I apologize

I am very, very behind on my blogging. As many of you already know, we are in the process of relocating to Charlotte, NC. I am hoping to have many, many pictures updated soon. We have been lucky to see Grandma and Poppa twice in the same month, so lots of pictures of our visit will be up within the next week. And of course, pictures of the new (to us) house :) Thanks for being so patient!

Little Helper?

Jacob loves to help me put food in the dog bowl. His favorite part is the scooping and today he politely asked if he could help.
Me- of course
Jacob- big scoop or little
Me- big
Jacob- okay. Do I put it in here (pointing to the water bowl and with a big smirk on his face)
Me- no way
Jacob- do I put it in here (pointing to the food bowl)
Me- yep
Jacob- (with a gleam in his eye and that poop grin) do I pour it in here....or on Parker?

Ha Ha. It always amazes me the way his mind works...never up to any good!

Worms

After a night of storms and the sprinklers being on for way too long, there was a ton of worms on the back patio. Jacob was watching the worms intently when he says "Daddy, do I like worms?". Peter chuckled and then said "uh, yeah". Jacob replied with "oh, goodie". I wonder what he would have said if Peter said no!

A little while later, a worm mysteriously appeared in the kitchen. Blake and Jacob were crouching over it and Blake says to Jacob "touch the worm. Touch the worm, Jacob". I happened to look over at them and I see Blake holding Jacob's hand, trying to make him touch the worm. Typical big brother behavior- make your little brother do the things you are too scared to do, but want to find out what will happen. Needless to say, Jacob isn't afraid of the worm and happily touches it. Blake then wonders "how does it feel Jacob". Jacob tells him "touch it yourself"! Ha. Jacob and I rescue the worm from the kitchen (after I tell Jacob it is not a good idea to touch the worm with his shoe) and set it free in front of the house. We will see if he asks about the worm tomorrow...

Earth Day (afternoon)

We decided to take a hike at Halpatiokee Park. They have an awesome 3 mile hiking path that runs parallel to the St. Lucie River. The last time we went, we saw 3 tortoises, a frog, a lizard, two birds, a black snake, and an alligator (okay, only Peter "saw" the gator. There was no way I was going to get close enough to see, but there was definitely something large in the bushes!). Unfortunately, this trip, we only saw a few birds, a rabbit and lots of dogs! It was a great afternoon anyway. The boys have a blast and it lets them get all that boy energy out!

Daddy and Parker

Looking for gators

Crossing one bridge (out of four) on the path
Snack time at the midway point
Look at me!
Jacob's turn. Blake wouldn't let me take a picture of just Jacob...he had to be in it too!Making sure we are on the right path home.

Earth Day

There was an Open House at the Oceanographic Society, so we decided to check it out. The boys were able to see various fish in tanks, touch some small shells, etc in a touch tank, see and touch a corn snake, watch a game fish feeding and touch some sting rays. Jacob would put his hands in the water, but he wouldn't touch a ray. However, he did pet the corn snake...twice. Of course, I forgot to snap a picture of that. Blake was too afraid of the snake to go near it, but loved the stingrays...go figure! Parker was just happy to splash the water!

Pitiful Parker

Parker has mastered the fake cry. He will barely hurt himself and then look at me and start to fake cry. Sometimes he will make me kiss his "boo-boo". Now he fake cries whenever Jacob gets hurt too. Jacob will come up to me for comfort and then Parker will stop what he is doing, cry and bring me his elbow to kiss. I am not really sure why he always wants me to kiss his elbow, but he does.

New Game

Parker has recently discovered how fun playing under the covers is. Now whenever he climbs onto the bed, he immediately pulls the covers over his head and then laughs.

Beach Day

After a failed attempt to go to the Indian River Fountains, we headed over to the beach instead. It was our first day there this summer and it was great! The waves were a little high b/c of all the wind we had. At one point, Jacob got knocked over and decided that he had enough of the water. However, Blake could have stayed there all day. He enjoyed running into the waves and also having the waves chase him up the beach. Jacob and Parker were content to just eat the whole time and maybe collect a shell or two. It was a great time.

