Farmers

Carsten and Daddy out being "farmers" on our new to us riding mower (for the worried grandmas--Jim had already mowed and Carsten was just doing the driving. :)

Carsten's Birthday!

Carsten wanted a farmer hat cake (I tried...) and he wanted to go to "Vurgerville" for lunch! Papa and Auntie Alicia and Uncle Todd and cousins met us there.

Carsten with his helicopter from Papa.
He was quite tired after lunch and is still asleep in the car clutching his helicopter...

We celebrated Carsten's birthday today as we didn't have time yesterday... This bottom picture here is him opening his present from us on his brother's birthday (they picked them out themselves the day before Reese's birthday and it didn't seem fair to make Carsten wait 2 weeks to open his!).

Carsten

Today--4

3

2

1

0

Happy Birthday Carsten! Today is a busy day with a wedding to attend so we are going to celebrate tomorrow...

Reese

6

5

4

3

2

1

0

I enjoy looking back at pictures of my boys and so I thought I'd put up Reese through the years for his birthday--a couple days late... I'll have to get busy and do some for Carsten tomorrow! This picture of Reese at 0 is also of Grandma Paula as it is the two year anniversary of her passing... We miss her greatly!

Happy Birthday Reese!!!

Reese with his watch from Papa and his other presents...

Reese's requested space cake... a rocket. He thought it was going to take off when we lit the *engine* candles! Hmmm...

Reese this morning opening his present from us. Daddy also went and got him balloons early this morning.
Whew, now we have a 6 year old--amazing. He is a great little guy. Learning so much this year and becoming an outgoing boy. He is thoughtful of his brother--asking often if he is okay and watching him so he doesn't get hurt. He is always the one to try to make everyone happy if we are with the cousins and there is fighting over toys. Reese loves listening to stories on his mp3 player and enjoys telling me all about them. He still likes to play in the dirt and loves to spend an afternoon exploring and digging in the backyard.

Whoops...

Reese was just walking along and *whack* he ran into the end of a wall... People always ask kids when they get hurt if the other object got hurt--in this case it applies! His face cracked the wall!!!

Another Playdate...

We were lucky enough to get to go to our old college town today and meet up with old buddies. The kids got to see some friends too and seemed to pick up where they left off last year... We didn't make them sit for the above picture, they were busy with their balls and then had to sit down to watch some other people fly kites and it was pretty much monkey see monkey do--one would sit, they would all sit and then as soon as one started to get up they'd all get up.
Fun day!

Girl Time

These girls all came for a very fun IKEA getaway weekend last weekend (just haven't posted about it yet) and stayed with us. I was fortunate enough to get to join them them in their excursion sans kids. We felt like we were 19 again!

Playdate at Oma's...

The boys and I are at Opa and Oma's for 2 weeks...
Today we had a play date with Ian. So we had a 6, 5, and 4 year old. They all had to wear boots and later bare feet. Lots of noise and giggling...

Blowing bubbles on the big rocks.

Bowling with the Family

We went bowling with the whole family--cousins and all! There were 10 bowlers (and of course we had coupons!). The kids are really enjoying it, so we think we should look into getting some used bowling shoes to save on the rental fee...

The Three Musketeers!

Just being boys again...

Playing--they thought these blocks looked better on their heads...

House of boys?

I just glanced up to see what time it was and had to look again as it was very hard to tell the time... hmmm. Wonder why?

That was quick...

After my previous post I grabbed my camera and got some photos of the boys outside--Reese was already out there and when I saw Carsten I knew I had to take a picture... When I asked him if I could take his picture and I was giggling, he said, "I look funny in this?". Cutest little guy.

Still Around...

This is for our adoring fans... nothing special, but this is us one year ago.
I've got to dust the camera off and take some new pictures--we've been busy. Oma came for a visit and Auntie Callie came for a visit. Today we are enjoying the sunshine (it's been missing for awhile). Reese is outside with his cap gun "shooting" bugs.

Bubble Experiment

Opa and Oma were here for the weekend and lots happened! Jim and I took the opportunity and went up to Seattle for the night and then bought a new car the next day... (new to us). I'll have to post pictures of it soon. We had a wonderful time away--need to do that more often... Opa, Oma???
Reese needed to do a science experiment for school and so we also used Opa for this one. He found a great idea online--making different shaped bubble blowers out of pipe cleaners and then seeing what shape of bubble was blown... I had homemade bubbles and they worked really well--floated forever. Fun.

(credit for this picture goes to Twila K...)