Robots!

Every couple of weeks or so, robots show up in our house. They are not very coordinated, as they run into walls and sometimes each other. But they are fun, they laugh a lot, and the only mess they leave are two piles of toys on the floor.

Helping Daddy With Yardwork

Last Saturday Kevin poured the concrete for the new fence posts. Of course, he had two helpers. Those boys love to work outside with their daddy. They even have their own tools and gloves. They did get some concrete on them by the end, but they headed straight to baths, so it worked out just fine.








After a while it was so hot that I started spraying the hose. The boys ran around screaming for about 10 minutes. They were soaking wet. I am pretty sure they had fun.

What Colin Said

We were reading this book:
and Colin saw this picture:

He got very excited and started smiling. He told me "We helped daddy do that! Yeah!" Adorable.

Cousins Visit

Last weekend, my cousins were over for the evening. (Aunt Amy and Uncle Steve went to an auction.) Rachel and Emily played wonderfully with both Colin and Kevin. All four were included in each activity. It was amazing to see! Here are a couple pictures from the evening.

Spaghetti for dinner.

Colin getting messy.

In the basement, Emily was put in jail. Rachel and Kevin even made the windows "have an electric shock" so she couldn't sneak out. She later had to clean up for "community service" so she could get out of jail early. (I wonder what Aunt Amy and uncle Steve are teaching those girls!)

Brownies and watermelon for dessert.

We ate almost an entire watermelon that night.

Kevin was a dinosaur who was sick. The doctor was performing surgery. (I'll take the blame for this one.)

Rachel reading the boys their nighttime story.

Emily reading. It was strange not having to read the books!

Mazes

I bought Kevin a book of mazes. He finished the entire thing in one sitting. I think mazes may be his new favorite thing. He loves finding them in activity books that we have. Here are a couple that he has done. These were done alone and without help from anyone!

Who does this look like?

Why it takes an hour to do a 15 minute plumbing job.

Kevin's Counting Again...

Since all of our husbands are at the lake, Gail, Leah and I decided to get the kids together for dinner tonight. I was telling the boys that they would get to play with Chase, Parker and Ryan tonight.

While not even looking up from playing with his animals, Kevin told me that there would be 5 friends tonight. I was startled, and asked him "What do you mean?" He replied that "Chase, and Parker and Ryan would make 5 friends all together."

I am thinking he might be good with number sense.

Kevin's Artwork

Here are two pieces of art that Kevin made recently. He usually does scribbles or blobs, but lately his work has started turning into actual pictures. (His previous drawings would usually be big scribbles called "spider webs" (adorable) or "big bear in a cave" but not really have anything recognizable.)

He brought home two flowers from school. He actually made flowers!


Today when I went to pick him up he was working on drawing a tree. (Interestingly, he kept switching the marker from one hand to the other.) He told me that he wanted to finish it at home. So after dinner he sat down to finish it.


I was so proud that I took a picture. I asked him what it was and he told me "Grass and Tree."


Then he saw a red mark (made by Colin on accident, but I wasn't going to point it out since Kevin didn't see it.) and said "I am going to make it a coconut!" H returned to his chair to add brown coconuts.


After I took another picture of it, he told me that it was night time. He asked if stars are circles with points, and added some stars!

The Toy Story Incident

Saturday Kevin and I took the boys to see Toy Story 3. We thought it would be a great family event that we all could enjoy.

We were wrong.

Apparently we have extremely sensitive children. Having the toys put out on the curb where the trash men might pick them up and throw them out was traumatic for them. Especially Kevin. He covered his eyes with his blanket and got very upset. Colin wasn't happy either, saying "no!" and looking sad.

Also, when the young toddlers play rough with the toys wasn't something they found entertaining either. And when Buzz was tied down to the chair and Kevin covered his eyes yet again while Colin was upset, we called it quits. We actually had to leave the theater because the movie was too upsetting. I mean, we should have known. Look at these threatening characters:


We have taken Kevin to one movie previously. It was Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs. He did great that movie, until the very end when you don't know (for about 30 seconds) if the good guy makes it or not. He was so upset that we almost left then. He was almost crying and wouldn't stop talking about how bad that was. (He has a hard time when bad things happen to good people.) Maybe we can try again in a year or so, but I am not sure how we are going to find a better film than Toy Story 3!

Chicago Trip - Day 6

Our last day. Pappy and Grandma left pretty early to start their drive home. Luckily, they were kind enough to return most of our luggage to St. Louis for us. All we kept were the boys backpacks filled with toys for the train, and two small bags for each of us.

Kevin had wanted to show the boys the beach. That was the one thing he wanted to do. So we decided to walk to a beach and have the boys put their feet in the water. We left our shoes nearby and walked in. Well, of course Colin fell while running into the water. Face first. Soaking wet. All our clothes were heading home. We set it out to dry on the stroller, but then the wind blew it into the sand. Several times. Then the stroller fell over and all of our bags got sandy. So Colin hung out in his (thankfully) extra pair of shorts while Kevin dried his shirt using a hand dryer in a bathroom. It would have been horrible if we weren't laughing so hard.

Boys in the water

Colin falling in. He was wet from his hair to his feet.

We played it safe after that, hanging out at Navy Pier until the train left. And even though the train was detoured (train derailment the day before) and it was delayed, we made it home only a couple hours late.

Yes! Colin slept on the way home!

Home!

Chicago Trip - Day 5 (Part 2)

One the way to dinner we rode the bus. Colin was so excited he kept saying "fun" while shaking his bottom. Kevin said that the seats were the color of candy and kept licking the backs. It was pretty gross.


After dinner we walked back to the condo detouring through the parks. We first walked to the giant bean, which is named Cloud Gate. Here are a few of the pictures:

It looked like Chicago in a snow globe to me.

Underneath the bean

We then walked to Buckingham Fountain for more pictures. I had to show the boys the fountain since I was constantly showing them the high spray. When it shot high you could see it from our condo.