Walking wizard

It's been about 2 or 3 weeks now since Jonah has decided he wanted to walk all.the.time.  He prefers walking to crawling now, can stand up on his own (from the floor), and is quite fast.  Peter and I forgot how seriously adorable it is when they finally "get it"  We just can't get enough of him cruising all over the place.  And Benjamin loves it too.  I have a feeling its going to be a really busy, but wonderful summer with my two crazy boys.

Benjamin interview - 3 Years Old

I completely forgot to post this back in February when Benjamin turned 3.  I thought it'd be cute to capture an "interview" with my kids each year on their birthday to see how they change and look back on what they used to like/think.

1.  What is your favorite color?  green and yellow

2.  What is your favorite toy?  hammer

3.  What if your favorite fruit?  blackberries

4.  What is your favorite movie?  Kung Fu Panda

5.  What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? nuggets

6.  What is your favorite game?  Thomas game

7.  What is your favorite snack?  fruit snacks

8.  What is your favorite animal?  giraffe

9.  What is your favorite song?  jesus loves the little children.  He's still working on me

10.  What is your favorite book?  the one that has all the stories.  look & find

11.  Who is your best friend?  Micah

12.  What is your favorite thing to eat for dinner?  soup.  spicy noodles

13.  What is your favorite thing to do outside?  get some sand and dump it on my head

14.  What is your favorite drink?  milk

15.  What is your favorite restaurant?  Mcdonalds

16.  What do you like to take to bed with you?  Flopinator, the ladybug, Tigress, Cookie, Elmo

17.  What is your favorite breakfast?  pancakes

18.  What do you want to be when you grow up?  just like Daddy    (exactly what he said.....melt my heart)
                                                  
19.  What does Daddy do for a job?  hammers  (Ben must have been playing with tools that day)

20.  What does Mommy do for a job?  I don't know  (of course right?!)

21.  What is your favorite thing to do with Daddy?  make a tent, throw your Floppy at him, pillow fights

22.  What is your favorite thing to do with Mommy?  sit down and rest and hammer.....that's all the jobs I have to do mom. 

Guess I need to go write a job description for myself and spend quality time with my son resting and hammering.  Ha ha, love you sweet boy.

Day at the children's museum

Last week Kristen texted me around 7:30 in the morning asking if I wanted to go to the children's museum for the day.  It took me a few minutes to get over my "I-just-want-to-be-super-lazy-today" attitude, and then I was totally on board!  We both got our boys and lunches ready and left a bit after 9am.

I had never been to the A.C. Gilbert House in Salem, but it was a lot of fun.  There was hardly anybody there since kids are still in school, and it was perfect.  Our boys loved all the exhibits and I enjoyed watching them have fun and hanging out with my friend.  A good day was had by all.

Easter Sunday 2013

Easter Sunday brought a beautiful, sunny day celebrating our risen Savior.  So much strength and security come from knowing and trusting in Jesus, who triumphed over even death!

I'm learning that attempting to get 'perfect pictures' is ridiculous, but I still try to snap a few so I can remember our celebration of God as a family.

And yes, my boys are matching.  I can't help myself.  So.ridiculously.cute.

Thank you Lord, for your power over the grave!

Weekend Randoms

Last week my friend Kristen and I took our kiddos to the zoo while they were on Spring Break.  It was a little busy there but it was a beautiful day and we had so much fun.  We both have memberships this year so it works out wonderfully.  We spent about 6 hours at the zoo so the boys were exhausted at the end of the day....so was mama.  Of course I forgot my camera but I stole a few pictures from Kristen.

The other morning I needed to clean the kitchen so I decided to let the boys play with ice cubes in bowls.  They loved it.  They spooned them from bowl to bowl and then I eventually added a little food coloring.  Simple fun and I got to clean uninterrupted.

Another morning we played on our front porch with some sidewalk chalk.

The boys played with chalk while I took pictures of the beautiful spring flowers in our yard.  So pretty!

A typical Saturday morning for us consists of a big, lazy breakfast.  And then the boys climb all over me the moment I try to sit on the couch and bring me a book to read to them.  Then they get tired of me and wrestle Daddy.  It's these simple moments like this though that bring the biggest smile to my face.  How privileged am I to have this gift of a family?

Last night we had another EPIC event and took the youth ice skating and out for ice cream.  It was a really fun night and I didn't fall, woot woot!  Love these kiddos and the chance to invest in them.

Time to watch some Final Four basketball while watching the rain from my couch and trying not to eat too many Reeses Peanut Butter Eggs :-)

Favorite boy books

One of the blogs I read is doing a link-up today showcasing their favorite kids book.  What a clever idea to capture what books yours kids love on your blog and get new ideas too!  Someday they'll look back and remember which books were read to them over and over as a kid.

And we sure do love books in our house!  It's one thing I absolutely love to hunt for at garage sales and thrift stores.  You can find some well-used favorites for a fraction of the price.

Here are a few that Benjamin (3) and Jonah (1) love to read.....

*  such great animal pictures - Jonah's favorite

*  classic bear hunt with a great ending

*  super cute big bad wolf spin-off book

*  great way to introduce the alphabet

*  adorable illustrations with trains....perfect for a boy

*  Benjamin LOVES these look&find books (like Where's Waldo but a bit easier)

*  love all the books in the "If you give a...." series

*  SUCH a fun pirate book for boys

*  my boys both loved Spot books and love lifting the flaps

*  Ben's favorite was the Little Mouse & the Strawberry....boom, boom, boom comes the bear

*  really quick but fun Thomas stories

*  helps Ben learn how to read a clock by using his favorite Thomas engines

*  both boys LOVES this 3 little pigs classic.  They love to sing "who's afraid of the big bad wolf...."

*  silly alphabet book with bugs and flaps.....boys love it

*  fun rhyming book about a toy train

*  Ben loves the book about the train-tastic crew

*  both boys are obsessed with this Dig, Dig Digging book about all kinds of trucks/tractors/vehicles

*  Ben looooves these read-along Disney storybooks.  They're super fun!

*  an adorable book for a mama to read to her boys.  We found this at the library and I need to find a copy our own, it is really sweet!

*  cute rhyming book perfect for little ones

*  rhyming, touch & feel book with really cute pictures and words

*  gotta have the classic brown bear, brown bear

*  a great tractor/truck lift-the-flap book.  You will read it over and over and over if you have boys

*  you can't go wrong with mischievous Curious George stories

*  a fun lift-the-flap book for infants/1 year olds

*  great book for infant/1 year olds with a finger hole to slide open the animals

I could go on and on with books we love in this house!  I'm pretty sure we have a bookshelf in every room.  Happy reading!!! :-)

Dyed & Hunted

For a boy who doesn't like to eat eggs, he sure enjoyed using them for fun Easter'ish activities this weekend.  He loves his eggs dyed & hunted.  I've never done either before because he was young and didn't know any difference!

But this year I thought I'd make a little memory for him, so we dyed eggs on Saturday morning.  As one would expect, he was super impatient, and put several coloring dots into one bowl of water....but he really enjoyed it and loved the green one in particular.

 using the egg holder as a magnifying glass :-)

 

 

Then later that afternoon, Peter hid about a dozen eggs around the backyard.  They were just the cheapies filled with Benjamin, but he was delighted.  He ran around and found them all, counting them all along the way.

And YES,that is a Kitchen Aid mixing bowl as my boy's Easter basket.  Guess I'm not getting pinned to Pinterest huh?  :-)

He had fun, we had fun.  And who doesn't love jellybeans?