Preparing for Soccer

Tomorrow evening is Bryce's first day of outdoor soccer practice. To prepare for the big day, I put his new soccer cleats and shin guards on so he could get used to how they feel. He loved it! Hopefully he will enjoy soccer season!

Boys and Puddles

As a mother of two boys, I have learned that it is VERY tough to keep boys out of water puddles. My kids gravitate to them and always try to jump in them quickly before Mom and Dad stop them. This evening, Landon found a puddle on the bottom of the sliding board. He jumped in it while I wasn't looking. Since he was already wet and muddy I allowed him to continue having fun splashing in the water.

My Little Cleaners

Bryce and Landon love being in the kitchen with me, especially when they can clean dishes in the sink. Cousins Emily and Aaron recently passed on their play kitchen to us so the boys now enjoy kitchen play oustide. There was water in their kitchen sink from an entire day of rain on Saturday and they immediately began washing their dishes when we went outside to play yesterday. I had no idea they would enjoy it as much as they did!

Artist

While I was at AC Moore this weekend, I bought a few crafts for the kids. Bryce was excited beyond belief! He selected one of the crafts to work on yesterday - a monster truck. I set up a blanket in the shade and he enjoyed painting outside.

Monkey Man

Landon is such a little monkey! He hangs on everything. Our treadmill is his hanging mechanism of choice.

Nine Year Anniversary!

John and I celebrated our ninth wedding anniversary today. For the second year in a row, we celebrated with a family night out.

We went out to dinner at a Hibachi/sushi restaurant. The kids loved their first hibachi experince.

Bryce really enjoyed eating sushi with chopsticks and he was captivated by the hibachi chef. Landon was a bit apprehensive watching the chef but I think he would love to eat there again.

Messy Messy!

This is what happens when we allow our children to eat ice cream and Italian ice while we are driving in the car!

Birthday Celebration

We celebrated Landon's second birthday on Sunday.

Landon tried very hard to blow out his candles! We have been practicing for a few weeks, but he still needed assistance from his cousins!

Sunday was a perfect day for an outside party! The kids had a blast with water activities, especially the water balloons!

The slip 'n slide was a huge hit!

Landon received a lot of help opening presents!

Playing In The Leaves

Our neighbor, Sarah, raked leaves yesterday and Landon had a great time playing in them!

Afternoon Activity

Bryce decided he wanted to paint this afternoon. So, when I took Landon upstairs to change his clothes, Bryce got the paint and coloring books off the bookshelf. He then took my glass from the kitchen table and filled it up with water then began water painting. Landon quickly joined Bryce at the activity table so he could paint too.

Bryce painted for at least an hour this afternoon!

Landon didn't actually paint. He dipped his brush in the water and "painted" the lid to the paint bin. He then proceeded to pour the water on the lid. After he began painting his face and pouring water all over the coloring books, I cut him off from painting! Painting inside the house with a one year old is stressful!!!

Playing With Friends

Some of Bryce and Landon's neighborhood friends come over to play yesterday. Bryce loves when the kids play in his yard!

Landon enjoyed all of the attention from the girls. He also had fun riding on the electric motorcycle (a hand-me-down from our neighbor Andrew).

Hershey Park

John took a vacation day today so we went to Hershey Park for the afternoon.

Landon rode many new rides today. He loved being on the Scrambler with his dad and brother. Both Bryce and Landon squealed in delight the entire time they were on this ride.

Another first for Landon - he rode an airplane with Bryce. In this picture, they are fighting over who gets to push the button on the missel. I told Bryce the park manager was going to tell him to get off the ride if he didn't stop fighting with Landon. He quickly kept his hands to himself!

Arcade Time

There was an arcade at the water park resort. It was a very special treat for the boys to play a lot of games! They both had a great time....actually, John may have enjoyed it more than Bryce and Landon!

Landon loves ski ball! Ann enjoyed bonding with the boys at the arcade!

Water Park

The boys had many hours of fun this weekend at the water park resort. They both loved going down all of the slides!

Bryce loved exploring all of the features in the water park!

Landon loved getting on all of the water toys!

Landon blowing bubbles in the water. Too funny!

Bryce was a great swimmer in the water!

Weekend Getaway

We met John's mother and step father this past weekend at a water resort. The boys loved all of the attention they received from them!

Big Truck

Bryce and Landon went to Molly's house on Tuesday while I worked for a few hours. My parents are having a patio poured so there was a "big truck" (as Bryce and Landon called it) in the yard. The boys watched the digger from the window. We expected them to be really excited about watching all of the work, but I think they were scared. Landon kept telling my mom, "too loud, too loud." They only watched for a little while then they moved on to their usual routine at Molly's house - playing with the toys and the Lionel train.

Wolfgang Candy Factory

My mom and I took the boys to the Wolfgang Candy factory on Monday. We took a tour of the facility and purchased a few items from their "candy shop."

Special Time With Daddy

The boys enjoyed special time with John today at the park. They had a great time together!

Landon checks out everything. In this picture, he was fascinated by the grates in the ground.

Where ever you find Bryce, you find Landon two steps behind!

The kids saw their friends Grant and Kenzie at the park. They love when they have friends to play with at the park!

Sticker Boy

Bryce has found a renewed interest in stickers lately. Yesterday he decided to use his body as his canvas and put stickers everywhere. That is the last time he will do that...it hurt terribly when we took the stickers off!

Roller Skating

My mom has been cleaning out her attic and she found my roller skates from 1983! Still in the original box and packaging! Bryce was so excited when he saw them and asked if he could use them to skate. Here we are getting laced up.

Bryce had fun going down our sidewalk with the skates on. Landon wasn't too far behind!

Oops! Bryce fell down! We were preapared for falls with a helmet, knee pads and elbow pads.

I had a tight grip on Bryce so he wouldn't get hurt!

Sprinkler Fun

Both Bryce and Landon were restless this afternoon and kept getting into trouble. So, I took them outside, turned the sprinkler on and let them burn off their extra energy.

Landon was curious about the sprinkler then lost interest pretty quickly.

Bryce ran through the sprinkler water much longer than Landon did. He had a blast getting wet!

Swim Day

The daycare center Bryce attends has "swim day" every Thursday. Bryce only attends on Wednesdays and Friday mornings so he always misses this activity. About half way through the summer, he realized "swim days" are on a day he isn't there and ever since then he has been asking to participate. So I took Bryce and Landon to Stillmeadow today and stayed with them so they could particpate in "swim day."

Landon fit right into the group without any trouble! He is our social butterfly! Our children are so different.....Bryce stood by my side and Landon went off on his own.

The boys really enjoyed going down the sliding board into the swimming pool. Landon became buddies with the two girls who were keeping the slide wet and insisted they hold his hand on the way down.