This is what it's all about

What an awesome, fun-filled weekend!  If this weekend is any preview of what the summer looks like, I can't wait.  Oh, if only we could speed through the next 5 days.  We have 5 more days of wasted time school left and then I will have 8 weeks of freedom!

So, back to this weekend.  Yesterday, we took a trip to Rockford.  It was Mitchell's first birthday party, so we headed out there for the day. Because of all of our hectic schedule's, this was also our first time meeting Mitchell too, so this visit was long overdue.  In the past, we tried to take longer road trips while the boys would be napping in hopes of them sleeping in the car, but that wasn't going to work this time, so we thought we'd plan for a couple stops along the way to keep us all sane.  First stop - donuts at a local donut shop in Flint that Troy hits up every so often.

Then, after 1.5 more hours driving, we stopped at a park in Carson City.  Cute little park that the kids loved playing at and had their picnic lunch.  I was shocked that the park was completely empty - until we left and saw that 1 mile down the street, there was a much larger, newer looking, busier park (with absolutely no shade, in the middle of a field).  I'm happy we stopped at the one we did!

An awesome wooden train to play on

A HUGE slide built into the side of a big hill.

And then finally to Rockford!  What a great time.  Both catching up with Bryan and Erin (and their families), meeting Mitchell and seeing the kids play.  The boys were very well behaved and despite no nap, they had no meltdowns, and had a blast.

Logan actually kept the party hat long enough to get a picture.

It's always fun watching a 1-year old dig into their first birthday cake!

Guess who was super excited when it was cake time?

Ellis surprisingly took 4 bites of Troy's cake!  This was quite the shock since he isn't (or hasn't been) a cake person.

Angie (Erin's sister) reading Ellis one of Mitchell's new books!

Boy they LOVED the playhouse outside!

They both fell asleep within 10 minutes of leaving their house and except for a few where-the-hell-am-I wake-ups where Logan was trying desperately to get comfortable, it was a quiet ride home.

Ellis, not even 5 minutes after leaving.

On to today - just a chill day close to home.  After I woke up, I made Troy breakfast, but since he was up for me, I ordered him upstairs to bed, so he could have breakfast in bed (with 2 crazy kids playing around him)

Troy was originally planning to go fishing today, but because of a lot of paperwork he had to get done for the week (which he couldn't have worked on yesterday since we were gone all day), he spent a bit of his Father's Day unfortunately doing that.  We had a quick lunch/stop-through visit from Grandma and Grandpa as they drove through on their way home from up north and then a laid back afternoon since the boys took a later-than-normal nap.  After dinner though we headed to the park where they got out all of their energy running and climbing around on the playscape.

Now, Troy is just jamming on his guitar on the deck (and yes, our neighbor brought over a tip jar with a dollar in it to ask him to play loud enough to entertain his guests at his house), while I sit here updating the blog.  Oh how I'd love for all days to be like today, weather-wise, too.  Just an awesome night to sit on the deck!  

I'm looking forward to little day trips like yesterday, or anything that resembles fun or relaxing, this summer.  Soon-to-come = our 2014 summer bucket list.  Any can't-wait-for ideas from anyone out there?  I'd love to here other's ideas, especially those that are kid-friendly!

Happy Birthday Logan and Ellis

Wow, it's been about 2.5 months since my last entry.  I knew I hadn't posted in a while, but didn't realize it had been that long.  It's not that I didn't want to update photos and whats been going on, but it just takes so much freakin time to post and upload photos.  But, the boys' birthday is definitely worth the time.

3 years...I can't believe it.  I continue to be in awe of how much they are learning, especially with their speech lately.  Ellis has always been a bit behind Logan, but during the last couple weeks he has just been spitting out tons of words and even making some phrases.  Such a proud mama!

But anyways, on to their birthday party.  This year, instead of a big bash with family and all our friends, we kept the party small.  Heck, they are only 3, and I really wanted to just chill and enjoy family time.  And it was perfect.  I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of the party and so did the boys.  Thank you, THANK YOU (again) to everyone who made this a great party.

Here is a photo bomb of the party (out of the 100 photos taken - by the way, thank you to Nicole and Mark for photographing!)

I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly he understood the concept of his new balance bike!

Ellis was more excited about being pushed by grandma!  He's got her wrapped around his finger!  =)

Time to open gifts and the boys were all about it!

Ever since they saw Parker's transformers and Switch-and-Go Dinos at Christmas, I knew they would like some of their own - and they absolutely LOVED the ones they got!

A new train set??? Yes, please!

And you can't go wrong with supersized vehicles!

WHAT??  This huge monster truck moves on it's own??!  Awesome!

They love horses lately, so it was a no brainer to get a horse cake!

