ok kite lesson over. It was fun and Kate kept laughing when her Barbie kite kept taking nose dives. So it wasn't a total loss on the Barbie kite. :)

The Barbie and Cars kite. I am currently mad at my camera or maybe it's mad at me because it refuses to auto focus. I have no idea whats wrong or what button I pushed. So frustrating!

The champ of the kites.

I had to label him. Look how tiny he is and how mightily he's trying to guide that kite and make it stay up in the air. :)

Sometimes the light is so beautiful when you catch it just the right way. It's rained quite a bit lately and made everything so green.

That little boy in the green shirt has some mad kite flying skills. :)

Where all great kites end up. But I was able to rescue it which naturally made me the hero of the day.

Just to prove we did get Barbie off the ground for a little while

In the end, they just wanted to slide. Notice the holding hands. So sweet.

Carso "borrowed" this soccer ball from some older boys that showed up at the park.

He really puts his whole little body into that kick.

Not sure if he was tired here or maybe hiding the ball, but he stayed like this for the longest time.

Uncles and Aunties and Cousins

There's one thing that makes me sad these days. Well, truthfully a lot of things make me sad these days. But something particularly lately is that my whole family lives far away. Well one brother lives in Austin but other than that they are far. Far like Washington, DC, Midland, TX, Louisville, KY and Chicago. And truthfully when I show my kids pictures of their cousins and ask them who they are they stare at them awhile and wrinkle their brow and say , "I dunno Mommy!" (Except for Marin. She is a video legend in our house:).) I say all of this to say that when one of my brothers does get to come and visit it is a special time. And this past week end was truly special as Uncle Brig and Auntie Kelly came up from Austin to spend Easter with us. I had originally planned to title this post Easter 2012 but as I was going through the pictures I saw a lot more than that. There is an instant connection between Brig and my kids. They were thrown in the air, spun around, hung by their feet, tickled, read to and everything in between. Truly sweet and I am grateful. And even though Kate kept calling him Uncle Burke (Mind you Uncle Burke lives in Chicago and we saw him last June) I'll give her a free pass because good grief, even my parents mixed them up all of the time. :)Take a look at what I found. And if by chance all 3 of the Brednich boys want to move close to here with their families someday, well...... I wouldn't complain.

I made this dress for her 2 years ago and it fits...sort of!

Don't worry it didn't take him long to warm up.

I love this one with her little arm tucked into his. She loved him right away:)

See I told you....Carso is all about wrestling.

Easter loot. My Mom and I had a blast picking everything out. Our only requirement? NO candy!

This the way my brother brig reads a story. "One day fancy Nancy was going to have a tea party but she wanted to check to see if all of her friends  were  card carrying communists." Ok really you would just have to know him.



I love this one of Carso looking at his Uncle out of the corner of his eye:) Gotta keep my eye on that guy!

My Mom searched all over for a purple monster truck for Kate. But seriously its funny to think of my Mom looking for anything monster truck.

LOVE this one.

Auntie Kelly cuddling Carso

Yes we managed to find bunnies as big as the kids.

Playing Memory. Yep she didn't quite get it just yet

A match!

Uncle Brig reading I Know an Old Lady who Swallowed a Fly. Probably talking about the double bypass operation she would have to have after.

I love the way Carso is laughing here

We DID have eggs:)

Kate wasn't too interested in the egg hunt as much as she was the Peeps. Exhibit A:Notice the stuffed right cheek:)

Only My Mom would find an umbrella that would perfectly match Kate's dress.

Carso on the other hand was all about the Egg hunt. I had to take this picture because we all laughed about how he separated all of the candies and eggs out. Kit Kat pile, jelly bean pile, malted milk ball pile, dyed egg pile and plastic egg pile. During the hunt he started to bypass the dyed eggs and go right for the plastic eggs because he knew those were the ones that had the candy. He's a smart one!