Green Day

Sylvia's Green Day picture was taken while we were in the Wisconsin Dells in February.
G-R-E-E-N, G-R-E-E-N
That is how you spell green, G-R-E-E-N
Caterpillars are green and grasshoppers too
I know how to spell green, G-R-E-E-N



I love that color days at preschool are so exciting to Sylvia. She was thrilled to learn today that her next special day is on Blue Day.

Digging In

We've officially begun work on our new backyard. The kids love playing outside and once we've made some improvements, this backyard will be nicer than our one on Eastmoor Dr. It's less oddly shaped and I can see most of it from inside the house. The yard will be a work in progress for the next few years as we take out old landscaping and begin doing our own. Dan took the rotting railroad ties to the landfill a couple weeks ago and has begun his battle with the very invasive lilies. We'll plant grass seed as well as start a garden this summer. We also hope to build a shed and add a clothes line, but we'll have to see where those fall on the ever growing "projects to complete" list. Sylvia is looking forward to getting our sandbox filled.

Card Organization

I believe I may be a hoarder with OCD...not a good combination. What it means is I keep lots and lots of things but like it when they're organized. Now that we have kids, I'm trying to purge a little and I like to involve them in the process. However, cards and letters are something it's hard for me to get ride of. I saw this idea on a blog sometime back and started organizing a few cards here and there. Last week, I decided to pull out all the random cards I had stuck in boxes over the years and really get them organized.
Yes I do still have wedding cards. I did go through them at some point and keep only the ones that were more meaningful to me. I enjoy having my cards like this because now I can actually look back through them. Sylvia enjoyed looking back at her old birthday cards and Valentine's while I was organizing. There's even a few older music cards that still played music so we pulled them out and danced to them.

Choo, Choo, Eric's Two!

Eric had a couple of friends and their sibling over for a little birthday. Although I love to plan kids parties and activities, I decided it would probably be best if we just got together for a playdate and cake. That ended up being a pretty good plan since everyone seemed to be a little tired that morning. Eric is the only one who wasn't in tears at some point during the "party."

We gave Eric a train for his birthday so I decided a train cake, complete with oreo wheels, would be fitting. This is my favorite birthday cake so far and it was really quite simple to make. Sylvia and Erickson decorated on the wall in the background. Eric was certain that the birthday hat was a piece of pizza.
I attempted to take a picture of Eric with his cake but he couldn't keep his hands off of it. The shirt he is wearing is perfect for this little guy.
Enjoying some cake with our friends Parker, Macy, Isabella and Landon.

Showing his new train to all his friends.

Eric's Birthday Activities

Erickson had a busy 2nd birthday. We started the morning with donuts and he wanted us to sing for him again.
Emily and I took Macy, Eric and Drake to the Children's Museum while Parker and Sylvia were at preschool. They enjoyed some time to play together without the big kids around.
After Eric's nap, the kids and I rode the bus downtown. I wasn't sure which bus to catch and ended up taking the one that went away from downtown before heading back that way. It picked up a lot of high school kids and was much busier than any bus we'd ever ridden. The ride ended up being about 30 minutes which got a little long for the two little boys on my lap and the girl looking out the window beside me. They all did such a great job. We played on the playground once we got downtown.

I took the kids out for ice cream during the end of the work day before hitching a ride home with Dan.
We finally got Eric to open his gift from us after Dan started taking out pieces for him to see. He still said, "I no like it" until he saw what it was.
I think all three of them are enjoying this new toy.
I almost bought a train table and am glad I didn't at this point. The kids love spreading the track out upstairs on the hard floor and this way they can make it as big as they'd like.
All in all it was a very fun and active day for my special two-year-old.

Celebrating Eric's Birthday with Family

We had our families over a few days before Erickson's birthday to celebrate. Everyone in town was able to make it over.

Checking out his Melissa and Doug latch puzzle from Grandma and Grandpa. I knew this would be the perfect gift for him.Eric got this wooden ramp and cars from Nana and Papa. He and Sylvia both enjoy playing with it.Nana and Papa's gift was wrapped in bubble wrap which was equally as entertaining as the gift itself.Eric has been playing with his new sports balls, from Bill and Becky's family, in the basement waiting for this nice weather.
Eric also got bubbles from Great Nana. We used them in the bathtub before it was nice enough to take them outside. Now Sylvia has been blowing bubbles for him on the back deck. Dan and I bought Eric a train set, but he wasn't interested in opening it at his party. Anytime I tried handing the bag to him he said, "I no like it." I guess he was happy with the other gifts he received.

Eric's cupcakes with green frosting. Green is sort of his favorite color right now. I'm not sure if he actually likes the color but it's the only color he names when he tells you what color something is. I'm glad we went with cupcakes since Eric blew out his candle with his nose.Here's my cupcake mom! I even let him have two because it was his birthday.Enjoying some frosting.Big sis is also a fan of cupcakes.Playing on Great Nana's walker is one of our kids' favorite activity. Sometimes they just climb up and sit on it and sometime she takes them for rides.We're so thankful to have family in town to celebrate birthday and other holidays with.

Eric at 2 and Drake at 3 months

My mom and I took the kids in last week to get their pictures taken. Picking out outfits was the easy part this time around. Getting three kids to cooperate during a photo shoot was a little harder.

Drake was up first and he is not a very smilely baby at this point.


Mommy and Drake. We've had this picture taken with all three kids and they're hanging in our bedroom. I have a feeling they will be there for a very long time and will always be some of my favorite photos.

Erickson's 2-year-old pictures were my second priority. He was very interested in what he could find behind the curtain. It was hard to keep him still (not a surprise). At one point he laid down and said, "nap" so I knew we didn't have much time left.


Sylvia was all dressed up for our sibling picture so we went ahead and got her picture taken as well. These pictures actually turned out very good from a very goofy little girl that was having trouble following mommy's directions. I didn't order any individuals of these since we had school pictures taken in November but I did get a photo collage so I could get a copy of it.

These are our attempts at a sibling picture. Yep...that's all we got. I guess it will remind me of what it was like to take three kids under five-years-old to get their pictures taken.
I almost ordered this one but I chickened out at the last minute.