Logan was so cute when we sang Happy Birthday.  He started singing it too.  Ellis was more excited to play with the horses that were on the cake.  

Ellis is busy playing with the horse while Logan tried so hard to blow out the candles.  Unfortunately lack of breath and distance from the cake kind of hindered his abilities.

Cakes aren't made to be eaten.  They're made to be played with, right Ellis?

He was doing his horse impression, "NEIGH!" and of course putting the horse on his back feet.  Um, yeah, there were a few extra holes on his side of the cake!

Logan slowly but surely dug into his cake and ice cream.  First the ice cream, then he ate Ellis' ice cream that he didn't touch.  A little later he came back to eat his cake and after everyone left and we were cleaning up, we noticed him polishing off Ellis' cake.  Needless to say he was on quite the sugar buzz.  So cute (probably because this is one of the first times he has shown much of an interest in cake and ice cream)!!!

A sugar-high Logan takes a break to pose with Aunt Nicole.  We couldn't get both boys together for a birthday picture, but these cute family pictures do just fine!

The whole afternoon/night was so, so much fun!  Today, as you probably saw on facebook, I high-taileded it out of work (mainly so I wouldn't get caught up in Tigers traffic) and got the boys from daycare and headed to the park for a bit before dinner.  Troy left just a little early from the game to also beat a majority of traffic and met us up at the park with dinner.  He got McDonalds, which kind of scared me because last summer when we tried giving them some food from there, they showed no interest.  Of course I wasn't too bummed that they didn't like it because I don't want it to be something they always want, but today they ate it up.  And hey, a "fun" birthday dinner from McDonald's isn't so bad, is it?  They played for more than an hour and they were pooped when we decided to head home.  Let's just say that when we put them to bed, they fell asleep very quickly.  What an awesome weekend and a wonderful day today!  

So there is our weekend wrap up.  I hope everyone enjoyed the weather outside today as much as we did.  Fingers crossed that this weather sticks around!  Spring, we are ready for you!

Vacation: Week 1

So much fun we've had this past week, especially since Christmas was just a few days ago.  Here are some updates!

On Christmas Eve, my parents came over to spend the night with us.  On our agenda was enjoying a ham dinner, making sugar cookies, and watching a movie while staying warm with a fire.  The boys were of course excited to see Grandma and Grandpa but weren't too keen on all the "activities" we had planned.  Grandma and I ended up making the cookies ourselves.

Then, the boys were off to bed and Santa came!

Once the boys woke up, they immediately ran to the gifts that were all set up for them to play with.  And in hindsight it looks like Santa wasted a lot of time wrapping gifts this year.  The boys had no desire to open gifts - they just wanted to play with them.  Then after they found a few they really liked from the first couple they opened, they really didn't are too much about the rest.  Let's just say that I think they were a bit overwhelmed with the whole process.  All in all, they got lots of fun toys and it was awesome watching them play with them all!

Another lesson learned - do not attempt a family photo after all the gifts are opened.  After all, who wants to stop playing in order to sit and smile for a photo?!?  Not these boys!  I was a bit jealous after seeing all the cute photos all my FB and IG friends posted with their family around the tree or with another festive setting, but it is what it is, and this is what we got!

After the boys took a much needed nap, we headed to the Reaves' house to finish Christmas evening there.  Lots more fun toys and wouldn't you know that Ellis' favorite toy was one that Parker got!  I will have to keep that toy on my radar for their birthday in March!

Note the yellow transformer he wouldn't put down.  Nope, that's not his toy, it was Parker's.

Still has that transformer in his hands despite opening new gifts!

Now that they boys are older, they were quite mesmerized by the train around their tree too.  Looks like we'll have to find one next year for our tree.

It doesn' t surprise you that they don't have clothes on, does it?

The rest of the week I spent some time cleaning up the Christmas decorations and putting them away for another year.  As much as I love the holiday's, I'm also usually very ready to put them away after the month is over.  With all the snow we got, I ventured out with the boys yesterday for some fun in the snow, but since their sled was in the garage attic, we waited until today to get that out.  Since Troy is still fighting a cough, I thought it was only appropriate that I pull them around the yard.  Boy oh boy, what a feat!  I knew I wasn't in the best shape, but damn, I really need to get my ass in gear again.  Despite the gasps for air after each trip around the yard, seeing the smiles on their faces (mainly Ellis), I had to keep going.

Then it was time to make a snowman - okay, time for me to make a snowman.  They just ran around in the snow acting crazy while I built him.  When I was done though, they walked up to him and started talking to him like he was real, so that was cute!

How long will it take before they will sit still for a picture, for goodness sakes?

As for the rest of the weekend, no major plans here.  Although I feel like I should get ahead with some things on my to-do list, I'm totally slacking right now and enjoying my relaxation time.  Have a great end of 2013 everyone!