Trip to Mt. Vernon

We went for a day trip to Mt. Vernon, IL today to meet up with my college roommate and her daughter. We played at the park for a long time, had a picnic, then headed to the mall because it looked like rain.

At the mall, Henry found the motorcycle immediately. That is, after passing several shoe stores and wanting to try on all of the big-boy shoes in the displays.



Caitlin, what a cutie.



Svea ate her very first lollipop...



...while Henry laughed loudly at himself in the mirrors on the ceiling of a coffee shop.



Here's the best out of 6 pictures in an attempt to get all 3 children looking the same way with none of them crying. Didn't turn out that great...but what can you do?

Capri Sun Break

Last week, Kelle brought over Kole and her new baby Drew so we could meet him.

Henry and Kole basically are still beating each other up the whole time they play together, which makes them thirsty. So they needed a Capri Sun. Svea runs around about 45 seconds behind the game, but she got thirsty too.

You'll notice that Svea has on her new polka-dotted shirt but she pulled her ponytail out already. Kole is giggling at Henry, who STILL has on his Piston Cup Lightning McQueen shirt and new baseball pants.



Uh, Kole...what are you looking at?

Too Tired to Think of a Title. If You Need TP, Get it Off The Floor.

You see this picture?



I had to make it my desktop - not only because I love it and I have so few pictures of Henry and me - but also to remind me these moments actually exist. Or used to.

First let me say that this week is Spring Break at Henry and Svea's "school" so today, when they normally go to school, they didn't.

Next, since the day was twice as long as usual, I was trying to be positive and think of twice as many activities that didn't involve all the movies we own.
So between painting, bubbles, tennis, soccer, finger painting. crayons, games, songs, and snacks there was a lot of pushing, kicking, back-talking, sassyness, peeing on the floor, spitting of food across the table, throwing chalk, shoving Svea to the floor as the grand finale to "Ring Around the Rosie", three time-outs by lunch and other disciplinary measures.
Did I mention it was a long day?

So at 7:30p I asked Henry if he could please go play and give Mama one little break so I could numb my brain to "Bam Margera's Unholy Union" which I had taped. He looked at me and stuck his finger way up his nose and pulled out the prize.
He said, "Mommy, what IS this?"

And I said, "Henry, it's a booger. Please go get a kleenex."

So he said, "Mommy, I'm going to get a kleenex."

And with the non-booger hand, he opened the bathroom door and turned on the light. Then he was in there for about 2 minutes.
I saw some white on the floor and sat up straighter on the couch and he peeked his head out and said, "Mommy, LOOK at this long string of PAPER that came OFF!"

Then he went immediately to bed.







(BTW, I am not currently addressing the small detail that I was watching Bam and how it may relate to what my son was doing)

(ABTW, I am kind of complaining in this posting, but it is NOTHING compared to the fear instilled in me about potty training after Leta's recent posting)

Svea and Lilah

Svea has a new BFF.



Actually, she's not new, we've known her her whole life, as Lilah's family has known Svea all of her's.

But Lilah and Svea have recently reached the phase where they want to play together. A lot.

And that makes everyone happy.



Here are some pictures of them synchronized spinning.











And here they are running



and dancing



and playing while Lilah sports her lobster Christmas pajamas.


Nice.

The Air, The Hose

Spring is here in full force making everyone want to take their clothes off, which in our house works very well.

In fact, Svea just learned to take her diaper off by herself this morning. After she walked into the room with only a shirt on, she started banging on the electric keyboard and yelling into the microphone. We foresee a really bright future for her.

The weather was so pretty on Saturday that Brian and Henry decided to wash cars:





Henry was pretty proud of himself.

Visit to New Harmony

Bobbie and Pops came to visit this weekend, so we headed up to New Harmony on Saturday.

The weather was perfect so we strolled through Tillich park where Paul TIllich's ashes are scattered (for all of you theologians out there) and then threw sticks in the lake:



Svea and Bobbie went to see what the big deal was about throwing sticks:



Not that big of a deal, I guess, so we played with rocks by the Roofless Chapel:





and we had chicken fights:





I don't think anyone thought we were weird at all for doing that.

