Throwback Thursday + Brothers

We found LOTS of good pictures while cleaning out Marsha’s apartment. I posted a few of the best ones. The Facebook comments were all basically “WOW! That’s Owen!” 🙂

School pics from 1981-1983. Always in blue. Always matching. 🙂

Kind of blue and still matching. #unearthedtreasures #theboyshateme (Rob commented that they probably even had the same underwear.)

 

Katie’s last 3rd birthday party!

We celebrated Katie’s birthday at the Ramada again this year. She didn’t want to go in the pool, though—choosing the playground instead.

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Of course Owen wanted to swim!

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Caught mid-jump!

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She finally decided she wanted to swim!

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We FINALLY got her to jump in the pool again!

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Owen also received a few gifts…Papa and Grannie gave him a roll of quarters to use in the hotel game room!

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He shared his quarters with his sister!

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A great time was had by all…

Birthday dinner, cake, and presents!

Even though we went to Red Robin this past weekend to celebrate Owen’s birthday… AND I took him a Five Guys burger on his birthday at school… We still went out to eat for his birthday dinner! 🙂 (Yeah, we like going out to eat.) 🙂 We tried a new pizza place that’s close to us and it wasn’t too bad. I’m actually getting sick of pizza so I had a Stromboli which was pretty good. And Katie was introduced to the Parmesan shaker. 🙂

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When we got home we Skyped with Grandma Marsha and Uncle Rob, sang happy birthday, ate cake, and opened presents.

Then I gave Owen his gift certificate for the Magic School Bus monthly experiments. Before he opened it I explained it was from mom and dad, Gramma Jean and Grandpa David, and Papa and Grannie—and I was sure he’d be over the moon!! And of course he couldn’t have cared less, LOL. He just couldn’t understand that it meant 12 new experiments (like the volcano he just did) and kept looking at the paper like Aaaand?! I kept trying to explain it and I think he finally started to get an idea…but he probably won’t fully get it until the packages start arriving (it should be mid-month).

Things never turn out as you expect when kids are involved. 🙂

Hair Brushing

Grandma got Katie some ponies that come with their own brushes to brush their huge manes and tails. Well, Katie immediately took to brushing her own hair with it…as well as anyone else who would let her. Tonight, she wanted HER hair brushed and I was busy reading with Owen, so Uncle Rob took over. 🙂

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And then she wanted to brush his hair which was a bit more difficult. 🙂

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Christmas with Grandma Marsha and Uncle Rob!

We celebrated Christmas this morning because Owen was home from school…due to ongoing constipation issues (he had been heavily medicated but NOTHING was happening and I hadn’t wanted to send him to school just in case).

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She LOVED her princess tutu, crown, and wand! After about 10 minutes, we were all tired of the wand because it lit up AND made noise! (The crown lights up, too, but thankfully doesn’t make noise!)

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Uncle Rob helped Owen with the Legos after Owen got stuck and I tried and gave up. 🙂

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CHUCK E. CHEESE!!

Owen has wanted to go to Chuck E. Cheese for quite some time now. Neither Tom nor I wanted to go because the food really sucks and it’s just a money pit. So, we told Owen that he could go when Uncle Rob came down (that way it would be seen as a super special treat and he wouldn’t ask us to go all the time). He was actually very good about being patient—it’s probably been over a year that we’ve been telling him this.

So when we learned that Grandma Marsha and Uncle Rob were going to be here this week, Owen knew what was going to happen! And boy was he exited!

Me: So who’s all going to Chuck E. Cheese?
Owen: Me and Uncle Rob.
Me: Just you and Uncle Rob? Not daddy?
Owen: No! Daddy, too. But not Grandma or you or Katie. Just the three boys!

The plan was to take separate cars to see Santa and then the boys would go to the restaurant and the girls would go home. I figure why get Katie excited about it when she really didn’t care to start with. I did, however, make Tom promise to take pictures. 🙂

These are the two pics Tom texted me.

