If this isn't your favorite soup it's because you haven't tried it yet.

Not only is it delightfully tasty - it's ridiculously easy to make. Like spaghetti from a jar easy. Really. I'm not kidding. Try it!

You will need:

1 onion
2 cans of diced tomatoes
1 can chili beans
1 can black beans, drained
1 can whole kernel corn, drained
1 can tomato sauce (small)
1 bottle of beer (light)
1 packet of taco seasoning
3 chicken breasts

Chop the onion. Toss it in a crockpot. Add everything but the chicken. Stir. Place the chicken on top, then press down until the breasts are barely submerged. (Picture taken before submerged, obviously.)

Cook on low for 5 hours.

Pull the chicken out. Using two forks, pull apart to shred.

Dump it back in. Stir. Cook for 2 more hours (still on low).

Put it in a bow.  Throw on some cheese (cheddar, monterrey jack, both), crushed chips and a liberal helping of sour cream.

Consume!

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Cornstarch + water = fun. (Also, having my computer back so that I can photo edit = fun. I maaaay have gone overboard with the 70s style processing. I MISSED IT SO.)

New substance! Must investigate!

Its gooey, it's mushy, it's liquidy....

It's tasty!

It's messy!

It's worth it. :)

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Cael got some magnet letters and numbers for the fridge. Right off the bat, he determined that Finn was not allowed to play with the letters, but he could play with the numbers if he had to play with something.

Cael: [Slides the F over with the numbers.]
Allie: [Slides it back.] F is a letter. It goes between the E and the G.
Cael: [Slides it to numbers.] No, Mama.
Allie: [Sings the song.] See? E, F, G.
Cael: No, Mama. F is for Finn!
Allie: [Slides it to letters.] Yes, that's right. F is for Finn!
Cael: [Slides it to numbers.]
Allie: F is a letter, not a number.
Cael: F is for Finn! Letters are for Cael!

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Allie: Cael, why are you taking off your pants?
Cael: Because I have to dance!

*Twenty minutes later*

Allie: Finn, why are you taking off your diaper?
Finn: [pees on the carpet]

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I decided this afternoon (while still moaning about being sore from the teeter-totter two days ago) that it was about time for me to start working out again.

So, after almost a three year break from Tony, I polished the DVD and popped it into the player. I'm not going to lie - the warm up and the yoga were brutal. And I may have cheated a little. "Finn? You say you need help moving that car? Right this second, you say? Let me do that and not press pause!"

The cardio was not as bad I expected. I have vivid memories of folding over and staring at the scraps of carpet with taped up x's on them in Lauren's garage, breathing heavily and silently commiserating with Tiffany about what a blow to the ego it is to workout next to Lauren. I mean, who actually speeds up the pace? It's 3-4 for heaven's sake!

But then came the arms. BRING IT, I say, because ARMS! I used to hate the arms! I used to skip out on the bonus round because, like Tony says, it's free. I figured if it was free that meant it was optional, right? There's logic there! But now I am an uber lifter of multiple small people and the arm section is my favorite part. I didn't even cheat once! And my body blows were to die for.

I was planning on doing the ab ripper section after cardio, but, and I am not making this up, the DVD froze with the words "last move" on screen and I couldn't get it to start back up. I'm guessing when toddlers chew on it some sort of damage is done to the DVD? I'll have to do a little research. Seems far-fetched. It's probably just the gods telling me I need not bother with the ab ripper for I am too fabulous already and if I had abs I'd be unstoppable.

Sounds about right.

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PSA: Having a one year old open your laptop like a book, plant his butt on the keyboard and slap the screen like it's whack-a-mole results in a fair amount of computer troubles.

On a related note, I can't do any photo editing and I'm spending all day reinstalling everything I've ever installed, so I bring you the only thing I had on my desktop:

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On Sunday we found ourselves at Sunnyslope Park. A small but apparently popular park tucked in an old neighborhood south of our house.

The playground was composed of two different kinds of retro structures: a wood one and a metal one. And we thought our park was ghetto!

Really, though - the wood one was pretty cool. You can't beat the classics.

Plus, Dad's pretty cool no matter what you're playing on.

And there was a neat little motorcycle that Cael thought was awesome. Finn didn't think it was so fun. He was concerned about riding such a vehicle without protective headgear. (At least I think that's what all the screaming was about.)

So the grand total was: 3 monkey bars, 2 slides, 1 bridge, and...

Swings! Which I realize now was what was missing from the other parks we've checked out thus far. Swings are the best part! Why would you skip out on swings? ...Maybe our park isn't so bad?

 In the end, the real crowd pleaser - a big stick. Park designers take note!

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Last night I was woken at 4 because Cael needed his sheets adjusted. (The white one was touching him, if you can believe that!)

At 5 I went and tucked Hop Hop in. (Stuffed bunnies can get cold.)

