zoo with grandma

of course we had to take grandma to the zoo!  i thought about taking her to the cleveland zoo, but after our trip there with nana i think that it is a better warm weather zoo.  so we stayed close to home and took our lunch up to the akron zoo.  and there were all kinds of new (to us) things to check out with the slightly warming weather!  mason was feeling pretty adventurous because he ran right up to pose in the penguin cut-outs for a picture.  i thought that he did a pretty good job getting his head in there all by himself.

i told madelyn that she looked like a princess in a castle.

mason checking out the condor wings (you will have to go to the end of the post to see madelyn's turn - i couldn't get it to move up here).

mason did the whole bridge on his knees and i just thought that it looked funny - like he didn't have any legs.

the highlight of this trip to the zoo (besides having grandma with us) was that the carousel was open!  usually, we just peek at it through the awnings covering it up for the winter.  it was still on the cold side for a ride, but we couldn't resist!  madelyn and mason were very, very excited.  madelyn was just tall enough to ride by herself.  mason was so excited and terrified at the same time.  he was holding very still, but trying to smile.  maddux and i watched.  the videos show how he warmed up to it.  the first few times around he would smile or wave, but he got closer and closer to waving and by the end i got a few smiles and waves.

another new (to us) part of the zoo was the little 'farm'.  mason was really happy to see (and respectful of) the goats and sheep.

even maddux got the attention of a goat.

leaving after a fun day at the zoo with grandma!

happy birthday to me

it's my birthday, but the kids got the presents!  grandma arrived from florida this morning and brought a suitcase of goodies for the kiddos (even though she said she wasn't bringing that much).

i dropped madelyn off at school where she took a field trip to the retirement community across the street to visit and sing some songs (she said they sang rudolph the red nosed reindeer which seemed a little odd but sounded like she had a good time).  while she was in school, mason, maddux and i went to the airport to get grandma.

and then it was back to school to get madelyn.  we went to the kids' (and my) favorite lunch spot - chick-fil-a.  since it was a special occasion, i let the kids have ice cream.  you can see from the video that mason has very little experience with eating ice cream - poor kid - which is part of the reason i had to take some video.  he gets the smallest amount of ice cream humanly possible on his tongue and quickly pulls it away.  it was just so funny.  he would get upset that it was dripping and get upset when i would lick off the melting ice cream for him to stop the dripping.


after lunch we stopped by the apartment so that grandma could unload her bounty.  the kids were very spoiled!  and i got a little something too.

once matt got home we braved the snow (yes, snow) to go up the street to cracker barrel for my birthday feast.  grandma thought that it was pretty crazy to be out in the snow since it was in the 80s when she left florida.  i loved it because it was a beautiful 'wet' snow that stuck to everything!  it was so pretty.

i don't know why i picked cracker barrel for my birthday.  i guess i just got chicken fried steak into my head and it was close to the apartment.  we had a nice dinner and grandma arranged for me to be mortified by having the staff sing to me.  i feel uncomfortable being the center of attention and hate the "happy birthday" singing part of my birthday.  worse was that when they came to sing matt and the kids were in the bathroom, so i asked them to come back because the kids would enjoy their singing more than i would.  and they did.

my birthday pineapple upside down cake was delicious!  and mason really liked having some of daddy's chocolate cake and ate it with his hands.

the kids sported some new jammies from grandma at bed time and they were pretty cute because they were so overly excited!

matt is getting me the kitchen i want in our new house for my birthday (and an i.o.u. for an ipad - long story).  it was a nice day and i received a lot of thoughtful cards from my friends and family which really helped to make me feel special.  love.

easter craft

this is our latest easter craft.  they are three dimensional 'eggs'.  first we decorated the paper, then drew, cut, traced, and cut out ovals.  madelyn drew and cut her own ovals (on the left) and mason drew the oval in the middle (on the right) all by himself.  i did the cutting for him, but he drew a pretty perfect oval.  they aren't really easter colored because we are just working with the craft supplies we have already - and madelyn loves red which means that mason does too.  love.

holding maddux

sharing to fighting in three photos

boy bonding

mason loves it when he can get nice and close to maddux.  he was trying to give maddux all of his toy balls to hold and was just tickled to death about it.  it is going to be so much fun when they share a room in our new house!  i just can't wait - for many, many reasons but this is one of the better ones. love.

and madelyn was playing in her fort while the boys were 'playing' and asked me to take her picture too.

a madelyn original

there are few moments these days where madelyn is not singing.  i have honestly started to tune it out if it is not directed towards me as part of our conversation because it is extremely repetitive most of the time.  i did notice a few catch phrases in this one that got me to pick up the camera. 

(the picture is her wearing bracelets as head bands.)

really, the best part is the look on maddux' face.  you can't really see how enraptured he is, but he was loving it!  my favorite parts are:
- "american flags all around"
- "looked out her window and saw a rainbow"

- "100 days"
- "house with the red door"
- "my little sister"
- and, of course, the bootie shake

basically she has combined all of her favorite things (except church) into a single song.  she was trying to sing the same verse every time but was loosing steam by the time i finally noticed what she was saying and got the camera. enjoy.  love.

sometimes i just don't know

mason did this to his shirt intentionally.  and he wouldn't let us fix it.  i was just trying to take a picture of his shirt sleeve pulled off (he was swinging it around), but he was using the exersaucer as a microphone and then tried to eat it.  boys...  love.

spring crafts

nana gave me a book of easter crafts when she came for her visit last week.  madelyn selected a "sparkly tiara" for our project while the boys were napping.  here she is modeling our creation after taking a look in the mirror.  i am sure that there will be more to share in the coming weeks.  love.

