Saint Paul Winter Carnival 2011

This afternoon we went to the parade at the Saint Paul Winter Carnival. The weather was in the Mid 20's. We were pretty cold after being outside for a couple hours.

There were some nice ice sculptures, but this is the only picture I got of one. These snowflakes were at the top of a large wall of ice that they had pictures of past Saint Paul Winter Carnival memories.

The boys love firetrucks!

This was Alex's favorite part of the parade. He said "A BIG BUCKET"! he kept repeating it over and over "BIG BUCKET MOMMY OVER THERE"!

Evan said this was his favorite part of the parade. It is a hot air balloon heater. You could really feel the heat! We saw three of them in the parade. His other favorite part of the parade was the unicycle club. They were later in the parade and we didn't get any pictures of them. They also love the marching bands.

Good Times!

Evan completed another session of gymnastics and got a certificate. They say that his class is the most advanced 3 year old class they have ever had. He is the only boy in his class of 5. We signed up Alex for the next session, so he starts next week. We are hoping he likes gymnastics as much as Evan. We are hoping it will help him learn to follow direction. Evan got to visit his gymnastics with a field trip with his daycare last week. His teacher said that he was the only one who sat quietly and listened for direction without being asked.
At the end of every class they get to pick something they did best and he usually picks trampoline!

Go for a swing on the rings!

Uneven bars!

"I DID IT HURRAH!"

Dairy Queen finally opened today! We've been talking about it for weeks, so we had to make a stop there on the way home from the parade. Unfortunately, we were not able to eat outside today! You can see the snow piled on the picnic tables. A couple more months and we'll be sitting there:-)

We had to bring our ice cream home to eat it. Evan was very disappointed and really wanted to eat it in the car, but we made him wait.

Alex even had some ice cream!

Alex was feeling a little under the weather this morning and we gave him a wha wha(pacifier) because he was being so crabby. I took this sequence of pictures of the boys.

Look at the face on Alex when I take his wha wha! A smile is still plastered on Evan's face!

It won't be long and they won't be able to lay side by side on the couch anymore.

It looks like Evan is about to be booted from the couch.

After Evan and Eric left for gymnastics Alex grabbed his Curious George and went and sat at the picnic table. He was ready for a nap and it was only 9:30! He slept from 9:30 until 12:15 when we woke him up to go to the parade.

Is winter over yet?

Our boys are so sweet when they sleep. It is really the only time they are quiet:-)


I made brownies the other night and Evan had to use his spoon that he got from Santa in his stocking. He likes the brownie batter like his Mommy!

Alex has started covering his eyes and saying "I can't see you Mommy". Usually you can see his eyeballs between his fingers.

Evan and Eric went to Gymnastics on Saturday morning and I stayed home with Alex. He is becoming an Artist! I drew the heart! I really have to watch him with those markers. I have to be within an arms reach of him at all times. I can say to Evan don't color on anything but this board, but Alex can't be trusted. I got some dry erase crayons, but they are really hard to erase, so markers is what we are using.

Notice he managed to get some on his lips. They are washable dry erase markers, so they wipe right off.

One kid sitting on a ball and the other kid leaned up against it, so he doesn't roll off?

The boys got a bowling pin set for Christmas, so they are practicing knocking over the pins. It is more like throw the ball rather than roll it.

The train track to know where? Evan needs more track, so he can make a bigger circle, but Eric set it up so the trains would go right off the track and they could put it back on the track at the other end. Notice the little book worm sitting on the bean bag chair(LOL)?

The boys sitting in the chair with Daddy!

Evan got a note last week from his teacher that he was a really good boy, so I said I would take him to Target and he could get a toy. He picked this game called Ball Hogs. You are supposed to take the poles that have a pig on the end and use them to pull the balls toward you.

They had fun turning it into a bed with their blankets and pillows!

January 18th

Yes, that is two pacifiers(wha-wha's) in his mouth. Silly boy. He likes to keep three of them near him and swap them out to get a fresh one. He is only allowed to have them at bedtime and nap time, so he likes to hang out in his crib in the morning so he can keep them longer. He drops them when he is ready to get out of his crib.

When he gets up in the morning he wants to watch Dora. He has to bring all his friends..... Curious George, Mickey Mouse, Monkey, blanket and puppy.

A couple weeks ago my Mom came to watch the boys, so I could go to a baby shower and she started playing "teacher teacher" with them. They pulled their Elmo chairs in front of her to do puzzles and flash cards.

Saturday after the boys got up from their nap we went to Mall of America. We got some McDonald's for dinner.

The boys love everything in Nickelodeon Universe! They could sit in their stroller and watch rides all day. We promised Evan he could go on the carousel next time.

We went to Build a Bear so Evan could adopt his first scruffy puppy he named Oliver. You get to pick a heart to put inside it.

He hands her the heart to put in his puppy.

Really BIG DORA! HURRAH! WE DID IT!

Eric uses this headlight to help him cut the kids nails. Evan looks pretty funny with it on his head!

Build A Bear @ MOA

Evan got to build his first Build A Bear today at MOA! He picked a scruffy puppy he named Oliver! Thanks Sophie & Jack:-)

A new year!

Evan made this party hat at daycare for New Year's Eve. He wore it for a few minutes, but he liked our party hats better. He saw the box tonight that holds all the noise makers and wanted to play with everything again. I told him we need to wait for New Year's Eve 2012!

The boys got some more mega blocks for Christmas and Eric made a really big tower. You can't make a tower this big by yourself, because if you try to bend down to pick up more blocks the tower will fall over. It is REALLY TALL!

Can you tell which kid this is?

Evan had really messy hair one morning last week, so Eric had to take his picture. You can tell when they need a hair cut, because their hair gets really messy in the morning.

The boys are still into the under bed storage container from IKEA! I need to go pick up a couple more of these. You just throw all the toys in it and push it under the bed. Eric brought them to the clinic last week for their well visits and Alex is 35 inches and 26 lbs and Evan is 37 3/4 inches and 32.8 lbs. How long until Alex catches up to Evan?

Time spent at Grandma and Papa's. Grandma made the mistake of introducing them to the piano. I told her we have no room for a piano at our house:-) They do look pretty cute sitting on that bench.

Evan looks like he just got his way with something?

We love ornaments!

Grandma is teaching him how to use the calculator.

My grandma can save you a lot of money on your taxes!

Pretend you are sleeping boys!