Fun in the Sun

Finally! We have some summer and some heat! The kids have been taking advantage of it!

Every night we get bombarded with questions: "Can we play in the sprinklers Mom?" "Can you turn on the sprinklers for us?" "Can we drive the gator in the sprinklers?" Usually, the answer is yes. I am fine with them running and playing in the sprinklers. Because who I am kidding? It DOES look like fun!

The advantage of being a man... or little boy

While Tim will deny this, he had said since Evan was born that he could not wait to teach Evan how to pee outside. For some reason, because it is a God given right, peeing outside is a big deal for men and the first time Evan did it, Tim was very, very proud.

Ever since that one time, Evan thinks it is pretty cool to pee outside. (or, the big barn at Papa's. Just ask Nana to tell you that story!) In the past, Tim or I have always been around to help... except this one time....

I am making lunch on Sunday, helping Tim in the house, while watching the kids play outside. I am slicing onions or something and I take a quick peek out the window to make sure both kids are safe. As I glance outside, I see Evan pulling down his pants and undies right next to the sandbox. I shake my head and make a dash for the door as we have cousins over playing AND the neighbors next door are having a garden party. I make it outside just as Evan sticks out his little tummy and starts peeing. "Evan!! NO!" I yell as I try to make it there.

He jumps a bit, looks up and smiles, " I peeing Mama! I pee outside!"

I make it over to him as he finishes and proudly exclaims, "My tummy empty. I done peeing!"

And one more quick story...

Evan and Tim are in bed one morning after I have already left for work. Tim (I am sure) is wishing he was sleeping and Evan is jabbering away.

"I have a little butt Daddy. You have a big butt."

"Yeah, I guess Evan. Go to sleep."

"I have little foots Daddy. You have BIG foots."

"Yes Evan, You are right."

more catch up to come!

Laziness has set in

There has been so much going on the past two weeks, but I have been lazy. No real excuse for it, just lazy. I am attributing it to the fact that I just got done with my last class and I am enjoying not studying. Unfortunately, I have 2 tests I want to pass this summer to waive out of a class, so I am not off the hook for anything. Anyway - my goal is to start studying and doing my online class next week, so I am enjoying my laziness while I can :-)

Emma is 5 and so happy! She looked at me on her birthday and said, "So Mama... are you sad that I am 5 and that I can go to school now?!" with her bright blue eyes shining! Yes, so I am a bit sad, but not really. I know she is so excited for school and that she will excel in school, but I still do the "How can my Baby be 5?!" She had a great birthday. I took off from work and we had a Mama/Emma day. That started out with Evan going to daycare and Emma and I picking up Kaylee and heading to Perkins for breakfast! The girls had fun eating their sprinkle pancakes and drawing silly notes to each other and just having fun together. After that was Emma's 5 year pictures. She did okay with pictures. The first 8 or so were cute, the last 30 roughly were strained goofy smiles and bulging eyes. Oh well, at least I got a few to hang on the wall!

Then, lunch with Daddy! She loves going to Daddy's office because the women that work for him completely adore her and give her candy. She draws them pictures, writes on Daddy's wipe board and really, all is right with the world. We went to Applebee's for lunch where she happily dined on a Corn Dog and applesauce. Then, the BIG surprise... the waitstaff singing happy birthday to her! She wasn't expecting it at all and had the biggest smile on her face the whole time. She loved the sundae and wants to go back next year.

After Daddy's was rest time (watching Tangled) and taking her birthday money to Target to buy a special gift. (Thanks all for the wonderful cards and gifts to her! I am patiently waiting for some little pictures to come in before we send the Thank You notes. Sorry for the delay!) She picked out a Barbie and decided that we could go and pick up Evan. She was really sad to see the day go by so fast and honestly, so was I! We don't get a lot of one-on-one time and I need to make more of an effort to do it.

Evan was a bit jealous with Emma's birthday. He didn't really understand why he didn't get presents and constantly wanted to open hers. He thinks that his birthday is pretty soon and that he will be turning 6. This infuriates Emma because "MAMA! I am older than Evan. He will never be older than me. He is not 6!"

