Mommy and Son Super Hero Breakfast

Power Puppy, Superman and our friend Sean waiting in line for the bounce house!
Eli and Nate with their hero Buzz Lightyear!
Superman, Power Puppy and Batman!
Superman, Superman, and Power Puppy!

We have had superheroes on our brains this week! This weekend is Junior League's Festival of Trees and that means it is time for the Mommy and Son breakfast!!! This year the theme was superheroes and oh boy was that a huge hit! Eli wore his Awesome Halloween costume (Power Puppy) and Nate dug into the costume box for Superman and could he be any cuter, rounder, or adorable? I wore a superhero cape that matched Eli's and went as Super Mom! They ate yummy french toast and sausage for breakfast (with 6 cups of juice) they jumped in the bounce house and hung out with the superheroes! We also put raffle tickets into some raffle prize boxes and actually WON a prize! Amazing! We never win. We won a birthday party ($110 value) at IPower gym which is this awesome kids gymnastic pit with a foam pit, giant trampoline, obstacle course, and rock climbing wall! Guess where Nate's 4th birthday party is going to be?

Sesame Street Live: Elmo's Healthy Heroes!!!

Eli pretending to be Captain Fuzzy (Elmo's Super Hero Alter Ego)
Cookie Monster Rocking out!
Elmo, Abby, and Sully Monster
The looks of joy and surprise when the monsters first came on stage!

We had a very special Wednesday night! The boys and I went to the Sesame Street Live: Elmo's Healthy Heroes show at Assembly Hall (where UIUC play basketball)! The show was darling, the boys were totally into it and I now have a new love of Cookie Monster who brought the funk with his hip hop dance moves! The boys wore their super hero capes and they each got to hug one of the characters! What a special night!

Ropp Jersey Cow Cheese Farm: The Hand Sanitizer Addition

Eli and Sophia on the hay ride! Nate helped me take this picture as he was on my lap!
Eli feeding one of the calves!
Eli and his besties Max and Leo checking out one of the baby calves named Lilly
Nate making friends with another little animal
The boy is a natural! He loved milking this cow!
Eli jumped right in and did a great job milking the cow!
Leo, Max and Eli drawing representations of what they saw on the farm
Nate and Dirt! Enough said! He is a walking advertisement for hand sanitizer.
Eli interviewed Farmer Ropp about the animals and the farm equipment as part of his study group!
Nate holding hands with Leo, Max, Eli, and Sophia (you only see Nate, Leo and Max)
The five best friends: Nate, Leo, Max, Eli and Sophia
Look at Eli's face! How can you not be crazy about that kid!

We had an amazing Veteran's day! Eli and Nate's school scheduled a field trip to a Jersey cow cheese farm in Normal, IL! The boys and I left early and went and had a delicious and fun snack time with Aunt Valmere and Uncle Wyn! Homemade biscuits and hot chocolate...delightful! The boys love Aunt Valmere because she will never say no to third or fourth cups of hot chocolate!

We then drove 15 minutes to the farm and met up with Eli's classmates! The real purpose of the field trip was for Eli's "Farm Animal" study group to go on their field trip and investigate their prior knowledge on their topic! The boys school has a theme each semester and this semester it is Food and Farms. Nate's group is the farm machine group (his field trip was awesome and of course I forgot my camera) and Eli chose the animal study group.

The boys got to milk a cow, feed a calve, watch the cheese get made, go on a hayride, climb endless piles of hay, eat a picnic lunch, and go nutty! It was absolutely warm and the sun was shining! What a fun way to spend the day!

Happy Halloween from Power Pup and Super Kitty

Super Kitty and Power Pup after a long night of trick-or-treating
Cute animal super heroes
Power Pup and Super Kitty tough guy faces!
Super hero capes
My sweet super kitty
Victory for Power Pup: Chocolate candy
Power Pup and Super Kitty in Action (trick or treating at their teacher's house)
It's a butterball, it's a pork chop, not it's super kitty

My boys love Halloween. It takes them months to decide on costumes and they change their mind about every other day. They wanted to be superman and batman until 1 week ago when they decided that they needed to be Power Pup (Eli) and Super Kitty (Nate). Lucky for me we already had the much loved dalmation costume for Eli to use with the addition of legs! Nate got an easy sew black cat costume! Capes and masks made them look like the super heroes that they are! They had the best time trick-or-treating around the neighborhood and also going to trick or treat at the home of two of their teachers! Happy Halloween from the King Brothers!

