Backyard of Boys

Nate after he crashed into the garage, on purpose, for the 10th time!
Bike vs. rocket!
Hide and seek with mom! I am a sneaky tree-hider! I love his surprise!
I was "it"! They both hid in our little climbing structure and giggled like maniacs!
You found me momma!

Now that Spring is here (and it better stay here or else) we are spending so much time out back! The boys are old enough now that we can play games of tag, hide-in-seek, soccer, races, et... It is so much fun! They also create crazy boy adventures usually involving pirates or ninjas! I think our neighbors think are children are feral do to all of the squealing, yelling, and maniacal laughter! Truth be told, they are a tiny bit feral!

Flowers for my Boys

Nate with his pig "purple Babs" watering his petunias
Eli with his pig "blue Babs" watering his petunias!

The boys have expressed a big interest in gardens, flowers, etc... For those of you who know Sam and I well... we HATE to do yard work. Things like Painting, rewiring of houses, refinishing furniture are more our thing! But for my boys I am willing to try just about anything! We went and got some soil, petunias and these awesome piggy watering buckets! It was so fun. They each have their own hanging basket to water! Lets see if those plants survived the planting process!

Nate the Great

Do you see the concern in Nate's eyes? The questioning look? Don't let the wide-eyed innocent act full you! This kid is turning into quite the little con artist! The trouble with Nate is that he is so squishably cute that it is impossible not to grin at him. He knows this and he is starting to use it! He can turn on the tears, the charm, the shy guy routine, the wild man... all at the drop of a hat! The best part about Nate is that he truly is as sweet as he looks but he just likes to keep it interesting!

The Illustrated Man

About a month ago Sam was reading the collection of short stories called "The Illustrated Man" by Ray Bradbury. Eli was completely curious about the cover with a picture of man covered in tattoos so Sam explained the premise to him (every tattoo tells a story). Of course, this seemed magical to Eli and I can only hope he gets over this before he is old enough to get tatted up (thanks Gromma and Grammy... hee hee!). This morning I think Eli had a little too much alone time in his room because he came running downstairs shouting " I am the illustrated man". The boy was not kidding. He had colored on every available surface of his body!

Fantastic Friday

Nate getting ready
A bit blurry but you get the general idea
Nate's pillow train
Eli's pillow train
My two train conductors!

Friday afternoon has become something pretty great in the king household! We usually have lunch and playtime with friends immediately after preschool! We then come home and have a lazy rest time which sometimes involves actual sleep! After snack we let it rip! We dance, we sing, we tear all the pillows off of the couches and make pillow trains! This friday we had a new addition to the fun... YOGA! The boys and I spread out our yoga mats (their Lightening Mc Queen towels) and we turned on a kids yoga dvd! It was so much fun! Eli is rubberband man and has to be the most flexible child in the world! Nate was awesome for about the first half but then he loved the turtle pose so much he just stayed with it and other variations of it for the rest of the time! I love these memories with my boys!

Mini Me

During no-nap time yesterday I came up from the basement to find this joker running around with my glasses. He actually looks like me! Woo-hoo! Of course he mostly still looks like his daddy but it's nice to know that I did pass on a few genes! He is adorable! Just look at that face!

Scovill Zoo: Decatur, IL

A boy being eaten by a snack, and a wild lizard!
The elusive King brothers... rarely captured on film.
Ground hogs.
Alligator's were a huge hit.

Last Friday both boys had a "Spring Holiday" so the three of us headed to the Scovill Zoo in Decatur, IL (about an hour away). It was a darling zoo and set in a gorgeous location right next to a beautiful lake and woods. The animals were fun and the boys really loved the alligators, camels, and jaguars. What they loved most of all though was the little train you could ride around the zoo and the carousel. It was a great day trip!