Our Little Hams

Tuesday, I got my phone out to take a picture of the boys. I wanted a picture because they were doing something I always used to say I'd never do-eating meals from two different places. Before I had kids, I would see a family in Chick-Fil-A with a Mcdonald's bag for their kids and think to myself "I will not be doing that" Oh, the list of things I said I'd never do as a parent (but find myself doing) gets longer every day. Kelly, from Kelly's Korner, wrote a post yesterday about being the perfect mother before she had kids, so I'm glad it's not just me.

But, that is not the reason for this post. I went to take the pictures and Carter said "No cheese, mommy, no" and did this.

Look at that grumpy face! He was so happy eating his pizza (that we made a special stop for because he asked for it) but he didn't want to smile either.

Seriously?!

Look at those mean eyes, he was telling me "no, mommy!"

So, I flipped the camera on my phone so that they could see themselves as I took the picture. All of a sudden, they were hamming it up for the camera. Carter slowly ate his fry and loved watching himself do every step.

Haha, he just thought it was so neat to watch himself eat.

Look at that smile, they just loved looking at themselves.

I never, ever get smiles like that when I try and take pictures. But, he'll smile like that if he gets to see it.

Everytime, I'd go to put my phone down, they'd yell "more, more"

Haha, they are something!

So happy.

Clearly, this is how I need to take pictures from now on. :)

Tonsler Park

Sunday morning, the weather was in the 60's. The boys played a little in the morning and then we headed to a park downtown that we've never been to.

Charlottesville has so many parks. Some have great playgrounds, some have nice walking trails, some are good for toddlers, some have splash parks on during the summer, and we've been slowly trying them all out. I love taking the boys to a new park. There's 2-3 that we normally go to and it's nice to switch it up. It's even better when we discover an amazing one like we did on Sunday. It was huge!

There were so many different things to climb on, which is the boys favorite part about going to parks.

The boys have been climbing on things and going over to the "big kid" side since before they were 2. I'm pretty good about letting them try all the things they want to try at the park and normally it doesn't bother me. But, I was definitely a little worried at this park. The boys did great and did lose their footing or slip on anything. Greg was making fun of me because of how close I was standing to them and watching them.

Look at that thing! And he climbed it like it was no big deal.

More climbing.

This is the toddler side. Isn't it so cute? The boys didn't spend much time over here, but it looked brand new to me.

Running around and getting that energy out.

This thing about gave me a heart attack! The boys just climbed it like the little monkeys they are, but I was so afraid their foot would slip and they'd fall through. Luckily, Greg was there, we balanced each other out, he knew they'd be fine.

And of course, a little swinging. They're getting too big for these swings, but they still love them, so whatever.

On the way home, we stopped for lunch. Evan loves pizza and when we asked them what they wanted, that's what we asked for. Carter wanted chips and dip (as in chips and salsa at a Mexican restaurant) so we went to Vinny's a little Italian restaurant that makes their own potato chips and ordered it as an appetizer for Carter and gave him some ketchup. Not exactly what he meant when he said "chips and dip" but he chowed down.

Evan liked them too. We ordered a slice of pizza for Carter too, but he didn't eat it. He's never liked pizza (although we always get him some hoping he'll come around) how do you not like pizza?! I'm sure he'll end up liking it eventually and won't believe me when I tell him he didn't used to like it. Evan loves it though. He ate his slice and then ate Carter's for dinner. :)

The weather was so beautiful out. I went to the grocery store after the boys nap while Greg played with Evan and Carter in the backyard the whole time I was gone. We opened the windows and it was so nice, even if it only lasted a day. :( I got this toy with magnetic letters and cards at a consignment shop last year and just got it out for the boys and they both love it! This was taken after dinner in the front room with the windows open. I don't love dealing with the time change, but I do love it being sunny later.

This week it seems that it's either calling for rain or cold weather every day. Boo! But, we got a little taste of spring this weekend to hold us until the weather warms up.

Killing Time and a Little More Snow

Friday, we had to take our van in to get service, so we put the car seats in Greg's car and went off to try and kill time until we could pick the van up. We started at Chick-Fil-A. The boys wanted to keep their hats on and I know this is a blurry picture, but I thought they looked so funny with their hats while playing.

We had a coupon for a free yogurt parfait, so we got that for the boys. They loved it so much, that we had to get a second one. You had an option of cookie or granola to mix in and we chose cookies for the boys. Evan loved it, but Carter preferred his yogurt plain with just the strawberries.

Then, we went downtown to the Children's Museum and played for a little bit. We called and our van still wasn't ready, so we went home and took naps.

We finally ended up picking up our van around 5:00 and it still wasn't 100% ready, we have to take it back. I love Honda vehicles, but I cannot stand having to get a car serviced, it always takes forever, costs more than you think it will, etc. However, they have a children's waiting area and the boys were the only ones in there. They played for a little bit and then turned on the tv and a Scooby Doo movie was on. They've never seen Scooby Doo and they were in a trance. I almost wanted to stay there longer and let them watch it while I relaxed. ;)

Saturday morning was a lazy morning. We were going to travel about an hour away to go to a Book Fair, but the drive just didn't seem worth it Saturday morning and we decided to just relax instead.

Of course, there's only so much relaxing you can do with toddlers, so we decided to head to the park. It was a lot warmer than it had been the past couple of days and we took them to a park that we expected to be dry. We figured most of the snow would have melted here, but we were wrong. The boys still had fun.

There wasn't too much snow, and they were still able to play on the equipment just fine. It wasn't cold, so it was weird being in light jackets and there being snow on the ground.

A boy bigger than Evan decided to throw a snowball at him, which made Evan so happy! He started laughing and picked on up and threw it back. I don't think the other boy was expecting Evan to have such good aim and started crying when the snowball hit him in the chin. Oops.

The snow is so pretty. It ended up being kind of nice that the snow hadn't completely melted yet. I hated going on on Wednesday when it was knee deep and messy, this was a perfect way for the boys to play a little bit in it without it being so cold and messy.

Snow Day

Last Tuesday night, we ended up getting about 6-8 inches of snow and then several more during the day on Wednesday. The forecast has called for this much snow several times this winter and we'd end up not getting a single flake, so I didn't think we were actually going to get any. We lost power about 4am on Wednesday morning and I started panicking because I did not prepare for being snowed in with no power, but luckily, we got it back about 7am. A lot of people close by were not so lucky and were without power for several days. I'm very thankful that we got our power back so fast. Greg's work was closed, so we all had the day together.

The boys loved watching Greg shovel the snow. We've never taken them out in the snow before. One of the times earlier this winter that it was calling for a lot of snow, we went out and bought them a sled, gloves, hats, etc. only to return it the next day because we didn't end up getting anything.

The boys wanted to go out and see Greg shoveling, so I just threw on coats, hats, and mittens. We were outside for less than 5 minutes. Evan immediately picked up the snow and threw it! It was like he knew that snow was meant for snowballs. He laughed so hard when Greg threw a snowball at him and they had a mini snowball fight. Carter thought the snow was "yucky" and did not like when they threw it at him. ;)

I think the boys look so cute bundled up. I think they look like the kid from "A Christmas Story" in their coats.

When we went out later to shovel some more (after getting a few more inches) we dressed the boys up and let them play. I gave them sand shovels and they had a blast "helping" us shovel the driveway. This is Evan walking through the snow.

It was fun for the boys to get a chance to see what snow was all about, but now I'm ready for spring/summer.