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I really really hoped he had taken more than that…and he had! 🙂 I saw these when he got home.

His $45 “prize”—a Dory fish from Finding Nemo.

Yes, they spent about $45 total on food, drinks, and games…and he only got a trinket worth about 49¢. It was a great lesson…we asked him if he’d rather have the little fish or a big Lego set. He obviously choose the Lego set. He was surprised that he could have had something so big instead of something so small. We said it was okay to go and play games and have fun, but it was really expensive so that’s why it was a super special treat that we didn’t do very often. He said from now on he’d rather have the Legos. 🙂

Santa Visit (Fail) 2014

I didn’t want to wait in any long lines so after requesting advice from a local facebook group, we decided to visit the Santa at the new Gander Mountain. Both kids hadn’t been able to stop talking about seeing Santa and they were SUPER excited leading up to the day…until we actually saw him, at which point neither kid wanted ANYTHING to do with him. Owen hid in a clothes rack and Katie begrudgingly got carried up by daddy. (And this is precisely why I didn’t want to spend any amount of time waiting in a line.)

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This was their best shot. Not too bad. It was actually neat—they took the picture with an iPad and then emailed it to you right then and there.

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After Katie was done, Owen decided he wanted to try again…so we tried to get them both on Santa’s lap. Ha. Ha ha. This time, Owen was pretty good, but Katie was still being a poop. This is the best one they got.

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This was the best one I managed to get. Good times!

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Then they had a green screen photo shoot and this is the background Owen picked:

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Then the girls headed out to Target while the boys went on their super special trip to Chuck E. Cheese!!

Our last night at Gramma and Grandpa’s house

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After the group photo, he commandeered the tripod to use as a cannon…and then actually as a tripod and was pretending to take pictures.

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Sitting by the fire!

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Not a bad spur of the moment family picture!

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Making s’mores!

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Eating s’mores—or in Katie’s case, eating the chocolate bar off the graham cracker.

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Kaliseum, Day 2

Since we had the time, Tom took the kids back to Kalkaska to the Kaliseum for another day of swimming with Uncle Rob and Grandma Marsha! (I stayed back and went to a Parade of Gardens and lunch with my mom!)

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This is how she’d navigate the water when it was too deep for her.

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Heading up for the waterslide! He hadn’t wanted to go on it the last time, but then was sad he didn’t do it…so he was excited to go back so he could try again.

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Unfortunately, it didn’t happen, and he came back down within a minute (the time stamps on both photos are 1:06pm). Oh well.

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Fire, Fireworks & Stones

Gramma Jean wanted to try out her new fire pit…so we all headed outside. The kids loved running around and of course Owen had to get out his new water gun. 🙂

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Uncle Rob was nice enough to go in and fill up the water gun…but surprised Owen by shooting him! It’s blurry but I love Owen’s body!

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She stayed pretty far from the fire once daddy yelled at her for getting too close. 🙂

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Watering Gramma’s flowers.

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Smoke bombs! They certainly didn’t last as long as I remembered them to…

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Katie liked the pooping dog—except for the popping and crackling at the end.

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In addition to Katie’s first fireworks (MUCH earlier than Owen’s first fireworks!), she also got her first sparkler. She was okay with it…but not thrilled.

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And then we all went out to the front yard looking for Petoskey stones in the landscaping.

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Guys Gone Shootin’

I forgot to post this on the 15th.

David, Tom, Rob, and Papa went shooting today before Katie’s party. Tom wanted to test out his new gun, David is always game to go, Rob was eager to join, and my dad thought it sounded good, too! I wasn’t going so I made sure Tom took a few pictures! 🙂

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Tom’s target:

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Katie’s pool and pizza birthday party.

Unfortunately, Gramma Jean was sick so she didn’t make it to the party—and we didn’t get a group picture—but Grandpa David, Grauntie Marge, Grandma Marsha, Uncle Rob, Grannie Lin, and Papa were all there! Even our dear friend Paul stopped by!

