Showtime at The Farm

Last night was Tyler's Barnyard Moosical, so he finally got to dress up in his farmer outfit and sing his heart out.

 Cute! He looks just like Tom Sawyer.

He said that farmers usually have a piece of straw in their mouth, so he wanted something like that to chew on, but I told him that he would be too busy singing to chew on a piece of straw.

When we got to the auditorium and saw the seating, which was not stadium, and that we'd be sitting towards the back, I knew I wouldn't be getting many photos of the show. So I went up closer and snapped this one before the show started.

During the program I tried to angle the camera in between the backs of heads and at least get video of the songs. That worked all right for awhile and then this happened....

iPad man, who had previously been standing in the aisle sat down in the left of my frame and his mother sat down to the right.  Then his guy who was sitting several rows in front of me suddenly woke up and realized he should be taking video. So he sat up real tall and held his camera in front of his face...effectively blocking my view of Tyler for the rest of the show. Well at least I could watch iPad man's monitor and still see Tyler.

After a quick 30 minutes the show was over. Ice cream anyone?

 

The Most Fun Ever

Late Sunday evening Rick pulled the trampoline out from storage and set it up in the backyard. So yesterday when Tyler got home from school he went out there to play. I brought Kyle out so we could watch from the grass and enjoy the nice weather.

Before long Tyler went back into the house to grab his foam dice that he got at a birthday party over the weekend. He started playing a game where you roll the dice and then take that many steps, unless you roll doubles, then....well he was so long winded with the rules and instructions that I can't even repeat them.

After that he came up with the idea of balancing the dice on his head while I took pictures.

Sure thing. Anything to catch that boy in the midst of his silly antics.

The next thing I knew it was my turn and Tyler was in charge of the camera.

And of course he couldn't leave his little brother out.

Who was surprisingly good at balancing, but didn't look particularly pleased about the whole thing. Annoyed much?

On to Tyler's next silly idea: Using the dice to look like crazy eyeballs.

After everybody had a turn and all the pictures were taken, Tyler declared that was the most fun he's ever had taking pictures. EVER. In his whole life.

I have to admit, it was kind of fun.

Sitting Up

Kyle will be turning 9 months old in a matter of days and he still isn't sitting up on his own. He started crawling at 8 months, so I guess sitting up will be his next milestone. He has a doctor visit coming up next week, so we'll see how he's doing in terms of growth, but in the meanwhile we've been practicing sitting him up...working on his stability.

He can last for a pretty good while, but eventually he gets distracted and topples over. Good thing brother is there to catch him.

And now that the weather has warmed up to the 70's, I've moved some of the sitting sessions outside. Kyle was so enthralled by the grass that he hardly moved a budge. He was able to sit up for a good 15 minutes or more.

Even distractions from the cat didn't cause him to lose balance and topple over.

Yep, I think we're getting somewhere.

Rhubarb Apple Pie

The April issue of Cooking Light had the most delicious looking recipe for Rhubarb Apple pie, which I've been wanting to make ever since the magazine came in the mail sometime last month. So I decided this would be the week and added all the ingredients to my weekly shopping list. But I couldn't find rhubarb at my regular grocery stores, so I made a special trip out to Safeway. For some reason they seem to have everything...even broccoli rabe. And sure enough, they had rhubarb.

Score!

The recipe calls for refrigerated pie dough, but I went ahead and made my own. I always use this recipe from The Food Network...it's my favorite.

Then I added the pie filling, piled on the streusel topping, and after 45 minutes in the oven....

Ta-da!

It came out so good! But now we're down to the last few slices. I think we might have to arm wrestle tonight to see who gets the last of it. By default I think it should go to me, but I'm not sure the boys will agree with that idea.

New Car

Whew, what a week! I feel like I've been out in left field for a few days now. With my mind off in other places I haven't even had a chance to share the news that we got  a new car last weekend.

It's true. If for no other reason, we've desperately needed a car that could handle the weather here. Namely the snow the seems to last for months at a time during the winter. So we went to the dealership and traded in Rick's old truck for a new Subaru Outback.

Rick had been looking at used cars for a while, but for the size we needed (wagon or SUV) the prices were so close to those of the new cars that he decided to go for a new one instead.

We already knew what we wanted going into the dealership, it was just a matter of finding the car with the right options and the color we liked. I was hoping for the ice silver, which is a pretty metallic silver bluish color....so pretty. Unfortunately they didn't have anything available in that color (within a 5 state radius), so we ended up going with a black one from the lot. It was literally right off the truck though. They just took the wrapping off that morning. The thing only had 5 miles on it!

Tyler had to make sure the car was comfortable...

From every position...

Including the trunk. What a goofball!

Once we decided it was a go, we headed inside to work out the details. The boys and I waited while Rick took care of the paperwork and all that fun stuff.

And before we knew it, we were driving away in our new car. So cool!

 

Old MacDonald

Tyler has a school musical/play coming up later this month that has a barnyard animal theme and he told me that he is going to be a farmer and that I need to provide the costume.

Okay.

That's not a hard costume to come up. I was thinking all he really needs is a pair of overalls, a plaid shirt and a straw hat. So off to the Goodwill I went. No luck in the overall department, but I wasn't too surprised....I mean, I never see kids his age wearing overalls anyway.

Plan B: instead of overalls, I decided to do jeans and suspenders, which I actually found a pair of mixed in with the women's belts.

