Choo Choo Photo Shoot

Thank you Kristin for the beautiful family photos! We love all of these pictures and will treasure them forever! Some background information about the photo shoot....Mommy decided on the railroad scenery as this is something she thought would look neat and it also reflects an interest of us boys (TRAINS!) The vintage suitcase is Mommy's Great-Grandfather/Grandmother, so it is REAllY old (maybe 80-100ish years old). The red handkerchief in my pocket is from Daddy's Grandpa who passed away just two years ago. The vintage toy train is a wooden train that Daddy's uncle made for him the year he was born (1975). These special props made the photos even more special. In addition to the slideshow, we posted a blog entry today~ don't forget to scroll down after the slideshow to catch up on our weekly news! Enjoy!

TWO, ZIP, ZOOM, YUM, YAY, and WHEE!

Happy 2nd Birthday Coopie!  Cooper's official birthday was one week ago today.  Since we had his party that weekend, we celebrated his mid-week birthday at McDonald's and home.  He was most excited about the finished sandbox which was a gift from Grandma Carla and Grandpa Jamie.  We will have to take a photo of the entire sandbox as it is gigantic!

The CAT was a gift for me a year ago and now we have the perfect place to put it!  We previously used it to dig up rocks from our garden areas, mulch in the garden, and snow from the sidewalks.  Our parents are happy to know it is now in its rightful place.

Thanks to cousin Lexi, we continue to do daily train rides down the slide.  It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt, right!?!?

 We love how Cooper runs and throws his tummy down on our swings. He proceeds to do airplane arms and glides for minutes (forever in a toddler's world).  Mommy made sure to capture this moment as she just laughs when he does this.

 I am a very protective big brother!  I often holler as we ride on the glider (this is what Google names these teeter totter type swings) to remind Cooper to keep his toes in those pockets!  He obviously listens well :)

 For his birthday dinner, we had his favorite food- brat picnic and he opened his gifts from us (new child size life jacket, clothes, toys, and his FAVORITE- bathtub shaving cream!)  Thanks Cooper for all of the fun toys I plan to play with!

Whenever we talked to Cooper about his birthday cake, he replied "TRACTOR!"  We went with the good ol' DQ ice cream cake with what else, but a tractor on it.  He loved it!

Happy Birthday Cooper!  You are such a big boy AND we love you to the moon and back!

 I finished swim lessons on Friday night.  We had a fun night for our last session.  This involved water toys, water fountains, and the SLIDE!  I have asked the swim instructors for TWO weeks to ride down that slide.  When they told us we could, I was the first preschooler up that slide and sure enough, I came down with a huge smile on my face.  It made the last two weeks so worth it.

I received my swim certificate with only two areas not checked for preschool swim- I need to work on gliding two lengths on my front and on my back with NO support.  I can float, blow bubbles, and bob with little or no support.  I will probably take more swim lessons this fall/winter.  Most importantly, I had a ton of fun and I love the water!

 After some tricky weather days (chilly and or raining), we had a beautiful sunny day.  We decided to meet the family on the St. Croix river for a day of pontooning, grilling, and swimming/sand building.

Uncle Jim helped co-captain the vessel.

 Yikes, who let us drive?  Kidding, we were parked!

 Papa lets us control the radio and the horn buttons.  Good thing he is so patient as our Mom was NOT!

 Papa even took my driving lesson one stop further and showed me how to work the throttle.  My Mom is truly terrified now of letting me in a boat much less on the driver seat.

Cooper discovered Lexi's water bottle and decided it would be super fun and hilarious to cool everyone off nearby.  Looks like a kid-only type of game.  Thanks for the fun day Papa and Grandma Sharon!

We finally made our way to the local strawberry patch.  We love eating strawberries and Mommy feels quite ridiculous buying these in the stores.  We picked 3 buckets for freezing, eating, and baking.  I was a very patient and careful picker and nearly picked an entire bucket myself.

