Miscellaneous Monday

Just a few random shots from these past few weeks. We went to the park over a week ago and I am now just getting the pics up. When Grandma watched Gabe and Ty for my Dr.'s appt. last week she broke out the Horton Hears a Who game and had fun laughing at the boys wearing the Horton hat. This past weekend the boys and I ventured down to Huxley while Daddy was working hard to finish up the ISU basketball practice facility and went to the Prairiefest parade to see Brady drive his gator(and get lots and lots of candy) and did the inflatables. Gabe loves them, Ty was still too little for most of them but did like the one he did get to try.(sorry no pics)

Fan Fest

On an already very busy Sunday this past week we also decided to try to squeeze in a little Cyclone Fan Fest. We arrived at the football practice facility a little after 1 with our McDonalds bags in hand where we ate food as quickly as possible with children and then joined the long line of fellow Cyclone fans making their way into the building. Carl and I had a meeting at 2:00 at church and had to get the boys to my mom and dads so they could watch them during our meeting so when we stepped inside the the building and got in line to see Cy it was 1:35 pm. The line was long but moved relatively quickly. I managed to snap a few pictures of Gabe and his best bud Brady while we were waiting and one of Ty and Daddy. Finally it was our turn to see Cy, Ty did not especially appreciate the giant cardinal and was not crazy about having his pictures taken with him, Gabe was doing his usual thing every time we pull the camera out and looking everywhere but at the person taking the picture so this pictures is actually a fairly good representation of the normal around here:) After we made had our picture with Cy it was already 1:47 so we quick snapped this very cute picture of Bree with the cheerleaders and bolted out the door to get to our meeting. It was a quick visit and Gabe was bummed he didn't get to do the inflatable slide or the bounce house but we reassured him they would be there next year. Hopefully next year we have more time!

First Day of Preschool

My oldest started preschool today! It is really hard to believe that he is old enough to start preschool but this morning we got up, got ready and I dropped him off for his first day. As I helped him put his backpack on I got a little teary thinking of him getting so big but I soon was distracted with taking pictures of my big boy with his backpack on ready to go. While we were in the van driving to school he wondered if Ty would stay with Grandma while we went to school. I explained to him that I wasn't coming and Ty and I would come back to get him later. He said very matter of factly.."oh but I'll miss you while I'm gone." To which of course I cried and had to try and compose myself before I reassured him I would miss him too but he was going to have to much fun and we would be back to get him before lunch. When we arrived he was out of his seat before I even got the van in park. We headed to door to meet his teacher, where he was in with no hesitation ready to start his day. Ty at this point figured out he did not get to stay with big brother and had a melt down on our way back to the van(after I took a picture of Gabe in the doorway to school of course) The rest of the morning we ran errands and said prayers for Gabe. When we picked him up he was in tears(not what I was hoping to see when I arrived) come to find out he lost his backpack already. He wore it inside and on the trip down the hallway to his classroom apparently he put it in one of the big lockers in the hallway thinking that was where it was supposed to go. They have cubbies in their classroom with their names on them where it is actually supposed to go so somewhere between the doorway and his classroom he lost it(so far they still haven't found it:( His teacher didn't think he had a backpack since it wasn't in his cubbie so he was in tears trying to explain that he did have one and then we figured out what had happened. After much trauma he finally calmed down and told me a little about his day(legos, story, bible story, songs, snack) I keep getting little details here and there. Wednesday he takes snacks for his class and the sharing bag so I'm sure he will be excited about that(hopefully his back pack returns too!) Overall I would label it a successful day:)

Visit to the Farm

Last week we decided to take advantage of our last free week before Gabe started preschool and visit the my grandparents farm. The boys love the farm, the tractors, the open spaces, the animals and especially Uncle Bone and Great Grandma and Grandpa. I wanted to get some of my grandmas old canning jars too, as with our garden venture this year I have been using them quite a bit. We headed up Tuesday after lunch and the boys did well on the car ride. When we arrived at the farm Great Grandma got out the toys and the boys immediately started playing. It was a beautiful day so after a while we went outside and the boys had fun playing in the grass with the ball and frisbee and got to take turns going on a tractor ride with Uncle Bone. After supper we made a visit to Dave's house to see the goats but I think the main attraction for Gabe was the giant trampoline in the backyard. Gabe loved to jump and Ty just liked to be bounced around. Ty liked the goats and liked feeding them leaves with the help of Uncle Bone. Dave and the boys also have 3 dogs which Ty likes but Jack liked Ty too and with Ty's lack of height well he recieved many licks to the face, which he wasn't so sure about:) After we visited the goats and the trampoline for awhile we headed over to the other Mawdsley's to see the ostriches, they kept to themselves so we really didn't get a very close look at them but they enjoyed seeing them anyway. Down the road from Grandma and Grandpa's is an elk farm so we also drove by to see the elk. When we returned the boys had a good time getting drinks(or something like that, I'm not sure how much water actually went in their mouthes) from the hose and Gabe enjoyed helping Great Grandma water her flowers. The swing on the patio was big hit as well. Soon it was time for two tired boys to hit the hay which they did with minimal resistance and slept until after 7:30 the next morning! Wednesday morning it was overcast so we quickly made a trip back up to Daves to see the goats and trampoline again before it started raining and it is a good thing we did because as we were there the rain started to fall and pretty much didn't stop until we were ready to leave after lunch. Gabe was bummed he didn't get to play outside more but they both got one last tractor ride before we left to make up for it:) The boys had so much fun playing at the farm, they were not happy to leave however I'm sure all the residents at the farm had a good nights sleep after they left:)

