My Little Helper

With all of the sunshine that we’ve had lately, we’ve spent a lot of time outdoors. It has been a long, wet winter and I’d forgotten how much I love our backyard. It is just the right size, completely fenced in, and totally indestructible. Indestructible because it is a little overgrown and needs some TLC to get it looking the way I’d like it to someday look. However much I want to fix it up, I also love that the boys can dig anywhere they want, stomp with their boots in any nook they can find, and I ANYTHING that I do to it makes it look so much better.

A couple of days ago I tackled another piece of “mature” landscaping. Remember my shrub massacre in the front yard a while back? Well the back yard was in need of one too. It didn’t take me long to chop down all of the branches. Jack asked if he could help me and I told him that he could help by stacking the branches in a pile. Once he had done that, he wanted to do more. I told him to get his dumptruck, load up the sticks, and take them to the yard waste. Jack diligently loaded his dumptruck with many loads, delivered them to the yard waste bin, and unloaded them into it.

When done with that, he decided to pick up pinecones. He found a bucket and searched the yard picking up all of the pinecones he could find.

 

 

We spent hours outside in the backyard. It still needs a lot more work, but we had a lot of fun and made it look so much better!

Soaking it Up

We have been loving these past few days of sunshine and daylight savings—we’ve been outside nearly every waking moment. The boys love exploring the neighborhood and taking after dinner walks.  Sometimes we venture out in the stroller, other times Jack is on his bike. And sometimes the boys each choose their own mode of transportation. Bring on the sunshine!

A Date

I just got back from a lovely date—the symphony and lunch--with my favorite three-year old. I didn’t realize just how special this would be, afterall, I am with Jack every day. But it is rare that I get to spend time alone with him. That is what made today so special. Jack and I had an entire morning, just the two of us. I lavished him with my complete and undivided attention. And we both loved every moment of it.

We got to the symphony early, so we went to Soundbridge, the educational center hosted by the Seattle Symphony.

After we’d tried out every instrument (some several times) we got chocolate milk and a coffee. Jack picked out the table and we sat and watched all the metro buses pick up passengers at the bus stop right outside the concert hall. Jack liked the articulated busses best and had fun saying the word articulated.

When it came time to be seated for the concert, Jack ran up the stairs glancing back at me only briefly to make sure I was following him. He selected seats for us in the third row, right in the middle. He showed me to my seat (what a gentleman) and then we proceeded to take funny face pictures.  The last picture (of me) was taken by Jack.

We sang and clapped and danced in our seats during the Tiny Tot concert. Today we learned about string instruments. Jack and I both liked the cello best. When the concert was over we left hand in hand.

Jack chose our lunch destination—Ivars. We sat in the fish bar on Lake Union sipping hot clam chowder and laughing over our favorite game: disappearing food. This game is a classic in our family. Hold a spoon or fork full of food out, look away, ponder how tasty the food is going to be, and then act completely befuddled when the food “disappears” off of your fork/spoon.  Jack made an entire bowl of clam chowder disappear! After lunch we paused for another quick funny picture.

I even got an impromptu kiss on the cheek during one of the pictures.

SIGH…what a perfect date!

New Boots!

We finally got Emmett a pair of rain boots. And it’s a good thing because the boy LOVES to stomp in mud puddles!  This video is from yesterday—even with the boots on we still blew through 3 pairs of pants. Mud Puddle stompin’ is fun!

Don’t Mind if I Do!

We came home last night to find this.

Monty totally lounging in Jack’s beanbag chair. He was so comfortable, that he didn’t even bother to move when we came through the door. Guess the poor dog deserves to put his paws up—he does have to deal with two boys constantly chasing him, tugging on his ears and tail, or trying to hug him!

Pancake, Pancakes, Pancakes!

We hit up our second annual pancake breakfast at the community center with Auntie Jane and Uncle Tom last weekend.

Jack brought his appetite—he finished his entire plate of food—pancakes, eggs, sausage and all!

Hard to beat a plate full of yummy pancakes on a Sunday morning!

Fire Engines!

Last week Grandma and Grandpa took us to the Last Resort Fire Dept. Museum. It is a completely free museum downtown dedicated to firemen—how cool is that?!

Well, as Jack and Emmett walked into the old firehouse and saw all of the fire engines, they realized just how cool it is. There are fire engines dating back to the late 1800’s when carts were drawn by horse to pump water and put out fires.

Jack was particularly interested in what the bunk beds were like for the firemen. He was disappointed that we couldn’t go see them (as they are no longer there since this firehouse is not in use). He wasn’t sure what to think about the brass pole—a little bit amazed and a little bit scared—he didn’t want to touch it, just look.

   

A super cool place to take little boys—what could be better than a room full of shiny red fire engines!

Meeting Cousin Zoe

My, oh my, but it has been a long time since I have last blogged. Where did February go? And March for that matter?

Well, we went to visit cousin Zoe quite some time ago, but obviously I am just now getting around to posting it. 

Zofia Halina, was born bright and early on the morning that we left for Hawaii, January 14. Because we were out of town, and then the boys were sick, we didn’t get to meet Zoe for two whole weeks!

When we finally got to see that cute little bundle, Jack was in awe. He kept looking at her little hands and wanting to kiss her. Emmett wasn’t too interested, except when I held Zoe. Then he needed me. Urgently.

We now get to see  cousin Zoe about once a week and it is absolutely delightful. She is growing quickly and Jack can’t wait until Zoe is chasing around after him. We love our new cousin!