Best Friends Forever....or Stop Strangling Your Brother

David and Henry have begun to play with each other and not just beside each other.  It is beyond exasperating to David that Henry wants to play with everything he's playing with so we've been brainstorming better ways to handle these irksome situations.   We've been practicing saying things like:  "Henry, I was playing with that.  Would you like _____ toy instead?" in lieu of the ever popular, "Hey, that's MINE!" followed by a shove to the floor for good measure. We've also been practicing, "Excuse me Henry, may I scoot around you?" instead of "Get out of my WAY!" again followed by a shove for good measure.  All in all things are improving, but I have a feeling it may take some time.....it makes it all worthwhile though, when I walk in the room and find things like this:

Of course their friendship means nothing but trouble for me.  They've banded together against me!  Take this for example....Now how did the giant caboose get turned over and two children end up inside the "fort"?  David's answer......"Henry did it."  Hmmm.....

And then there's the daily question: "Where is your brother?"  You never really know what kind of an answer you'll get to that one.

Today it was:  "In the window.  Can I climb in the window too please?"  Like brother, like brother I suppose. I should have known I'd have two climbers.

David's Favorite *Chore*

We've started taking a family walk after dinner...I would call it our evening constitutional, but it's rarely a nice, quiet, calming stroll.....Really its main purpose is just to get the kids out of the house and run off some excess energy, and most importantly limit my temptation to turn on the TV and zone the children out after a long day of story reading and train playing.  

Our walk is quickly becoming David's favorite part of the day for one reason and one reason only:  he gets to walk the dog.  I wouldn't have thought this would be such a treat for him, mostly because I would never think of it as a special treat for myself but, there you have it!  He is so excited during our walks that he literally runs for the entire time--it's really cute to watch--of course I'm biased :)

And some proof that Henry and I were also present and supervising........

Banana Loving Genius

That's right, I said it, I've got a banana loving genius on my hands....I think the evidence speaks for itself.....

David's Train Party Spectacular

The day for David's 3rd birthday party finally arrived!  David has been talking about this for months and he was not disappointed!  He asked for a train party (surprise, surprise!) so we transformed our yard into a train depot complete with train tracks and homemade decorations galore!  I think the bunting I sewed is my favorite part!  All the good pictures are courtesy of Kate--the blurry ones are all mine  :) 





We had duct tape train tracks leading the way to the party--I was going to have more tracks on the patio but I severely underestimated how much tape I would use--that's over one of those huge rolls right there! 

I printed out a bunch of Thomas and Friends coloring pages and had markers and crayons for the kids to draw with on the picnic table--it wasn't a Thomas party but what can I say, my little guy loves that little blue engine--I had to throw him in somewhere :)

 The middle car was full of fruit kabobs which were a huge hit!  We also had chips, pretzels, carrot and celery sticks and a bunch of dips and hummus.  And of course David's favorite--PB&J sandwiches :)  We also grilled out hamburgers, hot dogs and sausages for everyone who wanted to stay for dinner.

Chris and I spent a few evenings this summer working on our masterpiece--the giant cardboard train!  We scavenged boxes on Post when everyone was moving in so most of our materials were free!  We filled the "coal car" with black balloons--which were immediately strewn about the yard and eventually popped with sticks :)  The caboose was our favorite part.  It had a bunch of secret doors and pop out windows! 

Here is David seeing everything for the first time...........I think he was a little overwhelmed!

As you can see, aside from the giant train we had lots of really complicated games and activities planned for the kids.....,...or we turned our sandbox into the "Quarry".....and by turned into I mean put a "Quarry" sign next to.....mostly the children just had fun running wild through our yard!

And of course there were homemade chocolate cupcakes! 

David's party was perfect!  A big thank you to everyone who came and made this day so special!

Mommy's Little Helper

We've been teaching David that being part of the family means chipping in and doing his "work."  He can successfully empty the silverware from the dishwasher into the drawer (resorting to dumping it in instead of sorting it only 5% of the time), he always clears the table after meals, he can wipe off the table and put his toys away.....sorting clothes for the laundry--well that's a different story........

David oh-so-helpfully enlisted the aid of his dumptruck to unsort all of the laundry and then roll around in dirty clothes.......ahh, the joy of raising boys.......

And where was Henry during all of this you may ask.....oh, just relaxing on top of the kitchen table, having a leisurely drink.   Did I mention Henry climbs now?  I've found him in window--literally standing on the window sill, on top of the coffee table and sitting between the TV and our plant on the TV console.  He has also taken to pushing chairs and other large objects around to create stools and ladders to reach higher and higher heights.  Just like his brother.........

 I wonder where they get it from?

Cupcakes Are For Flinging

We've had a busy week of cupcake baking, icing, decorating, devouring and flinging. Chris is now officially in the final year of his twenties and he has started his last year off right--with presents and homemade cards :)

We made Funfetti cupcakes for Chris which was a treat for him as I'm not particularly fond of them and therefore rarely make them which means he never gets to eat them.  Anyone familiar with the great Crisco birthday cake disaster of 2010 knows why he can't just make them for himself :) 

 I don't know why there is always at least one shirtless male at the dinner table at our house....maybe I should just be thankful for the laundry they're saving me and not worry about the manners?

David's birthday card to Daddy--with a little spelling help from Mommy.

Henry really liked the cupcakes....

I mean really liked them....of course this fun back and forth with the cupcake on the fork ended with said cupcake being flung off the fork and landing smack in my face--I don't know how but I really didn't see it coming............

The next day we celebrated David's third birthday which was a milestone because I believe it's the first time we didn't just do both birthdays at the same time--he was onto our game.....

He didn't seem to be onto the fact that those cupcakes looked a little familiar though........I'll make him his own cake on years where we aren't planning ridiculous cake filled parties later in the week :)

 We made him close his eyes while Daddy brought out his present from us........................

Of course the real excitement came with Grandma and Grandpa Reintjes' gift.......