Happy Easter!

The boys each got a new train for Easter and a couple pieces of chocolate.  Evan bit into his bunny right away.

We went to Michelle's for Easter dinner and the boys collected some eggs! 

Evan sure looks like he got a lot more eggs than Alex!  No hunt outside this year..there was still snow in the back yard at Michelle's. 

We brought the kids train for them to play with and Daddy got it hooked up so it went around and all connected.  They had quite a few engines going at the same time.

Evan learned this train was a bit too long, because it kept falling over while going around the curves in the track.

Bowling and a little bike time!

Last week Evan went bowling with school and he LOVED it!  He couldn't wait to go back with the family!

Last night we went to family night at bowling!

It's nice bowling with bumpers!

They even have a nice ramp for the kids to roll the ball down the lane easier.  Alex was Super excited to bowl!

Still lots of snow in the front yard, but the kids got out the bikes and we headed down the road to the park.

This morning we headed to Lifetime Fitness and Alex is finally tall enough to go down the water slide.  He decided to take advantage and went down the slide about 30 times.  He and Evan had a great time and we spent nearly 2 hours at the pool today.  Last year we were out on our boat today and yesterday snowmobiles were still driving on the ICE!  Yep it'll be awhile before the boat goes in the water.  At least we can keep them busy until the boat goes in. 

March 18th

The snow at the end of our driveway is taller than the boys! Where are you Spring?

Goldie Blox

Back in November I saw a story on facebook about Goldie Blox this new product that this girl was trying to sell enough to be able to produce.  She is an engineer and is disappointed that the number of girl engineers is so small, so she came up with this product to get girls excited about engineering.  I liked the story and decided to order one.  Her goal was to sell 5000, so she could go into production.  Yesterday our Goldie Blox finally arrived.  I got it out this afternoon and showed the boys the video that I saw that made me want to buy the toy.  They initially said I should give it to someone else, but once we opened it up they got excited and played it for over an hour.  Alex was interested in using the wheels, axle's, and blocks to create something and Evan was interested in following the directions to get the wheels to spin the animals around.  He would pull the ribbon so hard the animals would fly off!  

Action shot of Evan pulling the ribbon which was around the wheels and you can see 3 of the animals flying off!

Alex building!

This toy really kept their attention!  It was interesting to me how different they both wanted to play with it.  Evan wanted to make the animals spin and Alex just wanted to build!

Want to know more about Goldie Blok's?  Check it out!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/16029337/goldieblox-the-engineering-toy-for-girls

Almost Spring? 7K and other things!

Saturday I ran the Get Lucky 7K in Minneapolis.  When I signed up to run this race last year their promotions showed last years race was 78 degrees and everyone was wearing shorts and T-Shirts!  Of course we all know that isn't typical March 16th weather, but I figured it would be in the 40's.  Well it WASN'T!  It was 19 degrees as I was driving to the race and had snowed the night before.  There were over 11,000 crazy people signed up to run this race along the river in Minneapolis.  It was beautiful scenery, but I had to keep my eyes on the ground for ice and snow and puddles.  The race was supposed to start at 9:00.  I'm about a 10/min miler, so I took my spot near the 10/mile starter line.  There were so many people to run they let people go in groups.  My group didn't start until 9:40, so I stood there freezing for a long time.  The boys showed up about 9:30, so I got to see them at the Start Line.  Alex was sad the whole race, because he wanted to give me a kiss(I hugged and kissed them both before I ran).  I met up with them after the race and the boys drove home with me.  The race is full of people dressed in green clothes and wigs and crazy things(so it was great entertainment for them).  I saw a few people in shorts.  My favorite stat about the race is that I passed 637 people!  It did feel like I passed a lot of people!  When I stopped off at the start line to see the boys I jumped in with the 9/min mile people, so I guess I did pretty good passing that many people that think they run a 9 min/mile!  They give you a chip to wear on your shoe and at the official start line you cross over a pad that records when you start and finish.  I ran the whole time except when I had to stop to tie my shoe twice. 

