Bath Time

 

Saturday! Ah, saturdays are so nice. Too bad Joey gets up at 5:30. Yesterday, we had quite a blizzard. About 6 inches of snow and 30 mph winds all morning.

Joey and Peter make snow angels (we tried a snow man but it wasn’t packing snow)

 

 

 

 

Ruru sent Peter a package with all sort of goodies. We haven’t gotten the enormous balloon inflated yet, but we did put up the Thomas decals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Tricks

Joey loves to climb.

His latest trick is to climb up onto the table.

 

       

 

       

Peter’s latest trick is throwing ‘uppy onto the fan blades.

Every few throws it gets stuck and we have to fetch him down.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bath Time

This video makes me laugh every time. I wasn’t quick enough with the camera to get the rush from the playroom, but I think you’ll get the general idea of the excitement of bath time in this house.

Birthday Boy

Just when you think you’re getting ahead…bam…life hits ya with a birthday! Peter turns 3 today. On most birthday occassions it’s all about the cake and the presents (and by no means is this any different) – Peter has some awesome train cupcakes and is getting all sorts of presents. But it’s the little comments that are sneaking up on me this year. While on the phone with my mom the other night discussing what she would like to send Peter she mentioned, “He only turns 3 once y’know.” And obviously, logically I knew this, and I believe every 3 year old knows this with the way they ham it up. At least my 3 year old is. But man did it hit me like a mack truck. Peter will never be 2 again. Joey will never be 11 months again and I will never be 26 again (just thought I’d throw that out there). As I was just getting over this concept, Mark has to go and add last night in casual conversation with Peter, “Peter is this your last bath as a 2 year old?” Such a simple thought and it got me thinking of all the great times we had with a 2 year old Peter. With all that being said, I was super excited to send Peter off to preschool this fall, thinking it would be oober easy. Now I’m not so sure about the easy part. (Don’t worry he’s still going to preschool – this lapse of emotion I’m sure will only last until he throws another block at my head – or Joey’s head, which is currently a slight shade of purple as he got into the marker bin this morning – who knew an 11 month old could pull off marker caps??)
Anyway, here’s a few more images to add to the bunch…


Peter loves his new markers from aunt Kim                                         Peter jumps in Joey’s bed to read to him. Luckily
                                                                                                         the book does most the reading (thanks to Ruru)

Daddy’s vacuum buddy.

“Just a little more daddy -  I left some cheerios over here”

Not too bad for a late night project. Percy James and Thomas all wished Peter a happy birthday.

Peter ate percy first.

Birthday boy all geared up. Joey is practising his whistle lips. It didn’t take him long to figure out how to make the whistle work. Now he can make noises just like his brother.


















We started the grueling task of trying to get Peter to not suck his thumb during the day. When he thinks he needs a little sucking time he tries to hid. See Exhibit A.





















As for Joey, he is easily entertained these days. Give the boy a ball and he’s good for 20 minutes. Throw the ball, get the ball, throw the ball, get the ball….

Catching up

Phew….being home is so nice! We had a fantastic trip home (it was difficult not turning the car around). It was clear sailing until Ohio. Then it started raining. About 20 miles from home we hit a lovely snow and ice mix. The rest of the day has been cold and snowy – Welcome Home!  So now you’re probably wondering what we were up to the last few days…

Thursday -

We spent the morning at the beach with Kim and Brian. It was another beautiful beach day.  Joey enjoyed his morning nap on the beach under the umbrella. He was really enjoying himself until the dumb seagulls squawked and woke him up.
Peter and Kim dug a hole (mostly Kim). Peter enjoyed playing in it.

We returned to the pool house for afternoon nap and then played around there until we went to Grammy’s for dinner. Joey loved the pinwheel and Peter zoomed around the driveway and sidewalks on the push tractor.

Friday -

We packed up in the rental house and moved over to Pop Paul and Grammy’s in the morning. Brian and Mark got on the road down to the boat show in Miami around 9:30. Kim, Jenna, Grammy and the boys packed up and went to Lido Beach to visit a friend Kim and Grammy knew. (Sorry no pics – I forgot the camera)
Friday afternoon Peter and Joey were in awe as they watched the tree trimmer come and throw the tree branches in the wood chipper. Peter constantly was asking, “What that loud noise?”
Friday evening, Pop treated everyone to pork barbque at the sarasota christian school fundraiser. Yum! We had to tear Peter off the playground swing that night and convince him we would come back the next day for more fun. We finished the night with a little dancing as the kids paraded their special auction baskets into the gym for the auction. For anyone that is wondering, Peter LOVES showing off his dance moves.

