Preschool

We've finished another year of Preschool!  Once again, Henry was excited to go to school every single day this year.  I think he had to miss 1 day because he was sick, and it was quite hard on him :( He had the same teachers as last year - on the last day of school, they requested that they get Lydia when she gets to Preschool!  He was the youngest one in his class this year, the only 4-year-old by the end of the year!  On the last day, we had an ice cream social.  Here he is with a few of his buddies - Levi, Kaden, and AJ.  

Ms. Stacy and Ms. Sara - and look at the little photo bomber in the background :)

This was hilarious to me - "Mommy, Ashton (another little boy in his class) and I are going to be police officers when we get bigger.  I'm really hoping that some kids in my class are going to be criminals, so we can catch them and put them in jail!"

Goodbye Preschool and Hello Summer!

May

We started out the month with May Day baskets!  I feel like May Day is a lost art, but we keep trying to revive it here!  Henry didn't get caught or kissed by anybody - he's fast.....and it helped that not many people were home yet when we made our deliveries :)

The first weekend in May was absolutely beautiful, 75* and sunny!  We busted out the water table for the first time.  I whipped up some delicious mint juleps in honor of the Kentucky Derby, which we watched later that day!  My parents were here that weekend, which is when they took Henry to the Twins game. 

I was treated well on Mother's Day!  Henry LOVES the idea of breakfast-in-bed, and made it himself for me that morning - a fantastic fruit and yogurt parfait.  Phil got me a gift card for a mani/pedi and then Henry gave me his own manicure with lots of sparkles - oh, he was so proud when I would show people!  Phil took care of dinner that night, and we had his family over to celebrate all the moms.

Last week, we took a trip to the Children's Museum with Henry's buddy, Blake (or as Lydia calls him, Bweek).  I think they visited every single room and did every single activity they could!  We stayed for lunch, too.  Everyone was exhausted on the way home.

Here she is at the bubble table, right in her element.  The girl will pick bubbles any day for an activity outside.  

We've had quite a few rainy days around here lately.  Henry is SO into "markering" pictures lately, seriously he'll color for an entire afternoon.  I've been able to talk him into painting for a couple days.

 We cut up a potato into different shaped chunks and painted with those one day.

Henry is getting ready to say goodbye to another year of preschool at the end of this week.  Here he is with his buddies out on the playground last week after class one day (Kaden, Levi, and AJ).

Grounds Crew Buddy

My parents got their hands on some Twins tickets a couple weekends ago and made the trip down here to see them play the White Sox.  That alone would have been a fun afternoon for Henry, but my dad also made a few calls to the Twins' grounds crew and got Henry on the roster to be one of the Grounds Crew Buddies for the day! How fun, thanks!!!  

After the 5th inning, TC escorted Henry out to 1st base where he helped him put a fresh clean base down.  After their very important job was done, TC held his little hand all the way around the bases until they got here for a picture.  The video was so cute, as Henry was alternating between skipping and speed walking with that big bear.  What a great day! 

The Twins won big that day, too - even better!

18 months

Lydia had her 18 month appointment last week.  Here are her stats: 

Length: 31 1/4" (30th %ile)

Weight: 23 lb, 4 oz (40th %ile)

Head Circumference: 18 1/2" (60th %ile)

Dr. Sakkal didn't quite believe (and neither did I, for that matter) that she was near the 50th %ile for her weight.  She's just a petite little thing :)  As he politely puts it, she likely wasn't the most "cooperative" on the scale.  Oh my, "the girl was screaming her head off" is more like it!  Poor thing was just in a complete panic when he came into the room to examine her.  He said her heart rate was in the 180s, yikes!  No concerns from him regarding her health.  He did say he wanted her pacifier gone by the time she comes back for her 2-year visit.  She's quite the strong sucker and is really doing a number on her teeth already, oops!

Oh Lydia, what's she up to these days?  Favorite food - hmmmm, that's a hard one.  Some days she's a good eater and other days I think she lives on air.  She certainly won't eat vegetables on her plate, but loves a spinach smoothie in the morning.  I would just say any cracker or snack/cereal would be her favorite right now.  She would carry around her snack cup all day long if I let her!  The girl takes after her mommy and has to have dessert after lunch and dinner.  Favorite book - Goodnight Moon, any book with a baby in it.  She loves to go through the old toy catalogs from Christmas and look at all the babies.  Favorite toys - babies, doll house, mixing bowls/utensils from the kitchen, and books.  Overall, I'd say she enjoys playing outside the most right now.  She takes after Henry and loves to drive trucks out there, ha!  She REALLY likes playing at the park.  Coming inside is absolute torture to her - we've had many lovely tantrums because of having to come in :(  

She adores that brother!  She calls him "bra" for "brother" and can say "Hery" if I ask her to say "Henry" now.  She goes to him to help her for so many things - read her a book, open a container, share a snack.  She copies him so much.  I LOVE to just sit and watch them really play together, their giggles are so flippin' cute :)

Lydia and I have a few groups that we get together with - on Wednesdays it's church playgroup and on Thursdays it's Baby Storytime at our library.  She's a good sleeper for me, and I'm thankful for that - up at 7-7:30am, 2-3 hour nap during the day, and then to bed by 7pm.

