Sold!

Hey Graham Fans!  We are talking April, 2013.  Way behind, but if we keep the pace we could be caught up by Spring Break!  Woot Woot!

 

April was a lot about selling the house.  The action picked up and we got an offer!  It was a family with seven kids!!  That was going to be a packed house.  To make a long story short, they were kind of hard to work with and ultimately couldn't afford the house and backed out.  Their realtor had shown the house to another couple that had liked it but the other family had made an offer before this couple was ready to decide on a house.  They were going to come back to see it.  We relisted it too to ensure we the traffic started again.  We had three showings and fortunately the couple made an offer.  Relief!

 

Beyond the house, we had plenty of other activities.  Nanny came to visit.  The weather was nice so we got to enjoy the weather.  Mommy and Daddy went out for dinner which put Nanny in charge.  We had a good time.  

We did some packing.  Every spring there is an anything goes garbage day.  It was timely given that we would be moving.  The crazy thing about it is that people drive around and pick up your stuff.  We put our stuff out on Sunday, and the majority of it was gone by Monday morning.  We watched for awhile as people rummaged through the stuff on the curb.  I talked Mom into going out 'pickin' with me.  We didn't find anything we wanted however. 

Hopefully the video below shows up for all my readers/viewers.  I really worked on my hula hooping.  Believe I have the moves.....

 

We celebrated Mommy's birthday.  Daddy helped us bake a cake for her.  We also went out for pizza.  Her birthday was the day that things started to go south with Buyer #1 so it wasn't as fun as she would have liked.  Dad and Mom also had conferences with my teachers on Mom's birthday.  They seemed happy with what they heard!  Whew!

 

Thanks to Uncle Greg we found a new park in our part of town.  It has a differ which I love and these cool trees you could climb.  If you know me and Caroline, you know how much we climb!  The perfect playground for us!  We made another trip there and packed a lunch.  

Most of you know about the Drake Relays.  We hadn't gone to any of the events before. We went to parade for the first time.  There were not many people there.  It was really windy but we got PLENTY of candy!  For the first time, Mom took us to the Beautiful Bulldog Contest.  They had all these bulldogs dressed up. Lucky for us there were some others there that we got to pet. Well they hold the pole vault event inside the mall.  Can you believe that?  Mommy took us to see it.  It was pretty cool, plus Porterhouse, the real bulldog, was there.  We love to pet him.  Hope we get to see some of the same events next year!

On the road again! 03/13

Project catch up the blog continues!  Caroline on assignment!  I am so excited to share with you what our escapades from March!  We had normal activities - Graham had school, I went to Brighter Beginnings, an occasional play date, plus our house was on the market!  Mom was always cleaning and picking up.  Every few days, sometimes less, sometimes more, someone was looking at our house to determine if they wanted to buy it.  Then we would drive around, run an errand, sometimes drive by the houses Mom and Dad liked to see if there was a sale pending sign.  Sometimes we would get to eat out.  Mostly it was a hassle!

 

The highlight of our month was going to Minneapolis.  Daddy had a meeting up there so we went up after his meetings were over and spent a couple of days.  It was a bit of a drive, but with the DVD player in the car, we survived.  Plus we had just been to Chicago in February - that was a DRIVE!!  First on the agenda was Mall of America!!!  We rode rides that were based on some of our favorite Nick Jr. characters!  Some rides I couldn't ride because I wasn't tall enough. Fortunately there were plenty of rides that were fun and perfect for Graham and me!  I really liked the Blues Clues ride!  The Wonder Pets ride was NOT fun!  It went up in the air and gradually jolted down, then went back up.  The little boy next to me tried to make me feel better because he noticed I was freaking out!   Graham rode it twice.  We rode a bunch of rides.  Graham even rode a roller coaster with Daddy.  We found a Peeps store, visited the Lego store, ate dinner and headed back to the hotel.  Swimming time!!  

 

 

 

The next day we visited the Children's Museum.  It was awesome!  Graham loved the city bus he could pretend to drive.  I liked the pretend store.  We both loved the restaurant and the doctor's office.  They had a nature area that we played in, but also we came across some reading buddies - dogs! I loved petting the dogs!  Mom and I found story time.  It was the best story time I had ever been to - that guy was an excellent narrator, plus it was a book about a cat!!!

