Monster Trucks!

Gavin, Dane, and I are in PA for a visit and super lucky the Washington County Fair is currently happening! We were able to go tonight and the kids rode some rides, played some games, listened to some love music, ate a little dinner, and then went to the monster truck show! The boys were so excited, but hey, so was I!

It was so much fun. They loved seeing each truck take their turn and then each getting to race the others. It was really loud and very exciting to see how fast the trucks are. They loved the little smart car with the jet engine driving around mid-show as well. It was a great time and I am so glad we were able to go. 

We made it!

We have arrived in PA and are already having fun! After unloading and dinner, we had to get the motorcycle going for Gavin. Then after a bit he decided to go for a swim. We are very excited and looking forward to lots of riding, swimming, playing, and visiting around PA!

Peaches!

Before we head to PA for a week and a half, we went to pick peaches with our friends. We love this particular farm. The owners are wonderful and I love supporting their farm. We usually make quite a few trips once they open in August each year. We love picking fruit, having lunch, playing in their village, visiting the animals, and taking home some fresh apple cider donuts as well! The peaches are so delicious! Although we are in no hurry for summer to be over, we are looking forward to many more trips for more peaches, apples, pumpkins, and fun!

Garden Update...

We enjoyed some vegetables from our garden tonight! Gavin helped to pick some carrots. They were short but very delicious. We also picked lots of lettuce for salad. That was also delicious! It was so nice to know that part of what we were eating we had grown ourselves!

Fun Day!

We had a really fun day with friends today! First we had a picnic lunch and fed some animals. Then we picked lost of yummy strawberries! Then we headed to a park that had lots for us to do. We did a little fishing, our friends had an extra poll to let Gavin try and he has decided he loves it, we played in the playground, went over to the skatepark there, played on the playground and fished some more! We all had so much fun!

My Helpers...

I wish we had more counter space, or a better set up so both boys could help at my side. Dane found, what he thinks is, a better space to help. Sitting on the counter, so Gavin can stand on a chair by me and they both get to help. I am so very lucky to have two little boys who love to help (we are rolling out tortillas)!

Garden!

Our garden is making some serious progress now that the weather has improved! We are all very excited to watch it grow and get to eat all of the yummy food we are growing! After many years of not doing well with growing anything, this is amazing and so much fun! I love getting to share this with my boys and that they love to help water and take care of our plants. They love to look over each plant to see as they change and begin to grow the actual vegetables. Hopefully they will continue to do well and we will have more carrots, cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, lettuce, basil, and cilantro than we know what to do with!

Bike Riding

We have been doing a lot of bike riding as we have been enjoying the much warmer May! It has been awesome! We have been able to go all together which is so much fun and during the week the boys and I ride at home and also at various playgrounds. Gavin's favorite has a skate park so we go at least once a week now. Dane really enjoys it as well. He is just taking off on the strider trying to keep up with Gavin!

Sunning!

Hoping for Spring!

In our desperate need for warmer weather, spring, and things to look forward to, we started the seeds for our garden! I also had a handy new greenhouse with light from my parents to get us started. We are very excited! The boys had a great time filling each spot with soil, seeds, and then watering. Hopefully we have great success this year. We are looking forward to lots of tomatoes, red peppers, carrots, cucumbers, green onions, lettuce, basil, cilantro, and some wild flower! Yay!

Boy Does He Like to Eat!

Dane is quite the character and among his many loves, he loves food. He rarely refuses it (like he really isn't hungry - although even that seems rare) and he loves a huge variety. It is such a nice change since Gavin went from willing to try things to picky so quickly (and still is). Although Dane loves most food, he does have his favorites. One being sour cream. I have no idea why he loves it so much but he has that on his plate he is using all the other food to scoop it up and then asks for more. Sometimes, like last night, he even resorts to using his fingers to be sure he doesn't miss any. He cracks me up!

Happy Dane

Despite a very short maybe 15 minute nap (for at least the fourth time in the last week - poor kid), Dane fully enjoyed our long afternoon outside. It was a bit warmer today and the sun was out, a welcome change especially since more cold (very cold) weather is supposed to be headed our way.

Dane is finally tall enough to be able to stand over the Strider and walk with it. I bet he will figure out how to coast down the driveway pretty quickly once spring rolls around. Hard to believe he could be chasing Gavin around on a bike before long!

Scott cut some extra paths with the snowblower so Gavin could get his pedal bike out and try to ride. He asked for his jump too. He did surprisingly well riding, despite the difficulty of being bundled up and the uneven and difficult terrain covered in snow. Dane thought the jump was for him to climb and slide down. So, Gavin joined in as well for a bit. They had a great time!

More Snow!