Quick tidbits:

Emma still loves t-ball and we signed her up for another session of swimming lessons as she is really starting to swim like a fish in the water. She proudly tells me that she now has a boyfriend at t-ball. Truthfully, there is one little guy that is adorable with big brown eyes and long eyelashes and is just a peanut! He hangs around Emma a lot and she likes the attention. She is starting to interact more with the other boys on her team, which I am happy to see, but don't care for their play. They chase each other, throw dirt at each other, and just rough-house together. Normal behavior I understand, but still not that nice.

Evan is doing really well as well. He seems to be talking more every day and understanding more of what is going on. He is potty-trained with sporadic accidents, but overall is doing awesome. He enjoys doing all things boy, such as digging, playing with cars, getting dirty, trains, running around, and being loud. We were walking at the farm the other day and every step he would stop and look at rocks. He would turn some over, pick some up, then replace them and continue on. It was such a slow, slow walk and I was getting frustrated and finally said, "Evan! Come on! What are you doing buddy?" "Mama! I lookin for tweasure! Where the tweasure, Mama?" Ahh.. such sweet innocence! Looking back I feel bad for rushing that sweet time! He was literally turning over tiny rocks, stones, crushed rocks, whatever, looking for treasure! I asked him what kind of treasure he was looking for and what did he say? "Cookies!" So, I had to warn him that if he finds any cookies under rocks, it is best not to pick them up and eat them.

The big 5

While the official big day for Emma is still 2 days away, we had a big celebration for her today. She was so excited and the party was basically all she could talk about. We had a countdown during the week for her party and every day she kept asking, "can we fill up the pinata today?" or "can I get out the favor stuff today and look at them" or something along those lines. She had a Tangled theme party and just couldn't wait for the day to arrive.

Finally, the day did arrive and she was up at 4:30 with a bloody nose, 5:45 because she was just awake, and then at 6:30 for the day. Ugh!! She seems to go through streaks where she sleeps in really well and doesn't come into our room during the night or streaks like now where she comes to our room once or twice a night. So frustrating! So, while she was having a great day, I could tell during the morning she was tired and overly anxious for her party. Thankfully, she took a good nap.

Then, when she woke up the kitchen was all decorated for her birthday! There was a Rapunzel happy birthday banner, Rapunzel cake, flowers, party favors, balloons, and for her the most important thing... presents! She then got on her party dress, I put some braids in her hair and right when we were about to call the neighbors to come over, she looked out the window and started jumping up and down! They were already on their way over!

We played some fun games such as a three-legged race (which Kyra and I were awesome at!), gunny sack (or pillow case race that Emma did very well in), had a pinata (all kids loved this!) and then pin the tail on the donkey! The kids had a great time playing games, playing on the swing set and celebrating the day. We feasted on assorted chips and dip, pizza, and then CAKE!

Some pics of the big day:

Here is Emma ALL SMILES while we were singing happy birthday to her. She literally had a huge smile pasted on the whole time.

Another with the cake and balloons.
Opening presents. She received Rapunzel toys from Tim, Evan, and I. A Rapunzel tower to play with, a birthday lantern, fake hair, and Rapunzel doll and Flynn Ryder from Evan. She loved all of it and played with it the rest of the night. From the Kellogg's, she received a bathing suit, cover up, and other beach/sun paraphernalia.


I tried to get a good one of the cousins (minus the babies) but Evan didn't really want to have any of it.

The siblings....

Kyra being resourceful getting candy from the pinata. All Tim had to do was mention that the object of the pinata, after it was mauled open of course, was to get the most candy. Kyra decided to be resourceful and use her skirt for a sack.




Emma hitting at the pinata.





Just Emma.

Evan decided he would rather drive around in the gator instead of playing the kids games. Except the pinata. He LOVED the pinata. And pin-the-tail on the donkey.

Another shot of Em and the cake.

And Evan wearing a garden hat that Emma was given for her birthday. See the candy clutched in his little hand? He found 4 Kit-Kat bars in the pinata and he refused to let them out of his sight all night. Why? "Cause Emma take dem!" was his reasoning. So, he went potty and he brought them along (which - side note - Evan is potty trained! He is wearing big-boy undies for naps AND for night time now with success! My big boy!!) or he went to go play cars and he brought the candy. Seriously, he would not let go of them or out of his sight. By the end of the night, we had 3 soft/melty kit-kat bars. For bedtime, he put them in his undie drawer "So Emma don't take dem!"