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He bonked his nose diving in the shallow water.

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Katie was having a blast splashing EVERYONE. We kept trying to redirect her to splash Owen but she kept coming back to us.

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Tom turned the water on and she stuck her foot right in!

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She has no fear—she jumped right into Tom’s arms!

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She loved daddy pushing her around the pool!

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Owen was not comfortable in the big pool and stuck to the steps and the side of the pool. He would NOT go out any farther, even though we showed him it wasn’t any deeper AND Grannie promised to hold him tight. Eventually, after maybe 30 minutes, he FINALLY let go…and of course had fun racing with daddy and Katie!

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And then it was time for the party! Grannie Lin and Papa bought all the plates/decorations, the cake and cupcakes, and the pizza—and brought Burger King crowns for both kids!

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Grandpa David would put a cheeze ball on Tom’s beer and Katie would eat it off. We did this a handful of times.

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Papa and Grannie had bought this scooter for Owen for his birthday but then they weren’t able to come visit…so they brought it now, but he’s just a bit over the recommended weight limit so it went to Katie instead. You can see she liked being pushed on it. 🙂

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But then we let Owen try it, just to see if he’d like it and would maybe want a bigger scooter for himself. He did like it, and Katie took to running in front of him saying “WATCH OUT! WATCH OUT!” to clear his path. 🙂

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Then it was back to the house where it wasn’t long before the kids were ready to crash. A good day!

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A Wet Day in Kalkaska

We took the kids to the Kalkaska Kaliseum for open swim. Owen was there last year (and I wasn’t) so this year we ALL went. 🙂 Grandma Marsha came to watch and Uncle Rob came with us in the afternoon (as did Papa and Grannie, who happened to be in Kalkaska meeting people for dinner).

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Katie had no fear of the water and kept wanting to go into the 3′ deep section (which is, of course, over her head). She’d hang on to the edge or bounce up and down to keep her head above water. Or Tom would hold her and she’d do this. 🙂

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Owen likes to float (he’s about two inches above the bottom here).

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Back to Grandma Marsha’s for lunch…and a nap before the next open swim time.

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Grannie and Papa were arriving and the kids were excited to see them!

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Fish hatchery and fishing!

We wanted to introduce Katie to the fish hatchery—and I wanted to see Owen enjoy it (since I didn’t go last year when Tom and Marsha took him)…so our big group came in and asked if we could all get in on the free family admission coupon my mom had…and the guy joked that we were a circus and I said YOU HAVE NO IDEA. 🙂 He let us all in for free, so we bought five bags of food and planned to take Owen fishing…

Katie was fascinated and REALLY wanted to go in the water—so someone had to keep a hand on her most of the time. Owen had fun, too, but couldn’t wait to go fishing!

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Owen loved fishing—but who wouldn’t, when it only takes a matter of seconds to catch one! We let him catch five (you pay by the inch) and he had fun with each one!

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Katie thought she wanted to see the fish…until she saw them and then that was it.

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Owen thought he wanted to hold one…until Tom held one out. 🙂

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The family—and Owen with his catch!

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Owen’s first fireworks!

We have been wanting to try some low-key fireworks with Owen for awhile now and just haven’t gotten around to it. I’ve had sparklers for a year now—planning on using them on July 4th or after a party or something—but again, we just never got around to it. Until now.

We went to the local fireworks outlet and asked for the kiddie section and they were having a B1G1 free sale so we ended up with a bunch of little stuff.

And Owen LOVED it. LOVED IT. And everyone loved watching him! We only used half of the stuff tonight so we have one more night’s worth coming up. (And when I say a night’s worth, I mean about 10-15 minutes max, which includes sparkler time.) We made sure Katie was in bed so we could concentrate fully on Owen and not have to worry about Katie… She’ll be out for the second night.

