Ummm... Hello?

Is anyone else having trouble uploading photos?  When I go to Insert Image I now have 3 options: From Blog, Picasa Web Albums, and From URL. (I have Picasa, now what?)
What the heck?
Help!! Anyone know what to do ?

~mrs. dunbar

The Rules

Pictures are an international language. 

And when you're  four years old,  you color pictures.

Then tape them to the front door of your house.

Dunbar House Rules, as written by Monkey

1. No Pets. (Other than Dodger and Blue.)

2. No knives, forks, or spoons. (If you eat here, the Dunbar's will provide them.)

3. No shoes in the house. (Or flips or boots.)

4. No Smoking.

and now we have a 5th Rule, No Pillows. (If you sleep here, the Dunbar's will provide them.)

Monkey thought of these all on his own. Decided how he wanted to write them out; crossed out circles, you know, "Just like the No U-turn signs on the street." 

The Rules are posted on our front door.

Now, who wants to come over for a visit?

In his brother's shoes

Bogie walked around the house all day yesterday with Monkey's slippers on.

Refused to take them off. It took him five minutes to get from the entry to his room because he was in those slippers scooting along at a snail's pace.

He wants to do things his way. On his time. But he constantly tries to imitate his big brother and Monkey is always so patient with him.  Even if if means putting socks on because his brother is wearing his slippers.  

Hoping you have a good day today "scooting along."

This post is linked up to:

Strawberries-Tuesday Tip

Before, or directly after, going to the grocery store I always clean out my fridge and pantry to make way for new food. The one thing that we inevitably throw away the most often are fruits and vegetables. Every single week, mushy strawberries, wilted lettuce, moldy mushrooms. And I can't help but wonder how much money I'm just tossing in the trash. Finally, I've put my butt in gear and  started doing some research on how to best store them in order to try and make these natural wonder foods last a little longer.

This week:

Strawberries

Normally I would just toss the basket or plastic container in the fridge, and then try to remember to feed the strawberries to my boys the very next day because two or three days later the strawberries would be all wilted.

Now here's what I've learned.

1. Before using or storing, sort through the strawberries and separate the soft ones from the firm, fully ripe berries. Discard any mushy or spoiled berries. Leave the caps (green parts) on the strawberries until ready to eat or use in your recipes.

2. Store fresh strawberries in a colander in the refrigerator. This allows the cold air to circulate around them. Do not cover them. (Is anyone picturing those single size colanders from Pottery Barn like me?  I think Target has them too. How pretty when you opened up your fridge door. I'm inspired. )


3.For best flavor, do not wash the strawberries until you are ready to eat or use them.

4. As strawberries tastes best at room temperature, remove from the refrigerator approximately 1 hour before they are to be used. (Well, this may not work out so well.)

5.Remove caps from strawberries only after washing (the caps keep the water from breaking down the texture and flavor inside the strawberries). I thought that last part was pretty interesting.

Hope this helps somebody. Now, go get some strawberries.

~mrs. dunbar

P.S. Happy Birthday Joseph!

Life moves fast...

Wow, my posts have been so sporadic recently.

I've started going to the Chiropractor this week and have been super sore. He said to give him 3 weeks and I would feel a dramatic difference in my neck and back. I'm hoping so because being sore: sucks. So does popping pills. I could never be a drug addict, I hate to take pills. But I've been popping them to function recently and that is so not a good thing. Not at all. (And the thought of a needle- no way!)  So hopefully this chiropractor thing will work.

But on to more important things: Like this feisty 2-year old who wants to do EVERYTHING and I quote: "myself!"

Anyone see anything wrong with this picture?  He wanted to be the one to pull the wagon, but somebody had to sit in it. And that somebody is the one who weighs the most in this here Dunbar household.

He's a trooper though. He moved Mr. Dunbar a few feet and then showed me his muscles.

Big buff muscles that they are.

And this lil one came by for a visit last weekend.

She was wearing her I Love My Aunt outfit.

Remember when I gave it to her? (Here)

Gracie looks just like my brother, her daddy.  Look at those cheeks.

