Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Wacky Wednesday

Things were just crazy around the house today. There is something about being stuck inside due to rain that must make small children go wild. Thomas and Ollie were both up early. For breakfast, Thomas wasn't interested in the usual so what did we eat...watermelons and yogurt of course. Healthy yes, but definitely not our usual breakfast menu items. We then pulled a switcheroo and and ate pancakes for lunch. Why not right? After being cooped up all day who doesn't want buttermilk pancakes for lunch? Ollie was funny, he was really eyeing his brother's pancakes. He is getting better at eating rice cereal but not quite ready for anything else yet. Soon he will be big enough to eat some though. Even today he was being such a big boy. He and Thomas played on the floor and "rolled" a ball back and forth. Ollie loves playing with Thomas. I'm not sure if Thomas is ready to share his toys yet but I hope so, Ollie is now his new competition in the house!

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Rain rain go away...

my kids really wanted to go outside and play today!

That's right, today we were stuck inside most of the day. The rain did let up for a brief period in the afternoon. Lindsay surprised the boys with a visit to say hi and we went with her to get some ice cream. We made sure to bring our umbrella on the walk there but didn't make it home quite in time because it started raining again. Oliver go a little bit of rain on him for the first time. I think he liked it though. We also cut up some fresh watermelon, officially kicking off summer in our house. Thomas all day was begging me to let him have some so by the time dinner rolled around he at up about 1/8th of our watermelon. Tomorrow for snack we are having... you guessed it--more watermelon!

Here is to a much drier and exciting week. If not, there is always grocery shopping as an indoor family outing! ;-)

Monday, May 25, 2009

Chicago Day 2 at the Brookfield Zoo & Weekend Photos

Ollie's first trip to the zoo

Thomas


Thomas froze in his steps when the dinosaur "roared" at him

Photo showing how big the dinosaur was

Lion

Seeing dolphins was really cool

This one came right up next to us and checked us out

Ollie was so big eyed watching the dolphins

Brown bear brown bear what do you see?

The polar bear was pretty cute

Showing Thomas the bears

And a carousel ride on a kangaroo at the end

Using his cool new snake as a pillow on the way home

At Village Inn, he learned that 3 straws ARE better than 1

At the Iowa City Children's Museum Passport to the World exhibit

Chicago Day 1 and Navy Pier Photos

Looking at the trains, cars, and planes

Watching the plane come over

Ollie's funny face

Playing

Love his beautiful blue eyes

At the Chicago Children's Museum

Playing in the water complex

Playing with his boat

Two girls were nice enough to show him how to make the water come up, he really liked that


He wants one in the back yard now I think

Getting the boats to come down the "waterfall"

Grandma Patty treated him to CHOCOLATE ice cream even though he was wearing a WHITE tee shirt


The Windy Chicago "Pirate Ship"


Me and my boys on the Windy

Grandma Patty gave Thomas a tour of the upper deck


Thomas loved the canon they shot out at the end

Beautiful Shot of Chicago from Lake Michigan

Navy Pier

Navy Pier again

Navy Pier Light House

Play time and Park Photos

Teething

Sitting up all by himself

Play time

In his "safari" hat
His cheeks are so chubby in this one!
Napping at the park

Walking to the park

Thomas at the play area

Peaking out above the slide

Sunday, May 24, 2009

Weekend Update!

It seems as though with all the nice weather I have been skipping out on blogging! But have no worries, the next couple days are supposed to be rainy around here!

To play a quick game of catch up, the last week has been pretty laid back around here. I wrapped up my finals on the 14th and celebrated by getting my hair cut that weekend. I decided not only to indulge and get some highlights but also to go a little retro and get bangs!!! A pretty brave choice for me but I love it so far.

To make up for my "me" moment I spent the entire week with my boys. I think we went to the park almost every day. One day we went 3 times, I think we need some new activities. At least my legs are getting toned up for summer skirts and shorts! We also went to Chicago with Grandpa Patty.

