Saturday, April 23, 2011

Easter fun

Every morning...this is where you will find these 3 boys...huddled around a plastic cup full o fruit/spinach/oatmeal smoothie. One great way to trick your kids into eating spinach. Today...Daniel wasn't able to be here to make it for them...they made me aware of how upset they were....they did NOT want any of my toast or cereal.

Easter is tomorrow so today we had an Easter Egg hunt at my dad's house. Holly loved hunting for eggs.

How does an 18 month old know instinctively to pick up random plastic eggs and put them into a bucket that was handed to him?

Max had so much fun...he just laughed and smiled the whole day.

The work for Henry really never stopped. He kept dropping eggs out of his bucket which needed to be picked up and then after that he needed to move his eggs from one bucket to the other and back again. He was ready for a nap by the end of his hard day.


Andrew had no trouble filling his bucket immediately.

Ashley was happy to get lots of candy and informed me she wouldn't mind sharing with me...like she has a choice :)

The kids also got some silly string to use for whatever they wanted. What they wanted of course was to attack their grandpa.

and their Daddy

The whole day was a success. Our kids are so lucky to have so many grandparents that love them. We need all the help we can get! :)

On a final note. Max has been attacking Henry out of the blue lately. He'll just come up to him and push him down and then hop on his back like he expects him to play horsie with him. Henry does NOT like this and Daniel thinks I'm heartless for taking a picture instead of saving him right away...I'm sorry I just think...How will I EVER remember this is if I don't. On the up side Henry has been so kind to Max lately. When Max is crying, Henry will bring him his blankie and sometimes even give him the binkie right out of his mouth....touching...and gross.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

This past week

I love when my boys are all dressed up..it makes them look like grownups in little bodies. Max added the binkie and blankie to show you he's still a kid at heart.


I've mentioned this before but Max and Henry have all of the sudden gotten really into watching movies. This is both good and bad. We all need a break sometimes...I do...and so this is a good break for me. We also all need our brains to develop....and so that is how this is potentially bad...I don't think much develops in their brain while they watch Tangled...though I think it's a delightful movie.
Not much development going on here for Henry.

Max looks a little more alive.

We went to the zoo yesterday in St. Louis. It was REALLY warm...almost 90 but we've been waiting for the warmth so it was appreciated. To start off Ashley picked me some flowers and weeds. Every day I get several dandelions from Andrew, Ashley, and Holly(from my yard..grrr) to put in a vase.

Andrew really wanted to see the Rhino. This trip was for his birthday so of course we granted his wish.

A nice lady at the zoo gave up a bunch of free tickets to ride the carousel...thank you nice lady. So Henry, Andrew, Holly, Ashley, and Daniel got to ride. Max was busy eating a lemon icee with me. Daniel rode only to help Henry who would NOT be helped if he had anything to say about it.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

A house full of character

When Daniel and I were deciding on which house to buy we of course poured over 100's of houses before making a decision. We liked a lot of things about older houses. An older house often has a lot of character that you just can't replicate in a newer house without paying big time for it. But, ultimately we settled on building our own house so that we could add our personal tastes and touches to it and so we wouldn't have to do all the renovating and fixing up that an older house might require. I'm still happy with the decision to not buy a fixer upper....I can't see when we would have found the time. But I know that in building our new house we gave up some of the character...we have all taupe walls for one...our house blends in with every house in the neighborhood for two(I think this town has some sort of mission to camouflage all of the new houses...there's no other explanation for all of the earthy toned matching houses)...and for three we stayed very neutral to make reselling easy if need be. So our house maybe doesn't have as much character as I would like, or does it?....lately I've seen more character in this house than I could have ever imagined. My kids are the craziest characters.

Ahhh my sweet little Ashley. Sometimes she really makes me think there's a 40 year-old woman in that 5 year-old body. She says some of the craziest stuff and never ceases to amaze Daniel and I. We can't help but feel like she gets some of her "spunk" from the two of us. One thing about Ash is she seems to believe that she has quite a bit of leverage in any given situation/argument. Daily I hear phrases that start with "if you don't"....and end with "then I will not have ANY fun today!"..or "then I won't care about you anymore!". It can be quite amusing...to me anyway...of course to her it's no laughing matter. But I admit, if it's been a long day it can really rub me the wrong way. The other day Ash said to Daniel "You have two options...you can make me something I like for dinner...or I can starve". What kind of 5 year-old says that?! And finally, a few days ago we were visiting Daniel's office as a family and when heading to the car I realized we left a binky in his office so I headed back to get it. Ash asked Daniel where I was and he said I'd be right back and she quickly replied "you don't know what you're talking about!" I would chalk it up to just throwing out random "adult phrases" to sound grown up...but they always make sense when she says them...so yes we're scared of when she becomes a teenager.

Anyone who knows Holly knows she's a loveable little character. She too likes to shout crazy stuff like "HEY DON'T COME IN HERE" when she's in a public bathroom stall. Or if she doesn't like what I'm saying she yells "HEY STOP TALKING TO ME"...or "HEY DONT YOU SAY THAT TO ME". I'm not sure why but she kind of reminds me of Harry Caray. I think it's because she starts a lot of sentences with a very loud HEY. I love the scenes from SNL where will ferrell impersonates Harry Caray. I remember riding in the car with my dad as a kid and hearing Harry Caray over the radio. CUBS WIN! I also remember watching this on snl with some friends in high school...you'll have to cut and paste the link to see this one

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hObBw7ZAWDo
or there's this one...which is pretty funny too.


Finally the twins are very interesting characters. Henry thinks pretty much every animal is called a "Goggie"(dog)...and says that and then makes a barking sound. Henry also does not care for shoes but Max loves them. Henry never feels bad about taking Max's binky, blankie, or drink while Max is drinking even if Henry already has his own. When he takes Max's stuff Max says a very sweet "Heeeey". Maybe he's a little Harry Caray too.