Thank You For Being a Friend

Now that nice weather is upon us (for the most part, anyway) we have been spending a lot of time playing with friends!  Kade and Mason LOVE play dates and, I'm not going to lie, so do I!!  I remember thinking, before kids, "why would anyone want to go along with their kids to a friends house?!?!  That's so weird!"  Obviously Mason isn't old enough to be dropped off at a friend's house to play and even though Kade is the mom's have just as much fun playing as the kids do!!  I love watching the boys have so much fun with other kiddos!

A couple Wednesday's ago we enjoyed the nice weather with Violet and Isaac.

These 3 drove around in this gator until the battery was completely dead.  Mason smiled and giggled the whole time.

Isaac, on the other hand, was not a fan of the backseat.

These 2 discovered that if they let it sit for a minute the battery would recharge just enough for it to drive for about 10 seconds.  It was a perfect amount to keep them safe from the crazy driver behind the wheel!

These 2 had fun racing each other up and down the sidewalk.

Violet is a quick little bugger, beating Kade off the line almost every time!

Kade has been spending a lot of time with his friends that he met in his preschool class this year.  They are a great group and they all get along so well together!

Last Thursday the 4 boys were at our house before Erik got home from work and they kept asking, "When is that really big kid going to get home so he can give us a ride on the 4 wheeler?"  

 The following Saturday, Charlie and Tucker spent the afternoon playing at our house.  Here they are deciding where to put the "hunting cabin" they were going to build.

Erik's dad showed up with the supplies and the boys (I mean, grandpa and Erik) got to work building!

But Kade, Charlie and Tucker sure did look cute helping!!

The finished product (Charlie and Tucker had to go home before it was done):

Here's the 3 amigos again at an after hours preschool function:

And finally, last night we had a WHOLE BUNCH of people over for pizza and playing.  9 kids and 6 parents--it was mass chaos but it was a blast!  The kids raced their bikes up and down our driveway, walked through the woods in the dark with flashlights, had a bonfire, at junk food and destroyed the basement (seriously, a tornado of toys ripped through).  While the moms and dads enjoyed their "adult beverages", chatted, and kept the troups in line.  Can't wait for more nights like this in the summer!

We did manage to get the big kids to sit still long enough for 1 picture.  This was at the end of the night when they were tired enough to want to sit down!

L to R: Tucker, Trey, Kade, Charlie, Lauren, Porter, Charlotte

Meanwhile, these 2 were upstairs cleaning up all of the leftover food on the plates.  And, when I say "cleaning up" I mean "eating"!  Harper and Mason are a match made in heaven--I've never seen another kid enjoy food as much as Mason does!  

Mason is only 4 months older than Harper.

Maybe this is their first "couple" picture?!?  

We haven't been up to much these days, just hanging out at home, enjoying each other's company.  Mason is talking so much more, copying everything Kade does and getting more rambunctious by the minute!  Kade is loving that Mason can finally keep up with him (sort of.  I'm not sure anyone can keep up with Kade full time but Mason tries!).  We are loving every minute of "country life", kind of feels like we are in own little world out here!!

I might have over compensated with pictures of Mason this week because I felt so guilty that I didn't have any of him last week.  

Spring time in Minnesota, the temperature hits 60 degrees and the shirts come off!!  

I think the weather was in the 70's when I took these pictures but these days Kade is into shooting baskets with a stocking cap on.  Of course, what Kade does Mason has to do!!

I couldn't pick a favorite from these 3 pictures so I decided to post them all.

And finally, Mason's tongue clipping was worth every penny.  He's been using it a lot more to say words.  But MOST importantly…

SUCCESS!!!!

I'm not winning any Mom of the Year awards this week.  I came down with a nasty stomach bug on Tuesday night that pretty much knocked me out for 3 solid days.  Wednesday's are my day off with the boys but I had to call in reinforcements because I could only drag myself out of bed long enough to visit the bathroom.  There was no way I was keeping up with Tasmanian Devils 1 & 2.

