We’re not putting up the pool this summer (since we’ll be leaving halfway through) so we make do…
And then this happened. I love this kid.
Category Archives: Tom
Sibling Fun + Happy Birthday Grandma Marsha
Then Katie wanted up.
They don’t always get along. 🙂
But he can be so good with her.
Then Skyping with Grandma Marsha for her birthday!
And singing!
First sprinkler fun of the season!
After yesterday’s water fun, we told the kids they could play outside in the water again since it was going to be nice—they just had to wait until after Katie’s nap. This was actually Katie’s first ever time in a sprinkler—and of course she LOVED it!
All three kids waiting to go outside! (Later, the cats were both sitting at the door!)
I didn’t really want to get wet, so I ran inside to get my telephoto lens. Ahhhh, much better!
It was at this point that Owen accidentally broke the sprinkler—he was attempting to jump over it but instead landed right on it. He wasn’t hurt but we told him that he had to be careful. Then Tom went over and determined that yes, it really was broken, so he turned the water off so he could unhook it while he went to look for a new sprinkler. And Owen lost his shit. He started crying and screaming uncontrollably. We tried to get him to tell us what was wrong (Was he really hurt? Was he mad at Tom? Was he just upset the water was turned off?) but he wouldn’t even quiet down enough to hear anything we were saying. We assured him he wasn’t in trouble and that it was an accident but he just wouldn’t settle down. We had about 10 minutes of what you see below. Tom did find another sprinkler and hooked it up and Katie kept trying to get Owen to come over to it, but he was still being a poop. It took another 10 minutes or so before he was finally back in the groove.
Someone loved playing in the mud puddles created by the sprinkler! 🙂
Helping daddy and getting wet!
It was a nice night so we were outside. After Katie got in some swinging and Owen fought some bad guys, they helped daddy fertilize:
And then I went in the house for something and came out to this! 🙂
Daddy would love that!
Tom was out in the field so I suggested we take a picture to send him. Owen said “Yes! Daddy would love that!”
Sesame Street Live 2014
A quick family selfie before heading in to the theater.
Katie sees the decorated Sesame Street semi and is pointing to Elmo!
Two more spinny toys!
Owen bumped me as I was taking a no-flash photo so with the slow shutter speed I got this awesome shot!
Katie was perfectly happy sitting on daddy’s lap!
Some of it was a little loud for Owen, but overall he did really well and wasn’t bothered by it. (Which is awesome since when we tried this two years ago, he lasted about two minutes.) Katie never even flinched at ANY of the noise!
Katie watched a lot of the show like this!
They revolved the set pieces…
…turning it into Sesame Street! The little girl muppet’s name was Katie! 🙂
Dancing!
Our seats—quite a bit different than the up-front row we had before, but it worked out just fine as it wasn’t quite as loud.
Looking excitedly at the Sesame Street sign as we were waiting our turn to take pictures!
All of a sudden Owen went from super happy to super cranky when we needed to take the picture.
Oh well. Katie was happy!
So a good time was had by all! I’m glad Owen got to enjoy it after missing out on it the last time, I’m glad Tom was able to go with us, and I’m glad Katie was amazing and just sat/stood on Tom’s lap the entire time! (Afterwards Owen said he was sad that the characters didn’t come up to him—a few of the characters came down the aisles about six rows during one song—and we told him they just didn’t have the time to come see everyone! Poor kid.)
A walk with daddy
Tom had today off so he took Owen to school…and then later we went on a walk! After she stepped in every small puddle, sat in the dirt and played with acorn tops (they fit perfectly on her fingers), handed said tops to daddy to take home, and watched the ducks…she got a shoulder ride to the top of the hill!
Happy Easter 2014!
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).
Owen sharing his eggs with Katie because we warned him not to grab all the eggs before she could see them!
He loved the R2-D2 containers!
She found about three eggs and then she was done—she was opening them and eating the candy as fast as she could!
We tried to get a double bunny ear picture but it wasn’t happening. This was all we got. 🙂
She wanted her bubbles right away!
Dinosaur apron from Grannie Lin!
Chocolate bunny and Lego from Grandma Marsha and Uncle Rob!
Some of the eggs had barrettes and hair ties for Katie! She’s putting one on her wrist here.
Owen REALLY LOVED his chick!
Both kids ate a package of the Despicable Me gummies Grandma Marsha sent!
“Open please daddy?”
Now watch me as I try to shove all four eggs in my mouth at once!
This is daddy laughing at how piggy Katie is being.
A full mouth!
“Bunny!!!”
The aftermath!
You can see her hoarding her Robins Eggs. 🙂
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!
Woooow x 2
We took the kids down the fish aisle at Walmart…and both of their reactions were “Woooow!” 🙂
I really hope we have a good spot for a small aquarium at our next house (we already own it).
It’s my bed!
