Bear Paw-ing It Up

This past week (From Wednesday until yesterday) was the Annual Bear Paw Festival, here in Eagle River. With our boys really being too young for most of the activities that went on all week, we didn't do much with it. We did, however, venture out twice on Saturday.

We started our celebration of the festival by going down to the parade. It was a pretty cool parade and the boys had a great time. This was their first parade and they did great just sitting on the curb, waving and clapping and pointing out all the cool things they saw. Added bonus: every so often people would walk through the parade handing out candy to kids who had bags or baskets or whatever to put them in. Sweet! I took about 150 pictures of the parade, but I won't post them all here. I'll just pick a few to highlight, with promises of them being on flickr soon enough.

Zeke was super excited to see the train go through the parade...

almost as excited as he was about the "bears and bubbles" float.

this is the beginning of the parade...the DARE car

and the military band.

and here we are super excited for it all to begin.

After the parade was over, we went home, had lunch, and put the boys down for naps. After their naps though, we headed out again. This time, we went to the carnival. This was a rather large set up with an area with rides and games and some food, plus another area of lines of tents with vendors and more food. There was also a little stage for the dance groups and gymnastic groups to perform (and I guess advertise) on. There was also music playing by the grassy area where people were just hanging out. Again, with the boys being a little young for most of it, and the crowd being a little too much for Josh, we got some ride tickets and took the boys on their first ever carousel ride (in honor of Josh's mom). Zeke freaked out at first when I tried to put him on the horse, but when the ride was over, he freaked out because I had to take him off of the horse. Zeke then wanted to try the little rollercoaster, but we didn't have enough tickets leftover from the carousel ride (the guy running the ride let the kids - or maybe us - ride for free, which was sweet) for him and me to go on it, so Josh took the kids to the park that was right there while I got us some funnel cake (in honor of my mom) and some lemonade. Mmm.

they even had a fire truck set up with the hose on for people to play in

and yes, it was hot enough to do that.

here is Josh and Deacon on the carousel, waiting for it to begin
(Deacon clearly isn't in any rush as he happily has a cracker in hand)

here is Zeke trying to play it cool, but he was very much enjoying himself


here they are at the park waiting for me to come back,
clearly, I was missed...or not

ahhh...nothing like cool lemonade on a hot summer day
after good times at the carnival

It was a lot of fun and I am now looking forward to the Alaska State Fair at the very end of next month. I can just see Josh rolling his eyes and starting to twitch nervously. Otherwise, we've just been hanging out, enjoying the incredible weather we've been blessed with lately. I did, however, finally get last month's pictures up on flickr. You can check them out by clicking here, if you are so inclined. And that is all for now.

Hygienist, Hiking, Hair, & Heat

Or, how we spent our four-day holiday weekend.

Hygienist (or Thursday):

Thursday started Josh's little vacation from work, and what better way to start a long weekend then taking the boys to the dentist. They did really well. Zeke was hesitant to do anything at first, so the dentist came in and looked at Deacon's teeth first. Deacon did well with this, so Zeke decided it would be okay to do it as well. The dentist said they both have great looking teeth, with lots of room in there (which is what you want), and that we're doing a good job. Zeke was then willing to let the hygienist clean his teeth. Deacon, however, was not willing to let her clean his teeth, but that's okay. He doesn't need it yet, it's really more an exercise of getting them used to it all for when they do need it. But it was a good visit and the boys did well.

Hiking (or Friday):

We took advantage of the gorgeous weather we've been having here lately and went for a little hike Friday afternoon. We walked a trail that leads along the river across the street from our house. We had a good time playing in the water with some sticks and, of course, throwing rocks into the water.

Hair (or Saturday):
I'm still not sure how it happened. I've been nagging Josh for awhile now about letting me cut the boys' hair. Not a lot, but they were getting shaggy (as you can tell from the pictures) and I wanted to trim them up a bit. You know, get it out of their eyes and ears, and off their necks a bit. After telling me "no" numerous times, I suggested we just shave their heads for the summer. To my surprise Josh agreed and so, after dinner on Saturday, we cut the boys' hairs. Maybe it'll be a new 4th of July tradition here? While we think they look great, it was a little sad seeing Deacon's sweet curls go. Hopefully they'll grow back.

& Heat (or Sunday):
Our last day of the holiday weekend we just enjoyed the warm weather. We put the boys in their bathing suits and tried out the sprinkler. They didn't really like it much. Well, Deacon didn't like it at all, but Zeke liked it when I chased him around with it. After some fun with the water (Josh and I had a mini-water war) we went into the backyard and got nice and dirty. Josh grilled some delicious halibut that he caught and everything himself. What a man.

And that, my friends and family, is how we spent our holiday weekend.

This Is the Way We...

burn energy,

burn energy,

burn energy.

This is the way we burn energy

all on a sunny day.

