LECPTA Safety Day

This was our first time to make it to a LECPTA event - we went to Safety Day @ Lakewood Park. They had a helicopter, police motorcycles, a boat, and canine unit. The fire truck didn't make it. It was so cool! We got there right as the helicopter was about to take off, and Ben & Jack were really into it. They kept saying "Whoa!"

They also got to "ride" a "motocytle" and while Jack allowed his face to be painted, Ben abandoned ship mid-Elmo. They had fun stomping around on the boat and playing at the park, too. We even got to eat a sno-cone with a couple of our friends :)

Family Fun Outside

J's parents, Tia Katie, & Aunt La joined us for dinner at Cane Rosso (yum) and then we played outside. The boys had a blast with their new birthday gift from their Honey & Papa, a roller coaster that they loved at their friend Ben's house. They also had fun showing off and playing with their family - they love family!

Photo Dump 2

I had to take Ben to the doctor to look at an exzema patch I just wanted to make certain wasn't ringworm (it wasn't). This was on a Saturday morning so J took Jack to run some errands and I took Ben to the doctor - I love hanging out with the boys one-on-one; either when one wakes up before the other after a nap or when J and I split them up. They are so different when they're one-on-one! Here is my silly boy being very cool trying on mom's shades, and then finding his own :)

 

We did another stuffed animal walk the other day, except this time when I told them lets walk your animals, they took them to the front door. Like, okay mom, come on, we know we walk the animals outside! So I'm sure we made a funny picture and maybe made some neighbors laugh. Buddy was at day camp that day so we came back to take Bit with us - Jack walked Bit while Ben "walked" his stuffed animal. They did great!

 

Fish Face:

Bath fun:

Honey & Papa kept the boys for us one night so J & I could have a late date and sleep in the next morning. We went to dinner and then saw my favorite comic, Paul Varghese, at the Backdoor Comedy Club's late show. Since it's local comics they don't really have a set schedule or know when he might be there to headline, so J tweeted him and he said he would go. Crazy cool. Anyway, it was an intimate group and we got to meet Paul and take a pic with him afterwards, then he gave us tickets for his next show at the Improv. How cool is that? He's so so so funny; I've loved his comedy since we saw him on Last Comic Standing years ago and he's the only comedian I've ever searched a schedule for. What a fun night! 

Jack has suddenly overcome his fear of bounce houses and the boys had a blast at their friend Benjamin's birthday party!

Rangers Game

We took the boys to their first Rangers game! It was so much fun and they did really well! It was a Sunday afternoon game and we had seats in the shade. A nice older lady sitting next to us who was visiting from Australia gave the boys french fries - the cautious momma inside me was screaming to never accept food from strangers! But once the boys saw the french fries offered, there was no going back. Jack held on to the cup and graciously gave his brother a french fry when he wanted one, but maintained control. Rascal. They were a little startled at the eruption of cheering when the first home run was scored and scooted close to me, but they liked looking at the crowd and shouting "Go Rangers!" while pointing their fingers toward the field. Cute boys!

The game started at 2, so we had to wake the boys up from nap, which they were not happy about. Jack tried to snooze on the way:

 

How is it possible that I have a Rangers shirt and J doesn't?

We ran into some friends we knew were also going to the game in the "will call" line, and we met at the children's play area, which was pretty cool! It was probably for kids a little older than ours and I didn't let them out of the first little area to climb, but that was fine with Ben & Jack - they had so much fun exploring and gathering balls to put in the machines. It was pretty cool that they got to play with one of their favorite friends & his sis while they were there too! Should have snapped a pic of all the boys together, but it was so crazy busy and I was trying not to get hit! Anyway, here they are playing - hope you enjoyed it boys! I don't know that this over-protective momma is ready for this again any time soon.

Klyde Warren Park

We met Daddy for lunch downtown and went to the Klyde Warren Park finally! We got food truck yummies and had a park picnic, and I really wish we'd gotten pics of the boys chasing the birds! There were birds everywhere and the boys liked to run into a group of birds and make them fly away. Afterwards they played at the park, which they thought was pretty cool. What a neat Dallas feature to visit. Next time we want to take the trolley!

Uncle Mark & Grandparents Solomon visit

Uncle Mark was in town and came to visit with Grandma & Granddad. We went to dinner and had fun playing at home!

 

Photo Dump

I have a ton of pics that I haven't had time to blog over the last month, so I am going to do one big obnoxious photo dump!

Ben & Jack went to the Chick-fil-a play area for the first time last month! We went with their friend O'Neill and his sister Victoria after Little Gym one day for lunch and the boys loved following O'Neill (who was a play area pro) through the tunnel and up the slide. Wouldn't you know that those silly boys figured out how to climb up the slide and make it to the top of the play area?! I was a little worried, only because the actual way up involves a tall climbing tube that they could've fallen out of if they'd gone that way. Fortunately they didn't :) We've been back once, since, but left pretty quickly because there were some bigger boys who weren't very tolerant of little guys climbing through.

 

Our playgroup moms went to The Lot for a Mom's Night Out when it first opened and it was so yummy! We had a great time together and snapped a pic:

In early March, Jonathan finally got his wisdom teeth out, and maaaan was he loopy when he came out of the surgery! I wasn't the only one cracking up - the nurses were laughing too. I think it was even funnier because he was talking oddly with all that gauze in his mouth. Anyway, we came home and he slept, but got up when it was time to put the boys down that night. They hadn't seen him all day and I just love the expression on Ben's face in the pic below as he was checking him out - like, What happened to you?

Jack has been experimenting with making faces lately - mostly he looks concerned or upset, but he'll also make silly faces and stick his tongue out. Here is one I snapped at dinner when he was trying to let me know how upset he was about something or other. Probably that he wanted crackers instead of dinner. I love how expressive he's been!

These were from an afternoon where we had fun playing outside at NP and had dinner with Aunt La & Uncle Kris:

  

This was at Grandma Lainey & Granddad Lawrence's 60th wedding anniversary party: 

This is the boys jamming to Auntin Erin's music:

The boys discovered how much fun putting money in your piggy bank can be!

These are pics J took of Jack refusing to wake up after a nap, telling his daddy, "No, still night-night," and of Ben-the-two-year-old-teenager on the iPhone.

Spring has brought lots of birthday parties! We had 3 on one day a couple of weeks ago - talk about a busy Saturday! But it's been lots of fun and we love celebrating our friends :) Here's a pic of the boys at a Little Gym bday party, and at one of our twin friends' parties - Ben & O'Neill were being silly together and laughing at each other, which I found adorable. I love that they are recognizing friends and interacting with them more! 

A couple of weeks ago we went to dinner at Cane Rosso (mmmmm - my favorite) and discovered a street art festival one block over, so we checked it out with the boys. They had a good time peering in all the booths and exclaiming over "aht, aht!" I was laughing because I kneeled to get close to them and they both took a knee to be like mom :)

The boys have been doing a great job of putting their train set together. I love walking into the room after cleaning up after lunch, etc, and seeing this long line of tracks that they have built! It's so intricate, with curves and split tracks, and the best part is they work together!

Here are the boys at the park, on the swing which is their favorite thing to do. This is a good stopping point - I'll probably have to do a photo dump 2 in the near future to finish up!