Oh, that's so easy.

So I've been a bit concerned over Owen's willingness to share his confidence in himself and his shear determination to win, win, win against everyone and in everything. That is, until I started to hear him play with his friend John and started talking with his mom. We went to the park after school last week with them and the entire way there Owen was asking if we were in front of John, if we were going to beat John to the park, if we were going to get there first, etc. When I shared this with Sara, she laughed and said John was asking the same questions the entire way as well. I'm guessing its just a boy thing! His latest quote is "Oh that's so easy" whenever I ask him to do something. See if you can catch it in this video, along with some sweet dance moves by Sir Walter.

Yikes - what happened to the Hipps family?

I know our stolen camera was nice, but geez, this is ridiculous!

Swim, swim.

Owen decided a swim was in order this weekend so yesterday we went to the Y to make that wish come true. We all had so much fun playing in the pool. Owen snorkeled  much of the time and I'm certain I even saw him swimming a bit on his own. Walter was in heaven and was completely confident in the water. He got very angry any time I'd try and touch him - even when he was lower-lip deep in water.  (and by angry I mean he'd SCREAM - his latest trick!) He loved walking around the pool saying "swim, swim."

So now the question of why no adorable picture of the boys from the weekend??? Well, my camera was stolen. Yes, stolen. And of all places it was stolen from, would you believe Chaska? We were out there on Saturday helping a friend move and having a visit with Jer's dad. At some point I must not have locked our van doors and went into the apartment building and someone with no morals decided they needed my lovely camera. Life could be much worse.

I can feel the Earth smiling.

Owen was so excited for Earth Day yesterday. He has his own calendar which came with special holiday stickers, one of which was Earth Day. He has been counting down the days to Earth Day for a while and when I explained what it meant, I told him one thing people could do to celebrate was to pick up garbage. So yesterday, we picked up litter around our neighborhood. He was so excited to collect all the litter. A few highlights included a McDonald's cup and gum wrappers. As he was picking things up, he said "I think I can feel the Earth smiling." So cute.

Today was a beautiful day, filled with beautiful events. After getting Owen from school, the boys and I went out for lunch and took a nice scenic drive to Stillwater. I was hoping Walter would fall asleep on the way, so I took the long route. However, he stayed wide awake to enjoy the views. We went to the uber cool Teddy Bear Park to play and then went to our uber cool friend's house for playgroup. Ruby & Rex live on a farm with sheep and chickens, which the kids got to feed and chase. The boys had so much fun exploring and playing with their friends. I enjoyed the time with my friends and even scored some fresh eggs! Thanks, Annie.

Oh no.

Walter's version of Owen has evolved. He started out calling him "O" and then called him "Own". Now, he calls him what sounds like "Oh, no!" Or maybe its ono - the Hawaiian word for good! Either way, I still think "what happened?" when I hear Walter call for Owen.

We headed to the park, again, today and loved it. This sun and warmth is so overdue! There was a Naturalist at the park that was making kites with kids. Owen and our neighbor, Arianna, had lots of fun making and then flying their kites. They ran and ran and ran.

Tonight Kindi came over for dinner and then watched the boys while I went to a parent education night at Sunny Hollow. The boys loved their time with their auntie Ni-knee (Walter's version of Kindi).

Dip, dip.

We have added a new step into Walter's bedtime routine. Now, after pj's, brushing teeth, a couple of books, a story from Daddy (over the phone 4 nights a week, in person the other 3), and kissing all of the animals on their dresser, Walter needs to 'dip, dip' his pacifier in a cup of water. Don't ask me how that became a step, but it is now a crucial one.

This afternoon Owen got to show me some of his favorite work at Sunny Hollow. It was really fun to see some of the work I've been hearing about in action. He's such a smart cookie.

This morning Walter and I met some friends at a park for some fun and an early picnic. He rode his buddy, William's, bike pretty much the entire time...sometimes with William on it, most of the time with a snack in his hand.

