Dick and Jane

Brandon has been reading Dick and Jane with Kurt for the last month. Kurt has picked up reading like a pro. I finally pulled the camera out to capture the skills for posterity. He loves to read the words "something" and "cookie."

19 Cents

These hats cost 19 Cents. Yes, 19 Cents...

We're going to Disney- well, no- Adventureland!

We really wanted to take Kurt to Disneyland this summer (before he costs as much as we do to get in) so we set it as his potty training goal. Yes, this is our 3rd or 4th go at the underwear, but we were very happy that he made it all the way to 100! He had a hiccup around 25 and then another around 40 (if he had an accident, he'd go back to the nearest 10, not to 0). But after that we were home free! And as much as we really wanted to go to Disney, it was still just out of our budget range.So it doesn't have the mickeymouse head in flowers, but otherwise it looked pretty close :)
Riding the Train
The "little" boats. We took them on a big boat (log ride) and Kurt did NOT like it. So when he talks about the rides, he makes sure he specifies that it was the "little" boats he's telling you about. I think he rode them 3 times.
Car ride. They rode a few of the different vehicles on this one.
They had to stop this ride in the middle because Luke wasn't holding very still. He got ejected...

Ladybugs - it was kinda like a rollercoaster. It went up and down around the circle. At first they both hated it, but then they loved it!
Our supposed to be sunny day never was, but we (they) played in the water anyway. Brandon was trying very hard to get Kurt to ride this slide with him. Here he is showing him how much fun it is. Kurt seems to think it was fun for him to do it.

But he wasn't convinced it would be fun for him. We pretty much forced him down it here.

But look at the happy face after the shock wore off.

There was a HUGE bucket of water that would dump over every 5 mintues or so. Brandon didn't hear the warning bells and he and Luke were stuck.

Eating the yummy handmade (well, machine made right in front of us) donuts.

Watching Daddy on the bumper cars. Kurt did ride with him through one round, but then wanted to get off. Still don't know why...

All in all it was a fun day even though the sun didn't come out until 4ish. They also had a cheesy circus that Kurt thought was fun. Kurt was afraid of a lot of rides (It probably didn't help that we rode the log ride early on in the day and freaked him out) so Brandon ending up riding a lot of them solo. And yes, Disney would have been fun too, but we'll go in a few years and have fun again.

"Take me out to the ball game"

We checked a book out from the library about the history of baseball and it tells the story of how "Take me out to the ballgame" came to be. At the end of the book it also included the music for the song. Since Kurt loves music, he kept asking if "he" could play it on the piano. Now, Brandon can do the song all out just like they do at the ball parks, but most of the time, he justs gets me plunking out the melody like it is in his book. But he loves to sing/play it regardless. I've tried catching him singing it a few times, but he always spots the camera and gets really silly. This is the best one I've gotten so far. I love how he sways when he plays and his actions for the words in the song. You can't really see it, but when he sings "If they don't win it's a shame" he also shakes his finger back and forth. What can I say but adorable...

The Caboose

After months and months of deliberation, we finally ordered the joovy caboose. Kurt finally outweighed sitting on top of the graco we had-he would sit on the cup holders, but lately it would pop off the frame b/c of his weight.

Luke was so excited about the box

Then he couldn't wait to climb into the stroller even though we hadn't even gotten the wheels on yet. We couldn't keep him out.Both boys - loving their own seats in the caboose

Strawberries

Our first "fruits" of the season. Teeny little guys, but very tasty.

Temple

Brandon actually had a Saturday off from teaching so we coordinated with some friends to go down to the temple together. We traded off babysitting while the other couple went to do a session. We were so happy to be able to go together finally! I'm already trying to plan ahead for the next trip down.

All the festivities opened up this weekend too. We tried to do a carriage ride, but the tickets were already gone. But we got to listen to the band and pet their horses. We even ran into some friends from Ann Arbor! It was fun to see them and catch up.

They had a pioneer playground set up. Kurt loved it! He immediately wanted to walk on the stilts. It brought back lots of fond memories from my childhood. I'm asking myself now why I didn't do a little stilt walking...?