When I was with Owen in the bathroom getting his teeth brushed, I saw Tom sneak by into Owen’s room, turn off the light, and shut the door. I wasn’t quite sure what he was planning, so I started recording. 🙂
I love hearing him laugh!! Especially as lately he’s been having a rough time…he worries when we’re out of his sight, he wants to know where we are in the house, most of the time he’ll come running (and crying) if he looks for us and doesn’t immediately see us…
And bedtime is the worst. He’s always been a great sleeper—but recently he’s been crying at bedtime, getting up out of bed to come find us, etc. We’ve asked if something happened to make him worry more and he says no… We feel bad, but it gets old.
So anyway, it’s nice hearing his laugh at bedtime. Except afterwards when it was really bedtime, he started getting scared. Tonight it was monsters. So I layed his B on top of him and tucked it all around him, telling him it was magic and would protect him from everything. He liked that…
And he promised to be brave…
Family time at the park!
Tom has a 96 (Friday through Monday off) so we took the kids to the park.
This is as high as he’d go.
“Daddy, how high can you go?” Tom pretty much just jumped straight to the top. 🙂
Tom wanted to help Owen but Owen was freaked out and wanted NO part of it.
After swinging on the toddler swing and the big kid swing, she wanted to try this one.
For some unknown reason, Owen is way more freaked out about slides than when he was little. This was his second time down—after he made me catch him the first time.
On the pole again!
Daddy’s Hat
I had hoped she’d come closer but she didn’t so I had to crop—hence the graininess.
The best I could do with the limited apps (and my limited skill) on the phone. In the original his face was so dark you couldn’t see much.
Thank you, Papa!
The cookies were appreciated by all!
(The rest of the package is being saved until Easter!
Agnes and Camel reunited at last!
This should have been posted way back on February 1… The gnome that I bought from a Tivo friend (who pulled an epic prank on a friend and as a result had a few gnomes to sell) was finally reunited with the gnome that was sent to Tom in Afghanistan. 🙂
When Owen saw them together he said “Is that mom and dad?” 🙂
A new way to fry turkey
Tom got a smaller—electric—deep fryer for our turkeys. We just don’t use the big one enough anymore. It was delicious.
Sad wall.
This was Tom’s major project today…getting rid of the four-color accent wall.
He even had a helper!
Farmer’s market, a helmet, and the Easter Bunny!
She likes it up there—and it keeps her from wandering!
Coloring at the farmers market! Do you see that “YES” by Owen? He did that…starting with the S and working backwards!
She pretty much just sat there the whole time scribbling while mostly people watching!
Walmart! Someone got a new bike helmet!
We also got Katie her own pink Radio Flyer trike—stay tuned for pics of that!
We then lucked out and ran into the Easter Bunny! Owen refused, but Katie was excited! Her first Easter Bunny pic! It only took me 12 shots to get this perfect one (in about a minute)!
Fun on daddy’s shoulders
And running around with daddy!
I’m going to miss our deck and yard.
We are surely not going to get a deck like we have now—that opens to a huge back yard with a cool playset…
Hopefully we’ll get something just as good, but different…
Daddy told her no.
She LOVES shoes!
Even daddy’s shoes that are half her size! 🙂
Katie in a basket
Tom put Katie in here and of course she loved it!
To be blunt, it sucked.
We didn’t have a good night on the bed. Tom is in gray; I’m blue.
Bed Switcheroo
So, they’re coming to pick up our bed tomorrow…and the new bed won’t be here for a few weeks so we had to do a bit of a bed switcheroo.
Owen has a Queen (only because that’s just how it worked out over the years—that’s what we had available) so we figured we’d use that and he would get a new Twin (what he should really have anyway).
The pros are that it gives him a lot more space in his room and it will look good for staging purposes…but the cons are all the money we’ve sunk into Queen bedding (quilt, sheet sets, mattress pad cover, bed skirt) and having to buy him all new Twin bedding.
I took him shopping with me and there wasn’t much to choose from at Marshall’s, Ross, or BB&B—so he ended up with a comforter set very similar to what he had.
I feel bad because Target would likely have had superheroes or Star Wars…but he was tired of shopping. And I wanted it today vs. ordering from Amazon. And I failed to plan ahead.
So…in order to move the Queen into our room, we had to take down our King headboard/frame and put it in storage—and that thing is a BEAST (poor Tom). Then Tom set up a regular bed frame (which we happened to have) and brought in the mattress and box springs. And moved our nightstands in a bunch because they were obviously placed for the King.
The pros? The room looks bigger and will be good for staging purposes. We’re not sleeping on an air mattress.
The cons? We get to move it all back when the new bed gets here! And we have to try and sleep on a Queen until then—OHMYGOD I miss my space already and we haven’t even slept on it yet. Both of us were like “Is there even a bed here?” because we can lean across the bed and touch hands. (We did fine in a Queen on vacation but it was only for a week…and it was vacation. This is real life.)
We’re seriously contemplating selling the behemoth King frame—even though it’s only about eight years old—but it sucks because it was EXPENSIVE and of course we’d still want a different (though smaller) one.
