Sweet baby Freddie is one today.

Happy birthday, little one! We love you!

Want to see more? Go here: Freddie Turns One!

Attempting a group photo

Children were highly uncooperative. Mostly because Freddie was tired and Sammy wanted to go swimming. (sheesh!) Thanks for trying, Leah!







"Mooooooommmmmm! The beeeeeach!"

Eloise Butler Wildflower Park and Conservatory

The boys and I met some friends out at the Wildflower Park this morning. It was a beautiful setting for a fun and beautiful day!

Here are just some of the many, many pictures I took.

First, we set off over the trail


The 3-year-old boys really loved this fallen and hollow tree trunk. They were pretending it was a dinosaur - because that's what Cal thought it was.

That's Elias in the green and blue fleece. He's "a new friend!" and fits in perfectly with Sammy and Cal, as you can see. :)

We went to the park for a picnic and playtime.
I'll take that strawberry whole, please. (Mom, you can fish it out of my mouth in a minute, m'kay?)






Sammy was pretending to be a monorail conductor. His friends were playing along with him and "paid" and "went" when he told them it was their turn. Pretty cool stuff, being three!

Mado, Elias, Sammy

Isaac wasn't so much told as he was, um, shoved down the slide.


Would you trust this crazy to drive you around?


And, the aftermath of all that fun.

Yeah, this one is still going strong. Gale Force.


But this one? Awwww, all tuckered out.

Walker Time!

A well-loved Sammy favorite, the Walker has reappeared for round two!

Concentration


Jubilation


Destination

Sunny Baby Alert!

Freddie says, "Happy Earth Day!"

Hippy Baby Alert!

Fun with brownies.

My sweet batter face boy. :)

Hello Handsome!

Have you seen this dude in the mirror?!


Freddie's having a good conversation with himself.


Oh yeah, he stands. But only when he wants to. :)

And for anyone who is interested in this kind of thing, that is a bumGenius 3.0 (one-size pocket) diaper he is wearing in the picture. He has recently gone from the large setting back down to the medium, thanks to his constant motion and insane crawling speed.)

Park fun on Tuesday! Part 3, Why Leah is so fun

This may look like just another picture of Sammy, but if you look in the back left corner you will see my fun friend Leah scaling the climbing bars up to the twisty slide. She was booking it up there to move Isaac, who was holding up the line to the slide. I didn't get a picture of her going down the slide.

Park fun on Tuesday! Part 2, A few glimpses of Sammy

Park fun on Tuesday! Part 1, Freddie Photo Shoot

This Freddie face cracks me up. It's a new regular. lmao


My favorite!


His favorite!

Saturday at MCM

I'm sure a few people mistook me for a tourist/first time visitor to the Minnesota Children's Museum this weekend because I was taking so many pictures. Who can blame me when my kids are so amusing?!

My lil' rocker. He takes his music very seriously.


I let Freddie go up on stage and get in everyone's way. He thought it was great!


Must. eat. maraca.


More rockin' out by Sammy.


Sammy also worked very hard at the work zone moving blocks to the conveyor belts.


Freddie worked hard at Habitot. He would have really loved it there if there weren't 5,000 kids and parents in there. Seriously. Never visit MCM on the weekend.


Me and my boys on Sesame Street!


And just a fun picture:

Jacob's favorite part of the visit was seeing the "Sesame Mucho" album. In fact, he's still talking about it.

Just normal craziness at our house.

We received a package in the mail from Aunt Wendy last Wednesday. It contained birthday goodies for Freddie and me, as well as a couple of goodies for Sammy and Jacob. One of Sammy's items was this shirt Wendy picked up for him while she was visiting the Hubble Telescope in West Texas. I can't tell you how many times (or hours) the shirt has been worn since it arrived. Thanks, Wendy!




And here's Freddie, doing what he does best - drooling, mouthing, and crawling.

drooling


mouthing


crawling while mouthing, lol. He was too quick for a stellar picture.

Slacker blogger, checking in!

I have nearly two full pages of pictures on photobucket that I need to blog! That's what happens when you party so hard during your bday week, I guess. ;) Here are a couple of pictures to tide y'all over until I can blog more... I hope to work on it tonight when Jacob is working so check back soon! :)

Best weather day to-date in '08

Sammy is ready for sports! He's throwing the football, asking to play baseball and wanting to fly a kite. He doesn't realize it yet, but he is going to be a fine athlete. :)


My little clone. I *love* you Sammy! xoxo


And just because he's so handsome...