Toot Toot Chugga Chugga

The day of The Wiggles concert finally arrived! We stayed at Clayton Hills Campground in Garnavillo on Saturday night & we left bright & early on Sunday morning to go to The Wiggles concert in Wisconsin Dells. The van ride there was quite an adventure. We stopped at a garage sale twice, drove through Batman's (pretend) hometown of Gotham, got Happy Meals from McDonalds & then Alex got a little carsick, I think from all of the excitement.

Alex, Mason & Mommy standing outside the Crystal Grand Theater in Wisconsin Dells. Alex is holding a rose to give to Dorothy the Dinosaur (she eats roses).

All our Wiggles gear! I bought each of the boys a t-shirt and let them spend $50 of their own money. Alex picked out a Henry the Octopus leg costume, a book and a light up spinner. Mason picked out a plush guitar, a plush Big Red Car and a light up spinner. The $ ran out quick but they each knew exactly what they wanted and didn't mind when they hit their spending limit. The spinners were special, they were supposed to use them during the concert when The Wiggles sang Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.Mason, Grandma S. and Alex are waiting for the concert to begin! While we sat in our seats they had projectors running on the walls showing clips of The Wiggles. It was a great way to keep everyone's attention and to get us even more excited for the concert to start.

Finally, the moment we've been waiting for!!! The Wiggles put on a great show. They gave 110% the whole time and that was pretty impressive considering this concert was in celebration of their 20th "birthday". Unfortunately Jeff wasn't able to make it, he had surgery to put in a pacemaker. The Wiggles introduced Brad, who would be helping out in Jeff's place. I wasn't sure how that would go over but the boys loved him & talked about him quite a bit after the concert. They have plenty of room in their hearts to love all of The Wiggles, Greg, Murray, Anthony, Jeff, Sam & Brad, plus all of their supporting cast.

I finally understood why Alex was so adament that he had to have a rose for Dorothy. The Wiggles came around and collected roses from all of the kids. Anthony stopped by us and the boys got to talk to him for a quick minute. He asked their names and Mason reached out to touch his arm. It was one of the sweetest things I've ever seen!

You would think after all of that excitement that we would have had a quiet, peaceful carride home. Nope! We managed to turn a 3 1/2 hour trip into a 5 1/2 hour trip between stopping to eat, tour an old airplane (that will be a different post) and at least 5 bathroom breaks. Nobody even came close to taking a nap in the van. After such an exciting day, we were all glad to be home.

Fun at Fontana Park

We went to the Dunkerton city wide garage sales this morning and decided to take a drive through Fontana Park to see if we'd like to camp there some time. We didn't stay long but I got some nice pictures of the boys looking at the animals.

Alex, Jason & Mason

Mason

Alex

Mason & Alex

The only reason I'm sure who is who is becausethis picture was taken earlier this morning and I remember how they were kneeling down. They were trying to see where the skunk was sleeping.

New Kittens!!

Today we went with Grandma & Papa Snyder to pick out two new kittens (to be kept outside at their house, of course). I pushed for three but Papa wasn't going for it. The boys were very calm and gentle with the kittens. We were very proud because this is the first time they've gotten to hold baby animals. Mason & Alex did so well that we let them hold the kittens on their laps on the way home.

Mason & Max

Alex & Ruby

We picked out the names Max & Ruby after one of the cartoons Mason & Alex like to watch. The names really fit the personalities of the kittens. Max is a yellow boy and he seems like he's going to be the adventurous one. Ruby is a very pretty calico girl and I think she's the quieter of the two.

Memorial Day Weekend 2010

I'm a little behind on blogging but instead of stressing about trying to catch up I'm just going to try to keep up on our "current events".

We went camping this weekend at Clayton Hills Campground in Garnavillo. Below are pictures from our first family cooking experience in the camper. A delicious layered strawberry shortcake...it was delicious! Thank you to my good friend Kristy for sharing this recipe & to Jason for taking pictures so I could supervise our chefs.

Mason worked on "folding" the strawberries into the glaze.
Alex patiently waited for his turn...sort of!

The boys did a really nice job of taking turns for each layer. It was sloppy, but delicious. I had a hard time keeping their fingers out of the cream mixture.

How could you not love these two???

Our finished product.
I think we could have squeezed those last two strawberries on top,
but Mason & Alex thought it looked perfect without them.

Face Painting???

I hardly know how to begin this post so I'll just start at the beginning...

