Rugby's Visit

Rugby the dog came home from school with Brennan for two nights, although with the snow day and the weekend, we ended up having Rugby for five nights in total.  Rugby came with a toothbrush, his favorite books and dog treats.  He also had a journal, where the children were asked to write out what they did with Rugby.  Rugby enjoyed cuddling with Brennan and Zelda.

He came to Monkey Joe's with us.

Rugby's journal indicated that he enjoyed pancakes with blueberry syrup.  Turns out he also likes pancakes with whipped cream.

He enjoyed coming to Carter's birthday party as well.

He was a key player in the puppet show that Brennan put on while at the party.

Rugby also enjoyed watching Brennan play in the snow.  Brennan wrote a pretty long journal entry and included some pictures from their time together.  He was pretty sad to say goodbye to Rugby, but took it much better than I had expected!

Carter's Birthday Party

Last Saturday, we attended Carter's birthday party at the Heritage Farm Museum.  My in-laws were in town and Carter's family welcomed all of us.  Tyler really enjoyed playing in the general store.

Here he is shopping for eggs.  Unfortunately, Tyler ended up having an accident and I didn't have a change of clothes, so Brian and his parents took Tyler home, while I stayed with Brennan for the rest of the party.

Brennan was also doing some shopping in the general store, on horseback.

He dressed up like a farmer.

And, milked the cow.  Not sure if you can see from the photo, but the cow actually had water in it's udders, so something comes out when it gets milked.

The kids definitely enjoyed themselves!  It was a great place for a birthday party!

Monkey Joes

Last week,we had a play date with some friends from church at a bounce place called Monkey Joe's.  I wasn't sure how it going to be for Tyler, since he has never been willing to even step foot on any kind of bounce castle, but after seeing Brennan, Malachi and Titus have fun, he decided to join in.

 

Here he is coming down the slide. I'm glad he conquered his fear!

Brennan, Malachi and Titus went through this little obstacle course repeatedly.  It didn't have a little stopper at the end of the slide and the boys were literally flying out at the end and landing on the floor mats.  They were having a blast!  Brennan was red, hot and sweaty when we left.

Tyler decided to try on Malachi and Titus' baby sister's headband... and was happy to give me a good smile for a photo.  Too cute!

Rewind... Enjoying the Great Outdoors!

Before the snow started, we actually had a pretty beautiful week with lots of spring-like weather.  I think Tyler could be ready to start riding a big boy bike (with training wheels), so I have been putting him on the bike, but he hasn't quite figured out how to pedal it yet.  We started out on a little walk down the sidewalk with Brennan on the scooter and Tyler on the bike, but after about 5-6 houses down and Tyler wasn't even attempting to pedal, I took him off the bike and suggested we just walk.

I let him hold Zelda's leash, which kept him happy.

We stopped in the front of the neighborhood to let Zelda do a little running in the parking lot of the Bahai Center.  I snapped a cute picture of Tyler sitting on the curb.

Brennan is working at mastering his scooter so he can start skateboarding.  I told him he could get a skateboard if he could zoom down the big hill leading up to our house on scooter in a controlled, but non-stop manner.  I think he has a LONG way to go before we reach that goal.

Zelda was enjoying some time relaxing in the sun after our walk.  She is such a good girl.  Her weight is down to 95 pounds and she can be trusted to be off leash without running away.

Later in the week, we met Regina and her kids at the Rust Library for a picnic lunch and playtime.  Although the temps weren't too bad, it was on the windy side and started turning a little funky.

Tyler fairly successfully dragged Brennan down the entire ramp on the playground.  It's nice to see them play together.

Spring Has Arrived... just kidding...More Snow

I was pretty excited to write a post about how we've been enjoying beautiful spring-like weather, but as I sit here this morning with 8 inches of snow on the ground and more falling, I think we'll jump ahead directly to today.  After a beautiful day with a 65 degree high on Saturday, we got ready to hunker down for another snow storm that was heading our way on Sunday.  The snow started lightly falling around 5 and by 6:30, we had lost power.  Brian submitted an incident report to the power company, which gave an estimated fix time of 10pm - midnight.  Fearing a cold night in the house, I told the boys we might have to camp out in the TV room by the fireplace.  In the meantime, they put their headlamps on and played with Legos.

The power was back on a little after 8, but the boys really still wanted to camp.  I was in the mood to humor them, since school had already closed for Monday, so we they got cozy on the pull-out bed and I slept on the couch beside them.  It was the first time we used the pull-out since we got the couch in 2006.

Here's the view from the front door.  I am so over the snow.  I don't thinkn I can bring myself to go out and play in it.  I think we'll just stay inside today, watch movies and play with more Legos!  Brian went to work this morning and shoveled the walkway, but my neighbor came and got the snow blower and cleared the driveway and road in front of our homes.

Tyler Time

In February, Tyler had a couple of notable appointments - his second ever visit to the dentist and his first trip to the Barber Shop.  Tyler had done pretty well six months earlier at his first dental check-up, but this time, his appointment was while Brennan was in school, so it was just he and I.  The pediatric dentist we see had a video screen right above the exam chair and you can see he was completely mesmerized by what he was watching.  He asked for sunglasses and allowed the hygienist to give him a full cleaning and flossing!  It was an easy and quick appointment!

We left the dentist and had enough time to stop for a hair cut.  A month earlier, I had taken Brennan to the barber shop and Tyler was begging for a cut, but didn't need one right then.  He kept asking for a hair cut through, so I decided to give it a try.  It was his first cut at a non-kid hair salon and he did great!  Honestly, he sits better for a cut than Brennan!

By the end, he was ready for it be over and was about to hop right out out of that chair!

 My handsome boy!

Two weeks ago, we had one day where the snow started late enough in the morning that school didn't call a delay, although, it honestly should have!  The roads were pretty slick.  Thinking it would be our last snow of the season (it wasn't), Tyler and I bundled out to enjoy an hour in the snow before Brennan got home from school.  Unfortunately, we ended get another pretty heavy snow fall this last week and the kids had another 2 days off from school and a two-hour delay on Wednesday.  Spring... come!!

Tyler loves superheros and all things that relate to superheros.  Every night at shower time, Brennan lays out pajamas for himself and Tyler.  Tyler was very excited this evening that his Batman jammies were clean.  They posed and asked me to take a photo of them!  So cute!!

100 Heads

Brennan's kindergarten class was getting ready to celebrate the 100th day of school at the end of February.  His teacher sent home a poster board asking that the kids put 100 of something on the board.  We wanted to do something a little different and came up with the idea of taking 100 pictures of Brennan's head wearing different hats and glasses.  Here is a little view of what we came up with.  It was easier than I expected to find nearly 100 things for Brennan to put on his head in our house alone!  I only had to rely on about 10 exterior shots to get to the full 100.

He glued each picture to his board and called it "100 Heads."

On the 100th day of school, the kids made trail mix with 10 pieces of 10 different snacks and a 100 piece fruit loop necklace.  "Zero the Hero" came to school (a puppet) and the 100 piece caterpillar turned into a beautiful butterfly.  Brennan came home very excited about the celebration and seemed to have a really great time!