Bashing Cotton Balls

I found an idea on Pinterest that I thought Cooper would love called Bashing Cotton Balls. After last week's painting with colored shaving cream did not work out, I thought we'd give this a try.

 Mix equal parts water and flour together, then add food coloring. I used basic colors, but also found neon food coloring on clearance at Target. Leave it to me to be the overachiever on how many colors to use:

Line a baking sheet with foil or parchment paper, put the cotton balls on the baking sheet, and bake at 300 degrees for 45 minutes.

 

I did not use non-stick spray and if we do this again, I probably will. Most of them came off with a little work, but a few stuck and the cotton ball stretched apart. I would also bake them a little longer. They were supposed to be "crispier" so they really cracked when you hit them, but I did not cook them long enough. 

We headed outside and showed Cooper how to bash the cotton balls with his baseball bat. Then he took over:

 

As long as it took you to look at that picture was as long as the fun with bashing cotton balls lasted. Cooper was right back to playing golf, baseball, and begging to turn the water hose on. Seems like I'm enjoying the Pinterest kids' ideas much more than he is!

Summer Fun

After working the first few weeks of summer break, I finally was able to get some time off to spend with Cooper. I have had more fun listening and having conversations with him, even if I am worn out from how energetic he is. I scoured Pinterest for some kid-friendly fun ideas that we could do together. One of the first things I found was painting with shaving cream.

 Basically, you mix shaving cream and food coloring together:

Then paint. Except if you're Cooper...Cooper wanted nothing to do with it and preferred to make a huge mess with the water hose:
 

We were able to swim at Aunt Leigh, Uncle Mark, and Regina's pool. We definitely have a water baby on our hands and Jeff hated having to work instead of spend the day at the pool with us.  

Unfortunately when we got home, I discovered our air conditioner was leaking. After an early evening visit from a HVAC repairman, it was discovered our condensation pump was broken. Even more unfortunately, we could not get it repaired until today (Monday). Coopie tried to cool off with a popsicle and I was even told by Jeff that he'd make sure none got on the furniture after I asked that it not be eaten anywhere but the kitchen:

  

We celebrated Father's Day with breakfast at Stone Soup, a long walk downtown and tried to stick it out at home, but just could not take it anymore. We spent the night at Nana and Bobo's house since they are out of town and as of late this afternoon, we are back in our house! 

I have a "to-do" list I am hoping to complete this summer. I am still working on painting our new doors, but making progress. I've cleaned out some of Cooper's toys and he now has a new toy box in his room. The pack and play that has been in our den since we brought Cooper home from the hospital- first as a a place to nap, then as another toy box- is in storage and it makes me kinda sad that it is gone. 

I have a few more weeks off, then return to work for two weeks before we go on vacation. I am really excited to see how Cooper does at the beach this year. We're having so much fun and I can't wait for it to continue!

Spring Pictures

Recently we took our spring pictures, which went amazingly better than our fall pictures. Our talented photographer, Erin Reagan, was game for anything, so we met downtown and galavanted around finding unique pictures spots.

We've discovered that getting a good picture of the 3 of us is next to impossible with an active 2 year old. The current blog cover picture was about as good as it got, but this was a close second. Just ignore the visible fat rolls on my neck:

Luckily, we got some really cute pictures of Cooper:

And one last one of the 3 of us:

If anyone has any good picture locations for next time, let me know. We've now done a cute town square, an outdoor shopping area, a downtown neighborhood, and cemetery. Yeah, a cemetery. Erin loved that idea and thought I was crazy. Then she saw how the grotto area with a pond and stone bridge looked and didn't think it was such a bad idea. And then Cooper took a header, busted his lip, and I don't think she's been back. Never a dull moment!