Yesterday, Walter & I finally paid another visit to Lindsay & baby Lydia. Between a cold that kept hanging on to Walter, Lindsay's family being in town and Jer traveling, its been difficult to find a time to visit. Lindsay warned me she was getting big and had already gained 1.5 pounds, but when I got there, I was reminded just how tiny newborns are. What a beautiful girl and such a treat!

Maybe he could eat at the dining table.

When I asked Owen where we should put the Easter Bunny's carrots, this was his response. We had a nice Easter full of family fun. After an early egg hunt start to the day, we went to Donna & Bruce's for a lovely Easter breakfast. Afterwards, we went to my cousin's house for a huge spread of yummy food and lots of fun for the boys with all of my cousins' kids. In total, the boys had three egg hunts and way too much candy! In addition to the candy, we had three birthday cakes, as I shared my day with the bunny this year. Needless to say, today was a bit of a whiny, off day...thankfully it was warm and sunny and we got to get outside for some of the day.

We were happy to have a nice weekend full of sunshine. We spent an afternoon on the neighborhood school's playground on Saturday.

Summer the season, not Summer your friend.

We've been talking about Summer often these days. We are longing for the warm sunny days when we can bike daily and splash in the lakes and pools. We are also talking about our neighbor, Summer, a lot these days. She and her family are leaving us, moving to Chaska at the end of the month. The block will definitely have a different feel without them on it. Luckily, we've enjoyed them immensely while we have been neighbors! Every time we discuss either topic, Owen is sure to clarify which Summer he is talking about.

Molly took the boys to fly a kite yesterday while I was at yoga. The boys had so much fun that we did it again this afternoon. Owen pretty much ran the entire hour we were outside. Walter chased him for a good portion of the time, too. What a fabulous way to wear out two energetic little guys! 

That was Walter.

I was making dinner tonight and, to be perfectly frank, the kids were driving me nuts! I had asked them to go play downstairs and got them set up with a train track to play with so I could cook in peace. Walter stayed downstairs while Owen came back upstairs and started playing with a ball which inevitably ended up on the counter. I asked him not to throw anything else upstairs, as I was making dinner. Two seconds later, he threw something else up. When I looked at him, this is what he said. I couldn't help but laugh.

We had a busy weekend full of celebrations. On Saturday Jer's dad turned 60! Donna and Joanne threw a lovely dinner party in his honor. The boys loved the balloons and enjoyed helping Grandpa blow out all 60 candles.

On Sunday, a fellow Babe turned 30. We surprised Melissa and took her out for a nice lunch full of quite a few laughs. It is never quiet when we get together without our kids. You'd think we'd be able to have full conversations without interruptions, however, we are so excited to be out and alone, that we all tend to interrupt one another anyway!

It's even bester than PB & Jam.

This comment followed the "this mac & cheese is the best!" comment about dinner tonight. Besides the bester part, I laugh every time he says Jam. Last week he decided he now wanted PB & Jam not PB & Jelly, and its stuck.

We went to the Como Conservatory today with Mandy & Miles. Someone at Sunny Hollow had talked about it so Owen requested we go. It was a great idea on a sunny but rather cool day. It certainly didn't feel like spring outside but inside with the spring flower show and all the other tropical gardens it felt like it was really happening.

Tonight, we boogied down in the living room. The boys love to run the circle in our house and pass through my legs along the way. 

Jer will be home in less than an hour and I get to go to yoga tomorrow. Not too shabby!

Earth Ace

Clear evidence that Walter has an older brother can be found in his vocabulary. He's becoming a little chatterbox these days and here are a few of his favorite words: Earth Ace (a Planet Hero's figurine), Spiderman, Batman, Superman, Fireman, Elmo, Dora, Backpack and Zaboomafoo.  He has also decided that Mama doesn't quite cut it all the time and that Mom gets a quicker response (like when he's awake in the morning, waiting for me to come and get him from his crib). Seriously, what 21 month old calls their mother Mom? 

We had playgroup at our house today - two weeks in a row! It was great for Owen to be a part of it as he generally misses out due to school. The kids were doing a lot of gymnastics and miraculously there were just a couple minor bonks through all sorts of twirls, somersaults and flips.

Here's my idea...

