Rain rain go away…

Kudos to Kendra for the awesome rainy day suggestion.  Although there is rice everywhere - it has kept the boys distracted from yet another rainy day here in Ohio.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Day out with Thomas

This weekend we were up in Michigan and Grandma and Grandpa treated the boys to a day with Thomas.  Needless to say, Peter was very excited and Joey was happy to tag along.

The day started bright and early with breakfast.  Sir Topham Hat even stopped by and said hello.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next we took a ride with Thomas around Greedfield Village.  For most of the ride Peter hung out the side trying to see Thomas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After our ride with Thomas, we walked around Greenfield Village to check out the activities and historical venues.  Peter loved the roundhouse.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Check out these cool rocking trains.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                 We finished the day out with a ride on the carousel.

 

(I’ll have to bug Paul and Barb for their pictures. I think they have the Sir Topham Hat ones and better Thomas ones)

 

The week before our Michigan trip we finally had a few warm sunny days.  On Thursday we had our first picnic on the beach.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The water is that way for anyone wondering.  Maybe there was a boat.

After the sunny day, of course, came a rainy rainy rainy day.  It cleared up after dinner and I simply gave up and joined the fun…somebody had to teach these boys how to make a really BIG splash (‘one as big as the sky’ as Peter would say)

 

 

  Mama leading the ducks…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

These were from a previous mud session, but the results are all pretty much the same.

Mother’s Day Weekend

Last Saturday, Mark and I ran in our first 5k run for the summer.  Kendra came and kept the boys entertained while we were running.  Peter even ran a 1k fun run.

Peter sizes up the competition…

 

 

                

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                         He’s about half way done here – still going strong.

We learned our lesson for the next race.  Peter actually is very capable of running this distance he just gets distracted/lost (who knew the numbers on the track were so fascinating).  When he finished the 1k race he got the concept and continued to run 2 full laps of the track without us.  Next time we’ll just have to find him a running buddy.

 

Mark finished first in his age group with 27 minutes and a few seconds (I forget the time). And I finished in 29:40.

 

   I’m only posting this picture so I can tell you the funny story.  Mark did indeed get first in his age group…however he did place 41st overall.  Kendra kindly took pictures of us as we came back in the stadium to finish and she just happened to snap as Mark was getting passed by Cori Dike (an aquitance of mine through kids activities).  What you can see is she is pushing her 2 year old Nixon in the jogger, but what you probably can’t see is that she is 36 weeks pregnant.  Sorry Mark.

 

 

 

Joey checks out the elephant.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mother’s Day

Mother’s Day was fantastic!  It all started with a pancake breakfast in bed…

 

 

 

The boys thought I needed to share it looked so good.  I had coffee in bed :)

Mark and I enjoyed a great lunch date since our normal Sunday evening babysitter had a soccer tournament that night.  Is it bad to ditch the kids on mother’s day? I hope not because I loved it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

    

                    Joey navigates a sticky situation.

 

Mark and the boys built the benches and table out at the firepit after nap time.  We roasted a few marshmallows before calling it a night.  What a great day!!

Sneaky climber

 

“Joey where did you get that strawberry?”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“This strawberry?…well nobody was paying attention to me and I was hungry so I moved the chair and climbed up and got one myself.  Don’t worry mom, tomorrow I’ll clean my room too.”

We have electric!

For some of you the title doesn’t make much sense, but you will see soon how exciting our week turned out to be.  First I’m going to start with ‘tornado Peter’…

If studied closely, this picture tells a 2 hour story. Begin at the top right – the books are pulled from the shelf where we read for a few minutes. Then the pillows were being tossed in the air.  Next, Peter was jumping off the couch onto the blanket.  Balloon toss came next.  We had worked up an appetite so it was time for a popcorn snack.  Popcorn, of course, was everywhere within minutes.  Last, instead of cleaning up the popcorn, the hand puppets were going to eat it up  (see the pig next to the sleeping pillow).  Peter also thought he didn’t need a nap.  He was just going to rest for a minute.

