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.

Chicago Trip - Day 5 (Part 1)

Aunt Kelly had to leave this morning, so it was down to just 6 of us. We started our day at Shedd Aquarium. Again, we walked there, and the weather was wonderful. Colin was very proud of walking most of the way there.


(As for the weather, sometimes it could have been cooler, but for the most part, there was little rain (except for the storm we arrived in) and the weather was either tolerable or perfect. More tolerable, though.)

The boys loved the aquarium. One of their favorite areas was the penguin display. Past the penguin exhibit there was a children's play area. There were penguin costumes to wear with rocks to climb and ice to slide down. They loved it. Both of them made us throw fish at them to eat and had fun running around making penguin sounds.



We had to get video of them!

Here are some more pictures.

One of my favorite displays was the moon jellyfish.

The submarine for kids to play in.

Colin loved watching the stingrays! He would crawl around following them as fast as he could.

Chicago Trip - Day 4

Day 4 started at the Field Museum. Our condo was located next to it, so we got to walk over the train tracks (the boys were so excited) to get there. We we a bit surprised that the boys passed by Sue without any interest. However, Colin was very excited about the elephant!



We headed to the underground area. The first thing that happened was that we were "shrunk" to 1/10th our size. After we left and went to a new exhibit, Kevin asked if we had to get shrunk again. Here are a couple pictures from underground.



Here are a couple more pictures from the museum. The first is of Colin playing with animals and habitats. He stayed there for a while. He would even put the puppy on top of the hut and then have the "fire guys" (horses) climb the ladder (hut) to get the dog. The second is of the boys collecting corn.



After naps Pappy, Grandma, and Aunt Kelly headed to Gino's East for pizza while we headed to Eleven City Diner one block away. The boys loved it. Again Colin got grilled cheese and apple sauce (I am pretty sure that is all he ate on the trip.) while Kevin ate corn dogs. They loved it. We headed home for a swim before bedtime. Kevin is becoming more and more adventurous in the water, jumping in over and over again. Colin spent most of the time next to the pool playing with dinosaurs who turned into "fire guys."