Sweet Sleeping Boys

Nibble Nibble

Kyle has the most unique method of eating some of his favorite foods. He always tends to start in the middle. 

Grandma's Haircuts

Just like making mini pancakes, I'm really not very good at cutting the boys' hair. Luckily, Grandma is. 

 Watch Out! He'll shoot you if you get too close.

Just

Grandma's Pancakes

One of the boys' favorite breakfast foods is pancakes and luckily Grandma was more than happy to oblige. 

We had pancakes with cousins,

 And Kyle showed off his skills with a fork.

 And we giggled at Grandma's silly mini pancakes.

 Mmmmm.... they sure taste good!

(Apparently, Zach wasn't super thrilled with having his picture taken at this moment. He really did enjoy his mini pancakes though)

Truth is, try as I might. I just can't seem to make mini pancakes like grandma does. I guess I just need some to get some more practice. Pancakes anyone?

Rocket Launch

One of the highlights of our trip to Idaho was Zach's first rocket launch. Uncle Tyson helped him paint it and put it together. Then, after we got back from our trip to Island Park we headed across the street to a large field to set it off into "space"

 Zach got to put the rocket onto it's launchpad AND he got to hit the ignition switch.

 And off it went into the sky. Kyle was sure he saw where it went and all of the cousins bolted to see if they could catch it on it's way down. I was sure it was gone forever. Zach was sure it had struck the moon.

 By some miracle, Uncle Trent managed to locate the tiny green rocket (among a bunch of green shrubs no less) and he retrieved it for Zach. Zach excitedly retold the story numerous times.

"Mom! We shot the rocket clear into space! It TOOK off. And it went to space mom! And then it came back down and we FOUND it! We FOUND it mom! After it came back from space!"

I think we're going to have to put rocket launching on our list of things to go again as soon as we have the opportunity. Thanks Uncle Tyson!

Snowman

Winter has been so strange this year, with barely any snow. When we headed for Idaho to celebrate Norwegian Christmas we had hoped to find mounds of snow just waiting to be shaped into numerous snowmen. Unfortunately, rain came just before we arrived and melted all the snow away. Luckily, my grandparent's cabin in Island Park was able to fulfill the boy's wishes to build a snowman. Or as Kyle would say, "NOWMAH!".

The snow wasn't snowman snow by any means and it was virtually impossible to make it stick together. I was worried they would be disappointed but we were fortunate to find a partially made snowman just waiting for us to put on the final touches. The bottom two snowballs had been placed and a large, oddly shaped chunk of ice happened to be lying nearby. I smooshed the final piece in place and then the boys helped me add a plastic carrot for the nose and a few small rocks as eyes. 

 They were thrilled to say the least. Overjoyed and so proud to have finally built the "Perfect" snowman. (Thank you so much to whoever the person was to half built it for us. I really don't think we could have managed it on our own.)

Mischief Managed

Here's a few quick shots of the type of mischief my boys have been getting into. 

March Snowfall

Oh my goodness has it really been so long since I've updated? Oh dear, so sorry. Well, I'll just start with today and then back track. Hopefully we can get you all caught up on our life. 

Yesterday, it snowed. 

After a winter with minimal snowfall and quite a bit of spring-like weather I was surprised to look out the window and find large slowly drifting flakes of snow. It was a bit late so I promised the boys that we would enjoy the surprise snowfall today. Most of it had melted by the time we were able to get ourselves bundled up and out the door but there was enough for snow angels (in the really shady parts of the yard). And THAT is what's important!

 (I have no idea why that one is loading upside down. I've flipped it over and over but it just keeps going back)

We also enjoyed a snowball fight.

 You can tell by the background here just how little snow is left.

 When the wind started to blow we filled up Kyle's bucket with snow and brought it in to build a snowman/snow-house.

I know it's not the winter wonderland experience that I might have pictured but the boys had a great time. I would say that I don't expect we'll have another chance at snow but with this odd weather we've had lately... who knows?

Since I'm out  of town I didn't really have time to prepare a proper photo arrangement with clever cations and photo cropping but by request I'm posting some pics of the boys in their costumes for Jason to see since he's stuck at home missing all of our festivities. Enjoy Sweetheart!

 Here, Zach shows off his muscles.

 Kyle chases a "Neigh Neigh" (horse), it took some explaining to convince him it was really a goat.

 The boy's favorite game was a fishing game. Here they were basically climbing over top of each other to give the lady their tickets.

 Kyle really enjoyed himself, obviously

Notice Kyle in the background. It may look like he just ate a lemon but really he's saying cheese for the camera. Goofball.

Today, we celebrated our first leaf raking of the season. The smaller tree in our front yard was the first tree in our neighborhood to turn a beautiful red-orange and start to drop it's leaves. The boys and I had a great time creating the "Biggest Leaf Pile EVER!"

 Zach and Kyle both concentrated intently on the task at hand.

 Sometimes even working together.

Kyle has been becoming increasingly difficult to take pictures of as every time he sees the camera he has to run straight for me squealing "CHEESE" as loud as he can. It results in a good number of very blurry but very cute pictures like this one.

Once in a while I can still catch him  if he's sitting down. 

 Zach is a total ham when the camera comes out.

The boys loved diving in and getting buried in the leaves. 

 Soon, what was a tall mountain of leaves became a much flatter mound.

 Then, they just enjoyed running through it.

 Here's Zach preparing to make a dash for it. (note the crooked mouth, both boys do it. Just like their dad)

 Ready Set GO!

We All Love Fall!

Here's what happens when you give Jason a sledge hammer. Uh Oh!

Today was a BIG day for us. It was Zach's first day of preschool! He has been looking forward to today for a long time. Pretty much since summer first started and he learned that next year he wouldn't be going to "Parents As Teachers" with Kyle and Mom anymore. He would be going to "Big Boy School". 

We sought out the perfect backpack, a little Transformers backpack just his size. And THEN we found out that he needed a full sized backpack. It ended up just fine though because Kyle decided the smaller backpack was perfect for him. 

 Right away this morning both boys donned their respective backpacks and ran in to tell mom they were both ready for school.

 Kyle was convinced he was going too and he was really proud to strut around the house in his "Eee Er Eu Uh" backpack. (That was my best typed impression of the sound he makes for transformers- I'll have to record it later)

 Zack got a special "Z" pancake for breakfast.

 And we, of course, had the traditional "First Day of School Photoshoot" Zach was looking Oh, So handsome.

 That's right, First Day of Preschool!

 He's growing up TOO fast.

 Such sweet brothers.

 Just had to go play for one more minute before taking off.

 We ran into our friend Evie on our way into school.

 This is one of Zach's teachers. Mrs Ladage.

 Zach read his favorite story while we waited until it was time to go to class.

 Kyle Hammed it up, jumping in front of the camera whenever we tried to take a picture of Zach.

 Zach's Classroom.

 We read "The Kissing Hand" the other night so Mom kissed Zach's hand and drew a heart around it so that he could remember.

 The kids started getting more and more anxious as the time approached to go to class.

 It was really comical to watch the teachers trying to keep all of the children in line as they walked to class. Zach, of course, took his place at the front of the line. Every few steps one of the children would try to take off a different direction and a teacher would have to guide them back into place. Finally, they successfully made it to class.

Zach's School

Zach was very brave and didn't hesitate at all as he waved goodbye to Mom and Kyle. He had a great time and came home raving about playing outside and getting to snack on chips. I guess there weren't any learning milestones of note YET, but Mom couldn't be prouder!