Ant Jessie & Maddie came to town!

Olivia and Jack had a great time with their little cousin Maddie and their Ant Jessica!  We went to Roger Williams Park Playground and ran around the Japanese Gardens and even tried to play with the ducks and geese!  It was a great weekend to spend with family!  The weather was a little cooler than it has been, but it didn't stop us!  Before heading to the park we took some pictures in the back yard!  The flowers are so pretty!  Good job with the gardening G-Ma and Papa Toe! Here's a great picture of Eric with his sister, Jessica.

And here is Jack and Maddie playing in the "bird bath tub" as Maddie says.
Maddie and Jack had so much fun playing together this weekend.  It's really evident how close in age they really are!  They are both 2!  But Jack wil be 3  May 30th.  They did pretty good taking turns all weekend too!  I love it!
Eric with his niece, Maddie...running toward the geese and duckies!
Ant Jessi with Jack and Maddie running over the little bridges in the Japanese Gardens.

Anyone for lemonade or spa treatments?

OK, so last Sunday our families were visiting and we had a cookout.  The weather was beautiful! The kids 'sold' lemonade at the newly constructed addition to our playset, the dogs had fun running around and the food was delicious!  

After dinner, Auntie Alexa gave Auntie Regina and Olivia pedicures and manicures. They had a great time!

Yes, even Jack received some polish on his toes!  No worries though, we took it off before he went to his swim class!  He loved the pampering!

An outing with our new friends!

Olivia made a new friend at Greenwood Montessori School.  She met Ava in September and they have formed a lovely friendship.  

What's really neat too is that Ava has a younger brother, Zane.  He is Jack's age and they too have become great friends.  Jack runs around the house talking about Zane, his "buddy" and Zane does the same thing at home.  

It's really nice to see Jack have a friend he can play with too.  Ava and Zane's parents have become good friends to Eric and I as well.  Their names are Ron and Sue.  Sue and I are email buddies, and love chatting about everything!  Ron is a chiropractor and G-Ma and Papa Toe are his patients.  Very neat! 

Anyway, yesterday was Friday, the last day of vacation week, we meet our new friends at the Zoo....boy, that was a HUGE mistake!  It was insane.  The line to get into the parking lot was backed up to the main street, when I finally got into the parking lot there were no spots available so you literally would have to find an on street parking space and the closest one was like a mile away, literally!  Needless to say, we aborted that visit!  Way too overwhelming for Susie and I, never mind the children!  

So then we headed to the playground at the park...that lasted about 10 minutes.  It's a nice, big playground with only one entrance in, which is good, but the structures are so large, you sometimes can't see your children...that freaked me out, especially when I couldn't find Jack for over  minute!  Again, needless to say, we aborted that mission too!  At least the kids didn't seem to be upset...they just went with the flow!

  

Next, we went over to the hilly area of the park so they could get out some energy running up and down the hill, rolling and playing games.  This gave Susie and I some time to make another plan (what's this??? Plan D?)  Our decision:  get out of Roger Williams Park!  But before we headed anywhere we took some pictures of the children playing together. 

Jack and Zane digging for treasures, aka rocks!

Here they are playing Ring around the Rosie

"...and we all fall down!"

We then made our way to Hoxsie School playground (near G-ma's and Papa Toe's).  It was fun, but very dry and hot.  It was 82 degrees!  After about 30 minutes of playing we decided to get something for lunch.  Instead of cramming into a booth at a restaurant we made a quick decision to order pizza and retreat back to my in-laws house.  They offered and we jumped at the chance!  It was very close by and it gave the kids time to relax, play and more importantly, time for Susie and I to chat.  It was nice.  Pizza came, everyone ate and my in-laws came home to meet our new friends.  It was a very nice day, despite the running around.  Here are some pictures of our very busy, but fun day with the Tyskowski's!

The 4 children swinging " super fast and super high" as Jack and Livi like to say!

Ava is smiling!

Zane having a try at the rings!