My Baby No More

Our sweet, sweet Deacon turned 2 on Friday. I know, I know, how does this keep happening? It seems like only last week he was 1. Hehe. Anyhoo, we had a lot of fun celebrating his special day. Well, once Daddy got home from work. Before that it was just a day like any other day.

But fun abounded as we opened presents (and I do mean "we" as Zeke insisted on helping, and I joined in when things were moving at an incredibly slow pace)...

I like that last one. Zeke's all smiley as he "helps", while Deacon is all, "Dude. Get your mitts offa my present or I will eat you."

Zeke's smiles quickly faded as he realized that all of the toys were for Deacon and he wasn't allowed to play with them right away...

Reminds me of Zeke's last birthday when the same realization hit Deacon...


Okay, enough sad faces. After opening presents we had pizza for dinner, followed with cupcakes. Mmm. Sadly, we didn't have any candles, so it was just singing as we placed cupcakes on each of the boys plates. I don't think Deacon minded any....


After we cleaned up the boys, well boy, Zeke managed to devour his two cupcakes in 30 seconds without making any sort of mess at all, we put on Deacon's favorite movie, "WALL-E"...

After the movie it was off to bed, where they burned off the sugar from the cupcakes for a bit (and of course, by a bit I mean 2 1/2 hours). Saturday more presents came in the mail, and there were left over cupcakes. All in all, I think Deacon had a pretty good day.

Well, Then.

So, apparently, being quiet isn't the only indication that the boys are up to something they shouldn't be. Before I get into the story at hand, let me back up a little bit.

One night last week, Josh went into the boys' room to check on them and tell them to settle down. As he went to tuck Deacon in he saw little pieces of foam, like from a stuffed animal, all over Deacon's bed. He turned on the light, I entered and together we cleaned up the mess, but could not, for the life of us, figure out where it had all come from. None of their stuffed animals were missing, or super skinny, or anything. Very perplexing.

Now, Sunday night, I was in the kitchen making a little snack, and I was listening to the boys playing and thought, "It's almost 9:00. I should really go in there and tell them to go to sleep, but they almost sound like they're winding down themselves, so maybe I shouldn't." For whatever reason, I decided to go in anway. Sigh. We now know where the foam came from.

Apparently, Zeke thought it would be a good idea to flip over his mattress (there's a crack or two on the bottom, which is really the top, but became the bottom when we thought the cracks were bothering him while he was trying to sleep) and pull out the foam padding inside of it. Then, because why should he have all the fun, he would give the pieces of foam to Deacon, who would then rip them into little pieces. Oh yeah. There was foam and little pieces of plastic all over their room.

After bare-bottom spankings, and much stern-talkings, we clean up and put them back in bed. I do not have pictures of the mess because I did not want to encourage a repeat performance. They hadn't done that much damage, so we just put his bed back together as was, and that was all for the night.

So Monday night, we put them in bed, not thinking anything of it, and went about our evening. After awhile they were getting a bit rowdy so I went in to tell them to quiet down, only to find the room exactly as it was the night before. The mattress propped up against the wall, foam and plastic everywhere. It's a good thing Zeke likes to sleep on the floor, because that's exactly where he slept as I took the mattress out of the room after this since now it looks like this:

Now, this picture doesn't really show the extent of the damage since Zeke apparently had to reach behind/under/whatever that purple layer to get to the foam, and he managed to leave the purple layer intact. Yeah. So the boys and I went to Wal-mart yesterday and got Zeke a new mattress. I knew he'd been needing one anyway because of the cracks, but I had no idea he'd ever do something like this.

As if two nights in a row of discipline wasn't enough, Zeke decided last night, to flip up his new mattress, I guess, to see if he could have a go at it like he had at the last mattress. I have to admit, it was somewhat funny being in the living room and hearing Josh yell, "Have you done lost your mind?!" Oh, those Walter boys.

As Promised

If you remember, I ended my last post with a promise of tales from our trip to the Renaissance Faire last weekend. Never having been to one, or at least not remembering having ever been to one, I didn't have any sort of expectations. Josh, on the other hand, was a little disappointed. We still had a good time though.

We parked, we walked, we paid to get in, then walked around the one side of the fair. At the end of the grounds was a pony ride/petting zoo set-up. Thinking it would be great fun to put Zeke on a horse (or at the very least let him pet a pig) I paid the lady the money and this was what immediately followed...

Notice the red eyes? Yeah, he cried and wanted nothing to do with the horse. Sigh. With assurances that I would get back the money for the pony ride if it didn't work out later on, we moved on to the petting zoo. I guess petting farm would be a better term since there were sheep, goats, pigs, and cows to pet, and then ducks to chase around. Clearly, Zeke had a much better time with this...Notice the big, goofy smile? Zeke had such a good time being in there with the animals. He walked around and around and would pet one as it walked past him. He called everything by the wrong name repeatedly, then showed off by getting them all right repeatedly. Silly boy.

