He talks

Tim picked up the phone to check messages last night and Lucas saw the phone and started screaming 'CALL GRANDPA!!!' Well, of course... So we called Grandpa and Lucas talked for a LONG time. Like 45 minutes kind of long to a very patient Grandpa :) Normally when Lucas 'talks' on the phone he just king of sits there and doesn't say more than a couple of whispered words. But not last night. He was telling all sorts of loud stories about juice and popcorn and purple birds. Me and Tim were cracking up and wondering just how long he could keep talking for...

Oh yes, more projects.

Lucas is loving water play these days, so we got him a little tiny tiger in a cage that slowly expands whe you soak it in water. He was so excited to pour water in it and watch it grow. He's been carrying around the little cage telling us that his tiger will grow big. When asked just how big the tiger will he get - he roars at us :) I guess it will get big enough to roar like a real tiger.

This is an activity I found on-line somewhere. Get really cheapy shaving cream and pour it on the table along with a glob of tempera paint to mix it with. Lucas loved mixing the the paint/shavig cream and seeing what new colors were made (we used red and yellow paint) He stuck his hands in it to play, but it kind of freaked him out a little and he started waving his shaving cream covered hands around trying to get it off... Hmm.. It was definitely not an easy clean-up sort of project. I had to scrub shaving cream/paint off of the walls, toys, the rug, the drapes, the entire bathroom... It turn out that washable paint just isn't that washable... Yeah, definitely not easy clean up :) But oh so worth it - we will definitely be doing that again soon!

Lucas found this itty bitty bird house when we were out at the store the other day, so of course it had to follow us home :) And who doesn't love painting birdhouses??? Lucas's favorite part was trying to paint the little perch.
This is the finished birdhouse and the tiger on the grow, sitting on the windowsill.

The Lucas Request

Trees House!!!! Trees House!!! That is all I hear these days in his sweet little voice. We love going to Lowell Park (big local forest preserve) and Lucas recently saw there is a Nature Center area there that looks like a little house. Hence, 'Trees House!!' He is currently screaming it at the top of his lungs. Repeatedly. I told him maybe we'll go soon. His answer? When Gwendolyn wakes up. So, I guess we'll be going to the Trees House when Gwendolyn wakes up. LOL. How I can I say no to a sweet patient boy that wants to enjoy nature??? I can't. SImple as that.

The geode never saw it coming

We got Lucas a geode to crack open. It's harder than I thought it would be. He whacked it with a hammer for a long time, but it didn't crack. Ah, maybe another day geode.

Our new swing

We just got a swing that can clip onto the clothesline! Woohoo!! The kids LOVE it!!

What could be sweeter

than a Daddy playing on the floor with a sitting baby?

To Geneva we go

We met my parents in Geneva recently. You might be wondering why Tim and my dad are standing on a table in a McDonald's playplace - because Lucas asked them to shake the bubble he was in, of course. Oh yeah, they had a really good time :) And as for Gwendolyn, she sat and munched on french fries, content as could be. And what's a day without videogames...

Toys for all

Lucas and Gwendolyn enjoying some of their toys. That is Lucas's new car carrier truck in the pictures. He's even nice enough to share the cars with Gwendolyn!!!

I think there are now an ureasonable number of pictures of Gwendolyn sitting and looking cute. But I am just soo entertained that she can sit up all by herself. She's just like a real tiny person these days :)

Ah, comfort.

So we have a laptop, but it sits on the desk most of the time. We pulled it over to the couch the other day to watch a show on it. And I realized that I could actually sit on the couch while being on the internet. Go figure. This was quite the revelation for me. So here I sit comfortably on the couch, without my back hurting on that stinking computer desk chair. And I ponder.. why didn't I come up with this a few years ago????
The one drawback? the digital camera and all it's cords are over on the desk, so I can't post new pics. Alas, I suppose it couldn't be perfect...

It's a bird..

Yeah, it's a bird. We put up a bird feeder a long LONG time ago and haven't gotten any birds. At all. We finally got one today!!! Sadly, Lucas was napping and missed it. He spends long hours staring out the window waiting for birds to come. He's a patient boy. We put corn out for the squirrels, too. And we regularly have fat little squirrels running around our yard. So we get to see something out the window, while we wait for our birds. Anyways, we moved the feeder today. Hopefully the new, farther away from the house, spot will encourage the more jumpy birds to stop by. Until then, we have a picture!

Watercolors

We tried watercolor painting a few days ago. It was a big hit! Lucas mostly liked getting the brush full of paint and then swishing it in the water to watch the colors mix. And then painting with the colorful water. Which definitely makes for some very interesting pastel-y paintings. They're so very spring inspired :)

Water and markers

I've been doing a lot of art projects with Lucas lately (it's one of the few things that keeps him happy and quiet during Gwendolyn's nap times) As in, this may soon become a toddler art blog :) We took a few of his washable marker drawings and left them out in the rain to see the effect water would have on the pictures. They looked SO cool. Ufortunately, I couldn't think of what to do with a buch of sopping wet, color leaking drawings. So I left them out until the rain stopped and they dried. I didn't anticipate that the rain washing all of the color away.. Huh.. So we tried again in the kitchen today with a spray bottle of water - it worked MUCH better. Lucas happilly poked the colorful puddles around with his finger for a while and lost interest - maybe this is an older kid activity??

Fire!

We had a nice day earlier this week and headed outside to enjoy the weather:) Who doesn't like being outside??

We (finally) burned our Christmas tree - Lucas LOVES watching fires in the firepit and throwing kindling on top.

Lucas rode his tractor around the yard purposefully looking for something. After a few minutes his face lit up and he came scooting back to me and Gwendolyn on the porch, stick in hand. He gave Gwendolyn a nice stick out of the yard to chew on. What a thoughtful boy!! She loved it and sat happilly on the porch, chewing on her stick for a long time. (notice the adorable bow on top of her adorable head?? I'm happy to say that her hair is long enough for bows!!)

Random Pictures 3

Lucas has his art table set up in the living room again (it was down for a few months) And we have been doing all sorts of projects. Like fabric painting old tank tops to make upcycled bags.

Lucas and I were giving Gwedolyn a bath (it's a very flattering picture of me, by the way) He loving splashing water in her face, and she actually enjoys it :) And the last picture is Gwendolyn enjoyig my new flip flops. They must be tastey...

When paint attacks

We got Lucas some new paint tube things with the brush built in, so he doesn't have to worry about dipping the brush and tipping over paint jars. He really likes them. LOL and they really like him :) I don't think he has one single item of clothing without paint on it.

Random Pictures 2

More random pictures :) (I'm starting to think I take a lot of pictures of the kids...)

Random Pictures

Just some cute pictures from the last few months.

Sweey siblings

Lucas is feeding Gwendolyn broccoli - it doesn't get much cuter than this :)

Boy photographs

It turns out Lucas is quite the tiny photographer. After a year of him swiping my digital camera and trying to use it, we got him one of his own. He LOVES it!! He doesn't totally get the whole no fingers over the lens and looking through the viewfinder yet. But he still enjoys it. He was so thrilled to see his photos appear on the computer. I sent some to the store to be printed - We get to go pick them up later today. I think he will be beyond excited about that :)

We're back!

As some of you may know, we haven't had the internet at home for quite a while. But due to some good fortune, we have the interet again, so I get to blog!
Hopefully I'll be able to post some updates soon :)