Although, I did manage to parent for exactly 3 minutes on Wednesday:  They've been working up the fields around our house this past week.  When they do that, they park the tractor in our yard overnight, rather than driving it home.  The boys LOVE it.  So bright and early on Wednesday morning, they decided they wanted to go check out the tractor before the farmer came and got it for the day.  In my nausea induced stupor I had a vision of one of the boys putting the tractor in neutral and the other boy getting run over by the giant wheel.  After that I managed to pull myself up and get outside long enough to supervise them on the tractor.  Thank goodness my mom showed up within 3 minutes after we got outside because the bathroom was already calling my name.  

This means I took exactly ZERO pictures this week.  Kade had a field trip with his class this week and a couple of the moms that went along sent me a bunch of pictures of Kade.  Unfortunately for Mason, there aren't any pics of him.  However, I did find this one that Kade must've taken with my phone:

Mason stayed home sick last week.  Erik worked from home one day and Mason kept him company doing his own jobs.

By the way, the first few days of drop offs at his new daycare were ROUGH to say the least.  On the first day I heard him screaming for me as I was driving away…broke my heart.  By the 3rd day though he was already running to Sara's arms and having a good time with his new friends.  Whew.

These are the pictures the other moms sent me of the class field trip.  They went to the Children's Museum in La Crosse, WI.

I'm thinking "news anchor" is NOT in Kade's future!

However he seems more than happy behind a desk!!  Perhaps IT like his dad??  If it's up to Erik, that answer is big, fat NO!

It sounds like it was musical chairs on the bus ride.  At one point all 4 boys were in one seat!

They're a handsome bunch!

Kade, Nolan and Charlie making silly faces

After the museum they went to a park for a picnic and more playtime.

The great explorers!!

Tucker and Kade…wiped out after a rough day of playing.

And, quite possibly, my most favorite picture of the day...

Erik, sitting comfortably on the bus!!  

I laugh every time I see this picture.  Look how high his knees are!!  Poor tall guy…

And, now, Erik and I are tag teaming the couch.  He's got himself a nasty cold and my stomach still isn't back to normal.  These boys are wearing us out!!

We had to say goodbye to our daycare mom, Michelle, last week.  She is moving to a new town at the end of the month.  We have been going to her since Kade was around 8 months old so it was hard news to swallow when she told us she is moving.  

They were supposed to start their new daycare, Sara's, on Monday.  It was going to be great because Kade had school off so both boys were going to go together for the first time.  However, Mason came down with a fever so he stayed home Monday and Tuesday.  Kade, being the brave boy that he is (??? Who is this kid?!?!) decided that he still wanted to go on Monday--all by himself!!!!  He did great and said it was lots of fun.  Hopefully Mason has the same reaction when he starts tomorrow!  However, Mason has been a little more clingy than normal so I'm kind of dreading drop off--fingers crossed!!!

The boys with Michelle

2 of their little daycare buddies

(Michelle's granddaughters)

Workout buddies.  

Look at those 3 studs!!  I'm a lucky gal…

Just a bunch of pictures this week.

Last week we got a decent dumping of snow.  Enough that we couldn't get out of our driveway (at least not without hours of effort on Erik's part), so we stayed home and had a Snow Day!

Mason isn't a huge fan of playing in the snow, so we stood on the porch and took pictures while Erik and Kade threw snowballs at us.  

Little boys in big slippers.  Adorable.

Of course Mou had to get in on the action!  

Mason doesn't like to let Erik do push ups alone!  

I should try to get a video though because instead of going down with his arms he just lifts his butt up in the air.

We decided long ago that the Easter Bunny doesn't come to our house.  It was easy when Kade was small because he didn't want a giant bunny hopping around our house while we were sleeping.  Now that he's older though he's decided he wants the bunny to come.  We said no and that we'd hide eggs for them, he was fine with that but he did ask if that meant the Easter bunny isn't real.  I just said I wasn't sure, I'd never met him so I couldn't say yes or no.  That was a good enough answer for this year!  Whew!  Dodged that bullet for one more year!!

Looks like Mom and Dad managed to do a pretty decent job replacing the bunny!

 Happy Easter!!