Monday, May 28, 2012
The big Oh-Two
It is so hard to believe that our little man is now two. Hard to believe that was two whole years ago that we welcomed him into the world at 5:26 pm on 5/26/10. What a wonderful whirl wind it has been ever since. With his birthday falling on Memorial Day weekend we chose a low key (very low key) celebration. We did presents in the morning and then really just let him lead the day. I made an extra effort to only be focused on Saturday, instead of the usual on him and the laundry, on him and the dishes. Moms, I know you know what I am talking about! It was wonderful and I am vowing to try and keep more of that focused mentality throughout this year.
I am a silly Oregon mama and got him an alligator sprinkler for his birthday. I know it will be tons of fun in of 3 months when it finally gets warm! This was really the only toy he got for his birthday and since delayed gratification is really a bummer no matter what your age, we made a special trip to Walmart today for a new Thomas train and the stand up racing spiral track he loves from daycare. Spoiled anyone??
Luckily Saturday was the "nice" day this weekend (notice the fleece) so we headed to the park. It was tons of fun and we took Truck who managed to make a gaggle of kid friends too while we were there. The SLIDE!
Turning the big wheel:
Caught him perusing his new book and DVD literature:
And now for the retrospective....
Brand new baby with his brand new papa 5/26/10:
Birthday bay with his balloons 5/26/12:
The big two year old busting out of his jammies:
We love you G man!!!
Sunday, May 20, 2012
Birthday warm up
Since Gunnar's birthday is over Memorial Day weekend, I thought we would celebrate the weekend before by going to Dozer Days. Talk about right up Gunnar's alley - excavators, dump trucks, back hoes. The works! We met a friend for lunch and then made the trek to Camas WA. It was a gorgeous day and G had a blast and was a real trooper through a very long day. The lines were very long to ride the equipment and Gunnar decided there was no way he was letting a stranger take him. Excavator or not! So we dug in the sand pits, kicked some tires and ran a MUCK through the tube/slide complex.
The only bad thing about the trip is that there are really no pictures. We borrowed a friends video camera for the trip because we REALLY wanted to document it. It took stills too so I left my point and shoot. Nick took some great video and we had a blast. Then when he went to offload the footage, we discovered none was stored. All that great video. Gone. I uploaded the two pics (us on the bus ride and the event itself) and they are too big. UGH and good night!
Side Tracked
We have been very fortunate this year to have actually had one long stint of true spring/early summer weather. I say had as it was barely 60 degrees and raining today while G and I braved the park. Sad!
Anywhoo, it was great while it lasted and we took great advantage. Nick has been wanting to make some improvements to the east side of our house for quite some time now but the monies, supplies and opportunity had yet to make themselves available. Well, wouldn't you know they did. Just as the weather was turning and while Nick's family was still in town, the plan came together. It all started when Nick got a call from a landscaper friend who had just laid a ton of bark down at a job but the home owner had decided they didn't like it and it had to go. Well, as they say, one mans misfortune is another man's landscaping! Nick and his dad spent 2 days loading, hauling and unloading bark from our truck into the side yard. Then they started on our new fence. We are terrible at remembering to do before shots so here is a "barely started" shot of the fence groundwork being laid:
And here are some after shots. You can now make out individual thyme plants:
With all the bark we decided to do a large bed along the side of the house that wraps around to the front. Here is the shot from the front of the house. Notice our main helpers - G and the chicken. Between Grandma D and the chickens Gunnar stayed quite "busy" whole his mama schlepped bucket loads of bark.
In the main section we are putting our yearly garden so here we are digging it out and planting the tomatoes and peppers. Our neighbor was kind enough to bring over his walk behind tiller so we have a great bed of soil, compost, sand and hay. Fingers crossed for some grape tomatoes!
We still have to finalize the bark layout, finish the fence and put in the patio but it is off to a great start! And now for the parting shot:
Anywhoo, it was great while it lasted and we took great advantage. Nick has been wanting to make some improvements to the east side of our house for quite some time now but the monies, supplies and opportunity had yet to make themselves available. Well, wouldn't you know they did. Just as the weather was turning and while Nick's family was still in town, the plan came together. It all started when Nick got a call from a landscaper friend who had just laid a ton of bark down at a job but the home owner had decided they didn't like it and it had to go. Well, as they say, one mans misfortune is another man's landscaping! Nick and his dad spent 2 days loading, hauling and unloading bark from our truck into the side yard. Then they started on our new fence. We are terrible at remembering to do before shots so here is a "barely started" shot of the fence groundwork being laid:
While the men worked on the fence, G and I tackled the bark and landscaping. Here was our berm before with it's wild thyme jungle on the bottom tier:
And here are some after shots. You can now make out individual thyme plants:
With all the bark we decided to do a large bed along the side of the house that wraps around to the front. Here is the shot from the front of the house. Notice our main helpers - G and the chicken. Between Grandma D and the chickens Gunnar stayed quite "busy" whole his mama schlepped bucket loads of bark.
In the main section we are putting our yearly garden so here we are digging it out and planting the tomatoes and peppers. Our neighbor was kind enough to bring over his walk behind tiller so we have a great bed of soil, compost, sand and hay. Fingers crossed for some grape tomatoes!