~mrs. dunbar

All I want are my two front teeth

Well, we found out this week that Bogie's adult teeth are in fact growing just right under his gums. So when he's about 6, and all of the other kids are loosing teeth and waiting for adult size chompers to come in, Bogie's teeth will be coming out as well.

Hooray.

We've been waiting since he was born, for him to turn 2 to be x-rayed. So we would know for sure whether or not he would ever have two bottom teeth of his own again. 

(If you didn't know, he was born with 2 teeth that came out shortly after he was born.)

And my favorite picture from our cupcake photoshoot...

It really depicts my boys so well.

I was at the dry cleaners this morning, and the dry-cleaning clerk said, "Your boys look so much like your husband. But when your bigger one smiles, it's all you."

Ah. I smiled even bigger, and politely thanked her.

Cupcake for a Smile

I took the boys to our Cupcakery in town. The fancy place that only sells cupcakes, that I could have bought an entire lunch for the price of a cupcake and juice. They had fun. Said they wanted to come back. Ha, I said, when you're paying for it. We had a nice time though.

It was actually bribery to get them to smile for the camera afterward.

Hopefully I got something worthy of printing.

Anyone else resort to bribery for the camera?

~mrs. dunbar

Cold Toes

Every night when I climb into bed, inevitably, my toes are cold. Ice cold. Like you could mistake them for ice cubes, cold.  So, I snuggle up to Mr. Dunbar and shove my icy toes under is warm legs or bum.  He does this crazy wacky snake movement to shake me off and then says something like "Get off me Devil Woman!" And I laugh, he says its not funny, and I laugh again. Then he pulls my pillow out from under me and hits me with it, and then I tell him that's not funny. And then he laughs.This is how we go to bed almost every single night. Like a routine. Something to look forward to, something to fall asleep with a smile on your face. 

I asked him last night if he thought everyone went to sleep the way we do?  He said, "No," a lot of people, men in particular, probably have other "outlets." It made me sad.  But it also reminded me of how good I've got it:

A husband who loves me.

A husband who laughs with me, and at me.

A husband who comes home to me every single night.

And then I rolled over, thanked God above, and fell asleep. With a smile on my face.

And of course, a picture... from last week's basketball practice. He looks like he's about to fall asleep. That's what 4:45am mornings do to you. But he woke up real quick when Monkey had to go potty.

~mrs. dunbar

Whoa, it's been a while...

I have been so sore over the past 10 days or so. Sitting in front of the computer was totally out of the question. I still can't cross my legs or I get this surging pain from my back to my neck. Who knew?

Anyhow, life seems to be continuing whether I'm sore and in pain or not, so perhaps a little catch-up?

Monkey started basketball.

Guess who he's playing with? Luke, of course.

Then, at the end of the week our Easter festivities started. The one thing I love about this holiday for my kids is that their grandparents have such different activities for them. For the Dunbar's decorating the eggs is the big thing. My MIL loves to decorate eggs. So that's what we did on Friday night.

On Saturday we headed over to Mr. Dunbar's cousins' home. It's a beautiful home with lots of animals and toys; big kid toys. Like this Sand Rail, that is the mom's. Yup, the mom's and nobody gets to drive it except for her. And well my boys of course.

These pictures were taken in their "toy garage." They don't even park their real vehicles in it, those go in the garage attached to the house. This place is like a man's dream.

They have animals too. Monkey is feeding one of the horses here.

He even got to find eggs here, real eggs that is, from their chicken coop.

And these chickens lay green and blue eggs, every single day.

On Sunday we headed over to my parent's house. The big things at their house are the Easter Egg Hunt and the baskets.  This is what the yard looked like before the kids came out. Over a hundred eggs for 4 kids and one of them can't even walk.

Every single egg was filled with money; any where from 15 cents to $5.

Papa likes to give out rules before any game, as he was telling them, this is what Bogie was doing. Ha!

He really got into the egg thing this year, he was scooping them up so fast.

Who is this big kid and where did my baby go?

Finally they got their baskets. That I didn't get one good picture of.

They attacked them so fast.

Here are the cousins.

Can you see Gracie's earrings? Diamonds! So cute.  And G-Man wants a new hair do.

So now you're all caught up.

Have a great day everyone.

~mrs. dunbar