PHOTO DUMP

I have not posted anything in a while so I thought I'd just put a bunch of pictures from the last few months and then try to keep up from there. 

Blue Bell Factory visit with Avery and Zander

 Grandma Fosler gave the boys a wooden birdhouse kit for Christmas.  Dave helped build it and then the boys painted it.  They had painted a couple at Grandma Sharon's over the summer so Dave put all of them in the tree together. 

Aunt Laura gave the boys "snow in a can" for Christmas.  This is the masterpiece they made!  A little different than the snowman you'd build in Chicago but Harrison enjoyed it.
 

CHRISTMAS 2013

I know it is way past Christmas but I wanted to put up a few pictures anyway.  There are some from Christmas at home and some from Petersburg.  


Riding the "tractor" with Papaw was a favorite activity on this trip.

 

Crafts

Cookie  Decorating
 

Grandma Sharon and Papaw gave all the kids iPad mini's for Christmas.  The boys were soooo excited to get their own "big phone".  They call them big phones because when Dave got an iPad for his birthday, they thought it was the same as our smart phones, just bigger.  So the ipads are officially called "big phones".
 

Santa came to Grandma Sharon's house.  He brought the boys bike helmets and a note that said their big boy bikes would be waiting for them when they got home.  The boys were actually more excited about the Hot Wheels track that Santa brought for Zander than their bikes.
 

But they enjoyed their new bikes when we got home.
 

 

The boys loved their underwear from Aunt Laura!

And the dinosaur from Uncle Dean was pretty cool too!
 

 

FALL FUN

On Saturday, we went to the Renaissance Festival with the Poulsens.  Except for a little bit of traffic going in and coming out, we had a really good time.  Here are a couple pictures of the boys riding the "ponies".  Hunter actually rode a donkey and Harrison rode a llama. 

On Sunday, we decorated pumpkins.  Grandma Sharon sent "Mr. Potato Head" pieces that go in pumpkins.  You push the pieces into the pumpkin to make a "Mr. Potato Head" face on the pumpkins.  The boys wanted to carve one too so Dave carved one.  

 

4 YEAR CHECK-UP

The boys had their 4 year check-up and it was brutal.  My pediatrician had warned me at last year's appointment that the 4 year was a rough one but it was worse than I thought it would be.   They had to do hearing screening, vision screening, urine sample, blood draw and 4 shots.  We had "practiced" getting shots and talked about how it would hurt a little but it was way worse than they thought it would be and they both were very unhappy. The receptionist could even hear the screaming and they were in the room furthest from the waiting room.  Thank goodness our friend Tami came with us to help.  

 

This is probably one of my favorite pictures of Harrison.  The doctor wanted the boys to put these gowns on and the boys were just not really excited about it.  On top of that, they had to get 4 shots.  They were not pleased.  

 Fortunately, ice cream makes things better. 

TRIP TO THE ZOO

When the zoo built its African animal addition, they added a giraffe-feeding platform.  You can pay to get lettuce leaves to feed to the giraffes.  We've never done it because there was always a long line and I felt like it was kind of a waste of money.  Well, the last time we were there, there was no line so we decided to do it.  It was the coolest thing!  On the way to the platform, the giraffes are right next to the walkway.  There was even one that was drooling and we had to avoid getting dripped on.  When we got to the platform, they only let one group feed at a time so it was just us.  We got four lettuce leaves so the boys each got to do two.  They loved it.  

There was also a special Lego exhibit.  There were about a dozen animals on display all built completely from Legos.  Very cool!
 

This picture wasn't planned but I cracked up when I looked at it and saw that Harrison looks like a chimp in it.  It would have been awesome if the chimp was walking instead of sitting and they would have looked alike. 
 

 

4th BIRTHDAY

The boys turned 4 on July 2nd!  This is really the first year that they really understood what a birthday meant - presents and a big party!  Unfortunately, we decided not to do a big party since Ms. Hildy will do a big party in August when the boys go back to school.  So instead, we tried to do several smaller "parties" but they still didn't really get it.  

On their actual birthday, we went with Holi and "the girls" (Kira, Lena and Naia) to paint pottery.  The boys got to pick what they painted - Hunter picked a dinosaur (I knew it would be either that or a race car) and Harrison picked a big bug.  They were so serious but didn't really understand that the colors weren't the "right" colors.  I think Harrison's will be mostly brown and Hunter's will have quite a few white spots but that's okay, they enjoyed it. 

On the 4th, we went to Holi and Britt's again.  We swam and did fireworks and had birthday cake.  I really was not happy with how the cakes came out but the boys liked them.  Hunter actually got very territorial about his cake.  He DID NOT want to share it and started crying when I cut it.  He finally settled down when Dave and Britt took him to start the fireworks while everyone else finished their cake.  It was a fun day!