The girl loves her shoes and she's actually picky about some clothes!  I tried to put an outfit on her the other day, and she just shook her head "no," so I tried again a few minutes later and she definitely was NOT going to let me put that one outfit on!  She has this yellow skirt that she likes to wear over everything when we're at home, including her pjs!

  

How cute is she here!?  She crawled up onto the couch with a snack and a book, just getting cozy :)

Easter

 Here are a few pics from our Easter festivities.......  

There's an 8-egg limit at the Easter egg hunt in Blaine.  Henry is movin' on up, to the 4-6 year old age group this year.  He sprinted to the back of the baseball diamond and picked up his 8 eggs in about 15 seconds.  Lydia managed to snag 6 eggs herself, which was quite an accomplishment, considering how slow the little thing moves :)  

We colored our eggs with Kool-Aid this year - something different - I think I'd do it again next year.  I do love the trick of using a whisk for the little ones.  She still ended up crushing her eggs in the end, but I think it prolongs the crushing for a little while, at least until after they can color them.  Those crushed ones just got used for egg salad immediately! 

We headed home to Jamestown for Easter weekend.  Of course it was freezing cold and windy, shocking!  We took Henry down to where the Bluejays play football, good ol' Ernie Gates Field.  The place was all closed up, but we managed to find one gate unlocked to sneak in so the boys could play!

Henry dyed Grandma's easter eggs, as well, while Lydia supervised with her snack.  Poor guy got sick on Friday night, didn't really eat much the rest of the weekend, took some good naps, and slept hard :(

We went to Jamestown's Easter egg hunt - no egg limits at this one.  Henry - 25, Lydia - 0.  Luckily she had a nice big brother share with her :)

He wanted his picture with the bunny SO badly this year, love it!  Lydia wouldn't go near him, not a surprise to me!  

We had a beautiful stretch of weather for about a week recently.  We took advantage of it - trips to the park, going for bike rides/walks, and just playing outside more.  

We met up with some good friends at Como Zoo one day, as well.  Some days, the kids seem to get a little more 'up close & personal' with the animals vs other days - this was definitely one of those good days!  This was our first zoo trip this year.  I knew Lydia would be pointing at everything, "oooh - oooh," and that she was.  She wanted nothing to do with sitting in the stroller - she was off with the big boys :)  

Ms Tiger, Harrison, & Henry

Henry, Mr Polar Bear, and Lydia 

She really thought she could pet him :)

This was one Saturday morning trip to the park with the whole family.  Lydia took a few trips down the slide like this, but unfortunately the last one ended with a face full of mulch, poor thing :(

Henry finished up his first swimming lesson session at Foss.  He is just a completely different kid in the water since starting lessons here - in a good way!  His sudden fear of water is gone, thank God!!  He LOVES going to swimming each week now.  

One day after class he got to pick out some new goggles and now busts them out at home from time to time, as well!  The kid loves any kind of costume, that's for sure.  

Monkey see, monkey do, right?!  If he's got a costume of some sort on, well, of course, so does she!  Here she is, on her way up to take a nap (yep, still in pj's)!

Not sure why I do this to myself, as this is one hefty mess to clean up!  Some mornings, she wants to have a smoothie just like me.  I never fight it, as it's definitely the only way she'll eat a green veggie!  Any other green veggie in its whole form usually lands on the ground.

Lucy - poor Lucy hasn't gotten any props in a long time.  Here's Henry, just giving the girl a "boat ride."  Doesn't she look like she's having fun?!  Lucy tolerates a lot, but does get a lot of love too, in the form of table scraps from these two :)  I really couldn't ask for a more sweet and gentle dog to be around kids.  She's so good to them!

St. Patrick's Day

This is my all-time favorite St. Patrick's Day project.  It's just so neat and pretty when it's finished!  I'm thankful that Henry's still into it as much as I am :)

Those naughty leprechauns were back again this year, messing up Henry's room in the middle of the night!  They also turned every food imaginable green as well.  Henry had a lot of fun with it all and was a little sad the next morning when his milk was plain old white milk again.  Until next year, leprechauns.....