Omaha Zoo

Not a lot of pictures, but we had a lot of fun today checking out the Omaha Zoo with cousin JJ. Jake and Kevin have been having so much fun with him that they took a power nap starting about two miles out from the zoo. :). Last night was late for them after spending the evening playing in the water and with the slip and slide. So they needed some extra sleep I think. :)




Although very hot we all had fun walking around. Adam and Aunt Mary came here as kids, so they had fun bringing the boys to the zoo I think just given their memories from their childhood. We made sure to walk through all of the water misters to help cool off, grabbed some yummy ice cream and Popsicles to cool off, and had fun seeing the animals and various trains.
Adam has fun memories of a gorilla banging on the glass right behind him when he wasn't looking at him. So lots of fun for him to take the boys to see the gorillas.
The kids had fun and we got to experience a gorilla banging on the glass right in front of us, and watch one jump from a tree and bang on glass to scare another group.




Everyone just loved the gorillas.




We finished the day checking out the cats before saying goodbye to Aunt Mary, Uncle Nick, and cousin JJ. What a fun few days for these boys!!!

Children's Museum

Today we went to the Lincoln Children's Museum to check it out with cousin JJ, Uncle Nick, and Aunt Mary. It was really neat and all four boys had a blast!!! Since there were four adults and four kids we all picked a kid to monitor as it was busy and since I had Tyler, there are more pictures of him.

Playing some football and trying out the Nebraska gear.








Producing a television show.



Face painting!!! Tyler asked to be a cheetah and I tried my hardest to make it happen. Thankfully, they had picture cards to reference.



Then we checked out the dress up area and stage. Jacob was in charge of sounds and lighting.



Tyler had a blast trying on loud of outfits and then seeing what he looked like on a television screen mounted up high.



Once Kevin saw himself on television and had a blast checking out all of the various hats. Here he is a wolf.



And he got daddy to play with him. They are both scary dragons here.



We moved on to a building room where all the kids ha a blast driving trucks and working on stuff.






A picture of all four kiddos (and Adam) having fun playing.



We ended the day playing upstairs with airplanes and the space sets. Thanks to Aunt Mary snagging the commander uniform for Tyler and helping him get geared up, he got to run several missions to space.



Love the cheetah face with the space uniform. :)

Chalk time!

Today has been a big day for the kids. It started with an 8 am dentist appointment for all three kiddos. They all three surprised me and did awesome!!! Tyler got it all done, and Kevin, who has normally not let a dentist or tech do anything with him, climbed into the chair and got everything but xrays done!  I almost took a picture just to record the event I was so surprised.  And Jake, who was not thrilled to sit on my lap and open his mouth, changed his mind when they showed him the toothbrush.  He LOVES to chew on his toothbrush so seeing one made him calm down and he then let the doctor count and brush his teeth. 


Then we braved a grocery store trip (something I dread) and then swung home to put away groceries and grab daddy to take him to the last day of swim lessons for Tyler and Kevin. It was a big day because they opened up the slides for the kids to play on and try, and at the end they got their certificates to show that they passed their levels. Oh, and they got a cookie.  They both loved the cookie.  :)


After that we came home for lunch and quiet time. And while Jacob is taking a long nap and daddy is working, Tyler and Kevin challenged me in a few games of Memory. It was a game session where I decided I needed to retire from Memory. They are just getting too good and seem to remember better than me these days, and I found myself winless by the time we were over. 


So after losing several rounds we ventured outside briefly to do chalk outlines of their bodies. A friend just had the cutest blog post about it and so I decided to try it with the big kids.  We have been reading one of Tyler's favorite books about the human body to Kevin now, and so I thought that it might be fun to have them outline themselves and see what they do.  :)
Tyler was very proud of his guy an chose to make internal organs. He made a pink heart with veins and arteries going from his arms,legs, and brain; his lungs in yellow to the side of the heart, made sure  one leg shows his bones, and then his brain.  He drew in the brain last and was just beside himself that he forgot his brain!  It was quite a dramatic performance as he went to draw it in.  ;)








Kevin decided to draw his veins and heart in blue and then drew some eyes, hair, and a belt on his guy. He was not happy when Tyler did a runby chalking to try to add a pink heart to his drawing.  I was amazed to see how he remembered on his own that veins were in his arms and legs.  This concept was quite funny earlier today when we were reading the book. 

We were reading about how your body has different layers of things inside it, not just your skin on the outside.  We got to the part where the book described how your muscles wrap around your bones to help them move.  He was hilarious at this point and jumped up in excitement (in classic Kevin style) and exclaimed "what?!?! You're muscles wrap around your bones like when I cut my leg open and I wrap string around it to stop the bleeding"?????

