Agent Pears and Apples

Last weekend we took advantage of the beautiful weather and headed to Arbor Day Farms and an apple orchard. Arbor Day Farms was really cool - they had a great nature walk with all sorts of things to explore, including a tree house, wooden xylaphone, and tunnel. The kids had a blast. When we got to the apple orchard, we were pleasantly surprised to find out they also had Asian pears - and they were DELICIOUS! While we were picking them, we held one to Julia to taste. She went crazy sucking and eating it and juice was running down her chin. It was so cute! Grant keeps calling them "Agent Pears" even though we have tried again and again to explain that they are "Asian". We even got out the globe and pointed out Asia, but alas, we are still eating Agent Pears. And they are sure good :)

The growing kids

Both kids had their yearly appointments today, complete with shots. Julia handled it better than Grant. When they poked him the first time (he got three shots), he yelled "STOP DOING THAT TO ME!" at the top of his lungs. I had to hold him to the table after that (while holding Julia). Thankfully he stopped crying shortly after the shots, and a promise of a sucker if he stopped crying right now. When they gave Julia her shots, I asked Grant to sit in the chair but he came over to watch. He looked horrified and told the nurse to stop giving Julia shots :) Anyway, they are both healthy. Here are their stats:
Grant:
Weight - 36.4 pounds (51%)
Height - 41.5 inches (73%)

Julia:
Weight - 22 lbs, 6 oz (69%)
Height - 31 inches (94%)

Grant's Birthday Party

Grant had his conifer themed birthday party on Saturday. It was so sweet - as we were decorating on Friday, Grant was getting more and more excited and kept saying, "This is looking really great, Mom!" I finished decorating after he went to bed, and when he woke in the morning he told me how much he loved it :) For those of you who don't know, Grant has been requesting a conifer themed party for about 3 months. It all started about a year ago - I bought "They Might Be Giants - Here Come the ABCs" CD. There is a song on there called "C is For Conifer". So of course I start telling Grant about the conifers in his life - the neighbor's trees where he loves to collect pine cones, the poodle tree in our landscaping that he and Blake bought. Boom - the obsession began. Most of the decorations are from my Christmas collection. I am NOT a creative person - but Grant really wanted this. It was all worth it to see how happy he was!The kids coated pinecones with peanut butter, then rolled in birdseed. Gotta keep with the theme.One of Grant's gifts was a train conductor outfit. He quickly took to the role!I had one of these on either end of the counter. In case you can't tell (ha ha) they have Santa boots for a base.

Baby Julia is ONE

Julia is one today and I can't believe it. The year has gone so quickly! What a sweet baby she is, we are so blessed. I got her one year pictures and Grant's 4 year pictures taken yesterday. I ended up buying a package which had 30 sheets of pictures! Ooops. But there were so many good ones. I have the CD with all the images, but here are a few of my favorites. The cake ones didn't turn out very well, because Julia hated even seeing the cake. The photographer, Grant and I all kept sticking our fingers in it and licking it hoping she would join the fun. But no, it just made her cry. At the end of the pictures, she slipped and landed bottom-first in the cake. That brought on the real tears! Thankfully the cake shots were last because she was happy as a clam until we did those. I'm glad I brought a balloon - she loved it!

State Fair / Adventureland/Pizza Machine

We went to Des Moines last weekend for the State Fair and then went to Adventureland the next day. It was a fun, exhausting weekend! When we got home, we met Grandma Joyce and Papa at the Amazing Pizza Machine to celebrate his birthday. I think Grant's head is still spinning from all that he did in 3 short days!
This was at the end of the day. You can tell by Grant's eyes how tired he is.

The fair made Julia tired too.

I think Grant rode nearly every ride he was big enough for. But of course they all spin or go in circles, so Blake rode with him.
One of the few kid-friendly rides that doesn't spin or go in a circle. Blake thought I would be ok on the Galleon, so Grant and I rode it. He loved it, I nearly lost my lunch.

At the Pizza MachineJulia and Grandma are so funnyTired Julia snuggling on PapaJulia had to get in on one ride!

Grant's birthday

Grant is FOUR! We celebrated his day by going to the sprayground with Ellee, then meeting Blake and Papa at Famous Dave's for lunch. They gave him a huge ice cream dessert with a sparkler-type candle. It was pretty cool! In the afternoon we made chocolate chip cookies, then out for hot dogs for dinner. Grant never asks for hot dogs, but Blake was more than happy to try the Coney Dog stand near our house. Which was next to the gelato place, so that was for dessert. All in all, a fun, sugar-filled day!

Julia pulling Grant's face off

yummmm gelato

Julia liked dessert too

Butterfly

I got the oil changed the other day and there was a butterfly in the waiting area. What could be more exciting?!? The kids loved looking at it, but were careful not to touch it. Grant finally got it to land on his finger, and whew, I had the camera in my purse! But really, what isn't in my purse? The next thing we knew, the van was ready. I think all oil-change places should have butterflies in the waiting area.

CF/Family Reunion/G & J Birthdays

We went to Cedar Falls a few weeks ago to have a family reuinion with Mom's family. It was so nice to see almost all my cousins, aunts, uncles, Grandma, etc. Here is an attempt at getting a good picture of Grandma with her 15 great-grandchildren. I would say it turned out ok considering they are all 7 years or younger!
Since my whole family was together, we had a birthday celebration for Grant and Julia. Although Grant's birthday party with his friends will be a conifer theme (no kidding - he's been asking for months), I didn't think Hy-Vee had that option, so we went with pirates. Grant LOVED his cake. This is how I expected to Julia to react with her cake... see below for actual results.Julia liked touching the cake, but wouldn't taste it. I finally put some in her mouth and...

YUCK! This buttercream frosting is GROSS! Seriously, she wanted that cake as far away from her as possible. It was a delicious cake! And I should know since I ate the whole thing :)Mom and Baby Ryan. After seeing Julia's reaction to her cake, Darci and Todd let Ryan have some. He, of course, loved it. Here are the Machacek boys. I'm sure they are always this sweet to each other!

Splish Splash

Since the heat has finally returned, Grant and I decided to do a little finger/toe painting during Julia's nap, then get out the kiddie pools (yes, plural). We set up the sprinkler too so Grant had lots of water to play with. When Julia woke up, she tested the water, then almost instantly decided she needed to crawl into the near-freezing water with all her clothes on. She loved it! Eventually she ended up naked, and all this went down in the front yard (I didn't want to deal with Sadie in the back yard). So that took up a good 2 hours this afternoon - neither of the kids wanted to come inside!

I got Julia's baby out of the closet the other day, and she LOVES it. It's so sweet to watch her with her baby! Don't ask why the baby was in the closet, I always thought I would have 3 boys :)