Date with Dylan

Tom took Evan to see "Captain America" a couple of weeks ago and so Dylan and I went off on a Mommy-Son date. Since I knew I could get away with it with him, this involved me shopping at Marshalls while he rode around in his stroller. I promised him that I would get him a "new baby" (stuffed animal) there and luckily, we found a cute little stuffed lamb that he instantly fell in love with. So he patiently played with his lamb while I shopped, and then, since it was a gorgeous day,  we walked over to Dairy Queen and got a strawberry sundae to share. He managed to spill much of his portion on my jeans, his shirt and the stroller tray, but what was left of it was very tasty!

 

 

After he ate his ice cream, he fell asleep in the car on the very short ride to Kohl's. I managed to move him and the sheep back into the stroller and he immediately curled right up and kept on snoozing.  I tried on clothes for quite a while there and when we left the store, I loaded him back into the car seat and he STILL kept snoozing. I drove home and then he suddenly woke up as just as I pulled into our driveway. When he realized where we were, he said "We're home?! Mama, you said we were going to a 'nother store!" Poor baby missed the whole thing.

 

 

 

 

Easter Bunny

Big Winners!

I've been taking the boys to this bouncy-house/kids' arcade place called "Monkey Joe's" a lot this Winter/Early Spring as it is a fun indoor place for them to expend some energy. They absolutely love the arcade games because they win tickets which they can then "spend" on little toy items. There's a "Wheel of Fortune" type game that requires 4 tokens to play, and then you spin the wheel and whatever number it lands on determines how many tickets you win. The three of us always put our hands on the lever and pull it down together. We usually get 15 or 25 tickets and have landed on 50 once or twice. But at our last visit there, Evan asked if he could spin it by himself and then announced confidently "I'm going to get a THOUSAND tickets!"  And whaddya know...HE DID! He was so excited! Of course, Dylan started to cry because he thought they were all going to be Evan's tickets but Evan quickly said that he would share. Evan got an inflatable guitar and Dylan got a stuffed penguin and they both got several very small things like plastic spinning tops, sticky frogs and smiley face rings. I felt sorry for the store attendant who had to patiently wait while these kids spent about 1300 tickets total, in 5 or 10 ticket increments at a time.

 

St. Patty's Day Snowstorm

I'm getting a bit tired of blogging about snow, but we had another significant storm on St. Patrick's Day. The forecasters predicted 4-6 inches for our part of Virginia, but we ended up getting around 10 inches!  The boys were glad about missing school once again and getting to stay in their jammies all morning. Then I bundled them up and sent them out to play with Tom in the afternoon.

 Snow Cake

The boys helped their Dad build the TALLEST & SKINNIEST SNOWMAN EVER!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had been using the chalkboard in the kitchen to count down the days until Spring but I finally gave up and drew a snowman instead.

 

 Backyard Visitor 

                                                                             

 I actually spotted FIVE of these gorgeous creatures in the woods behind our house but the one above is the only one that came out in the open.  If you look closely at the pic below, you should be able to spot three more.

 

 

 

Cute Boys With Bunnies!

The same photo studio that brings a pony to our daycare for pics with the kids in the Summer brought real bunnies for the Spring pictures this year. I thought they turned out really cute and the boys loved petting and holding the bunnies. The little critters were very cooperative models, too!

 

                     And here are the shots taken while the bunnies were on a carrot break.

  

 

 

 

The Kercheval Family Leprechaun Trap

Evan's Kindergarten teacher sends out a "family project" assignment once a month, and the one for March was to build a "leprechaun trap." I had no idea what she was talking about so I "googled it" and saw lots of images of really elaborate contraptions that looked like a lot of work.  I went to JoAnn's Craft Store and wandered around looking for inspiration, for something that would be simple to make but clever at the same time. Here's the final project, which I thought came out really cute. Tom cut the sneaky trap door so the leprechaun wouldn't know what was coming when he stepped off the ladder. The hat is attached to a hard cardboard flower pot, so the leprechaun would fall down into the hole and would be trapped. The boys really enjoyed putting all of the shamrock stickers on the hat. I love the  rainbow pinwheel I found at the store because it saved me the trouble of having to create a rainbow ladder out of pipe cleaners, which was my original thought.  The ladder we ended up using was borrowed from Evan's castle toy.  Evan said his teacher said his trap was "absolutely fantastic" and although the leprechaun did manage to get out of the trap somehow, he left Evan with a gold coin and a bag of Skittles ("Taste the Rainbow") to take home after St. Patrick's Day.

Fun Pics!

 

 Snuggled together in the big red chair! (And I actually didn't stage them there for the picture!)

Two Animal Hats Are Better Than One!

The Sprawl

Tom told the boys how this dresser was his when he was a kid and he'd covered it in stickers. He said that when we got married, I took all the stickers off and painted it. They felt sorry for their daddy so they took it upon themselves to put stickers back on it. Then they told me  it would make Tom very sad if I ever took them off. I left them on for a week and then took them off and they haven't noticed yet!  

 

 Making Valentine Cupcakes

 Playing The Blues

Sweet Boys