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The lady said the ones we got would go “telephone pole height” at most. She was right. 🙂

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And I found my pooping dog! I had seen it on Facebook and loved it—and thought the kids would, too. I was thrilled they had it at the store! (And yes, Owen LOVED it.)

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Happy Easter 2014!

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So Owen was up early with Tom as usual and told Tom that there was an R2-D2 downstairs. That’s one of the “eggs” we hid, and Tom knew he hadn’t been downstairs so was perplexed as to how he knew about it. So he had a talk with him about lying. But Owen claimed he wasn’t lying so Tom finally said “Okay, show me.” And Owen took him to the landing which overlooks the entryway…and part of the toy room where Katie’s changing station is…where Tom had, in fact, placed an R2-D2 on the corner in plain sight!! Mr. Eagle Eyes strikes again!!

Then, surprisingly, when we headed downstairs, he completely missed the egg on the windowsill on the landing…Katie actually saw it as she was coming down (in video).

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Owen sharing his eggs with Katie because we warned him not to grab all the eggs before she could see them!

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He loved the R2-D2 containers!

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She found about three eggs and then she was done—she was opening them and eating the candy as fast as she could!

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We tried to get a double bunny ear picture but it wasn’t happening. This was all we got. 🙂

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She wanted her bubbles right away!

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Dinosaur apron from Grannie Lin!

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Chocolate bunny and Lego from Grandma Marsha and Uncle Rob!

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Some of the eggs had barrettes and hair ties for Katie! She’s putting one on her wrist here.

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Owen REALLY LOVED his chick!

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Both kids ate a package of the Despicable Me gummies Grandma Marsha sent!

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“Open please daddy?”

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Now watch me as I try to shove all four eggs in my mouth at once!

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This is daddy laughing at how piggy Katie is being.

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A full mouth!

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“Bunny!!!”

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The aftermath!

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You can see her hoarding her Robins Eggs. 🙂

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Overall it was a great success! I think they missed a few eggs so they’ll find them throughout the day. And while candy and chocolate was their pre-breakfast snack, they didn’t do too badly!

Poppers & Fire Snakes

Tom bought some little firework-type stuff to show Owen…and also to hopefully desensitize him to those noises.

The poppers bothered him at first, but then he got right into it and loved it!

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Then it was time for the snakes! He thought they were cool, too…and called them fire snakes and poop snakes (since they really quite look like poop when they’re done). And then of course he was being a ham.

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And then more poppers with Uncle Rob…

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Missiles!

Grandma Marsha bought Owen some Captain America missiles so Uncle Rob and daddy took him out to play before dinner. Grandma and Katie came out to watch.

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A one-in-a-million photo: Grandma Marsha looking at the camera with her eyes open and nothing blocking her face! And as a bonus, Katie is ALSO looking at the camera with her eyes open! 🙂

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Overnight and the Kaliseum

Tom took Owen to stay at Grandma Marsha’s overnight and they went to the Kaliseum. Why does Kalkaska have something like this and Jacksonville doesn’t?!

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Owen was having fun playing with the other kids and then even went down this big waterside by himself!! Twice!!

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He had a blast there! He called it a hotel, though… 🙂

They all went to Big Boy for dinner, where Owen ordered his own hot dog dinner!

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During dinner…

Owen: Guess what?
Uncle Rob: What?
Owen: Not you, I am asking your mother!

And then had ice cream back at Grandma’s.

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And Uncle Rob tried to sleep with Owen, but Owen told him “No, Uncle Rob, this bed is my size.” 🙂

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Dinner in Traverse City

We took Grandma Marsha and Uncle Rob out for dinner to Traverse City and we picked Harrington’s On The Bay. It was quite yummy—and while Owen was really good, Katie was pretty good but got a bit antsy/squawky towards the end. Owen was a MUCH better diner than Katie is so far…but she’s a MUCH better eater (tonight she ate calamari, French fries, asparagus, filet mignon, yogurt, and chocolate cake).

Outside, after dinner:

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