Chore Jar, Mt. Laundry & The Great Towel Wars

My therapist has been helping me think of some ways I can get the boys to help around the house as well as helping me find solutions to the constant, disastrous mess that is my house. I decided to do a chore jar, which is a giant pickle jar with balls, each with a number that corresponds to a chore. If they do a chore, they get a marble, however, Cruise has lost all interest in marbles, so we'll be moving to a money system soon (which will also help him in math). Jett's been racking up the marbles, saving for some toys from the museum.

I also purchased some baskets for Cruise & Jett for their clothes so they can put their clothes away themselves. Cruise has green, and Jett has blue. They actually do it with minimal complaining, and I made it easy for them long ago by putting pictures of what type of clothing goes inside on each drawer. 

As far as the towels are concerned, the boys take out a new towel EVERY. DAY. and they pile up, get thrown all over the floor, and get walked on, dog hair, etc. It was driving me crazy! So we locked up the linens closet and I purchased the boys two towels each of their color of choice. Cruise: green. Jett: blue. Miles: yellow (I had to pick his). They get one towel at a time, they are responsible for keeping track of their towel and keeping it off the floor. And if I find a towel on the floor, I know whose it is! "It's brilliant, brilliant, brilliant! Genius I say!" It's worked quite nicely.

Grandma & Papa Greer Come to Town

A few days after Miles' birthday, my parents came to town and we got to spend a little time with them. On the 26th of September, we went to lunch with them to Cubby's and then later we all went to the Museum of Natural Curiosity so Cruise could show them all the amazing things the museum had to offer.

Even though it was just for a day, it was fun to have Grandma & Papa in town! I kept wondering why it's taken me so long to post this and then I remembered, Cruise & Miles got super sick for a week from putting the water in their mouths from the Water Works area. Miles was especially sick and couldn't keep anything down. So yeah, I completely forgot to blog. 

Miles' 1st Birthday

Oh wow, it's already been a year. For Miles' birthday we had the family nearby come and have cake & ice cream at our place the Sunday before his actual birthday. I requested no gifts because quite frankly, we have wayyy too much stuff in this house. Not to mention toys. We decided to have a Sesame Street theme since Miles LOVES Sesame Street. His favorite video is Sing Yourself Silly, and yes, we have it on VHS (although I bought a backup DVD since our VCR started eating some of the tapes).

Here is the invitation for the party:

And of course I did my usual themed cake. I decided to do a 2 tier banana cake with whipped cream cheese frosting and chocolate ganache between the layers. The bottom tier was 3 layers of cake that I covered in green fondant and then cut out a Sesame Street sign with Miles' name on it. That proved to be pretty tricky and a little frustrating. 

The second tier I decided to make into Oscar's trashcan with Oscar peering out. It sounded easier than it actually was. I bought small little round pans and stacked 3 layers of cake and then wrapped it in grey fondant. The Oscar was green modeling chocolate with modeling chocolate eyes, and then I piped green royal icing on him to make him look furry. The lid I made out of cardboard covered in fondant. I had to use a few dowels to keep it all together, but it worked out. I was just glad that the trashcan was supposed to look lumpy and dinged up because it was not looking to great. I dusted the whole can with silver dusting powder so it would look more metallic. 

Just as I was finishing, Miles climbed up and grabbed a fistful of cake, so I had Dave cut out some fondant stars and we covered the hole right up! 

Then I made Miles his own little cake in case he wanted to dig in (which he didn't). I just did a small layer covered in chocolate ganache. It tasted like chocolate covered bananas. 

Honestly I have to say, this was one of the hardest cakes I've ever had to do. It took me 10 hours from start to finish. But it tasted awesome!

Once we got Miles all situated to sing to him and let him at his cake, he looked so confused and was wondering what all those people were doing singing at him. Cruise & Jett blew out his candle for him and Miles sat there without even touching his cake. He chewed on a spoon for a half hour. His favorite part of the entire party were the balloons. 

Mom & Dad Ybarra broke our rule and got Miles some gifts (I guess if anyone is allowed, it's Grandparents). They got him some cute, fuzzy jammies and a TMNT nap mat with memory foam. I must admit, I've been enjoying that quite a bit as I hang out with Miles in the playroom. Thanks Ybarras!

On Monday, his actual birthday, we gave Miles his birthday presents! I got him a fun book called Heads and then we got him a little Disney Planes ride-on, which he is loving!

Today I took him to his 1 year check up and shots. He did so good with the shots! Hardly cried at getting 3 big ones! He is doing awesome as far as development goes. His stats are as follows:

Height: 29.5 in. (36th percentile)

Weight: 22.9 lbs (75th percentile)

Head C.: 18.5 in. (76th percentile)

At that was Miles' birthday!

Dave's Boat and Some Family Fun

Dave's boat has entered a new phase: motorized paddle. He bought a small motor from Harbor Freight and has been working on the boat for the past couple of months. He and I took it out a couple weeks ago and although it worked, I would hate to be sitting in the seats behind. Once that motor starts, it is all water in your face! The chain was thrown off after a bit, so I didn't get to ride it, but it was fun to see it move around in the harbor.

Every Friday we go do something fun as a family. Tired of the usual museum visits, we decided to go do something we don't normally do the past couple of Fridays.

A couple weeks ago we drove up the canyon and visited Bridal Veil. The boys had a lot of fun walking through the ice cold water, exploring, and helping Daddy catch a fish with his bare hands. And yes, they threw it back. Miles really loved playing in the water as well. I think he wanted to go swim with the fishies.

Then this past Friday, we took the boys to the Provo Beach Resort and let them boogie board. Cruise still had his birthday money, so we let him use it there, and of course we had to let Jett do it too. They had a blast!