A weekend with Grandpa and GiGi

Jim and Jean have missed us so much that they wanted to come up and visit last weekend. :)  We always love having family come up!  Saturday was day 3 of rain, so we drove down to meet them in St. Augustine for lunch just to get out of the house for a while.  I think that Robbie likes "ordering" (telling us and we tell the waiter/ress) his own lunch and Alex pigged out on his food and extras from the salad bar.  We had originally planned to go to the science and history museum, but it had gotten too late after lunch to go.  It ended up being a good idea because everyone else went there to get out of the rain (including my friend who told me how crowded it was).  Jim and Jean bought Robbie and Alex a Noah's ark shape sorter and they have loved playing with it.  Robbie is getting better at putting the animals in the correct hole (they can almost go in any of them) and Alex likes walking around with the piece and sometimes putting them in the ark.  They also offered to watch the kids that night, so we got them brushed, bathed, put Alex in bed and let Robbie watch a "Bubble Guppies" while we headed out to see "Jurassic Park" in 3D.  It had been so long since I had seen it that I had forgotten most of the plot.  Since we weren't sure what time we were going to get out of the house or how long the ticket lines would be at the theater, we bought our tickets online to save some stress when we got there.  I was surprised at how many people were in the theater, but we still got good seats and enjoyed the movie (and popcorn!).

We went out to breakfast Sunday morning and then came back to let Alex nap before going to the museum.  We had a little time to kill before the museum opened (not until noon on Sundays), so we walked out on a short boardwalk by the river, checked out the fountain and saw the football stadium across the river.  Inside the museum, there was a man painting kids' faces and since there wasn't a line, we let Robbie get his face paint.  While the man was finishing up painting a dolphin on the kid in the chair, his older brother showed us the spider he had painted on his hand.  When Robbie sat down he said he wanted a dolphin on his face.  After just one stroke he decided he didn't want his face painted, but let him paint a spider on his hand.  After he got down, though, he changed his mind and asked for the dolphin.  That time he sat pretty well and, after a little touch up, it came out quite cute!  Luckily Robbie wasn't upset that it all washed off at bath time and didn't ask to go back to get painted again Monday.  :)  It also happened to be "Star Wars" weekend, so there were a lot of storm troopers and other characters walking around.  There were some "Star Trek" display tables and Spiderman was there. Robbie loved looking at Spiderman and even showed him the spider on his hand, but he would not stand next to him to get his picture taken.  We knew it was time to leave when Robbie started asking for lunch, though we thought he might sleep through it because it took him a while to wake up from his snooze in the car.  Jim and Jean left after lunch.  Weekend visits are always short ones, but we enjoy our time together!

The Noah's ark shape sorter

Attempt #1 of face painting

That's all that got done.

Sitting still to get his hand painted

My spider!

Robbie couldn't wait to go in the mouth.

Then he wanted the dolphin.

Sitting still!

Not a great picture of Robbie, bu you can see the dolphin

Checking out the snake

Of course Alex turns around before I can get a picture of the two of them looking at the snake!  Alex pretty much only walks now.  They are growing up!

What do these buttons do?

That's as close as he got to Spiderman.  Can you tell Robbie has a big smile on his face, though?

Walgreens was offering free 8x10 collage photos, so I finally updated the frames in the hallway by the boys' rooms.

Alex's first haircut

A while ago I wanted to get Alex's hair cut, but then his curls really started coming in and I changed my mind.  Then his hair just got too long and I knew we were going to have to get it taken care of even though I knew it might mean losing his curls.  The thought of Alex losing his curls made everyone sad, but he really needed a haircut!  The original plan was for me to take Alex and Matthew and Robbie were going to go to Costco.  At the last minute Robbie decided to come with me and Alex.  The kiddie salon is pretty far from us and both kids fell asleep on the way.

We had a little wait before Alex's turn and the kids amused themselves in the hair wash station.  I know that sounds messy, but their hair wash station is actually a big firetruck that has a bed for the kids to lie down on and get their hair washed.

They had different chair for the kids to get their hair cut: a plane, a firetruck, a sports car, a boat, another one that I don't remember, and a regular salon chair.  The firetruck and boat were open and I chose the firetruck.  Each station has a tv and the kids can pick a movie to watch when they get their hair cut.  Curious George was already on at the firetruck and both kids like that show.  As an added bonus, the boy next to us was watching "Cars", so they could watch either one.  The stylist put a cape on Alex and blew some bubbles to get him comfortable in the chair.

Alex checking out the firetruck (with the hair wash station in the background).

His hair had gotten pretty out of control.

What is she doing?  (Blowing bubbles)

Looking at the bubbles.

Alex in his firetruck and Robbie on "his".

Then it was time to wet Alex's hair and get it cut!

Combing it out.

Spraying him down.

The first cut!

Watching George with a cute mohawk.

What is she doing, Mommy?

I don't know if I like this.

Watching "Cars"

Are we done, yet??

