I'm going to be an Aunt!

I'm soo excited! I recently got the news that my brother and his wife are expecting a baby in May! My kids don't have any cousins yet, so they are excited too. My youngest and their oldest will be just a few months apart.

My "baby" is TWO!!

It's hard to believe that Andrew is two already. We had a very nice birthday weekend for him. My mom came out for a visit, and we went to an indoor playground, had pizza, rented a couple of movies, and baked a cake. My mom got Andrew a couple of playdough sets which the boys really enjoy playing with. I attempted to make him a b-day cake that looks like Elmo, but I just am not a decorator. He knew it was Elmo though. LOL.

You never know what you'll find

when you clean your house! So, we've spent the past 2 weeks giving our entire house a really good cleaning, organizing, etc. In our dining room we have this air vent that doesn't stay shut, and sometimes things can fall down in there if it is left open. My DH and boys took it off over the weekend and look what they found! All of this stuff was put there by the oh-so-adorable toddler with the devilish smile! Don't let his cuteness fool you! I was wondering where his shoes were! It's amazing what you can find when you clean!

Zoo Free Day 2009!

Each summer our local zoo has a free day, sponsored by a local business. It's great because we can go and get in free, plus you get free pop and popcorn, and the kids get a little "prize" of some kind too! Our zoo is really nice for not being in a large city, and they have great kids programs, encourage "being green", and the people who work there are super nice.

It was really HOT the day we went there, but we got to see a bunch of the animals. There are two new baby bear cubs that are really cute. We got to watch one of the zoo keepers feeding the penguins, and the boys got to feed the goats while we were there.

Swimming Lessons

I'm way behind on my blog posts, so now I'm trying to get caught up on stuff from August since FALL will be here soon enough! We always do swimming lessons in August because it is our 'least busy' summer month, and the most likely to have hot weather here. This summer my oldest had to repeat Level 2 which he wasn't too thrilled about, but he ended up loving it and did soo much better this time around. He is really proud that he passed this year and next year will be in Level 3. Ryan had been asking to take swimming all summer so we signed him up for the "WeeWaders" preschool level, because they either need to be 6 or already have some swimming experience to begin Level 1 here. He had soo much fun and will take Level 1 next year. I'm really proud of him because up until this past year he has been terrified of the water! Now he loves it and can't wait to go. He even jumped off of the diving board - with a life jacket on! Andrew is too little for swimming lessons but he had fun watching his big brothers and splashing in the water a couple of times!

A Day at the Beach

Last weekend, my husband was out of town and so I took the boys out to the lake for a few hours. They loved it and had a blast! This is a 'end of summer' tradition that we started last year, and I hope to continue. Last summer a friend of my husband's invited us to spend the day out at their house (they live on the lake) and go boating. We had a picnic lunch and cruised around the lake. Lucas even went tubing for the first time. This year since my husband was out of town, I just took the boys to the beach. Andrew spent most of the time throwing rocks into the water, but the big boys got in and did a little swimming. They dug up a huge rock from the bottom of the lake and collected a bunch of smaller rocks and some bird feathers. It was a really nice way to spend the afternoon.
(The time/date on my camera is wrong, but I don't know how to fix it.)

Messy Sensory Play

This is something we do every once and a while, and the kids really like it. I use cool whip, but many people use shaving cream for this activity. I just put it right on the table, but you could always use a cookie sheet or some other shallow container. Last time we did this I just had them play with the white cool whip, and had them practice writing their names, making shapes, doing math problems, etc. depending upon the age of the child. This time we did color mixing. Lucas started out with blue and red food coloring, and made purple. Ryan started out with blue and yellow food coloring to make green (his favorite color). Then they both added other colors and ended up with brown. I gave Andrew blue and yellow to make green because he likes to be like his big brother! It's a mess but it cleans up pretty easily and they have so much fun with it!