Daddy trying it out

Sandbox

Our neighbors built a sandbox in their yard and were done with their turtle box and they generously gave it to us. The boys love scooping up the sand and throwing it all over the patio, I mean, playing in it. :) My next task is to figure out how to place citronella around the patio so the gnats will leave us alone and let us play.

Grown up

Kurt's really wanted a watch for a long time now so he can always check out what time it is. I've been looking at them with him and we finally found one that would work out well for him. Whenever he wears it, he looks 2-3 years older. Sometimes I forget that he's still only 2 because he is so smart and talented and creative. You amaze us little guy!

Cutie Pie

Brandon picked this outfit out for Luke before he was born. It was too big for him last summer and it's not too small (yet) for him this summer. Brandon was excited and kept commenting all day how cute he looked. (Sorry about brother in the undies...)

First attempt at a solo spoon

I know that perhaps oatmeal wasn't the best food choice, but that's what he wanted this morning. He loves it so much he couldn't get enough in his mouth fast enough with the spoon so he resorted to handfuls.

So sad it's all gone...

"We'd venture off to exciting destinations like...Milwaukee"

Even though we all knew Emma and Nick were going to be in Wisconsin, it didn't really click with any of us until the day before they were leaving that we are only a few hours from Wisconsin (duh). So, we thought we'd try to meet in Madison and hang out for a bit. Then Emma called me back while they were waiting on their layover and told us that we should just come all the way to Milwaukee and stay the night. We'd have more time to hangout and Nicks grandpa could take us flying (as he is a pilot). So I hastily got everyone showered, dressed, fed, packed and in the car. Kurt was so tired of being on the "fast road," Luke basically cried the whole way there and we had an hour detour for 300 feet of closed road before the bridge over the Mississippi, but we finally made it.

Kurt got to play with Charlee, which he's been dying to do lately

Charlee was reuinted with her favorite cousin and proceeded to shower him with kisses (again)

and we got to meet Colt

Kurt really wanted to make him smile/laugh

We also went for a quick dip in the pool. I say quick because the water was freezing! And it took a long time, but we were able to get Kurt to "swim" with us. He always tells us he wants to go swimming, but he was so afraid. The water temp probably didn't help much either though

We stopped at the zoo on our way out of town. It was a great zoo - we had a wonderful time. I'll spare you all the pictures of the animals since I know you all know what a monkey looks like...

We rode the train (of course) Fed some goats (Kurt did too, but he was so nervous he wouldn't hold still long enough for a decent picture)

Obsessed over the fish (it was so cute how excited they were to be so close to so many fish)

And apparently annoyed this gorilla. Again, sorry for the fuzzy picture...camera shopping must be really terrible as we can't "find time" to go and do it even though our camera is so horrible!

Mother's Day

My boys were very sweet on Mothers Day (as always). Kurt made me flowers in Nursery (although I couldn't actually have them because he liked them so much.

And they went and got me my favorite lilies on Saturday as well as planted a box of flowers for the porch. It was the cutest thing to open the back door for him when he knocked to give me my flowers and say I love you. A priceless moment I hope to never forget...

Expansion Planting

Planting the garden (Did you know there was a children's song about planting a garden? I had no idea - Brandon sang it with Kurt for FHE and now it's one of his favorite songs). Carefully planting the carrot seeds

Luke really wanted to get involved and help, but he really only discovered dirt, and what it tastes like. All of the sudden, dirt is there, dirt is good, he can't get enough dirt. Is that a boy thing?
And actually, these are carrots again, on the other side of the garden

The finished product (we think).

Brandon found that owl (to the right of Kurt) somewhere around the house. We hope it'll scare off all the scavengers we have in our backyard and give the poor plants a chance to survive.

Au Revoir Jacoby

Sad for us, but very exciting for them, the Laskers are on their way to France for a few weeks. We had "Coby" come over to play so Deanna could get some things done.

They loved to play at the train table

I could not get the three of them to all have their eyes open at the same time. Such is life with toddlers...
We busted the sprinkler out for it's 2009 debut...no one was interested but Kurt and even he seemed content with trying to get drinks from it

Jacoby loved the car

And Luke showed him one of his favorite spots to plop and read books - the third stair up