Outdoor Fun!

Yesterday afternoon was almost bipolar; it went from hot, humid and sunny to thunderstorms and very windy within the course of about 5 minutes. So, luckily, during the humid part of the day, we decided to all venture outside to enjoy the beautiful weather. We got out this giant sprinkler beach ball I bought for the kids a few weeks ago and brought out a beach towel for Mommy and Abby to sit on.

Well, Nate was afraid of the water and didn't want to get wet...even though he's the guy who flounders in the bathtub until the very last drop of water has gone down the drain. Benjamin, on the other hand, couldn't get enough of this new toy! He was sopping wet from head to toes and wanted more! Here are a few photos of him having a "ball" with this giant sprinkler. What fun!!

He discovered that holding his butt up to one of the sprays was more fun than anything else...what a boy! Of course anything involving his "heiny" or "poopy" is hilarious nowadays. Ah, potty talk, gotta love it. This too shall pass :)...

Nate decided he'd spend his time playing baseball instead and insisted that I show him how to hold a bat. "Here, Mom, show me!"

Alright, any of you out there who are equating his poor stance with my teachings and the fact that I am team-sport-challenged....keep your thoughts to yourselves! Ha! :)

And now for the teething baby girl. Yes, our girl is definitely teething. I can see two little white buds on the bottom and she obsessively puts everything into her mouth lately. Put your head too close to her...watch out, she'll eat your hair! Pick her up...she'll gnaw on your shoulder! Bottle time...she'll prefer to just chomp down on the nipple! And did I mention that we are having compnay this weekend which is always the precursor for babies to decide to mess up their eating and sleeping schedules :). Yup, we wouldn't be surprised if two little pearly whites pop out over the next few weeks.

I'll try out that towel, thank you!

Mmmm...camera case! My favorite :)

OK, I take that back....my REAL favorite is Sophie the Giraffe. Thanks, Aunt Chel for my very best buddy (and I don't know how we survived two children without Sophie in the house!!!) :)

I just love these shots. Apparently yesterday was the perfect mix of sun and clouds to produce great pictures, even on our little point and shoot camera. Gotta love a little ruffle butt with a matching hairbow :)

Merrymead Farms

Yesterday morning, I went with Benjamin on his last fieldtrip of the year to Merrymead Farms. We had a lot of fun touring the farm, learning all about the animals, the farm machinery and the farm crops. Our tour ended with a yummy homemade ice cream cone!

Here is Ben's entire class with his teacher Mrs. Allen and aide Mrs. Prange also in the picture.


Watching the "twin sister" goats eating. They were very animated and a huge hit among all of the kids!

Scenic Merrymead Farm, a local favorite!

Can you believe this peacock? This proud guy just paraded around showing off his feathers practially the entire time we were there. This made up for the peacocks at the zoo last Friday who wouldn't show their beauty at all!

Funny Faces

Mr. Silly...

...and Little Miss Messy!

Siblings!

Tilling the Field

Yesterday our friend Mark came over early in the morning and volunteered to till the field for our garden since Andrew is not able to do it because of his shoulder surgery. What a friend!! So, we gave him some coffee, pizza, soda, beer and conversation (mainly from two little "farmers") and he did hard manual labor for us for several hours :). After that, the soil was like butter so Andrew was easily able to spread it around and begin some planting. Here are a few pictures of Andrew planting the first seends in his very first garden! We plan on getting the plants we have started in the sunroom (which are now quite large) outside this week.

I can't even remember the vast variety of vegetables and fruit we are attempting to grow, but hopefully most of them will be successful and we'll be able to celebrate our harvest all summer long!

Bathtime!

Getting ready for bathtime tonight, posing in her pink gingham towel :)

Elmwood Park Zoo

This morning we went to the Elmwood Park Zoo with our MOPS group. We had 10 moms come with 20+ kids and despite the hot and humid weather and the busy state of the zoo thanks to many local school fieldtrips, we all had a good time.

Nate was a bit tired during the trip and wanted to just sit in the stroller since it was a bit too crowded for his taste, but he claims "I had fun, Mom!" when I asked if he had a good time. Ben had fun and Abby had a good time trying out the big stroller without her infant carrier for the first time, too. She just looked around and took the whole event in, smiling and happy the majority of the time.

Here's our big girl sitting up in her stroller.



The vultures....this was actually pretty creepy. We were looking at the exhibit and then happened to glance up to find THIS, towering right over our heads!!!

Pony...

My favorite, the big woolly sheep.

Ben's favorite, the bison.

Benjamin checking out the prairie dogs. They are in one of his movies so he has been waiting to see them in person (although he has seen them before, he just didn't remember).

Some of the kids copping a squat in the grass for lunch since the picnic area was truly a ZOO with all the school fieldtrips eating lunch. This was a much nicer option. And it was shady. Win-win. :)

The Martin kids after lunch, revived from all of their goodies :)

Benjamin!

I loved the birds, even though I usually don't care much for birds. How ironic. I just always think the fancy birds at the zoo are so pretty :). The macaws, peacock and flamingos.

Ben as a green tree frog :)

Awww, Miss Abby got all tired out from the heat and all of the action. What a sigh of relief for Mommy so we could stay a bit longer than intended. :)

Color Me Mine

While Pop and Nana visited this week for Ben's school show, we decided to take the kids to Color Me Mine the next day to paint some pottery. Ben had been here once before - when he was about Nate's age - so it was fun to visit it again and have two little artistes this time.

So, in going with their stereotypes, Ben chose a Mater pickup truck bank (our truck lover) and Nate chose a soccer ball bank (our jock :)). At least their pottery will match each of their rooms perfectly, right?

What fun they had....and they were both so serious about making their creations perfect. Ben put about 37 coats of red and orange paint on his Mater pottery to make it look like Mater from the Cars movie. Nate painted each area of his soccer ball to perfection :). We will be going back in about a week to pick up our pieces, after they are fired and sealed. The boys can't wait to see them and put them in their rooms!

IVNS Spring Musical Performance

On Tuesday night, Benjamin had his first school performance ever - The Indian Valley Nursery School Spring Musical. How proud we were of our little guy! He and his classmates have been practicing their 7 songs and 1 poem for months in music class at school and finally got to share their talent with all of their families at their concert. It was adorable - I was tearing up just listening to them and watching them!

Ben went over the top in terms of wanting to look dapper for his big night out. He insisted on wearing the new tie I bought for him (yes, it has trucks on it) and his dress clothes. Actually, he had been trying to wear the tie with his polos and tee-shirts for two weeks prior to the concert so I promised him that he could wear it for his big night out. Of course his dress shoes were another story entirely - he insisted that they were uncomfortable and hurt his feet so we let him wear his sandals. Oh well, win some battles and lose some others!

Pop and Nana came out for the night to join us for Ben's special evening. We left Nate and Abigail with our babysitter and took the big boy to his show and then out for ice cream afterwards. What a special night!

Here he is all decked out in his finest clothing, just before we left. We'll be getting a DVD of the performance so we didn't bother taking many pictures at the actual show and those we did take came out dark. So, you'll just have to visit us and watch his DVD :)