More Fun With Grandma & Bapa

Sunday I was a little bit better about taking pictures. After church we went to the arboretum, we saw flowers, plants and even some turtles.

Bapa does an excellent Darth Vader impression... but I don't remember him having a sword?

Ian loved jumping in the pool! Jason is Bapa surfing!

Swimming at the hotel pool was fun too. We went Friday night and then again on Sunday (I remembered my camera on Sunday!) The kids had a blast, and were braver then I have ever seen them in water (Yeah!)

Thanks Grandma Joani & Bapa - we had so much fun, and it was sad to see you leave.

Grandparents Day!

We were so excited to have Mike and Joani (Matt's Parents) visit us last weekend. We had so much fun with them. They got here Friday and we visited while we waited for Jason to come home from school. Then we took them out to eat some real Texas BBQ! Once we stuffed ourselves silly we took them to walk around the grounds of the Temple.

Saturday we had Jason's soccer game first thing in the morning. Funny thing about it was it was grandparents day for the league, I think Jason may have been the only kid whose grandparents traveled 1000 miles to watch him play soccer. I think they enjoyed the game, there were some highlights... Like Jason's twirling (pictured below).
We were planning on visiting the zoo, but we got rained out, we were still able to ride the train at Hermann park (it wasn't the most fun ride... too rainy). Matt showed his parents his lab, we even turned on the Laser for them. Sadly no pictures though. We just got a few pictures of the game.

I love the determined look on Jason's face. A snuggle with Grandma Joani!

The fore mentioned twirling!

Camera for Ian

Ian mentioned to me that he wanted a camera for his birthday, but being a slacker parent, it didn't happen. Good thing he's got a Grandma to keep him happy! I got my first digital camera in my 20's and Ian got his first when he turned 4! What an age we live in.

Here is Ian with his camera... it's totally kid proof, and really easy to use. Here I am taking a picture of Ian taking a picture of me (his is a little blurry, he's still has a lot to learn)!

There were a lot of pictures of Vai. I like the picture of his shadow because you can see he's holding the camera. How Sweet, he took a self portrait of him and his brother (awwwwwwwwwwww).

Ian took his camera on a walk, looks like he caught mom and dad holding hands. There were about 50 (no, I'm not exaggerating) pictures of his feet, it's his favorite subject! The last one is my shadow, and I thought it was really artistic. He took over 300 pictures in less then a week. I just posted the ones that made me smile, but he took so many cute pictures, he took pictures of his toys, his bed, our cars, his brother, his friends etc...

What's next - cell phones, iPods, portable game systems (check)?

Earth Day - Phone Books

Hope you had a good Earth day! I found this web page and thought I would share... http://www.yellowpagesgoesgreen.org/stop-yellow-pages/

It is to stop receiving the yellow and white pages. I haven't used a phone book in years! I have said so many times how I hate that a company can waste so much paper and since I don't use it it's like a company that comes and delivers trash to my door. Do you still use it? Do you really need it?

Easter Pictures: It's not too late... right!

Sally just posted some Easter pictures, so I figured it's not too late for me either. Saturday we dyed eggs, and we had some true masterpieces! It was funny, the boys were disturbed that we were going to eat their pretty creations.

Matt was proud of his eggs too!

Our funny kids were all dressed for Church when they woke us up and asked to go check their Easter baskets! Their baskets were loaded, the Easter Bunny visited New Mexico first and he brought back gifts from Grandma and Grandpa and the Schmidts!

After they hunted for eggs, they sat down and enjoyed some candy while Daddy told them what Easter was really about (the whole time Jase gave us the whole "I already know that" look.) Hmm... they really do grow up fast.

(I think Vai wants some candy too!)

Here is some video of the boys hunting for eggs... sometimes they really surprise me!