All-in-all, it was a really great day! Emma, despite her tiredness, had a great day and all the kids played really well. We were lucky to finally have some sun so the kids could play outside and enjoy the games, and now everyone is relaxing and lounging. I took off on Tuesday, for her actual birthday, so we can have a Mama, Emma day.

And.. I leave with you one of my favorite Emma quotes. She was listening to the Tangled soundtrack on my iPod and was singing along to "Mother Knows Best." She looks at me with a serious look and says,

"Mama, All Mama's know best. Except the Mama's that steal other people's kids."

Well said kiddo... well said. :-)

Back to Reality

It is always hard to come back from vacation, but sadly it is so. The Heuer House is now back to reality...

Tim and I got back from Europe last Friday after a wonderful, wonderful vacation. We had about 24 hours sight-seeing in Paris, 72 hours drinking wine through the Burgundy countryside, and then approximately 48 hours shopping and touring in London. Our trip can be summed up by EXCELLENT food, even better wine, and good times and many laughs with good friends.


Here are a few pics of our trip:


The view from our hotel room in Paris (with the help of zoom) but really, we had an excellent view. This is the only hotel room we had booked for the trip. Every place else was up to our map and intuition.



Our traveling group during the day:

I think this was Beaune, France. (we really toured from one little town to the next. They all started to run together after awhile.) A view from one of the vineyards.

Ladoix winery. We had an ABSOLUTE blast here. Jean Luc (pictured below with us in the black vest) was the owner of the winery, which we discovered about 30 minutes into the wine tasting as he didn't speak a lick of English. Thank goodness for my (gulp) 3 years of French class in high school and my iPod. Yup, there's an App for that! I had a English/French translation app to help out. It really worked well for the little stops that we made. As did much gesturing and failed attempts at charades.

The last day in France we were in Chablis. Instead of doing another wine tasting plate, we decided to buy a bunch of random yummy French food and do a picnic. It was a great idea as many of us agree it was our favorite meal of the trip!

Before - all the food for our picnic! One bottle of wine, two baguettes, two different cheeses, quiche, three kinds of meat, three kinds of mustard, pears, strawberries, and three different desserts.

AFTER: Not much left!! Plus, I think we could have eaten more. This was such a great, great meal!

The happy group.


And.. on to London.

Can you see the building to the far left? Buckingham Palace. We stumbled onto this one actually as last Thursday was a day of wandering and shopping our way through London. I was kind of happy to see Buckingham Palace after the big Royal Wedding! It was neat to see all the media tents and everything still up to capture the big kiss.





Another view of Buckinham Palace

Tim and I posing in front of London Bridge.

That was it! Our fabulous Europe vacation :-) Everyone had a great time and I owe everyone a big thanks to help make it happen... aka... kid duty! Emma and Evan were happy at their aunt & uncle's cabin, the farm, and then back home. More on that later! I am not sure if I am still a bit jet-lagged, but I am exhausted!

Easter

The kids had a fabulous, fabulous Easter. Thankfully Sage did NOT attack the Easter Bunny and when the kids work up, there were Easter Eggs hidden all over the house along with two Easter baskets.

Emma woke up first and came into our room at 6:30 with Baby Alive and Baby Alive's Easter outfit. She calmly put themon Baby Alive, chatting the whole time about Easter and how excited she was to go downstairs. However,"Mama, I KNOW we have to wait for Evan to wake up."

Evan made his appearance around 7 and promptly crawled into bed for a snuggle. He and Emma usually need to hatch a bit before starting their day. We had the TV on and were enjoying cuddling when Emma just could NOT wait anymore. So, I tried to prompt Evan with "Come on Buddy! Let's go see if the Easter Bunny Came!" He just looked at me without a care and continued to suck on his Nuk. As Emma jumped up and down, I continued to try with the non-responsive boy. "Come on Evan! Remember the Easter Bunny? Let's go see if he came so we can search for eggs! Evan responds with an unenthusiastic "Why? Why Mama?" Finally, he came out of it and he was ready to go. Then.. there was no stopping him. (or Emma!)

Here are pics:











Then... the Easter Egg hunt at Nana & Papa's! By this time Evan had it down and was running around trying to find the eggs. We were going to give him like a 2 minute head start, but realized in like 30 seconds that it wasn't needed.

all-in-all, a very happy day!!

