Last Day in Texas

The last day of our trip to Texas was packed full of fun stuff.  We had lunch at the Blaschke's where John and Gus were able to show off some of their new moves learned from swim lessons.  We always have a good time with the Blaschkes.

 That evening we had a little party for John since his birthday was only days away.

 Gus and Anders had to be the first to see the gifts and cards.

 John got a cool new helmet to match his cool new bike.

 Over the years I have discovered that John is not much of a cake person.  Just like his momma.  So my mom got him an ice cream cake.

 Then the boys enjoyed some quiet time watching a show with Grandma.  Can you see she is trying to soak in every second with these kids?

Of course we had to try to get a group shot.

 Gus isn't interested...

 Now he is even less interested and Anders is wavering...

 Gus is at least trying.  He wants to get this over with.

 I think Anders is trying to tell me this is taking too long.

 Gus was not interested in taking pictures with Uncle Mark either.  What a goof!

Frog Shirt and Shoes

We received a package in the mail the other day from our dear friends the Blaschkes.  They sent Anders a cute new frog shirt and shoes.  As soon as he saw the shirt he grabbed it out of my hand and brought it to Hans to put on him.  My kid also likes shoes and couldn't wait put them on.

The shoes are super cute. 

  Anders wasn't staying still enough for me to grab a picture so I set him down on our coffee table.  Apparently sitting on the coffee table is only cool when he has gotten up there by himself.

 Gus was feeling a little left out and needed his picture taken.

 The box from the shoes came in handy as well.  John is saying, "You're an imposter!" in his best robot voice.

This was Gus' lightsaber.  What good imaginations.

A Blaschke Visit

The Blaschkes are our friends from Texas.  They are also Anders' godparents.  Back when we lived in Denver, Kathy asked if we would like to use their playset for the boys.  This isn't something you want to move around so we were waiting to find a house to buy...and then we moved to Illinois.  While Hans was concerned with other aspects of a house, I always made sure to look at the yard to see if would accommodate a nice sized set.  We settled into our new house, took a vacation and then the Blaschke family came for a visit.  I was very excited to see them and even more excited that we lived in place big enough that we could accommodate all of them.  I should have taken a picture of the set when it was still in pieces on the trailer.  There wasn't room for one more thing.  We found a semi-level space in our yard and went to work.  I actually didn't do any work, but I did feed everyone.  That counts, right?

Just the beginning.  The boys were getting excited.

While they waited Kathy put the slide on the hill and added some water.  This occupied them for quite some time.

John got a little restless and wanted this project finished pronto.  He decided to help dig for the sand box.

Kathy carted dirt around to various low parts of our yard.  -Notice Hans is absent...

Hans' absence in the previous picture was due to the fact that he was taking a break and playing a Wii game with Matthew.  Even though this picture is a bit blurry, I love it for several reasons:

1.  Hans is trying really, really hard to win.

2.  Matthew is laughing at Hans' insane determination

3.  Hannah is trying to figure out what Hans is doing

4.  Gus knows what his dad is doing and is saying to himself, "Oh, Dad.  Give it up."

 John couldn't wait any longer to try it out.

 He loves being in the 'treehouse' part.

Gus would get up to the highest part and then get too scared to come down.  That lasted a couple of days before he figured out that he needed to get down himself because his mom was not going to climb up there every five minutes.  I'm so mean.

Just precious.

 Gus discovered that he liked swinging high and fast in the baby swing.

 I think Mark did this several times.

Gus had so much fun he fell asleep.

Speaking of sleep...

It was a long day of work.

Even Fritz was pooped.  Fritz and Hannah hung out most of the weekend.  I think Fritz still misses Hannah.  She took such good care of him.

Needless to say, all the neighborhood kids end up in our yard now.

Thank you, thank you.