Saturday -

   We went over the Sarasota Christian and enjoyed their activities for the auction. Peter loved trying all the inflatable slides and games. Joey even got to pick a duck. And then he ate the duck. And then he ate the prize he got for picking the duck. It was a pretty tasty experience overall for him.















Saturday afternoon we went over to Detweilers Fruit stand to pick up some last minute treats and then fed the birds at the park near by. Peter learned to throw the bread in the air so the seagulls would swoop down and grab it.

Brian and Mark returned just in time for bed time and Joey showed off by walking over to daddy to get his hug.

Snuggling with aunt Kim.

Sunday -

We packed up the van and headed home. Vacation is officially over – so sad!

On the way home we like to stop in the afternoon and let the kids run out some energy. We found a fantastic park in Tifton, GA. Peter loved the twisty slide. Mark was wondering how many ‘e’ s were in the word you – Yeeww. In other words, we were in the most southern accent state you could find. Peter also enjoyed playing with his new window markers he got for his birthday.

This isn’t the greatest picture, but it was me hiding in the car while Mark fought the elements running back and forth from the car to get the kids. It was probably 30 degrees and sleeting. Shorts a tshirt and flip flops just weren’t going to cut it anymore! It wasn’t long before we all put our sweatpants and sweatshirts back on.

Monday -

Today we spent most of the day exhausted and just surviving. Joey enjoyed walking everywhere and Peter busied himself with videos and his trains. Tomorrow daddy goes back to work and life gets back to normal. Peter’s birthday is Wednesday so we’ll probably do a few presents and I’m going to try to do some fun train cup cakes. An excuse to use my new icing decorating tips I got for christmas.
This video isn’t from today, but you’ll get the idea….

Beach Day and Zoo Day

 

Today I will have to cover two days of activity. We got a little busy and I got distracted.

Tuesday -

  Joey helps do the dishes this morning. He’s becoming quite the little climber. He practices every day on the steps. He even learned how to get around daddy’s 3 chair barrier set up at the bottom of the steps.

 

  Peter makes his way down to the beach. He had to help carry some of the toys. Luckily they were in a nice back pack just his size. The other bag is full of doughnuts. He insisted on carrying these. They even trumped puppy. And for those of you who know Peter, this is a very big deal. He made sure they made it safely to the towel and then cleared the icing off the vanilla sprinkle doughnut before going to work at digging a hole.

 

Daddy and Joey checked out the water. It was a little chilly to play in but Joey enjoyed grabbing the soft sand and building a little pile at the waters edge. He will grab any nearby finger and walk to where he wants to go.

 

   Joey thought he was hot stuff in the big chair. We did our best with the sun tan lotion, but the Florida sun still left it’s mark. Poor joey has finger marks on his face (courtesy of mom’s bad application) and Peter just a spot on his wrist. Not so bad for 3 hours in the sunshine. We’ll apply before we get out there next time!

 

       Today Joey ate sand by the shovel full.

 

 

 

We came back around nap time and then hit the green…and the cream :)

 

Luckily we were the only ones on the course that night, so Peter had a great time discovering how the tunnels worked.

 

And Joey enjoyed assisting our balls into the hole…and out again…and in again….and out again. I think you get the idea.

 

 

     Shove it in daddy.

 

Wednesday -

The boys were very excited this morning to go to the zoo and to pick up Kim and Brian from the airport.

Peter was especially thrilled to go over the skyway bridge on the way to the airport. He watched anxiously as it approached in the front window.

 

Part of peter’s excitement regarding the zoo was the much talked about train ride. Peter determined it was a diesel engine as opposed to a steam engine. (I’m glad we got that all figured out)

 

 

The rest of the afternoon we visited all sorts of critters. Joey was very excited about the turtles. Peter would check one animal out and say, “Let’s go to next animal.” One adventure Peter experienced was feeding the budgies (little birds). They gave you a popsicle stick covered in bird seed and then you went into an enclosed area. The birds swarmed you to sit on your stick (and arm, shoes, head – and almost down the back of your pants if you sit too long) to eat the food.

 

 

We pet the goats and fed the goats…

 

And soon it was time to go home as we were all exhausted! We stopped at the ‘pool house’ (as Peter has named it) to drop off a few things and then headed to grammy and pop paul’s for a fantastic meal and birthday celebration.

 

We filled a bucket with oranges and grapefruit.

Joey enjoyed tossing them into the bucket and was very upset when he realized we weren’t going to immediately eat the oranges we had just picked. He ended up winning the argument and had an orange for dinner. Well, he sucked all the juice he could from the wedges that were peeled.

 

Peter enjoyed his cupcake for dessert

…while Joey was sure grammy had made the strawberry pie just for him!

 

     A few presents and a little play time later….

 

The boys are snuggled in bed resting up for another big day. Tomorrow we’re off to the beach with Kimmer and B Rye.