So Owen had obviously seen his new bed (we even let him pick out the mattress—and of course he picked out the cushy $199 one vs. the $99 one!) but when he actually got in it for the first time, he said “Wow, this is a small bed. There’s only room for one person!” 🙂
So I hope the return/bed pickup goes well tomorrow and I hope we can sell the beastly frame…and I hope our new bed gets here on the short end of 3-4 weeks!
How we relax as a techie family.
Or really, how we get 20 or so minutes without the kids pestering us for something and letting us rest…
Owen’s watching the iPad Mini, Katie’s watching the Kindle Fire, and Tom is watching the Roku on the TV…I guess I could use my iPhone or the iPad if I wanted to join the group. 🙂
Katie helps change the sheets.
She’s just as useful as the cats are. 🙂
And then she was doing gymnastic-type movements which of course stopped the second I started recording…but I got this:
Bounce bounce!
We went over to Mitchell’s for Virginia’s birthday and the kids loved the trampoline!
Caught in mid-air:
Daddy does the bouncing:
Katie saw this bike and wanted it and made a beeline for it. Of course she couldn’t reach the pedals but she had fun sitting on it and being pushed in it.
Both kids had A BLAST running around the big yard and getting on and off and on and off the trampoline. Virginia held Katie while they bounced and I think she liked that the best!
The kids got to stay up WAY past their bedtime because they were having SO much fun (and because we were visiting)…
Life-size Candyland!
The city held a Life-Size Candyland Adventure and as soon as I saw it advertised a month or so ago, I signed us up! Since we don’t live in the city, it cost $7.50 instead of $5, but ALL of us got to play! 🙂 Owen was VERY excited about it, and kept pestering us all morning because he thought we were going to miss it.
You had to arrive 15 minutes early to be sure you were there for your scheduled start time. In that 15 minutes, there were two games to play (ring toss and peanut toss), a coloring station, a Froot Loop necklace station, and a build-an-airplane out of sticks of gum, lifesavers, and a roll of smarties. 🙂
Both kids tried the ring toss, and Katie actually got one! (Owen went back to play this one about 15 times, taking turns with other kids who wandered up.)
They also liked the peanut toss—Owen was actually pretty good and Katie had fun walking up to the basket to put them in. 🙂
Notice Owen’s style! Vaguely reminiscent of his frisbee style… 🙂
Post-cereal-stringing…Owen didn’t want to wear it, so Katie did! (And you can see her holding the candy plane.)
Here’s about what the plane looked like:
Now, even though I honestly didn’t know what to expect, it was a little less exciting (?) than I expected on first glance—I had hoped it would look MUCH MORE like an actual Candyland board. But after thinking about it, how much can you really do on an (I’m guessing) limited budget…?
So here’s the board (click for a bigger picture)! They used activity mat squares for the path—which was a good idea, except you don’t get all the colors of the board.
We all got gingerbread numbers to hang around our neck. Then they had someone calling out our numbers and then telling us what card we drew (one red, two yellows, etc.). While it worked fine, I would have liked it better (it would have been more like the real game) if they somehow showed us what the card was and WE had to decipher what it was. (They did have 11×17 sheets with the actual squares on them, so they could have…?) But I’m guessing all the shortcuts were for the sake of timing as each group has to be done in 15 minutes. Which I’m guessing is also why there were no pink candy cards. (But the pink candy cards are what make Candyland CANDY LAND…but I digress.)
So we had just barely started when another group of people joined us. I’m not sure what happened…if they were supposed to be with us to start but were late or what…but we had three more kids join us. It was okay and obviously we all still had fun, but I honestly would have liked it just a bit better if it had just been us. (Their kids were super annoying, one was really young and had NO idea how to play, and they got in the way of my pictures!)
Owen got a double green and jumped almost to the end (though, honestly, he went three greens but it was too much of a hassle to correct it and no one else seemed to notice or care).
Then someone else joined him!
Then another! How exciting! A three-way tie right at the very end!
Then Owen and another girl were tied on the very last square…
Then Owen won! No picture because they hurriedly called out the rest of the numbers to finish the game so everyone was crowded around getting their bags of candy. Then we were shuffled off to take a survey and that was it!
They had a very nice playground outside and it was a gorgeous day so we let the kids play for awhile.
Katie was SO proud she learned how to get down this way:
The best pics from the video:
And then I looked over and Katie was going down a big slide all by herself! No hesitation, no screeching, nothing. And loving it!
Daddy took Owen Bowling
The people from Special Needs Baseball planned a bowling outing so Owen picked Tom to take him. I got this text from Tom:
Your son is a ham.
And then Tom posted on Facebook that Owen got a strike! Tom had taken a succession of pictures and while you can see the pins being knocked down, Owen’s stance NEVER changes. 🙂
Happy boys!
Owen’s bowling style:
And his final score! He did better than I ever did at that age!
Tom said Owen had a blast! I guess bowling may soon be a family event! 🙂
Throwback Thursday—Tom’s Dinner
The first dinner Tom cooked for me—a week after we met in February 1997—at my mom’s house in Grayling. I drove over from Traverse and he drove up from MSU. Neither one of us can remember what he cooked (it looks like maybe chicken?) but I’m laughing at three types of alcohol on the table.
