The joys of molded plastic

My mom gave the kids an extremely exciting joint birthday gift today (their birthdays are coming up next week for Jack and July 2nd for Brooke). Their very own play house for the back yard! To say they love it would be an understatement. See for yourself.

The play house has a fountain, as you can see, that is uber-fun for them. What is it about water? I'm sure the pump will wear out or be broken very soon, since it will have its on/off button pushed 1,482 times a day. I especially snicker at the "conversation" that Brooke is having on the play cordless phone that came with the house. She is "talking" to Mimi (my mom) and I think I hear myself in her dialog. Too funny.



Thanks, Mimi!

Happy Easter

The kids were up early to enjoy the Easter Bunny's gifts... the Bunny tried to make the baskets more about "fun" than about candy this year (though there were the obligatory chocolate bunnies and peeps in their baskets!)







We had a short Easter egg hunt in the house which was fun and then the coloring and movie-watching began. They received Cars (Jack) and Madagascar (Brooke).


Brooke also received a really cute real chine mini-tea set. She's really into hosting tea parties for her "buddies" so she got right to work.


Happy Easter to all!

Spring has sprung!

Last weekend, we had the pleasure of going to Portland to help celebrate Sierra's 2nd birthday with my brother Clark and his awesome girlfriend, Heather. The weather was fantastic and we had such a good time at the party (and hanging out with them the night before!) Except for the part where Jack barfed right as dinner was being served. But we won't discuss that part...

The Birthday Girl enjoys her cupcake!

Jack sure was happy to help her celebrate.

Mmm, cupcakes!

When Clark and I were kids, our Grandma Spoon (whose real last name was Witherspoon, but to us, she was always Spoon) had this awesome bamboo swing on her deck. Her deck was really special because it had a spectacular view of downtown Portland. Clark and I enjoyed many hours spinning in the swing, and I'd show you the pics if I had a scanner. Anyway, the old swing is now hanging in Clark's gorgeous backyard and the kids were enraptured by it this weekend! I can't believe the old swing is still going strong, I guess that's a testament to the strength of bamboo. It must be 40 years old because it was NOT brand new when I was Jack's age and I'm 39. It did my heart good to see the next generation of kids giggling in that swing.

This guy has me convinced we need some kind of play structure in our backyard!

Hilarious

My friend Jan sent this to me today (I have no idea who it is). It brightened my day so I thought I'd share... I challenge anyone to view this and not smile at this cute little guy!

Misc. pics

It's been a while! Thought I'd share a few recent pics.

Late winter walk in the neighborhood. Let's find some sticks!


My little man ready to walk.


Brooke set up this tea party for her 3 besties all by herself. FYI, from L-R that's Ellie, Horton, and Hello Kitty. She served them a nice variety of plastic food.


We made green shamrock pancakes for St. Patrick's Day!


Mr. Jack's new obsession - "Cuties" (aka mandarin oranges.) We buy them by the 5 lb. box and it lasts about a week. I don't know what I'll do when they go out of season!

Happy first day of spring to you all!

Update on Gimpy (Leo)

Justin just called on his way home from the vet with Leo. Today they had a consultation with the orthopedic specialist, which included a sedated examination of Leo's knees to determine whether or not he has a ligament tear. The doctor's opinion is that yes, he does have a partial tear in his left ACL, which can be successfully repaired with surgery. The bad news is that his X-rays show that he still has a growth plate in his legs which means he can't have the surgery yet. Apparently they remove some of the bone and attach a titanium device to the bone when they do the ligament repair surgery, and that can't be done until the bone is done growing. So... poor Leo has to rest as much as possible for a few months and also try to lose some weight. The combination of needing to lose weight and also having his activity restricted means the poor guy is going to get a lot less food in his dish every day (worst case scenario for a lab!) We're thinking the surgery should be scheduled sometime in early summer. Oh, and it costs about $3000. Yikes! Too bad we never got around to signing up for pet insurance...

My Cuties

We had portraits done of the kids today and I snapped this on the way out. I'm so happy with how their outfits came out! We took this antique rocking chair with us, it was my grandfather's and I believe it was hand made. The portraits came out amazing (this same pose only it looks a million times better by the professional photographer!) I can't wait to get the prints back.