Quotable

a couple of weeks ago Oliver got out of the bath, he stared ponderously at his hands and feet. I told him he was all wrinkly from the water. Now, he looks at his hands every once in a while and says:

"I'm all sprinkle-ly"

Daddy plays softball

The little misters and I went to watch Daddy play softball on Monday evening. Uncle Hung played too, which meant Auntie Mick and cousin Casen came to watch as well. Mormor and Morfar stopped by to cuddle with all the babies we had on the sidelines as well as be Daddy and Hung's cheerleaders. With two boys to keep an eye on, it's hard to keep an eye on the actual softball game but it was nice to support Jerimy while being outdoors.

the animals came out tonight

No animals were harmed during the
filming of these two brothers.

The Marble Run

To celebrate Oliver and Lucius' half birthday, we went out to breakfast with Oma & Opa on Sunday. They gave the boys a couple of cards with money tucked inside. I went out later in the day to buy them a 121 piece marble run set. Oliver spent the next two and a half hours playing with his birthday gift. Lucius, as usual, enjoyed watching his older brother make noise and have fun. Thank you, thank you, thank you to Oma & Opa for a happy half birthday celebration.

Happy half Birthday to my boys

Road Trip

Our intent when we packed up the car Friday morning was to take a Family half birthday camping trip. We jigsaw puzzled all our camping supplies into our little vehicle, thankfully the boys don't need foot space at this age so I could stuff even more into the car.

We headed up north on our two hour drive to the State Park. About an hour into our drive it started to pour. But we pushed on. Once we arrived at the Campground, it was tapering off to a light sprinkle. Jerimy talked with the Park Ranger to figure out the weather situation. A little rain wouldn't ruin my weekend camping trip, but sadly the ranger told us that there was going to be a HUGE storm coming sometime in the evening. Tent camping with two small children for the first time in a thunderstorm... hmm didn't make either of us feel safe.

The weather was clearing out so we decided to make the most of our trip and take a walk thru the State Park to stretch our legs. We found a very neat swinging bring. It swayed a bit but it was very sturdy. Oliver was on the look out for puddles to splash in. He was also keeping an eye out of a moose.

We walked back to the car, splashed through a few more puddles and headed even farther north. We saw a muskrat & five deer while on the road. Daddy actually stopped once, pulled Oliver out of the car so he could see a deer up close. They watched it watch them and then walk into the woods. Oliver got back in the car and said "now maybe see Moose". He said it in a tone that implied "okay that was alright, but a deer is not a Moose- show me something impressive people".

Gooseberry Falls State Park is one of our favorite places to visit. We all walked in the water- Oliver had the best footwear for such an adventure. It was fun to see his excitement. Lucius enjoyed the views (I hope) but probably enjoyed being out of the car seat a lot more. He's getting so big that Daddy and I traded off carrying him in the hiking pack.

It was a super fun day. Before we piled back in the car to drive home, we stopped to sit by Lake Superior for a picnic snack. I enjoy the vastness and feeling like you're at the edge of the world.

Hoping that we were making the right decision to abandon our camping trip plans, it was back home we headed. It's always a little disappointing to cancel a family event but I believe we made the most of our time together. It did rain and thunderstorm quite a LOT between up north and home. Around our part of town there was an inch or two of rain in about an hour. When we walked in our front door, the power was off. Thankfully, it came back on within 15 minutes of being home. If the storms up north were anything like down here, I'm guessing we made the right choice.

Oliver still managed to go pretend camping and has been enjoying sharing his tent with his friends all morning. We plan on finding some other fun things to do around town to celebrate our boys' Half birthdays!

"Whats made at Art Club, stays at Art Club"

A co-worker of mine volunteers at the Walker Art Museum and told me about the new summer program the museum is doing. It's called Drawing Club- you can go check out things from their tool shed and create a little magic. They have games, kites, outdoor toys and plenty of art supplies. We grabbed some water colors and painted a few pictures. Auntie Mick & Casen joined us to enjoy a wonderful afternoon.

We also took a short walk through the Sculpture Garden to look at the statues in the garden. Oliver was very informative and made sure to tell us what he thought each piece was. He impresses me daily with his insight-fulness.

Paper Mache

We used scissors to cut paper. We made goop with flour and water. Then it was time to Make a Mess Monday. It's going to take us a few weeks of re-gooping and adding more layers. When it's finished Oliver and I are going to plan a little get together to show off our pinata and break it open. Weather it turns out looking nice or not we are having fun making a mess creating it.

The Rat

Oliver's Bunny made his debut on the blog in August of 2008. He had sparkling clean white Bunny on our car trip to my cousins wedding. Oliver never really got attached to Bunny till after he was a year old.

At around 3 months old I realized Lucius REALLY wanted/ needed to be holding something to be able to soothe himself to sleep. I threw into his crib Ratos the rat, a baby les deglingos. Oliver had received it as a gift awhile ago but never cared too deeply for it.

Lucius... well lets just say he usually has a death grip on poor Rat.

The Drive-in

Saturday Night FUN.
Oliver went to Mormor's house for an over-niter. We took Lucius to his first Drive-in movie. Well actually Marmee took Daddy to see "Toy Story 3" and Lucius just happened to tag along. He slept thru the whole thing. I'm super glad he came because it got slightly chilly after the sun went down. He slept in my arms and kept me plenty warm. Plus I was starting to miss the constant baby cuddling. It was a good night.

MN Zoo

Cause one trip to the Zoo in one week just wasn't enough for our boys. We went to the big MN Zoo with Oma and Auntie Dana on Saturday morning.

Four adults, two car seats and two little mister piled into the three rows of seats in Oma's vehicle to drive down together. We checked out two Museum passes from the Public Library to get us all into the Zoo for free. I thought Saturday right when it opened would be crazy, but I think that was the best trip to the Zoo I've ever had. I felt like we had the place to ourselves. Plus all the animals were SUPER active in the morning. We heard the monkey's screaming, saw the grizzly bears go for a swim, watched the leopards pacing and even pet a few goats on the family farm.