Birthday Fun!

Hi! Caroline here.  We are finally up to May and I can talk about my BIRTHDAY!  I turned 2 on May 3!  We had some rolls fresh from the oven (no Mommy didn't stay up all night baking, that dough boy had some ready for us to bake).  It was Thursday so we went to music class like always and they sang "Happy Birthday".  That evening we went to Chicken Poop for dinner. {Editor's Note:  The restaurant is Chicken Coop, but every time we drive by Graham will say 'there's Chicken Coop' and Caroline says "Chicken Poop".}  They have good pizza! 

Grandpa came up on Friday and golfed with Dad and Graham.  Funny how he was here for my birthday, but Graham got to go off and do the fun stuff!  Graham is always working the angles!  Saturday was my big party!  I got to wear a new outfit and sported my oh so cute piggy tails.  Grandma and Grammy came, then Aunt Deb and her family, and Nanny, and of course, Uncle Greg.  We had lunch with stuff I liked - HOT DOGS and juice boxes!

 

After lunch, it was time for CAKE!  I have to admit, I didn't really like it when everyone sang happy birthday.  I actually wanted them to stop.  At least once they did I could eat my cupcake!

Then it was time to open presents!  I think I did pretty good getting everything unwrapped.  Mommy helped and Dad worked on putting stuff together.  My new bike was definitely a hit.  I really like to ride it.  I got some cute clothes and fun toys and a sleeping bag.  Graham thought we should try it out and pretent to sleep. 

It was definitely a fun time!  Cupcakes and presents - can't go wrong!

The following weekend we went to Sigourney for Mother's Day.  The weather was awesome!  We played outside most of the time we were there.  Daddy and Graham went fishing at Grandma's pond.  Graham caught a BIG catfish.  He called it Brutus!  They never keep the fish they catch so they didn't have a way to bring him back to the house.  We didn't get to see Brutus so we just have to take their word that it wasn't some fish story!  We also played in Grandma's shed - sitting on the tractor, the mower and the golf cart. Daddy stored his bbq trailer in Grandma's shed so he got out the two wheeler.  Graham and I pushed it around the shed.  Daddy took both Graham and I out on the mower.  Grandma hooked up her wagon to the mower and gave us a ride.  As always, we played with Grandma's toys, played the piano, and 'exercised' on her treadmill.  We even went up to Belva Deer and played on the play equipment.  We had a lot of fun!! 

We were also busy with playdates.  We had several picnics with our preschool friends.  They even had a picnic with all the kids from preschool with their whole families.  It was kind of crazy with all of those kids there, but I tried to use it to my advantage to sneak extra juice boxes.One just isn't enough!  Graham got out of preschool towards the end of May.  He was able to go to the last music class with us.  Graham's swim lessons lasted all of May and his gymnastics class will continue through summer.  Mommy took a few pics of Graham at gymnastics.  He is practicing cart wheels in the top pic.  He is also jumping on the trampoline in a couple of the pics.  All the kids love the trampolines!  I can't wait until I can take gymnastics class too!!!

Well that is all for now.  The next post will be about our vacation!  I am sure Graham wil have to write that plog post....

April fun

Hey Graham Fans - My turn again!  April was a fun month particularly since it brought us Easter.  This year I learned more about Easter since I am in preschool and older to understand more.  We went to St. Boniface on Palm Sunday.  It really gave me an idea of what Jesus did for us because some of the high school kids acted out part of the Passion.  I had a lot of comments and questions during church.  I just can't believe the mean people nailed him to the cross. 

For Easter this year, we were in Kansas City.  We played at Nanny's house some.  We went to the nursing home where Nan (Dad's grandmother) lives.  We had an egg hunt in the garden area.  We didn't see her room, but Nanny said it was nice.  Later we went to Grandpa's house and played.  The weather was nice enough to be outside so were outside a lot!  Grandpa taught us the Red Solo Cup song.  We all really liked it- it is pretty catchy!  On Easter, we went to church with Benjamin and his family and Nanny.  Mommy said she really likes Easter Mass and they sang some good Easter hymns!  After church we went back to Grandpa's.  Benjamin, Caroline, and I had a lot of fun in the backyard pretending to be firefighters and playing 'catch'.  We had an Easter Egg hunt.  Susan's great-nephew was there too to enjoy the festivities and play.   

