Hoppy Easter

We had a wonderful, family-filled Easter weekend, despite a cool front and some much-needed rain. Not realizing that Sunday was going to be a total deluge, we luckily scheduled an impromptu egg hunt on Saturday afternoon.

My cousin Suzanne and her family came over so we could watch Luke and Grayson hunt eggs. Michael and Suzanne had fun hiding the eggs all around the front yard.

Then we set the boys loose. Unfortunately, Grayson wiped out as he was rounding the corner out the door and fell right on his face. He scraped up his forehead and had a bit of a bloody nose, but after a little TLC he grabbed his basket and got back out there. 

In between rounds, the boys had to wait back in the house while we re-hid the eggs. Grayson took the opportunity to fuel up on some fruit, making it nearly impossible to get any good pictures without fruit juice trailing down his chin and shirt.

Baby Jack preferred to take in the festivities in the arms of Aunt Emmy.

On Sunday morning, the Easter bunny brought Grayson a big truck that comes with a toy drill which disassembles all the truck pieces. He didn't really understand the story about the Easter bunny, but once he saw the truck he was on board with the bunny tradition.

After church we hosted a big lunch and Gray enjoyed having so much family around to dote on him. It wasn't until everything was over that I realized we didn't take one family picture the entire weekend. Perhaps that's a good thing since Grayson's face was so scraped up. 

I hope everyone had a happy Easter!

Our Little Faker

Sometimes karma comes in the form of your children and I think that may be the case with Grayson's new "skill" of fake crying.

When I was a child, my older sister and cousin used to send me in to ask our parents if we could do something. Being the youngest of our trio and wanting to stay in their good graces, I willingly obliged. If our parents said no I was instructed to cry on command until it changed their minds.

This flare for the dramatics must be genetic because Gray has suddenly learned how to turn on the fake waterworks. Luckily he hasn't perfected this skill just yet, so we can still tell when it's not real.

Michael and I usually have to bite our lips to keep from laughing at the situation, then we tell Gray to "quit fake crying" and we move on. Like the flip of a switch, he stops crying and acts normal again. What a little faker.

Happiness in Bloom

Let me begin by saying peonies just plain make me happy. I love their bold colors and intricate layers which burst to life this time of year, releasing an amazing fragrance.

Every year when our peony bush blooms I kick myself for not having more planted around our yard. Since our azaleas are dwindling down, I really hope these peonies and our roses last through Easter weekend so I can use them for our table setting.

In other garden news, our little square-foot garden is beginning to show signs of life. We have onions, lettuce, zucchini and carrots beginning to peak out of the soil (the taller stems below are tomatoes I planted as seedlings which is kind of cheating).

The picture above shows a few zucchini seeds that have sprouted and the picture below is of some volunteer cucumbers that decided to grow in our back flowerbed along the fence line. I planted these two years ago without any luck, but they've come up with a vengeance this year so I'm curious to see how it turns out. I've also planted some sweet potatoes in this back bed, but it's some of the worst soil in our yard, making it my little veggie experiment.

Our rose bush is also in full bloom. I don't think I've ever seen so many huge roses bloom all at once on this bush. Thanks dad for hacking it back so much! Apparently, it liked it...a lot. 

Grayson enjoys going to check the garden with us every evening to see what has changed. Afterward he does a little digging of his own in the "tortoise andbox" aka our turtle sandbox. It's amazing to see the power of books come out in his vocabulary. He loves an Eric Carle book about a tortoise taking off its shell, which is why he chooses that word instead of turtle.

The two-year-old mind is a complex and entertaining thing! I can't wait to see his reaction when a cherry tomato pops out on the stem. He's going to have a whole new love for our garden once he realizes it's growing one of his favorite foods!

Hot Rods

Last weekend we went to check out the national hot rod show that was held at the Oklahoma State Fairgrounds. Michael was in heaven and took about 1,000 pictures of every car and motor in sight.

Grayson also enjoyed the experience and kept saying, "I like that new car," despite his daddy trying to explain they look shiny and new because the cars have been restored. 

The show stretched out over several buildings as well as any parking lot, street and open space that could fit a parked hot rod. It was pretty unbelievable to think about the amount of blood, sweat and cold hard cash that had been poured into each and every automobile there.

One of the vendor buildings had a huge semi-truck parked inside it which seemed to impress Gray.

Here's a small sampling of Michael's photos from the day...

Grayson couldn't pass up a closer look at one of the waterfalls inside the fairgrounds. Daddy patiently obliged the photo op before shuffling us along to view more cars.

We were there toward the end of the day and got to see most of the cars cruise out of the fairgrounds. This red one was one of my favorites.

This one was pretty spectacular in person as well...

