Saturday Sprinklers

While watering the yard on Saturday, Tyler asked to go out and play in the water.  So, we changed him into his swim trunks and sent him out to play.

Tyler decided to run away from the spray of water...

 

while Max was running right into it, and standing on top of it.  He's so big he could completely block the entire sprinkler!! 

 

All Star Boys

The boys had a great time playing ball with Pap during their visit last week.  Lucas took his first swings with the bat and Tyler practiced shooting "hoops".

Yummy in my tummy...

 

Lucas is getting to the point where there is no point in even attempting to try to feed him, to keep him clean.  Because even if I can get it in his mouth, he will almost certainly pull it back out, look at it and then put it back in himself.  So, now I just let him feed himself, most often with his hands.  I have introduced the utensils to him, but they more often end up on the floor than in his hands.  This is what he looks like most evenings after dinner!!

But, I love these new bibs my friend recommended to me.  They tie in the back, cover his shoulders and are long enough to cover his lap (and Tyler's, too).  Prior to these bibs, food covered nearly all of his body, rather than just his face and hair, because he would rip the bib off and throw it on the floor.  He'd be halfway through his meal before one of us realized he was bibless!!

Because we were laughing at Lucas, Tyler wanted to get in on the action too...and decorated his face, on purpose!  He is normally a pretty clean eater.  :)

A Zoo of a Day...

Today was planned to be a trip to the zoo with the boys, and my parents, Nana and Pap. We were up, almost ready to go (I was putting the finishing touches on our picnic lunch) when I hear Tyler yelling "Mommy, you need to come wipe me off." Of course I assumed he was meaning to help him after having used the potty. WRONG!! Tyler had sneaked away to our bathroom and found my stash of finger nail polish. Being a curious three year old, you can only imagine where I'm going with this. Yes...he had brink pink finger nail polish covering about 90% of his leg, as well as huge spot on our bed.

Thirty minutes of scrubbing him down and one phone call to daddy later, we were packed up and ready to hit the zoo. (Daddy convinced me to have mercy on the little guy, because it was not fair to punish him for being curious and "accidents" like this will happen.)

I didn't have a chance to run and get my camera, because I didn't want him following me with painted legs...so I took a quick shot with the camera on my cell phone:

It was a great day at the zoo. I was worried that we may have packed up the kiddos and made the drive into the city for nothing though, we when got there and all of the parking lots were full. I had intended on being there MUCH earlier, but the little nail polish incident set me back quite a big. After driving to every lot and all the way to the top of the hill, we turned around and came all the way back down!! Finally, at the bottom, we lucked into a couple of people leaving as we were entering and we got a spot.

After watching the orangatans on the "O-Line" (this nifty rope that runs through the park and into their "think tank")...



we stopped at a picnic area to eat our lunch.

Tyler...studying his potato chips!

The mama and baby gorilla...do you see it there, right to the left of the mama? It was VERY cute. This was a favorite among Mommy, Nana and Pap!

Tyler though, preferred the elephants. This is the one exhibit he asked to go back to see a second time.

Mommy, Ty and Luke inside the Panda exhibit. I loved these, too! if you look closely, you can see the panda at the back (top, left) of the picture.

Tyler and Lucas, with Nana and Pap.

Tyler fell asleep after just a few minute in the car, but Lucas did not. He slept during our drive in, in the morning, and slept for about 5 minutes in the stroller walking through the zoo, but didn't get anywhere near his 4 hours of daily naptime!! He was barely able to keep his eyes open at dinner!

Tractor Tippin'

We have had SUCH great success with Tyler's potty training recently. At the start of this journey I thought hoped it would be a quick process. Two weeks in, I was rather frustrated, wondering if he would EVER get it down. Some patience, and prayers, later I started to see that he was starting to pick it up. With a lot of encouragement (and some bribery), he finally got it all put together. And about 2 1/2 months after starting this journey I can proudly say we are POTTY TRAINED!!

Les thought it would be fun to set up a reward chart for Tyler, so he could see the progress he was making. The last accident he had came the day of his birthday party (June 13). The next day Les told Tyler if he went two weeks with no daytime accidents, that he could pick out a "prize". At first he had been saying he wanted a new Thomas track set, but a trip to Target reminded him of the "Tractor Tippin'" race track he had wanted. For the next week and a half, that is all we heard about. Every time he would use the potty he'd come running "I get Tractor Tippin'?". We'd have to remind him that he needed to fill up his chart, and when he did, we would take him to pick out his prize.