Finished cut!  You can't tell, but he does still have curls in his hair. :)

Robbie watching "Cars"

When the kid in the airplane was done, Robbie got to sit in it, though at one point he did ask if he could trade places with Alex.

Alex playing with the plane's propeller after his haircut.

We all got lollipops for being good while Alex got his hair cut!  (I had the lollipops in my pocket.  While I was paying the stylist the boys decided they wanted to play with the toys they have in the waiting area.  When I got the keys out one of the lollipops fell out.  Robbie asked if it was his and I told him he could have it when he was buckled in his car seat.  He was suddenly ready to leave!)

New Sheets!

There is a page on Facebook for people to sell their stuff and I have been taking full advantage of it.  Over the weekend we saw a Lightning McQueen sheet set.  It was a steal at $10 and came with a fitted sheet, flat sheet, comforter and pillow case.  Matthew picked it up last night and I washed it today and put them on Robbie's bed while he was eating lunch.  I think he likes them. :)



Robbie is saying "cheese" at the beginning of this video because he just saw me take his picture and then he was so cute saying "cheese" that I switched to video.

Goings on

I haven't intentionally not blogged in a long time, I just haven't had the time or desire to do so.  We have been doing a lot, though.

A couple of weeks ago was my niece, Kayleigh's spring break, so we took a day trip over to visit them.  We took the kids to Chuck E. Cheese's and they had a good time, though all kids know that parents will never buy tokens!  I hit the jackpot there.  The games kept breaking and not giving out tokens, and when I would ask a worker to fix the game it would spit out tickets like crazy!  I got over 300 tickets from broken machines!  Robbie had a lot of fun.  He didn't play the games (though he tried the basketball game), but he loved doing the rides and was even good about getting off when other kids wanted to take a turn.  I know the boys were super tired before we left (Robbie didn't take a nap) and they fell asleep well before we got on the interstate to head home.

Cute pictures Lisa took:

Elise

Brian

Alex

Robbie

Kayleigh

Brian after eating a popsicle

Kayleigh (with her popsicle stick) and Erik

The following week was our moms' spring break.  Matt's mom came up over the weekend.  That was great because I was so sick all weekend and pretty much stayed in bed the whole time.  Monday they took the kids to the zoo.  Yes, we go a lot, but the kids love it!

My mom drove up Monday afternoon.  Unfortunately she hit a lot of traffic due to accidents, but she got here in time for dinner.  The plan was to have her potty train Robbie while she was here, but that didn't happen.  Robbie knows that pee and poop go in the potty, but he prefers to do it in his pull-up anyway.  It was nice having my mom here to cook and clean for us.  She made French toast each morning and Robbie was sure disappointed when I wasn't going to make it after she left.

This was the first Easter in a while that we haven't traveled.  It was nice being home, though it's definitely not the same celebrating a holiday without lots of extended family.  We had our good friends over for dinner since they weren't traveling for Easter, either.  Their son and Robbie are close in age and play well together.  It was a beautiful evening and we ate on the porch.  The kids didn't do too well sitting and eating at the kiddie picnic table, but we don't think they went to bed hungry.

Alex is happy with his Easter treats!

I think Robbie is, too.

Blowing bubbles

I love this face that Alex makes!

Checking out Alex's goodies.

"Look, Mommy, gummies!"

 Alex in his new crocs

Random, but I love how these Easter deviled eggs (is that an oxymoron?) turned out.

We've since gotten back into our normal routine.  It's not too exciting, but we enjoy our days.

Story Time

Our church is reading through the book "The Story" which is a Reader's Digest version of the Bible, but in chronological order.  Robbie has really liked the last two weeks of Sunday School  learning about Joshua and Samson.  He kept wanting me to tell their story, so I came up with an even shorter version and he likes to help me tell the stories.  I have been wanting to get a video of him telling the stories and he found the camera this morning and wanted to take videos.  Robbie didn't want to be in the videos, he wanted to be the photographer, so that's why he isn't in them.  I think he did a better job telling the stories when he was watching these videos, but at least you can hear him tell his part.

Joshua and the battle of Jericho



Samson

Caught Red Handed!

Robbie pulled out the peanut butter and a spoon this morning for a little treat.  He loves peanut butter.  Apparently Alex does, too.  Too bad Alex didn't use a spoon.

He's so proud of himself and happy to have some peanut butter!

You can see that Robbie left his spoon for Alex.

With a kid this cute it's hard to get upset. :)

New Bathroom

Anyone who has 2 kids that are the same gender knows how hard it is to buy for the second kid, because what does the 2nd one need that the first one doesn't already have?  In this house, the answer isn't much!  For Alex's birthday we decided to get new bathroom decor that was more kid friendly than the all white shower curtain and rugs.  Alex got gift cards for his birthday and some money from my parents and we used it toward the new bathroom (with a little left over for a new toy or maybe some socks).

The new bathroom set includes a shower curtain and rings, 2 mats, a garbage can and a toothbrush holder.

Close up of the curtain rings

Close up of the toothbrush holder (Alex is using his toothbrush. He loves to brush his teeth!)