Now for the exciting part of the week. On Wednesday night a pesky wind storm passed over a caused a bit of trouble around here.  At 4:45 am on Thursday morning I woke up hearing….c-r-e-e-a-a-a-k  -  crunch (forgive my lack of better description.)  Mark and I jumped out of bed and noticed the electric was out.  Being surrounded by very large trees made us pretty nervous so we immediately ran upstairs and found nothing to be damaged in the house.  So Mark grabbed a flashlight and went outside. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The middle picture on the left shows the best where the fallen piece came from.  It was the center shoot of the tree right in front of our house.  Had the wind been blowing off the lake it would have hit our house.  Luckily Mark parked the Toyota in the street that night and only suffered a few good dents and scratches.  Unfortunately, the tree came down right across our power line connection to our house (and only our house).  So we went without electric until yesterday evening.  Yes, I know it wasn’t even 48 hours, but have you tried staying home lately with 2 kids and no electric?  I was ready for the power back!  Our landlords were very gracious and offered many things to keep us comfortable.  We ran an extension chord to their old house so we could keep our refrigerator running and phones charged.  

 

 

 

(And a few other conveniences – Peter was desperate to watch a video )  Is it sad when the power turned on the first thing he did was run to the tv and try to turn it on?

 

 

 

When the power trucks finally came on Friday evening (around 7 pm) we were in the back yard playing and I started jumping up and down and waving.  I don’t think they’ve ever received that kind of welcome.  They had a good chuckle I’m sure.

The other craziness we’ve been dealing with this week is Joey.  On Wednesday, I finally broke down and took him to the pediatrician after fighting three days of off and on fever and diarhea.  I guess there’s a stomach virus going around that the doc thought he could have and then he had an ear infection too.  So we got a prescription for Cefdinir and started it on Wednesday.  By Friday morning he was totally broken out in a crazy rash.  He didn’t seem too bothered by it but he was our little polka dot boy.  It’s still working on clearing up this weekend.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ahh…snuggles.  We weren’t quite ready to get up from nap yet.

So, now we’re done with most of the random chaos – and it’s back to work.  For those of you coming to visit this summer, you will appreciate Mark’s hard work.  He figured out how to rip and roll the english ivy out back and cleared out a huge section so we can plant grass seed next weekend.  It looks amazing!  He did a great job. I just can’t explain how difficult it really is until you’ve tried to pull that stuff up yourself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

While Mark was busy working hard, Dallas (the grounds keeper) was driving the tractor around picking up sticks and not far behind was Peter on the gator.  I have a priceless video I will post later of Peter following Racell (the other grounds keeper) during the tree clean up.

All that hard work made a little boy very sleepy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Easter Weekend

The week before Easter was a tough one.  It rained for most of the week and then I had a really tough day with the boys on Friday.  It seemed as though nothing was going our way and I just needed a break.  So when there’s nothing else to do we resorted to throwing the boys in the tub with the finger paint.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It started fantastic. The boys were having fun. Then….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

…things started to get a bit slippery.  Finger paint turned into belly paint…face paint….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

….and brother paint.  I think you get the idea.  The fun all ended with a very colorful bath.

 

Moving onto Saturday…

On Saturday morning, we went over to Shoepfle Gardens and did an easter egg scramble and took a nice walk around the park.

 

  The way it works is no matter how many eggs you have in  your basket, you turn them in for a goodie bag. Then there are 3 eggs with a golden coin for which you get a special prize.  Joey was happy with his 3 eggs and to watch the madness.

 

 

Peter was all in – scrambling around picking up every egg he saw. Do you see him in the crowd?

 

On our walk I must have taken 30 pictures of the boys together and this is the only one where their faces are both up. It will have to do.

For those who are wondering what Joey likes to do – I have one single answer – play hockey. Everywhere we go he seeks out a stick and a ball. Today it was a stick and a rock. About every 20 steps he would set down the rock swat it around and bit and then pick it up.  Yesterday in the kitchen it was a strainer and an onion.  Uncle Dave must have really taught him some tricks he thinks he needs to practice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After nap, Daddy and Joey took advantage of the warm afternoon and put together his birthday present (Thanks Landis’ – we love it!!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The table was filled with water and then the boys took a ride to the beach to fill their buckets with sand. Yes, that is shear terror in Joey’s eyes.  Peter is actually a rather good driver of the gator, but try to tell Joey that. We figure it’s only a matter of time before Joey gets it and jumps in for a ride by himself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And last but not least….Sunday

Not a whole lot happened around here yesterday.  It was an overcast day so we stayed inside and watched a lot of hockey.  We all opened our easter baskets from the grandma bunny and took long (much needed) naps.  The picture of Joey is blurry because he is doing his happy dance, which involves a lot of stomping and arm flapping.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry for the long post. I hope you enjoyed the pictures. Now I have to stop procrastinating and get some work done. Happy Easter to everyone!