so many things...

I feel like there is so many things that I've wanted to post about but I can't possibly remember them all. So I guess this is pretty much going to be a photo blog with a little blurb about each photo! Sound good?


Playdate with Nathan and Nico - This is a standing playdate we have with Nicholas' friend Nathan from preschool. They were connected at the hip last year in preschool but now they go to different schools. So we set it up that we would have a playdate together the first Thursday of every month. This was the first one. Not pictured is Nathan's little brother Nico who is three. A good age for Charlie to play with.






Jumping in the leaf pile - I love making a big leaf pile for the boys to jump in. It provides me with some of my best fall pictures every year. I love to see how they eveolve every year. The first year Charlie didn't want to touch the leaves. (he was only 6 months old!) Last year he was a little apprehensive and didn't really want to get his picture taken but this year he jumped right in. They always have fun and this year a neighbor came over and played with them for a little while too. I love these pictures of them this year. I especially ove the one of Charlie in mid-leap. I just wish I could have gotten his face. For some reason I'm betting that his tongue was sticking out. It usually is when he is concentrating!



Trick or treating at the YMCA - Here's to boys dressed up for Halloween at the Y this year. It's the only picture I have that has the two of them in it. The skunk in the background is Charlie's little friend Tyler that we met at Storytime.

Apparently I have to post another one with the rest of the pictures. I reached my picture limit on this post!

It's Back!

I FINALLY ot my computer back! So much to post about but not tonight. I have to upload pictures and everything. Hopefully tomorrow.

My computer's broken!!

Unfortunately I can't update this blog for 2 to 5 days. Geek Squad has my computer. I've got a virus so they're fixing it for me. Luckily Andy just replaced his old Dell with a new Dell so I can use his old one but I can't put any pictures up until I get mine back so I guess you'll all just have to live without the exciting updates coming from me for a few days!

See you all soon!

It's already Wednesday...

...and I'm just now posting about our weekend? (while fighting with a two year old that he has to pick up his puzzle pieces that he threw all over the room before he can go downstairs and play XBox 360 with his Daddy and Brother!! He's being kind f funny about it though. When he thinks I'm not looking he tries to sneak off down the stairs but I catch him everytime which leads into another round of "Don't wanto clean up's"!!)

But I digress...

This weekend was crazy busy as usual but fun! We went to a fabulous 30th birthday party for our friend Kelly!! It's always fun to catch up with friends that you just don't see often enough. The boys had a blast running around down the basement and Charlie just made himself at home with all of the upstairs toys. We weren't in the house more than 30 seconds when I looked and Charlie was intermixed with all of the other kids and the toys!

Here's a picture of me with some fabulous girls...!

Kelly, Jeanelle, Tracee, Me

And here's a picture of Charlie, Jon-Jon, Cole and Jake watching Cars at the end of the night! What a couple of crazy two year olds (except of course Jake who is three!) And the host-child was already in bed fast asleep so unfortunately not involved in the picture!

So then on to Sunday. We went to a clambake at Grandma and Grandpa Johnson's house. I'm so mad that I forgot to pack my camera. There were some great picture opportunities of Nicholas (and sometimes Charlie too) playing football with Uncle Rick! Thank you Uncle Rick for keeping the boys so entertained all night. They had a great time. And we had a great time too. The food was excellent and Debbie even pursuaded me to try some clam chowder which I must say I thoroughly enjoyed! Even had a second serving!

Well that's it for now! I guess I have to go help Charlie pick up some puzzle pieces considering he hasn't even started. I guess we'll get this done together!!

Halloween Hayride

I can't believe I forgot to post about the Halloween Hayride that we went on last Saturday. Not this past Saturday but the one before that. We went with Vicki, Jeff and the girls and my Mom and Dad. It was a lovely time. We decided to meet for dinner at Outback before hand and since we didn't want to be late to the hayride we decided to meet at 5:00 since our hayride was at 8:00 but we wanted to get there by 7:30. What a mistake that was! We we're finshed eating by 6:00 and now we had a cool two hours to kill before we were ready to go on the ride. This is something that Nicholas could just not understand. The whole time we were at Outback he kept complaining that he didn't want to be there he just wanted to go on the hayride. So he pretty much refused to eat dinner.

