Today is “applesauce day,” as I affectionately call it, where my friend Heather and I take about a bazillion apples (technically speaking, 4 bushels) and make applesauce to last throughout the year.

The process is described in last year’s post, We’re Either Crazy or Stupid which was fun for me to reread and see pictures from last year (check out sweet Jack Henry from one year ago!!!). Changes this year are that there are now 6 kids 6 years old and under. Good times. We have added a kid to the bunch every year for six years, but for real, this is it…hopefully in the next few years we can count on them to help a bit more instead of just eat what we make.

It’s a lot of effort, but totally worth the trouble if you ask us.

I love this commercial (even though I hate the product being advertised…maybe because I didn’t eat it growing up? But it grosses me out.). Love the mom in this spot, though.

And I heard this commercial on the radio the other night, and just loved it. Click here to hear one of the “Be a Dad” commercials (you’ll recognize Tom Selleck’s voice, too!). Here’s a video from the same series that’s really cute. I’m so glad I had a good dad, and that my boys have one, too.

Bennett, after some tense words were exchanged with Luke: He’s acting like he’s like 8 or something! He’s so bossy!
Me (thinking to myself): Yes, 8 is old.

—–

Luke, after a show we were watching referred to India: Mom, is that the state that’s right next to Illinois?

—–

Bennett, out of nowhere: Mom, am I gonna be a second year old preschool classer?
Me: WHA? (sending the words through my decoder ring……) Yes, you’re going to be in your second year of preschool in the fall.

—–

Bennett had just spent 15 minutes whining about not liking meatballs (mind you, the kid will eat an adult-sized cheeseburger any day of the week) at dinner, and I was about to take his plate away. He finally decided to eat a bite, and Luke, who loves them said, “So, what do you think, Bennett?”

He answered, “I don’t want to say.”

We finally got out him that he did, in fact, like meatballs.

To which Luke replied, smiling and shaking his head, “You never know with Bennett.”

—–

Bennett: Mom, on that movie we just watched, you can choose 3 different languages. But we just chose regular.

—–

Luke: Mom, when you were a kid, did they have lifeguards at the pool? ‘Cause that was like, the 1920’s or something, right?

—–

I don’t think I’ve recorded here how Bennett keeps track of days. If today’s Monday, and something is happening on Thursday, he’ll say, “You mean tomorrow tomorrow tomorrow?” This works for “yesterday” too.

—–

Since Jack Henry still doesn’t have much to contribute to this segment (sigh…he is trying to imitate lots of sounds, without much success, but at least he’s trying), I’ll close with something super-cute he’s been doing with his brothers lately. When it’s time for him to take a nap or go to bed, he blows them a kiss. BUT, it’s a special kiss that the three of them somehow came up with…instead of a traditional hand-over-the-mouth blown kiss, he puts his index finger in his mouth and then does the “mmmm-wah!” sound.

I don’t mean that literally; I mean that I think Luke potentially doesn’t see skin color. I know that lots of kids are beautifully made that way, but I’m starting to think that Luke has an extreme case of it.

Early in the school year, they did a unit in school about about skin color and how people are alike and different. Then, they did an activity where they chose from a group of different skin-tone paint colors and make a self portrait on a paper plate. My friend Mara (and Luke’s friend Jackson’s mom) was there the day they did the project, and she was working with Luke and tried to help him find a paint that was maybe a better fit, but this is what he chose (don’t mind the glasses…no one is quite sure why he gave himself a pair):

It’s hard to tell in this picture without the other kids’ displayed next to his, but he seriously made himself as dark or darker than the Indian girl and Guatemalan boy in his class. And he’s in the top three palest kids ever in his class.

It continued in May, when I got my Mother’s Day artwork (he still gave me brown hair because this was before summer highlighting had commenced):

I was easily the darkest “mom” painting of them all. Isn’t this funny?

So, it finally got here, after all this time and not enough training (which I knew well ahead of the race – I wimped out in the heat and humidity in the last 6 weeks or so).

But it was so. much. fun. My friend Hannah was right…while training sucks, there is something crazy-addicting about running a 5K.

