Just Like Daddy

Brian came home from work today and mowed the lawn, with a little help from his favorite almost 4 year old.

Read more...

Sorry, We're Closed

I love to get up and around in the mornings.  Sorry, that's a lie.  I hate getting up, but I love to go and do activities during the morning hours.  My boys and I usually do all our running around before noon.  These hours seem to work out the best for us.  Usually stores and parks are less crowded.  We are home for lunch, which prevents us from eating fast food.  We are able to be home by nap time which usually happens around 1 p.m. in our house.  In the summers we beat the heat. 

So today was no different, we were up and at em' and ready to go.  I had big plans for us today.  We were going to go to the Riverwalk, play at the Fun House, have a treat at Marble Slab Creamery, play in the fountains, then head home for lunch and a nap.  I figured we'd be there before everything opened, but we could easily kill time playing on the walking trails and in the fountains.  Well, little did I know nothing opens along the river before 11:00 a.m.  What's the deal?  There were plenty of people around, probably potential customers for the all the little shops and boutiques. 

Instead, we played on the trail,  ran through what would have been the fountains (had they been turned on), and window shopped for a little while.  Soon, we loaded back up and headed to the playground, it's always open.  I guess, it doesn't pay to be the early bird in the these parts.  I was going to try again this afternoon but of course it was cool, cloudy and rainy. 

Here's a picture of my boys enjoying the small waterfall at the entrance.  It was the most excitement they had at the river today.

Read more...

Snake Wranglers

Brice loves to play with his toy snakes.  We have rubber snakes, pillows shaped like snakes, wooden snakes, plastic snakes, we make snakes from Play Doh.  We have a whole lot of snakes around here, no real ones though.  I think Brice is passing along his passion for snakes to his little brother.  Here are a few pictures of my little snake wranglers playing together yesterday.

Read more...

Zoo

The boys and I went to the zoo today. 

We saw lots of animals,

We ate lunch,

Played on the playground,

Shared an ice cream,

Brice rode a camel all by himself

The boys rode the carousel

We tired ourselves out.

Read more...

Our Weekend

Our weekend was completely uneventful and somewhat lazy.  Exactly how we like them around here. 

We played dinosaurs...

Called the grandparents... 

Had a few laughs...

Went for a short walk on the nature trail...

Played with some sticks...

Took a walk in the neighborhood...

Fed all the ducks and geese...

The ducks and geese showed off their babies...

and Brice walked Maggie.

It was a perfect weekend.

Read more...

Griswolds Go For A Walk

We decided to take a walk around the neighborhood last night. It is a production to get us all out the door. Backpacks, dog leashes, cameras...geesh! After all that work, we only made it to the end of our street before Brice decided he was too tired to walk the dog or himself. He had to be carried home. I'm sure if the neighbors were watching, they had a good laugh. It took us longer to prepare than it did to make our round trip. I got a few good pictures and a good laugh out of it.

This picture of Rogan was from earlier in the day and has nothing to do with this blog post. It was just so cute, I had to include it.

Read more...

Indoor Fun

It's either been 100+ degrees outside or storming the last couple of days. Since the weather has not been the best, we've made our own fun indoors. I blew up the boys' bounce house and they took over the living room. It's so much fun to watch them lately, Rogan is now old enough to be inside the bounce house with Brice. He sits and plays with the balls while Brice bounces around and makes Rogan and the balls bounce up and down. Rogan squeals and laughs. He really loves playing with his big brother. Unfortunately, it's difficult for me to take pictures of them in the bounce house.

Read more...

The Pool

The boys and I took advantage of our neighborhood pool yesterday. It was a lot of fun and since we went around 10 a.m., nobody was really there. The first picture happens to be my favorite of Rogan relaxing poolside. The boys both love the water and are very comfortable in it. Rogan floats around on his back kicking, splashing and laughing to himself. Brice must wear his life jacket when it's just me because he's got a little too much Evil Knievel in him.

Read more...

Sharks

All fish are known as shawrks (said with a heavy Italian accent) to Brice. We wondered why our son sounds like an Italian mob boss when he says the word shark, then it dawned on us...Shark Tale.

If you haven't seen the movie:

The gangster shark boss Lino voiced by Robert Dinero, is a Great White Shark and master of the reef. Lino has two sons, Frankie and Lenny. Lenny is voiced by Jack Black and is a Great White Vegetarian Shark. Oscar, voiced by Will Smith, is a fast talking fish on the reef who takes credit for killing Lino's son Frankie. Lenny and Oscar become friends and attempt to get themselves out of trouble. I think the movie came out in 2005, we've seen it a hundred times and apparently Brice has used it as phonics lesson.

So, since Brice loves to see the sharks and we just went to the aquarium a couple of weeks ago, we took a trip to PetSmart today. Brice was as excited about PetSmart as he is the aquarium. He walked down the isle, rounded the corner and saw the wall of fish tanks. He looked at me and said, "Oh wow Boss, look at this!" Yes, he still calls me Boss. See 3/29/09 post for explanation on this one.

We spent almost an hour in the store, looking at the fish, hamsters, birds, snakes, turtles and a chinchilla. It was as good as a trip to the zoo for Brice. As we walked the isles of the store, he insisted we get Maggie a present. He picked out a squeaker toy for her right away. After carrying the toy around until we were ready to leave, he changed his mind. He decided on a red leather collar with a blinging bone on it. The little bone hangs off the buckle and has rhinestones on it. When we got home we put it on her right away. She's been wagging her tail ever since.
Maggie modeling her new bling.

Read more...

Great Salt Plains

The Griswolds loaded up into the family truckster today and took a road trip. We even took Maggie. We decided we would go visit Great Salt Plains State Park. Brian had always been curious about this place so we decided to go check it out.
Our tour guide Brice mapping out our trek.

Cooling off in the shade They had a good day.

Read more...