February 26th, 2011

We spent most of Anna's birthday with our extended family celebrating the life of my Grandpa. Benjamin and I were both still feeling sick, so we headed back home that evening. It worked out well as we got to have some birthday fun with Anna once we got home. First up we gave her the birthday present we got for her. It was a very large present, so we sent the kids upstairs so we could bring it out and have it be a surprise. Here she is excitedly coming downstairs to check out her present.......

See the three boys coming down behind her? :)

It was way too big to wrap (I tried!) so I ended up just putting a big blanket over it. Here's the birthday girl peeking in....

She's so excited!!!

It's a new doll house!!

All three kids really love it!

Anna immediately ran and grabbed a doll to play with in her house.

Everybody had a great time!

The dollhouse moved to it's new home. (Collin kept throwing their toys over the gate we have in this door opening and playing with the trashcan, so we decided to use Anna's new toy to fix that problem for us.)

Cheese!

Our three little ones! (You can tell Benjamin still wasn't feeling better. :( )

Then it was time for a special treat that Daddy made the birthday girl..... a coffee mug cake. You mix some ingredients in a coffee mug and microwave it and ta-da, you have a yummy dessert that you can enjoy without eating on it for a week like you do when you make a full sized cake! Anna was excited. :)

She said she wished for us to be together forever. :)

Two very happy kiddos!

Happy Birthday my sweet cupcake!!!!

The next day we decided to celebrate Anna some more. They have a new Dora and Diego section at the Children's Museum which was a great excitement for our birthday girl!

They had fun rescuing animals like Diego does.....

and visiting the Purple Planet......

and driving Tiko's car and helping him gather his nuts.......

and then exploring the Pirate Piggies' ship. Argh, Matey!!!

Collin LOVED putting these coins in the Pirate Piggies bank and walking off and on the ship.

Then it was time to visit Egypt and our favorite crocodile......

He's got it!

They had fun running this Egyptian market.

Then we headed to the dinosaurs. None of the kids were scared of the dinosaurs for once, so we actually got to explore some! Everyone was getting worn down and ready for lunch by then though. We still had a great time and are thankful we were able to give our little three year old a special day!

Collin-in-a-box

I ordered some clothes for the kids and was surprised when Collin spent about an hour in the box they came in one afternoon. It still had all the clothes in it too, but he didn't mind. He was very pleased with himself.........

I gave him a really big haircut last week that is really changing his appearance......he's looking so much more like a boy to us and leaving those baby days behind. He's also looking a lot more like his big brother (but he sounds like Anna, especially his laugh). I think his big boy haircut looks really cute in this picture.

He even brought books and his cup into his box. It was pretty entertaining to watch!

The other two weren't so animated and fun this week. They ended up with double ear infections and not feeling well. (See Collin posing for the picture in the background for me? He did this on his own.....he's such a little cheeser these days!)

The boys had their check-ups this week (5 year and 15 month (even though he's really 16 months)). Other than the ear infections, they are both very healthy and we are very thankful to hear so!! Benjamin is 40 pounds (50th percentile) and 44 inches (75th percentile). Collin is 26 pounds and 3 ounces (70th percentile), his head was in the 60th percentile, and his length.....well he continues to be CRAZY long: he's 34 1/2 inches long which is even more off the growth chart than his last check-up. His doctor said, "Wow you are going to be a tall boy, aren't you! Let's hope you don't pass up your brother anytime soon." We hope that too!

The Great Outdoors

This is what happens when you procrastinate putting a child lock on the pantry: your one year old gleefully pours out a bag of cereal and then has a blast stomping the cereal pieces into an even greater mess.

It was finally warm enough to be outside some last week. Benjamin was the only one sick so we ventured out when we could and it felt so good to be in the fresh air and watch the kids run around and have fun. Collin has so much fun playing with a ball!

Here's his "Cheese!" face.....

Benjamin is all ready to play on his scooter. He was really excited to get it out for the first time this year. He brought his pads over to me and said, "Safety first!"

He had so much fun and was really good at it.

Anna's trying to learn how to use the pedals on her tricycle. It's a hard thing to learn! She has fun no matter what though.

Collin discovering what a tree is. It is so fun going outside with him finally. When they are just over a year old they are in such an age of discovery and it has been so fun to watch him explore this new aspect of his world being outside!

Even though all three boys were starting to be sick by Saturday, Dave insisted we get out and do something outside. So we headed to Brown County park and enjoyed a picnic, some soccer and the kids played on the playground. They all have messy faces b/c they were enjoying some doughnuts. Mmmmm!

Soccer time!

Collin trying to kick both balls at once....

that didn't work, so how about hold one and kick the other?

I love how the boys are going at it playing soccer together and Anna is off in the background in her own little world!

Playground time!

Anna loves to swing. Every time she's on a swing she's telling me the whole time (through giggles), "A little bit faster."

Collin getting ready to go down the slide for the first time. We let Anna take him for his first trip so there are no pictures as it was an all hands on deck kind of experience, if you know what I mean.

But then he had a blast going down again and again with his Daddy!

Anna's new Jessie bow. I wasn't going to get her a new one to teach her a lesson (she flushed her first one down the toilet) but caved in while planning her Jessie party and seeing that there are NO Jessie party things out there. Needless to say, she LOVES it!

This picture is dedicated to my Grandma. Sadly, my Grandpa passed away this week. We are thankful he is at peace with Jesus right now, but will all miss him greatly as he was the most amazing man. I hope it will bring a smile to your face Grandma to see how Collin continues to love the blankie you made him so much!

Happy (but tired) kids on the way home after (finally) enjoying some fun times outside!