 After Grandpa's, we went back to Nanny's to get Dakota and had another Easter Egg hunt.  Gotta love Easter!



Fortunately, the Easter Bunny found us at home and Grandma got us a few goodies too.  Thanks to Grandma I now really like the Berenstain Bears!

I really like the Bunny and treat part of Easter, but we talked about sacrificing for Jesus during Lent.  We had a project we worked on each week at home and picked up some special gifts for some charitable organizations. We took them to school once Lent was over and presented one of them at the prayer service.  Mom was impressed because I even remembered what Fr. Bob talked about. 

I don't think I have shared with you that I am a golfer.  Daddy and Mommy gave me clubs for my birthday last year.  Daddy started taking me to the driving range when the weather was so nice in March.  Then we played 9 holes with one of his work friends and his little boy.  Daddy took me out another time.  Believe it or not it was Palm Sunday and we quit a couple of holes early because of the heat!  Grandpa came up in April to play golf with us. He arrived early on a Thursday so he and Daddy took me to school, then he went with Daddy and Caroline to music class.  He was lucky he got to learn some new songs! Back to golf - it was my first time playing 18 holes - my strengths are driving the cart and putting.  I walk onto the green, put my ball down next to the hole and putt it in!  Grandpa was impressed.  We had  a lot of fun.  I got to look for golf balls and found a few.   I think Grandpa was hitting them into the woods intentionally so I could find them.  I wasn't able to find them all...

Grandpa came up right after Mommy's birthday so we went out to dinner to celebrate.  Daddy and I went to Hy-Vee after dinner and picked out a birthday cake. Caroline and I thought it was so much fun watching her blow out the candles!  Of course we liked eating the cake as well!  I think Grandpa enjoyed his visit as well.

Grandma came up to visit in April.  Mommy had to serve jury duty so Grandma watched us all day.  It was kind of like Mommy worked - she left early and came home in the late afternoon.  We had a good time with Grandma.  Mommy said she got picked but the case was 'settled' so she wouldn't have to go back.  Grandma stuck around until the next day so she got to see my school.  We even had a picnic with our preschool friends and she joined us.  Now she knows who my friends are. 

At the end of April, we met some of Daddy and Mommy's friends at Bass Pro.  There is a bowling alley there!  I have been to Bass Pro with Daddy before, but never knew there was a bowling alley.  It was my first time bowling.  It was a lot of fun.  The other kids showed us how to do it, but it didn't take long for Sissy and I to figure it out.  After we bowled, we had dinner in the restaurant.  I ordered for myself, I thought I was big stuff!  It was really a lot of fun!

The next post will be Caroline's turn since it was her birthday.  I am sure I could do just as good a job talking about it, but Mommy says I have to let Caroline talk about her own birthday.

Talk at you later!

March

Hey Graham Fans!  How is it going?  I bet you are wondering why I would post an update titled March?  Well looking back that is where we need to begin updating.  We get behind but do our best to keep you updated on our adventures. 

I don't think I shared that we hosted a playdate at our house.  We invited all of our preschool friends.  There were about 8 kids total including siblings.  We were all over the house!  It was most fun playing upstairs, but the moms kept interrupting our fun!  A couple of my friends and I pretended to take showers - but that was broken-up quickly.  What is wrong with taking showers together?  (Mom edited out the name of the girl involved to protect her reputation - I don't know what the big deal was nor do I know what a reputation is). 

In early March we went to Kansas City to see the Bagby side of the family.  Nan (great grandmother) was in the hospital so we didn't see as much of Nanny as we planned and Daddy too for that matter.  Mommy took us to Crown Center to this animal exhibit. 

We had fun - stuff to climb on, room to run- can't go wrong!  We hung out at Benjamin's house some too.  We played in a big pile of leaves!  Don't think we didn't have endless fun running and jumping into those leaves! We had a good time playing basketball too.  Benjamin and I were showing each other our moves!

We also spent some time at Grandpa's.  We watched a bunch of Wonder Pets episodes!  What's not to like when watching the Wonder Pets?!  On our way out of town we stopped at a park.  Nanny and Grandpa were there too.  Grandpa and I raced on a track.  I am pretty fast so I could edge him out at the finish line.  They also had a long bar that I held on to for a LONG time before I would drop.  I am really strong!

