Perfect Way to Spend Your Birthday

The boys spent about an hour yesterday afternoon playing outside. I guess they were pretending it was summer time. Ben came inside telling me that he needed 'shade clothes' which were defined as clothes you wear when you sit and relax in the shade and have a drink and put your feet up. They ended up literally rolling around in the sand and dirt. They were a wonderful mess when I finally dragged them inside. 

Blowing Out The Candles

My Baby is 2!

My baby is 2 :(  But I will still refer to him as my baby. 

Saturday we headed to Milan to celebrate Nick's birthday. He is obsessed with coloring right now so I made him a crayon cake. The color was not exactly what I was going for, and it's a well used crayon, but it's all good. Someone either swiped their finger or something across the cake before I could take a picture. 

We were at a loss to find birthday candles, so we improvised. Thank goodness he wasn't turning 10 or something!

Ugh, so cute

Nick got some great gifts including a new truck, chalk drawing place-mats, sand toys, a fun Hop & Pop whale, a wheel barrow, a Thomas backpack and a new play kitchen!

Ben's 'Sleeves'

When you hear your child get up at 6:30 but then he doesn't come immediately to your room like he normally does, there is trouble brewing. In this instance, Ben went all Jesse James and gave himself some tat sleeves. They got all the way up to this elbow on this left arm.

Elmo K'Nex

Ben got out the Elmo K'nex set the other night. He put together Elmo all by himself by looking at the image on the box. I had to work much harder to put together the dog, following the instructions!

Just Look at that Face

Just ignore that piece of food on his lip. But hey, that's real life.

So Studious

Nick loves to sit at the coffee table and color. Here he is getting serious - even putting his feet up. I wonder if that is hereditary. I work my best with my feet propped up, too.

The Kitchen - Part 1

Adam and I decided it was finally time for some new counter tops in the kitchen. Well, everyone knows that once you start, you don't stop until your finished. So with new counter tops we are also getting a glass tiles backsplash, new faucet, a new stove and drawer pulls. Horizon 2 will be lighting and horizon 3 will be floors. 

The before. I would like to note that my counter tops have not been this de-cluttered since the day before we moved in.

Prepped for installation. Adam and his dad had to level all the cabinets last weekend and install the brackets on the island. From Sunday thru Thursday, I had a sink (no counter tops on either side), the island and the opposite side counter top. The rest was left bare.

When the installation guy came in, he said, 'Wow, those really are some brackets'. Apparently someone went a little high on the safety factor when he purchased these. 

And...Taa Daa!! The granite counter tops! The stone is sapphire brown. They are very pretty.

The huge, deep sink! I think Nick could lay down in this sink.

Next up - new faucet and garbage disposal (haven't had one of those in 8 months) back splash (not until next weekend, though) and drawer pulls. And probably a new stove. Not that there is anything wrong with our current stove, it's just not pretty. Sorry stove. Kitchen - Part 2 will be posted at the next progress mark.

Concerto de Wolny

Music provided by the Wolny boys

Where Ball Go?

Totally obsessed with balls lately and couldn't figure out how to get the ball...

Oops! Lost Mardi Gras Celebration

Due to some memory card mix-a-roo, I had forgotten about these pictures. They are from two weekends ago, before Mardi Gras.

I made these little mini King Cakes for Ben to take to daycare. (they are a cheat - cinnamon rolls twisted into a mini cake, but still tasty!)

Adam picked up packzis, too. Ben tore into his after dinner. He ate all of it after eating all of his dinner. And then he had a second helping of dinner after eating the packzi. 

Getting Kicked Out of the House

Adam and I have decided to finally update the kitchen. We are starting with new counter tops which are being installed this Thursday. There was some prep work that needed to be done so Adam and Dziadziu worked in the kitchen this weekend while Grandma and I got the boys out of the house. We took them to Imagination Station. They were having some Engineers Week activities and Grandma had never been, so off we went. Ben was very excited because he got to to the big kid rooms. Usually I keep them in the kid room, so this was a special visit for Ben. They even got to eat lunch there (which means the cafeteria is no longer a secret so that's all I'm going to hear about on every future visit...)

The boys had fun on the big tractor. It was crowded, so they didn't get to spend much time on it. Next time we go on a Friday I'll probably let them play on it more.

Nick just wanted to throw the ball into the water. There is a fan that blows the sail boats which caused the ball to float back to Nick each time. He thought it was hilarious.

Ben found the crane. He and several other kids worked to move the crane and stack it with blocks to move.

It's All About Teamwork

It's all about teamwork. The boys have been getting Monster's food lately. They do it together. Nick holds the bowl while Ben scoops the food and then they both carry the bowl back to her dish. It's pretty cute.

Happy Valentine's Day!!

A Box, a Book and Two Brothers

Ben loves when boxes come. He took all the diapers out of this box and used it as a boat. Here he and Nick spend some quality time reading in the box.