Three weeks to go!

Three weeks left of school.

Karate twice a week.

Ducks who've taken up residence in our yard.

Scooter rides.

Warm weather.

Tanner says "dinosaur" now, instead of "dine-door" I'm not so happy about that!

Yesterday I went on a field trip with Bryce's class. We didn't lose anyone - success!

That's the scoop around here!

xoxo

the battle in the front yard. . .

things get. . .feisty around our front yard most afternoons.  there are games of Cops and Robbers, Monkey in the Middle, and some sort of football/tackling/wrestling game which may or may not involve a ball.  And there are scooter/bike races, and occasionally baseball played with a pinecone instead of a ball.

Yesterday during the tackling portion of the day (of which Tanner, as you see, has NO fear of diving into) I caught some pictures before the whole thing ended in the inevitable injury and fight over who-caused-what.   And when I made them try to all look at me and smile, it took some effort, but i was able to get a few NICE shots of the boys.  One of them lives next door to us, and the other is down the street (although i think he has status as an honorary-second-child next door.  he's pretty much always there!)

Just another St. Patrick's Day

So far, the boys have created a pretty disturbing St. Patty's Day.....
Tanner is continually mixing up leprechauns with Decepticons (from Transformers....not that he's even *seen* Transformers)

The boys are currently using army men and tanks to fight the leprechauns that they're convinced are going to attack. (Leprechauns attacking.....really?) They've turned leprechaun-hunting into a military-ninja-style battle. It's actually pretty disturbing. What happened to trying to catch the cute little buggers in a hand-made little green sparkly shoebox?
Sigh.
Boys.

In other news, Tanner has concocted some interesting questions and comments, based upon sermons about Jesus and the Easter holiday. Today after church he asked me if "all of the church is going to die." (Ummm, NO!) And then he followed it up with, "I'm not going to die today. Then I couldn't pick up garbage."
Very true Tanner.
And a good reason to stick around :)

Perfect-weather-playground-day!

Perfect weather today so we headed to the playground after picking up Bryce from school.  Bryce made it all the way across the monkey bars, which he was quite proud of!  Tanner said his favorite part of the playground today was the "bumpy slide".  They ran around on the field quite a bit too (must wear them out any way I can!)

edited to add pictures from my camera! (instead of just my phone!)

a typical day in the neighborhood

This past Sunday afternoon was pretty much like most afternoons for the past few months.  We go outside just about every day.  We play and hang out with our neighbors, and their trio of little girls (Reisa is 2, and the twins are 8 months.)  Every so often we have to break out the water toys, and make a big splashy (and eventually muddy) mess but on this particular day we started out with some bike and scooter racing:

this picture of reisa and tanner cracks me up! they have the funniest faces! they adore each other so much, but they have a very two-year-old relationship of playing nicely together one second, and hollering and beating on each other the next minute! Reisa will probably be moving soon, so we are enjoying EVERY second we can with our sweet pals, two-doors-down.

And we're happy to say that three of our four broccoli plants have big broccoli florets growing on them, and we have been excited to watch them get "big and strong" according to Tanner.  The plants droop a little every afternoon, which is why the leaves look a little wilty in this picture, but they perk right back up by evening.  I think it will just be a few more weeks, and then we can eat the first of it!

Happy day-after-Mother's Day!

Just a few quick pictures that the boys and I took before we left for church on Sunday morning! We spent a lovely Mother's Day with Eric's family, out at the beach condo (minus the beach, because the weather was sort of questionable!)  I got some BEAUTIFUL plants and flowers, plus my FAVORITE lemon soap from Eric's mom! (And perhaps the best part? Leftovers from dinner. . . I'm pretty sure I won't have to cook or shop for a week, after all the food that came home with us!)

Last week, although it wasn't intended as a Mother's Day present, I used some long held gift card $, and got a pedicure with a friend, and then had a massage. . . .and I dubbed that part of my Mother's Day celebration too.  It was DIVINE!!!! 

