Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!

We had a wonderful celebration yesterday at Amy and Rob's house. They set up an egg hunt outside and made a delicious ham dinner with a lamb cake. Yummy! H&N got into the swing of things by picking up eggs and placing them in a basket. They partied until the wee hours (9 pm) before heading home. We were joined by another family with twins for a total of 3 sets of twins!

Today we celebrated again with Shawn McNerlin. We ate a pork chop dinner and then settled in to watch some bad TV. Good times.

Funny buddies, Nathan & Henry

We got a new camera a few weeks ago, and I haven't been able to load any of the larger size videos yet. Once I get help from more experienced bloggers, I'll post some good ones.

In the meantime, here are some super-cute photos taken on Thursday.

Nathan squeezed into a small tupperware container:
Nate and Henry growl back at me (they are getting good at making animal sounds):
Funny buddies in the arm chair. Here is one place I found where they will sit together in peace. They even shared a book!

Downstairs playtime

We have good times playing downstairs together. There are different toys, lots of room to run around and anything goes! It is good for our mental health as a change of scene. N&H have become quite good at negotiating the stairs on the way down and back up.

Henry grins and squints at me:

While skilled at ripping off socks, Henry tries to put some on:
Sweet Nathan smile (he scraped his nose in the snow):
H&N love to wear 'man' shoes. Here is Nate wearing my steel-toed boots:
Nate regresses to 6 months old in the exersaucer:
Of course, Henry needs a turn too:

Who needs Chucky Cheese? Try the Sears Mall.

There has been quite a bit of warm weather this past week that has made a significant dent in melting the layers of ice and snow outside. Methinks it's too early to count on an early break up yet! Since the conditions were so yucky outside and we had to get the babies out of the house, Joe and I took H&N to the Sears Mall to run around. First we tried a McDonald's playhouse, but it was geared towards older kids. Joe checked out Chucky Cheese, but the toddler section was not too exciting. So on the way home we made a detour to the Sears Mall. It was a huge success! Henry and Nathan (and me and Joe) spent about 90 minutes running around the mall and through racks of clothes like a maze. (As you might have guessed from the name, this mall is not too popular so we weren't disturbing anyone.)

Nathan and Henry watch fish in an aquarium: More dangerous climbing feats:
Henry runs amok in the clothes racks at Sears:
A Sears Mall chariot takes the boys back to the car:

Silly babies!

A few random, silly pictures from around the house...

Henry plays in the clothes hamper. He is practicing a mime act as 'man in a box':

Nathan plays and burrows in the bed spread:

Nathan takes a turn in the clothes hamper:

There is nothing more important than safety! Nate wears the proper PPE while playing in the house:
Cheeky Henry face:
Unfortunately PPE doesn't protect Henry from the camera's flash:
Joe feeds his favorite two boys:

Rogers Park School Playground

Still playing catch up! The weekend before last we made an outing to the elementary school in our neighborhood. It was icy and slippery, but the babies were game. They love to get outside. They also love to climb up on things like the park bench below. Are my sons a couple of daredevils? I hope not - my nerves can't take it!

Ghosts, books and playtime

Here is a collection of photos from around the house over the last week.

Henry and Nathan are under the misconception that they are invisible when they're under a blankie. That's probably because Joe and I always play along and pretend we can't see them. The Ghosts of Vassar Drive:

Henry reading a story while wearing the much-coveted race car jacket:
Joe and Nate smile for the camera while learning some new words:
This is a self portrait of me and Nathan that I am including because it shows that we have the same eyes:
After watching a blanket toss at Fur Rondy, we did our own blanket toss in the living room. It was a head banging good time, and they loved it:
N&H squeeze into a box with Joe's patented "worried while scuba diving" expression:
Henry smiles:

Saturday morning shopping trips

Our new Saturday morning ritual is to hit Costco and/or Fred Meyer for groceries and supplies after breakfast. The boys love to see and touch the things that we put in the cart. After several outings in their new cool jackets (race car and basketball), they began to associate the jackets with trips out of the house. Now they want to wear the jackets all the time in the hope that we'll go somewhere fun!

Nathan knows he's looking good in the race car jacket:

Henry and Nathan caught by surprise in the produce section of Costco:
Henry is cheeky at Freds:
Nathan strikes a pose at Freds:
Watch out for these two:

H2Oasis: Babies' first fries

While Grandma was here we took Henry and Nathan to H2Oasis, an indoor water park, for some fun. At first they were not too sure about the whole scene. We took them upstairs to eat lunch, and after that they were ready to dive in! On this trip we also passed one of the major milestones. Along with first step and first word is the important first french fry. The food choices were limited, but it did not take any persuading for these two to chow down on salty, fatty empty carbs.

Jessie and Nathan before lunch. Note the clinginess and uncertain expression: Jessie and Henry, struggling to get free:
Eating lunch upstairs. Location of the fries:
Time to go home after lots of fun:

Portfolios

Here are some pictures taken by Grandma while she was visiting a couple weeks ago. Due to multiple sicknesses in the house, I haven't been updating the blog lately. There is a lot of catching up to do!

In the pictures below, Nate and Henry are updating their portfolios at the ELC. I wasn't aware that 16 month old babies could have portfolios, but they do.

Nathan drawing with a green pen:

Nathan and his buddies drawing:
Henry appears to be cheating off his neighbor:
Nate & Henry sit and play with cars:
Couldn't resist this cute picture of Henry the Puzzler: