Birthdays!

It's that time of year again - I'm in full birthday planning mode!  We have Mother's Day, Brett's 6th birthday, my brother-in-law's 20-something birthday, Father's Day, my 30-something birthday, my parent's 35th anniversary, our 8th anniversary, Kate's 5th birthday, and my sister and brother-in-law's 3rd anniversary - all in 2 months!  Geesh! 

Of course, because I'm in full planning mode, I have to do my brainstorming somewhere.  Lucky for you, here it is!  Check out my Birthday Ideas Page!

Pumpkin Face

Brett has had this loose tooth forever.  Seriously forever.  It seemed like it wasn't getting any looser, until yesterday in the middle of church.  He announced that he could move it sideways as well as forward and backward.  I asked him if he could spin it.  My sister was always proud of her tooth-spinning abilities, mostly to gross out my dad (it worked every time).  I figured that would start to really loosen it up - have him work on spinning it.  Fast forward to Panera, our usual Sunday hang out, and his usual breakfast - an entire cinnamon roll and half of an apple.  Todd told him to bite with his front teeth and guess what?!  Nope, it didn't fall out, but it did start bleeding.  I shot Todd this look that said, "get that tooth out now - it's gross!"  And sure enough, Brett let him pull it right there.  He was so proud that he finally lost that tooth!  The tooth fairy wrote him a letter and brought him a dollar last night.  I have pictures of that too, but, for now, here is a cell phone pic of the proud toothless boy!  Kate started calling him "Pumpkin Face" because he looks like a jack-o-lantern.  Funny kids.

Toothless Brett!

FOUR!

I totally missed it with the craziness of last week, but our little blog turned FOUR last Monday :)

April 2008

April 2012

Kelly Road

On Tuesday of Spring Break (yes, I'm skipping way back to spring break - apologies)... We had some friends over for a little play date with anyone who was around. It was a lot of fun - the moms were able to chat and catch up, while the kids ran wild played peacefully throughout the house.  There was no picture taking involved, so you'll just have to trust me :)  Poor Kate was the only girl, but she managed, making friends with a little brother of one of Brett's friends.

After everyone cleared out, we cleaned up the house, packed a picnic lunch and headed over to the Kelly Road park in Apex.  Heather, over at Boys on Tuesdays told me about this park a while ago.  It's in Apex, which is where I grew up, about 30 minutes from where we live now, but it's a lot like the kids' favorite castle park (see below).  Let's just say it was pretty awesome!  The kids had a great time finding the hidden tunnels and secret nooks and crannies - all of the things that they are old pros at finding when we're at the Castle Park.  They have a sand box, which makes Kate happy, and Brett appeases her for awhile most days.  They had some climbing stuff that was low enough for our kids to do mostly by themselves, which was nice too.  Thanks, Heather, for telling us about this fun park!  It's not one that we'll hit often just because it's not overly convenient for us, but it's nice when we're looking for somewhere different to go, and I know the kids will like it just as much or more than the ones close by!

Playing in the sand box - unfortunately for Brett, I only had a pink shovel.  Sorry, buddy!

Brett was supervising the work of his little sister - they were burying a hidden treasure.

The Apex Castle Park in all of it's glory :)

"Look, Mom!  Tip toes - I can reach!!"

She did it - she was so proud!  You can tell she's really concentrating the way her tongue is sticking out... I'm worried she's going to bite it off one day!  I know, irrational mom fear # 6,447

Holy cow - both kids looking at the camera simultaneously?!

Must.make.noise.

That's a pretty cute tree you found there, Kate!  I couldn't for the life of me keep up with Brett - he ran through there like a crazy man!

I found him for a quick second, and then he was gone again!

Sleepy girl

Memere stopped by for a little while too since we were so close to their house :)

Park #1

I always feel like Spring Break should be full of fun things that we don't do every day. Good Friday was technically the first day of Spring Break, and I was working. The weekend was full of Easter festivities, but Monday was back to the usual grind, minus school of course! Todd was at work, so the kids and I were home to do fun things together. Meredith (aka Aunt Dithy) was in town still, so she went with us to the "Castle Park" - All Children's Playground.  They're actually fundraising right now to totally renovate this park.  It looks like it will be really nice when it's done, although our kids think it's already pretty awesome!  To learn more about the renovation project, click here.

