Diving In

This morning at lessons David started learning how to dive into the pool. The instructor took him to the big pool in the 9 ft section. David was really excited to get into the big pool. He learned how to put his hands out in front of him and watched Lauren dive in a few times. He looked like such a big kid standing on the side of the big pool.

After class we went to a playdate at a classmate's house and stayed for lunch. The kids all sat at the table together. The didn't eat much. They were too excited about being together.

Hanging at the Y

Brrrrr. . . . it's been freezing outside! We've turned into YMCA groupies. We have been there at least 4 times a week for the past 2 weeks. David has lessons on Tues/Thurs and we've been going in the afternoons on Mon/Wed. It's been great exercise for me and the boys! After we're done swimming we hang out in the snack area and watch the swim team practice.

Ryan loves picking out a snack. Their favorite snack is peanuts.

They sit at the table for a little bit, but they love to hang out at the window watching the swim team do laps in the pool.

Original Compositions by David

The boys got yukelele's for Christmas this year and have been having putting on performances for Paul and I. (Thank you for this present! The boys love them!) This afternoon David came up with some great new songs. Including "People Pee". I may be talking about Ryan using the potty a little too much!

His second song "Workers Work" was his favorite. He sang it at the top of his lungs and really strummed the yukelele loudly. He was in his own little world. He sang about truckers driving trucks, policemen policing and workers working.

His finale consisted of a mix of Jingle Bells, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and a song he made up about saying Amen.

Bowling and Pizza

We took the kids bowling on Saturday night with 4 other families of friends. We had 5 lanes right beside each other, so all 11 kids could walk back and forth and share the 4 six pound balls we were able to find. David played for himself and Ryan.

Ryan hung back and kept track of our scores. He really liked sitting at the scoring station.

The kids did great cheering each other on and taking turns using the ramp to get their balls down the alley.

We tried to get everyone together for a picture. We were all happily surprised at how well they all did and how much fun we all had. We were even brave enough to venture out to dinner together at Hi-Way Pizza!

David and Ryan both loved having dinner with all their friends. We all had fun! It was a little loud, but we had the back room mostly to ourselves. David got to see what everyone else was eating. He didn't want anything to do with Lauren's salad, but Zach's butter noodles looked really good.

The Rodeo

The boys were still in good moods at 6 p.m. so we decided to take them to the Rodeo at the farm show. It was my favorite part of the whole day! We got to see Bareback Riding, Saddlebronc Riding, Steer Wrestling and Team Roping. It was really exciting.

This was the Bareback Riding event. The riders only lasted for 8 seconds and some didn't even last that long. Real cowboys!

This was the Team Roping. They had to lasso the head and both back legs.

We sat right by the gates and got to watch the bulls and the cowboys rush out of the gates.

David's favorite part was the Rodeo clown. He came out with his horse and danced and told jokes.

PA Farm Show

The boys and I went to the farm show with my parents on Thursday. We left at 9 a.m. and didn't get home until 11:30 p.m. I was amazed by the number of people, animals and exhibits. LOVED this one that let us watch the chickens hatch!

The boys were amazingly excellent. It was a really long day and I'm glad with had the sit and stand stroller to give them both a break from walking around. I don't think we sat down from 11:30 a.m., when we arrived, until 6:30 p.m., when we went to the Rodeo.

All of the animals and free samples of food kept the boys very interested. We were able to get so close to all the animals. These cows felt a little too close. They were enormous!

Ryan and David loved the Shaver's Creek exhibit. David sat for the whole 30 minute talk about animals in winter. I had to pull Ryan away when he tried to touch the snapping turtle while the speaker was holding a snake. The boy has no fear.

So much for for kids. The boys got to ride the antique carousel. It went really fast!

Unleashing The Fun!

We had an awesome weekend with cousins Heather and Amanda! They came to visit while Paul was on travel for work. The boys loved having them here to play tickle games and run around. We went to Fun Unleashed on Saturday afternoon and the girls climbed through the tunnels and went down the slides with the boys. The picture above is of the super fast slide (that's why is so blurry!). Ryan LOVED going down by himself. No fear!

The girls climbed through the tunnels and played games for nearly 2 hours and then we all went to see the Princess and the Frog. Such a fun day! Everyone was ready for a nap when we got home.

It was such a fun weekend of eating and playing! We ordered a ton of Chinese and ate it all weekend. The boys loved the lo mein noodles and the rice. Ryan actually at some sesame chicken too.

NO NAP! by Ryan

Ryan gave up napping in October. He screams and yells if we try to put him in his room to nap, but this is what happens by 3 or 4 p.m. On this day he was in the office looking at videos from sesame street.org with Paul. Paul left to use the bathroom, came back 2 minutes later - Ryan sound asleep! We picked him up and he woke up and refused to nap again. . . . yep, he doesn't need a nap!

The Last Batch of Pretzels We Will Ever Make

This is it - this is the last batch of pretzels we will ever make from scratch. There will be some Super Pretzels baking in our oven in the future, but no more "from scratch" pretzels.

The boys enjoyed playing with the dough and the flour, but it was a long process to make these pretzels and then . . . . they tasted them. . . .

David put it in his mouth, spit it out and said "These don't taste like the ones from downtown!"

Monkey see, Monkey do . . . Ryan immediately spit his out after watching David spit his out all over the table top. Fun!

Happy New Year 2010

We enjoyed the fun of First Night downtown Thursday afternoon. The boys both rode the ice slide this year (Ryan rode it with Paul). David was excited to go, but then told us it was "too fast".

We met up with Shelby, Bob, Kelsey and Kaitlyn at the library to work on decorating hats. They had every kind of decoration a kid could want. Kelsey and David thought the glue dots were really funny. They kept giggling about making their fingers sticky.

At the end of the night the kids got together in the office to watch videos of themselves from this summer and play games on pbs.kids.

Snowy Morning

New Year's Eve morning started out with some snow removal. The boys headed outside with Paul to shovel the driveway and sidewalk. They ended up making snow balls and throwing them at each other.

Then we came inside and had hot chocolate and marshmallows. Ryan likes to put the marshmallows in his cup by himself with his spoon.

David prefers to eat his mini marshmallows while drinking his hot chocolate.