Smiles and Trash Talk

So many things to post....
We had a BIG weekend and we took tons of pictures! Here are just a few of the fun things that happened this weekend!
1) Jason had his first Soccer game
2) We dyed Easter eggs
3) We hunted for Easter Eggs
4) Ian turned 4!
5) We fed ducks and turtles (thanks for the tip Beth)!
Since I don't want to overwhelm myself, I am just going to blog 1 or 2 things at a time, so I'll start with Jason's first soccer game!
It's a good thing they don't keep score! It doesn't matter who won or lost because the kids had fun. Jason was awesome, he's not the best player but he was having the BEST time. He laughed (I'm not kidding) the whole time he was running after the ball. When all the other kids were serious and playing hard, Jason had a huge smile on his face. His smiles and laughs kept everyone on the sidelines laughing too! Em, maybe kiddy soccer games were boring because you didn't have a little person laughing maniacally as he ran around the field.

Running Happily & Proud Save

Trash Talk!!!! Oh my!

Just so happy to play!

More Cake

Hylian Shield Cake

Here is a close up of the cake, since I seem to have forgotten it in my last post.

As a general rule... you shouldn't put the picture of the item that you are trying to duplicate next to the one you made, it never looks very good, but since I know we don't have more Legend of Zelda fans out there, I figured that I would put a picture of what I was trying to recreate. I'm happy with how it turned out, and Ian got just what he wanted.

Ian's Party!!!

We celebrated Ian's Birthday today with a party with his friends. He wanted a Zelda party (big surprise). I made his shirt this morning with a picture of Link from Zelda on it! We decorated the house with swords and shields (they were our party favors). Ian had a wonderful time! I survived too (no major injuries, nothing broken, and lots of fun = success). After the party was over Ian cleaned up his room all by himself, I was going to do if for him because there was a huge mess, but he did it all without even being asked! I have a very special, very funny, and very lovable almost 4 year old!

Here he is showing off his sword skills.... Notice the new shirt!

My Shield and Sword Decor... too bad I gave them away, I kinda dig it.

My goof ball, he really liked his Hylian Shield cake (yes, it's an exact replica)

Link always is fighting spiders, so we played pin the hourglass on the black widow.

Our friends! Marian, Lucy, Ian, Ethan, Noah, and Quinten

He had help blowing out the candles.

Opening presents, he got some really good loot!

They searched for a treasure chest... and they found Jewels.. Yummy Jewels.

So I filled the kids up with Sugar, and then sent them home with swords... hehehe.

Eggs

Here is Ian at our playgroup Easter egg hunt! He was a madman running around finding all the eggs he could!

My Texan with the Texas Bluebells!

Some Random Thoughts

So I have some thoughts kicking around in my head today, I though I would share my warped randomness with anyone who cares

- So this is weird : 2009 is a year for Holiday Birthdays for us! Ian's birthday is April 12th and this year April 12th is on EASTER! Jason's Birthday is Nov. 26th and this year November 26th is THANKSGIVING. What are the odds of that happening? Both my kids have birthdays near moving holidays and this year it hits them both. I was trying to figure out the odds, but since I don't have a calendar to tell me when the spring equinox happens each year, I can't figure it out. UPDATE: I did a little (okay lots) of research- The next time is will happen will be in 2093!!!

- Grateful: So we were leaving a restaurant this weekend, and I noticed those restaurant high-chairs, and I couldn't be more grateful that I never have to put my child into one of those truly disgusting things ever ever again!!! Yuck!

- When will I learn: When will I get it through my hard head that movies made from books are never ever as good as the book, even if it's a decent movie, it still can't compare, and then half the time they take away the charm that makes the book special. I just finished Marley and Me and hurried to redbox... yep, a total disappointment. Sure it may have been a cute movie, had I not read the book, but I don't know if I would have even watched the movie if I didn't read it first. I still probably didn't learn my lesson, I'm sure I'll get my hopes up again for the next movie that rolls around.

'Practice' Practice

Tomorrow is the first day of soccer practice for Jason, so tonight we put on his soccer gear and had a practice practice. Jason was so excited to put on his "chin-guards"! Just after a few seconds Ian ran outside excited to play soccer too. Athletics has never come naturally to Jason, but he was a quick leaner and very eager to please. Ian was quite good, he could dribble and pass the ball without any instruction, and he was listening to every piece of advice for Jason and picked up on them. Now if he could just remember that he can't touch the ball with his hands! (Maybe, he'll be a goalie)

Here are the boys trying to score goals, you can see who controlled the ball! It was really fun to watch them play. I am excited to see Jason at practice, and I can't wait to see him in uniform!