Play dates

We've spent the past two days hanging out with friends and having fun. We headed up to the library yesterday. We haven't been there for a while and now that Sam is walking it was a whole new experience for him.

We headed out to breakfast this morning and then headed to a field to let the kids run off some energy. The kids had a blast and have plenty of grass stains to prove it!

Sam showing off his Tarzan moves:

Date night

Jon and I have started a date night with the kids. Last night Jon took Ben out and I took Sam out. In 2 weeks we are going to go out again, but we are going to switch kids. We love family time, but we think its important for the kids to have one on one time with us. On top of all the obvious benefits, I'm hoping this will make the transition to three kids a little easier for them.

Jon took Ben to the Metro Parks and went for a hike on one of the trails. They saw a raccoon eating worms, they counted rings on an old tree and skipped rocks on the water. It sounds like they had a lot of fun.

Sam and I kept it low key. We walked to a field and did some exploring. Sam practiced walking in the grass. After that, we went to Aladdins and shared a smoothie then went for a walk. We snuggled on the porch and did some people watching before we called it a night. Since I had the camera, I got all the pictures.

Birthdays

Yesterday was Prastis 30th birthday. She is now one of us--welcome to the club. Aaron had some family and friends over for goodies last night. I missed out on the cake because of a scheduled run (thanks for the last minute notice Aaron). Jon took the boys over to celebrate and of course forgot the camera. Thanks for letting me steal a couple pictures Corrie. We hope you had a great day yesterday.

We also want to wish Todd and Marie a happy birthday (yesterday).

Last time

Jon has worked by the airport for several years and we have enjoyed being able to go up there and have lunch with him when ever the weather was warm enough. At the end of the month, Jons group is moving back to their old office away from the airport. We went up for one last lunch today since the rest of the week will be colder and Jon is on vacation next week. We still plan on going up for picnics on the weekends, but it just wont be the same. Fortunately, the new office is by the Metro Parks so we'll still be able to have picnics and when its too cold for them, we'll have more restaurant options. I'm just glad that Jon is able to take lunches with his family. Here are the boys enjoying their last weekday picnic by the airport---they don't know that yet though.

Sam calls helicopters ca ca's and hasn't quite mastered the difference between a helicopter and an airplane. Any time he sees a plane he points and screams ca ca!
Taking a break to enjoy the scenery.
Ben being Ben!

Its about time!

After months and months of waiting, my brother has FINALLY proposed to his girlfriend, Marie. Fortunately for all of us she said yes! Congrats guys and welcome to the family.

I know its a repeat picture, but I don't have many good ones of them!

What they can do

I haven't put many progress reports up recently about the boys so here you go.

Ben is still working on his potty training. We finally changed strategies and just put him in big boy underwear. We ask him if he has to go potty about every 30minutes. Each time he says no--literally every time. We tell him to go anyway and he has gone every time. He has had a couple accidents and he could still care less if hes wet or worse. He just keeps on playing. He is a weird kid. He gets that from Jon!

Sams walking has improved dramatically recently. He still likes to crawl, but he finally does more walking than crawling. Most of the time he tucks his fists under his chin and waddles a bit, but every now and then we get a real walk. He can also give kisses--real kisses. He puckers up and even makes the mwaw sound. He is also a pro at high five and giving knuckles. His talking has slowed down a bit, but he is still surprising us with new words like choo choo, ball, Bob, car, shoe, truck, cup, boom and bye bye. Every morning and after nap time, I ask him if he has a poo poo or a pee pee and he has given the correct answer each time. Finally, he is working on his animals. He has learned to woof like a dog, he howls like a wolf and has mastered Tarzans yell while pounding on his chest.

Wordless Wednesdays

A little wind never hurt anyone especially when you're hanging out with dad!

More Wordless Wednesdays here and here.

The letter D

We spent March going over D stuff. We started with the story of Daniel in the lions Den and David and Goliath. We just happened to have a Veggie Tales video to reiterate the stories.

We talked about Darwin, our Compassions kid in El Salvador, Miss Debbie and uncle Dave. Dad and Dog also start with D as well as 2 of Bens favorites, Donald and Daisy Duck.

We had some Donatos for Dinner one night followed by a treat from Dairy Queen. Each Sunday we enjoy some Delicious Dunkin' Donuts. Ben does plenty of Dancing to maintain his figure!

Also on Sundays, Ben goes to church with Dad and helps him set up his Drums.

Ben did a Drawing on his Dry erase board. Notice that Ben wrote his own name for the first time! Ben also painted a Dog sun catcher. He picked out the colors and colored it in all on his own.

After sharing his Duplos with his brother, I showed Ben how to play Darts. We didn't keep score. That was mostly because Ben only hit the dart board once!

Ben learned the most important lesson he could learn in life--Duke is the best basketball team in the world and Kentucky is not!!! (Ok, maybe not the most important lesson, but its close)!

We looked at some places like Danville, where Dad was born and Dallas, because they have a great football team.

Ben also helped me with some things around the house like Dusting, Dishes and pulling clothes out of the Dryer. We looked at stuff around the house like the Dining room, Door, Diapers, Dictionary and Duplex, which are all around us.

We also learned another French word, Dents, which means teeth.
We are already running with letter E since we just celebrated Easter. We'll let you know how this month goes.

Easter

We had a great Easter. We started celebrating Saturday night by coloring eggs. Ben loves coloring eggs so much, I think when Sam is able to help out next year, we'll be buying stock in eggs just to keep up with them!
The kids got an Easter basket from us. We tried to keep the candy to a minimum, but threw in a few treats for all of us to share. The best part was the Bob and Larry stuffed animals. Ben got a set for Christmas and was nice enough to share the Larry with Sam, but they always have their eyes on which ever animal they don't have. Now they each have their own sets. I took advantage of the holiday to dress the boys alike again. Sam is usually a ham when the camera comes out, but he wasn't having it on Sunday.
After about 50 pictures, we finally got 1 with a smile.
I got to help out in the kids church on Sunday. We talked about the true meaning of Easter and celebrated Jesus and the empty tomb!
After church we headed to Gram and Paps for dinner. They pulled out a blow up toy they got a great deal on. My 3 boys (yes, 3) had a blast. I had to look away most of the time because the boys kept finding new ways to freak me out.

Sam barely slept and Ben missed a nap 2 days in a row. They were pooped and couldn't hide it any longer.

Uncle Tony

My brother Tony and his girlfriend Marie were in town over the weekend. We headed to my parents house on Saturday for lunch and some play time. Ben had a great time. He spent half the day eating sweet tarts from his basket and the other half was spent running through the yard with most of the adults and Tonys dog, Tyson. It was great seeing them. Ben is already looking forward to the next visit and his next lesson in finger snapping from aunt Marie. Here are some highlights:Sam was fascinated with the dust buster. I don't know why he doesn't love ours as much.

Outside

With all the warm weather we just couldn't stay inside this week. We headed to the park on Wednesday with some friends. Sam loved going down the slide especially when his buddy Paisley went with him.

Ben has been all about giving thumbs up recently. What a pro!

After dad came home, we headed out so Ben could practice his bike riding. He hasn't been on his bike since the fall so he was a bit rusty, but he's getting there.

Sam and I went for a walk and tried to keep up with Ben, but he was too fast for us.

Thursday we headed to the Nature Center for play group. Ben loves looking for Nemo and checking out all the animals outside.

The boys were so excited to "talk" to the turkey. They could have stood there for hours chatting if we would have let them.

We had our first picnic at Jons office this season. We got to see a lot of planes and have some quality dad time.

Sam found Bens sun glasses and wanted to see what was so great about them: