I was better off not knowing...

A tradition we have grown very fond of here in North Carolina is a pig picking. Basically they roast a pig and everyone eats it. Since it has been roasted for like a day or 2, the meat is VERY tender and juicy. We have been to several pig pickings since we moved here, and our ward has one every summer. I have to admit not having grown up on it, it is somewhat of an acquired taste since the sauce they use is tangy like vinegar, not sweet like the BBQ sauce I grew up with. But, by the time we had been here 2 years we found ourselves craving it, and we just couldn't get enough. Our ward had a pig picking today, and due to confusion in the food line, I ended up not getting any of the pig for myself, so I sent Sam to get me some. He brought back a plate full for us to share, and as I started eating it I noticed that this particular pig was incredibly tender and very tasty. When Sam noticed what I was eating he looked at me shocked and asked if I liked it. I said "Yeah, why?" He said "Well that part was the INTESTINE, and I didn't think you would eat it.". He was right, normally I wouldn't eat that part. EWEEEE! I was so grossed out by the fact that I had actually eaten pig intestine that I couldn't eat anything else, which is such a shame because there was a lot of good food there. I hope this doesn't sour my taste for pig picking forever!

Nicholas has been working hard to memorize his articles of faith for a program they were doing in his primary. So far he has #1-4 and #6, for what ever reason he can't do 5 yet. any way here is 1-3. I couldn't get the other videos to work, so I'll post them when I figure out what is wrong with them.
Number 1

Number 2

Number 3

Did I mention I LOVE Craigslist?

We got this swing-set for FREE on craigslist! All we had to do was take it down, load it in our minivan, buy a shovel to dig up the ground around it and secure it, and I had to make a new awning for it because the old one was sun-damaged to shreds. My boys LOVE it and want to play on it all day! It is a really fun set, just the right size for our backyard. You can't get a better deal than that!

6 AM.

Nicholas comes bursting into my bedroom. "Mommy! It's time to pick up my HOT WHEELS birthday cake!" He had been talking about it ALL week. It was all he could think about, thanks to my dear sister Michelle who told me about the hot wheels website where your kids can play car games for "free". I put that in parenthesis because if your kids browse the website they also discover a section where they can watch videos of other kids having a great time playing with all the toys they sell, which of course makes your kid want their stuff so you end up buying it. Not only was the hot wheels cake the only cake for him, but he also insisted that we take back the bike we bought him for his birthday so that we could buy him hot wheels trick tracks. Of course we couldn't take back the bike since it had already been assembled and ridden. But, lucky for Nicholas we had to make a pit stop at target on his birthday, and Sam couldn't turn down those big blue eyes telling him that trick tracks is the only thing in the world that he wanted for his birthday. He insisted on carrying the big box all through the store, and told everyone he saw "This is what I'm getting for my birthday!" With a huge smile on his face. Now that would be fine if that was all we ever had to buy. But hot wheels makers are not stupid. Of course they have other tricks that you can buy and add to the set, making one monster set. 1 week after his birthday Nicholas told me that he wanted to take back his trick tracks and get new ones because these ones are old now. He also informed me that Christian wants him to get trick tracks for his (Christian's) birthday. All in all he had a great birthday. He had a birthday party a few days before his birthday,combined with his friend Johnny who was turning 3 just a few days after Nicholas' birthday. We invited a bunch of friends and had pizza and cake at a park. It was a lot of fun. On his birthday we did all his favorite things. We went blueberry picking, played at the mall playground, the barnes and noble train table, got pizza at california pizza kitchen and ice cream at cold stone. What a day!

The birthday boys Nicholas and Johnny

What a party!

Each boy had a candle to blow out.

The infamous Trick Tracks, with new bike in background.