Happy 2nd Birthday, Alex!

Our littlest monkey had his 2nd birthday on Saturday. We had a Curious George themed party. Here is Alex's birthday cake.

Happy Birthday to you!
As soon as we were done singing, Alex grabbed a cupcake and dug right in.

Brady had to be in on the action all the time. Love this picture of my boys!

Tasty!

One tired birthday boy.

Sneaking in a little smolder!

Messy from his cake

Random picture of Jen and Brady but it makes me laugh. I love Brady's expression!

Cheese!

Brady and Daddy

Alex was getting pretty tired by the time we were opening presents. He is working on cutting some new molars so his hands were in his mouth most of the time. We had to open presents in a couple of chunks. A few before nap time and then we finished up after.

This is a cool new Cars Slip 'n' Slide!

A new water table!This picture is fuzzy, but I still love it. It captures my little studier.

Biking riding on his birthday

Monkey masks for the kids. Aren't they fun?!

As long as we are outside with a bat and ball, Alex is in heaven.

Playing hoops with Uncle Jerry

Trying otu some of our new presents.

Alex got this cool Shake and Go Cars track from mommy and daddy. It has been a big hit with both of the boys!

Long after the party was done, Jen and Jerry played "Timbers" with the boys. This is a new game that they made up last weekend. The boys get shoulder rides and they run around the house, sometimes nearly bumping in to one another, and then into our bedroom where the boys "timber" onto our bed. They think it's great fun. The laughter was precious!

Mommy and Alex...Happy Birthday to my sweet boy!

Brady's Preschool Graduation

It was a big celebration day at preschool today - graduation! Brady was so excited for his big day. They children sang a couple of songs and each were congratulated on all their learning for the year. Brady is in the yellow shirt. :)

Receiving his congratulations from his teachers.
Daddy came for the big event.

They even celebrated with graduation cake and punch.

This is the loft in Brady's preschool room. It was one of his favorite places to play.

He mastered the stilts this year!

Brady with his teacher Mrs. Lattimore

Brady with his teacher Mrs. Brantner

It was a GREAT first year of school for our Brady-bug!

MN Children's Museum

Sunday brought more rain for us, so we decided to head to the Children's Museum. It was fun to have Alex be able to do so many more things there this time.

The boys favorite area was the water table. Here you could race boats which they both loved!

More water fun.

I love the expression on Alex's face. :)

I think every 4 year old boy in the museum was in the construction area. Brady was so busy "working" that he couldn't look at me for a picture. He hauled blocks to the conveyor belt for a very long time.

The grocery store was also a big hit. Lots of fruits and veggies for my boys.

Alex really enjoyed the caves in the toddler nature area. I think he just liked hiding in there and talking to himself.

Jen and Jerry found small spaces again - this time it was the ant tunnels. Jerry avoided all areas where I might snap a photo of him, but I did capture Jen!

Much too busy to look at mommy, but they sure had a lot of fun!

Edinborough Park

This past weekend Andy was out of town for a golf retreat so I decided to be brave, load up all the kids, and head to MN to see my sister Jen and her husband Jerry. We had a weekend full of rain so we had to be creative in our activity planning. Jen heard about this great indoor park in Edina. It was nuts. A huge gym for kids to play in - basketball was the boys favorite - and then a 5 story high indoor tree house. The place was HUGE!

Alex loved the slides and the toddler area.
Jen and Jerry are the best aunt and uncle ever. They crawled around in this huge tree house with the boys. Here is Alex up about 4 stories just before heading down a huge slide with Aunt Jen.

This was my other view. I don't know how she slept through all that noise, but she did!

Brady stopped moving long enough to take this picture and that was it. They had a ton of fun!

Brady's Birthday at Preschool

My summer birthday boy got to celebrate early at preschool this past week. He was so excited and insisted upon wearing his crown for the rest of the day. No cupcakes for this kiddo. He wanted banana muffins for his birthday treat. How can I complain about that? As a special treat, he took a little bag of Skittles (his favorite candy) and a Cars sticker for each of his classmates. He was thrilled!

Smiles!

The two month mark is always so rewarding because you begin to get lots of smiles!! Anna has been cooing and smiles all the time lately and we love it! At two month she weighs 9lbs. 6oz. and is 22 1/4 inches long. She is one growing girl!

Anna's Baptism

Last Sunday, May 15 Anna was baptised at our church. It was a nice service and we were surrounded by friends and family.

Brady was very curious about what was happening. He wanted to be right in on the action. Anna was asleep when we went up for her baptism. When I laid her down and the first water touched her head her eyes popped wide open. No tears or even a whimper, she did great.

Prayers for Anna.

Anna's Godparents - Charles and Ellen

We attempted a family picture. Anna was hungry, thus the bottle and well, the boys just didn't want to sit still. This was the best we could do at church.

Anna was baptised by our pastor, Paul.

You will notice in the family pictures to follow that the boys are not a part of them. They were so wound up. We decided it was just easier to let them play.

The Schwartzhoff family

The Johnson family

Wide awake and looking beautiful on her special day!

After brunch at Fanny Hill, we all headed back to our house for cake.

Another try at a family picture. Sigh...

Great Grandma Johnson got to meet Anna for the first time on her baptism day.

Our kids are so blessed to have four of their great grandparents living. Here they all are with Anna. It was so special to have them all there for Anna's big day.

4 generations of the Wall family

4 generations of the Johnson family

4 generations of the Silliman family

Great Grandma Ellen holding Anna on the blanket she made for her.

Here is a look at the blanket in a little better detail. It's beautiful!

God bless you, Anna!