Homework and a birthday party

Super fun week at our house! Nola's 2nd birthday was on Tuesday which meant a trip to see Dr. Swofford for a checkup. All was good - Nola was 24 lbs 14 oz and 32.5 inches long. She sat quietly on the exam bench for the nurse and the doctor. We laughed that Brenner would have opened every drawer/cabinet, spun on the chair, tore the bench paper, etc! Ah the differences between boys and girls. Brenner was in the waiting room with Grandma.  Nurse Vicki came back in and told me "Brenner can't wait to show you something. He found it in the bathroom." I laughed and said "Really, I am not so sure I want to see it!". I then found out it was a cricket. Vicki gave him a cup with holes so that he could take it home - it is now part of his preserved bug collection. So much for those holes :) Another Nola-ism from this week....she found a horned caterpillar and Brenner was trying to convince her to give it to him. She refused....this went on for several minutes. Nola then asked "What's dhat?" and showed me her hand. I said "Oh that is just poop or pee from the caterpillar." Nola screamed and threw her hands up in the air so the caterpillar went flying. BHP marched over to it and said "I don't care about pee or poop. Thanks, Nola." It was too funny!

Nola one morning this week.

 Grandma Val brought Nola's present on her birthday - thanks for the cute outfits Grandma!

 Brenner doing his homework.

 One of Brenner's homework pages. He doesn't enjoy coloring inside the lines. But did have fun pasting the raindrops on the page (green raindrops as I didn't want to look for blue construction paper!).

 We had Nola's party on Saturday. Papa got Nola a cool Dora the Explorer balloon that Nola loves to hug. We drove all over Friday evening trying to find helium - apparently there is a distribution issue in the US!

 Nola thinking "When is my cake coming?"

 It was hard to hold the cake with Nola tugging on my arm! A white cake with white icing complete with sugar cookie polka dots!

 I love how she had to hold the plate wile blowing out the candles. Of course, big brother was there to help!

 Nola went right for one of the cookies.....

 So did Brenner and Grant!

 Next up was presents - there was tissue paper flying!

 Nola loved her big bottle of bubbles!

 Her Dora sunglasses were also a hit!

 I liked them too! They went nicely with the boa!

 The little tutu was fun as well!

 It seemed like everything needed Grandma Val's approval!

 Once all presents were opened, it was time to run off the sugar from the cake outside! Grant, Brenner, Charlee, Nola, and Remi had some fun!

 Love this one :)

 Once back inside, it was time for PlayDoh with Grammy Vo!

The smile on Nola's face shows that it was a fun day. (And if you look closely, you can see PlayDoh in her teeth - yuck!

Some new "firsts" this week

Well - I just noticed that this is blog post No. 200! Hope everyone isn't tired of reading about our fun :) I really need to archive these somehow! Anyway - we had a fun week with some new adventures.

 Nola got to ride facing forward for the first time. She loved her "big seat" and loved seeing everything so much she was giving me a play by play "Look, mommy, car. Truck. Building, Red truck. and so on. I did find out that she didn't like steep hills shouting "No, mommy, no hills!" to which Brenner said "Don't worry, Nola, you can hold my hand." Very sweet. He even got her saying "whee" on some of them!

 On Saturday we had another first - roller skating. I forgot socks for Nola and there wasn't anyway I was putting her precious little feet in community roller skates so her and I watched the others. We were there to celebrate our little buddy Grant's birthday. At first, Brenner wasn't too sure of the skates...

 Grant and Brenner warming up in the kiddie ring.

 There was a learning curve.......but no bruises or broken bones.

 Nest it was on to the big rink! Thanks to Kim and Tim for taking Brenner round and round!

 Nola, disgruntled, because she didn't get to skate. Oh, well, next time sweetie!

 Brenner has been infatuated with his super heros - playing with them for hours and hours it seems.

Brenner was playing the other night and I overheard Batman announce to the evil guy (I don't pay that close of attention to get all the names) "I'm back with double knee replacement!!!!!" This cracked me up!

 Nola chilling out eating some cereal one morning this week.

 Nola loves to sit and color. Guess what color is in her hand? Pink of course! It is her favorite!

Christmas in September? Close.  Aunt-ta Theresa and Uncle Chuck sent a huge birthday box for Nola....don't ever think these kids aren't spoil by aunts, uncles, grandmas and grandpas!

