Tractor Tractor part 2

Ha!  I win, blogger!  It took me a week and a half, but I managed to get my video uploaded!  :)  Thank you, Stephanie Jacobson, for the tip on uploading the video to YouTube first!  It still took almost 15 minutes to upload there, but at least now I can share it on our blog.  :)  Enjoy!

Birthday fun!

My mom turned 60 on May 20 and my dad and I decided to throw together a surprise party for her.  We invited a few friends and some family, and had a great time celebrating mom.  It worked out pretty nicely because she had to work all day, and we were able to surprise her by singing "happy birthday" to her as she pulled into the driveway after work.  The video is a little rough... it's hard to really capture someone's reaction to a surprise like this when they're in the car... but I think we got her.  :)

Micah helped me make the cake pops for the party... I used the opportunity to "practice" for Caleb's cake, which I'll have plenty of pictures of in a few days!  :)

 

Dad had Lee & Eddie's cater the party, which was nice and made the cleanup SUPER easy!  :)

 

Simple decorations ~

Happy 60th birthday, mom!  We love you!

Tractor Tractor

This isn't the video I wanted to post... I'm still working on that one... but this one is good too.  Micah's absolute FAVORITE song these days is "Tractor Tractor", and he about went through the roof when this song was played at the concert.  He knows all the words and sings it all.the.time.  He even makes up his own verses from time to time which crack us up!  :)  So, enjoy this video, and I hope I can get the other one posted at some point.

Slugs and Bugs...LIVE!

Lately, every time we get in the car it's never more than about 2 minutes before we hear, "I want tractor tractor back on," which for those of you that aren't familiar with the album means, "I want to listen to Slugs and Bugs". We got the album Slugs and Bugs and Lullabies when Micah was very little, and have since added to the collection with Slugs and Bugs Under Where? and A Slugs and Bugs Christmas. They are done by two artists, Andrew Peterson and Randall Goodgame, and are GREAT albums for kids! The artists also write songs for VeggieTales, (mostly the Silly Songs with Larry part, I'd guess) and some of the songs on these albums just crack me up! I honestly don't know how they are able to record them without bursting out laughing! :) (and they do in some songs!)

Anyway, last Saturday, we took the kids to a Slugs and Bugs Live concert at Moody Church in Chicago. We had a ball! We got to Moody about a half hour before the concert started and were able to let the boys run around for a bit before taking our seats. And run around they did! I think Micah took about 40 laps around the room before the concert started, and another 40 or so during the concert! We were in a medium sized conference room at the church, and there were seats for about 150 - 200 people, so it was a very intimate concert. The kids could run right up to the "stage" (which was just a short platform that even Caleb could climb up onto with no trouble), and got to dance/move around all throughout the concert... which made it very nice not to have to worry about the fact that our kids had very little interest in sitting in their seats the whole time. :) Micah was completely mesmerized by everything that was going on around him, and I could just see the wheels spinning in his head as we watched the concert. He wasn't quiet sure what to watch... all the people, the videos being shown on the screens, or the guy playing the guitar and singing (who sounded an awful lot like the guy we listen to in the car). ;) I think he managed to take it all in though, and for the past few days we've heard a LOT about how we "went to Chicago and saw the man singing and playing the guitar."

The boys before the show started (as you can tell, all they wanted to do was run around!) ~

Randall Goodgame, one of the geniuses behind Slugs and Bugs ~

All the kids on the floor in front of the stage (Micah is in Aaron's lap...I think he was a bit intimidated by all the kids) ~

Micah and me with Randall after the concert... we had to tell him what a blessing his music is to our family, and how much Micah LOVES the songs! :)

And what is a Slugs and Bugs concert without 'dirt' for dessert afterwards? :)

** I've been trying to upload a video for a while, but for some reason blogger isn't letting me do it.  (side note: I am NOT a fan of blogger's new format!  It's very frustrating!)  I'll keep trying and post it when I can. **

As I hope you can see, we had a WONDERFUL time! We can't wait to do it again the next time the Slugs and Bugs Live concert is local! :)

Baby shower fun!

Mother's day weekend, we headed up to the UP for a baby shower for Tracy. We got to Aaron's parents' house late, but even though the boys really hadn't napped much that day they still wanted to play for a little bit in the basement. (Micah has a mind like a steel trap and remembers EVERYTHING about the toys in Grandma and PaPa's basement!) By the time we were getting them ready for bed, Uncle Eric and Auntie Tracy showed up with Emma, so we had to start over with getting the kids settled down for bed after saying hello to them. :) But, eventually everyone settled in for the night and did fairly well as far as sleeping goes.

