Picnic

A few weeks ago Eli had the idea to have a picnic with mike during his lunch some day. He also thought it would be fun to surprise him! So after we planned an early play date with some friends for last Thursday I thought it would be perfect timing for a picnic lunch.

Luckily it was also a gorgeous day! I did tell mike ahead of time just to make sure he'd be around for our surprise lunch but he made sure to act surprised when we showed up at work. It was fun! And we'll definitely have to do it more often!

Eli made sure we all knew it was his idea ;) and of course we picnics by the clock tower- my kids love it! They had it fenced off though for work so we couldn't go under it but it did go off while we were there so they were happy.

Silas Turns ONE!!

 

Oh Silas! How are you already one? It's gone so fast, way too fast!

We celebrated Silas's birthday with the grandparents, my sister and her boyfriend, and of course us.

He had his 1 year apt a few days later and weighed 24lbs 10oz and 31" (ok I'm trying to remember that without looking...pretty close but I might be off). He only gained like 8oz in 3 months! He's definitely losing his rolls :(  

You can't tell in the picture but he was pretty excited to have the presents all to himself! (well of course his borthers helped !)

Mike's mom made him this big cloth block with a jingle bell in it..All 3 kids love it!

                                              Big brothers helped blow out the candle (no pic...)

                                                                            I've always made a healthy cake for my babies first birthday.  I work really hard to only give them real, good food when we are first introducing solids I just feel like if I gave them a cake full of sugar it defeats the whole thing... Silas's was the best I've made. It was a paleo banana maple cake with strawberry cream cheese icing (also sweetened with maple syrup!) It was really good! I debated about even making him a cake since he's had texture issues with foods, but the few weeks before he seemed to be doing better so we did cake.

                                                              ^^angry at the icing? or just squishing it?
                                                      He took a few licks of the icing and tried some cake and then he got icing in his eye and that was that! Done with the cake!

                                                        pics with the "1 year" paper

                                                     Seriously! THis kid is ridiculous! :) dimples, blue eyes!
                                                 I will never get tired of them!

Other Silas updates- he now eats! This happened right after turning 1- bday was June 22nd. On July 3rd he hate his biggest meal ever! just some pork, cheese and peach but it was a lot! He can handle most textures now without a problem.  It's so great and kind of strange that it happened so quickly.
He takes lots of steps but still prefers to crawl.  Rowan and ELi still get really excited every.single.time.he takes a step or stands alone.  He climbs everything he can and does it often.  I do not love that! He just learned to climb up the slide on our little play cube outside. He still puts everything in his mouth- how does he even find this stuff!?! but at Rowan's last baseball game he actually threw the rocks instead of trying to eat them! STill has 6 teeth.  Over the 4th of July he was so clingy to me.  If I walked away he flipped out.  I think it was just being somewhere different, lots of new people... he's been better since we've gotten back to normal so hopefully he stays like this.  Everytime he'd act normal I'd tell people- this is how he is! I swear he doesn't cry all the time! But sleeping and napping are hard when we aren't at home so it was probably just all that,

Eli turns 5!!

Can't believe Eli will soon be in kindergarten! Eli was all about his birthday this year ( as in " since its almost my bday can I have...." ) reminded me of myself ;)
We haven't had a lot of parties with friends ( maybe only 1..) but since Rowan's having a sleepover this year Eli really wanted a party. We decided on inviting a friend ( whose mom I'm friends with) to Jupiters for a pizza lunch and playing games. Then he decided he wanted to go to the ice cream place close to us instead. This sounded much better ( cheaper!) to me so I agreed!
We invited the friends over for lunch and to play and then we went for ice cream. We were supposed to play mini golf there too, but I was able to talk him out of that since it was such a hot day! The kids had a lot of fun! ( she has 3 boys too and one is a year younger than Rowan so they know each other from school).
Eli also got to pick out any cereal he wanted! This is a huge deal with my kids. We don't eat a lot of cereal and if we do its for snacks only because it is a horrible breakfast food! So Eli picked Lucky Charms ( I bought the generic of course) and he was so excited to eat it for breakfast! We've been decorating with streamers ( started for Silas's bday which I need to blog about..) and I did his bed when he was sleeping.

Eli chose ribs for supper! And instead of cake we made banana splits! We put the candles in a brownie that we baked for the sundaes. The banana splits were so fun! Eli picked out all the toppings and was so excited about it!

Knocked out!

( no pictures)

Two weeks ago we were all playing keep-away in the backyard. Well not Silas. He was playing with toys and randomly laughing at us!
Mike and Rowan both went for the ball and mike ends up landing on Rowan. Mostly on his head!! It was quite amusing but of course Rowan is crying and mike felt awful. When Rowan gets up his mouth is all bloody. I knew his very loose tooth had been knocked out but he was pretty freaked out. He had a nice scrap under his eye too. We searched for the tooth but couldn't find it. Luckily the tooth dairy seemed happy with a nice letter explaining what had happened. She sure is an understanding lady!

Happy Birthday To Me!!

Yesterday was my birthday! I was hoping for a nice stress free day. No yelling at kids, no kids fighting... Yeah, pretty high hopes! It wasn't quite THAT perfect but was a nice day. Rowan went to a safety camp with a friend so that helped with the quiet a bit ;)

Mike took the day off and we ran errands- hello Target! And went out for Chinese good with Eli and Silas. Eli was so excited to go out! He thanked us like a million times for taking him for Chinese food! Eli and Silas both loved the egg drop soup! And i got myself a few things at Target. We even got me a fancy coffee drink ( i never buy those thibgs cause they are so wxpensive! and i felt like crap after i drank it...)
Of course once Rowan got home they fought nonstop :/ but they did help mike make me a cake. Mike made dinner too. Sooo good!

2 Down

The big boys have now been home for 2 full weeks. I think we're doing pretty good so far. Next week swimming lessons and camp start and the week after that is my online class, then things really get fun. And by fun I mean stressful :/

The boys are doing great with their chores and even Eli can unload the dishwasher alone now! Yeah! They've been fighting a little less too. Sometimes....

We met some friends at Homer Lake this week and that was a lot of fun! We'll probably hang out there a lot this summer. Rowan's been really helpful with Silas, I can even shower without having to watch him! Woohoo!!

We are starting to get strawberries from the garden! And Silas has actually taken a few bites without gagging!