The boys took turns wearing my Get Lucky Finisher Metal(Cool)!

After I got home and warmed up we decided to go to the MOA to ride some rides.  We are taking the kids to Disney next month and want to get them geared up for rides.  You can see Evan is wearing my metal in this picture. 

We took a ride on the Ferris Wheel.  Alex even rode the big roller coaster.  This was a giant feat for him, because he has not wanted to do anything like that before.  I think it was Evan's third time on the roller coaster and he is still a little emotional and wanted me to keep my arm around him during the ride.  I think Alex is now ready for rides at Disney! 

When we got to the mall traffic around the mall was stopped and it took us nearly an hour to drive around the whole place to find that every entrance was blocked.  Lots of cars leaving, but nobody going in.  The boys were pretty set that they wanted to go to the MOA, so Eric drove to the park n ride a little east of the mall and we took the light rail transit to get to the mall.  By the time we left the mall they were letting people get into the ramp.  Would have been nice if they would've put a sign up to let us know we weren't going to be able to access the ramps and we would've gone with plan B from the beginning.  Lots of angry people going nowhere on a Saturday afternoon at 2:00!  One of the reasons for the crowds could have been this new One Direction store that had it's grand opening that morning.  One Direction is a boy band like New Kids One The Block was for me when I was a teenie Bopper!  They weren't even there, but girls want to be the first to be to the store or get their goods.  They had a line up outside and would only let a certain number of people inside at a time.  The store is located right in the rotunda and we had to walk right by it to get to Nickelodeon Universe(which was not even very crowded).

The boys were walking around with the vacuum this morning.  They didn't have it plugged in, but it kept them entertained!

Eric and Evan went for a snowmobile ride this morning....Yes, March 17th and you can still snowmobile on the lake and there are still people driving cars/trucks on the ice.  Something tells me the boat will not be in the water on March 30th like we were last year:-(

March 17th and still wearing hat, scarf, gloves and boots!

Evan likes to make smoothies with milk, strawberries, ice and banana's.  I use a hand mixer and it mixes up really fast.

Wednesday I got to go to Owl Moon a play at the Stages theater in Hopkins.  Evan sat very quietly though the show and loved the music and dancing.  I can't say the same for the other kids who were talking and had the wiggles during the play.  He just sat in his seat and payed close attention.  It is the story of a little girl and her dad as they go out on a walk at night looking for an owl.  It incorporates lots of ballet dancing and music.  Alex gets to go see the play this week!

I'm not crazy!

Eric took this picture of the boys in the backyard on Sunday afternoon. 

Last year the snow was nearly gone at this time!  These pictures were taken last year March 10th - 12th!  My kids are wearing hats, mittens and snow pants everyday to school.  I'm so DONE with winter!  I'm running a 7K race on Saturday and I thought I'd be training outside at this point.  Sounds like we'll get another round of snow before then!  Great!

Backyard March 10th 2012

Alex's 4th Birthday Party

We had Alex's Birthday party on Saturday.  We celebrated with friends and family.  Our friend Nick captured these wonderful moments from the party.  It's nice when he has his camera out, because I don't have to miss out on anything trying to take pictures. 

He didn't put out his candle with his finger(I think he did that when he was 2)!

Make a WISH....for Lego's. Angry Birds, Trucks, Pancakes, Hugs, Kisses and Love:-)

I made homemade chocolate cupcakes and banana cake cupcakes with cream cheese frosting..DELICIOUS! 

Alex's was in the shape of a star.  He usually just eats off the frosting and he's done, but he polished almost the whole thing off!

When he opened these Angry Bird pajamas he said there are two pairs..one for me and one for Evan!  He's such a sweet boy!  They glow in the DARK!  So fun!

How many kids does it take to put together a matchbox racetrack?

Alex wanted a beach party theme for his Birthday, so we had some Tiki theme decorations and gave away Earth beach balls to the kids.