Yesterday Tyler finished his two week stretch...clean and dry for two weeks, even through naptimes!! Woo-hoo. He has even woken up dry from overnight a few times. It is so amazing that three months ago we were still in diapers about 90 percent of the time and now he is in big boy undies 90% of the time!! He was SO excited to be able to go to the store to buy Tractor Tippin' and bring it home to play with. It has been a huge hit!

We are on to reward chart #2, for Bolt, the movie. Because he is essentially potty trained (with the exception of nighttime, and that is something that they really have to grow into), we have decided that this chart is going to be a good behavior chart. I know, it's probably going to be hard to decide what exactly represents good behavior and I may have to narrow this down to something more specific, but I haven't yet decided what I want that to be, so for now...it's just good behavior. Last night and tonight he got stickers for doing a good job eating his dinner. This is something that we struggle with, with Tyler. Lucas, not so much! But Tyler is just SO busy that he hates to slow down long enough to actually eat a full dinner.

Happy Father's Day

I always love to think that I picked the bestest husband in the world, for myself. We are absolutely perfect for each other. Alike in enough ways to make us compatible, but different enough to make it interesting. And, in five years, we've learned what buttons not to push...although, we do sometimes...for fun, 'ya know? :)

But this post isn't about my wonderful husband (I'll save that post for our anniversary in a couple of weeks). This post is about how I lucked out in also finding the bestest father in the world for my kids. Those little boys ADORE their father, SO MUCH. From Tyler wanting Daddy to come home from work to "play with me" or the look on Lucas' face when he wakes up from his nap to find it's Daddy rescuing him from his crib, you can just tell how much they love their daddy. It is precious. And, as the boys get older and can do more "boy" stuff with their daddy, it just gets to be more and more fun!!

For father's day, we started the day with a breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes for Daddy and his minis.




Then the boys helped opened daddy's presents for him. We got him the new Tiger Woods golf game for Wii and the special controler that goes with it. Until the boys are old enough to actually go out on the course with Daddy...this is the next best thing!

Then proving that he is the bestest father and husband, we spent the afternoon shopping and running errands together. I LOVE that he loves to shop as much as I do!

We love you Daddy...thanks for being our bestest Daddy EVER!!

Friday Pool Fun

We had our first pool day of the season today, and I see many more in our future. Both boys loved it SO much. In fact, this was Lucas' reaction to sitting in his stroller watching Tyler play.

I did remember to take the float device for Lucas, but forgot to make sure it was all blown up before putting him in!! Yeah, he swallowed a little bit of water...but no fear, at least not for him, it was all okay. In fact, even once it was properly inflated, it was hard to keep his face out of the water. He was constantly either trying to climb out, or simply dunk his head face first into the water.


Tyler had a lot of fun too, playing with the many water toys we brought along. He also made friends with the lifeguards, who more than once asked him to "slow down buddy"! To encourage him to listen to them, I sneakily told him that they would make us go home if he didn't listen. To which the lifeguard replied, "nah, I won't send you home, but I'll make you come and sit here with me and watch everyone else have fun!" They were both really great with him. The other lifeguard even let Tyler help with the testing of the water in the pool.



Swimming sure builds up an appetite for Tyler. Luckily I packed a lunch for us to eat at the pool. I was sure it was going to be a fight (as always) to get him to slow down long enough to eat it, though. Boy, was I wrong. I only had to ask once and Tyler was hopping up to the table, ready to eat. And eat he did...his entire PB&J (and he wanted mine!), a yogurt stick, string cheese, my cheese and crackers, fruit snacks, a few potato chips and a granola bar!! All in a matter of about 15 minutes!! Lucas enjoyed his CC&J (cream cheese and jelly...his version of a PB&J, since he's too young for peanuts, just yet - he LOVES it!), some yogurt and cheese, too!



After lunch it was back to the pool for more fun. Not only does swimming build up an appetite, but, it also wears him out. When the 2:00 break rolled around, I needed to ask only once if he was ready to go, and he was out of the pool, grabbing a towel. They both were in their beds and down for the count less than 10 minutes after getting home. Both took a great nap and were back in bed for the night before 8:30. This is a MAJOR accomplishment!! Lucas is nearly always down before 8:30, but lately, Tyler has become a bit of a night owl.