Livi trying to stay on the barrel.

Zane and Livi taking a much needed water break!

Livi attempting to swing over the bar by herself!

and here she is trying to do the monkey bars by herself!

Back at Grandma's, Ava and Susie say goodbye to G-mom.

and here's Papa Toe looking for rocks, I think, with Zane.

Mommy's little helper!

Olivia wanted to help around the house, so the first thing she did was wash the dishes.  She was really good at it too!  I was very proud of her.  Here are a few pictures of Livi washing the dishes...isn't she a big girl?  I can't wait until she can dust, vacuum, do the laundry, well...everything!!!  I can't stand cleaning house!!!

My Little Crafter!

Well, Olivia was at it again!  Today we spent the day at Grandma and Papa Toe's.  While everyone was sleeping, Olivia and Grandma got into their crafty ways and made sandals for everyone.  So ingenious of them.  Olivia originally made them for me and for her, but after I woke from a much needed cat nap, I helped her and we made them for Daddy, Jack, Papa and Grandma.  Here are the ones she made for me, daddy, Jack and Livi.  So creative!!!

Dad, the yard and those pesky hounds!

Well, Eric's nightmare has come to fruition...the yard is a disaster thanks to Bella and Toby.  We are thrilled to have them in our lives, but Eric keeps saying, "I have never had a digging dog before!"  And I keep telling Eric to forget about a garden this year because our fur children will most likely destroy it.  They are puppies, what do you expect?  They are so adorable nonetheless.  How can you be upset with these faces?

The dogs started the hole, but the kids like to help out when the can, hence the gardening tools.  They get down and dirty and really into it.  They love playing outside, gardening with their daddy, and just digging and hiding things like the doggies do with their toys and bones.  You can actually see one they dug up.  It's a carrot as we like to call it.  Eric's doggie Rufus had a toy like this and they called it a carrot, so that's what I call it now.  Weird, I know, but there it is.

Eric tries to fill in the holes made by our hounds, but inevitably it gets started again by the fur kids and our other human children.  Oops, I guess we can kiss our nice lawn goodbye for this year at least.

Just a nice picture of my cute husby and my children.  They certainly love their Daddy!  "Daddy hold me!" is a constant around here!

Outdoor play at night

Although I am held up captive in my house with Shingles (extremely painful by the way) I managed to go outside and watch my children play.  Jack and Olivia are both very good at baseball.  Jack can hit at a pitched ball and off the tee, but Livi is better with the tee.  Here are some pictures of them this evening playing outside (please disregard the WT outfit on Jack).

The next picture is of Jack counting.  He is playing hide and seek with his 'dad' as he calls him now.  What you can't see from this picture is that he is actually peeking through his fingers.  He is so stinking cute, isn't he?  He just melts my heart!

Here are my beautiful children playing tag/chase.  I used to love playing tag as a child.  I love that they like it too.  And boy, they are really fast runners.  I wonder if I have some track or cross country stars on my hands?

Invasion of the Superhero's

Introducing....

Spiderman (aka Jack) & Wonder Woman (aka Olivia).

Livi's trying to use her 'WW' powers

and
Jack's trying to 'web' me!!

I didn't know Wonder Woman wore polka dots???

(by the way, she posed herself)

Olivia loves her brother so much, can't you tell?

Don't get me Spidey!!!

Not too cold to ride bikes or Scooters!!!

My new Spiderman Bike...I will web anyone 

who gets in my way!

Olivia and Jack have been dying to ride their bikes and scooters since they received them as gifts at Christmas and Easter.  They have been outside before today, but only for a few short moments being that the cold was just so bitter for their precious hands, face and toes!

Here are some pictures of my cuties outside this morning enjoying a bit of the 'warm' weather.

Just me, my pink scooter and my princess purse!

Sometimes, you just have to go back to your first bike 

(or Olivia's since yours is at Papa's house).

Look Grammy, I can do it!  

Thanks for the Scooter, I love it!!!

Why can't I come out to play with you???