My plan was basically this: run as much as possible, and walk as quickly as possible when taking a break. I think I did OK, especially since, while “training” (I have to use that term loosely; while I’ve been really happy with my newfound slight desire to exercise, to say that I “trained” for this seems a bit excessive), I never walked/ran a 3 mile combo…it was usually more like 2, with me running a mile or so. My brother Jake and I planned to run together, and my sister Hayley was going to stay with her two friends. Jake wanted to stay with me, which was really sweet of him (he’s like that!), but he’s in infinitely better shape than I, and have I mentioned that he’s 6′4″? His stride is *slightly* longer than mine; I totally would have cramped his style. Sidenote: my brother Zach wasn’t able to run today due to his knee injury…total bummer. But he came down to the finish line with his family and my dad, so that was cool! Jake and I ran together for the first 2/3-3/4 of a mile, when I needed a little walking break, and I sent him ahead of me, and he finished strong! The only thing I didn’t like was the congestion at the start of the race; walkers hadn’t moved to the side, and it was hard to get started, which was annoying. I just wanted to be able to run!

I think I ran close to 2 miles of it, albeit slowly. I took as few walking breaks as possible, even running up the incline part, which surprised me! I finished in 39:10…since I had absolutely nothing to go on, I wasn’t disappointed. (By the way, the technology that they use is so cool to me…there’s a chip in a tag on your shoe, and it starts counting your time when you cross the starting line, and then ends when you cross the finish line, so you get an exact time for your run, which you find out by checking online.)

And the crazy thing is, I’m looking into another 5K. Hannah mentioned that there’s one in Champaign in May, which would be so much fun since it ends at Memorial Stadium. But I’d like to do one this fall, too. Suggestions, anyone?

OH! I almost forgot to add that I walked RIGHT past James Denton downtown. I’ve never seen one minute of Desperate Housewives, but I certainly do know his face. If I’d realized half a second earlier that yes, that was in fact him, I’d have probably done something stupid like try to get my picture taken with him. I would have led in with something like, “I know I’m super-smelly right now, and I have no makeup on, but will you take your picture with me?” Classy. He was heading to FanFest.

The pictures, of course…

I have a question for you: Are you diggin’ the mustaches? (Post-Dispatch story here)

I have to admit, at first, I thought, “this is horrible…they all look like 70’s p*rn-star wannabes”…and then I realized that this isn’t just stopping with the pitchers…

But now, it’s cracking me up. I mean, I can’t wait for Skip Schumacher and Joel Pineiro to return to their normal scruffy-faced look (I LOVE a 5 o’clock shadow). And for those who really can’t grow a ’stache to just shave them off already. But, it looks like they’re having fun – how can you not laugh at a ridiculous mustache? And hopefully having fun = winning games. I’ll really laugh if Pujols shaves his goatee into a mustache.

I’m just glad I’m not married to one of them…

Bennett’s new movie obsession is “Bolt,” which he’d seen at the theater, and then got from my dad for his birthday and watched a couple of times. In the last 2 weeks, though, he’s decided that this movie is hilarious and he wants to see it all the time.

The hamster in the movie, Rhino, is really entertaining, and Bennett started imitating him. Here’s a clip from the movie (horrible quality, but it’s all I can find) – double click on it to watch on YouTube, and to make it brief, skip ahead to 2:10 and watch until about 2:30.

And here’s Bennett’s version.

Tiny bit of business first: I moved Alyssa’s modeling contest info to the sidebar…please still vote for her daily!

Luke is my creative kid…he is always coming up with a plan to make something out of paper that you wouldn’t think is possible (like clothes for a stuffed animal), making signs for things (arrows to point Santa from the fireplace to the Christmas tree), and setting up toys/furniture to make a hideout or tent. Honestly, it can be exhausting to meet the materials requests some days, but it’s definitely one of the things I love most about him.

Last weekend, he created a new “leash” system for his stuffed dog, Pup, which he’s had since he was about 1 (and my mom bought it for him; I think that’s part of the reason he’s still pretty attached). Over the last couple of years, we’ve had yarn leashes for various stuffed animals in our house, but they don’t last long and I don’t like having a long string of yarn hanging out in the playroom. He came up with a plan to use something we already have: lanyards. We have a bunch of them from the boys being in the Cardinals kids crew every year. Luke put a beaded bracelet (the kind they make at school on a pipe cleaner) around Pup’s neck for a collar, and then hooked the lanyard onto that. It’s perfect! For Bennett’s dog, Spot, they’ve also used a watch around the dog’s neck to attach the lanyard.

isn't that cute?