Dear Easter Bunny...

Dear Easter Bunny:
Be careful - do not let Sage out. She will chase you. Do not wake Sage up because she will bark at you. Emma colored a picture for you. We like to find Easter eggs and Easter is Emma's favorite holiday. (and Evan's too.) Thank you for the Easter Eggs. Do you know Santa?

(a letter - said by Emma, penned by her Mother.)




Emma is SO excited for Easter. We were just getting ready for bed tonight after a movie night, when Tim said, "Hey - what if the Easter Bunny is scared of Sage? Sage may bark at him when he comes in the house." This, of course, made Emma's eyes HUGE with this following:

"Mama!" (speaking in her very matter-of-fact tone) "What about Sage? Sage will scare the Easter Bunny. We should put Sage in the laundry room so Sage doesn't scare the Easter Bunny! And the Easter Bunny will not come in through the laundry room because we have the garage doors closed. The Easter Bunny will either come in the front or the back. So, let's put Sage in the laundry room!"

Tim decides to add fuel to the fire and says, "No, Sage will be fine. We just need to make sure that the Easter Bunny doesn't let Sage out of her kennel. If he does, we will be eating Rabbit for supper."
"DADDY! That is not funny. We need to let the Easter Bunny know NOT to let Sage out of her kennel."

So, I offer to write the Easter Bunny a letter to warn him about Sage. Emma wanted to hang the letter on the door, but then finally conceded to putting it on the play table. Evan is just listening to the exchange the whole time, nodding here and there and finally saying. "Yea, poor Eater Rabbit."

Then, as I am writing the letter and we are putting out the carrots and water, she looks up at me and whispers. "Mama?! What if the Easter Bunny does not like Dragons? I should color him a new picture!" (see picture below. The picture she colored was from "How to Train your Dragon.".) "Emma, your picture is fine. The Easter Bunny will like any picture."




It was pretty funny.

Yesterday was the egg dying and it went very well! The kids had an absolute blast. At the end, we had dye all over the table, 34 oddly colored, half-cracked, scribbled on eggs, and a little man who had greenish brown stained hands. Emma was in charge of 6 of the dye cups and Evan had 3. That was because, in Emma's words, "I am almost 5 and remember doing this before. Evan is only 2 and is too little." Tim and I stood back, helped where we could, but let them at it.

Here are some pics commemorating the evening:



















Happy Easter!!

The little Mother

Every day I pick up the kids from daycare, Theresa always has little stories about the kids that day and how the day went. Most times lately, they are not good reports about Evan. We get the "He didn't share well today." or "He and Will were fighting again today." or my favorite "He often does his dragon roar in the little kids faces when they take a toy away from him." .... sigh... My baby boy is turning into a dragon roaring, non-sharing, terrible two-year old boy. I am not ready for this. So, we are working on the roaring, we are working on the non-sharing and the sometimes hitting.


Emma is turning into a little Mother to all the kids at daycare. The Tuesday daycare report from Theresa about Emma was very good. "She is turning into a little Mother to all the little kids. However, she sometimes will tell the boys they need to go into time-out if they are naughty. She will try to stop them from fighting and will separate them if she thinks they need it." Then.. may favorite! Theresa was smiling for this part: "Then, when Emma laid down for nap, she told me that if I needed help with the little boys, I can get her up. She would separate the little boys for me." Ahhh.. my helpful little girl!


Now, some of you know that Tim and I are departing on a pretty big trip soon (YEAH!!!!) and I have been pretty sad lately thinking about the time away from my kids. So, I have been hugging them a little more and talking more about how Mommy and Daddy are going to be gone. Emma is excited for her vacation too and told me when I said I was going to miss her. "Oh Mommy, you will be fine! I will give you a kiss before you leave."


we have some fun Easter plans coming up! I bought a whole bunch of eggs for us all to dye and then bought some Easter cupcakes, frosting, and decorations for the kids to decorate. I am pretty sure we will have a visit from the Easter bunny too and the kids are very excited for that!


One more fun thing... Emma's first t-ball practice is tomorrow! Hopefully it does not rain as she is so excited! We have been practicing a lot in our front yard and she loves running the bases, practicing catch and hitting the ball. Evan of course is right there with her and having a great time as well.