Mason & Alex weren't going down for their nap on Saturday. They stayed in their room, but for 2 hours, they just wouldn't fall asleep. Finally, at 4:00 I figured enough was enough and they obviously weren't taking a nap. I walked in their room and this is what I saw...
Alex is on the left without a shirt & Mason is on the right. They were looking out the window when I opened the door. I ran for my camera and began snapping away. I noticed the clothes on all over the floor right away, but what I didn't notice...
was what they had all over their faces...BALMEX (butt paste)! You can see they smeared it right over their eyes and Mason had it all over in the front of his hair. As you can see, Alex did not want to give up that tube. So at 4:15 I had both boys in the tub trying to get Balmex out of their eyelashes, eyebrows, hair, etc. I washed Mason's hair 3 times, but the point of the cream is to be waterproof. After 3 washes, this is what it looked like...
Oh, I almost forgot to mention this was the night of the AECOM employee party at Galleria de Paco. Great-Aunt Sharon showed up to watch the boys & we had to call Mason's hair good enough. I had to get ready to go as quick as I could. We made it on time and while we were eating dinner, I got a text from my friend, Kristy, that said to use Dawn dish soap in his hair. So Sunday morning before church I had Mason stretched out on the kitchen counter over the sink & was scrubbing his hair with Dawn. Thank goodness it worked!!!

I spent the rest of the day, on and off, pulling stuffing from a dinosaur out of Mason's nose, but that's a whole separate story.

Painting Pumpkins 10/3

Great-Aunt Ginger came over on Saturday to help the boys paint pumpkins. Mason painted for about 20 minutes and then he was ready to be done. Alex, on the other hand, painted for over an hour and cried when it was time to stop. It's neat to see how different two little boys can be...same dna, same life experiences, very different personalities. I really love their differences.

Come on over to Adventureland...

Alex Mason

Mason & Alex had a wonderful time at Adventureland on Saturday with me, Jason & my parents. Mason was a little concerned when we tried to put him on the carosel for the first time. But I held on tight and as soon as he figured out what was going on he had a lot of fun. We went on the tea cups, the train, the Infant Ocean, the hot air balloons, the lady bugs, the semis and the Tornado (just me & Jason). The weather was really hot and humid so we were glad the lines weren't too long.

We ate a nice picnic lunch in the shade and by 2:30 the boys had fallen asleep in the stroller so we decided at 3:00 that it was time to head home.

Mason was so glad to be home to play with his toys that he couldn't even wait to get his pajamas on after his bath to start playing.

Happy Mother's Day!

What a great day so far...

We woke up a little before 7:00 and went out to eat for breakfast with my parents, Jaime and Davon at the Isle of Capri (thanks Jaime!!!!). The food was great and we had lots of fun. When we got home we went in the garage and I got my Mother's Day present, a Dappled Willow Tree! It's a decorative tree that will only get to be about 8 feet in height. It has beautiful pink flowers and the branches will turn red in the winter. I've read that you can do some pretty extensive pruning at the end of the season and I absolutely love trimming trees.

Then we went to the Western Home to visit with Grandma Ruth for a bit with my aunt Ginger and Uncle Gary. When it was time for her to go to lunch we stopped by to see if Grandma Meyer was around but she wasn't there. We left her Mother's Day gift on her bed and can't wait to hear how she likes it.

The boys are down for a nap right now, Jason just finished using the 4-wheeler and lawn sweeper and is playing a new video game. I've got just a little while to update this post before Jim and Connie come over to spend the rest of the afternoon and evening with us.

This is exactly how I want to spend my Mother's Day. Beautiful weather, no stress and lots of time with my family. I wouldn't change a thing.

Where do they put all that food??

After letting me sleep in until 7:15, Mason, Alex and I headed to the casino with Jaime, Davon, my mom, Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Henry for breakfast. They have a really nice breakfast buffet and I can't believe how much food Mason and Alex can put away. Pancakes with strawberries, yogurt, chocolate milk, a cinnamon roll, a banana, bacon...you get the picture. Eating all that food really wore them out! Between the good food and peeking through the glass partition to the casino floor, I think Mason and Alex have a new favorite restaurant. We they had finished stuffing themselves, we came home and Sharon spent the afternoon with the boys while I scrapbooked with the crew and Jason cut wood with my dad. If anyone wants to join in on scrapbooking let me know because we have a great time! After scrapbooking I brought Jackson home with me to play with the boys. A little later my dad, my mom, Laurie and Sierra joined us for supper. It was a full day for us but one I wouldn't trade. We are so lucky to have such a wonderful family.