Apologies to Bob, who asked for less Cardinals gear in the family pictures…I swear this wasn’t on purpose. And yes, even the stuffed dog has on a Cardinals shirt.

Last night at dinner, I put a tiny serving of corn* on Jack Henry’s plate, because I always give him a tiny serving of whatever vegetable* we’re having that night.  Every night, he ignores it or plays with it (he used to gobble up every vegetable* I put on his tray, and then, like many toddlers, decided one night that he wasn’t going to eat anything he didn’t want to).

When the meal was almost over, Luke asked me, “Mom, did you take Jack’s corn* off his plate?  Because it’s gone.”  I rushed over to his high chair and looked at his plate, and checked in his seat, and by gosh, it WAS gone!  Luke quick checked the pocket of Jack Henry’s bib for good measure, and it wasn’t in there, either.  So he must have eaten it!  We had a big impromptu celebration, complete with lots of clapping, which he loved and joined in with, and lots of “good job, Jack Henry” ’s thrown in there, too.  He was beaming.

And he finally got to have some dessert with the other boys…he usually has to sit there and watch them eat a little treat after dinner without having any because he’s not tried everything on his plate.  (Side note: times have changed around here…I wouldn’t have dreamed of letting Luke have dessert at this age, but since Jack Henry is learning so much from his big brothers, it seemed appropriate.  Besides, HE ATE A VEGETABLE*.)

*All right, all you purists out there…I know corn is a starch and not a vegetable.  But in this house, it’s still included in the vegetable group because it’s one that gets eaten without complaint from the two older boys.  And, there’s fiber and trace amounts of vitamins and minerals in it, so that makes it a vegetable to me.

Yesterday, I turned 22 32. Time flies when you’re having fun, right?

We had a great 4th of July evening with the Swinigans…click over to her blog for some cute pictures! Jack Henry very reluctantly got his picture taken with our family, but when the Swinigans sat down to get their picture taken, he hopped right up to join them. Also – Luke asked me if he and Norah could be alone (code for “please keep Bennett and Lucy away from us”). We should have said yes now, because the next time he asks, they could be teenagers and the answer will most definitely be “no!”

pictures like these *almost* make me sad that he won't be a big brother again.

he's so good with babies!

we don't get a whole family picture that often!

On Sunday, my boys gave me a breakfast birthday treat from Krispy Kreme, complete with a candle and singing.

Luke gave me one of my presents last week, but I haven’t shared it yet:

he made this at summer school in his "fit kid" class.

We went to church, and after lunch and putting Jack Henry down for a nap, I went out and did some shopping. I’ve bought myself two new pairs of shoes this week, and they couldn’t be more different from each other but I love them both! I got this pair at Target, and I feel like I stole these Privos – I got them for $25 at TJMaxx! I think they’ll be so comfortable this winter. Oh crap. I am getting old. I just bought a pair of shoes for comfort. I’m just going to pretend that the Target pair completely cancels out that last thought.

Matt and I got to go out for dinner last night, as Zach and Michon watched the kids for us. We sat on the patio at Bravo and had a great meal…I can now say that I highly recommend the Insalata della Casa (seriously. amazing.) and the Chicken Parmagiana Milanese. Since a 2000 calorie dinner wasn’t enough, we finished off the night with dessert at Oberweis. Yum.

This afternoon I used one of my birthday gifts (that I requested, not that Matt just bought for me, because that would be bad): My Fitness Coach. I’m excited to do more with it, but today I did a 15 minute cardio (which Luke and Bennett did with me – that probably won’t happen again unless our living room magically grows to twice the size it is overnight) and a 15 minute yoga session, mainly because I just wanted to see what each was like. I think I’m going to like this game!

Next, I’m going to scrub my floor…seriously, someone should call the authorities if I don’t. I’m generally OK with the 3 (or 5 or 10) second rule, but right now, heck no – if anything touches the floor it needs to be burned. That should be some good exercise, too.

(Detailed pictures of how to assemble grilled meatloaf are up on Three More Bites, too, if you’re interested!)