Farm animals, Flower pots, & Fun with balloons

 You can't beat a good 'ol local garden center's Spring open house on a Sunday afternoon.  We checked out Waldoch Farms in Lino Lakes.....complete with farm animals, flower pots, and fun with balloons!  

First stop, the farm animals.  Henry sure was pumped the whole drive there, saying he was going to "feeeeed them foooood", but when push came to shove, he wasn't about to get too close.  I think his favs were the rooster, the chickens, and the ducks.   

I forgot, he does love anything that's a "bebe" (baby) too, so he wanted to give the little goat some love.

Next stop, the flower pots where we put him to work.  He picked out his own flower to plant, a pansy that's sort of a dark maroon color, very manly.

Ta-Da, the finished product.  I put it in a red pot when we got home and it's my centerpiece for my kitchen island now, made with love of course.

Last stop, the balloon man.  Henry asked for a puppy, please.  First he got a blue puppy.....

.....then he got to help him make a red puppy.  Henry just stood there, stone-faced as could be, staring (as you can see).

 Oh how we do love Spring!

First day out on the trail

Today was our first trip out in the Burley this year.  It wasn't the easiest trek to the park, either Henry got a little bigger or I got a little wimpier.....I'm guessing it's a little of both.  On a side note, he did weigh in at 27 lbs when I had him in at the doctor a couple weeks ago for that pesky fever that lasted 4 days, so I decided to bring him in the day before we headed to Chicago, and of course, it was nothing! 

Couldn't wait to crawl in and get going.  He needs absolutely no help getting or our this year!   

 

"Maaaa" which is what he likes to call me now.  Another favorite phrase lately is "I dooooo" when you ask him anything that requires a "yes" answer, it's pretty darn cute.

Flashback to last year.....look at how much more he fills it out this year in the last picture!  Snacks and water still in hand, can't leave home without them :)

Well, I suppose I better get in biking shape I guess!

Safety first

We spent a quite a bit of time outside on this beautiful afternoon we had today.....a run to the park, down the BIG twirly slide about 8 times, watched 3 boys play some football, and then lots and lots of bird chasing when we got back home (apparently bird chasing requires a helmet, who knew)!  I had to grab the boy 2 houses down and he was NOT happy that he couldn't catch that bird he was after :)  Little Henry sure is an animal lover (well, except for caterpillars for some odd reason, won't go near them).  We went to the Wild Rumpus bookstore on Monday for StoryTime, but who could possibly sit and listen to a story when there were 3 kitties, a rooster, 2 chinchillas, 2 ferrets, 3 birds, and a dove to check out.  Once again, the Wild Rumpus did not disappoint as it was WILD! 

Chicago - time to go home today

One final coo-coo ride for Henry this morning (as soon as we would get off the train, "more-more" from Henry). We took the train to Wrigleyville to check out where Phil used to live (or where they tore down his building and put up this brand new beauty), aaaaahh memories!

And had to check out the Cubs' stadium too, of course!

What a great little mini-vaca, just the perfect amount of time in the Windy City!

Chicago - Day 2

While Phil had a meeting, Henry and I set out to explore the sights! First up was Millennium Park, where we were greeted by a homeless guy who said to Henry, "Hey little dude, welcome to my neighborhood!"

Here I asked Henry, "Can you sit down so I can take your picture by the pretty flowers?".....

.....and oops, this is what I got :) We straightened out the crushed tulip and busted out of there!

Here we are at "the bean" - pretty cool!

The one picture of me from the whole trip!

Next, we headed to Navy Pier. One game of ring-around-the-rosy with the statues before we headed inside.

The ships, the biiiiiiig ships, according to Henry!

After Phil was all done for the day, he took us to his all-time fav pizza place in Chicago!

That deep dish pizza takes a loooooong time to bake.

Henry had to check everything out around the pizza joint while that pizza was still baking!

After a belly full of pizza, we found an actual park inside of Millennium Park. Henry's high for the day.....getting close to those (nasty if you ask me) pigeons!

Chicago - Day 1

Henry and I tagged along with Phil to Chicago for a few days this week. It was my first trip to Chicago in ages, probably 20 years, and it was Henry's first ever trip there!

According to Henry - the high of the trip was going on the train (coo-coo, as he calls them) and the low was checking baggage and then watching his blanket go through security, very traumatic for the poor boy :(

Thank goodness for the play area at Terminal 2 at the Minneapolis airport, it passed a little time before we got on the plane!

Aaahhh, in his glory, first ride on the coo-coo from the airport to the hotel, couldn't wipe the grin off his face!

A first for Henry, no nap the day we flew there, and this boy LOVES his sleep! He was delirious by the time we got to our hotel. I think the only way we must have gotten through dinner at the Grand Lux Cafe was spotting every single bus and taxi that went down Michigan Ave (thank goodness there were LOTS of them) and also the iPod, of course :)

Happy Easter!

We had a nice Easter weekend around here. Grandma & Grandpa came and joined us from J-town.

First things first, an Easter egg hunt in the house (Daddy fertilized the lawn yesterday, no egg hunting in the yard, boo). We had to repeat the egg hunt about 4 more times throughout the day. Who knew yogurt bites, raisins, and puffs would be soooooo much fun to find in the eggs?!

Poor baby had a fever on and off throughout the weekend, not really sure why, still eating ok and running around like a wild man :)

After church, had to test out my new fishing rod that the Easter Bunny brought for me at my Oma & Opa's house. Bummer, didn't catch any fish in the backyard off the deck.

Then after some ham, beans, and a long nap.....a wagon-ride to the park of course. Somebody was showing off for his Auntie Sonja and thought he could go down the slide face-first.

Then unfortunately somebody had a complete meltdown when I corrected him the second time around and made him sit on his butt, pretty much the worst mom ever!

All in all, nothing too crazy, like I said - a nice weekend.....just how we like it!

Hoppy Easter everybody :)

So much to do

Oh man, were we ever busy this weekend, checking everything off our Easter to-do list!

Decorate sugar cookies that my Oma baked.....check.

(Greta was in town too, yay!)

Easter Bunny sighting.....check.

Notice the big bunny didn't even make the photo, he was too far away. Henry gave him a wave from afar. Easter Bunny tried to give Henry a treat bag, but Daddy had to be the middle man, Henry just couldn't get THAT close :)

Hunt for Easter eggs at the park.....check.

Festive wall decorations.....check.

Dye Easter eggs.....check.

I saw this neat little trick on Pinterest to put the egg into a whisk and then it's much more kid-friendly for them to dip it in the dye - I love that idea.

Henry just couldn't resist trying to dunk his hand into the dye as well.....

.....and the result, a stained green hand :)

Stickers were definitely the best part, he's LOVING stickers lately!

Are we ready for Easter??