The things Papas are good for

Snacks. Lots of them. Especially when your mother thinks you should be in bed.

The kids had been bathed and it was at least a half an hour past bedtime, as is quite common when at Grandma and Papa's house and everyone is just having too much fun to go to bed. I had gone down with Sadie to brush her teeth and told Sam to get reading his bedtime stories with Grandma. This is what I found on the couch when I came up.
Seems it is a bit hard to focus on a bedtime story when there is popcorn to be eaten. (It's not like he'd already had a milkshake, a bowl of ice cream, and a couple shots of squirt cream compliments of the older gentleman in this picture.......)

Future basketball stars (just like their moms)

We have spent a good amount of time while at Grandma and Papa's with my best friend since 4th grade and her daughter, Anna. One of Sam and Anna's favorite activities was playing basketball in the basement while Grandma and Papa did the play-by-play from the sidelines.

While in junior high, Jen and I made a deal that I would go out for track if she went out for basketball. I really don't know why we thought this was such a great plan, since neither one of us was any good at either (well...maybe she was actually good at track - I can't remember. All I know is that we were both far from the A team in basketball, and I got put in the high jump in track since nobody else would do it.) Let's just say our kids at 3 could probably beat us.

Yes, there is air under there

And she is at the top of the stairs. Not exactly what you want your 2-year-old doing.
I know I have taken pictures in the past of my children doing all sorts of things that probably should not be encouraged, but I promise you that was not the case this time. She was just standing there, actually smiling at me, so I put the camera to my face and took a couple pictures. The next thing I knew she was sitting on the top stair giggling excessively. Only when I scrolled back through my pictures did I see the reason for all the giggles.

Seems her big brother has been teaching her a few tricks......

We're outa here!

Hey Auntie Jane - look where I am going!
Hey Sadie - want to come with me?
Yeah!
See ya later!

Sadie and Molly

No. We just won't smile. We don't care how many silly faces or loud noises you two mommies make at us. We are in this together.
We're just checking each other out.
Hugs!
More hugs!

I think you should use this in your tower

Cousin Molly came over to play this afternoon. Stacy and my kids were building with blocks, when Molly happened by with her contribution to the effort - a dog bone.

Visits to Grandmommy's and Granddaddy's work

We started out our day visiting Grandmommy at UNI. We took in a band practice (Sam asked to leave after a few minutes because "the trumpets were too loud." Excuse me, child? Too loud? Have you listened to yourself randomly scream just to annoy me?) We then climbed just about every single stair in the performing arts center and rode in the really, really big elevator - big enough for a grand piano. For my two elevator loving children, it was quite the treat. Here we are at our highest point, getting to look out the window to see how high we were.

We then headed back to band practice, which was now over, since they have treats afterward. The kids had their fair share of snacks, and then we headed over to the music building to say hi to a few people.

Then we were off to the law office to see Granddaddy and Uncle David. We made our presence known to every single person in the building, again climbed every stair in the place, and put on a drum concert with some empty pop bottles we found in Kandi's office (where we also found our fair share of snacks).

We were supposed to go out to lunch with Carl afterwards, but by this time Sam was batting about .300 in the listening department (not bad in baseball, but not good in toddler stats) and Sadie was alternating between fleeing and screaming, so I made the executive decision not to take those two into another public location where such behavior might be frowned upon. So we got some takeout and met Carl and Grandma and Papa's for lunch - a wise choice.

Tons o' fun

We have been having lots of fun the couplefew days. After our weekend in Muscatine, the kids and I headed up to my parents' for a week (since Joe is in some intense training this week and we figured we'd just go have some fun while he studies statistics.) We stopped in Iowa City on the way and met our good friends Melissa and Michelle and their kids from Newton. Then on to Grandma and Papa's. We stopped by each of their workplaces this morning, got in some playtime with Uncle Carl and Aunt Lala (Alissa), and had friends over for supper tonight. Here are some pictures of our fun.

Papa and Sadie at church
Sam with Marlys at church - she was so kind and let him play games on her computer - no wonder he is smiling so big!
Sadie attempting to help out on the gaming front - her efforts were not appreciated by her big brother.
When did my baby boy get so big!?
Lala tackling my children....ok....maybe it was them tackling her.
Sadie during her only five-minute spell of sitting still for the night, snuggling into Carl all on her own.

