Thursday's with Henry

Henry sure does LOVE Thursday's, aka garbage day.  Unfortunately, one thing Henry's doesn't love is when the garbage cans "teeeeeep" (tip) over.  Today, he was on neighborhood garbage can patrol!  Due to all this crazy wind we had here, there were an awful lot of garbage cans "teeeeped" over when we got home from work.  After picking our garbage can up and lugging it up the driveway, he couldn't possibly go inside without also picking up some of the other neighbors' garbage cans.  He checked on Miss Sue's and Miss Barb's, they were ok, phew, thank goodness.  We had to stop by his girlfriend, Dya's house and help them out, then finally we could go inside!

Oh, my little garbage can lover :)

Happy Mama's Day

Thank you to my boys for greeting me with this this morning!   

Boy, I sure was spoiled today.  My request for Mother's Day was a trip to the Minneapolis Farmer's Market to get all my flowers to pot and maybe a few treats too.  They didn't disappoint, and we had a beautiful morning yesterday to do it! 

We spent this morning with The Krump's, Gillespie's, and Richter's at our house as the boys grilled, baked, and cooked a scrumptious brunch for the Mamas (and cleaned up too, bonus).  Again, a warm and sunny day outside to enjoy some play-time too :)

Thank you again to my boys for a wonderful Mother's Day!

Florida, Part 3 of 3

So, everyday there were lots of kids' activities going on at the resort.  This day, we chose to partake in the "treasure hunt" out on the beach, and boy did he find some treasures.....  

.....check out these beauties!  Unfortunately they didn't last the whole trip (in fact, I don't think they lasted the rest of the day) :(  He also rounded up a pirate's patch and a neon orange bracelet!

Just lounging around :)

 I think this was Henry's favorite outing, the Loggerhead MarineLife Center!  He would run from tank to tank to tank and just point at the turtles, over and over again.  The turtles were HUGE!  They were right at his level, it was perfect.

After checking out the turtles, we headed to Palm Beach Gardens for some Cinco de Mayo food and drink.  Nothing says Cinco de Mayo like pepperoni pizza, right?!  Phil and I said we've never seen him eat like this, 4 1/2 pieces of pizza and a huge bowl of fruit, barely taking a breath (but did stop to smile here for me).  Swordfish tacos and margaritas for us, please :) 

After dinner, Henry got to ride the ponies (very seriously I might add).....

.....and the "coo-coo" train!  What - are you supposed to keep your arms and legs inside the train at all times?  There was a 13 year old girl in our little train car that was NOT impressed with Henry's lack of rule following (yes, she read him the rules and did not understand why he kept trying to lean out of the car).  

 Our final outing was to the Gumbo Limbo Nature Center where we got to check out more turtles, other little reptiles, and a butterfly garden. 

Aaaaaahhhh, relaxing on the patio every night 'til the sun went down.

 And finally, the almost 4 hour flight home.  This little boy absolutely amazed me on both flights, I was shocked!  He sat between us the whole time, reading books, playing with stickers, and loving his iPod (getting some instruction on Angry Birds here).  In fact, when we landed down in Minneapolis, he wanted "more, more"!  

That's it, that's all the photos, enjoy (I know we sure did)!

Florida, Part 2 of 3, The Main Event!

So, as I said, we spent most of our time at the ocean/beach & pool, hence all the pictures I'm posting!  

Henry and the beach/ocean had a love-hate relationship for the first few days, which then turned just to love on our last morning.  He would walk in the sand for a few steps, then would hate it and want to be carried, then would get to playing in it and forget how much he hated it, and repeat and repeat.  On our final morning, the boy couldn't get enough of the ocean.  I had to have one hand on him at all times because that water got awfully choppy.  

The pool on the other hand was strictly a love-love relationship.  We went down to the pool two times a day, and he would CRY when went back upstairs, "more-more-more."  His order of favorite things to do in the pool - #1: "walk, walk, walk", in the zero-entry part of the pool, it was absolutely perfect for the all the little ones his age.  

Favorite thing to do in the pool #2: go down the water slide with Dad (the fun one, of course).  #3: jump off the edge (his lack of fear in the water is starting to frighten me)!

He did get to be quite the fan of finding sea shells, thank goodness they were everywhere!

More to come - part 3 of 3.

Off to Florida.....Part 1 of 3

We just returned from a fun-filled vacation in sunny Florida!  When thinking about what I wanted in a family vacation spot, my thoughts were.....a place on the beach, had to have a kitchen, no other agenda other than playing on the beach/in the pool.  Florida did not disappoint!  Our resort was exactly what I was looking for, very kid friendly, right on the beach, beautiful room with a full kitchen, balcony facing the ocean.    

What more could you ask for than snacking on the balcony?

 While we preferred to gaze out over the palm trees and into the ocean, Henry preferred to gaze at the construction site next door.  Yes, we frequented this spot many times to check out what the bulldozer, excavator, etc were up to!

 We ventured off the resort once a day for a little outing and dinner.  Here, we visited the Sailfish Marina to check out the boats, see the fish, and eat some calamari. 

And now onto the main event.....SWIMMING!  Someone couldn't get his trunks on fast enough our first morning there!  

 Sunscreen, check.  Trunks and swim shirt, check.  Sun hat, check.  Toys for the beach, check.  And he's off!  Literally, every time we opened the door, he would take off sprinting towards the elevator, saying "pooooooool" as he ran!

 Tippy-toes and he can reach that elevator button!

Part 2 of 3 coming up.....SWIMMING!

Hangin' with Gooooon (aka June)

 Yep, still taking haircut pictures like it's the first time, wonder when I'll stop doing that?  Anywho, all morning Henry was saying "Goooooooon cut" when I'd ask him what we were going to do today (saying those darn J's are so hard still)!  When I'd ask him which vehicle he was going to sit in - the airplane, taxi cab, police car, or firetruck - he was really torn between the police car and the firetruck (equipped with a lovely little bell to ring), but ended up going with the police car today.  That June, bless her heart, is wonderful :)

May Day

I had every intention of making a few cute little May Day baskets today for Henry's neighborhood pals, that is until we made a visit to the doctor this morning because the poor boy came down with that nasty hand-foot-mouth virus :(  As he was running around the doctor's office, she said "well, I see his energy level is still fine", yep, yep it is!  There's nothing you can do for hand-foot-mouth, just keep them comfortable with ibuprofen/tylenol if they need it and push the fluids if they don't want to eat (which certainly is not the case for him tonight as he chowed down 2 pieces of pizza and a huge bowl of applesauce laced with squash).   

Here's where we spent a good part of our day.....we took a couple nice leisurely strolls (and a bike ride too), chugging milk.....

.....watching them build a house nearby.....

.....and checking out the ducks, LOVED the ducks today!

While he wasn't able to deliver any May Day baskets, he did receive a couple.  Here he's working on one of his favorite sticker books that his Oma brought him.  

 He loved all the of goodies in a homemade basket from one of his lady-friends down the street, Ari.  Of course, had to open the Goldfish crackers immediately!

Happy May Day!