The shower was on Saturday morning, at their church, and Debbie (Grandma) and her friends did a GREAT job decorating and planning the event!

Cute owl centerpieces ~

Fruit stroller ~

The guests of honor (Eric was a brave man to be there with all those women!) ~

Look at all that loot! Bono is one blessed baby! :)

Eric's "Diaper Changing Kit" gift ~

A little better shot of the baby bump :)

After the shower, Aaron and I battled with Micah to take a nap... he never did sleep, but we managed to get him to lay down and watch Curious George quietly for a little while, so I'll call that a draw. :) And after "rest time" (whatever that was), we got together with the Smith/Strietzel clan for dinner. The kids had had a fun time playing together with Aaron and Bill while the ladies were at the shower, and we decided to extend the fun into the evening. :)

Hard at work in the Smith's yard ~


Sitting by the campfire ~

And before we left on Sunday, we stripped the boys down to their diapers (I didn't think to bring any swim stuff... I didn't realize it was going to be as warm as it was!), and let them play in the sprinkler and kiddie pool. Aaron's parents had just gotten some new playground equipment, and Grandma had the great idea to put the pool at the bottom of the slide... what a hoot! :)

Playing in the sprinkler ~


Chasing Emma with the water sprayer (she was such a good sport!) ~


Splashing in the pool ~



Sliding into the pool ~

All in all, it was a wonderful weekend. We came home a bit more sleep deprived than usual for a weekend, but it was totally worth it. :) Thanks, Klingenmaier family and friends, for a great weekend!

More sunny day perks :)

For the sake of keeping those of you who actually read our blog interested, (since that last one was kind of long) I decided to save a few things for a separate post. :) The boys have discovered frozen yogurt... and by "frozen yogurt", I mean actual frozen yogurt. I found these empty push pop containers at Dominicks and Ikea and we put vanilla yogurt into them and froze them. The boys LOVE them! (Caleb especially!) :) Looks like we've got a keeper for those hot summer days!

It's pretty much impossible to keep the boys clean for any length of time period, but when yogurt pops are involved... just get the bathtub ready!

"What?"

"Hey! I wasn't done with that!"

"If you don't want yours... I DO!"

"Mmmm..."

We keep telling Micah, "it won't be long before Caleb is bigger than you and then you'd better watch out," but he's taking full advantage of his size advantage right now. (and keeping Caleb plenty entertained in the process) Here, the boys were playing with a piece of rope my dad had out for hanging a swing in the back yard. Caleb was amused at first, but then decided he'd had enough. :)

**NO children were harmed in the making of this film**

I also had to share a few cute pictures of my "future conductors" with Pops... love these guys!

Fun in the sun

We have had some BEAUTIFUL weather here lately! There were a few days where it seemed like we had completely skipped spring and gone straight into summer! It was even warm enough to get our kiddie pool out earlier this month! We've been taking full advantage of the nice days... playing outside, going for walks, and just enjoying God's amazing creation.

At the park ~

In addition to fun in the sun, we (well... the boys) have also had some fun in the MUD!

Fun in their pool :)

Of course, with beautiful spring weather come thunderstorms, and we got a few pictures of some interesting clouds outside our house one night before getting hit with a doozie! :) (these clouds kind of reminded me of the movie "The Day After Tomorrow"... if you've seen it, you should know what I mean)



We've had fun with friends...

Here's Micah and his gymnastics buddy, Shai, at the Kohl Children's Museum ~

If I had any clue about Photoshop, I would have cropped these two pictures to make one where both Micah and Jeremy are looking at the camera. Oh well. :)

...and been able to enjoy the newest member of the family a bit... (ok, a LOT! The massive amount of pictures are for you, Auntie Lisa) :)

Aaron and Eliza ~

Caleb wasn't too sure about Eliza at first...

...but he thinks she's pretty cute :)

Sweet little gassy smile ~

The boys, checking out their newest cousin...and her car seat (to be honest, I'm not sure which they were more interested in) :)

Relaxing after a diaper change ~

All ready to go home (she looks like she's thinking, "maybe if I appear uninterested, she'll stop taking my picture..." Sorry, kid, you'd better get used to it!) :)

Beautiful mommy & baby ~

Caleb was all about his cousin until Daddy showed up with ice cream! :)

Our boys have also discovered how much fun it is to bang the lids to our pots and pans together. **WARNING ~ you might want to turn your volume down before hitting play!**

Micah has also discovered his new favorite place to read! Believe it or not, he got in there all by himself. :)

He even got Nee Nee to read him a story in the tunnel! :)

I love how you can see Micah's feet on one side of the tunnel, and Nee Nee and Caleb on the other :)

It has been a beautiful spring so far, and we are looking forward to many more nice days to come! :)