Tighten Up

     This is a long overdue post- as you can tell by Lindsay's long hair in the photos.  A few weeks ago, Lindsay went to get her braces adjusted and tightened. Not fun, but all part of the process for beautiful, straight teeth.

 Lindsay chose purple as her band color this time. Her teeth have already moved quite a bit since getting them on in January.

One of our traditions we have for the girls when they have braces is to get something cold to drink/eat after their adjustments. Lindsay chose a milkshake from Steak N Shake. It helps with the pain of the adjustment and a special treat after each visit to the orthodontist.

Golden State

     John has been travelling most of this month for work- we here at the Apedaile house have missed him very much and are looking forward to his return later today. JT has been exclaiming, "Daddy's coming home tomorrow/today!!!"  for the past 2 days. It will be a most welcome reunion.

     Since I'm not one to advertise that my husband is out of town, I wanted to wait to make this blog post. Last week, John's travels brought him back to California for most of the week. Though no where close to either of our families, he enjoyed the brief visit to our home state. John spent the large majority of his time working, he had some fantastic benefits of being back in the Golden State.

 This was the first photo I received after John touched down. His rental car- a Mustang convertible! I thought he was playing a joke on me and snapping random photos in the parking lot at LAX. Nope, my man rode in style- with the top down all week!

 How's this for a room with a view? John's hotel was right on the marina in San Pedro. Beautiful!

 Then for his first meal he went to what our entire family was talking about once we know he was going to Califorinia- In N Out!!! It is simply THE BEST hamburger chain in the U.S. that we have encountered. Too bad the farthest east In N Out is in right now is Texas.

 This is what I'm talking about. Double Double Animal Style(grilled onions and special sauce) Simply the best burger around!

 Then on John's last night in town, he found the impossible- Me N Eds!!! This is my favorite pizza place by far. Why is was an impossible find is this chain is mainly located in the Central Valley of California, where we used to live. However, John just happened to find this one using his GPS on a drive around the Long Beach area. Come to find out, this location is one of the original franchises and has been around for some time- and it was packed according to John.

This shot makes my mouth water and I can nearly smell and taste this wonderful pizza. I can't describe why it tastes so good, but it just does. I know they have a distinctive cracker bread style crust that is crunchy yet soft inside which I think makes me love their pizza so much.

 Can't forget the beautiful California coastline!

John drove a bit up/down Highway 1, which runs along the California coast line with beautiful views. Though it was an overcast day, so nice for John to be able to sink his feet in the sand.

Sink Time

     This past weekend, JT discovered a new area to explore and play- the kitchen sink! Some dishes had just been washed and he saw the bubbly water and asked if he could wash his cars. Why not?!? JT assembled a little container full of cars, trucks, and airplanes to be cleaned. After placing a few towels down for damage control, sink time fun began!

 JT loved using the sponge and scrub brush to clean all of his vehicles.

 "Mater" getting a careful rub-down.

 After the cars were clean, JT would place them on the towel on the side of the sink.

Having a blast! JT has played in the sink every day since! It can get a bit messy with the water, but he gets such enjoyment from playing, it doesn't bother me one bit :) Now if I could get him to "play" with the pots and pans in the sink... I could be on to something ;)

Truck "Cup"

     Just when I think I have seen it all, JT comes out with something new and hilarious to make me scratch my head and laugh. Yesterday, JT was toting around a truck and car in his hands, which he typically does during the day. When it was time to wash his hand, he decided it would be the perfect time to drink from his truck!

 Carefully balancing his truck.

 Fill 'er up!

Ahh! Fresh truck water, so delicious! I love his creativity and ability to keep me laughing by being his 2 year old self. 

Of course had to get some video of this fine moment!

St. Patrick's Day

     Over the weekend, we marked St. Patrick's Day with a bit of green fun. John was working out of town, so it was just me and the kids. We needed to do some shopping, so we all donned our green shirts and enjoyed shopping among the green crowd. For dinner, I incorporated a bit of green coloring into our food- I didn't do any corned beef or cabbage, maybe next year.

 My adorable threesome! JT did have on a green polo, but in our shopping I bought him this Monster Truck shirt and he just had to wear it right away since he LOVES monster trucks.

 We had cornbread muffins with our dinner and I used green food coloring to tint the muffins green. I thought this might make the muffins unappealing to JT, but thankfully that wasn't the case.

Then for dessert, the traditional Irish Chocolate Brownies with green sprinkles on top! Ha ha! They might not be Irish in origin, but they sure were yummy. Hopefully next year, I will serve some more Irish-y food.

Fifth Locks of Love

     Lindsay continues to be a generous person in giving to others. Over the weekend, she made her 5th hair donation to Locks of Love. For those of you not familiar with this organization, it helps children who have medical conditions in which they lose their hair,typically in providing wigs to these children. Here is a link to their website--- http://www.locksoflove.org/   In order to make a donation, you have to provide 10 inches of hair, so this is a major sacrifice to most girls/women(and I guess there must be some men that do this at well) who donate this amount of hair.

     Like I said earlier, this is Lindsay's 5th donation. Her first was in kindergarten. From that point, she has donated about every 2 grades, so on average about 2-3 years between donations. She has donated in K, 2nd, 4th, 6th, and now 8th grades. Her last donation was a few weeks after JT was born, so nearly 3 years since her last donation.

 Here is Lindsay's before photo. She was more than ready to her her hair cut! 

 She likes it long, but with the warm weather we have been having, it's been a bit too much.

The BIG CUT!

 We went to Great Clips, who provides free haircuts to those making Locks of Love donations.

 Lindsay and her donation! So proud of her! Beautiful young lady both inside and out.

 Though it has taken a bit of getting used to being "short", Lindsay is loving her new 'do.

Back shot to show the difference in before/after.

Forks & Straws

     In trying to keep the painting fun, I thought I'd let JT and Finn paint with some more unusual items last week- Straws and plastic forks. I like using different types of tools since a paintbrush or foam brush tends to create a similar result at this age.

 I let JT and Finn select 2 colors of paint apiece for them to share- 2 shades of blue, brown, and purple were the choices of the day.

 Straw painting

 Lots of dipping going on....

 JT figuring out what the fork can create.

 I'd say Finn had a lot of paint to work with here ;)

 The straw ended up being used much like a paintbrush.

As you know from previous posts, I try to get an "after" shot of both boys of their creation. They are quite used to that and will almost on cue pick up their art work and pose for me. However, capturing that perfect smile can take a bit of trial and effort with these 2 year old boys..

Take 1-  Looks like JT smelled something foul and Finn is talking mid-word here..

 Take 2- Finn cheesing it up...

Take 3- both boys smiling at the same time! Perfect!

M&M's

     At school, Lindsay is finishing up one of her related arts courses-Art. Last week she brought home a project she had been working on. For the assignment, she had to bring in any kind of candy bar she selected. It wasn't until she brought home her completed project I realized what she had been using the candy for. Check it out....

 She made a large replication of her candy in a paper mache.

 I think it looks great and she said there was a lot of detail work involved with all of the little "m's" and the hands of the big red "M" that her teacher helped guide her through.

Since we were taking photos, JT wanted to be part of the fun so here he is with Lindsay and her art work.