He was yelling this while his voice was squealing and he was twisting/squirming around trying to demonstrate his leg being hurt and me wrapping it up.  It had Tyler laughing hysterically at his brother's retelling of the page.  And I thought it was cute that he was calling bandaids, string. 

Needless to say, he was very proud of his chalk drawing.




We stayed out longer than I expected because it was so hot!  I am not quite sure what I think of this heat yet.  :) But, the boys were having fun. And while we were out there, we got to see our neighborhood rabbit that just openly hops around (back in MN we always had rabbits under our shed, but you rarely saw them unlike this rabbit) and a few neighbors coming and going. The boys ended up with six people, two rabbits, and two rainbows before we decided to come back inside and cool off!!

Slip and Slide Fun Day Two

We had so much fun the day before with the new slip and slide, that yesterday late in the afternoon we headed out to play more.  Today, Jacob was wide awake and ready to play too!  It was a good afternoon of watching them just run around and enjoy the water together. 

Jacob getting big and enjoying driving the fire truck.

"Classic Kevin"!  I don't think there could be a better picture of a tired Kevin.  :)

Having so much fun!

And lots of slip and sliding! Tyler was so into things that he was constantly running and diving, and starting over.  So all of his pictures are of him sliding as he took no breaks!

Getting so big. I have Kevin at about this size....so it is weird for me to see this picture of Jacob sitting and driving the truck!  Too fun!

Slip and slide fun

The boys first slip and slide.

Getting ready to try it out for the first time ever. :)




Their first slides.

And the invention they eventually created. Guess the running part was a bit much for them. ;). Eventually they ditched the invention and went back to just running and sliding.

They had a blast showing off for Jacob once he awoke from his super long nap. And then for dad when he got home.

Not a baby.

It seems like more and more lately this sweet son of ours is does something or says something that reminds us he is not a baby anymore.  He is growing up in to quite a cool kid.  Tonight it really hit home as I laid him down in bed with his Woody from Toy Story pajama shirt, crab pajama shorts, and daddy's socks that he is becoming a big kid.

We had a good talk about how daddy is out of town, and that he will be home in just "ten minutes from work". He still doesn't grasp the concept of time and most of his comments concern whether anything is one to ten minutes long, or from now. Very rarely does he go above ten minutes even though he can definitely count higher than ten. 

We then read a Dr. Seuss book about noses.  Somehow we own two of the same board book so he thought it would be cute if we each had our own copy and read together. He used his finger to point at words and tried hard to guess what I was going to say next.  And he loved point out "play" and "and" in the book, and was very distraught that there wasn't the word "the" in the book. Besides our names, and mom and dad, these are the newest words he can read and he LOVES finding words he knows. He tried point out "thing" and informed me that he saw the t and h and so that might be "the".  I explained that it wasn't "the" but "thing".  This actually bugged him so we looked a third book he had brought to bed about trucks and cars and he pointed out every word "the" he could find.  After that, he was content.

He then requested to have some book time with the lights on.  Between thunderstorms and fireworks he is terrified of bedtime.  He constantly talks about how the "light is coming" (aka lightening) or that he heard the "boom" (thunder or fireworks....and tonight when he tried it, I asked him what he thought it was and he told me to choose because he was still scared....ha...he's quick).  I feel so badly for him because I know that the fireworks are going to continue for awhile longer, and after a long episode of that last night followed by hours of a really loud, slow moving thunderstorm I just want him not to worry.  I wish I could fix this for him, but all of the examples/discussions/reassurances from all of us (including Tyler) seem to do nothing to help ease his mind.  So, I left him in bed with the lights on and snapped a picture a few minutes later of him reading his truck book.

When we had read the truck book earlier he told me that "daddy's going to buy me this tow truck when I'm bigger". I asked why and he told me that "I will work on the engines". Then he pointed to a yellow taxi and said that daddy was also going to buy him that because "it has seats in the back so he will drive me".  We looked at the rest of the book and daddy was not going to buy him anything else, so apparently he just wants a tow truck and a taxi. 

A few other things worth commenting on about Kevin at this stage in his life . . .

• Anymore he dresses himself.  Although his shirts, shorts, and undwear are either backwards or inside out, or just no where close to matching, he does it all on his own and he is proud of it! 

• He is also fully capable of cleaning up his room each night, and has started helping Jacob learn to pick his up as well. With this, I have to say that he is an AMAZING helper. He is always willing to help anyone out and LOVES getting anything (though mainly water from the fridge) for Jacob.  He never complains and will quickly go do whatever I asked of a certain big brother while I am busy trying to reason through all of the excuses this certain big brother has come up with.  His helpfulness and good attitude about it most of the time are just awesome and I am really proud of him for doing his part. 