I am so whipped.

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Cael and Finn are having a sick day. Are they going to let a little snot let them down?

Okay, a lot of snot?

Heck no!

They're wild! They're crazy! They're boys!

Oh wait. Yes, yes they will.

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I tend to wake up on weekend mornings a little late. Okay, a lot late. Sleep and I aren't as friendly during the week as I'd like and we use Saturday and Sunday to catch up.

Ryan uses Saturday and Sunday to morph into Martha Stewart.

Saturday it was banana bread. This morning I woke up to a heaping plate of fresh strawberry shortcake and homemade whipped cream. I'd show you a picture but I ate it too quickly. The camera never stood a chance.

Here's a picture of my plate after Finn had his way with it:

"Mess? What mess?"

Luckily, Martha had another trick up his sleeve this morning.

And now I've got to go. There are muffins to be consumed.

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AKA: The Ritz of Salem. Seriously. This place is hooked up. And I didn't even take pictures of the splash fountain and grass run and basketball court.

It has two play structures. A 2-5 year old and a 5-12 year old. Both of them are far superior to anything we've seen in our (admittedly limited) travels. South Village, our go-to for toys, is close in that the 5-12 year old one is almost as big as WB's 2-5 year old one. The Ritz, I'm telling you.

Every incarnation of monkey bar, climbing wall/chain/ladder/pyramid thingy.

And slides! Soooo many slides. All sizes, all angles. Even a 90 degree one that I was too afraid to go down. No, I'm not kidding. Some 6 year old girl did it, but she's more of a man than I am, obviously.

Plus plenty of little things to play with and keep Finn entertained.

And if that wasn't enough - about a stone's throw away is an elementary school with yet another play structure and completely different toys. (This one had Ryan's favorite: a climbing rope.)

This second (third?) play structure is next to a giant jungle gym. I'd love to see what Lauren could do with this baby. (That's the 2-5 year old structure in the background, so you can judge the distance.)

A little Spiderman reenactment, because it had to be done. And wait a minute - what's that in the background? You guessed it - ANOTHER play structure.

I don't know how they managed it, but this one is full of even more toys, climbers, monkey bars and slides that weren't in the other structures.

Fascinating.

This one was Finn's favorite because it had a built-in drum set (the back of it is that panel with the two green tubes coming out.) Wicked cool.

Long story short: it's no wonder the streets surrounding this park are riddled with signs about overflow parking. I bet in the summer when the splash fountains are on this place is ridiculously packed.

We're going to have to keep looking for "our" park, but this will be a special destination, for sure.

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Finn's grip of steel + his ability to open Ryan's desk drawers = problematic.

He's especially fond of the battery drawer. I spent an embarrassingly long amount of time trying to pry that AA from his little iron fists this morning. (I even employed Uncle Dan's spoon-dropping trick, but he's gained an immunity.) The result was much screaming and tantrum throwing.

Fast-forward ten minutes.

Cael was playing with a crayon and Finn (as is his SOP) decided that he wanted it. He came up to Cael and yanked the crayon right out of his hands. Cael went to yank it back, but Finn held firm. A tug-o-war ensued.

After a comically long back-and-forth (I'm telling you, the little dude is strong), Cael decided he'd had enough. He let go of the crayon and lunged for Finn's armpits, wiggling his fingers and squealing, "Tickle, tickle, tickle!"

Finn started laughing hysterically and dropped the crayon. Cael grabbed his prize and went back to his drawing.

... Now why didn't I think of that?

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We have a park near our house, but it's not the best park in the world. The equipment is the old-school metal stuff, there's not much of it that's fun for someone as young as Cael or Finn, it's pretty small, and the trees - the huge, gorgeous trees - aren't the ideal setting when you're looking for sunshine.

Also, our park has some construction going on right through the center of it, so it's pretty cordoned off at the moment.

So when the sun broke out today, we decided we needed to go to a better park. But which park is that? Only one way to find out.

And this is how our park sampling program began.

Park one: Clark Creek Park.

This one has the sunshine element nailed (except during the hailstorm, of course). It's also got tons of grass to run in and has big, gorgeous trees on the perimeter so you can appreciate them from afar.

It also has a very large basketball/tennis court which would be more fun if they were a little older (and we had brought a ball).

The play structure was pretty great for Cael, but not at all for Finn. Mostly because it is designed with only one set of stairs and half the toys are on the other side of a tunnel. So in order for me to take Finn over to the big slides, I either had to crawl through the (muddy) tunnel on my hands and knees (with him in arms?) or climb up the climbing chain.

It did have a lot of slides, which Cael really appreciated while Finn remained pretty much grounded.

Chain bridge is always a hit. Even more so when there's an Andy on it, of course!

Finn kept busy with stimulating conversation.

Overall, I'd say that Cael enjoyed it but Finn wasn't a huge fan. We'll continue our search!

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