Some babies

Some babies like rattles, stuffed animals and toys...

and some babies LOVE kitchen utensils.

Love you sweet baby Max

Knock Knock

Hoo Hoo's there?

Like our new door hanger?  A friend of mine makes and sells these.  I had her make me a custom owl.  

Back in February we gave Alice this sweet backpack.

I LOVED it so much...and so does Alice.

Then I saw these bookends...

 and I loved them too but it's all a bit too girly for this house.  BUT I figured a little owl on the door wouldn't hurt anyone.

Needed to hear this

A friend of mine posted this song with the lyrics this week...so what I needed to be reminded of.  Enjoy...thanks Sarah.  :)

Max loves his Poppy, Car washes and Time together

My parents came on Sunday and left this morning, a quick trip down to see the boys.  They were missing their grandsons, so down they came.  They had seen Max a couple of times since Max's birthday, since I was in Minneapolis twice since then, but not the other boys.

Max ADORES my Dad, it is the cutest thing.  He cries when my Dad leaves the room.  Goes to him ALL day long.  It is so fun for my Dad.  

 Poppy made a shoe box train for Max, he LOVED it!

 Watching some March Madness with Papa

 Reading books together

 This picture melts my heart...Dad reading "The Grandpa Book" to Max and Jack and ALL the boys loved listening.  You are never too old to listen to your Grandpa read to you at bedtime.

Jack snuggling with Grandma

This morning, before they left, Max once again glued to his Poppy.  He cried after he drove away.  yep CRIED LOUDLY...reaching for the street.  Bless his little heart.  Then his Daddy went to work and he sobbed...all alone with only his Momma...poor baby.  :)

Oh and a HUGE bonus to their trip down was the following...Mom made cookies with Jack, AND she helped me clean some closets out, she even scrubbed the floors in the closets...and my Dad offered to wash my car...not ONLY did he take it to the car wash, he had the carpets cleaned, the leather cleaned and conditioned...it's like a NEW car completely detailed AND he came home with Krispy Kremes for the boys.  He for SURE gets the "What a guy Award" from me for that one!  And Scott and I snuck out for a date night last night to Flemings to celebrate our anniversary a few days early while mom and dad took the boys out to dinner at "Bang Bang" which was their request.  

Oh how I wish my parents lived closer than they do....

thanks Mom and Dad for everything.  Love YOU

XOXO

Snack Shack

Thursday was the day Tommy has been waiting for 3 years for, the year he got to have a booth at the Schools Annual "Snack Shack".  The Snack Shack is part of the PreAlgebra math class curriculum.  (nope he didn't get his math skills from his Mom)  For the project, they choose a partner, they have to plan what they will sell, purchase and make the items, market their products, set the pricing and then finally set up and SELL to the entire K-12 school.  He loved every part of this project,  He and his good friend Noah sold the following...

Their shack was called 

SNACK CENTER (get it like ESPN Sport Center)

-chocolate dipped strawberries

-Mountain Dew Throwback

-Homemade Strawberry Smoothies

-chocolate chip cookie dough

-GIANT Hershey candy bars

Tommy teaching Noah the art of measuring and making a Strawberry Smoothie

 Drew checking in to see if they needed anything before they opened

Notice their "uniforms" they decided on, Air Jordan apparel.  White tees and black shorts.

 one of their top customers back for his 2nd time

Tommy and his friend Noah had to leave 10 minutes before "Snack Shack" officially closed for their field trip*, Drew helped out for the last 10 minutes and sold them out of everything.

It was chaotic, but they had so much fun.  Tommy worked so hard preparing the days before.  We practiced different smoothie recipes and mastered that too.  If you want to try a good smoothie here is what he made

6 frozen strawberries

1/2 cup vanilla yogurt

1/2 cup lemonade (we used AE)

The boys Snack Shack was a success.  They learned a lot.  They both earned $71.50 when it was all done, after they paid us back for their products so that was terrific.  That made their work worth it in their minds.

*On a side note....the field trip they went on was to Kentucky to see the Creation Museum.  A pretty BIG field trip.  They left from school at 2:00 drove until 2 am slept in the hotel a few hours and spent all day at the museum and will arrive home this morning after driving all night on the bus.  A whirlwind trip.  He will be on tired boy.

Lovely

Some lovely around our home this week...from my Love!

This "Whoopsie Daisy" Chandelier from the Land of Nod has been on my list for awhile, if we had a little girl I would have hung it in her room, but since none of the boys wanted it in their rooms...it went into the sunroom.  This is as close to girly as I can get around here.  I LOVE it.  

Spring Break 2011 (Part 2)

So Wednesday morning we packed it up in St Louis.  Drew was NOT pleased, he wanted more time to swim at the hotel pool.  Jack loves a hotel room, so he was not happy and Tommy wanted to keep eating out.  They all begged and begged that we add on another night in St Louis.  Why would we go home SO early from Spring Break.  We told them it was time to go.  We stopped at the Monsanto offices and met a TON of people, and spent longer there than we had planned.  We were wanting to get on the road as we had something up our sleeves.  I have to give Scott the credit, he thought up the great scheme I just made it happen.  

They were not paying attention as we were driving.  We were headed a different direction than when we came...Tommy sort of asked if we were going a different way but didn't make a real big deal of it. 

watch this video to see their reaction to what they THOUGHT was a bathroom break.  Max is obviously ready for a car break.  Tommy is trying to figure out where we are...Jack is sound asleep.  Sorry it's not edited so you get a nice shot of my chest, my leg, scott's arm...I was trying to tape it without anyone noticing.  But start watching around 0:58.  

So here the boys give the grand tour of our room...:)  Notice the level of energy.  Scott was still unloading the car, they are ready to GO!

 Baby shark tries out the hotel remote...sorry it's a camera phone pic but you get the idea...

 And Jack wanted one in the cabin, again off the camera phone

Yep we put the baby down the waterslides, NEVER would have put Tommy down at this age, or Drew...maybe not even Jack...but Max...he's #4 and tough as nails.

And he LOVED it.  He went over and over and over again.  Sometimes he would flip onto his tummy and slide down.  Scott or I would catch him at the end.  What a riot to hear his giggle.

Jack liked the BIG water dump every 5 minutes...

A much needed ice cream break...

the big DUMPING of the pail of water

This was Max's first time in a pool and to say he liked it is an understatement.  And to see how curly his hair was in the 84 degree humidity...can't wait for summertime.

Daddy and Tommy were probably the BIGGEST water sliders.  They went time and time again down the biggest and scariest ones.

Max LOVED the kiddie pool

Oh and he loved the blue slide too.

Jack and I tried a few together too, so much fun.

St Patricks Day at Great Wolf Lodge they gave the boys green Leis (did I spell that right Mariah?)

What a blast we all had.  We were in the pool almost non stop for 5 hours one day and 7 the next.  Then it was time to head home, and this time we really meant it.  The boys were hoping we had one more stop up our sleeve but we didn't.  But it felt so good to get home. 

 Such blessed family time we had...

making some wonderful memories.