• He discovered over the last week or so that he can now pick up Jacob. He is very proud of himself for his strength and now I find myself always reminding him not to pick up Jacob! Jacob loves to come try to tackle Kevin and it has always been a game of theirs that started back when Jacob was learning to walk. Now though, I have noticed Kevin starting to recripricate and although he is definitely going easy on Jake, every once in awhile he forgets who he is playing with.  Most of the time when this happens Jake just laughs as he LOVES to wrestle and tackle....but that won't always happen and so I am trying so hard to help Kevin remember Jake is still really little and now Kevin is the big kid.

• I love listening to him talk. When he does something he never says "I". Instead he will say "mom, look me did it". Or if he is really happy with himself, he will just sing "me did it, me did it".  It is so cute that he even has Adam saying "me did it, me did it" too.  :) 

• Another big accomplishment over the last few weeks is that he can know tell the difference between Carlie and Ellie.  We had nothing to do with this, as Grandma G. taught him. But he gets so proud now as he looks hard at a dog and then yells out the right name!  Such an awesome accomplishment since we seem to always be talking to or calling for the dogs during the day.  :)

Treasure box

While I was unpacking one of the final boxes in my room I found a brown fabric box. Tyler LOVES his treasure box that Adam made for him a year or two ago do I thought that he would like another.

He loved it. And ten minutes later I heard him hollering for Kevin to come to him. He was persistent and not mad so I went to investigate as usually he is mad about something Kevin did in his room, so this was unusual.

Well it turns out that Tyler had been busy emptying the treasure box Adam had made for him. He explained that Kevin would be sad if I didn't give him one and Tyler had two so he wanted to give his most special one to Kevin to make him feel good. And this one had a handle so it was better for Kevin so he could carry it easier.

Well apparently he found a sharpie too! Since his old treasure box had "Tyler's" on it, he needed to put Kevin's name on it.
On one side he wrote. "from Tyler. Kevin's box".




On the other side he wrote under the "Tyler" that was already there "gift from Tyler".




Don't let his lack of smiling fool you. He was so excited to give his gift. :)

Hockey in the hallway

A few actions shots of the boys hockey game. They were fighting over how to play but were so cute I just watched for a bit to take a few pics. They both made their hockey sticks, borrowed a ball from Jake, put on helmets and Tyler put on gloves to keep his hands warm. Now if only they could agree on how to play.

Day four swim class

Day four was a hit with the kids. There was only one teacher today for all six swimmers. It looked like a handful but the boys had a blast playing the games and practicing floating. :).

Meet and greet

We took Tyler to a meet and greet at his elementary school tonight. It was very bittersweet for me as I watched him checking himself out in the mirror making sure he still looked good in the last few moments before we left. He was so excited. And before we even went he was telling me that going to see his school and meet his teachers were his favorite parts of the day.

There were lots and lots of people when we got there. The school is still under construction and it was raining. So instead of being outdoors everyone was in the cafeteria and entry way. This made things loud and made the building very hot.

Tyler was overwhelmed by the noise. He was so very quiet. Odd, right? He did meet all of his specials teachers and all four of the kindergarten teachers. He shook their hands but didn't say a lot more. It was shocking to us.

Kevin was just as excited to meet all the teachers and asked me a few times when he would get to go. :).

Both big boys got Popsicles and got to see the newly installed playground. And two teachers commented on how close tyler and kevin seem as they were being their normal selves in which they cant not be touching one another...whether it was hugging, kicking, or shoving.

In our way out we walked with a family who has a kindergarten daughter. She was so cute as she turned and asked Tyler if he was so excited to be starting kindergarten. They then had the cutest conversation that involved sharing their names, being thrilled that they are both five, and her requesting to hold his hand under her umbrella so he wouldn't get wet. As we left she blew him some kisses that he caught.

He blew her some back but later told us that he just sent her kisses back. I think he was on to our giggles as we thought that the kids were being so cute

He was a hyped up chatterbox when we got home. It took him awhile and an extra long reading session to calm him down for bed.

I took a few quick pictures on my phone when we got home from the event. First is a classic five year old Tyler pose when he knows he is going to get his picture taken.






Little brother Kevin came over to help lighten things up. He decided to just give Tyler lots of kisses and kickboxing kicks (sigh on the second tactic) to get Tyler more natural and giggling. It worked.



And a quick shot of the house. It was raining so I just quickly snapped a picture with my phone. Hopefully I can get more pictures for everyone soon with my camera.

Day three of swim

Yep, as you can see Jake is holding Kevin's shoes meaning that Kevin is off in the water in swim class! He had a blast today playing in the water and showing off for daddy.



We got dad to a lesson today! We were all excited about that. The big kids loved waving back at him and jake was having a blast with dad all to himself. :)


- Posted while out and about. :)