The Easter Bunny

The boys went to visit the Easter Bunny this AM. They were so excited to enjoy the candy, bananas and strawberries the Easter Bunny was sharing. At this time our Easter plans are to volunteer Saturday afternoon at the Hosanna! Easter egg hunts, then spend Easter morning volunteering at Hosanna! at (2) of the (6) services. The boys love ushering and it has become a tradition - Hosanna! is magical at Easter and we invite all to attend!

http://www.hosannalc.org/

Logan is still in love with the Vikings - football season is only 5 months away.

This week is also spring break. Sara is off Monday and Shawn is off Friday. Grandma closer is taking the boys on Wednesday and they will go to daycare on Tuesday and Thursday. Logan wanted to go all week since some of his school-age friends will be back this week. I guess it is a good thing when your kid loves day care!

Some fun pictures

Carter and Norman relaxing on a lazy weekend - Carter is almost 3 (April 10)...Norman is 16 and still kicking.

Celebrating Grandma Closer's birthday at Perkins.

Both our boys are addicted to electronics. We have set up ground rules that they can each play only (1) electronic per day and if it is nice outside they must play outside after school

We have been slow to update our blog the past couple of weeks as life has been challenging/crazy with a broken sub pump that caused minor flooding, repairing a master closet that lost its shelving during a game of hide-and-seek (don't ask), sharing a nice spring virus, and 3 weeks of business travel for Shawn. Finally this weekend our lives appear back to normal.

To post or not to post - that is the question

The difficult thing about maintaining a blog is deciding what to post. The purpose of a blog is to keep distant family and friends up-to-date on what's happening in our lives, but at the same time who wants to hear about typical suburbia life and our nice little white picket fence....hence, we try to add some "colorful commentary" in with each post. With that great introduction, here is a typical conversation in our house....

• Shawn decides to go get a haircut - why not, Fantastic Sam's has a $9.99 special. What a deal. When Sara arrives home from work she says, "did you get your haircut?" Shawn says, "yes." Sara - "did you use the $1 coupon in the drawer?" Shawn - "no." I thought my wife was going to pass out - a whole $1 down the drain - what a bummer! Did I mention that the same day I saved us over $510/year on our home/auto insurance policies. I tried to explain the principle of going after the BIG boulders....not the pebbles....but she is Roger's daughter!

So what other craziness has been going on in our house this week:

- Logan has been busy bouncing between play dates. Today we went skiing with one of his classmates. May not have too many weekends left as the snow is disappearing fast and get slushy! It is almost 50 degrees here this PM. Next weekend we hope to get Carter out one time before the end of the year. Going the season pass route is definitely the way to go - we went almost 2 dozen times this year.

-Work....Sara went back to FT so Carter is back in daycare 5 days a week. Grandma closer is a lifesaver and has been helping at least 1 day/week....especially the next 3 weeks as Shawn is in LA, Denver and Scottsdale.

- HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA CLOSER! Grandma closer celebrated her xxxth birthday on March 5. Thank you for all your help and unconditional love this past year - we are truly blessed! Grandma is always willing to get up early and get the boys off to school or take them for an afternoon so Shawn and Sara can have a date night. Not to mention she has been volunteering in Logan's classroom every Wednesday this past year. Hope you had a fun weekend getaway and we will celebrate soon!

Outside of that just another week in our house. We are trying to get a bunch of inside house projects done before spring comes and we start living outside again. We are finishing updating our kitchen with new appliances, hoping to paint and decorate Carter's room in a "Bob the Builder" theme, paint and buy new furniture for the study, and paint the mainfloor bathroom. Makes me tired just thinking about it :-)

Cousin Fun.....

Here are some follow up pictures from our Ball cousin sleep over last week. (4) little boys with major bed head.

Testosterone Overload for Mom

Sara was out-numbered 6-1 (including Norman) this weekend as Logan and Carter had their cousins Dominic and Porter over for a sleep over. The boys were all boys playing basketball and football in the basement; as well as watching the Olympics and playing Wii. Logan was so excited to have Dominic and Porter sleep in his room. All the boys were very well behaved and we took out a second mortgage to feed their appetites. The rest of the weekend was spent skiing at Buck Hill, going swimming at the Health Club, play dates, painting (Shawn), and enjoying "animal time" at the library - Carter had fun petting the bearded dragon. He also saw an armadillo, some huge millipedes and a large snake.