 

 

Carpenter bees freak her out... debating whether or not to cross the bridge with the bee in the middle

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's a good thing Aunt Dithy is little - they had her in every tiny corridor they could find!

Easter Festivities

I love Easter. I love the thought of spring and spring colors and fun spring things. This Easter was no different. Here is a little (big) glimpse of our fun from Easter weekend!

1. Beautiful flowers from Todd's Grandpa Glen - thanks, Glen!  They are gorgeous!  2. Admiring Kate's VERY pink Easter egg  3. Brett & Kate are posing with their finished eggs  4. All of the bright fun colors, ready to go.  Kate and I were ready, but the boys were no where to be found!  5. Kate was really concentrating - she only wanted part of that egg to be yellow.  6. Brett was more interested in using stickers rather than colors.  7. The eggs were ready.  Kate was restless, so I showed her how to shrink-wrap one of the eggs while we were waiting for the boys to get home.  8. Milkshaker concentrating hard, too.  Must get it just right.  Can't imagine where he gets that from?!  9. More pretty colors.  10. Todd, Grandma, and the kids, posing with the Easter flowers from Grandpa Glen.

This was the scene at our house Easter morning - E. Bunny leaves a clue.  The child goes to find the next clue and a small gift, and so on until they finally find their Easter basket.  This year, Brett could easily read all of his own clues!  Next year Kate will be able to do it too.  Does this mean I get to sleep til 10am?!  Some how, I doubt it!  1. Kate found some of her new pajamas in her play kitchen!  2. The kids posing with the baskets they'd just found.  3. Checking to see where his breakfast is  4. Stopping to read a clue.  5. Brett and one of his clues from "E. Bunny"

After mass with Grandma and Grandpa, we headed over to Memere and Poppy's house for more Easter hunting and a delicious brunch.  1. Sisters!  2. Family  3. Kate has this down pat now - go hunt for presents!  4. Brett is on a mission to find his loot!  5. Aunt Erin and Uncle Jeff  6. Memere and Poppy with the grandkids  7. Just the boys  8. Just the girls  9. Kate showing off her manicure  10. Still looking for their goods ;)

Our last stop of the day was Grandma & Grandpa's house for Easter dinner, but not until we did our last egg hunt of the day.  1. Kate found her basket  2. Grandma and I enjoyed an adult beverage after the egg hunt was done!  3-6. Hunting for their eggs  7. Brett and his basket  8. Kate waiting to start her hunt  9. Brett found another egg  10.  I'm not sure what was so exciting, but his face here cracks me up.  11. No day at G&G's would be complete without a game of soccer

We {heart} SpRiNg BrEaK

We're soaking up the sunshine and enjoying our spring break to the fullest this week! Check back soon for LOTS of pictures from Easter weekend and our tour of Wake County parks this week. Seriously - we've been to at least one different park every day!

 

A pictureless post

I apologize in advance for the lack of pictures in this post, because this afternoon was picture-worthy. I promise. The plan for today was simple - go to church. go to panera. come home. do taxes. do homework. get groceries. cook dinner. go to bed. BORING. Thankfully, after we got home from Panera, Todd decided to take the kids outside to play while he cleaned up the garage some. We've both been looking at the fire pit longingly... it is time to have a party. Beyond time to have a party. It's already April for cryin' out loud! The problem - weeds. Lots of them. ALLLLLL around the fire pit. I took this as my cue. We (meaning I) need to get on my hands and knees and start pulling those suckers. For some reason, I decided to procrastinate and weed the front (which I just did like 2 weeks ago, so it was way easy). Then I sprayed some round up here and there in the big natural areas. Then I decided I was already really dirty and needed to stop procrastinating, so I started on the back. After a solid hour I'd only done maybe a 2 foot square area... so sad. And then the soccer game started - Todd versus Brett. It was entertaining. Then Kate joined in - and that was really entertaining. Lots of laughter, lots of goals, a little coaching here and there. I even jumped in for a couple minutes. They played for a long time. Our neighbors came over and they played for a little bit too. Their 6 year old daughter even helped me pull weeds for a little while. Really. I might adopt her :) (kidding, obviously) Then Todd started working on the irrigation system and finding all of the little sprinkler heads that get buried during the winter months. Let's just say that there were some very wet children, a whole lot of screaming, and a lot of laughs! We had a super productive day, not doing anything that we planned on doing, but productive, and fun. Sorry, no pictures!