Fun Zoo Day!

Our favorite things at the zoo today were: the huge grizzly bear swimming around in his pool, the baby lions, following the animal tracks painted on the sidewalks, and being there with our cousins. I asked Jackson what his favorite at the zoo was he said, "Sar-sar." Gotta love cousin Sarah! I had to change the question to favorite animal, then the answer was, "bear - schwim." When we were leaving a building along our journey he turned to me and said, "home - no, done - no." He thought that was the end and just wasn't ready to go yet.

NUMBERS: On our way to the zoo Lincoln was watching the street signs. He saw a sign that said I-44 and said, "forty-four... that's where Papa lives!" I was shocked that he knew that papa lives on 44th street - and that he recognized the number forty-four. Later as we were walking through the zoo he stopped at a sewage drain and read, "nineteen ninety-seven," very casually and then moved on. 1997?! He got it right. This kid is a numbers kid for sure. He is always counting or talking about numbers.

When everyone else had lost interest in the giraffes, zebras and ostriches Jackson asked me to stop. "Count," he said. He wanted to know how many animals were in there. He also asked me to take a picture of each one. ("bird - cheese, zebra - cheese")

Impromptu Bday Party

As I was playing with the boys this afternoon Lincoln said, "mom, let's sing my birthday song." We sang the whole "Happy Birthday to Lincoln" and then he made me a piece of pretend cake. Then he wanted to have uncle John's birthday. We sang the song again for John. As we were deciding who to sing for next Jackson said, "candles!" He had made a little cake with the roof of his Lincoln log house and candles with the little logs! SO CUTE! You can see how excited he was to participate in our little make believe land. The bottom picture is of him saying, "cool." That's what he says when referring to blowing out the candle... just like we blow on his food to cool it. The middle picture is one that Jackson took. I thought he did pretty well, even though I was scrunching down a bit hoping that he got my face in the picture!

Dinner Date

Both boys fell asleep for a late afternoon nap leaving us ALONE at dinnertime! We hardly knew what to do with ourselves. Jeff made this tasty dinner for us and I added a few little candles to help us savor this rare, if not completely unknown moment!

We'll think about the consequences of the "too close to bedtime" nap later!

St. Patrick's and Easter Combo Idea

I'm feeling all creative and silly about my Easter plans for next Sunday. We recently found out that we will be hosting, so as we were preparing a menu and thinking about how it is also St. Patrick's Day this week... I got a little crazy. This is the invitation I sent out and I plan on doing lots of green mixed in with Easter activities. I want to do a special activity that will teach the kids how the egg is a symbol of new life so that we don't forget the meaning of Easter in all of the commotion. I also want to it to be a fun day that is worth remembering.

Loving Jeff

My gratitude for a great husband has been growing lately. Let me tell you a few reasons why:

He makes everyone smile. I have no idea where he comes up with some of the crazy things he says and does, but it definitely makes me smile.

He is amazingly giving of himself. If you have any problem, he will try to help you... whether you are an old friend, family, or he just met you today.

He can take what I think of as empty cupboards and nothing in the fridge and create something like you see pictured here (YUM). If I don't have a plan, I'm pretty lost when it comes to cooking. In fact, if I don't have a plan, I'm pretty lost in general!

He makes time so that I can do things like book club, or girl's night out, or PAINT! (I did the finishing touches to the kitchen paint yesterday that have been much needed since we before we moved in!)

He works VERY hard at work (sometimes to my dismay), but I'm very proud of how much he has accomplished and he is being very well recognized for his hard work.

He is great with the kids. I love watching him play with the kids and love when the kids are so excited to be with him. Jackson has especially been asking for him lately. Every time something is nearly ready to eat, Jackson says, "wait, dad." (we need to wait for dad to eat!)

He's my Mr. Fix it. This weekend alone he fixed his bosses sprinkler, my rear view mirror (which Jackson pulled off on Friday when I ran back inside to grab my purse), the garbage disposal, and our broken shower head! This area is probably what prompted this whole post. I'm so excited to have things in working order again! I wouldn't even know where to begin doing most of these things.

I'm so lucky to have such an amazing guy to call my own! Love you Jeff!

2 year old genius

There is a vent in the ceiling of our living room that has gotten dusty and it has been bothering me for some time. I've gone out to the garage several times to get the ladder so that I could clean it, but found that it was back behind some things that would take some struggle to move (including moving the car out of the garage). One day this week I decided it was worth all of the struggle and I said, "boys, who wants to help me go and get the ladder so that we can clean that vent?"

Jackson replied, "BROOM!"

Now why didn't I think of that? We used the broom and it took less than a minute!