Memorial Day Weekend

We had a fantastic time celebrating Frank and Roman's 2nd birthday on Saturday and the birthday boys couldn't be more adorable in their undies, as they are in the midst of potty training. We made a day trip to Manhattan on Sunday to see my parents and meet up with some girlfriends and their families at City Park. It was so nice to see their friendly faces and we had a great time catching up. 

Next, we had a date to see the Swenson farm and then dinner with Nana and Papa. Sarah and Jason were wonderful hosts and showed us all around their farm. We had a great time hanging out with them in the peaceful flint hills. The kids were super happy to play at Nana and Papa's and always look forward to spending time with them. It was a busy day, but we had a blast fitting everything in! We took it easy on Monday and went on a bike ride and goofed off in our back yard. 

While I am happy I managed to get some pictures, I am chastising myself for not getting any good ones of all those people we were lucky enough to spend time with! So I am making a mental note to do much better next time!

Cute cousins digging in the dirt

There are those smiling faces

Oliver spraying all the kids at the Spray Park in Manhattan

"You sprayed some, you missed some Oliver, but good game buddy."

Blowing bubbles at Aunt Sarah and Uncle Jason's farm

Farmer Branick 

The boys taking a load off in the combine. Oliver LOVED seeing and asking questions about all the equipment it takes to make a farm function. We also got to see some of their animals that were so cute. Especially "Manford" the calf.

Trying out Oliver's bike, which will soon be Myla's 

Splashing in the turtle (yes, I know it is meant to be a sandbox, but they wanted to fill it with water!)

splish splash

Giggling girl, with a speedy boy running to jump in. Watch out Myla!

Backyard Adventures

Dreamy eyes

Happy boy

No hands and almost being poked in the face with a stick. She's good.

1, 2, 3, GO!

Weeee

Ta Da!

Brother and sister hug

High flying stunts

no more kisses mom

Easter Sunday

We had a lovely Sunday at church and were reminded just how blessed we all are to have Heavenly Father's perfect love.

"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John 3:16

Well, this year I decided that I didn't want to dye eggs with chemical colors, never mind that I could have used natural dye, so I had this *brilliant idea to emulate this idea that I saw in a magazine. The crafty idea was to use colored sand, albeit colored with chemical dye, to pour over crazy glue designs that a preschooler glues onto an egg, all while creating wonderful fun for the whole family. Oh, jeez, the second we started I (Dustin) realized this was a terrible idea. He even filmed it just so he could make fun of my genius craft project later.

 It did turn out to be a disaster, but we made it through and moved on to the back-up idea, stickers. I do remember, from when I was a child, that stickers do not stick on hard boiled eggs. I have no idea why I thought they would work now that I was an adult. The stickers didn't stick and the kids tried eating the sand too many times to count so we called it a day and busted out the cheap, flimsy plastic bottles that came with the sand to do some "art".

Moving onto great idea number two...I thought it would be a good idea to nix all the sweets and have our Easter Bunny dole out only healthy-ish treats. You know, like granola bars, fruit strips, yogurt covered raisins, cheddar bunnies, goldfish, etc. And then our wonderful neighbors (they really are awesome) came by with a plastic bag full of chocolate Easter treats for the kids, that even I wanted to gobble up. So we did pretty good. The kids, Dustin, and I ate all the chocolate there was on Easter, (there really wasn't that much;) so I didn't have to tell the kids "no" all the next week when they begged for more candy.  So while the healthy treats were a good idea, the sand art with eggs, not so much. 

I hope you all had a fabulous and restful Easter!

Getting started on decorating the eggs

Messy finished product

Cheese!

Beautifully tacky sand art, but good job pouring Oliver!

Happy Easter!

Cheeks full of chocolate

They were so happy to see that our sweet neighbors The Easter Bunny got them some chocolate treats  after all.

Biting the chocolate bunny's ears off

Enjoying her yogurt covered raisins

Easter Egg Hunt Numero Uno

We hit up the City of Leawood's Eggtravaganza this past Saturday, and had a great time. Lehi, Kim, Chloe and Will met us out there for some egg hunting fun!

