24 Hours in Indy

Several months ago Hans called his mom and asked if they would watch the kids while we went to a show.  Les Miserables was going to be in Indy and I had never seen it.  His parents thought it was such a good idea that they purchased tickets for all of us to go and arranged a sitter for the boys.  It was a fantastic show shared with wonderful people.  We even got to go out for dinner beforehand.

The next day we spent the morning at the park.

 Fritz enjoyed the park, but hated being on his leash.

 Anders will try to climb anything and everything.  He actually made it pretty far up this slide.

 The kid will climb up anything, but put him on a see-saw with his brother and he gets a little scared.

 Swings are always a favorite.

We had a wonderful time and hated having to leave.

A Fun Filled Week

My cousins, Jimmy and Ericka, wanted to spend their spring break at our house.  They came to visit last year and decided it was worth another trip.  I have to say that I am completely honored that my teenage cousins want to spend time with me and my family.  For almost a week our house with filled with family and lots and lots of fun.

Aunt Diane brought stuff for an Easter Egg Hunt again.  The boys are always game for an egg hunt.

 Gus is a bit of a diva and felt he needed a coat before he could focus his attention on finding his eggs.

Anders had a lot of help.

 The boys had a great time entertaining their great grandparents.

 And, they are always trying to sucker people into playing games with them.

 John had his first soccer practice while they were here.  John remembers going to Jimmy's soccer game a summer or two ago and was excited that Jimmy and Ericka would be there to see him practice.  Aunt Diane found these cool soccer suckers to celebrate the occasion.

Anders managed to make a huge mess with his sucker.

Yet again I find myself severely lacking in pictures.  But, we all had a wonderful time and look forward to seeing them all again.

John's First Soccer Game

Last Saturday was John's first soccer game.  He was pretty excited, although it doesn't take much to get John excited.

 He is a great team player and loudly cheers for his team while on the sidelines.

 Getting in the game.

 I'm pretty sure 90% of these kids fell a few times.  It was cute and funny.

 We noted we need to teach John about how he doesn't need to steal the ball from his own teammate.

 I absolutely love the clump of kids that follow the ball.

 John's not shy about getting in there.  He also seems to be pretty fast.

 His turn as goalie.

 John got to throw the ball back in and then for several minutes he didn't leave the sideline.  He didn't know he was actually supposed to get back in the game.

 Halftime pep talk.

 They all look so serious.

 John was too busy making sure we were watching him that he ran right past the ball!

 Good game high fives.

There may not be much action, but I sure love watching these young kids play.

(Editor's Note: Uh, John totally scored a goal!  While the proud mother may not have gotten a picture of this, the proud father thinks it's very important for the world to know this.)

Jon Klassen

I have a new book for all of you to check out.  Jon Klassen is a self proclaimed illustrator/author.  He has won several awards for his illustrations in various books, such as "Cat's Night Out".  The book that has become a new favorite is "I Want My Hat Back".  This is the first book Klassen both wrote and illustrated.  It is witty and funny and has wonderfully simple illustrations.  It also won the 2012 Theodor Seuss Geisel Honor Book Award.

Check it out when you get a chance.

Author, Julia Cook

I wrote a while back about Julia Cook and her book "My Mouth is a Volcano!".  She has a number of great books that teach children all kinds of things in funny stories.  After reading "My Mouth is a Volcano!" to John's class, his teacher decided that Julia Cook should be the author present for reading night at the school.  Cook came to the school and talked in the classrooms during the day and then did a whole presentation for the parents that evening.  She even brought her dogs, Jake and Angus, to meet the students.  I unfortunately missed the Family Reading Night with Julia Cook at John's school since I had a program at the library.  Funny, my duties at the library kept me from enjoying Family Reading Night.  However, John's teacher was kind enough to snap a photo of John, Julia, Jake and Angus.

I'm not sure which dog John is holding, but I'm pretty sure he does not like being held like that.  Unless, of course, that is how he smiles.

Silly Anders

Anders found some stickers.  He is always looking for ways to make things interesting and completely messy.

Peanut Butter Head

We are a peanut butter family.  I'm not sure what my kids would do without peanut butter.  And I have to admit it makes for a really easy lunch.  Anders, however, has decided that peanut butter is fun to play with.  If you don't watch him closely he will open his sandwich and spread its contents in all sorts of undesirable places.  Like his hair.

It took a few hair washes before it all came out and smelled normal.

 Fritz thought it was the best thing EVER!

I let Fritz have at it.  I figure if you put peanut butter in your hair, you deserve to have a dog try his hardest to lick it all off.

Easter Weekend

On Good Friday, John and Gus decided they wanted to get dressed up for church.  They usually wear nice clothes, but the boys wanted to wear suits and their "Mr. Bean" shoes, which is how they lovingly refer to their plan old black dress shoes.  I figured I'd better run with this initiative and gave the boys dress pants and sport coats before they could change their minds.

 They spent a good 30 minutes walking around and talking like Mr. Bean.

 What handsome little gentlemen.

Anders was feeling very left out and wanted to "cheese" for the camera.  He needs to do everything his big brothers do.

On Saturday we dyed eggs...

this is how Anders felt about the whole thing.

I also had to make cupcakes for desert on Sunday and Anders was happy to help.

He was pretty proud of himself and taunted his brothers with the only whisk.  This was a mess I don't want to pick up again anytime in the near future.

On Sunday we had a little egg hunt for the boys in our front yard.  It was a mandatory front yard event because otherwise Fritz would have decided to jump in on the egg hunt.  If these boys get mad when Fritz eats their peanut butter sandwiches, I'm sure they would go ballistic if he ate all of their candy.

 Gus is using his "hand binoculars" to look for the Easter Bunny.

Anders would not touch the eggs.  He only concerned himself with the chocolate.