Happy Mother's Day

We spent a quiet day indoors for Mother's Day. It was a little cold and rainy so that was a good excuse to stay inside and snuggle with my boys. Chris smoked his first brisket overnight and it was mighty tasty. Add to that some homemade potato salad and BBQ beans with bacon, and we had ourselves a wonderful Mother's Day lunch. And I even had a new hairdo to celebrate.



Ben can't run from the camera yet, so we can take more pictures with him for now.



Mimi came over for some BBQ and baby hugs.



... moments earlier.



Ben had a big weekend. He started crawling and got his first tooth (front bottom left)!



He's still sucking his thumb (mostly when he's going to sleep).



He's started eating those little puff snacks. He can pick them up and get his hand to his mouth, but he can't quite figure out how to put it in his mouth yet.



Of course, once Ben started getting all of the attention, Sam came back for a few pictures. This is his favorite treat lately ... his Jelly Belly necklace.

Sandbox

Our weekend project this week was to fill Sam's sandbox. He had one of those small sand tables when he was little and that's the scale he was thinking of. He really couldn't comprehend that he had a sandbox at the bottom of his fort that was just missing the sand. Chris put down lanscaping fabric and then proceeded to load the 24 bags of play sand into the sandbox. That's right ... twenty-four 50lb bags of sand ... more than a half ton of sand.

The floor of the fort is the sandbox cover. It also acts as a shade when the sun is setting. Bonus!



I got a bunch of sand toys from the dollar store and threw in all of the McDonald's toys we've been collecting for the past few months. It was a big hit. Sam laid in the sandbox and covered himself with sand.



Sam ran next doors and invited the neighbors over to play. He was yelling at them through the door before they answered it ... telling them all about his new sandbox.



Apparently the thing that is the most fun to do is kick the sand out of the sandbox. I predict that we'll have to replace one or two bags of sand per month this summer.



The bubble gun was also a big hit.



Ben got to play in the sandbox after his nap. You could tell he was getting a big kick out of the different texture. He was squealing and throwing the toys around.



He was super drooly and got covered in sand. Both boys were filthy and exhausted and couldn't wait to go to bed.

Here Comes the Sun

We got our first warm sunny day a couple weeks ago and spent the entire day outside.

Sam spent most of the day on his swing.



He thought it was a lot of fun to eat lunch outside.



Seriously, Mom? What's up with this hat? And don't you think I'm a little on the small side for this swing?



We brought Ben's exersaucer outside and he spent most of the day out there with us too.



Teething.





We even got the portable high-chair out so Ben could eat outside with us.



Mimi teaching Sam to spider-swing.



Feeling young again. Whose playset is this?



Happy baby.



Mmmm ... beer.



Ben doing baby work.



Chris smoked some ribs and we ate dinner outside. Sam was exhausted. We ended up eating dinner outside several nights in a row until the table got covered with pollen again. We need to get it cleaned up and start eating outside again while the weather is so beautiful.

Random Happenings at Casa de Conner

Sam was having a really stormy period a few weeks back. There wasn't a day that didn't go by without some huge fit. One night it was so bad and so long that he just wore himself out, crawled up in the chair, and went to sleep. I'm happy to say that we are now in a sunny period. We've been getting lots of "I love you" and I'm loving every minute.

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Sam: They're making more air for the sky ... so the snow can come.

(btw, did any one know these things are called air dancers?)

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Sam: I'm wearing my dolt pants.

Translation:

dolt = adult

dolt pants = new size 4T blue jeans

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I got a call from day care last Thursday that Ben had woken up from his nap and half of his face was covered in hives and swollen. They washed his face and by the time I got there it was just on his right eye and a few spots around his forehead and nose. It looked purple like a port wine stain and his eye was teary. By the time I got Ben to the doctors office you could barely tell anything had happened. It was really strange. His doctor proceeded to give me a list of things that could have caused it and told me there was no way to tell which it was. Nice, huh?

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Here is Sam doing a craft project that Mimi brought him. Note the concentration on his face. He was most interested in mixing the paint colors to make new ones. His favorite was, of course, pink.

CHL Playoffs

We took the boys to the last game of the season on Allen Americans' home ice. With last night's game they are down 2-3 in the Presidents' Cup finals. They have had an amazing inaugural season. We had two season tickets this year, but didn't make it to many games with Ben being so little during most of the season.

Ben did amazing. The game started at 7:30. We left around 9:30 in the middle of the third period.

Ben especially loved all of the flashing lights. He didn't mind the noise. He was grabbing for everything including my beer and hot dog.

The "thunder-sticks" were a big hit.

Go Americans!