Well, we are enjoying another snowy day at home today. It seems like every other day we are getting more snow for the last month. It is a little hard when we are constantly having to reschedule and cancel plans, but some would have been cancelled for illnesses anyway, all just part of winter. So, we are making the most of it and trying to enjoy the snow and each other. We have had a lot of fun the last few days.

Gavin has been asking for weeks to pull out paints again. So, last week when we picked up in the basement, we also reset up his art easel. Then we covered it with paper to paint. Gavin had a great time painting. He loves to use all the colors and mix them and smear them around as much as possible. He gets so excited and is so proud of anything he paints. It is very enjoyable to watch. Dane was able to enjoy a much needed nap in peace.

Gavin and Dane have been helping me a lot more in the kitchen. Dane comes running to help stir, pat,  dump, wash, or anything I may need, as soon as he knows I need to go start a meal. Gavin is often not far behind, but doesn't usually stick around the whole time. Dane has far more interest than Gavin ever has, although Gavin did used to have more interest than he does now, he would rather be off playing with his toys now. The really enjoyed getting to use their own rolling pin to help roll out tortillas. I was very surprised at how well they both did. Gavin has helped roll out pasta dough before, so he has had a little experience, but they both were able to roll out tortillas fairly evenly and even somewhat round. They tasted great too! It certainly can be a lot messier with them wanting to help, but I try to just enjoy that they are excited to help and want to learn. I do sometimes send them off to play instead, but I try to limit how often I do that. Thankfully, they are pretty good about when I say I just need them to play. I hope their interest and involvement continues and serves to give them the ability to better take care of themselves (many, many) years down the road.

This morning, we covered part of the kitchen floor with towels and brought up some buckets and toys. We filled the buckets with snow and the boys had a great time exploring the snow. It was so easy to clean up as well. We all enjoy going outside, but we can only spend so much time out there and it is exhausting to do multiple times a day since it takes at least 20-30 minutes to get everyone dressed and out the door and then another 10 to undress and hang everything up. Even though Gavin helps get himself partially dressed, it still takes a long time. We will definitely still spend time outside, but when we wouldn't be able to be out for long or it is a particularly cold day, it will be fun to try it again so they get to explore the snow and stay a bit warmer as well.

This afternoon, we spend some time outside. Before we went out, I decided it would be fun to try something new. We have a few empty spray bottles laying around that the boys have claimed as toys and they use when they help clean. So, we grabbed those and a couple of squirt bottles I have and filled them with water and a little food coloring. We did red, yellow, blue, and green. We then got all ready and brought them outside with us to color the snow. It was so much fun. The boys preferred the squirt bottles, I think the spray bottles were harder for them with their mittens on. I really liked the spray bottles because it gave more options in trying to make pictures and covering more area. We ended up refilling the squirt bottles with the colors from the spray bottles since they boys liked those better. We had a great time coloring the snow!

Thank goodness for Pinterest! It has given us lots of fun projects and experiments to try out. I may not be a very creative person, but I am a pro at following directions and there are lots of great ideas out there for us to try! We look forward to trying more out since there is no end to the amount of snow days in sight! Yay for snow!

Cruisin' to the Drive In!

Since it was so cold today and we needed to do some after the holidays cleanup downstairs still, we had to come up with something fun to do as well. I remembered making cardboard cars to sit in and watch a movie. I remembered living it. We have lits of various sized boxes left over from Christmas and birthdays. So, it only made sense to use a couple of the medium/large boxes to have Gavin and Dane turn into cars. Gavin was thrilled when I mentioned my idea. He was more than happy to test out the boxes as I worked on cleaning up and reorganizing my office/exercise room.

After lunch, we got the boxes set up and they did a little decorating. Gavin had a great time decorating his. Dane mostly decorated himself and the floor, but he did have fun. Then we picked out the movie to watch when we were done downstairs. 

They helped me quickly finish cleaning up and then we got settled in with some popcorn (thank you Uncle Morris for the variety tin, we all are very much enjoying it!). They picked Cars. Even though we have seen it a lot, it was fun to watch them enjoy it from their cars (although Dane only periodically watched from his car)!

Gavin was driving with one hand and eating popcorn and drinking water with the other. He cracks me up!

I have no idea how long the cars will last, but they are really enjoying them for now and when they are done, they will be sent off to be recycled, again!

Snowy Monday!

We had a very snowy start to February today! Most of the heavy snow happened overnight so there was already probably 6 inches out when we got up. When Scott went to work a couple hours later, we had 8. By the time we went out to play after lunch we had 10!

Although we were disappointed to have to cancel yet another playdate, it was fun to have another snow day at home. We hung out inside in the morning since Dane took his nap early and I wasn't sure if he would take a normal length nap or if it would be short since it started earlier than usual. Gavin played on his own some, helped me do some clean up and organizing in Scott's shack, and helped get some toys picked up so I could vacuum the house. By the time Dane woke up we were just about done, so we quickly finished and then I got lunch made.

