Tag: kids

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St. Patrick’s Day cupcakes

Fun with frosting, sprinkles & toothpick decorations!  After we made and decorated the funfetti cupcakes, Nolan suggested we bring a cupcake to our backyard neighbor, Kitty.  She’s the sweetest lady – always has some sort of treat for the boys.  Sometimes it’s candy, other times it’s fresh raspberries from her garden – yum!  She was pleasantly surprised by our visit.  And the boys were happy to share their St. Patty’s Day treats with her.  I love that my kids think of others and I don’t even have to suggest it!

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Duplos and Rody

Random shots of the boys playing in the toy room.  Lincoln is getting quite good at scaling all sorts of things we’d rather him stay off of.

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Cape Coral 2010

Days 6-8. After our visit to Orlando, we drove a few hours southwest to see my first babysitter, Lois (who turns 95 this April!) and her daughter, Kathi.  We lovingly call them Grammy Lois & Auntie Kathi 🙂  They hadn’t seen Nolan since he was about 13 months old and had only seen pictures of Lincoln.  Needless to say, they were excited to see the boys!  We spent 3/7 – 3/9 in in Cape Coral. It was a pretty laid back visit, which was a nice way to end our time away.

Larissa also accompanied us on this leg of our trip, which was fantastic!  It was great to have 3 on 2 defense.  While the weather was once again unseasonably cool, we were still able to take the boys to the local beach, where they loved playing in the sand.  I think we could plan a whole vacation around the beach and they would be in heaven!  We were also able to spot a couple of burrowing owls,  which are protected animals in the area.  They are probably my 2nd favorite animal.  🙂

It was hard to say goodbye on the 9th, but we left with good memories of our time together.  The trip home went smoothly.  Both kids slept for a good portion of the flight home.  We were all thankful to be back in our own beds.  And as an added bonus, we arrived home to most of the snow missing from our yard 🙂

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Orlando 2010 – Magic Kingdom

Day 2. We had a semi-leisurely morning and headed out for our first trip to Disney’s Magic Kingdom.  I’m glad we traveled with Disney “pros” because the whole Disney system is really quite complex: 4 Different parks, regular tickets, hopper passes, shuttles, mono-rails…it’s enough to confuse any first-time visitor if you ask me.

To begin our visit, we rode the ferry across a large lake and at that point, I realized I should have packed the boys’ winter jackets and hats for the day.  Here I was thinking we’d at least be able to get away with just sweatshirts.  I assumed incorrectly.  Mother nature apparently hasn’t been that nice to Florida this winter and we found out later that it had been unseasonably cool for the last 2 months.  Oh well, we made due and attempted to hit a few indoor rides/shows to warm up from time to time.  By the afternoon, the sun warmed things up a bit.  We stayed to experience a couple of rides (Nolan didn’t care much for the Monster’s Inc. show we checked out,) the boys had their pictures taken with several characters, we watched the afternoon parade and had our picture taken in front of the Disney castle.  It was a full day and the boys crashed (thankfully) later that night.

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OTW – feeling crummy

My weekend actually started Thursday, if you count the weekend as the days I’ve felt less than 100%.  Not that I feel 100% a lot of the time, but I’d say it’s generally at least in the 90’s.  The last four days I’ve been down in the 25-30% range.  Not fun.  Thursday I started an on and off streak of migraines that have had me down for the count most of the weekend.  Friday morning I woke up in such pain that I called my mom to see if she could come over to wrangle the mini-men.  Thankfully, she was able to clear her schedule and come to my aid.  I was in bed (and in pain) until dinnertime.  My awesome mom not only handled the boys (play time, lunch time, nap time & dinner time) but she also helped me get started on the mountain of laundry that has been silently growing in my basement.  What a gift to me she was on Friday.

Unfortunately, the pain did not subside on Saturday and Jake was kind enough to pick up where my mom left off and took care of the boys, meals, etc. all day.  In the morning, he took Lincoln to the swimming pool while Papa & Nolan went to Lowe’s to build something together.  That something was a fantastic jewelry organizer!  Nolan was SO proud of his project – and rightfully so!  I love it!  And to make it even more perfect, Jake’s Valentine’s Day gift to me was a beautiful sapphire necklace, & earrings made by our family friend, Becky.  The boys rounded out their Saturday morning outing by stopping for lunch at Nana & Papa’s and a little cake decorating.  They boys had fun with all of the frosting and sprinkles (or crickets, as Nolan called them.)  After dinner, we enjoyed the finished products.  Yum!

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Box full of love

What preschool year would be complete without a Valentine’s Day card & candy exchange?  Nolan’s “homework” for the event was to decorate a box for his notes & treats.  I glued construction paper to a shoebox and let the boys sticker it up.  Lincoln, of course, had to lend a hand.

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Carpet canoeing

The boys must be dreaming of summer.  Tonight they used the emptied out book container as a canoe and a wrapping paper tube & hobby horse as paddles to navigate through the living room.  Who needs TV when you have this kind of entertainment?!?

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Prayers before pizza

This morning as Jake was peering into the boys’ toy room, he overheard Nolan ask Lincoln if he wanted some pizza.  Lincoln responded emphatically with a “yes!”   The two proceeded to the “table” where they sat down by the pretend pizza.  Nolan then reminded Lincoln, “We need to say prayers first!”  They made the sign of the cross, Nolan recited the entire “Bless Us Oh Lord” prayer, and then reminded Lincoln to “make the sign of the cross again.”  Then they dug in.

Yet another moment that makes me smile and reminds me just how much the two of them are soaking in at this age.  I love that Nolan knows that prayers before meals (real or not) are an important part of thanking God for what He has given us.

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The gass we pass

Tonight after prayers were said and little boys were snuggling in for the night, I laid my head down on Nolan and asked if I could use him as a pillow tonight.  He started wiggling around and I told him he makes a pretty uncomfortable pillow.  Just as I said that, a short puff of gas came out of his rear into my ear.  The kid totally farted on me.  We all instantly broke out in laughter.  I couldn’t believe what he did – and I don’t think he could either.  I shot up from my sleeping position and stood next to his bed.  He was still giggling uncontrollably.  I went over to give Lincoln a kiss and said, so are you going to fart on me now too?  His answer, “ya.”  Thankfully I don’t think he understood what I was asking (and didn’t follow through on his promise.)