Pre-hockey: King Brothers on Ice

Eli working hard in the level three-four group! Eli's helmet is white!

Nate is the cutie pie in the blue helmet with white stars! This was his third lesson

So as winter fast approaches us here in the frozen wasteland (otherwise known as Illinois) it is time for those winter type sports! Ice skating was so fun for Eli last year that we signed them both up this year! They love it and they are making huge progress! I am so proud of my little guys! Nate spent the first two weeks pretending to fall down and stay down so that his teachers would hold his hand. Once the teachers realized that he didn't need their help he became more independent on the ice! Eli is a slow and steady guy on the ice. He rarely ever falls and his teachers are working on getting him to go fast! So far, he is quite happy to go slow!

Sunday Adventure: Turkey Run State Parkw

Planning something naughty
Such happy boys!
Laughing at funny mommy signing a song about poop! That's right I have to get them to smile somehow! I have no pride when I am trying to get a brother picture!
Part boy, part animal, all adorable!
My first attempt at a brother picture!
Classic
Seriously, the cutest brother talk ever!
Indiana is absolutely beautiful!
Milo made the trip and was great!
Feral animals on the loose in the forest!

We took a little road trip to Turkey Run State Park in Marshall, Indiana today! When it is 74 and sunny in the middle of October you have to be outside! Turkey Run is seriously beautiful and we had an amazing trip. We ate lunch, we hiked, we played on a playground, we checked out the river and the sandstones cliffs, and we ate snack! It was gorgeous! Milo got to come along for the hike and he did such a great job! We think he is mellowing out in his old age. He only got really feisty with a tough looking akita but we think it was all for show! Milo was the only one of our three boys to sleep on the way home! What a great way to enjoy the last of the nice fall days (Before the long hell of winter sets in...waaaaaaaa)!

And...we're back!

Yep! We are all silly!
Giving mommy a back rub! So helpful!

Well, it has been two months since I last posted, which officially makes me the worlds worst blogger (even Nikki is a more frequent blogger than I am...geesh)! We have had an epic two months! Get ready for the longest blog post ever:

The boys are absolutely flourishing in school! They L-O-V-E being in the same class and we have come to realize that there are indeed good and bad things that come with having your babies 16 months apart! We had some issues early on where the boys went into tag team mode and were disrespectful (not listening and crazy)! That happened only once! Other than that they have made new friends they are learning a ton and they love it! Nate still thinks he is a 4 year old and though we try to get him to play with 3 year olds he thinks they are babies! He is too funny!

We had LOTS of visitors! Thank goodness for the grandparents! My dad came first and the boys were in heaven with all of that guy time with Pop Pop (Sam was in heaven too, man time=cigar walks)! Then my mom was here for 1 day before she and I took off on a tri-state adventure! We were gone for 10 LONG days but she made it possible by going with me and kept me sane (mostly) while I was away! My Mother-in-Law arrived two days after we left and kept my guys in check, feed them and loved on them! Seriously, best grandma's ever!

It did take a while for the boys to recover from mommy's extended absence as I have only EVER been away from them for 2 nights! When I picked them up at preschool the day I got home, Eli and I ran into each others arms and cried! Nate didn't let me out of his sight for the first week and he is still stalking me 4 weeks later!

We have had field trips, and outings, ice skating and tennis, music and improv all of which have remained unrecorded due to the fast and painful death of my camera (Eli + camera=dead camera). But, Pop Pop took pity on us, or was so desperate for pictures that he had no choice and sent us his camera! Thank you, thank you, thank you! So these pictures are for you Pop Pop!

The King Brothers are back! Expect LOTS of pictures in the next few weeks!