Other interesting notes:
1. Logan has a second "wiggly" tooth.
2. Logan's class had a BIG party to celebrate their 100th day of school. They each got $100 (fake money - don't tell Logan) and did a bunch of fun activities around the number100.
3. School - we continue to be amazed with Logan's class. The kids are so well behaved and learning leaps and bounds. He has almost mastered counting different denominations of money, telling time, and is making big progress in his journal writing. This week he wrote "I went swimming. I jumped in. The water was warm" using his sound spelling and got "passed" on his first attempt.
4. Carter is also growing into a little boy. His favorite activity is to chase Logan around the house and tackle him. We are hoping to transition him into a twin bed this weekend.

Quick update on Logan's ears. He was tested at Children's last week and they confirmed he has permanent hearing loss in the low sounds of his right ear. They are not concerned about it and said he appears to have accommodated it.

Pics from Disney World

Logan's new black hole in his mouth.....

Walt Disney World Summary - pics to follow

We have returned home safe from our week-long journey to Walt Disney World. We had a fabulous time enjoying all the parks (WDW, Epcot, Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios); despite some cold weather. We have over 100 pictures on our digital camera that I need to download, but hopefully in the next day or so I will get some uploaded to the blog so you can experience the “joy” and “elation” on the boys faces. Here is a summary of our adventure:

Flights:
Uneventful – exactly what you hope for when flying. Boys did great on the planes – amazing how technology (DVDs, DS, Leapster) can keep them occupied; not to mention pop and peanuts.

Hotel:
We stayed in the Kadani Village at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. Highly recommend staying at a Disney property. They make life so easy. Once you check your bags at the MSP airport they magically appear in your hotel room – don’t even need to get them from baggage claim! Boys loved the “Community Room” with tons of scheduled activities, pool table, foosball, Wii, board games, and PlayStation. One day it rained so Disney opened the Arcade in the hotel for FREE – the boys were in HEAVEN!

Disney Meal Plan:
Another great way to experience Disney. We ate at Bomas (African Buffett in the Animal Kingdom), The Coral Reef at Epcot (the restaurant is surrounded by an aquarium), had a character breakfast at The Liberty Tree Tavern in the Magic Kingdom, and ate at the 50’s Diner in Hollywood Studios (kids were fascinated at the black and white TVs).

Logan – lost his first tooth at Epcot while eating a chicken nugget. It was so loose and he wouldn’t let us pull it – he ate it with his meal! All of a sudden we looked at him and said, “where is your tooth!” He wrote a note to the Tooth Fairy who surprised him with $1!

Weather – some good, some bad. Mornings were very cold with temps around 40. Luckily we packed out coats, gloves and hats. Only had (1) solid day of rain. We did get (2) really nice days with temps in the mid 60s – still cold for FL. Once we upload our pics, you will notice we wore the same warm clothes day after day.

Parks:
It was great watching the kids be mesmerized with the characters, rides, fireworks, parades, etc. We spent 6 full days at all the parks and still need to come back to finish up some things The kids were amazing and didn’t whine at all (even when we woke them up at 3am to fly home). Overall the lines were short (less than 15 min). Sunday was a little crazy but we had some VIP passes from our hotel room that allowed us to skip the lines and go straight on the rides. Logan tried most of the rides minus the big roller coasters. He was a little scared of the dark rides (i.e. Dinosaur at the Animal Kingdom) and the 3D movies (Honey I Shrunk the Audience, etc.). Carter was in love with the following rides: Goofy’s Roller Coaster, It’s a Small World, the Mexican Boat Ride at Epcot, Nemo, etc. Not surprisingly, Logan was a little more sensitive and apprehensive than Carter - who would go on anything if they height requirements would allow him. They loved the characters and took numerous pictures with them.

Highlight:
Sara and I both commented that the boys are really starting to bond as brothers. They are constantly singing, dancing, wrestling, and being clowns with each other. Time after time people at the parks would just start laughing at them as they would be singing at the top of their little voices as we walked through the parks. They are definitely little buddies –

We will definitely go back soon - next time in summer to experience the water rides and water parks. Thanks to our friends who provided us valuable insight to plan a great vacation! Your advice was spot on!