Happy 95th Birthday, Great Grandma!

Today we celebrated Jason's grandma's 95th birthday (fivey-ninth according to Alex) at Jim and Connie's house. What a fun day. We got there early and even though it was raining we played in the garage and had a lot of fun seeing family we don't get to see as often as we would like.

Alex and Mason were excited to help Great Grandma open her birthday card.

Alex and Grandma coloring before lunch.


Mason really enjoys playing with daddy's old parking garage.
His favorite part is the elevator.

Papa Jim did a great job on the grill and our lunch was very good. They boys ate quite a bit but saved enough room for cake.

After lunch we sang Happy Birthday. Mason & Alex wanted to be right by Great Grandma (aka "Sharon's Mom") and Alex made me stand right there too. After singing we had cake and ice cream. We had such a nice time and can't wait to celebrate her 96th birthday!

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.

Chocolate Cake!

Jason decided to make chocolate cake today. He made two round pans and then stacked them and covered them with chocolate frosting...LET THE FUN BEGIN! His favorite helpers loved decorating the cake with lots of sprinkles. The best part was eating their masterpiece. Yum!

Mason & Alex

Alex's Long Week

Alex has had quite the week. Last Friday we took him to the doctors office because he had an ear infection in both ears. He had been running a fever, was very whiney and was sticking his fingers in his ears. We saw a different doctor and he asked us if we were aware Alex has a heart murmur. What??? Well it's what they call an "innocent murmur", which means it's very quiet and won't have any complications...very common in kids and nothing to worry about. We got a prescription for amoxicillin and were on our way.

On Thursday I noticed Alex was getting a mild rash on his legs & core, but it didn't look serious. After his bath it got worse & I called our doctor's office. When I described the rash she said it sounded like it was viral, probably linked to the ear infection.

On Friday, Alex had an accident at daycare. He hit his head on the table and split it open right on the inside of his eyebrow. Stephanie thought he might need stitches to I took him to see our doctor. He ended up getting 3 butterfly stitches (tape) and it should be healed in 5 days and there shouldn't be a scar. About the rash...it's not viral, it's an allergic reaction to the amoxicillin. He's taking Zyrtec now to help get rid of all the spots and can't have any medications with penicillin again.