1st day in Philly with cousins

My sister, Julie, her husband, Mike, & their kids, Maddie, Michael & Hailey are out visiting right now from California. Between their trip to New York & D.C. we have had a ton of fun with them here in Philly.

Their first day here we took a bus downtown & enjoyed Independence Hall area & Reading Termial. Besides hanging out with his cousins Taft's "favorite" part of the day was pulling the cord on the bus to let them know when we needed to stop. It was a fun day but we were all pretty whipped out afterward (as you can tell from Zea bus trip home...out cold on Aunt Julie). We just love to have family out visiting. The boys keep coming up stairs & asking when they are going to get up each morning (3 hour time change). One morning Taft said he was going to wait and stood in front of the door for about 3 minutes (a long time for a 4 year old) until he realized it wasn't making them get up any faster and gave up (waiting but not asking). I am sure we will have more pictures when they get back from D.C. tonight & spend their last 2 days here.

Temple Trip with Griffitts & Borks

We made another trip to the temple. The Griffitts & the Borks came also to switch off babysitting. The boys each have their own backpack with a leap pad in it for traveling. Zea loves to carry his (more than play it, I think). I thought he looked so cute walking with it on back to the house when we got home. After playing at the church next door & going to the temple we were all hungry & ready to go to Red Robin (Tamar's birthday request...which no one complained about) to eat.

She actually let them sing to her (because Emma wanted them to) & go her free sundae. The food was great & I thoroughly enjoyed the bottom-less fries :0). Thanks for a great day guys!

The highlight of babysitting had to be when we started to cover the kids in the balls (they thought this was so fun). Can't blame them; the idea of sand without the discomfort. ;0)

Phillies Game

Thanks to the Ritter's a group of us were able to go to the Phillies/Cubs game together. We rode with the Millards (thanks for riding with us). We had a great time & the Phillies won. We tried

the "Crab fries"; they were good but nothing compared to "5 guys" which we just happened to have the weekend before. It was the PERFECT weather for a ball game & we thoroughly enjoyed the night out alone (thanks Dobson's for watching the boys).

Dinosaur Museum Pre-school Trip

Taft's preschool took a trip to the Museum of Natural History. Zea & I were able to go as well. It was a lot of fun & the boys enjoyed it a lot. It was fun to hear them growling a lot and get so excited about all the animals (espcially the dinosaurs...of course).

Here is Zea & Taft "digging" for bones with one of their good buddies, Colin. I think the coolest part about the dig was the goggles & tools they got to use. The "dig" was a bit of a flop. They just scrapped rock (that didn't move) around fossils. I thought they would actually be able to dig us something, a bit disappointing but the rest of the place was cool; we just didn't last there very long.

I think one of the favorite things was being able to stand inside the mouth of a T-rex...pretty exciting & made for some fun pictures. They also had this hall of animals that were stuffed; like a polar bear, moose, carabou...that was a favorite part also. It is nice to be able to do something fun & educational with the boys. We had a good time.

Pirate Blanket from Grandma

For Taft's birthday, Grandma Claudia sent him a Pirate quilt (thanks Grandma!!). He was so excited and loves it! So does Zea, as you can tell from the battle that took place soon after it was opened. Taft's a pretty good sharer but not that fast; I can't blame him & it is good for Zea to learn he can't have everything also.

Easter Sunday

Of course, Easter started out with thier baskets & candy from the Easter bunny, which the boys loved but you could tell at church that they (& almost every other child) started out their morning that ways...oh well, that is holidays for you!

Thanks to Aunt Julie & Uncle Mike, the boys got a new book on CD, "Skippy John Jones in mummy trouble." They absolutely LOVE it and listen to it all the time. Taft even knows when to turn the page without a ding or something to tell him. I had to get a picture of the two of them listening to it. Plus, they looked so cute together & dressed for church...what good looking boys!!!
Then we went over to the Griffitt's for Easter dinner (none of us wanted to cook dinner for just out families, so, once again we split up the meal and made life a lot easier and dinner was great! Thanks everyone...it was a lot of fun!

Easter egg hunt

A group of families got together and had an Easter egg hunt the Saturday before Easter at Houston Park (near out house...Thanks again, Angela!). It turned out to be a great day and the boys had a blast. The boys also got a picture with their good friend Lincoln & one with Dad controlling the amount of candy consumed at one time :0).

Saturday with Dad

Last Saturday, Brett took the boys to Lowe's for their free projects for kids (it is SO great) while I got some shopping done, alone...so much easier :0). They made little miniature golf houses that came with a ball and a club (really cute). There is usually at least one friend that goes also each time we go, this week the Matson's came so they boys had fun with them. Then Brett took the boys to the pet store next door; another the boys LOVE to do with their dad; and let's face it...Brett loves pet stores; maybe someday I will be a little more keen on the idea of taking care of something else besides my children (& maybe a fish) but not yet. Until then, the pet store seems to keep them happy & they can look forward to having a dog when we move into Brett's parents house in Las Vegas.

Thank you Rita's

We heard that Rita's gives out free Italian ice on the first day of spring (thanks Angela!!!), so, after dinner we thought we would try and I am so glad we did. It was a fun, spontaneous outing & it was really good. I couldn't believe how big they were. They are so good. They had a cake batter flavor that I just sampled out of curiosity and even that was good. I don't know how they get ice to taste so yummy! I should be getting paid for this kind of endorsement.