Sharp Shooters

Running around being crazy on St. Patty's day.

Taking down his too little house...

 Only to have it replaced by a tent!

 
 The sharp shooters and their dart guns.  Adam is teaching William gun safety with a toy gun, so its okay by me :)  I have to ask permission to pass by and get the all clear before crossing their paths.

Funny face before and after!

And a weekend trip as a family to the Airplane museum.

Bouncing, Bouncing Boy

4 Year old logic as explained by William this week "I didn't see any of my friends do it, so it must have been a leprechaun".  The leprechauns are being blamed a lot for things this week.

William decided there was enough grass showing that needed a mowing.

William and I had a lot of fun this weekend.  First swimming at the YMCTA (the T is William's inclusion) on Saturday, then at an indoor jumping place an hour from our house.  Even I had fun chasing him around to get pictures :)

Holy Moly the Snow is Melting

William has been correcting us lately on what "Holy ..." phrase we all say.  So from the mouth of William, here goes:

Grandpa S says "Holy moly"
Grandma S says "Holy cats"
Momma says "Holy cow" or "Holy buckets" is also allowed
William says "Holy buckets"
Daddy says "Good lord", mostly at slow drivers, slow electronic devices, or when William is putzy.
Grandpa Mc says "Holy cows" (though I am not sure if I have heard that in my 30+ years on this earth).
Grandma Mc says... nothing according to William, which also isn't true, but I don't think she has a catch phrase that starts with holy.
The cousins...laugh.

I also asked William what we all call him:

Mommy calls him "Wiggly worm" or "Buddy"
Grandma S calls him "Sweetie"
Grandpa S calls him "Buddy Brown"
Daddy, Grandpa Mc and Grandma Mc call him "William"
His cousins call him "Cousin William"

The snow is finally melting and that means there are puddles to stomp around in.  So we have been taking some early spring walks to search out the puddles.  Our elderly neighbor Leo and his dog Happy pointed out some good ones to us the other evening :)

William taking a photo of me and the necklaces we made.

Grainy photo of the two of us from my phone.

Artwork from Presidents week

My goof ball helper in the kitchen.  We made cherry pies today and most of the flour migrated to William's shirt!

New Games

We are inventing games around here to keep from going crazy with this cold snowy weather.  I keep having to remind myself it is only the beginning of March, it just feels like such a long, cold, snowy winter that we deserve spring right now!

Indoor Baseball: complete with pillow bases to run around.

The quiet game:  seeing who can be the quietest for the longest, Momma is finding this one useful some times.

Treasure Chest Hunt:  one of us hides the wooden jewelry box I made in middle school shop class (aka the treasure chest) then comes back to draw a map of its secret location.  Then its off to search for it.  Surprisingly good maps drawn with an "X" to mark the spot.

Babies Game:  William and his imaginary babies (named Ping-pong, Jackson, William P and Suedkamp) have adventures on our bed and require a lot of attention from Mommy and Daddy to assist in transporting the imaginary babies around the house and through their various baby needs.

William also learned about the presidents last week at daycare and surprised Adam and I by telling us all about Abraham Lincoln and how he was killed by John Wilkes Booth, as well as how George Washington chopped down cherry trees.  He could even recognize them on pretend money with their pictures on it.  Pretty smart for 4, I don't think I knew that at that age, but maybe then I was learning about the Queen of England :)

Pictures from our visit to the children's museum in town a couple weekends ago...

Yes, these are jeans he is wearing for the first time since he was 2 years old!  The trick apparently was a belt that he could get on and off himself.  Sadly their appeal has now waned a bit this past week.

Showing off his strength lifting, count that two, Chinese foam building blocks.

 Last week we headed back to MN early to beat the big storm and are glad we did. They got 10-12 inches of snow on top of ice.  The roads were a mess!  William stayed with Adam's parents to give us a wonderful weekend away at my parents house (they are off in Australia enjoying the summer down-under).

We meet up for some fun and lunch at the Mall of America and William had fun riding the various rides with hardly any wait due to the messy roads keeping most folks home.

My father's snowblower apparently leaks gas, much to Adam's consternation upon dumping half a gallon in only to have it drip back out.  There was a LOT of swearing, and it was pretty loud, I could hear it in the house while he was in the garage.. so instead we got some good weight lifting excercise shoveling all the snow that fell.  Then again a couple of times due to the wind and the drifts it caused.  The hardest part was their current snow piles were chest height, so to throw the snow off the drive way, you had to really get it high only to have it blow back in your face.

Had to take a picture on our way to go running at the gym of how high the pile really was the next day!

Adam and I had a wonderful time, exercising, shopping and eating out.  I got to finish a puzzle and we had a couple nice small fires in my parents wood burning fireplace (a chance to let Adam's inner pyro out).  Even got to go on a double date with Chandra and Darryl for a very taste meal.  A big thanks to the Grandparents for house rental and William sitting!

William's Zoo

When you're looking for fun, why not have a zoo right in your own house...

Bears and dogs on the dresser.

Sea life on the floor, separated from the mice.

African animals on the nightstand.

Australian animals on the other nightstand.

To visit the zoo you have to put a coin in the robot bank, or you will be denied admittance.

Cows on the chair

The Zoo photographer in action

Sheep in the bathroom

I actually bought a bean bag chair thing that you stuff all the stuffed animals in as you can see we have accumulated enough for a zoo!

Last weekend William and I headed out to the Air Museum for a little fun. Gotta love dials and buttons!  But he is still a bit scared by these spy doors that get you into the kids area.  I don't have to carry him through anymore, but I do have to hold his hand yet.

Adam was shopping for glasses and William was right in there helping him.  The process was a bit long, luckily the shop is at our mall so there are many diversions for a 4 year old.  Orange Julius, rides, ramps, bathrooms, candy machines....

We caught a mouse in a trap in our basement, yuck!  They had been in the walls before, but Adam caught sight of one trying to steel our hickory nuts in our laundry room.  William was a bit concerned about the mouse in the trap until he heard he was trying to steal his nuts (William cracks them with a hammer and eats the nuts when he gets especially hungry after riding his various bikes/scooters in the basement).  Hopefully he didn't tell any of his other mouse friends the way to get into our house.  I will leave the traps up for a while!

Witticism from William for the week:

"I have to go look in the mirror to see if I am still cute.....Yep, I'm perfect".

Juliene his teacher at daycare got introduced to his toot manners on a particularly gassy day.  First he toots, then annouces he tooted, then excuses himself, you have to then say "your excused", then he says "thank you" then you have to say "your welcome".  Slip up on any of that and you have to start all over.  He also shared with Juliene, that him and his father are rather gassy :)

The other day while in the women's bathroom at the mall, William tooted, then announced to the room that he tooted.  I heard some snickers from the other stalls while the toot manner protocol was then completed.

Have a good week.  Only four days of work for me, then William gets a Grandparent weekend and Adam and I get an extended weekend together!