I'm going to fly around and then swoop down to eat the goldfish.

Owen is really into birds lately. In general, I'd say he's quite interested in animals, especially those that swim and fly. Today was the first day of spring break for him and he decided he needed to become a bald eagle. I was having flashbacks to making Walter's parrot costume at midnight a couple Halloween's ago and kept putting off O's request. I finally said we'd do it after a good healthy dinner. So after a very good and healthy dinner, we made Owen into a bald eagle. We are having a friend from school over tomorrow and he is certain Nolan will not know who he is when he shows up at our door and Owen is wearing this costume.

We had a lovely weekend together. After two weeks together in Hawaii and nearly two weeks apart, it was great to have some time together again. We got our yard cleaned up - which to the average eye probably still doesn't seem all that clean (courtesy of dear Grif) but to us its, well, descent. We played games, ate meals together and relaxed. Jer and I went to a yummy dinner party on Saturday with some friends we hadn't seen in a while. It was catered by Christo's, who catered our wedding, and was so delicious! Thanks for a lovely (& did I say scrumptious?) dinner, Michelle!

I've managed to see baby Lydia a couple times now. Unfortunately Walter has a cold otherwise I'd be knocking on their door daily. Although I know this isn't all that nice, I have to admit it makes me smile when Lindsay tells me how exhausted she is... One just can't understand how tiring those sweet little things are until they have one themselves. Today Andreas told me he feels like he has a constant hangover. :) She sure is cute, though!

It's a girl!!!

I got a call from Andreas at 2:50 a.m. telling me that Lindsay had just given birth to a sweet little girl! I was lucky to be a small part of the experience, visiting with them in the hospital from 8 pm until 11:30 pm, while Uncle Moogs watched the boys here. I decided it was time to go and to hear the news from my bed so I could be a descent mother today. This afternoon I was able to visit and had a hard time taking my eyes off of sweet Lydia Jean. She is a beautiful little girl, is a healthy 6 lbs 11 oz and 20 inches long. I left my camera with them, so will have to share photos later.

He IS drenched. What does drenched mean?

Owen has been snorkeling in our bathtub daily since we got back from Hawaii. Today, he was doing it when Walter got up from his nap. I had talked him into getting out of the tub and had the water draining and was getting their snack ready when I heard Owen say Walter had fallen into the tub. (No thinking I'm a bad mom, when I left, the water was nearly out.) I ran in to find this:

Walter loved every minute of it. When I said, "Walter's drenched!" This is how Owen responded.

We are enjoying the sunshine and warmth that has welcomed us back from Hawaii. It is really feeling like Spring with afternoons at the parks, walks around the block with our neighbors, splashing in puddles, and just a jacket on when we go outside! How refreshing. 

We're landing in Felix!

We flew home Friday night/Saturday morning. We went from Lihue to Phoenix to Minneapolis and as we were landing in Phoenix, this is what Owen kept saying. I corrected him a couple times but he insisted on calling it Felix. The funny part is that he has a friend, Felix, in our playgroup.

The flight went pretty well. Walter had a bit of a hard time getting comfortable enough to sleep at first, but eventually fell asleep. Jer and I were thankful to have my dad on board with us to help, but overall we were quite impressed with our little travelers. They certainly gave us confidence to do it again and having the time away put the travel bug back in me for sure.

The rest of our trip was nothing short of fabulous. Jer and I snuck a way to the North Shore for a few days. We did an introductory scuba class which we both really enjoyed and want to do more of now. We spent a good amount of time in the ocean. The boys got pretty comfortable in it and enjoyed playing in the sand and chasing the tide. Owen even braved a few big waves with us. We spent a day at the Hyatt playing in their pools and on the slide. Owen started swimming around with his life jacket on without holding on to anyone. He even jumped off the side of the pool. It was great to see his confidence grow! We got to end the trip by celebrating my grandma's birthday. Both boys loved decorating, drawing special pictures and helping blow out the candles with her. It sure was a wonderful trip. Thank you for your generosity and hospitality Grandma & Grandpa!

Here are some more photos from the fun: