Easter Baskets

Grammy and Grandpa were extremely thoughtful this year and sent the boys two beautiful Easter Baskets. I only added a sticker book for Asher and multiplication flashcards for Jo. They were so excited to see them on the table this morning and pulled everything out of them. It was fun to see them really enjoying themselves with this tradition that I adored when I was a kid.

When it came time for church, Asher wanted to bring his tractor and "disc harrow" and tractor and Josiah brought his cards. They both chowed on jellybeans during church, but they were happy and quiet!!

Easter Egg Hunt

The day before Easter we were invited to a community Easter egg hunt in Eitzen by one of Josiah's PCAs. Her mom puts on an annual hunt in honor of a son she lost.

This was the first year that the boys seemed to understand the concept of the secular part of Easter. I tried to explain the religious part, but we are no where near understanding that yet.

There were plenty of eggs for everyone and the boys eagerly took part in grabbing them up. After the eggs were all picked up, they spent a few minutes playing on the playground equipment.

It was a fun time!

UNDEROOS!

Asher is now officially a "big boy." I decided to just put him into regular undies because he figured out how much easier it is to just pee in his pull-up than going all the way to the bathroom. We knew he had the ability to tell when he had to go and to go into the potty because he would do it when he felt like it. This change is going to add to my laundry, but hopefully cut down on the diaper budget. He is so cute in his little underoos!

Happy Halloween

Halloween around here was a bit thrown together. We finally carved the pumpkin we got weeks ago from the patch. I have a pretty nasty cold so was not very energetic yesterday. Len is working at the cabin with Keith so it was just Karen and I. I had Jo draw on the face and then I cut it out. I had to improvise a bit as his drawing was not cutting friendly... but there was distinctly a nose, mouth and two eyes. He also drew his name as he is so used to doing that at school now. He gave it some hair for good measure as well.

Thanks to Logan for passing down his costumes so our boys had something to wear. They looked pretty cute. When I was going through the box of costumes, the first one I pulled out was a cow. Somehow Asher heard "cowboy" and was convinced that's what he was going to be. I had some dress-up stuff that was cowboy so I tried to talk him into that a couple of weeks ago, but I don't think he really understood what a cowboy was. In the end, the scarecrow worked out fine. He didn't want to wear the hat, but I told him they wouldn't give him candy if he didn't wear it!! (hey, the outfit was nothing without the hat!) So then he wore it without a problem. Josiah was pretty unfocused and did lots of yelling on our trick-or-treating outing, but that's part of life with him lately. We went to his 3 teacher's houses, but none of them were home. We finally visited Emily and Joyce and they enjoyed that of course and got tons of candy as we were their only visitors. They didn't talk about the candy at all today so we'll be using it as dessert for the next few weeks (if Len and I don't eat it all first!)

Happy 3rd Birthday Asher!

We had a very fun birthday celebration for Asher. We invited Steve and Tracey down for the day and of course Grammy was here too. For breakfast, Asher got a candle in his muffin and he was delighted about that. He told me for weeks he wanted Mac n' Cheese for his birthday lunch so he got that and everyone else ate grilled pork chops, cranberry salad, squash and potatoes. The birthday boy really just wanted cake and kept asking when he was getting his truck cake.

Asher told me that he wanted a green truck cake and so I looked ideas up online and came up with my own version. It turned out pretty good besides being a low-rider! He loved it and that was the most important thing. The look on his face when he first saw it was so precious. I just love being able to watch the joy on their faces.

He had fun opening his presents and got lots of stuff for his train set. He was totally wiped by the end of the day as he didn't get a nap and had WAY too much sugar. I had spread the gifts out a little bit and was planning on giving him some before bedtime. At bedtime I gave him a book and his big present from us which was a shopping cart. He was so excited and ran once around the kitchen with it, then decided the wheels didn't work and tossed the thing all the way across the dining room. He knew what would happen then and I could see the regret mingled with anger on his face. Grammy carted him off to bed while I put his cart in a time-out. It took a while to calm him down but finally I started talking about his day to him and he calmed down.

All-in-all a good birthday and amazing that my little munchkin is 3 years old!

Grammy's Visit

After a very fun and eventful week, Grammy is leaving town on her birthday tomorrow morning. Last week she and I went to the Women of Faith conference in St. Paul and had a really special time together. We laughed and cried together and were able to really connect.

Today was Asher's party so she was a huge help in preparing for that. She made the food and helped clean the house. I'll go into the party in a separate post later.

Mom spent a lot of quality time playing with Asher this week which he loved and was so great for him. He seemed happier having the attention that I usually can't give to him. Josiah has been a bit more challenging lately so he wasn't very engaged this week.

We did lots of fun stuff this week with the boys as well. We are starting some water therapy at the clinic for Josiah so he can get used to the water and hopefully strengthen his muscles. Len took him to that on Friday morning and then mom and I took both boys to the children's museum. They love it there so much and always have a great time. We are a bit paranoid about the germs but that doesn't put a damper on their fun. We then had lunch at one of my favorite restaurants above the coop.

Josiah has been doing this sensory yelling thing which is getting to be pretty trying. He does it in public of course and it really calls attention to him/us. It is difficult to be in a restaurant because of this, but we did also go to a very fun dinner at Doc's Blue Moose on night this week as well. Thanks Grammy for a great week!

Pumpkin Patch

Yesterday we took a trip to the local nursery for an event put on by ECFE. They had some games for the kids to play and then a hay wagon ride to the pumpkin patch. It was chilly and Josiah was a grumpy puppy for the first 1/2 hour. We had to wait about an hour for the hayride as we got there late and missed the first round. Luckily they had the greenhouse open with all these gorgeous mums that smelled so good. They had treats for the kids so that appeased Josiah some and we eventually got some smiles out of him. Len was sick so he stayed home, but Lara went with us and it was great to have her along. Both boys LOVED the hayride. Asher looked like he was in complete heaven being so close to a tractor. He had the most contented smile on his face! Once we got to the pumpkin patch, both the boys picked out pumpkins to bring home. Josiah picked the first one he saw and then said "okay, let's get back on the wagon." Asher picked a different variety - the surface is covered in bumps like a gourd. It is really neat and I'll post pictures of it later. I didn't get any good pictures of Josiah since he was pretty ornery, but I got some cute ones of Asher.