Then & "Now" Halloween

Gabriel then (2009)

Gabriel now (2010)

Liam then 2009

Liam now (2010)

Gabriel & Liam now (2010)

Our happy little family now (2010)

The idea behind this post:
For some reason when I sat down
at the computer Picassa was open to
Halloween pictures of Gabriel in 2009 &
I thought to myself...wow, he's grown!
I thought it would be fun to do a
comparison of then and "now."

May 7, 2011 Our Neighbors Garden

Gardening

Our neighbor, Sue, asked if we
wanted to plant things in their new
garden. I laughed. I do not have a green thumb.
I suggested we plant Pumpkin Seeds for
the boys so that is our "contribution" to
the garden;) Here we are planting
the seeds with Sue & her son, James.

James is Gabriel's new best friend.
We play outside with him most sunny evenings
and we've had him over for play dates.
Gabriel will ask to go outside and play
with "Jimms" from the time he wakes up.
The way he says James is too cute
for words. I am so glad we have
neighbors that we like really well:)

We put the seeds in the hole &
Liam took them out. Silly Liam!

Gabriel is always eager to help.

He really got into it!
I had to keep my eye on Liam
but Gabriel continued helping Sue put
seeds in the holes and covering them
up with dirt. He took his duty of
covering and patting the soil
very seriously.

Peace, Love, and Blog.

We are now up to date on our blog
from January to May.

You have to scroll all the way down
and work you way up. I'm sorry I
don't know how to post-date entries:(

When I used the "blog this" tool on
Picassa it used to only let me upload
4 pics at a time so I assumed it hadn't
changed and that is why so many
events are broken up into multiple entries.
Sorry!

April 2011 End of the month

Gabriel talking to Grama.

Brothers.

Don't feed the Monkeys!

No Banana for you little Monkey!

Egg hunt in our yard (after Easter).

Just for fun.

Already getting a jump start
on next years competition;)

April 23-24, 2011 Easter Weekend

April 23, 2011

The Ku Ku Bird Pinata.

Gabriel had a book from the library
called, Hippo Goes Bananas.
Hippos are probably his favorite
animal because of this book that,
we read EVERY night waaay past
the due date (seriously I owe big for the fines!).
In the book there is a Ku Ku Bird and
because of this we bought this Pinata
at the party store thinking it would
fit in with our theme of
"all G & L's favorite things."
It was the old fashioned
kind that requires you to bash
it in to get the candy-you know
what I'm talking about, right?
We got it home and hung it up and
first thing Gabriel said, with much
enthusiasm, was "Ku Ku Bird!"
He then started telling the story.
We knew right then that we couldn't
allow the children to beat him open.
We saved it and I turned it into a pull-string.
The boys were pretty happy to start their
day out with a bird full of candy;)

We had some birthday money & returns
that we turned into a sand "box."
Gabriel can sit and dig and sift sand
for, what seems like, forever.
I hid little plastic dinosaurs in there
so that they could pretend they
were Paleontologists on a dig.

You can't see it in the picture but G.
picked out a magnifying glass from the
toy section and had been using it
EVERYWHERE, including in the
sandbox. He would pretend to see
letters & colors & animals & more.
He's an imaginative little guy.

Easter

Liam has learned the art of hiding
things from his big brother...ha ha ha!!!

Jordan Lake

I said he eat everything...didn't I?;)

This was the first time Liam
had been to the beach besides when he was
a tiny new baby. He had a blast!

Liam was babbling/talking &
making a bunch of cute noises.
I told Chet that he was having a
conversation with himself and
chet replied...
"He's actually having a convo. with his shoe."

They are in the same place at
the same time...quick...
take a picture!

Still talking to his shoe.

Gabriel writing, "I heart mommy."
Aaaah, thanks little Man Cub;)

Just a few days before Easter we took
both boys to the Pediatrician because
they had ongoing colds/coughs/runny noses.
As it turns out Liam had dbl ear infection.
A day or two later we found 4 teeth coming
coming "in." Poor little guy:(
He was on antibiotics but was still sicky
so we didn't want to expose other kids
and therefore turned down invites
to egg hunts and Easter events.
We thought taking them out to the lake
would be calm and there would be few people
We were so wrong!
It was crowded and we had to move
to another beach because of it.
So, despite the crowds and not
feeling well my boys had a great day:)

April 17, 2011 Zoo

After our morning egg hunt we
went to the Zoo!

There was a volunteer group
making drums out of recycled
buckets. Gabriel "made" this
drum and wore it for quite a
while banging away.

The woman who ran the kids
music group said that he had
great "rhythm" and encouraged
us to get him into music lessons.

Gabriel has always loved music
and dancing. He actually does
have pretty good rhythm for a kid
his age. He must get it from his daddy;)
Well, now that I think about it...
I bet he gets his awesome dance
ability/moves from me...LOL!

Liam made a shaker from a pill
bottle and some beans.

Simple pleasures.

He has the cutest giggle my
ears have ever heard!

Liam will eat anything & everything!
He's always hungry and eats whatever you offer.
It's nice to have one boy that eats;)

This is Liam enjoying the Carousel.

This is Liam expressing just how
much he's enjoying it.

This is mommy holding Liam while he
watches his brother enjoy the Carousel;)

This is Gabriel riding on his Zebra.

He's happy riding the Carousel.
He didn't used to be but now he is a big fan.

This is Liam's subtle way of telling us 2+
hours at the Zoo is enough and he's done!

Subtle was not doing the trick
so he turned it up.

Mommy and Daddy were so
thrilled that the day was so gorgeous
they wanted to stay and play...ha ha ha!!!
Gabriel was sleeping in the stroller by the end
and Liam, well, all he wanted to see was
the interior of the car & his carseat;)

One other fun thing Gabriel and I did
was the Dora 4 movie.
Gabriel was a fan of Dora & Swiper
from that day forward.