And I found the perfect straw hat in the accessory bin. I think it's an adult size, but thankfully Tyler has the 'big head syndrome' like his dad, so it fits pretty well. It's a little worn around the edges, but I think that makes it even more perfect.

Tyler is going to be such a handsome farmer. Yay! I'm excited!

First Word

The books say that babies start babbling at 6 - 9 months, saying things like da-da-da, or ba-ba-ba. And even though it can sound like a word, the baby is generally just testing out different sounds unaware that they're on the verge of saying an actual word. It's not until about 12 months that babies start saying words with intent and understanding behind them.

So as much as I'd love to believe that Kyle has started saying ma-ma with the understanding that it's my name, I kind of think he is still just babbling.

What do you think?

New Teeth

Have you noticed Kyle's two top teeth are coming in?

His poor little gums! They look like popcorn kernels bursting. And I'm sure they feel that way too because he's been crying a lot more lately.

But that makes 4 teeth for him to chomp down with, so we've starting feeding him banana rice cakes.

He thinks it's so funny when he hears the sound of his teeth crunching through the cracker. Ha! What a silly little boy!

Easter Sunday

Baskets for the boys.....

Kyle liked his Touch and Feel book and his Topzy Tumblers.

Tyler was all over the beyblades.

Then we headed outside for the egg hunt. Tyler insisted on using the egg carton he got at the fire station last weekend instead of his basket. Whatever works!

The boys found all the eggs...a mix of hard boiled and plastic filled with candy. Tyler even found a jumbo egg with cash inside. The highlight of his day!

For dinner we had spiral sliced ham, mashed potatoes and gravy, steamed carrots, deviled eggs, broiled pineapple and hawaiian rolls. For dessert I made a blueberry crisp using frozen berries and we topped it with a scoop of ice cream from Tyler's tub-o-strawberry swirl. Yum!

Happy Easter!

Spring Break Rewind

Besides the bookending birthday parties and Easter, which I'll post about later, here's a peek at how we spent the rest of our Spring Break.

Warning: Extreme excitement ahead.

Tyler got a remote control Mario kart for his birthday and we've been having a great time playing with it around Kyle. He loves it! He gets the biggest grin and starts to giggle, which in turn makes Tyler laugh all the more. And I'm telling you - nothing makes that boy crawl faster than a Mario Kart on the move. Too much fun!

Last weekend we took Tyler to an egg hunt at the fire station. We've gone to these before and it's not really a 'hunt' because all of the eggs are just scattered out on the grass in plain sight. It's more of a 'mad dash' to get as many eggs as possible. I've never liked the feeling of it being a race or competition, so I vowed years ago that we'd never do one again. But this year when I heard about the hunt at the fire station, I thought maybe it'd be a smaller crowd and less crazy. WRONG! Same deal. I hate those things! And can you tell me why all the parents are on the field? Those kids don't need help! It just adds to the craziness. So out of the thousands of eggs on the field, Tyler got 4....kind of disappointing. So I'll say it again, and I mean it this time: I never want to do another egg hunt!

As for the rest of the week, we tried to get outside everyday even if it was just for a walk around our neighborhood.

We went to the duck pond, and for the first time ever, we couldn't get rid of a single piece of bread. The ducks just weren't hungry that day. So Tyler went to play on the playground and Kyle wanted to leap out of stroller after him.

Strangely the playground was really full. With a birthday party going on and a bus full of kids that showed up, it was way more crowded than normal.

We had banana pancakes for breakfast. (Am I the only one embarrassed by Tyler's Thomas the Train placemat and Dora the Explorer plate? He outgrew those cartoons years ago. I think I need to look for some age appropriate replacements).

We spent an entire day in Seattle at the Swedish hospital, where the doctors were trying to figure out the mystery of Rick's tummy troubles.

The kids and I sat in the waiting room for.ev.er. And in the end Rick was given a clean bill of health....nothing was found to point a finger at. Ugh. His misery continues.

By the time we finally left the hospital, the day was almost over, which is a shame because it was so beautiful outside. Perfect spring day.

We went to get dinner and the boys were so exhausted that they both fell asleep in the car.

We went to the Rainforest Cafe for dinner.

Tyler really enjoyed it, but Rick and I thought it was more hype than it was worth.

So there you have it...our Spring Break in a nutshell.

Mario Party

Take Two!

We were back at Kids Castle this weekend for another Mario themed party.

This time it was specific to Mario Galaxy and the decorations were awesome! The mom made the cake herself along with sugar cookie stars and mushroom shaped brownie/marshmallow pops.

So cool! That's way more patience and talent than I have in the baking department for sure!

Easter Eggs

Cecil And Beany

Remember Cecil and Beany? Or how I won that Cecil and Beany coloring contest from the local video store back in the day?

Well Tyler had a similar moment yesterday.

We were in the middle of dying Easter eggs when he got the news that he'd won the Easter bunny coloring contest (for his age group) at the grocery store up the street.

I don't know if you can tell, but he couldn't believe it.

So I took him to collect his prize. Rick was thinking it would be a chocolate bunny or some other Easter candy. I was also thinking it was candy or maybe a gift certificate for the store.

Boy were we wrong....

He won a gallon tub of ice cream and a 2-liter bottle of soda. Wow! He was able to choose his own flavors, so he picked strawberry swirl ice cream and cherry 7-up soda.