 We found a place for lunch and ultimately headed back to the hotel to swim!  For dinner we met up with some friends of Daddy's from college.  Their kids are about the same age as us!  I slept through part of our meeting.  Nap time just didn't happen earlier so I had fallen asleep.  We still had fun.  Sunday we were headed home but went to Edinborough Park to burn some energy.  The pic below shows the climbing structure we played inside.  Graham was a little more adventurous than me.  They also had an open area with balls and ride on toys.  Mommy's friend Karen met us with her baby.  We had a great time. 

 

The other highlight of the month was Easter!  We went to an Easter hunt in Waukee.  There was candy everywhere!  After that we headed to Grandma's!  On Easter we dressed up for Easter Mass.  Graham and I like to dress up for holidays!  After church we got to help make dinner.  Of course, we had an Easter Egg hunt.  Graham was trying to get more than me as usual. 

 

  After all the excitement at Grandma's we headed home.  Graham and I were hoping that the Easter Bunny had visited our house!  Sure enough he did!  We both got swimming suits, which we promptly tried on!  The bunny also brought books and candy. 

 

February's Winter Wonderland!

Hey Graham Fans!!  Here goes my effort to getting caught up!  We have lots of pictures to share from February '13!  We had lots of fun!  We went sledding on a hill near our house some.  Unfortunately due to the cold and the potential to ruin the camera in the snow, Mom and Dad didn't take the big camera out.  I love to go sledding!  I try to snowboard on my sled.  We would go over a little ramp in the snow.  SOOO much fun!

 

Unfortunately, some of our fun was the result of a loss.  One of Daddy's good friends lost his mother.  We made the trip to Chicago so Daddy wouldn't have to go on his own.  Daddy was glad he got to be there for his friend and still got to spend time with us.  Mommy took us to the Children's Museum in Naperville.  It was a LOT of fun!  They had a water play area, bubble area, wind tunnel, music and a bunch of other fun things to do.  After we picked up Dad we went all the way downtown to go to the Shedd Aquarium.  We didn't go to any shows but saw lots of cool fish and water creatures (see the snake below, which gave Mom the creeps!).  It was cold and  we saw a big lake and lots of big buildings.  In the car, we just really wanted to watch the movie. Dad and Mom were the ones that liked the looking at the buildings, but NOT the traffic!  We had pizza at Lou Malnati's in Naperville.  Caroline, being the cheese lover that she is, started licking the plate while we were waiting for the pizza.  She could use some etiquette lessons!  As with any trip to a hotel, we had to check out the pool!

 

 

For the first time, we went to a Drake basketball game!  It was the Drake/UNI game so particularly fun for Mom and Dad.  As you could expect, we looked for Spike, had some snacks, found Uncle Greg, watched a little of the game, and we were ready to go!

Every school, I get to bring Mom to school for a day and another time, Dad.  In February, it was Dad's turn.  It just happened to be Dad's birthday and they sang the birthday song to him!  I thought that was pretty cool!  We even went out to lunch with a couple of my classmates and their dads.  This is me at school that day. 

Grandma came to visit in February.  Right before she arrived, Mom heard an unusual water sound right after I fell asleep for a nap.  She went to the basement to investigate and found a pipe had burst.  What a mess that was.  Fortunately, we got some help from the man that finished the basement and Uncle Greg came over.  We were lucky Mommy caught it fast enough so there wasn't more damage. 

 



We went to Kansas City in February too.  They had lots of snow so we went sledding while there.  Benjamin and Joe also came along.  I was so thankful we could play in the snow!!  We also went to Fritz's, the restaurant with the train that delivers your food.  I love that place!  We had a fun trip!

Lastly, Mom had a sinus infection and she was seeking some relief when Daddy took this picture.  Shame on Daddy, but Mommy is a good sport to let us post it!

Happy New Year, but last year

Hello the few faithful blog followers!  Working to get caught up so our entries are more timely.  You would think with two contributors we would be more up to date.  Graham blames me, and I blame him.

We are up to January 2013.  We brought in the new year at home.  Mommy and Daddy had crab legs and we had our own special dinner with hot dogs!  We headed to KC a few days into the year.  We hadn't celebrated Christmas with Daddy's side of the family and it was Benjamin's birthday party. We celebrated at Nanny's and Grandpa's and of course went to Benjamin's house to celebrate his birthday.  It certainly was fun! 

We love to go ice skating or at least try.   Graham really wants to learn.  So far I am a little hesitant - it is scary!  The cold and the skating wore us out.  Mommy and Daddy wanted to go out to a restaurant we could all enjoy, but we ended up in the drive-thru!  

Everyday provides lots of opportunities to play together and as I have gotten older, Graham and I play together more! Here we are with Graham as a policeman and me as a vet without pants!