We still have to finalize the bark layout, finish the fence and put in the patio but it is off to a great start! And now for the parting shot:
Monday, April 23, 2012
Tulip Fest
This weekend was beautiful and very fun filled for the whole family!
We started off with the Tulip Fest on Saturday. The festival was filled with gorgeous flowers, tractors and play things.
Gunnar's favorite was the hay slide tent. A genius idea of combining bales of hay with plastic drainage tubes for the kids to climb and slide on. Kind of like a kid sized hamster activity tank! Here is my favorite action shot:
And then the tractors. Are you sensing a theme on the blog yet?
These steam tractors were amazing:
And of course the John Deere:
And then to prove we really were in the middle of a million tulips:
On Sunday the beautiful weather continued so Nick and I headed up to Meadows for some spring skiing. It was so much fun and everyone was going crazy with the first spring weather - bikinis and bbq in the parking lot! I got one good pic on my phone that I will have to try and upload.
Today I took the day off so G and I hit the town. Grocery shopping, birthday present shopping and trips to both local parks before hitting Chella's birthday party. Needless to say G was quick to bed tonight.
We started off with the Tulip Fest on Saturday. The festival was filled with gorgeous flowers, tractors and play things.
Gunnar's favorite was the hay slide tent. A genius idea of combining bales of hay with plastic drainage tubes for the kids to climb and slide on. Kind of like a kid sized hamster activity tank! Here is my favorite action shot:
And then the tractors. Are you sensing a theme on the blog yet?
These steam tractors were amazing:
And of course the John Deere:
And then to prove we really were in the middle of a million tulips:
On Sunday the beautiful weather continued so Nick and I headed up to Meadows for some spring skiing. It was so much fun and everyone was going crazy with the first spring weather - bikinis and bbq in the parking lot! I got one good pic on my phone that I will have to try and upload.
Today I took the day off so G and I hit the town. Grocery shopping, birthday present shopping and trips to both local parks before hitting Chella's birthday party. Needless to say G was quick to bed tonight.
Monday, April 16, 2012
Tractor Time!
It was a whirlwind week with me and little man holding down the fort while Nick was in Seattle visiting his family. The weather was gross on the two days I took off so we had to stick close but it was an absolutely beautiful weekend. G and I made it to the tractor show and had wonderful time. Complete toddler meltdown when we had to leave to go get Papa from the train station so you know it was true.
We started off slow with the balloon animal guy. G picked a blue dog:
Then the main attractions.
At tractor just his size:
Can you tell he is right at home on the big machines. This is how you make them go:
We also found time to visit the feed store cat, the chicks, turkeys, goat? and bunnies in the livestock shack. So much fun!
Grandma and Grandpa London are visiting for a while so I am sure we will have many more adventures in the following weeks!
We started off slow with the balloon animal guy. G picked a blue dog:
Then the main attractions.
At tractor just his size:
Can you tell he is right at home on the big machines. This is how you make them go:
We also found time to visit the feed store cat, the chicks, turkeys, goat? and bunnies in the livestock shack. So much fun!
Grandma and Grandpa London are visiting for a while so I am sure we will have many more adventures in the following weeks!
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Easter Extravaganza
Since Gunnar is a big boy we were able to really celebrate Easter this weekend. And boy we went all out.
Friday at daycare they had an egg hunt for the kids. Nick and G arrived in their usual leisurely fashion just as it was about to begin. Nick had to quickly toss his eggs into the mix so and then he got to help G hunt. Very fun and we got an egg filled with Play doh. Yay!
On Saturday we went to the Resort on the Mountain for their annual egg hunt. There were tons of people and eggs. Since he already had one hunt under his belt Gunnar did very well.
I think my favorite part of the hunt was all the picture taking (myself included obviously). In the age of the smart phone it was ridiculous how much coaxing and phone pic taking was going on.
After the hunt we wandered around and of course had to do some time with the Easter bunny. Gunnar was not about to get close!
The struggle:
The good as it gets pic:
Today Gunnar and I headed to church. He looked dashing in his Easter outfit. It was his first time to go to church and he was not a big fan of being left in nursery. But we both survived.
Last but not least, this afternoon we had lunch with our neighbors and friends across the street. The weather was so beautiful we all sat outside and snacked through an entire turkey and ham. And of course there was yet another Easter basket for G!
Friday at daycare they had an egg hunt for the kids. Nick and G arrived in their usual leisurely fashion just as it was about to begin. Nick had to quickly toss his eggs into the mix so and then he got to help G hunt. Very fun and we got an egg filled with Play doh. Yay!
On Saturday we went to the Resort on the Mountain for their annual egg hunt. There were tons of people and eggs. Since he already had one hunt under his belt Gunnar did very well.
I think my favorite part of the hunt was all the picture taking (myself included obviously). In the age of the smart phone it was ridiculous how much coaxing and phone pic taking was going on.
After the hunt we wandered around and of course had to do some time with the Easter bunny. Gunnar was not about to get close!
The struggle:
The good as it gets pic:
Today Gunnar and I headed to church. He looked dashing in his Easter outfit. It was his first time to go to church and he was not a big fan of being left in nursery. But we both survived.
Last but not least, this afternoon we had lunch with our neighbors and friends across the street. The weather was so beautiful we all sat outside and snacked through an entire turkey and ham. And of course there was yet another Easter basket for G!
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