Jake and I made a trip to Ikea for a new TV stand and ended up coming home with a table and chairs for the boys as well. We picked out an unfinished set that we plan on having the boys paint. Before they can do that though, assembly was required.
The boys and I brought balloons and cake to the office today to celebrate my dad’s birthday. Lincoln picked out the fish balloon as well as the “over the hill” balloon. (I guess that one was kind of appropriate since this year was a “milestone” birthday. The kids put the candles in the cake and also helped Papa blow them out. (Actually, I don’t think my dad had a chance to blow them out – the kids know what they’re doing when it comes to extinguishing cake candles 🙂
While I was getting breakfast ready for the boys, they pulled out the cold cereal they wanted from the pantry. As a side note…my kids don’t like to eat just one type of cereal. They prefer to MIX multiple kinds together. Hot or cold, it doesn’t matter. They’ll ask for the cold cereal to mix into their oatmeal as well as create interesting concoctions of cold cereal & milk. Lincoln also likes to add in raisins.
Anyway, this morning, while my back was away from the dining room, Nolan made a cereal box tower on the table. If he doesn’t end up being some kind of engineer, I’ll be completely surprised.
The annual cousins’ gathering at Nissedalen was a bit smaller than in years past, but we definitely weren’t missing any food or fun. The weather was perfect! We did have a short rain delay, causing us all to head inside the main cabin, but we played the games Kristin organized (minute to win it style) to pass the time. The boys had a blast, but that probably goes without saying. Lincoln loved jumping off of the dock and Nolan had fun being pulled on the tube.
We celebrated Uncle Jason’s birthday (a day late) at his house tonight. Nolan and Lincoln colored “happy birthday” pictures for him and were very excited to also help him eat cake and open his presents. Generous helpers, aren’t they?
After the tree removal, we were left with two large sections of the yard that were just dirt & ground stumps. Jake took the boys to the hardware store to get grass seed and look at the bird feeders. When they returned, the kids helped him prepare the dirt and spread the seed. They are always so eager to help their dad – I love it!
The boys had a couple of days to play with their friend, I. The three of their little minds never cease to come up with creative ways to use blankets, pillows, and containers.
Here they are in their “hideout” behind the couch:
Here are the “cars” they were riding in:
And then, of course, Lincoln had to empty the bookcase. Nothing frustrates me more than walking into the toy room and seeing a mess like this. I would love to know what possesses my 2 year old to take every book off of the shelf and make a monster pile. Maybe he thinks he can read by osmosis through his feet?
Our visit to the big red store today included a trip to the school supply section. (I’m always looking for deals on Post-it notes since I go through so many of them.) While we were shopping, we rolled past the backpack aisle. Nolan eyed up a Toy Story backpack, so Lincoln, likewise, found one too. Once we were home, the two of them modeled their new bags before promptly finding all sorts of things to load into them.
There’s a woman we know from our church who lives nearby a set of train tracks. The train passes through every morning at about the same time. We can often hear the whistle blow if we have the windows open in our house. Earlier in the summer, Jake told the kids that he would talk to Ms. B and see if they could come visit and watch the trains and have a glass of lemonade. Well, it only took telling them this once. They continue to remind us that this is something we need to do before the summer ends. What I love the most about this though, is the way Lincoln says the word “lemonade.” It’s “yem-nade.” Makes me smile every time I hear him say it!
The weekend we were up north, a strong storm blew through the area. We had one tree casualty in the backyard that caught in another tree and also lost a couple of significantly sized branches off another. (The largest branch apparently fell on the shed and swing set. Our wonderful neighbors took it down and cut it up before we arrived back home.) Because of the size of the trees in our backyard, we had to hire someone to come and remove the broken one. And since they were already going to be in the backyard (and there would be a mess of some sort anyway) we had an arborist look at the other trees to see if any others needed to also be removed. All total, we had 5 trees taken down. Watching the crew of 3 guys work was crazy! The boys and I camped out in the front yard and watched them work – they loved to see what was going on. One by one, the 5 trees were no more. They finished things off with a stump grinder and then cleaned up the majority of the mess. By the end of the day (they worked 12 hours) we had a totally different backyard. The amount of light that the 5 trees kept out of the yard was pretty significant. It’s going to take a little while to get used to the new and improved sunny backyard we now have.
