We spent a beautiful summer evening at the park where we had a picnic, played on the playground, played baseball, and made a mess in the mud. We stopped for ice-cream on the way home. I LOVE summer!
Isaac loves baseball and tries his very best! We have Ethan and Isaac playing t-ball/coach pitch baseball through the YMCA.
This is how Lincoln kept busy during our little baseball game.
We had such a fun day celebrating such a special DADDY!
The boys were so excited for him to open his gifts. Especially Ethan, who gave him a Swiss Army Knife.
We went out for breakfast and went to the park later in the day.
Ethan: “Mommy what did you do to your face?”
Me: “Oh, I put cream on it.”
Ethan: “Cream for what?”
Me: “Special cream to get rid of my pimples.”
Ethan: “But, I like your pimples.”
These pictures make me laugh! Lincoln felt so powerful being in control of the hose! He smiled and belly laughed for a good 15 minutes.
interesting pose Ethan…
There pictures were taken at Dan and Kari’s neighborhood pool.
Alex and Lincoln sitting on the tennis courts waiting for the daddies to finish up. Actually, Lincoln kept running onto the court interrupting the game. He wanted the ball (so we thought.) Warren gave him an extra ball to play with, but he still kept running onto the forbidden court. And as he ran, he watched Mommy out of the corner of his eye… lil’ stinker!
Isaac painted a bird house and Lincoln colored on a piece of white paper with crayons. Ethan was off running around with the neighbor kids.
Kari and I took the 5 little Falk boys to the zoo for the day. We met up with Rachel and her crew.
It was a gorgeous day! The kiddos had loads of fun and the mommies got tons of exercise!
Sweet (but not always so sweet) brothers.
Me and my 3 favorite small people.
I love Isaac’s expression here. He was amazed the bird actually landed on him!
Lincoln’s favorite part! (Remember he had a giraffe theme for his 1st birthday?) I couldn’t wait to show him a real giraffe up close. He even got to hand feed it! At one point the giraffe stuck his looong (18 inches) tongue out and touched Lincoln’s belly. He cried when it was time to leave those huge beautiful animals!
“Got anything good in there, Josie?”
Aren’t they the cutest?
The 3 Mabry kids and the 3 Falk kids watching the gorillas.
Another picture for their wedding sideshow. Ha!
Ethan and a black widow spider.
The insect house was by far the highlight of the day for Ethan and Isaac. Recently, Ethan has been asking about different poisonous bugs and spiders. He was able to see each one that he has been talking about! Among his favorites: black widow, scorpions, brown recluse spider, hissing cockroaches, and tarantulas. Yuck! Isaac was fascinated with the ant tunnels that ran all around the building. They could have spent hours in this place!
Forget about a nice group shot… this was taken on our way out and they were just as tired as the moms were.
We ended the day with a pizza from Papa Murphys and a little picnic with neighbor, Halle.
We have a hotel about 5 minutes from our house called, Great Wolfe Lodge. It has an indoor water park, arcade, restaurants, and lots more.
I was there Friday night for a girls night out. No kids, no husbands. Just 8 girls having fun at the water park, eating junk food and staying up late talking.
On Saturday night our family got a room for a really discounted price through some connections. Instead of paying $280 for one night we paid $79! Our room was so nice! The boys were running all around acting silly. They were so excited to choose which bed they were going to sleep on. But, after only 5 minutes they were putting their swimming trunks on begging for the water park.
Ethan and Isaac’s “mini room” inside our hotel room. This was so cute! They even had their own TV.
Isaac’s bed for the night. What kid wouldn’t love this view before falling asleep?
Three very excited boys!
Lincoln’s bed. He was such a sweet lil’ baby during our stay. He never cried and went to sleep all night without a peep.
Both Ethan and Isaac had a blast on the water slides. To our surprise they rode everything they could. There was only one slide Isaac was to short to ride.
My favorite slide was the one with the huge tube. Our whole family (including Lincoln) went down this together several times. It was a tunnel slide that went outside the building and came back in (as many did.) Lincoln tolerated it, but had much more fun in the heated kids pool.
A bit overwhelmed.
This is where they have story time for the kids at the hotel before bed each night.
After getting back into our room after story time we got a message telling us to move to the basement area of the building due to tornado warnings close by. We left our 3rd floor room and hung out in the basement with several strangers. We were lucky to run into people we know and they happened to have a basement level room. We ended up hanging out with them for a few minutes until it was safe to return.
Isaac was particularly afraid during this time. He does not like storms and is petrified of tornadoes. He talked a mile a minute, non-stop. He asked the same questions over and over and need to be reassured (hundreds of times) we would be safe.
In the morning we were entertained by Lincoln pulling Isaac by his shirt over and over again. He started it because he wanted Isaac to go with him to the balcony. But, we all laughed and then it was a big game to Lincoln.
We had the best time together! It was so nice to get away and enjoy each other with no distractions…even if it was only 1 night.
Mommy and the gang.
Are you okay, Ethan? Looks a little painful.
This was Ethan’s favorite part. He loved the military vehicles!
Lincoln clapping. He enjoyed this parade! He also got very excited when the band walked by.
The candy stashes! (Another highlight for sure!)
Daddy gave Lincoln some candy and made his day even more special.
Ethan thought these tootsie-rolls where so cool!
My last-minute patriotic dessert.
