M&M’s Guy

“Mom, take my picture with the M-uh-M”

PVC Construction

Most kids have K’NEX and Erector Sets. Not my boys … they have PVC pipes and fittings to build huge towers. These pipes are actually Tim’s solution for Alex always begging us to build him a tent. Tim’s thought was that we could easily fit a few pipes together, throw some sheets over it, and bam … a tent. Who knew the boys would actually enjoy building with the pipes as well?

The original purpose for the PVC pipes.

Turns out building with the pipes is fun too!

The pipes are also great for our Hot Wheels track.

Little Gardeners

We’ve spent the last few weekends getting our yard ready for our garden projects. We moved more stone around to fix some flooding/mud issues, put down new mulch, and planted new plants in our old garden area. Last year’s gardens didn’t get enough sun and/or blocked my view of the yard from the kitchen window. We also had a bit of a delay in garden planning last year (remember the month of hand-foot-mouth … yuck), so we didn’t quite accomplish what we had set out to do. So, to make up for it, we decided to start all our plants from seed and to make use of our huge backyard. My parents brought up their tiller and we tilled almost 200 ft where the playground used to be. The boys had a blast helping and were actually useful helpers! Now we just need the rain to stop, our yard to dry out, and maybe we can start planting!

Alex helped me plant our tomato and pepper seeds in this mini-greenhouse.

Alex and Papa jumping over the freshly tilled rows.

Alex was a big helper and raked the new soil in with the old.

I found Spencer’s sand rake and he jumped right in to help as well.

He’s always looking for an opportunity to be like his big brother!

Easter 2015

With Easter Sunday and Tim’s birthday falling on the same day this year, we decided to take things easy and stay in Charlotte. After finding Easter baskets, the boys enjoyed some of their goodies while I cooked waffles and bacon for breakfast. Later in the afternoon, Alex asked me to hide eggs in the backyard. We spent the next hour or so hiding, finding, and re-hiding eggs. We had a blast!

The Easter Bunny left a trail of eggs leading to the baskets (inside the previous night’s blanket fort).

Alex put together his Lego Junior sets while Spencer and Daddy watched.

The finished products – a racecar and a train engine.

Spencer enjoyed coloring with is new Color Wonder markers.

Spencer had a better idea of what to do at our egg hunt.

Thousands of eggs!

Kovu also enjoyed Easter this year.

Spencer’s First Egg Hunt

A friend of ours invited us to a community egg hunt in Mt. Holly. Two baseball fields were covered in eggs … one for toddlers up to two, and the other for three-five year olds. Alex stayed with Miss Donna and Liam to tour a fire truck while I took Spencer down to the first ball field. Spencer was very concerned about leaving Alex, but Alex was too excited to notice. While we were waiting, I realized Spencer probably didn’t even know what to do! So, we practiced holding the basket and I tried to get him to admire the eggs through the fence. In the end, he ended up with 5 eggs (Alex only picked up two at his first egg hunt). After Spencer and I finished our hunt, we booked it over to the other field to cheer on Alex. He definitely filled his basket!

Why is Mommy telling me to put eggs in here?

So proud to hold his basket!

Alex smiling in the fire truck while Spencer and I were egg hunting.

Alex and his friends on the run!

Figures I dressed them up but they wouldn’t look at the camera.

Spencer, hanging with the big boys.

Roasting Hotdogs!

Now that the weather has been nice, we’ve been spending a lot of time outdoors. Alex has been throwing a bunch of twigs in our fire pit and pretending to build fires lately. So, Tim surprised him one Sunday afternoon and built a fire. I had some hotdogs in the fridge, so we founds some roasting sticks and let Alex cook dinner. Both boys devoured their supper! Smores are next (we didn’t have marshmallows this night)!

Alex thought he was so cool!

Spencer really enjoyed having Alex cook dinner for him.

Spencer would walk around and roast his bites on his fork.

Alex said he was going to eat his hotdog “like Daddy”. He squirted mustard on one end, then bit the other end. Too funny.

More Family Fun

Grandma Lisa and Aunt Kelsey visited recently. I think Alex and Spencer wore them out!! We played, played, played, slept, played, went to the Raptor Center and lunch, then played some more before they had to drive back home.

Spencer pulling Aunt Kelsey closer to the eagles.

Alex and Grandma putting on a puppet show.

I’m not sure why, but Alex was howling.

My Crazy Life

Just a hodge-podge of photos to show how crazy life can be with these two fun-loving, super creative, adventurous, never-sitting-still boys!

Rockin’ out on the fire truck.

A favorite game these days – dump out the laundry (dirty or clean) and wear the basket.

These baskets are also great hug snatchers!

Water cannons can’t get you wet with a bucket on your head.

This happened while I was folding clothes in my room. Guess there are worse things they could have been up to…

Alex was supposed to be in time-out. Spencer thinks time-outs are the best things ever, so he joined in.

Hugs!

Not a very productive afternoon on the see-saw.

Visiting Great-Grandparents

Here’s another post from a March adventure … we hit the road to Columbia to visit Great-Grandma, Great-Grandpa, and Great-Aunt Cyndi. It was a beautiful day to visit with family and play outside. Grandpa Art and Grandma Karen brought the boys sidewalk chalk, bubbles, and pizza. The Great Grandparents and Great-Aunt Cyndi gave the boys their Christmas presents (we were all so sick for so long, we never made it to Columbia during a winter month). Aunt Brie and Aunt Kelsey were even able to stop by for brief visits. While we were playing outside, Alex and Spencer were mesmerized by the neighbor’s truck. So, Great-Grandpa asked his neighbor to show the boys around – they were delighted! Before leaving, I forced a few family pictures. I’m glad I did, because they turned out great! (Don’t worry, I’ll be mailing copies to you soon!)

Spencer’s new best friend, AKA Great-Grandma, helped him lick a Tootsie Roll Pop.

Both boys enjoyed rides on Great-Grandma’s walker/chair.

Dinosaurs at Imaginon

Remember Imaginon, the really cool children’s library in Charlotte? I took the boys back to Imaginon the week of my birthday to see Dakota and Friends, a dinosaur puppet show. This wasn’t just any puppet show though … Dakota the Deinonychus is a large man-sized puppet … kinda of like a mascot. Alex was so excited to see him, especially since we were able to find a few videos on YouTube the day before we went. Poor Spencer was pretty scared at first. It took quite a while for him to be brave enough to sit on the Triceratops!

It was so funny to see the trailer and the dinosaurs sticking their heads out like livestock.

Spencer had no interest in petting the baby T-Rex.

This video will not show in the emails, so you’ll need to click here.

Zoo for Mommy’s Birthday

My sweet hubby took my birthday off so we could day trip to the zoo with my parents. It was a beautiful day and such a fun visit to the zoo. Many of the animals were quite active … and we got to see a few dinosaurs, too! Are you confused? The zoo was prepping for their spring/summer dinosaur exhibit while we were there. The animatronic dinosaurs were bring trucked in to the middle of the zoo and lowered into place with a crane. We watched one on the crane and later saw another on a flatbed truck driving through the African plains.

Crazy Spencer serenading us on the way to the zoo.

Family photo op on the way to the zoo (we were riding in Papa’s Durango, so we weren’t driving!)

Ready to go on safari to find some elephants!

I just love watching the giraffes!