Thursday, May 26, 2011

A Day Out With Thomas



Joshua has always had a super crazy obsession with Thomas the Tank Engine.

Exhibit A:

Every year we have wanted to take him to see the REAL Thomas, who comes to our area every year, but it is very expensive, so we never have been able to go.
This year Jason actually has a real job, and so we got tickets to ride Thomas.
It was just this year that Josh started getting out of trains, and into other things, so we thought we may have missed that small amount of time when it would be truly magical for him.


The cool thing was, it all came back. :)


We had so much fun!
Greenfield Village is a really cool place that we've never been to, and now we have a year membership, so we will go a lot this summer!

Josh is passing on his love of trains to Wyatt and Claire.
Wyatt plays with them all day long now, just like his big brother did at his age.


We were really surprised to see that Greenfield Village actually has a real roundhouse!

... complete with a turntable that they were turning by hand!

Look how beautiful that building is!
I just want to turn it into a house. haha :)


The kids met Sir Topham Hatt


Then they got to do a bunch of Thomas activities while we waited for our time to board.


We admired the $10.00 Thomas balloon, but did NOT buy it!!!


Wyatt loved huge lego Thomas!

And the kids got tattoos...



Claire and Wyatt rocked out in this cool train...

While Josh caught up on his Thomas episodes.
I love how their faces look exactly the same in this picture.




"Horray! The REAL Thomas!!!"

The kids blew their train whistles as Thomas approached....


"All aboard"

This was Josh's face every time Thomas' whistle blew.... it was pure bliss.



All in all, I think it was a pretty awesome day for everyone!!!


Friday, April 29, 2011

Easter eggs and stitches.... April fun!




Hope everyone had a wonderful Easter!!!
Here are a few pictures from the month of April.

Claire likes to dance!

Her first recital is coming up in May, and she is a pink butterfly!
She has a video she watches and copies, and I know she's only 3, but she is pretty good.
It's fun to watch her.



A few eventful things happened this month. Wyatt had his first haircut (hard for mom!), our family attended a Passover Seder with our good friends,
and Claire had to get 4 stitches when she split her chin open falling off of her bed - A full-speed lunge while attempting to hug Wyatt, who was a moving target.
It was a late bedtime after the Seder earlier that evening, and we headed to the ER around midnight. It was sad! But Claire was so brave.... I couldn't believe how well she did during the stitches, especially since she could feel everything. She was in a lot of pain, but she held very still for the doctors and was completely drenched in sweat by the end of the procedure, but she didn't move, and barely whimpered. I was very proud of her.
And afterwards she got a pink and red band-aid, and a Popsicle, so she was happy!
:)
And she will have a scar on her chin to match her Daddy's from when he was a little boy.
She thought that was pretty cool.


Josh started up soccer again.
This is his 2nd season playing soccer, since he started in the fall.
He is on a team with some kids from his kindergarten class, with one of his friends' dad as the coach. He is having fun playing games 1 day a week, and practicing 2 other days a week!
It is busy, but he likes it!



April started out pretty nice, and then we got snow again... a few inches!!
By mid-day this is all that was left, but the kids still managed to make this huge snowball
(the beginnings of a snowman).


I've had requests for Easter pictures, so I will show our Easter Sunday morning pictures now!

These were taken after church at my parents' house in Canada.
It rained earlier that morning, but turned out to be a beautiful day!















Claire's curtsy :)

This is the best family picture we were able to get...


The rest of these pictures were taken earlier in the week....

These pictures are from the Easter egg hunt the week before Easter.
Every year our good friends host this lil' shindig!!!
They have 3 acres and hundreds of eggs are hidden by all the parents!




This was Wyatt's first egg hunt.
He wasn't sure what to do with the eggs once he found them!!


Some of the parents got creative when it came to hiding the eggs.
But that didn't stop Claire!


Don't you hate it when there are no more eggs to be found?



And here are their spoils!
(I think the girls found more than the boys did!
Shhhh!!)


Easter weekend in Canada.
Lots of fun stuff!!!


We went to Springridge farm for lunch with Granny, and Wyatt got acquainted with a chicken!
He was pretty stoked.


My Dad made the kids shields so they could have knight battles in the driveway.



Later, the kids dyed Easter eggs.
To save their clothes, Grandad outfitted them with this new garb.

The bead socks are a nice touch, Claire! As were the ears.







Wyatt did NOT participate!!!!


We took the kids to see the movie "Hop" on Saturday as well.
The kids were kind enough to leave a "drum set" out for the Easter bunny, in addition to the usual carrots and water :)



We also learned from the movie that the Easter bunny poops jelly beans!
He left a token on the chair.

he he he


And one more easter egg hunt!!!!








It was a really nice weekend with my family, and we are so happy that spring is here!











Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Birthday catch-up.... Wyatt!!!


I feel bad that Wyatt didn't get to have a birthday party in September,
but he was too sick and was actually in the hospital on the day his party was supposed to be,
and the week after, and he spent the month recovering.
So we just never ended up doing a party for him.

But we did a few family things on the actual day of his first birthday,
so I thought I would post a couple of those pictures.
Yes, it was awhile ago (our grass is now covered with a foot and a half of snow).
Wyatt is such a sweet little boy. Here is his update for the baby book:
At 16 months....
He is very verbal. A couple of weeks ago I followed him around and wrote down 146 words!
He tells us "I love you" at least once an hour, and loves to give kisses and hugs.
He even tries to sign "I love you", which is basically him showing us the palm of his hand :)
He also says "All done. I stuck." when he wants out of his highchair.
He signs about 12-15 words.
He curls up on my shoulder in the sweetest way when he's cuddling.
He loves to sing songs, especially happy birthday!
He is a pretty musical kid, and loves to play instruments.
He sleeps with several stuffed animals, his favorites are: a "kitty cat", a "Tucker" cat, a toy baby named "baby", and lots of books.
His favorite book is a book called "babies", which he insists on sleeping with every night!
Wyatt mostly follows Josh and Claire around all day and plays with whatever they are playing with (much to their dismay). Actually, they are very sweet to him.
He has gotten much pickier with his eating, ever since he first tasted his birthday cake! Coincidence?? :)
But he still LOVES bananas, and m&m's... if he hears any wrapper crinkling he gets very excited and will say "M'n M'n M'n M'n M'n....!!" until you give him one.
He also does this with "Scooby Doobie Doobie Doobie Doobie..." (scooby doo).

He goes up and down stairs by himself pretty well.
My heart stops every time he goes down.
He is very patient, and will sit in his stroller or highchair without complaint for quite a long time when we are out. You can tell he's a 3rd child and is used to waiting his turn!
He is still the biggest of all of our kids, and actually weighed exactly 20 pounds on his first birthday. Josh weighed 17 pounds and Claire 15 pounds respectively :)
His growing curve has changed though, and is closer to how Josh was at his age
... maybe slightly bigger.
His eyes are still bright blue, and his hair is reddish/strawberry!
So we have 3 different combos with our kids:
Josh = brown hair, green eyes
Claire = blond hair, brown eyes
Wyatt = strawberry blond hair, blue eyes


I usually make a cake for our kids, but on their actual birthday we usually
just buy cupcakes at the grocery store and then save the cool cake for the party.
Wyatt didn't know the difference though, and loved his cupcake!

It was a really nice day, so we spent most of the time playing outside.
Wyatt was pretty happy about all the walnuts on the ground at Claire's preschool,
thinking they were apples!


Lots of love from Josh and Claire :)

We love you Wyatt!!!
Happy birthday baby.