Grayson sat and watched the cars cruise by for a solid 30 minutes before needing a bathroom break. We high tailed it over to one of the buildings and then after returning back over to daddy, Gray decided he needed to go again about five minutes later. Ah, the joys of potty training. I didn't realize Michael took a picture of us walking back until I was uploading the images. Not quite the kodak moment I care to remember, but it's now captured for posterity. 

Random Updates

We've had a busy week, but when I sit down to write nothing seems noteworthy enough to be its own post. So here are a few random updates:

• Grayson surprised me last week by reciting the prayer "God is Great." I guess he's been learning it at school, so I'm now also teaching him a short little prayer that I grew up saying at mealtime. He hasn't quite caught on to remembering all the words, but it's fun to see him progress.   

• Michael randomly decided he wanted to try eating chicken again. As most of you know, he was diagnosed with a poultry allergy during his middle school years and would go into anaphylactic shock if he ate turkey or chicken. He thinks he may have out grown it (or the allergy was actually a reaction to some kind of additive or preservative instead). He ate one of my chicken nuggets from Chick-fil-a tonight and didn't have a reaction. I'm trying not to get my hopes up, but this could be life changing for both of us if it's true (think of all the new recipes I could cook!). We'll keep you posted. 

• Gray's new phrase of the week is, "I have a question." To which one of us replies, "Okay, what's your question." And then he just smiles and doesn't ask anything.  

• Potty training continues to progress. He's keeping his pull-up dry about 80% of time and he's very proud of all the stickers he's amassed on the poster we hung up in the bathroom to chart his successes. He stands in front of the poster every morning as I get ready and describes each and every sticker. 

• During our morning commute to work/school, I've notice Gray humming little made up songs while entertaining himself in the back seat. When I ask what he's doing he says he's whistling. I've tried to capture it on video (when I'm not driving, of course), but he won't cooperate. Today when I asked him if he could whistle for me he said he couldn't because he had a boo boo on his knee. This gives you an idea of the kind of logic I'm dealing with here. 

Sprinkler Surprise

After several weekends of hard work, we finally have the leaves under control and our raised bed garden built and planted. Some of the veggies are a little late for spring planting, but I figured it was still worth a try so we'll see if anything takes.

One advantage to picking up the leaves is that we can get our sprinkler system going to counteract the crazy drought we've been having. While testing each sprinkler zone to make sure nothing needed repair, we managed to talk Grayson into running through the water.

He was a little scared at first since the water tends to spray right about face level for him, but he got up his courage and ran through with daddy. After the first run he came out and told Michael, "Daddy, I'm all wet!" To which Michael tried to explain to him that's the point.

 

Hello Spring!

This past weekend we helped our friends break in their brand new deck with a potluck dinner party. They still have a few odds and ends to finish up before the official grand opening deck party, but we had a fun time watching the boys run around on a gorgeous spring evening.

Grayson ran around until he was bright red and sweating. He couldn't stop kicking this beach ball. We made him take a few water breaks (much to his dismay), but it made me realize we may have a soccer player in our midst.

We decided to go inside until the sun went down a bit and the boys had fun dancing to one of Liam's techno toys.

I have a feeling we're going to be spending a lot of time on this deck over the coming years and I am looking forward to the memories (and happy hours) that take place there.

Graysonisms

A few recent Grayson quotes that made me smile...

I was brushing Grayson's teeth one morning when I handed him the toothbrush for his usual "turn" when he said, "Good sharing mommy." So funny! This is exactly what we tell him when we catch him sharing his toys.

Riding home in the car one evening Gray was rubbing a stuffed animal's leg on his face saying it was a make-up brush. Here's how the conversation went:

Me: Is that soft on your face like a make-up brush?

Gray: Yes, I'm putting on make-up.

Me: Do boys wear make-up?

Gray (smiling): Nooooo, but mommy wears make-up.

Me: That's because mommy is a girl and girls wear make-up. Are you a boy?

Gray: No, I'm not a boy. I'm a dude.

Spring Has Sprung!

Our azaleas have been bursting to life over the last week as are the three Japanese maples in our yard. I snapped this quick picture after we returned from an evening walk and what you don't see are the 30+ bags of leaves that are sitting at our curb waiting for the compost truck.

Yes, spring has sprung in Oklahoma but that means it's time to deal with our extreme leaf situation. Over the weekend, Michael and I picked up 25 bags in our front yard flower beds alone (not even counting him mulching the yard leaves and the 16 bags I'd already gathered in the front earlier this year).

I don't even want to think about all the leaves still in the backyard, so for now let's just focus on the flowers, the warm sunny evenings and the beautiful side of spring...

Happiness is...

Seeing some adorable munchkins interact at the kids' table.