Sweet Lawson

We had a play date with our Denver pal Lawson back at the beginning of the month. Thanks for the pictures, Bess! We loved seeing you guys.











That's Uncle Will in the background.

Cmoe Flyby

We tried to go to the Children's Museum of Evansville (cMoe) yesterday and it was a total disaster.

Apparently Wednesday was the field-trip-to-cMoe-for-3,000-kids-in-preschool day. So not only were there a million children with nametags and bright t-shirts, there were half a million parents standing around waiting until the whistle blew so they could shuffle their group of kids to the next room.
After 40 minutes we left.
Svea was clinging to my neck, I had sweat marks all over my shirt and Henry was wide-eyed overstimulated.

Before we got crazy, we had a few sweet moments at the lego table and construction station:

How Dialogue Goes in Our House

Svea: Look at my dress Aunt Meredith made! And my baby!



Henry: Don't take HER picture! I'm here! I'm cute!



Svea: You can stillllll seeeeeeeee meeeeeeeeeeeeee.



Svea: Ha! Ha! Ha! New day, new leggings! And crackuhs! I have crackuhs in my hands!
Henry: What?



Henry: Seriously, Mom. What is wrong with her.

These Days

These days, Brian and I have found ourselves either weakened by exhaustion by 6pm, or weakened by laughter at Svea and Henry's antics. Henry is officially 3 years and 4 days old, and Svea is 19 months and 4 days.

We still have to separate them on a daily basis.
Henry tends to be too aggressive, pinching and pulling and lying on top of Svea's head to squish it into the carpet. Within seconds he is patting her gently on the leg and offering her his favorite toy car. To which she says, "thaANK YOou" as some of you have heard her do.
Svea takes the more clandestine route, stealing Henry's drink and draining it then putting it carefully back where she got it without him ever seeing. She has also started three-word sentences which makes it easier to tell on Henry.

Last night Brian decided that Svea acts like our nonexistent drunk European cousin who has come to visit and finds everything in our house to be hilarious. She falls down while dancing, running and walking as she laughs and speaks with a weird, learning-a-new-language accent. We could hardly breathe during her performance after dinner.

Henry got a Superman shirt that inflates for Christmas and decided the other day that he would like to try and wear it. It has been in his dress-up box for months now but he has been afraid of the sound of the fan when it is inflating.



I got the shirt over his head, and the waist cinched, but when I turned on the fan, he lost it.
Completely.



I don't know if we'll try it again for another few months. This kid remembers things from 2 Chirstmases ago so I don't think he'll forget about this experience.

Svea loves dressing up too, but has stuck to the Mardi Gras beads our friend Tanner brought.





The ponytail receives much criticism, but it is functional and lasts longer than 5 seconds so you can get over it. And it goes with the beads.

HENRY'S THREE!

Henry turned three this past Friday and we have about 79 million pictures to gather and sort for a longer blog posting. This is one of the faves so far that our friend Andrea took:



So the cake is supposed to be a car tire...but...you know...and the football candles are left over from last year's ngongaa party.

Still tasted good though.

Lunch in Lydia's Backyard

Henry and Svea
Originally uploaded by iMollie.

Lydia turned three this past week (more pictures and separate posting on that) and we had a Princess Playdate and a Family Lunch.

Of course, Svea is still eating.

And Henry's smiling while he tells me what to do.

I Heart...

Ranch dressing:





and Danimals yogurt:

We Are Fam-uh-ly. I Got All Mah...

Here's Wes:



And here's Henry 7/28/05:





Could be genetic.

Meet George Costanza...aka Barry Huff

Wil - were you the one taking the picture? Good job getting that other couples' butts in the photo.

Sharon - love the round curling iron look...

Barry, if you still have that shirt I totally want to borrow it.

Snaggletooth Eric and Wes are the most normal looking, I would say.