At a recent cul-de-sac cook-out Ethan bit into an ear of corn and his tooth started to bleed a little. Since it didn’t pop out, we decided to give it a little help. Ethan happily agreed to Warren’s idea of pulling it out with string. Warren tied dental floss around his tooth and gently pulled it out. Ethan was unseemly brave. (Thanks to all the people gathered around watching!) He was very proud and excited! This picture was taken just before heading to bed, tooth in hand, to put under his pillow. The sneaky tooth fairy took the tooth during the night. Ethan woke up early and came into our room crying… “The tooth fairy came, but she only took my tooth and didn’t leave anything for me.” Turns out he pushed the money behind his bed sometime during the night. Warren helped him find it and he was all smiles again. Oh, and he told us that he saw the tooth fairy. Appearently she was wearing a pink dress!?
Alex was cute with his cake. At first he just kind of patted and rubbed the cake with his hands. Kari put some frosting in his mouth and then he realized it was edible!
Lincoln wanted to be Mr. Independent and feed himself. Here he is enjoying his ice-cream.
The brothers
I forgot to mention that Alex LOVED his cake! What a jolly 1-year-old!
This picture was taken on Alex’s 1st brithday! Beth and John stayed the night at Dan and Kari’s house on their way to New York. It was fun to see the little boys all together. And impossible to get them to look at the camera!
“Does Ruby always try to steal your food, Jude?”
Ethan is clearly annoying Isaac in this picture and loving every minute of it.
crazy hair!
Ethan and Daddy taking a rest.
The boys had a blast playing in the creek. Dan, Kari, Owen, and Alex were there with us. We caught one crayfish.
After the creek we walked to the ice-cream place.
That’s “motorcycle” according to Lincoln.
I found this shirt for $1.50! He looks down at it and says “ga,go,go!”
Yes, Isaac still sucks his thumb…
Lincoln just loves the kitty. Mickey will take any kind of attention he can get these days.
Such a silly boy! I’m glad I was able to capture these expressions.
16 months old
Ethan you are maturing and growing too fast. You’re getting so tall and acting more and more like a teenager everyday (already!)
Your favorite show is MacGyver (Thanks to Daddy for finding all the old episodes!) After begging and begging for your very own pocket knife Daddy decided you were old enough. You have only nicked your fingers a few times. Instead of whining about your fingers hurting, you get your own band-aid just so you don’t have to hear Mommy say, “I told you so.”
You think it’s cool to call people “dude.” You roll your eyes at things I say. You chase the “pretty” girls on the playground.
But, you still give me a kiss EVERY morning before school. (In front of your classmates, even!) You also love Mommy to tuck you into bed each night. I will hold on to these things as long as I can! I know my days of public kisses are numbered.
Where has the time gone? Wasn’t it just yesterday you looked like this!?
The boys had a bike-a-thon for their school. Here is Isaac happily riding along, cast and all! He loved every minute of it!
Ethan rode his bike for 6 miles! The older students went on an actual bike trail. Isaac’s grade just had fun riding around the flag pole.
Isaac’s class.
My 3 boys and me on Mother’s Day.
My Mom and Grandma were visiting with us over Mother’s Day weekend. We had a nice time together.
My best Mother’s Day gift! Snuggle time with Lincoln.
Ethan and Isaac with their cousin, Sam.
We had a great dinner together at a really nice Italian restaurant. With our remaining kid-free time we got coffee and enjoyed peace and quiet. That is until I got a text message from out babysitter saying that Lincoln climbed (fell) out of his crib! He has never tried this before and decided to try it out on the babysitter. Little stinker! We grabbed our coffee and called it a night. Lincoln was not feeling well and was very grumpy anyway.
Olivia (we babysit her a couple times a week after school) Isaac, Halle (next door neighbor), Lincoln, and Ethan.
What a job… I went through 11 tubs and 3 big bags of clothes. I gave 8 bags to Vietnam Vets and saved 3 bags for a yard sale. It’s so nice to have the boys closets clean and organized for the summer. It was also nice to thin out these tubs and organize/label everything.
I got on a roll and cleaned out our storage room and found all kids of stuff for our yard sale coming up.
Warren poured a cup of water in the sand and Lincoln loved exploring the new texture!
Watching a movie together. These two are growing so close and creating a sweet bond.
A simple cup of water entertained Lincoln for a long time! I was amazed at how long it took before he spilled the water.
Now he loves to bring me cups and say, “uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh.”
Ethan’s crazy teeth!
Sandbox fun!
Lincoln’s very first drawing. He felt so big and was so proud!
The 1st graders at Ethan’s school were rewarded with lunch/ice-cream and playing at the park for a long week of testing. It was a gorgeous day!
Ethan and Cavan.
Cavan has a different teacher from Ethan, but they sit together each day in the cafeteria for lunch. From what Ethan tells me they trade food all the time…makes me wonder what exactly Ethan eats during lunch.
Ethan’s class standing in front of the cow.
Here is Isaac getting his cast put on. It only took about 10 minutes. The nurse had quite a personality and joked around a lot! He had a strange sense of humor.
The fact of needing a cast for 3 weeks is a bummer, but nothing ice-cream can’t fix!
Do you like the bright green color that Isaac chose? I thought for sure he would go for orange.
Here is Isaac just a few hours after being home. I don’t think a cast will slow him down much!
The nice thing about this cast is that he can wear it on the bath tub and smimming. In fact, he is supposed to get it wet everyday.