As we spent time petting the farm animals, I would point out other kids on the horses as they circled around the area outside the petting farm. Zeke would humor me and look over, then turn back to the pigs and sheep and ducks, seemingly not interested. When I was well past bored (I tried to stay for an amount of time that would seem to make it worth the money we paid) I told Zeke it was time to go and asked him if he would like to get on the horse now? Boy were we all surprised when he climbed right up the steps and tried to hop on by himself.
Look at him go! It was very exciting. Of course, he tried so hard to be cool about the whole thing. As we were going around (and his helmet kept sliding over the left side of his face), I asked him if he was having fun, and he just looked ahead trying his absolute hardest not to smile. It was precious. And in case you're wondering, this is what sweet Deacon did while all of this animal shenaniganary was going on (and yes, I did just say shenaniganary as if it were a real word)...Isn't he the cutest? And here is what Deacon did the rest of the time we were at the faire...

Isn't he fabulous? After Zeke got off the horse, we walked around the rest of the place looking for dinner and eating what we found along the way. As we were finishing up our food, it started to rain a little so we took that as our cue to leave. All in all, a good time.




Now, if you have a weak stomach, or aren't at all interested in this next part, I am finally going to post the pictures of my wisdom teeth that I promised to post way back whenever I said I would (most likely the beginning of May sometime). So, if you want to see them, keep reading. If you don't want to see them, then I bid you adieu.





Okay, those of you still with me, here are my teeth...

Mmmm...aren't they lovely? Notice the giant hole in the one? Yeah, I had good times picking solid chunks of food out of that one. Apparently my wisdom teeth (I think all my teeth acutally) are a bit longer than other people's wisdom teeth normally are. They are also a bit more "hooky" at the bottom then they're "supposed to be". So there you have it. I think I am all caught up on promises now. Now to just get better at blogging a little more often again.

That's a Lot of Orange

When we got here, all the windows in the house had Venetian blinds. I decided shortly after moving in that I don't like Venetian blinds very much. The strings get stuck, they flop all over the place, they aren't very attractive, and Zeke has figured out how to rip chucks out of the individual slats. Thus, the "Good Idea Fairy" struck me in the head with her wand, causing Josh to cry, as I decided that I wanted the blinds to come down and curtains to go up. (Josh is not a fan of the "Good Idea Fairy" since the good ideas she places in my head usually mean some sor of work for him.)

So I asked Josh's mom if she would make us some curtains for our house. I told her I would measure the windows, pick out fabric, and all that she needed to make the curtains once school let out for her. As I was shopping online for fabrics (which I really have NO idea how to do, but I got it done) I decided I didn't want to wait a month or two for curtains. Also, I figured, how hard could it be to make curtains? After all, they're just rectangles. Thus, I had the fabrics mailed to me and I got out the sewing maching Karen got me for Christmas so many years ago, and I made some curtains for our house.

I got the curtains for the boys room finished first since they needed blackout curtains more than any other room needed anything. I think the curtains help a little at night, but it seems that even darkness can't stop the two of them from having a three hour fun-fest every night. But here is what they got...

Next project was the living room since that fabric actually came first, and I was so tired of looking at this...

They are, of course, beautiful windows and I love them, but they were just so, I don't know, boring or something. Plain. Just kind of "meh". Plus, the blinds on these windows were particularly fickle and obnoxious, so on days when it gets warm, it's a pain to close them to keep some of the heat out. (This upper floor REALLY heats up on a warm afternoon - the thermometer can read up to 90 degrees sometimes.) So I made some curtains, and wow what a difference. Not only do I think they look nice, but they really do help keep the room no warmer than 80 on hot days. Behold...

Sorry these pictures are kind of dark, the windows just let in so much light.

Now, with the boys room done (yes, I know I'm missing an apostrophe there, but I just don't know where to put it boy's? boys'? boys''? so I'm leaving it out) and the living room finished, I moved on to our bedroom. And basically we just wanted some blackout curtains for our room because it's way too bright in there all. night. long. Plus, I wanted it to look a little bit prettier. There's nothing wrong with that, right? Anyhoo, Josh solely picked out the fabric for our room, and I must say that he did well. Sure, it's a lot of orange when they're all closed, but they make it nice and dark, you almost don't notice...

Now I am finished, for the time being. I want to put up curtains in the guest room and the play room/Josh's "man cave", but I have to go shopping for fabric first. Plus, I need a little time off. While they weren't hard, they were somewhat time consuming. Not that I have anything else to do, but I just want a little break.

Also, as if sewing curtains weren't enough, I also finished the two blankets I've been working on (seemingly forever) for Project Linus. They both are done in the same pattern, a pattern I rather like, but a pattern that I don't want to do again any time soon.

And that is all for my "show and tell" time. Especially since Deacon is crying to be released from his naptime prison. I promise to be back soon though because we went to the Renaissance Faire this weekend and Zeke went on his first pony ride, so I have to share those pictures.