The weather in March was great!  We got to play outside so much and without the typical gear we would normally be wearing.  Caroline and I played in the puddles one day.  Those are spring coats - not winter and I have on rain boots, not snow boots.  The girls in the cul de sac also started getting out so we played more in the cul de sac. 

I experienced my first "Spring Break"!  I didn't realize how much stress I had been under going to preschool two days a week for 2 1/2 hours.  Taking that week off sure helped refresh me.  We did some fun stuff.  We went to the St Patrick's Day parade downtown.  We had a picnic lunch on the street.  I don't think we were standing in a very good spot as we hardly got any candy.  We got to see some fire trucks and cool cars.  We went to the zoo for the first time in MONTHS!  Some of the animals weren't out yet, but we still had a good time.  Michael and Ava met us there so it was nice to have company.  From the zoo we headed to Grandma's!  She had some new toys!  She has a sandbox now.  We had a good time playing in the sand.  She also has a new golf cart!  She uses it to drive around doing her gardening.  We rode all the way out to the pond.  Mommy gave me a ride on the four wheeler, which was lots of fun too!  Mommy went shopping for awhile so Grandma watched us.  I did a good job of staying awake while Mommy was gone.  Grandma and I got Caroline to take a nap so we were proud!  We also went to the park near Grandma's house.  The playground equipment had a pole you could slide down.  I did that a bunch of times.  Now when we go to parks around home that have poles, I slide down on my own.  Just the first step to being a fireman. 

Gosh, what else did we do in March?  We got to play with my girlfriends (the girls in the neighborhood) more than we usually do in March.  The weather really did make the month.  Mom had to hurry out and buy us new shorts.  I am pretty sure this was the earliest I have worn shorts in all my life. 

Well we are going to work to keep the blog up to date.  Sorry we have gotten behind.  Stay tuned!

New 'do

Guess what?! I got my hair cut! Yes this is Caroline. A hair cut wouldn't be news for Graham (though it would be news if he quit crying when getting his hair cut!). Mommy has been talking about getting my hair cut for several weeks, but had to find a time where Daddy could be there too. He wanted to be there for the first snip!

In the interest of full disclosure, Grandma has trimmed my bangs a couple of times but that wasn't really considered a 'cut'. I was a little apprehensive. I mean I have watched Brodduh get his hair cut many times and he always cries so I expected it to be somewhat tortuous. It really wasn't that bad. Maybe it is because Graham's hair is so much thicker than mine that he doesn't like it. Mom is hoping my hair gets a little thicker now that it has been cut. Time will tell. The best part of the whole event of course is the sucker! Here are the pics:

Note from Mom: Graham got his haircut a couple of days later and didn't shed a tear.

Oh, I am a big girl!

Hi! It's my turn! If you didn't figure it out from the title, this is Caroline. Graham has provided the last few updates. Mommy says sometimes that he will get more turns than me and then will be times, I will get more turns updating the blog. Well I say it is about time it is my turn!

So what is new? Gosh, I guess Graham updated you on Christmas. I will give my take on it. It was plenty of fun, but I really didn't open any of my presents. I was more interested in what else was going on. We went to Nanny's. I really like cats and really want to play with Nanny's kitty. She just doesn't like us to bother her. I do my best to make her want to play. We made cookies for Santa and made some decorations. I like to do art projects! I also had fun playing with Benjamin and Joe. Sometimes the stuff that Graham and Benjamin do is just silly. They were playing basketball in the living room at Benjamin's house. They really think they have 'moves'. Well I didn't see any college recruiters hanging around..... So what was my favorite gift? My new baby doll or my dollhouse or new boots, or my new chair? Umm, I would say it is my hand-me down kitty cat that Grandma brought me from Kayla. I love my kitty!

I think Graham talked about going sledding too. He LOVED it! Me, not so much. I went down with Mommy and ended up with snow in my face. Then they tried to get me to go down later on my own. I didn't like that either. Watching Graham and the other kids was fun. I didn't want to leave, but I didn't want to go down that hill again!

Have you heard how much I like taking Graham to school and picking him up? When we pull into the parking lot, I sometimes call out "Friends!" My friends are Ava and Matt. Ava's brother and Matt's sister go to school with Graham. We have had playdates with some of our preschool friends. We have missed some of them, but the ones we have been to are sure fun! We went to Julia and Connor's house. The older kids were having a dance party in Julia's room with the door closed. I went in and joined the fun! Just this week we met some of our friends at Backyard Adventures. Graham and I love that place! We played and played. Graham and his friends were so silly. I did plenty of giggling too. I played with the big kids some, but Matt too. Ava is younger than me and Matt so we could do more things than her. The mommies were really impressed with my climbing abilities!

