I'm Back!

Did you miss me?

My computer has been broken for over a month now. Andrew tried to fix it but wasn't able to because apparently he doesn't keep spare mac parts around. I finally had to take it to the apple store to get it looked at. (I hate the apple store. It is always crowded. It is so pretentious. The repair people are called geniuses. Genius, Really?) Anyway, I waited for about 20 minutes to speak to a "Genius". He did a couple quick tests and told me the motherboard was broke but they could replace it and it would be covered by the warranty. (Whew! A new motherboard sounds pricey.) My computer got fixed and I just got it back from the apple store today. Yay! Now I just need to download the pictures from my camera.

New blogs will be coming soon . . .

Happy Birthday, Izee!

I'm not sure how it happened so fast, but my "baby' turns 3 today. Wow! Here is a look back at the 4th of July for the last 3 years.

(4th of July 2011)

(4th of July 2010)

(4th of July 2009)

(4th of July 2008)

Start of Summer

The last day of pre-k was a Wednesday. Thursday I took the boys (and my neighbor's baby) on a field trip to celebrate the start of summer. They chose The Butterfly Pavilion.
Both boys held the tarantula, Rosie. This was Izee's first time! Kids are supposed to be at least 3 before they hold the spider but the guy said Izee was close enough.

Then we headed into the butterfly room.

(Look! A Butterfly!)

(Caterpillars too! It is hard to see but there are little green caterpillars on the leaf the boys are holding.)

("Why are the butterflies eating sponges?")

(The butterfly room also has the carnivorous plants . . . )

(and turtles . . . )

(and monkeys! Ha Ha. Just kidding. )

Our final stop was the play area.

(Riding a caterpillar.)

(Feeding the caterpillars: You throw the colored leaves (aka bean bags) into the caterpillars' mouths.)

(Izee liked spinning the wheel. I explained that it was a game but he didn't care. He just wanted to spin the wheel.)

(Kae LOVED the zip line. He did it a ton of times!)

We all had a really fun time! Yay for summer!

Pre-K Grad

Kae graduated from pre-k. The last day of school they had a performance. They sang lots of their songs from the year. Kae did fantastic! The first performance of the year he sang quietly. This time he sang and looked perfectly comfprtable up in front of all the parents.

Izee was sick the day of graduation and fell asleep on Nonna's shoulder waiting for the performance to start.
The kids sang about 7 songs.

Daddy got the whole show on video. (As soon as I figure out how to edit it, I'll post some video.)
After the performance we had a little party with cupcakes and cookies and juice.
Now Kae tells everyone he is done with preschool and is ready for kindergarten.

Spring Break for Mommy and Daddy

I'm a bit behind on my blogging but I just downloaded a bunch of photos and videos from my camera, video camera, and cell phone.

Let's start with Spring Break. The boys went with Nonna and Poppi to Phoenix for 9 days. That's right 9 child free days! What did we do? We cleaned. We deep cleaned each of the boys' rooms. We cleaned out the closets in our room as well as each of the boys' rooms.

The crown jewel of cleaning week was the playroom. It started out looking like this:There were toys, books and buckets everywhere! You could barely walk in the room without stepping on something. It was crazy! We started by sorting the toys and we gave away about half of them. We also gave away about half of the books. Here is part of the giveaway pile:Then we took the remaining furniture and toys out of the room and shampooed the carpets.One of the boys' favorite toys is their dress up clothes. They play superheroes, pirates, firemen, cowboys and knights all the time. I figured I should wash them while the boys were gone. The clothes line of dress-up made me laugh. What must the neighbors think of us with this clothes line?
After all the cleaning and organizing, Here is the finished room:
Don't worry. We did take a night off from cleaning and have a date night while we were child-free. We had a delicious dinner at the melting pot. Yum!
It was nice to get some projects done but after 9 days I was ready for my boys to come home. I missed them like crazy!

Karate Kae

Kae started karate last September. He was immediately in love with his karate outfit. We started at a small dojo in town but we switched to a more kid focused dojo after a few months. The new dojo has 40 minute classes twice a week instead of a 60 minute classe once a week. It is a much better fit for Kae's attention span (or lack there of). After about 6 weeks at the new dojo, Kae got to go to belt testing.

He did great! He earned his first belt promotion! Kae is now a gold belt! He is so proud!

Izee wants to do "ra-tee" just like brother. So Kae gave Izee his old white belt.

Spring Picnic

My little guys LOVE picnics! They ask to picnic almost everyday that it is warm and sunny. They even ask on some days that are not so warm and sunny.
They love sitting in the grass and eating sandwiches,
They love taking a break from the eating to play on the playground,
and they even love climbing trees (with a little help from mom).