 

hop along

madelyn was having some bonding time with maddux yesterday.

and then mason (who didn't see her jumping with maddux yesterday) did the same thing today!  although he wasn't as excited about my using the camera.  love.

happy dance

this is how mason celebrates the preparation of a meal - madelyn has gotten in on the act too.  love.

mr. independant

mason is in a very strong independent stage.  he just wants to do everything by himself.  he won't let us buckle him into the car seat unless he climbs up by himself.  he can put on his pjs.  one day he wrestled off his shoes when we got home.  he would rather miss out on eating a granola bar than let me open it for him.  he pretty much wants to at least try to do everything that we would normally do for him.
but his independence isn't rebellious in the slightest.  he is doing a wonderful job of holding hands while in parking lots and is generally a pleasure to be with while out and about.

the picture is from when he was showing me how he was able to fit all of the triangle stacking shapes together - he was very proud.  love.

bye, nana

before taking nana to the airport, we had her pose with each of the kids for a picture.

showing nana around

matt and i decided to take advantage of nana's visit to take care of getting our ohio driver's licenses and plates for the cars.  let's just say the process here doesn't exactly say, 'welcome to ohio'...

for those of you who have known us for a while, you know that we have lived in multiple states.  ohio is the first place we have had to do more than prove our residency and pay some fees before turning in our existing drivers licenses and tags.  in ohio it is different.  the dmv is not the "dmv" - it is the "bmv" (bureau of motor vehicles).  there are a lot of hoops to jump through and they are not all in the same location. 

one of those hoops was a written exam (like the kind you take at 16 to get your drivers license in the first place).  i was pretty nervous about it since we are new to the state and there are a lot of obscure laws out there.  matt insisted that it would just be common sense stuff, but i was worried.  and i was right.  there were some questions on there that pertained to state laws that we weren't familiar with and maddux was crying almost the whole time because he was hungry.  i am happy to report that we both passed.  matt had a great question - how old do you have to be to ride in the bed of a truck when the driver is 18?  the answer is 16.  that was not one matt got right.  and we both missed the one where only trucks with explosive materials are required to stop at railroad crossings - not school buses, etc.

we are still working on getting matt's car taken care of, but we have new tags on the van and new drivers licenses for matt and i.  and whatever they do to the pictures here make you look 100 times better than you did when you sat down for the picture.  i had only slept about 2 hours the night before and was still wearing yesterday's make-up (mostly under my eyes).  but the picture is the best one i have ever had!  who knew?

matt and i hurried home to get nana and the other kids so that we could go to the very hungry caterpillar story time at barnes and noble.  we made it just in time and got to make the caterpillar and it's snacks craft after the story.  madelyn and mason were pretty happy about it.  here are some pictures.

maddux missed out

i love mason's concentration while coloring.

sweet kids holding hands in the car.

we then loaded up and took nana out to see our lot and the builder's model home. next time she comes to visit (with papa?) the house will be done - or very close to done.  we gave her a driving tour of the area where our new house will be too.  we had some really great weather during her visit.  love.

romp-n-stomp

my moms group had a field trip to romp-n-stomp scheduled, so we invited nana to join us. we had not been to romp-n-stomp yet, but had been wanted to check it out. we were some of the first people there in the morning and the kids had the inflatables all to themselves for a while. here are their first slides of the day. no children were harmed in the making of this video.

[video to come later - i got tired of waiting for it to upload]

madelyn looked like this practically the entire time! she was so happy to be there and running around with other kids.



there was a nice little toddler/crawler area that mason enjoyed while he warmed up to the place. but then he was on to the bigger inflatables.



[video to come later - i got tired of waiting for this one to upload too]

the staff was great and helped the smaller kids so that parents could visit and just watch.

mason liked the obstacle course.

our time ended with a story and craft. mason was the only one sitting away from the story. this picture was of one of the few times he even looked towards the story. he did sit quietly and listen though. madelyn is near him with her back to the camera.

nana treated us to chick-fil-a lunch. and amazingly, the kids still had enough energy to run around the play area for a while too! matt and i had planned to go to dinner and have a 'date night' but we spent 3 hours with the builder instead and stopped by chipolte on our way home for a quick bite. nana watched madelyn and mason while we took maddux with us (he slept most of meeting). love.

maddux pillow

for whatever reason, madelyn decided to use maddux as a pillow.  and, much to my surprise, he thought that it was hysterical. 

by the time it occurred to me to get the camera the novelty had started to wearing off and he didn't belly laugh like he had been but i think you can tell that he likes it.  love.

anytime, anywhere

i guess maddux is going to be an easy sleeper...

 ...and can even change positions without waking himself up.

he was bouncing and talking away happily for almost an hour and then it got very quiet.  i think he slept like that for close to 30 minutes.  i think all the picture taking is actually what woke him up.  love.