Memorial Day Weekend

You probably don't want to know just how long I have been working on getting these pictures up. Not a few hours or a few days but about a week and a half. They are from Memorial Day and well that was almost 2 weeks ago now. It seems our summer has kicked off to a rip roarin start. We are traveling four weekends in a row. Crazy I know! The packing and unpacking is a little ridiculous. Not too mention a business trip has been involved in this too. Unfortunately stay-at-home moms don't have business trips so I get to stay home, imagine that. But some how I was still involved in the packing.

Oh, I digress....

The first of our four weekends away was Memorial Day weekend. We were traveling fools putting in over 800 miles, hitting both grandparents, a picnic, a 6-seater bike ride, a Twins game, a train ride, a zoo, Chipotle (totally worth the 800 miles) and Dinos Gyros (again, totally worth the 800 miles). Here are some lots of pictures from our fun weekend.

We rented a six seater bike to drive around the park with grandma and papa Cameron. The boys were pretty excited. We did this once before about 2 years ago. Let's see if I can find a picture.....

My how they have grown! Carson has the same look on his face...some things never change. I didn't get a very good video of our bike adventure this year. But you can check out the fun video from 2 years ago here.

Carson likes to play shy for the camera. Declan on the other hand.....

he's a little ham.

I could use a bike like this all the time. So much fun.

My goal this summer is to get a decent picture of the boys, together, in this outfit. From the looks of things that might be easier said then done.

It seems Carson and Declan's favorite thing to do this summer is pick dandelions. Last weekend we were in the car and we passed a big field full of them and Carson said, "Look at all those dandelions mommy, I wouldn't know where to begin."

We took the light rail train into downtown Minneapolis for the Twins game. The boys thought that was the neatest thing we could have done.

At the game all the kids got wooden bats. We are know the proud owners of 2 wooden bats that are bigger then they are.

Look! Papa Cameron even played in the game. It seems he got a really dark tan though. ;-)

We didn't get back from the game until 11:30. The boys don't normally sleep in the same bed. In fact, they never have. But it seems when they are uterrly exhausted there is no time for goofing around and they pass out. I'm not even joking when I say they both were asleep in less then 3 minutes.

And they stayed that way until long after the sun was up.

Off to Como Zoo.

We love Como Zoo. It's free and it's perfect size. It's been awhile since we've been there though.....

Seems the last time was 3 years ago on Carson's first birthday.

And they are still trying to catch up on sleep from the past few weeks.

Spring Program

Carson has his spring program this morning. Based on our experience with the Christmas program I wasn't expecting much. You see he didn't sing, dance or move at Christmas mostly pouted. This morning at breakfast we told him he better sing loud so mommy and daddy could hear him. His response was for us to sit in the front row. Sneaky devil. We didn't quite make it to the first row. Some of those parents must show up at the crack-o-dawn to get their seat because we were there 25 minutes early and they were all gone. Ah, the pressure of being the front row parent. But we did get ourselves an end seat so that was a plus.

Mr. Carson some how scored himself the all important position of Line Leader as they all came in.

And he got to stand by his best friend Andrew so all was right in preschool world.

Watching 36 preschoolers sing and dance is hilarious and so entertaining. Some barely moved and were very stiff (like the boy in the tie on the bottom left) others were singing at the top of their lungs and dancing like a crazy child, one child when the teacher announced what song they would be singing shouted, "not again" (I think its been non-stop practice for a few days) and yet another child was jumping off every step of the bleacher. What a hoot! I can't wait for the next program.

Playing the hand bells (our camera batteries died on us so its a short clip).

Singing Whose the King of the Jungle.

My favorite song they sand...I Just Want To Be A Sheep.

20 Weeks

20 weeks down, 20 weeks to go. Or maybe only 19 weeks to go considering the baby is measuring about 6 days ahead. God help me if this is another Carson.....9lbs 6oz and about 60 lbs gained. I lost 60+ pounds once I'm not certain I'd be granted that good fortune again. Either way the baby is healthy (and if gaining that weight means a healthy baby, I'm ok with that) and looking good, at least what we could see of it. Seems the peanut is facing down and looking towards my back so we couldn't see much of it's face. But we did get to see its little arms flailing about. So precious. Heartbeat was right at 154 (the boys were 155 the whole way through).

I've been blessed with the opportunity to participate in a study through the University of South Dakota so we will actually get to see the baby 2 more times before he or she makes her appearance. For now here are some of our pictures.

The spine is across the top on the left and its face is looking down on the right.

Best sound to a pregnant mommy....the Fetal Heart Rate and a picture of a healthy heart.

2 little (but they actually look kind of big) baby feet.

And a profile shot with its little fist sticking up in the air.

And me in all my glory at 20 weeks.

Future Artist

Carson's last "real" day of preschool was yesterday. Tomorrow they have a school program and next Tuesday is a park/fun day. So yesterday was the big day that all the school supplies and every last paper came home in his backpack. He was so excited about it that it was the first thing out of his mouth when I picked him up and the whole car ride home (which included a trip through the car wash). When we got home he ran right upstairs with his backpack and insisted that I sit next to him so he could show me all his stuff.

He pulled out his supply box to show me all his markers, glue, scissors, crayons and pencils. I noticed that all (seriously ALL) the crayons looked like they were brand new, just like when I sent them to school back in September. I asked him if he even used his crayons and his reply was, "No, I like my mawkews bedda." Really? He has to be the only kid who comes home with perfect crayons after 9 months of school.

The teachers did put together a portfolio for each kid to let parents see their child's progress in name writing, cutting, tracing and my personal favorite, self portraits. I took some pictures so you could see just how far our budding artist has come, it's quite impressive.

This was his first attempt at a self portrait in Sept. No mouth, just some eyes and a nose.

October's version included some arms, legs, mouth and even some hair.

January is pretty close to October just a little bigger. But his arms are now coming out of his head.

And this my dear readers would be April's version. He's even got feet and ears!

I love this weather.

I'm not going to complain about the fact that it was almost 90 yesterday and that is supposed to be 90 today and again tomorrow. But holy crap....it's hot and I'm pregnant and it's only May 19th. Enough said.

It was so nice out last night that we let the boys do this.....

I'm fairly certain he is praying to God that he does not have to go back through that sprinkler. He's not a fan.

But this one the other hand couldn't get enough.

Note to self: A plastic sprinkler cannot withhold the weight of a 40 pound toddler.

He may just be taking a swing at me. Maybe.

Baseball, Park and the Zoo

I'm wondering how many posts in a row I can go with pictures of the kids at the park. Looks like I am at 3. Tis the season for park adventures I guess. For the record....none of these pictures in the last 3 posts have been from the same park. That has to count for something right?

Oh roller slide.....how the boys have missed you all winter. No need for fancy parks with all the bells and whistles. Just give them a roller slide and they will be entertained for quite awhile.


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Baseball...our new favorite thing to play at home.

Keeping his eye on the ball.

Even Declan likes to play.

But not when he gets hit in the head.

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Carson's last field trip of the year was today. A trip to the zoo!

I have no idea how we managed to line up 15 4 year olds for this picture.

Carson and his best friend Andrew.