The 6 S picture

This weekend we went back to Muscatine for a visit so that our friends there could meet Sadie. We were able to get in visits to one of our old neighbors, some church friends, and our playgroup. There were so many people we wished we could have seen, but the kids were quite worn out by Saturday afternoon (and so were Mom and Dad) so we didn't get everywhere we would have liked. If we missed you, hopefully we can see you on our next time through.

Saturday night we had dinner with the friends we were staying with and our pastor's family - 6 kids total, all whose names began with the letter S! So we just had to take a "6 S" picture - 2 Sams, 2 Sarahs, Sadie and Sophia. Of course, there is no one picture where everyone is looking and smiling, so here are a couple of my favorites from the attempts.

Another small space

I believe I have mentioned the fact my children love to squeeze themselves into small places for fun. (See yesterday's post on the half hour spent in the dog kennel.) This is Sam's new hiding spot. I think this might be his smallest space yet.

So - I figured there was no way he would make it in.
Okay.........maybe he'll at least get close.
Oh my goodness - he is doing it!
This kid has a future in the circus.

They went in there all on their own

I took the dog's blankets out of his kennel to put them in the wash. I walked back upstairs and this is what I found.They then proceeded to spend the next half an hour climbing in and out, as well as bringing as many stuffed animals as they could fit in for a little company. Sam also told me he thought is would make a really cool bedroom. Nice. Why do we even buy them toys if they are this easily entertained?

Cupcakes

Grandmommy sent the kids a package for Valentine's Day with all the supplies needed to make cupcakes. Sam and I went to work on them this afternoon while Sadie slept. (We did let her eat them, just not make them. Cooking with 1 toddler is chaos enough.....trying it with 2 would put me over the edge!)

Here are some pictures of our afternoon adventure!

Here is Sam dumping the water in.
A direct quote: "Hmmmmm....I wonder what 'gredient comes next."
Stirring it up
Sam filling the pan "all by myself." We started off with me doing with with some slight assistance from him. He talked me into letting him do it, and it took every ounce of restraint I had to be a nice mom and just let him make a mess of it. (I know many of you are wondering why that took restraint, given my general lack of concern about messes. For some reason, batter on a cupcake pan just irks me. It can be avoided. If you do it really well and don't drip at all when putting it in the liners, you don't even have to wash it. Did I just admit that? Anyway - I HATE scrubbing all those crusty bits off. Oh wait. I usually just leave them there until my mom comes and she scrubs all the things in my kitchen that need a good scrubbing.....)
Sam is very proud of his work. Notice all the drips that will be there for my mother when she comes. OK....maybe I will make a slight attempt to remedy that situation before her next visit.
The best part - he couldn't quite believe I was letting him do this!
I did good - tastes great!
Hmmmm....cupcake!
Sadie uses her tongue quite impressively to try to get all the frosting on her upper lip.
The "pig" face.

Granddaddy's Smile

Sam has Granddaddy's "Is this enough of a smile for the picture?" smile down pat.

Progress on another front

In addition to Sadie's progress in talking, there has also been much progress lately on the sibling front.

If I could sum up Sam and Sadie's transition to each other it would be:
November - month of being jealous of each other
December - month of tolerating each other
January - month of "I guess he/she is here to stay"
February - month of enjoying each other

They have become very sweet trying to comfort each other when one of them is crying (as well as join in with sympathy cries), and they egg each other on in finding fun things to do that Mom might not approve of. One night as they sat at the dinner table taking turns banging their spoons on the table and cackling with laughter, I had to remind Joe "This is what we have been waiting for...."

Here are some pictures of the two of them enjoying escaping Mom's picture taking.

half a haircut

Sam has been in desparate need of a haircut for a couple weeks now. Every time I ask him if he'd like a haircut, his answer is "Tomorrow." Well, today was the day I wouldn't take tomorrow for an answer.

We got halfway through and all of a sudden he informed me "I'm all done." This is what he looked like. As attractive as this look is, I did go ahead and do the other side.

Happy Valentine's Day (a few hours early)