All Good Things...

All good things must come to an end, I suppose... even vacation...  we have thoroughly enjoyed having Nick home with us every day this past week.  There is nothing that our boys love more than having Daddy home all the time!  We have had a great week.  We got to do a couple of things that we have never done and we got to spend a lot of quality time at home together!  We even got some things done around here, enough to make us feel productive at least!  Thanks for a great week boys! 

Science Station...

We took a quick trip to the "Science Station" this afternoon.  We wanted to see what it was all about.  The boys had a good time!  (Although, they also had a great time on the escalator!)

 

New...

After 11 years of marriage, we have finally bought our first brand new living room furniture...  I feel all grown up...  Couch, loveseat, and tables!  (Of course, now Nick is trying to convince me to get a new tv for that room as well.... to go with the new furniture, or so he says!)

 

Clean Advantage...

One of Nick's projects this week was to get all of our totes and storage items moved over to the other side of the basement where he and his dad had recently built some shelving.  Once he got that done, he decided to set up some of the boys' car and train tracks, in the open space,  that we don't normally get to leave up.  The boys really liked the new "play area!"  We also cleaned out the space under the stairs which turned out to be perfect for a tent.  Conner and Ben were pretty happy with the results of our hard work!

 

"Gotcha" 2013

We decided to start celebrating our "gotcha day" a little early this year.  Nick is on vactaion all week so we have been enjoying every day so much!  Every morning, the boys meet Nick with "You not work today?!"  They are beyond thrilled to have Dad home.  So, we were out running errands on Monday and decided that a new pirate ship might make two little guys pretty happy and then we decided to get Peter Pan to watch while they played with their new ship!  They were both pretty excited!  We talked a little bit about what makes March 12 a special day for us...



On Tuesday, we went to Iowa City to go to the Children's Museum with the boys!  We figured that one of the best ways we could spend one of our favorite days was just watching the kids explore and have fun!  So that's what we did!  It was really a great time!

Ben manned the post office...



Conner and Ben loved running around, exploring every last inch of the place!



Ben was pretty taken with the room where you could roll balls on different tracks and see what happened...

Conner really liked this activity too!

The "air" room was definitely a favorite too!

Conner found his very own airplane to fly...

And so did Ben...

They had an area where you could do a little flight simulator, which was pretty cool.  Conner flew Dad around and Ben flew me around, when I wasn't trying to capture the moment...

Ben and Conner definitely had their share of giggles when they discovered that when they put little "puffs" into these air-filled tubes, the "puffs" would shoot at them from a different direction after traveling for a few seconds in the tubing.  Pretty funny...

Ben and Conner got to sit in a "real" airplane!

Ben explores the music room...

Ben and Con both wanted to drive the ambulance!

Conner was pretty excited about the grocery store!  He filled up his cart with cheese and bread, while Ben just wanted to push his own cart around!

After we were done at the museum, we decided to go have lunch at Bennigans.  We, of course, sat right next to a window where you could see the merry-go-round, so the boys asked about fifty times throughout lunch if they could go for a ride.  We couldn't say no...

We had a pretty fantastic day celebrating and even though the boys don't really understand what we are celebrating, they will one day soon.  I am eternally grateful for the fact that we are able to call ourselves a family and that we are able to be together every single day.  I don't want to miss a minute of it!

Ben and Conner, Mom and Dad love you beyond words.  You will always be our miracles!   

Last Game...

The boys had their last day of basketball today.  Ben was very excited!  Conner said he didn't really want to go! (It might not be his sport!) 

 

Ben did so good!  He really seemed to follow along better with his team and definitely tried harder to get the basketball whenever he could... no matter who happened to have possession of it at the time!  He turned out to be a bit of a ball hog, but it was awesome to watch him so enthusiastic about trying to make a basket! He was always right in the middle of the action!  No surprise there... 

 

Conner tended to stay out of the line of fire!  He did a great job of running up and down the court today, but he's not too interested in actually having anything to do with the ball!  And if you know anything about Conner, it's that if he doesn't want to do something, he sure isn't going to do it!  I think (hope) that he still had a lot of fun!  After giving high fives, we took one last basketball picture!  Good job my boys!

 

  

Snow Mowing...

Nick snapped a few pictures while he was playing with the boys outside.  Conner decided that he needed his Mater mower and, of course, Ben agreed, so they played with their mowers in the snow!  These guys are SO ready for Spring!!!  I love the way their little minds work!