Picnic in the park

Smirk'n little man

Adventurous Oliver

Hanging out in the goal before the Egg hunt begins

Little monkey

Working on a egg finding strategy 

Cousins showing off their proud achievements

Hugs with the Easter Bunny!

The Great Outdoors

This weather we are having is amazing. Our trees are budding and little leaves have just sprouted. We are loving life outside again! Spring is definitely a favorite season of mine. The kids love to watch the birds eat from our bird feeders and listen for wood peckers and various bird songs. Life is pretty wonderful right now. I am trying to soak it all up.

My hubby is getting busier at work so the kids and I have a little more time on our own, but we really can't complain, because we can run around at the park, take a walk, ride bikes, draw with chalk, meet up with cousins and friends, and the list goes on. I don't know about you, but the fresh air makes me so happy that it is hard to be upset about anything when I'm outside enjoying my kids and the lovely weather. 

Today we loaded up the kids, dog and a picnic and drove to Shawnee Mission Park to run around and enjoy nature. We played at the playground and then took a hike in the giant hills that abound there. ;) It was actually really great and the kids and Piper had a lot of fun.

Our picnic meal was a little lacking, but that's what we get when we are spontaneous fun-loving people  (and forget the cheese in the fridge). Next time, I'm going to try to do what my mom did when I was a kid and make potato salad and baked beans and grill out. I have the fondest memories of our entire family meeting up at Cico or City Park in Manhattan. My Dad would grill hamburgers and hotdogs while we played and goofed around for hours. I always adored having a big family and at times like that, it was really awesome. We had so many people to laugh and play with. I really cherish those moments. I love you Swan siblings!

Swinging like a Big Girl for the first time

Ornery Oliver

Playing with his Daddy's tools

Look out Piper!

My cutie pies:)

"Now hold still Myla, this will only hurt a little bit."

Aunt Elisha and the boys at Porter Park

Adorable brothers. Roman and Frankie

Rome

Myla trying to poke the camera

Goofy Girl

Hehe

Hiking buddies

Splash! Oliver having some fun throwing rocks.

  

Sick, Sick, Sickos

This week has been a doozie. First, Oliver caught a nasty stomach bug and was throwing up all over his bed on Sunday night. Then Myla caught it and was doing the same on Monday night and then again on Tuesday night, and then I caught it on Wednesday... you see where this is going. Well, just as we are starting to feel better Mr."I never get sick" comes home tonight feeling lousy. He then quizzes me on how I was feeling when I was sick and after confirmation on achiness, fever and chills, he takes a shower and heads off to bed.

Women are so much tougher in this area then men. I'm not saying we are better at lifting heavy objects, or more skillfull at repairing drywall, or better at climbing trees, (all areas that Dustin far surpasses me) and just since we're being honest, Dustin can also sew better than me, cook chicken better than me, fold laundry better than me, his lines are just so clean and neat... but who really cares right? Just put it on a hanger or stuff it in a drawer and Viola your done! But back to the subject at hand... women are certainly better at coping in this type of situation. Men just can't handle the pain of being sick quite like a woman. At least, not from my experience. Childbirth anyone?!

This week has consisted of taking care of small children who feel terrible and are so sad to look at because they can barely stay awake, and when they are awake they are either crying or puking. I was praying to avoid getting this icky virus, but nevertheless I succumbed to the chills and everything that followed. I managed to take care of the kids all day Wednesday, while finding the time during their naps, to quietly throw up in the bathroom. Ah, the life. I even managed to run out of Tylenol and Pedialyte that morning and my dear awesome sister Elisha picked some up for me and left it on my doorstep.

Thankfully Dustin came home at 3:30 and took over from there. And by the way, I did call him at lunch and tell him to come home right after work, I thought I could make it that long.

It just amazes me that I could actually handle this and then get sick myself all the while not completely losing it. Thank you God for helping me stay calm, especially after the 20th load of vomit covered sheet, shirt, and/or towel. You name it, it has been washed. I should say that Dustin did his fair share of the laundry too while I helped console the sick child(ren). Oh, the things we gladly do for our kids!

So, now the weekend is here and I am looking forward to playing outside with my almost-healthy kiddos! And hopefully their Daddy will feel better very soon too. Wishing you all a fantasic vomit-free weekend!