on a side note.....

.....in case you ever get a tupperware dish from our house, my apologies if there happens to be any of Henry's leftover "nacks" (snacks) in it. He was really in the 'tupperware cupboard' mood the other day, placing one piece of Kix in every single container. Not sure if we found all of them yet :)

Happy Ea..ter?

After 35 years of using these STIK-EES Easter Decorations in the Olin household windows, can you believe we couldn't find the pink S to complete our Happy EaSter? Come on Grandma Judy, how could lose such an important piece after just 35 years? I tried to find a copyright date on these babies but I couldn't.

Here's what we started with.....

.....but thankfully after digging through 2 huge photo albums (yes, we'll be pulling out window decals from the 70s for all the holidays now), we finally found the lonesome little S!

Henry put up every single egg, chick, bunny, and spring flower himself, wanting more-more when he was all done!

And the finished product, ta-da! Looks just like the tutorial above, doesn't it? Well done Henry, now we're ready for Easter, not Ea..ter!

Choo Choo Bob's

With Henry's recent love (and I do mean LOVE) of trains, I scoured the internet last week to find us a fun outing for today, so we checked out Choo Choo Bob's Train Store in St. Paul with Henry's buddy, Harrison.

So, obviously Choo Choo Bob's is a store where you can buy any train part you'll ever need I'm sure, but they also have about 6 large train track tables set up in the back where the kiddos can just play and play and play. It was fun, there were about 15 little boys there that were all just doin' their own thing, heads down, each pushing the trains along the tracks, very seriously too I might add, as you can see below.

Don't mind if I do have a snack out of your cup, Harrison, thank you very much! We worked on lots of "please's and thank you's" today, good sharing between both of the good little boys :)

And then in the front of the store, they had multiple trains going round and round on the tracks they had set up. Here's the big man, Bob, himself, getting this train back on it's tracks after somebody who shall remain nameless just may have stopped it on the tracks (it was just too tempting and he just couldn't contain himself, ok)!

Afterwards, we stopped for snacks at the coffee shop next door :)

Great play-date, we'd definitely go back to Choo Choo Bob's again!

Winter?

Yes, it was still technically winter and we got to bust out Henry's new trike! He doesn't quite get the whole pedaling thing yet, but sure enjoys getting on and off over and over again.

Pause.....I see a school bus coming!

I think Henry's favorite time of day to play outside is right around 4pm. On a good day, we'll see 4 school buses, a mail truck, and possibly a UPS or FedEx truck. On this particular day, the UPS man even stopped to talk to us. Henry was mesmerized, mouth gaping open and could barely muster up a wave for the guy as he just stood there in awe :) Could it get any better than that?!

Henry and his BFF LuLu on community watch patrol from our deck. Lucy, bless her heart - her name got changed to LuLu and she didn't even know it .

We busted out the new play-dough out on the deck, yes, still as squishy as ever (I told you, great recipe from my Pinterest page). Making "sausage pizzas" here, poor LuLu snuck over and ate 2 pieces of "sausage" which didn't sit the greatest in her tummy :(

We made many versions of "Mr. Potato Face" too, not sure if a single one turned out looking like a real face, oh well, good times and great weather - we'll take it!

Downtown date

Henry and I had a downtown date this week, we checked out the Minneapolis library and then had an outdoor lunch with Daddy!

What a super cute kids area they have at the library downtown, complete with magnetic letter boards, puzzles, chalk boards, big huge blocks to build stuff, computers, couches and tables and chairs, and spinning thingamajigs too! We didn't get through one single book, way too many other things to check out!

Had to memorize this puzzle before we left.....concentrating sooooo hard!

Yes, the spinning thingy :)

What a beautiful day we had to take our Chipotle outside.

The highlight of lunch by far.....watching the light rail! Absolutely loved it, saying "more coo-coo (choo-choo train), more coo-coo" over and over. I can't forget about all the city buses he got to see too, the boy was in heaven :)

Coo-Coo!

Yes, flip-flops in the middle of March, it's been crazy warm here!

Lots-o-green

I added green to everything I could think of on St. Patrick's Day! For breakfast, Henry had green eggs, green pancakes, green grapes, eating it all on a green plate, with a green bib! At first, Henry had to give each piece the sniff test as he thought I was fooling him with some green veggies (God forbid)!

Doesn't he kind of look like a little bit of a leprechaun here? Loved the green breakfast!

St. Patrick's Day preparations

Henry and his buddy Owen were hard at it again today, this time whipping up their own homemade play-dough, the color green of course in honor of the upcoming St. Patrick's Day!

"What are we supposed to do with this stuff? It sure doesn't taste that good!"

The concept was a little foreign to them at first (I think this was only the 2nd time Henry has played with play-dough), but they were getting the hang of it!

Henry's favorite thing to do with it was drop it on the floor (shocking), as it made such a lovely "thump" when it hit the ground :)

It was so super EASY that we had to make a couple other colors, Easter egg colors I guess you could say. I would definitely recommend this activity to others, the recipe is on my Pinterest page if you're interested!

random thoughts

As I had to work this weekend, I missed out on church today. Phil told me all about this little boy going around the "little angels" room doing portraits of everybody. The conversation went something like this.....

Boy: Can I draw him (meaning Henry)?

Phil: Sure

Boy: Here he is, I drew his tongue and all his teeth!

(Henry was wearing a plaid shirt too)

Too cute.....I guess I missed an exciting day in the "little angels" room, bummer!

"iPod, iPod, iPod" is what I've been hearing lately, as he reaches into the drawer where I hide my iPod. He has 3 favorite apps, in Henry's words "AB", "cat", and "LiLi" or the ABC app where you have to identify the letter they ask you to find, the Cat in the Hat app where it reads you a story, and the animal sounds app (the lion is obviously his favorite)!

Happy Birthday to Riley!

Thank you, Riley, for visiting us in MN this weekend so we could celebrate your 2nd birthday with you! We had so much fun.....from building race cars, to flying down slides, seeing the monkeys, and don't forget the birthday cake, the "Dowa" (or Dora I suppose) cake that is :)

Yes, even my little Henry Thomas enjoyed a little cake as well!

Who knew when you went on your birthday vacation you'd have to suit up in your "shop" apron and go build a race car? Henry drug Riley to Home Depot on Saturday for some good 'ol Minnesota hard work. Riley, I'm sure your daddy was proud :) I think Henry left the Depot with more wood glue on his face than on his race car!

What's a trip to MN without a trip to the zoo? Grandma & Grandpa came from NoDak for the party too!

Ooohhhh, seal, I've just missed you so much! Riley, I guess I've missed you too :)

Such pretty flowers in the conservatory. We just about had to keep this one from trying to jump in the water here!

Goodnight Riley, Happy 2nd Birthday (tomorrow)!

this and that

Yesterday because of all that white stuff.....

.....unfortunately we were unable to attend our last class of this, bummer.

It was supposed to be 'lifejacket day' at swimming lessons, so I created DIY swimming lessons in the bathtub! We sang all the same songs and tried floating on our bellies. Henry was not too sure what the heck I was doing, but went along with it anyways :)

Then after that.....

.....we had a lot of this to do outside.

As you can see, he started out with a smile on his face, but it quickly turned into this look of determination (accompanied by beet-red cheeks). He did NOT want to come inside, collapsed when I tried to lure him inside. I had to carry him in like a sack-o-potatoes to warm up!