So we left Outback and proceeded to the Farmpark. Yeah...we were a little early! But luckily they had a good DJ that kept the kids dancing while we waited. Except for Charlie who just wanted to run. Here's a couple pictures of Emma, Lauren, Nicholas and Charlie dancing their little butts off...

The night was going pretty well until a horde of people that were waiting behind us suddenly decided that they were going to step ahead of us in line. It was obvious to them that we must have already ridden the ride since we were having such a good time dancing to the DJ! One lady in particular was a little pushy and I was ready to have it out with her. It all worked out in the end though and everybody was able to get on the ride!!

Overall it was really cute. It was our first time riding the night time ride. Last time we did the twilight ride. The kids were funny with just a couple of true scares. Charlie proceeded to say "that scare me" repeatedly during most of the ride. Afterward the kids had a great time running through the haymaze and Charlie had fun on the teensy tiny little slide they had set up for kids about his size. I'll definitely buy tickets for this event next year. I just think I'll arrive at the time my ride is scheduled for instead of 1 1/2 hours early!

Oh yeah...and by the time we got home, Nicholas was starving. He proceeded to eat his whole steak at 10:00 at night!!

So I've got a lot more stuff from our busy weekend but I don't have time to update now. I'll post more soon.

Everyday they change

It's amazing to me. After school today Nicholas asked if his friends Jenna and Zander could come over for lunch. Since I've said no so many times in the past I figured what the heck. Only Jenna ended up coming over. They ate their lunch and then they played for a little while. They then decided that they wanted to go outside to play. Since our lawn had just been fertilized they decided to go back to Jenna's house to play. So off they went together with just a "be careful" and "watch for cars" from me. At just the beginning of the summer I had to go with him when he went down the street. He was too shy or too nervous to go by himself. Now he just says "I'm going to ride my bike Mom" and he's off. It's already starting that he doesn't need me anymore. I'm sad. I know I'm supposed to be happy that he's getting so independent and the shyness that used to drive me crazy is subsiding but I can't help but to miss my little boy. I still think about the days when he was just infant and we would take naps together with him fast asleep on my chest. It just goes so fast.

Skating (or Hockey) Time

So Nicholas is now on his second session of Tot Learn to Skate through City of Mentor. He actaully already passed this class but we used rental skates when we did it. He took about 30 seconds of Tot Hockey when he fell on his hockey skates and couldn't get back up. At that time (he was only 4) we decided to forgo hockey a little bit longer. Over the summer he started asking when he would be able to play hockey again. We compromised and put him back in Tot 1 only this time he would wear his hockey skates so he could learn not to rely on his toe kick so much. I gotta say...everything is going much better this time. He's really enjoying his lessons and actually can't wait to go back every week. Here's some video of him during his lessons...

While we were at Nicholas skating lessons I noticed the signs for Playdate on ice every Tuesday morning. Well...I don't want to make the same mistake with Charlie as I did Nicholas and wait too long to get him on the ice...I want my boys to skate now!!! So this morning, Charlie and I experienced our first skating session. I have to say he did pretty well. The nice thing about the playdate is that they have buckets for the kids to push around or ride on. (or in Charlie's case, kick every time I get near the bucket to lean him on it so it goes sailing across the ice and I have to hold him up that much longer!) He was a little apprehensive at first but I think he enjoyed himself. When I asked him if he wanted to come back next week he said "Uhhh...WES!" So I think we'll keep trying it week to week. Here's a litle video of Charlie pushing his bucket...

Now coming from a past figure skater...

Only three parents showed up for the playdate. Charlie and I were the first ones there so we were the only ones on the ice for the first ten minutes. If I wouldn't have had to hold Charlie up I would have gone nuts. Do you know how long it's been since I've had a whole ice rink to myself?!! My feet were itching to get moving. A couple of time I was able to carry Charlie around the rink so I could get up a little speed and sometimes he just sat on the ice while I (literally) skated circles around him, but all in all there wasn't much I could do. It's fun to be able to share a sport I love with my sons though. I'd rather see them play hockey than skate around in figure skates but I think in the coming years it will be a lot of fun to go skating with them. So until the time comes when they don't want to skate with me anymore because all of their friends are there and it's embarrassing I'm going to keep bringing them to the ice rink and keep encouraging them to play hockey for as long as they want.