But no trip out of the house would be complete without a little bit of drama. Wednesday would have been a perfectly ordinary day, but Thomas had other plans for me. To start the day Thomas had an accident during the middle of what should have been his nap. Let me tell you....a 3 year old + no pull up during nap = potential for disaster. What resulted lets just say was I had to clean up poop all the way from his bedroom down the hallway to the bathroom when he ran to try to make it to the toilet. I am not sure who is more scarred, me or my floors. Well that wasn't enough excitement so of course we happened to run out of wipes right before dinner. I thought I had some stockpiled but I couldn't find them. So I needed to make dinner FAST and I decided to make grilled cheese, only to find out the bread was moldy. Well I hadn't bought groceries this week since we were leaving town for 3 days. I mean why bother? The food would sit there while we were gone. So I had to get 2 cranky kids loaded up in the car to go get us dinner and wipes. Ollie was crying and Thomas was throwing a fit because he wanted to go to the park. It would have been lovely to have a "sub" at this point. Every mom should have a stand in mom. Well we get some fast food which is a rare thing in our house. But Thomas decided he doesn't "like" his food. I make him eat 3 bites (how awful!!) before he can have his apples. Well he ate it fine, he just wanted the apples. (**WARNING: stop reading now if you have a weak stomach**) We finally get to Target and Thomas threw up ALL OVER, on purpose I imagine. And by all over I mean everywhere--the car seat, carpet, himself, back of the seat. And what does he do, he tried to catch it with his hands and he no joke hands it to me to take. Yuck yuck yuck. So there I am, just standing there in amazement, and I don't even have wipes to clean it up with. OMG I about died. I stripped him down (the person parked next to us I am sure was standing there trying not to laugh at this point) and grabbed a random outfit from the back (Thank goodness I had even that) and ran into the store with 2 cranky boys (one of which was also very smelly) to grab stupid wipes and now a towel to clean up the mess. I bathed Thomas and somehow managed to get him not to smell (a feat right there!) but the car on the other hand is kind of smelly. Thank goodness I have developed a sudden aversion to driving. However, car cleaning services in the Corridor area are happy to take my business at this point. What a stimulus for the economy my 2 children can be!

However, apart from my *wonderful Wednesday* evening, the week was great. On Thursday we visited Navy Pier in Chicago. We visited the Chicago Children's Museum which is FREE 5 PM-8 PM and sponsored by Kraft Foods. Thomas loved the water play feature they had. We also went on a sunset boat cruise on Lake Michigan. Thomas loved it when they shot a canon off the "pirate" ship. Ollie even enjoyed the boat ride. He loved watching the waves across the lake. Then on Friday we went swimming at the hotel and to the Brookfield Zoo outside of Chicago. I have to say that the Brookfield Zoo was really cool. We enjoyed seeing seals, dolphins, bears, lions, snakes, and even a life-size dinosaur! They had a fantastic Dinosaur exhibit that was so realistic. I only wish it was open later in the evening, we would have stayed much longer! We were sad to come home but we got to see Grandma Kim who was on her way back from Detroit.

I will have lots of pictures to share soon, be watching for them!

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Slow start to the week

It seems like the week has been dragging along because it has felt super slow around here despite finals approaching for me. On Monday and Tuesday the boys got to visit the park and bake cookies. Today it was rainy so we declared it a movie day and made mini pizzas and watched Disney movies. Tomorrow I have my last final, which has been keeping me busy and from posting more. But starting next week I can't wait to have more photos again and share with all of you how are day was. Here is to a good rest of the week!
Playing with his toy in his sleep. It was pretty funny really, he wouldn't let go!

Honestly, Kraft should pay my kid to advertise for them. Thomas loves his mac and cheese!

My little chefs making cookies, Oliver wanted to lick the bowl! ;-)

Thomas working hard

Oliver eating rice cereal, he couldn't get enough tonight



Monday, May 11, 2009

The weekend in pictures

At lunch after Reid's graduation reception
Thomas feeding the fish and ducks

Joe and Thomas

Swans
Grandma Kim, Brent and Oliver
Mother's Day Photo
Thomas with his spiky hair

Oliver in his high chair at Mother's Day Brunch

All smiles

The boys great great grandma