Easter

We had a great Easter weekend. Saturday, we were able to go to a party at Peter's co-workers house. They rented a bounce house for the kids, had eggs to decorate, did an egg hunt and had the Easter Bunny make an appearance. The boys all had a blast and it was a great way to spend the afternoon. We finished the evening by coloring our own eggs for the Easter Bunny to hide the next morning.

Sunday morning, the boys skipped the egg hunt and headed straight for their baskets. However, we spent a good portion of the afternoon hiding the plastic eggs they got the day before in the backyard. Blake was the lucky finder of the golden egg (which had a dollar in it!) and wanted to hide/find it over and over. Each time he found it, he would say "I am rich!". Unfortunately, the egg suffered a debilitating injury...Blake fell on it while diving in the bushes to retrieve it before Jacob.

Embarrasing moment

So, yes, I am that mother who has that kid. You know, the kid who waits to do all the really wild and embarrassing things only when there are other people around to see it. And that kid is Jacob.
It is Saturday evening and we are all enjoying the nice weather out back. It is getting close to dinner time and Peter decides to run to the store to pick some stuff up. I am standing in the doorway of the sliding glass doors (which lead to the back) trying to keep an eye on Parker and Blake. Jacob had been in the bathroom doing his business. Shortly after Peter walks out the door, I hear "Mommy, where is Daddy going?". I turn around to see a half naked boy standing in the front door...in plain view of our neighbors who just so happen to be in their front yard playing with their kids. I immediately tell Jacob to close the door when it happens. The "poop" grin appears and he is off. I run across the house and out the front door. Jacob runs out towards the sidewalk and begins to go up the street. At this point I catch a glimpse of neighbors laughing. Great. I was hoping they would have been too busy to notice. I am furious at Jacob and completely mortified at the same time. I am telling him to get back in the house and then he decides to run through the yard to the back. I cut back through the house and finally nab him in the back yard. And that is when I notice the poop smeared across his legs. Gross. He thought this was just hilarious and I am trying not to scream at him. He gets a good "talking to" as I am cleaning the poop off and getting him dressed again. Let me also say, this stuff never happens when Peter is around. So that is me. The mom with the kid that likes to run around the neighborhood half naked. Pray for me!

A pudding story

So the other day, Jacob got into trouble for not cleaning up his toys like I had asked him to. After supervising the clean-up and the toys were all put away, Jacob says to me "You are not mad anymore, mommy?" So I do my best grumpy Jacob impersonation and say to him "Hmmppff, I am angry". Of course he laughs at me and then gives me the biggest hug, followed by the biggest kiss. He then says to me "I really love you mommy" and I say to him "I really love you Jacob". Then he says "I really love chocolate pudding". I really don't know where this came from since we haven't had pudding in months and weren't even talking about pudding. What a nut this kid is. So, I made him pudding :)

As you can see, he got as much pudding out of the bowl as he could. After I took the picture, he decided using his fingers would be better and since that just wasn't cutting it either, he licked the bowl clean.

Water Balloon Fight

After many, many weekends of begging, it was finally warm enough for a water balloon fight! Needless to say, Peter spent more time filling the balloons than it took for the fight to actually last. Blake and Jacob thought it was great and Parker laughed hysterically each time a balloon broke! (if you click on some of the pictures, you can see the action a little better)

If you look in the middle of this picture, you can see two purple water balloons that Blake threw.

I love how this picture shows Peter about to get hit with the balloon!

Peter got Jacob in the back and you can see from Parker's face that he thought it was hilarious!

Playmobil Fun Park

We were able to tag along with Miss Betsy, Hunter and Gwen to Playmobil Fun Park the other day. It is this great place in the shape of the castle which has different stations set up inside with the Playmobil toys. An example of some were a castle, dollhouse, boat, princess, and rescue. The boys had a blast. I think their favorite part was the kid size castle with a throne and jail! It was a great way to spend the afternoon.