And. . . because I simply can't let any of you be without the AMAZING cookies that the boys and I baked, I must share this recipe.  Eric says I have to start making them every day.  They are seriously THAT good. . . .and amazingly enough, they have NO flour, and NO butter. . .and they are EASY! 

So if you need a peanut butter and chocolate fix, try these out! 

Flourless Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies 

(PS. . .be sure to keep scrolling down. in order to make me feel less guilty, I've pre-dated some posts, so i could put pictures in chronological order. i'll be adding a few more from my birthday, and the end of april over the next day or so!)

To the zoo we go!

We took our dear friends Paul and Sara, and their little cutie pie Hannah, for Hannah's FIRST TRIP to the zoo on Saturday! It was so fun to see her excited about the animals!!! She and Tanner are totally best buds, and he really loves to call her "Baby Hannah" (even though she's becoming not such a baby anymore!)

a few more disney pictures

apparently I hardly took ANY pictures at Hollywood Studios, but here are a few from Animal Kingdom!

Bryce's favorite moments at Animal Kingdom: his first trip on the Kali River Rapids (he LOVED it, and got soaked!) Lunch at our favorite booth, at Restaurant-a-saurus. Tanner's favorite part : the dinosaur ride with Daddy, and Mickey Bars.  (He's pretty much obsessed with Mickey ice cream bars! He says he's a "Mickey Bar Man".)

 Playing in the dinosaur boneyard is always a favorite afternoon activity.  Digging with the buckets that their lunches came in is a bonus!

 while bryce was on the river rapids, tanner had his own wet fun in a fountain. both boys had clothes-changes after that! :)

after animal kingdom, we had dinner at Giordano's and introduced my parents to REAL CHICAGO PIZZA. (yum!!!!)

at the hotel!

Our hotel was FABULOUS! and the pool was ah-MAZE-ing!!!!!  it had a giant pirate ship in the middle of it, with a water slide coming out,  and lots of fun water features to splash in! the boys had a GREAT time playing, and Bryce practiced a lot of swimming!

they also LOVED the gigantic jacuzzi tub in our suite! 

 and we loved the view from our 15th floor balcony! we could see the Disney fireworks every night, plus hot air balloons taking off every morning. the sunsets were lovely, and of course. . .the best part of all for Tanner. . . .he could watch for the garbage truck.  :)

the boys went on lots of rides this week, but the last ride was on the luggage rack going out to the car! :)
(look at tanner's face in this picture! hilarious!)

Magic Kingdom pictures

The Disney pictures are coming NOT in order. . .but here are some pictures from Magic Kingdom!  The rest are on the other camera, which I haven't gotten pics off of yet.  But we're home, and we had a super time!!!! I was NOT very good at taking pictures this trip. . . but this will getcha started! :)

xoxo

Some of our favorite things at Magic Kingdom: 

driving race cars, finding the smushed penny machines to add to Bryce's collection, brunch with Winnie the Pooh and his friends, and riding It's a Small World, 

EPCOT day with Lizzie!

We spent Thursday of Bryce's Spring Break at Epcot, with Lizzie! (It was her Spring Break too!)

We went to The Coral Reef restaurant, which the boys LOVED.  Bryce had only been there as a baby, and Tanner hadn't ever been there.  They LOVED watching the fish and sharks in the giant tank, and we had a great table up close!

In Norway, we bought the boys Viking helmets.  We played with them the last time we were there, and it just HAD to be done!!!! They are so cute and funny!

 As part of the Flower and Garden Festival, the park always has some great extra playground areas set up.  (I wish they'd leave them up all year!!!!!)

 And of course NO day at Disney would be complete without a Mickey bar.  I think they have at least three trip's worth of Mickey Bar stains on their Disney shirts!!! ;)

 For dinner, we left Epcot and stopped at Downtown Disney, to eat at T-Rex.  Tanner had a love-hate relationship with the "meteor showers" that happen every 15 minutes, but we all had a fun time!!!! (And then a LONG drive home!!!)