We gave Andrew a cowboy dress up costume for his birthday and now we can't get him out of it! I have to admit that he looks pretty stinkin' cute in it, though!

















It even has little chaps!

Easter!

Easter this year was a ton of fun! As last year's Easter fell on Alex's birthday, this year it fell on Andrew's! One of the fun things about having a birthday in the early spring, I guess! Saturday was Andrew's birthday--see below and then Sunday the Easter bunny visited. We started the day early with an egg hunt. And, yes, that is FROST you see on the ground. It was pretty but very cold the night before! Welcome to spring in Indiana!

Here's Alex finding an egg. And, yes, he's wearing PJs. With a coat. In the frost. Yep, I'm going for The Parent of the Year award again this year...

Andrew was surprisingly good at finding eggs and really got into it. He didn't even realize there was candy in each egg, he just liked the hunt. Unlike Alex who wanted to stop after he found each egg and gorge himself!



































Granny and Gramps were there for the egg hunt fun and Granny brought each of them a fun Easter present. This is Andrew and Granny reading the book she brought Andrew together. Awesome book, Granny!

Here is a small video of part of the frosty egg hunt...

In the afternoon (after the frost had thawed!) we headed over to Grandma and Grandpa Schoenherr's house for more Easter fun. The Easter bunny had visited there, as well and the boys had another great egg hunting adventure...

Grandpa helped Andrew with a few of the eggs...and then it was onto the awesome Easter crafts that Grandma had planned and some great Easter baskets. You spoil us rotten, Grandma and Grandpa! Uh, I mean The Easter Bunny! :)

Happy Second Birthday Andrew!

Andrew's second birthday was on Friday April 10 but we celebrated with a big party on that Saturday. Andrew is really into Thomas so the theme for the party was Thomas. He loved the balloons!

The cake was even Thomas and I thought they did a great job of it--very cute!

Andrew with all his loot!

Opening a Mickey Mouse See-n-Say from Nana and Grandpa Bob

He also got a scooter and Thomas helmet. He's not very swift on the scooter yet but I have a feeling he'll get there soon! Notice he's sucking his thumb and balancing on the scooter in this picture...he should be in the circus, don't you think!?

Here are the boys playing with the new Elefun game. The butterflies blow out of the top of the elephant's long trunk and you have to try to catch the butterflies with your net--pretty cute!

Finally it was cake time! Andrew needed a little help blowing out the candles from Alex and Daddy...

Dig in! He didn't make as big of a mess as I would have liked but he really enjoyed the cake.

Alex's Bounce Party!

Alex had his 5th birthday party last Saturday at Bounce Planet with many friends and family in attendance. In the days leading up to it, the party was all he could talk about, and really, how can you blame him?! Wouldn't you have killed for something like this when you were a kid?! (For those who are uninitiated into the bounce party place, Bounce Planet and other places like it are large indoor rooms with many inflatable bounce houses and slides and also separate rooms for parties.)

The guest list was wide and varied but Alex was so happy to have everyone at his party. In this picture from left to right are Jackson (neighbor), Lydia (neighbor), Katie (friend from MOPS), Nicholas (friend from MOPS), and Josie (neighbor).














Here are Nicholas and Alex going down one of the slides together. (PS, this big slide is my favorite part of Bounce Planet!)


















Here is Alex with Uncle Scott...or is that just a really big kid? Or both? :)















Here is Alex with his buddy Evan playing a little bounce basketball...

















Here is our little dare devil Andrew on the big slide! He had no fear in this place--he was a maniac!




















Everyone having a bouncing good time...
















After the bounce time was over it was time for CAKE!




















Alex loved having everyone sing happy birthday to him! Again!
















I had to throw this shot in because it is a rare sighting of me in action. I'm never in any of our pictures! Nice hat, by the way...















Some people who are not 5 yet had a bit of an issue with the cupcakes! I think Andrew is STILL on the sugar high from the 2 cupcakes that he ate!















Then it was onto presents! Wah hoo! Here is Alex opening up some cool 3D sidewalk chalk from Own and Lydia (neighbors).















Grandma and Grandpa Schoenherr and Uncle Scott and Aunt Cat got Alex a Tag reader. (Which he LOVES, by the way, if you are reading this Schoenherrs!)















After presents everyone got some tokens to play in the arcade. Alex couldn't quite get the hang of skee ball (or is it Ski ball?) but Daddy was able to help out.














Here are Daddy and Alex and Nicholas racing...

Landscaping!

OK, so this may not be the most exciting post I've ever made to this blog but it was really thrilling for us! Last Thursday and Friday we had some major landscaping done to our backyard. It all started last summer when we got a landscape design done with Salsbery Brothers Landscaping. Part of the plan called for what the landscape designer lady Robin called a "birm" but really it's just a big ol' flower bed!

The first step was to create the outline of what the bed would look like. Robin (Landscape Designer Lady Extrordinaire!) came by on Wednesday and spraypainted the outline onto the grass. I was sort of surprised at how big they were but she reminded me that these beds were designed to hold trees, shrubs and plants that would get big so we had to make it big.

So finally the big day arrived! The landscaping crew showed up bright and early and the first thing they needed to do was move our playset. Why the people who lived here before us decided to put that set smack in the middle of the yard, I'll never understand but the plan very wisely called for it to be moved to the side of the yard, closer to the basketball court. I couldn't believe how easily that Bobcat picked up the set like it was a toy! You can see in this picture where the set was before--it left a little square of sand where the sandbox was.

I had to include this picture because it cracked me up! Nick took Thursday and Friday off to watch over the work except The Man in him wouldn't let him just stand by and watch them work so he worked much of the day with the crew. That's him on the far left telling them where the set should go. I don't think he understands the concept of paying other people to do the work for you!
















So while one part of the crew was moving our playset, another guy was using a sod-cutter to cut out the outline of the bed. This nifty little machine cuts the sod from the ground making nice little carpets that you can roll up and use for whatever. We used some of our sod to cover some spaces in the yard, including where the playset used to be.

After the outline was finished it was time for the dirt to be delivered! We had 5 or 6 of these trucks full of dirt delivered to help build up the birm. Or flowerbed. Whatever it's called.

After they dumped the dirt, the Bobcat moved it around and made it smooth. I couldn't believe how good the guy who was driving that thing was! He was so precise with such a big peice of equipment. The boys got a kick out of seeing the Bobcat zoom around, too. And by "boys" I mean Nick, too! :) The dirt delivery and placement took by far the most amount of time, probably 5 or 6 hours.




















The next day it was time for the mulch to arrive! Most of you have spread at least some mulch in your yard so you know what that work is like. This was A LOT of mulch!!! I was purely happy to just sit and watch the workers spread the mulch for me. I was like a lady of leisure...

















And here is the final result! It may not look like a lot to you all but we are really pleased with it. Now if we could afford the trees and shrubs to go in it...