"Magic" Markers

Have you tried Crayola's Color Wonder markers and activity books yet? They're great! Not to sound like or be an advertisement, but here's the quote from their website:

"Crayola Color Wonder products offer mess-free coloring fun. That's because Color Wonder products feature colorless inks and paints that show up like magic on special Color Wonder paper. So color stays on the paper - not on your child!"

Xander hasn't been too fond of coloring until now. I bought him a "Cars" Color Wonder coloring book and allow him to color on the living room floor. With regular markers and crayons I only allow him to color on the kitchen table. Now that he can color wherever he wants he's much more excited about it and I'm happy he's honing his fine motor skills!

Encouragement for Friday

When You Need to be Strong

I look at the days ahead and wonder what they hold.
Don't we all?
And then these words make their way to my heart:

"Go in the strength you have...am I not sending you?"
Judges 6:14

We don't have to...
wait to overcome our weaknesses,
complete the ten point improvement plan,
figure everything out.
The strength we already have is all the strength we need.
Because we have a limitless God within us who loves us.
As is.
And He promises to stick by us.
All the way.

-Holley Gerth

Spontaneous Combustion?

The definition of spontaneous combustion:

the ignition of a substance or body as a result of internal oxidation processes, without the application of an external source of heat, occurring in finely powdered ores, coal, straw, etc.

In this case etc. means bird. It's so hot outside that apparently birds are spontaneously combusting in my front yard.

Excitement

Xander can be so animated sometimes - here's a video that makes me smile. :)



And this one makes me laugh!
Hope David isn't too mad that I posted it - he's just being a good dad. :)

Beach 2011 - Part 1

I'm so behind! We've taken two beach trips this summer and I'm just now getting around to posting a few pictures from our adventures. My apologies and more to come. :)



Daddy, Xander & Grandpa at the Aquarium



Mommy, Daddy & Xander at the Aquarium

Slightly blurry...

Aunt B

Grandpa & Xander

It's a long video, but worth it. In my opinion. :)

The Avetts

Here's an awesome article about the Avett Brothers and their newest song. They're on CMT unplugged!

I have such fond memories of the Avett Brothers concerts. I've definitely been to more Avett concerts than any other band - I've probably seen them live close to a dozen times. Mine and David's first date was at one of their concerts, we danced to one of their songs as our first dance at our wedding reception, we drove to Raleigh and back in one evening for a concert (I felt really old after that one), spent two New Year's Eves at their concerts (one while I was very pregnant with Xander), they're from Concord (about 10 minutes from our house), and they're just way cool! :)

Cars

So, Xander has some new favorite toys. A few weeks ago Mimi bought Xander a little Lightning McQueen and Mater for Xander to play with. He fell in love! He hasn't fallen so hard for a toy since Scout. This is big, y'all. Well, David has been so excited that Xander loves these cars. As David said to me, "I just want to go out and buy them all because he loves them so much and it's so fun to buy things for him!" This is really the first time that Xander has enjoyed something we can actually go out and get him. So, let me tell you, David has. When we were at the beach (the first time) David came back from a solo shopping trip with 2 cars for Xander - a complete surprise and Xander was thrilled. At the end of that week we went back to the Disney store and let Xander pick out 2 more by himself (and David bought Mac to go along with them). Here are some pics of Xander playing with his cars.

Xander and his cars.

The line-up



 We went back to the beach last week. Xander had his first theater experience - we went to see Cars 2. It was so fun! He did such a great job! He was quiet, attentive, and ate his weight in goldfish. I tried popcorn with him, but he wasn't a fan, so I was glad I'd brought a back-up of goldfish. He absolutely loved seeing the movie. Grandma went with us and Xander alternated between my lap, grandma's lap and his own seat. He wasn't fussy, wasn't loud and didn't embarrass me (I was really expecting that last one -ha!). We prepped him by watching the following trailer on youtube a gazillion times. :) Xander couldn't get enough of it!





So of course, after seeing the movie, David had to buy Xander a Francesco. It happened to come in a 2-pack with Shu Todoroki. And he really wanted to get Luigi and Guido (Xander calls him "Pit Stop" - that's funny if you've seen either the first or second movie). Luigi and Guido happened to come in a 4-pack with Uncle Topolino and Lightning McQueen. Whew! What am I going to do with these boys? Oh, right, I'm having a little girl soon to tone down the testosterone. :)