Birthday Boy!

Ty celebrated his 2nd birthday this past Friday, hard to believe he is 2 already. We tortured him first and took him to Portrait Innovations and got his 2 year old pictures and Gabe's 4 year pictures taken. They actually both did a really good job and it was much less painful then last year for their 1 and 3 year pics. Here are a few of our favorites. After pictures we headed over the mall and let the boys play in the play area for awhile. Ty only tried to escape a few times. Then we headed to the food court and Chick-Fil-A for lunch. We then went and picked up our pictures and headed back to Ames. When we got home the boys took naps(actually all of us took naps:) and then headed to Hickory Park for Ty's birthday sundae. He loved them singing to him and had a huge grin on his face the whole time. He even blew his candle out on the first try much to our surprise. After supper we went back to Grandma and Grandpas so Grandma could pick out her pictures and they gave Ty his present so he one to open on his birthday. Saturday we headed over to Grandma and Grandpas to get ready for Ty's party. Mawdsleys brought some sweet corn and we had a great summer meal. Andrea made this great train cake for Ty, who liked it so much he grabbed the funnel off the top before we could blow out candles, he loves his trains! He was rather frustrated with the present opening this year as he wanted to play with each thing he opened instead of going on to the next present. After presents we did cake and ice cream and after the excitement of blowing out his candle the night before at Hickory Park he was very unhappy that he had to wait until we finished singing happy birthday, but once he could blow them out he was a happy camper again. Ty never did try out his cake as he was way to busy playing with all of his new toys. He had a great birthday and had so much fun at his party. Here is my 2 year old in his now annual chair picture, even though we still think he is little he has sure gotten a lot bigger then here, here, and here:)

Totally Random Tuesday

Not a whole lot of boys pictures from this past week. We spent a lot of time out at the garden this canning peaches and freezing sweet corn(see garden blog by clicking here). This week we will celebrate Ty's birthday on Friday and attempt to get Gabe's 4 year and Ty's 2 year pictures taken since Carl has the day off work. So here are some random shots from the past week or so.

Child of the Corn

Ty LOVES his popsicles

Just because he is so cute when he sleeps!(I don't know why Blogger insists on turning the picture that way even though that is not the way it is on my file..grrr)

There's a Van in my Driveway

yes my driveway, and not just a van of someone coming to visit for the day, we own it, it is ours. So what you say, lots of people have vans. While this is true lots of people do have vans, we(Carl and I) swore we would NEVER get a mini-van. I adamantly voiced my distaste of mini-vans for a long time swearing we would not, no matter how many kids we had, own one. I should have done more research before saying this, as it turns out big SUV's with the third row seating option are expensive, really expensive(at least any of the ones we would have considered to be "quality" and worth the money) and as it turns out it is rather difficult to buckle children of buckling age into their carseats in a third seat that is not all that accessible to get to. Our van however is easy as pie, I have a handy little button to push that opens both side doors where our 4 and almost 2 year old can climb in all by themselves without any assistance. The 4 year old can even climb all the way to the back where his booster seat is located and buckle himself in. Then again with the push of a button I can close both doors. It carries grocries and necessities wonderfully, we can fit a few extra people in with us and the seats fold down and come out and as Carl says we can carry plywood if needs be:) So while I still am not crazy about their looks I am crazy about the functionality of the vehicle. I'm sure my enthusiasm will only grow for its convenience as we add the third edition to our clan in less then 2 months!(seriously where has time gone) So for those of you who said oh you need to get a mini-van and I scoffed at you, I apologize. You are right they are nice, while I can no longer feel cool driving around in a non-soccer mom type of vehicle I do have the satisfaction of knowing I can get my kids, my stuff and me in and out with zero trouble:)