Speaking of my climbing abilities, I can climb out of my crib! The other week Mom tried to put me to bed at naptime before I was ready. I climbed right out before she could even get downstairs! another day I woke up and Mommy didn't come to get me fast enough and I crawled out and went looking for her upstairs. She finally came up when I was searching her room for her. Most recently, I didn't even bother calling for her, I just climbed out and went to Mommy and Daddy's room! Now that is what I do everyday.

If you are impressed by that, then you should also be impressed that I pee in the potty sometimes. I haven't ditched the diapers yet, but Mommy is hopeful that the diaper days are numbered! Boy that will make our garbage can smell better. :P

I talk a lot now. It makes it easier to get what I want since I can tell Mommy what I want for dinner or for snack. For example, when I go in Mommy's room in the morning, I tell her 'weady' so she knows I am ready to go downstairs. When I hear the garage door open in the evening, I say 'Daddy home, Daddy home!'. I love to call out looking for my family 'Bwoduh, are you?' Hmm, typing that just doesn't look as cute as it sounds when I am looking for Brother!

Since I talk so much, I can really communicate what I want to eat. One of my favorite foods (and words) is CHEESE. Mommy is really noticing the difference between what I like versus what Graham likes. I eat way more cheese than he does. I like salty snacks more than sweets. Graham likes sweets more. He likes 'shamwiches' more than I do and bread for that matter. I like meat more than he does, often asking for more. Graham loves peanut butter. He also likes breakfast more than me. Whereas Graham will ask for graham crackers, I ask for 'fish' i.e. goldfish. One thing we both love - popcorn! Watching it pop, eating it, even saying the word is fun!

With an older brother I play a lot with cars, tractors, and trains. Our kitchen is always fun and I do like my little house and playing with my babies. Playing with dolls is fun, but I really like real babies. At Backyard Adventures last week, one of the other mommies saw me kiss a baby. I tried to do it again. There is another baby we see at tumbling. I had to kiss her and I really want to touch her. Even babies that aren't really much younger than me. I like to hug Ava. I don't know if she likes it or not. Matt hugged me and Mommy and Miss Amy (his mommy) thought it was cute. Then he kissed me! Typical boy - he swaggered around after he did it!

Well here are a couple more pics and I need to sign off.

Winter Fun

Hey Graham Fans! Winter is here! We finally had some real snow! We definitely got to have some fun in it. Yeah I know there has been some snow before, and Mom built a little snowman with us. Last Saturday though, it snowed a LOT! Daddy and I built a REALLY big snowman!

We helped scoop the sidewalks, threw snowballs, worked on building a fort - oh the fun we had! On Sunday, we went sledding down this big hill not far from our house. I L-O-V-E-D it! I didn't want to stop! Caroline went down the hill with Mom and by herself. She didn't like it as well.

Besides the snow, we went to Judy's house for a Super Bowl Party. She has a couple of dogs and then there were two visiting dogs. I really liked the dogs that didn't jump up on me. I also really liked playing with her toys! She has some stuff I really like. We have kind of been on the go this week. Besides going to Judy's, we went to a play date at one of our preschool friends. Her mommy had lots of yummy things to eat and again it was fun to play with different toys. That same day we went to Uncle Greg's for dinner. Caroline and I like to chase/try to catch Odell (the cat) and play with Greg's tractor's. He even gave me one of his tractors with a disk! He had some construction equipment that we hadn't seen before. We played quite awhile with those. Fun stuff!

So what have we been up to between Christmas and the big snow? We have managed to keep busy. Shortly after the New Year, Mommy took Caroline and I to the big library downtown, then we met Daddy at 'Nera for lunch. The most important part of the day was going to the Monster Truck Rally! Just 'the boys'! Wow was it fun! It got a little loud despite wearing hearing protection. I talked about it the whole way home!

We went to Grandma's while Dad was out of town last month. We left after preschool. I don't usually fall asleep on the way to Grandma's anymore. I usually watch Cars, but I quit watching about halfway there. I kept watching for Grandma's house, but it took FOREVER to get there. It was really cold while we were there, but I still played out in the snow some. I made a couple of snow angels. Caroline couldn't take the cold and went back in with Grandma. Wimp! We also got to make cupcakes! Yummy!