Nola LOVED the PlayDoh kit to make cupcakes. Boy - what a mess we had to clean up!

The bug collector and rock climber?

The weather has turned wonderful which means more time outside. I was gone for the beginning of the week but got to catch up on adventures once I got back. Emi is doing very well - such a change from a week ago!



 Papa brought nets home from school for Brenner to practice sweeping for insects. Nola decided to bring her donkey backpack on the adventure. I didn't notice until I downloaded the picture that Brenner was a bit preoccupied in this picture!

 Brenner and Nola on the hunt!

 But Nola got tired of looking for insects and headed towards the fort to do a little swinging.

 Then she showed off her climbing skills! Note how she actually moved the rope so that she could easily get up on the platform once on top. Pretty good problem solving for a not-quite-two year old!

 Brenner's insect collection thus far - he seems pretty proud and Matt loves doing it with him!

 A little early morning fun with Grandma before mommy and papa head to work!

 A piece of Brenner's artwork from school. The design was made with a golf ball!

Brenner is still very much into superheros and this week Grandma Val got him another iron man. That makes 5....they all have names "Ironman #1" (he got that one first), "Ironman #2" (yep - the second one), and so forth. BHP informed me "Four came from the store. Wal-Mart. And the other one from Hawaii." Which is technically true because Grandma Val brought him one from her trip there. Okay - so if you look at these closely, the second and third ones in the picture have no hands. This doesn't matter - they can still fight according to Brenner. He has definitely gotten the money's worth out of these toys!

Wow - what a week!

This was one busy, stressful week. Emi (our yellow lab) had surgery on Tuesday to remove a tumor from her eye and a lipoma from her hip. Emi is 10.5 years old - not a spring chicken anymore! All went well but then she got super sick on Friday. We ended up taking her to the local vet while at street fair with a poor prognosis of surviving until Saturday morning. Needless to say, Friday night was not our best sleep. However, Emi was much better after getting dehydrated and some antibiotics (she was treated for food poisoning). She is on the mend but still moving a little slow! Okay - now on to what our other kids did this week - Street Fair and the Steam Engine Show :) A big thanks to Grandma Val, Aunt Lynnie, and Uncle Chris for watching after Brenner and Nola while we took care of Emi!

Nola had gotten a new Dora toothbrush while with Papa in town. I was cleaning up and getting ready to pack up for street fair. I went into the bathroom and noticed the cabinet was open and thought it odd but went on doing my thing. Nola was quiet...the pictures shows what I found......Nola was kicked back in a chair and eating her toothpaste with her new toothbrush. Too funny!

The kids watercoloring. Notice the lack of paper in front of Brenner. He was more interested in making the water turn different colors.

Nola looking all grown up!

Brenner pointing out Grandpa Hilbrenner's brick at the veteran's memorial.

Brenner on the Ali Baba.....he didn't like it. When asked his favorite ride, Brenner said "The scrambler!!!!". When asked which one he didn't want to ride again, BHP said "I think I won't try the Ali Baba until next year.

Ugh - our camera has issues with landscape/portrait - but I wanted to share this picture. Nola loved riding the bunny on the carousal announcing "I did it, mommy, I did it!" Yes you did, clinging to me for dear life the entire time, but you did it sweetie!

Brenner and Nola loved the jeeps. I remember riding these things when I was a kid. Notice Nola had no trouble finding the horn.........Brenner seems relaxed, calm, peaceful.......

....until he got some road rage! Not sure what this was about but made for a funny picture!

Nola enjoyed the motorcycles even though she isn't smiling that big! Next they rode the dragons (in the background) which Papa made spin and spin!

After Emi was at home resting, we headed to the Missouri Valley Steam Association Steam Engine Show to drive our tractor in the "Parade of Power". Grandma Val came down too - it was a beautiful cool day!

While waiting on Brenner and Papa drive through the parade, Nola made a friend. Her name was Coco.

My two handsome guys! Recall this tractor was my Grandpa Hilbrenner's that we bought for Brenner. He would be pleased - Grandpa always went to the steam engine show!

It was a long wait, but Brenner and Papa finally made it to the Grand Stand. Alot of fun - plus they had great funnel cake and kettle corn - yummy!!!!