Monday, July 8, 2013

April

Robin played an April Fool on Dean:  he said he wanted to help me make lunch, and drew pictures of food, which we set up on his plate.

Dean played along, asking Robin what he made, examining it all, and then dipping a "carrot" in some dip and trying to take a bite before "realizing" that it wasn't food.  Robin thought it was hilarious

He also played an April Fool on his preschool class. (He had snack April 2nd.)  We put bananas in hot dog buns in order to send "hot dogs" for snack.  We even sent a squeeze tube of strawberry jelly for the teachers to add as "ketchup."  (I tried this out on him at home first, and it's a good thing I did.  He freaked out at the bizarre presentation of food, until I told him I was thinking it was a trick he could pull on his class.  Finally, when he absorbed it as "his idea," he got excited about it all.)  And he LOVED playing a trick on his classmates.  When asked "what did you bring for snack today" he said "yogurt and hot dogs," and let them all figure it out when they sat down to their food.

At playgroup with friends.

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Liam was emancipated during this trip to the park.  He figured out that he could go up the ladder and down the slide all by himself.

Which he did...over, and over, and over, and over again.

Liam wanted to try out his brother's balance bike.  I had to move the seat all the way down for him, but he did it!

We had a fondue birthday party for Dean's brother

...mmmm....

Yum!

Poppa shared a spatula of birthday frosting with Robin

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Poppa and his grandsons

Robin's preschool went to an orchestra concert for a field trip.  I didn't chaperone, but Robin's best friends' mom did, and she got these pictures for me.

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Robin got to play the violin a little

Me holding two toddlers together

The boys trying out Grammy and Grandpa's piano

Playing some badminton

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Robin tried a little bit, too

Trying out an old puppet (Don't you usually wear your bike helmet in the house?)

Grandpa giving Liam a ride on Robin's bike--in the house

One of the books we got from the library had a cake recipe in it, and Robin requested that we make it, so we did.  Me, two kids, and a kitchen full of baking supplies.  Chaos!

Please don't dump the flour all over the counter again.  Let me sweep it up.

...please don't spill again.......

One moment of accord.  Sweet pic!

"Don't lick your fingers!"  "Oh, but there's something tasty on them.  Do I disobey?"

At last, we can get it ready to cook!  (I should've done a bit more prep work on this one.)

Enjoying the spoils

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Loving the chance to eat at the breakfast bar

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Dandelion bouquets

Whew!  Finally done with April.  I feel like I'm never going to catch up on these photos.  Just a bit at a time, a bit at a time....

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Happy Easter

We decorated Easter Eggs using Kool-Aid this year.  I saw the idea online and decided to try it.  Here, Robin is helping to measure the water

Liam, of course, has to help, too

Stirring the colors

Dipping eggs

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Robin took this video, so it's shaky, but here you can see Liam dipping an egg

Our city hosts an egg hunt every year, divvied up by age group.  We went again this year.

Robin getting ready to run off into the 3-4 year old section

Liam hunting for eggs with the 1-2 year olds

Our boys with their loot.

Robin pretending to be an Easter Bunny

I don't think I meant to take this shot, but it's kinda artistic (and no, it definitely wasn't Robin.)

Racing out to see what the Easter Bunny brought

Chocolate bunnies

The EB left eggs in the yard for the boys.  Liam pointed to each egg before picking it up

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I was chasing Liam around through the whole hunt, trying to get a pic like this

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Together with their eggs

We had a bunny breakfast.  Bunny fruit

And bunny pancakes

Then it was on to my parents' house, and egg hunt number two

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Robin taught everyone the prayer he learned at preschool, which they sang before snack

I love Liam's expression in this picture

The boys had one MORE egg hunt before the day ended, with the eggs Grammy and Aunt Kat brought.  Can we say "spoiled?"

Grammy always gives out squirt guns for Easter, so Robin and Dean had a squirt gun fight in the back yard

Around Easter, Robin figured out how to pump on the swings by himself!

A family pic

Happy Very Belated Easter!