The next weekend Grandpa came for a visit. He took us to a movie! It was a really good one - Alvin and the Chipmunks. Other than a potty break, I made it through the whole movie. Caroline didn't sit that much - she is kind of young still to watch an entire movie. We went out to lunch too. Grandpa got to see why Mom and Dad don't always like to go out to eat....Grandpa read books to Sissy before she went to bed. She looks pretty sleepy! She actually had a bad cold when Grandpa was here.

I had a really big day at preschool a couple weeks ago - Daddy got to come to class with me for the whole class. It was so fun! We made a snowman. After school we went to lunch - just the boys! Dad even took me to the ice cream store for dessert! Umm, Umm! good stuff.

Well Mom and Dad haven't taken as many pictures lately but here are a couple of Caroline and me playing in a couple of boxes. We really haven't been stuck in the house this winter, but we can make the most of it when we do!

The Holidays!

Hey Graham Fans - Working on keeping the blog up to date. Tough to do with school, swim lessons, playing with all my new toys. Have I mentioned I am taking swim lessons? I am in the second session of lessons. The first week was a little rough i.e. lots of tears, but I have been okay with it since then. I don't like to get my ears wet - those tubes seem to still be in my ears. I am getting more comfortable in the water each week. I am sure I will be swimming laps before you know it (in the rec pool that is!).

In my last post, I think I mentioned we went to visit Santa, but I didn't want anything to do with him. Well we ran into him again. We go to the shop party at Cousin Steve's shop. Santa seems to show up - sometimes in his Santa suit and sometimes in his hanging around the house clothes. This year he just had regular clothes. He talked to me. I told him I wanted a Mack (from the Cars movie). I kept asking Mom who that was and she said he looked familiar, but couldn't place him. Well I knew who he was! Speaking of the shop party, boy is there a lot of stuff I could do 'work' with! It is so much fun to pretend I am working on 'stuff'! Plus there is always a small dog there. Sissy and I really liked to pet that dog. He is a nice little dog and he likes us to pet him. I think he liked us petting him more than the other little girl.

We had a couple of playdates in December. We finally had a playdate with our Brighter Beginnings friends Callan and Declan. They had a new baby brother. Caroline liked the baby, I just liked playing with all their toys! Then the week before Christmas we had a playdate with a bunch of our preschool friends. I always like to go to other people's houses so I can play with their toys.

Well on to the big topic of my post - CHRISTMAS! It actually got off to a rough start. We got up early to go to Kansas City a couple of days before Christmas. We had stopped at Casey's for donuts, but had to run home to get something Mom forgot. We were about to leave for the 2nd time when that donut came back up. Needless to say we went back in the house, changed, and headed back out. I still didn't feel the best, but I didn't get sick again. We hung out at Nanny's in the afternoon and then went to Benjamin's house. He plays basketball in his living room! We had a lot of fun! The next day we made cookies for Santa at Nanny's, then had lunch at Grandpa's. We also got to open our Christmas presents from Grandpa. Later we went to church to celebrate Jesus birthday. We went back to Nanny's and celebrated with Uncle Brad, Aunt Lisa, Benjamin, Joe, Nan, and Uncle Doug and Aunt Cheri. It was so much fun, but it sure wore me out!So Dad had the flu while we were in Kansas City and Mom got struck with the bug on the way home. Fortunately neither one let it interfere with Christmas, particularly once we got home to see what Santa had brought us! The one thing I have been talking about is a Mack from Cars. Santa did not let me down!!

Santa also must know that I like toys with wheels because I got a tractor and baler, and some Matchbox cars. The big guy outdid himself with the big gift for me and Sis -

Mom was the photographer for the pics of the Gator. She really just wanted to go in and lay down, but she was a sport!

Believe it or not Christmas was not quite over! Grandma came up to celebrate with us which meant Uncle Greg came over too. More wheels for me! Uncle Greg gave Caroline some Backyardigan DVD's. We are big fans of the Backyardigans so her gift was really like a gift for me. Honestly I like to play with the babydoll she got and the doll house and her puzzle, but she also likes to play with MY toys too. S-h-a-r-i-n-g. We are working on it! :)

That how our holidays went down! Hope you all enjoyed yours!