happy birthday party day to you

We celebrated Mason's 3rd birthday tonight!!

I got Mason this dino shirt a month or so ago. It's actually a muscle shirt (that you'll see later because the button up shirt only lasted about 30 minutes) and shorts outfit, but the weather didn't cooperate, so I dressed him up a bit. Andrew wanted to look nice too, so he chose a button up shirt and got in the birthday photo shoot. I love it!

We had a little sampling of some of Mason's favorites for dinner, including dino shaped pb&j's. It was the first time I've ever used a shape cutter - I had no idea how much better they make sandwiches taste!

The rain tried to ruin our fossil dig but we came up with a plan B. We filled my shoe bins up with sand, moved to the garage and pretended it was nice outside. It was actually plenty warm outside and the kids seemed to enjoy it. Mason loved it.

Easton and Owen with their dino tails!!

Matt made all the kids a balloon animal. He's good enough to even give them choices! They got to choose between a sword, dog, or elephant. : )

Mason has been looking forward to his party for quite a while and I'm happy to report it did not disappoint! He had a blast and asked if we could have another one tomorrow. "Pweeese mom"

a few extra hours

It's not very often you're given an extra day in your week, so we tried to make sure to take advantage of it. It kind of felt like a lot of pressure to figure out what to do with our extra time. : ) It was also weird, because the reason we got the extra hours is a really big bummer. Anyway... this is a little of how we spent our day.

Matt made a campfire so we could have S'mores!

Mason loved this swing today! He also decided to wear a winter hat and mismatched gloves. And no, it wasn't that cold today.

We ended the night with a couple games. We're all a big fan of this Lego game Pirate Plank. Mason pulled a "Brooke" and won both times, even though he doesn't quite understand the game 100%. : )

another day, another change

I have a love/hate relationship with the month before my boys' birthdays. I swear Mason is doing something new or different every single day. Mostly it's awesome, like this...

That's a pull-up free bum right there! Mason went a few days using the toilet 100% so when he asked to wear underwear to bed last night we went with it. He woke up dry! Then today he asked to wear underwear to school. And when I picked him up, he was still dry!! The difference this time is that it was all him. He just all of a sudden really wants to wear underwear and seems to finally understand that if he wears underwear he has to use the toilet.

Today was also the first day that the boys got to bring their lunch to school. They were very excited. I put a little note in there for them and when I picked them up, Mason's teacher told me he asked to keep the note with him during nap. So sweet.

I kinda love these boys!

We went to Redhook for dinner tonight. We thought that'd be an easy restaurant to get in on Mother's Day but we were wrong! We got there a few minutes before 5 and had to sit inside because there was a 50 minute wait for the patio! The whole world biked there today - I guess I'm not the only mom who likes a good beer...

No chance of a normal picture with these two. : ) I'm just glad Matt got the picture before Mason started crying because they bonked heads while he was hurrying to copy what Andrew was doing.

We also went on a bike ride today. Andrew was excited to try out his new two-wheel skills on the road, and Mason was excited to be able to ride in the trailer (he's been asking for a few days).

This is Andrew's expression when Matt told him he was going to be able to bike to the park. : )

my never ending to-do list

I knocked off a big chunk of my to-do list over the last few days. It feels good to have it done but it's a bummer that the only reason it got done is because I didn't workout. It's so hard to fit it all in... Luckily I was able to have a nice mix of chores, fun and exercise today. Booyah!

Haircuts. Check. 

A trip to Build-a-Bear so both boys could cash in on their rewards. Check.

Time to play outside so the boys could bike/scooter and pick giant tulips. Check.

thank goodness today didn't suck

Tuesday was a bummer of a day - it's a long, boring story but basically all three of us were in bad moods for most of the day. Mason is definitely getting ready to turn three - Tuesday was a nice reminder that I need to load up on patience if we're going to make it through. : ) Anyway, today was great. I think it was due to a mix of me not letting Mason's whining get the best of me and being able to spend a lot of time outside!

Mason has decided (again) that he doesn't want to use the toilet. He was still using it for #2's for a while so I wasn't too worried about it. Then he gave up completely. Today we were going to try again, but it didn't go so well so I think we're on hold for a while.

Even though it was a little frustrating, he made up for it later in the day. Andrew came out of the bathroom and told me his underwear keep getting wet and he hates it. Then Mason, in a similar sad voice said "my underwear keep getting poop in them". It took all I had in me not to burst out laughing. In fact, it's still making me laugh, hours later. Who doesn't hate it when their underwear keep getting poop in them!

a good day for a game

Matt, grandpa Mel and the boys went to the Mariner game today. I hope this kind of stuff makes good memories for the boys. At the least, it will be a fun memory for Matt and Mel. : )

Easter {Saturday}

On Saturday we went to the zoo, planning to do their egg hunt. Even though they do one every half hour, it was insanely busy so we decided to skip it. The animals were definitely enjoying the sun - it was a perfect day to be at the zoo, no egg hunt needed!

We did tell Andrew that we'd do one when we got home though.

skateboards

Instead of going home after work on Monday, we headed to a park. The forecast showed Monday to be the only nice day of the week, so I really didn't have a choice. There's a park by my office that has a skate park area - the boys love it.

Mason was doing his skateboard face, pretending the thing he was standing on was his board. : )

cute bedtime

Mason is a great sleeper. He still gets his paci when he goes to bed and because of that, he loves bedtime! Every once in a while (maybe once a month) he doesn't go to sleep as easily as he normally does. On Friday we had one of those nights. It somehow ended with Andrew telling me he'd put him to bed. He thought he should tell him a story first, so he climbed in and made up a story for him. Then he told him goodnight and tucked him in. Cute.

happy first day of spring

We didn't do anything very spring-like to celebrate the first day of spring, but we did have a pretty fun day. Here it is, Instragram style (I can't stop using Instagram!!).

For some reason, my boys love sitting on the kitchen counter. I rarely let them do it, but when I do, it's always awsome. Today we had breakfast on the counter.

Then we made English muffin pizzas for lunch. I always forget how delicious those suckers are! (As you can see, we also decided to enjoy the whole morning in our pj's).

Then it was time to get ready for Lego Club. I offered to bring treats, thinking I could easily come up with some robot-themed snack (the theme for this meeting) to bring. Boy was I wrong. I Googled and Pinterested (is that a word yet?) it with no luck. So I decided to go this route. Matt's mom nailed it - I should've broken a pretzel in half and put it on top like antenna! But instead, this is what I made. I thought it looked more like an owl, but I heard from friends who also saw a pig or dog with a stick in it's mouth. Whatever, like everything I make - it's the thought that counts. : ) (Also, for the record - I wanted to use regular Fruit Loops but Andrew liked these crazy 8's, so that's what we went with. I'm sure it would've made all the difference.....).

Then we headed to the store to try to find a couple pairs of shoes for me (my two main pairs are so old, my feet get wet when it rains ... sad story, I know) and some rain boots for Andrew. We struck out for both of us, but Mason ended up with a pair of boots and wouldn't put them down because he loved them so much. Anyway, I included this picture because we also went to DSW (a huge shoe warehouse) mainly because Andrew loves it there!! It has wide isles and for whatever reason he has fun and has convinced Mason that it's fun there too. So I shop while my boys play - it's pretty great. (This was the closest picture I took related to that story).

I sure hope real spring gets here soon. I'm really looking forward to a trip to the zoo soon!!