It was such a fun day, and I see MANY more pool days in our future, this summer. Tyler even asked for goggles!! Next time I will be sure to remember them and his floaty swim jacket, so we can venture into the big pool. We tried today, but it was too hard for me to manage with both the little ones. Now that I've figured out how to make Lucas' floaty seat work, it might be okay with Tyler in his floaty jacket. We shall see.

Here is Lucas sporting Tyler's baseball cap, on our way to the car. Tyler was such a nice big brother to share. They are really getting along so well. I can't wait for Lucas to get just a big older, so they can really interact and play with each other.


Stay tuned for more summer fun stories...

Ka-Chow!!

As much as Tyler loves his trains, he love his cars, too! Maybe more, even. :) When the time came last year to pick a theme for his party, he wasn't really old enough to get it and be able to tell me what he wanted. He had yet to discover "Thomas" or "Lightning", but he was into cars and trains, so I chose a simple transportation theme that had a little of everything and made a cute little train cake for him.


This year however, it took him less than a nano-second to tell us he wanted a "Lightning McQueen" party. It's amazing what an opinion a little three year old can have!! I started asking about 6 weeks before his birthday and asked him several times through the course of a few weeks. Each time the answer was a resounding "Lightning" and once I even heard him say "M-o-m...I told you I wanted a McQueen party!" This year, he kept reminding me that he wanted a "race-car" cake. That was that and I got to planning. Of course I made the invitations and Daddy found some REALLY cool party decorations and supplies, that he ordered on-line. We are so lucky that he is such a gread Daddy!! He did a wonderful job.


I'm not sure who was more excited for the party...Tyler, or Mommy and Daddy?!? I had a lot of fun designing his invitation and Daddy did great with the supplies and decorations. It was fun to decorate the house with all the neat decorations. We started outside with cool flags lining the driveway
and continued inside with an awesome backdrop of a CARS scene,
and some balloons and banners.

Unfortunately, I failed to think of taking the photo before a few of our guests had to leave. :( I'm actually impressed with the success of this photo, considering there are seven, three-year old boys in this picture.
The day was perfect!! The weather was beautiful. (It can be kind of hit or miss in June...hot, humid, stormy, it's a toss up...but low 80 degree weather, with an ocean-like breeze, now that is nearly unheard of.) The party was a lot of fun, too. With the weather being so beautiful, the kids were very content to be outside playing in the moon bounce, on the jungle gym or with one of the handful of ride-on toys that we own. Turns out they came in very handy!!


I am so thankful that the weather was so beautiful, because I am not sure our house could have held up to the energy of 13 little kids. The three sweet little girls wouldn't have been a problem, but 10 boys, hmmm!!

We were inside for lunch (which turned out SO well...I decided to make brisket for the adults -- something I've never attempted before and my husband thought I might be a little crazy for taking this on. He is from Texas afterall...and a connoisseur of BBQ! Apparently it hit the spot for everyone, though...because there were not even a few straggling pieces left!! Darn it...I was REALLY hoping for leftovers for dinner. Guess I'll be making that again soon.) and made it through that without any major incidences,

but I did decide to return back outside for the eating of the cupcakes!! That was, maybe, the best idea of the day.

After burning off a little more energy (and sugar from those gobs of icing with cupcake), it was time for Tyler to finally open his gifts.

It was a struggle to convince him that we did not need to open every single gift right when he opened it, and to move on to the next gift. But eventually we made our way through them all. He got some really neat gifts, most of which we have already played with!!

I said before that three was hard for me, because my baby is growing so quickly and fastly. But this means that he is beginning to understand so much more and makes days like these so much fun!!

Last Day...

Today was Tyler's last day of school. Parents were invited in for a short program to celebrate the end of the year. It was a very cute presentation of the alphabet song and "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star", which Tyler actually sang very nicely! He even did most of the little hand motions they learned to go along with the songs. I was so proud of him. I thought that I was videoing their performance on my phone, but it got tired apparently and pooped out before I could save the file. Man, that really made me sad -- Friday was just one of those days for me, but more on that later. This is a happy post!! Well, mostly.

After their performance, Tyler gave each of his teachers their gifts. He really enjoyed class with Ms. Belinda

and Ms. Marie.

Afterward, we had yummy cupcakes (which were of course -- EVERYWHERE!!) and visited with his little buddies one last time. Hopefully we can make some playdates for him to catch up with his friends over the summer. He attempted to pose for a picture with mom...but this was as close as we got to him actually looking at the camera. :)