After lunch was cleaned up we start the (painful) process of getting everyone ready to go outside. It is amazing how hard and how long it can sometimes take. Even though they say they want to go outside, I often wonder if they really do because at least one (if not both) is uncooperative and adds 5-10 minutes to the already 20 minimum it takes to get 3 people ready for snow play. Even though Gavin can mostly dress himself, it still takes what feels like forever.

Once we finally made it outside, I wondered why we bothered because there was so much whining and complaining happening. Despite the complaining, neither one actually wanted to go inside. I know that with that much snow on the ground it is harder to navigate. Dane really struggles (and given the snow is cureently up to his bum, it isn't hard to figure out why) but Gavin usually is able to do fine. He was apparently having a lot of trouble because it was up past his knees. I guess that makes it less fun. Who knew.

We spent about an hour outside before I was ready to call it quits. Gavin was OK with that because he was ready for some hot chocolate. Dane, on the other hand, was no where near ready to comply even though he said he was. Go figure.

Gavin was lucky enough to go out for another almost hour after dinner with Scott so he could clear the driveway. Dane is bummed he gets left inside but Scott can't safely watch both of them and run the snow blower. Maybe next year that will change. I do enjoy having a bit of just me and Dane time though!

All in all, a fun and even productive day! We are all looking forward to going back out to play tomorrow, especially since the driveway is now clear and Scott always pushes back into the grass to give Dane more area to easily play and to have a place for snow if we get any more or have a huge snowfall. Yay for snow!

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?

I see two little bears reading together!

Dane has (finally) taken a much larger interest in books and being read to. We read a lot of books most days because Gavin has always loved to be read to. Dane now has several books that he really loves and we read several times almost every day. One of those is Brown Bear, Brown Bear. Last week I was able to get a picture of Gavin reading the book to Dane. Apparently Gavin has heard the story enough to be able to "read" it by using the pictures as cues for what color and animal is next. He does it perfectly and it is incredibly sweet to watch and hear. He has been doing this for a couple weeks and I finally was able to get a picture of them!

Silly Week!

We have been stuck at home a lot because of the weather, our friends being sick, and the cough that Gavin had (and now Dane has one - at least we had about 2 weeks cough free and it certainly could be worse). So, other than errands and a playdate or two, we have only really had each other for entertainment. Sometimes we play together, sometimes Gavin and Dane are off together playing, and sometimes they are playing on their own.

We have done some fun projects together, played out in the snow, and rotated through some toys to keep life more interesting, and done as much running and jumping inside as possible when it has been too cold to be outside much.

Dane went off to his room to pull out some toys there that he hasn't played with in a long time. He found some pacifiers mixed in (apparently we need to rotate out some of the "baby" toys) and put a couple in his mouth. It was really funny. Gavin and Dane never had any interest in pacifiers, so it is funny when they come across one and the put it in the mouths. I am grateful we never had to worry about breaking a pacifier habit now that they are older!

We pulled out my exercise ball and put air in it again. It was put away not long after Dane was born because Gavin was getting a bit too wild and reckless with it. It had provided a lot of entertainment, as well as another way to burn more energy for all of us! We have rolled it, bounced on it, and tried various experiments to see what would happen. So much fun!

Gavin loves to practice using scissors, so he was allowed to when Dane was napping so there was no fighting over scissors, which always seems to happen even though they each have their own kid scissors

Dane loves standing at the counter to help, this day he was more interested in the container of carrots, cucumbers, and tomatoes and dipping them in the hummus.

The boys brought up a smallish soft outdoor ball to roll around as well. It is great having a long hallway for them to roll and run back and forth through!

We have pretended to be race cars and run through our race track. We often pull out my phone to time each other because a little competition makes it even more fun for them. Gavin gets really into it and often pretends to crash and ask for a pit stop to be fixed. Then Dane does his version mimicking Gavin. They are so dramatic about it, its really funny.

We have done a few science experiments that they both enjoyed. We blew up a balloon using baking soda and vinegar. We also put some food coloring in milk and then used dish soap to watch the colors swirl through the  milk, away from the soap. It was really pretty.

We have read, a lot. I have really enjoyed reading books that I had when I was little, to Gavin. He has taken an interest in the Berenstain Bears and the various golden books we had. It is fun to see where I had written my name in the books or put stickers or written other things as I got older. I am glad I have some books to share with Gavin as he is starting to enjoy much longer stories.

Overall, nothing too exciting in the last week  but being stuck inside has forced us to be more creative! We likely have a couple more months before it will be warming up and we will be able to spend more time outside, so I am sure we will be trying out lots of other new ways to have fun!