Spring Break - Day 4

For our final Spring Break hurrah, I took the boys to a toddler cooking class at the Sugar

Beet Schoolhouse.  I was so excited about this one.  Normally they would be in the kitchen
and make a snack together, but unfortunately the schoolhouse had a camp for older kids all
week long, so the toddlers were out in the greenhouse today.  Because of the limited space
the instructor did more of a demonstration as opposed to letting the kids make something.
She demonstrated how to make Chai tea.  It seemed like an odd choice to make for
toddlers, but the boys didn't mind.  They watched and listened as she

walked through all the ingredients and got the tea started. 

While they waited for it to heat up they each got to break open a cardamom pod (one of the ingredients) and check out the seeds inside.  They had fun with that.

Once the tea was ready, they gave it a try.  Much to my surprise, both Owen and Joe drank
a little.  I was certain they were going to turn their noses up at it, but I was 100% wrong.
I tried a little myself, and I can see why they drank it.  It was delicious!

Since the tea was a relatively short project, and the class is an hour long,

they spent the last few minutes potting their own tomato plants to take home.

  I was a little bummed that the class wasn't what I expected it to be, but the boys had a
great time.  When we left Owen actually told me how much he liked it.  I'm pretty sure this
was just a crazy week with Spring Break and I plan on giving it another try to see
what it's really like at a normal time.

Spring Break Fun - Day 3

When I was thinking of what I wanted to do this week, I made the plan for us to come to the

zoo today.  There was rain in the forecast, but I was hoping we might get lucky.

Unfortunately for us it was raining when we woke up, but I still decided to take them to the zoo anyway.  I figured we could stay inside at the Hamill play zoo to keep dry.  It is right near the zoo entrance, so we didn't have far to walk in the rain.  

I'm glad I made the decision to go because the boys loved exploring everything.

They checked out the snakes (GROSS!),

watered plants in the greenhouse,

tried out the face paint, but quickly decided they wanted no part of that messiness,

took care of the animals in the animal hospital,

made an art project, and pretended they were the zoo director.

 The morning was going great.  But then I had the bright idea of walking over to the dolphin

show.  We don't go often, and it sounded like a good thing to do since we were trying to

keep busy indoors.  The show is indoors after all.  What I didn't factor in was how long the

walk was to get there.  It normally doesn't seem that far away, but when it is pouring rain

that walk seemed to take forever!! We were soaked!!

But we didn't let a little rain spoil our fun.

After the show it was still raining so we went next door to have lunch hoping the rain would

pass.  Apparently today was not our lucky day because the rain continued and only got

worse.  We finally had to deal with it and run in the rain back to the car.  I think all of us,

myself included, could not wait to get home and get into some dry clothes.  My plan for the

day didn't work out perfectly (having some umbrellas might have helped), but I

accomplished my goal of keeping us busy and entertained.  Weather 0, Mom 1.

Spring Break Fun - Day 2

In the spirit of doing something fun every day, on Wednesday I took the boys to open gym at the gymnastics center.  As you can imagine, it was a mad house!!

Normally you could show up at 10AM when it opens and have no problem getting in before
they reach max capacity.  With it being Spring Break I decided to go a little early to be safe.
We got there 10 minutes early and almost didn't get a spot.  It was crazy!  I'm so happy we
got there when we did though, because the boys had so much fun.  Neither of them have
been to open gym in awhile and it's safe to say they missed it.

 Miles seemed to enjoy his first open gym too.

Lucky for him he had his big brothers with him to show him the ropes.

The Start of Spring Break 2017

This week the kids had their Spring Break and as luck would have it, there was rain in the

forecast every single day!  On Monday we didn't have anything going on so we played in the

house ALL DAY.  That one day was enough for me to know I'd rather go through the week

with a plan.  So for the rest of the week I tried to plan a little something every morning

to keep us busy and entertained. Not only did it help the week to move along,

but I wanted to make their break fun for them.

We started on Tuesday meeting the Elseners for a little bowling.  Joe was so funny.  Most of

the time when we go bowling it is with my mom in WI.  So when I told him we were going

bowling, he asked who we were going with.  I told him Olivia, Graham and Quinn and he

very matter of factly, with his hands bouncing up and down to the sides in true Joe fashion

told me, "No.  We bowl with Grandma!"  He was so confused that we can actually bowl with

people other than Grandma.  ;)  After he got past the initial shock, he and Owen had a blast!

 

Then after naps we headed out to the park where Miles was more than happy

to take another ride on the swing.

His brothers were also more than happy to keep him company.

Now that Ryan goes into work earlier these days, he gets home earlier too.  So tonight he

came and met us at the park after he got home from work.  I'm loving this new schedule of

his.  We're sad we don't see him in the morning, but it's so nice to have him home earlier

in the evening to spend time with us before dinner.

Sitting Practice

Miles and I have been working hard to improve his solo sitting skills.

He does pretty well when he has a cushioned barrier around him.  He's learned how to roll to the side when he wants to stop sitting instead of just nose diving forward.  He's not quite ready to sit without the support yet, but we're making good progress.  Nice work buddy!

Joe's Love Story Continues...

 These two are too much.  They are so stinking cute when they are together.  Whenever

they're walking together they hold hands.  They have in depth conversations, like what kind

of shoes each of them are wearing, and Joe is always so attentive to Cate.  I can only hope

that Joe continues to be this sweet and attentive to women as he grows older.

Handsome Dude

I've always loved Owen with longer hair.  Even after we shortened it the first time and got rid
of the curls, we still kept it on the longer side.  His hair is so nice, has such an amazing
color, and when it laid right, it looked awesome.  The only problem is boys hair grows so fast
and it would be just a week or two after his cut before it would be getting in his eyes.  I had
this constant need to be pushing it over to the side to keep it out of his face.   I decided it
was time to get him a shorter do.  Truth be told, I was a little nervous going in,
but I LOVE IT!!  How handsome is he??

Swinging Smiles

Yesterday we had a nice warm day, so we wasted no time getting out to the park.

Miles got to try out the swing for the first time and he LOVED it.
He smiled and giggled almost the whole time he was in it..

And Owen loved being able to help out and push

(with a few gentle reminders that he had to take it easy).