 Cooper wondered around and ate and ate and ate until he was a huge strawberry himself.

 Showing off my strawberry stained hands where Cooper showed off his strawberry stained face and body!

 This past weekend, we went to Grammy's to celebrate Auntie Erin's birthday.  We spent the day waterskiing and pontooning.  My parents kept reminding me that because I am FOUR, I should be able to waterski by myself.  Last year they bought this trainer and I only used it naked and on-shore.  This year, I kept my clothes on (wetsuit) and decided to take it for a spin on water.

 I DID IT!

 I took a huge loop and returned to shore!  I did this twice that day, although my second run involved a little nose dive and at that point, I called it a day.  Daddy was SO proud of me... he was literally smiling ear to ear.

While I skiied, Cooper sat on Daddy's lap and took a short nap.  This was the second day in his entire 2 years of life where he did not get a nap.  We paid for it that night.  It's hard to play all day around nap schedules, but we also have to deal with him if we don't fit it in.  Lesson learned.

 Cooper started swim lessons last night.  Mommy got out of it as she hit the nail salon with Grammy, Auntie Erin and Kyra.  When they returned we decided to use the red chair in our living room as a tilt-a-whirl.  Daddy told Mommy that having 3 boys so similar in age would be VERY challenging.  She giggled inside as she already figured this one out, hence no baby #3 in sight! 

We received our beautiful pictures back from Kristin and will be sure to get the slideshow posted on the blog in the next day or so!  Have a great kick off to the 4th of July events!

No More Clowning (Part 1 of 2)

Woo hoo!  Our Mom is a computer genius (not really) BUT we finally fixed all of our computer bugs and are now up and running once again.  We have a ton of photos to update you with, thus you will find a part 1 and a part 2 to this blog post.  To kick off this marathon, we start with our circus pic's.   Bennett sent us these clown noses from his Georgia B-day party and since we obviously were not present for his carnival themed party, he sent us some silly noses.  It was perfect timing as we were geared up for the Shrine Circus!  It was our first trip to the circus so we didn't know what to expect.

 We met up with some friends at the outdoor circus show.  Thank goodness for $5 cotton candy and boxes of popcorn.  This was the major highlight to the circus for us.

I have never been served cotton candy before and the stuff was delicious for a second and then quite sticky and yucky.  I loved eating popcorn along with Cooper and we were sure to be good boys and share with our buddies!

So the only circus act that truly caught our eye, was this gigantic elephant that stood on a barrel and gracefully spun it with her feet.  She also managed to display a humongous nasty fart (yes it was seen), so I was happy to not be one of those poor people behind her.  We stayed until intermission and decided to call it a day.  Maybe we can try the circus next year or maybe not.

Next up....swim lessons!  I entered preschool swim lessons this year with a much better attitude.  Apparently when I was 3 years old, I had some tears and needed to be held quite often. This year, I was ready to rock that pool.  Not only was I happy to play in the water, but I was also happy to sport new goggles and a swim cap (the lady lifeguards LOVED it!)

Cooper is considered a toddler, so he will have swim lessons next week with Mommy/Daddy assisting.  For now, he enoys playing lifeguard while watching me swim.

 We learned how to safely enter the water (WALK!!!!!!!!!!!)

 We found treasure toys and pennies at the bottom of the shallow end.

 We played red light and green light using our kickers.

 We practiced floating on our front and back as well as flipping on our own (hardest skill).

 We sang lots of fun songs and made a "choo choo" line while visiting various stations around the pool.

 We practiced putting our faces in and blowing bubbles which I am a master at thanks to bath time fun :)

 And my favorite station in the pool......SPLASHVILLLE!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Swim lessons have been a lot of fun!  I have one day left tomorrow and then will be done for the summer.  I am eager to learn to swim on my own and feel lucky we have a lot of opportunities to swim in lakes and pools around home!  Continue reading the blog post below for more news......