Royal Wedding Watching Party!

In honor of today's wedding, we had a little party to celebrate!

We invited over Ms. E and her daughter's A and M.  Plus, we had cake:

While waiting for the bride to arrive we ate our honorary wedding cake:

Then it was time to watch the ceremony:

Given the ages of the kids... attention was not maintained for the hour-long ceremony.  So, by the time the new Duke and Duchess were declared, we had headgear:

Princess A and Robin Hood were in attendance:

The soldiers, horses and carriages deserved all our undivided attention:

While waiting for the balcony kiss, A and McColley had fun taking wacky pictures of each other:

And when I took the camera away, it was back out to create more glittery art work and crowns:

It was a fun day and we even got to watch some of our neighbors shoot off fireworks this evening!

Happy Easter!

The Easter Bunny visited last night:

McColley was so excited that the Easter Bunny knew about his love for St.ar Wars and Leg.os:

Brayton was overjoyed to have a new garbage truck - it talks!

Then it was time to head outside and find some eggs:

And find them we did!

Happy Easter everyone!

Egg-stravaganza!

Since we enjoyed yesterday's Easter Egg Trail so much we decided to do it again!  Except instead of going to Ho.ughton Mill, we went to Wim.pole Home Farm (and Daddy got to come this time):

The boys were more excited to look at the animals than they were to find clues (although they did find all five):

We also had to spend a few minutes "milking":

It wasn't a part of the Easter Egg Trail, but we did have to make a tractor stop... it was a bit different to play with them WITHOUT mud:

And since it was a tractor stop, we had to play with the big tractor too:

As we left the farm we stopped and checked out the newly hatched chicks.  Brayton communed with three-day old quail chicks for a moment:

McColley finished up his clue sheet by drawing a picture of his favorite animal (it was a bee):

Then he got to pick up his chocolate egg on our way back to the car:

When we got home it was time for more eggs!

It was time to dye:

Daddy taught Brayton proper egg dipping technique:

Then there was the long agonizing wait for the dye to work:

And then, voilá, beautiful eggs!

Last thing on our To Do List - mow the lawn.  Or, watch Daddy mow the lawn as we munched on vanilla popsicles:

An Egg-citing Day

Today we met up with Ms. E and her daughters A and M at a local museum that was hosting an Easter Egg Trail.  This particular museum is an old mill, so when we picked up our clue sheet for the trail, we were told we had to find Mrs. Hen's ten chicks who were picking up the ingredients to make bread.  (The chicks were yellow laminated paper chicks with information about each ingredient.)

After finding all the chicks on the top floor of the mill, we took a short coloring break:

Since we were at the mill we couldn't ignore all their hands-on mill-related activities:

Brayton really enjoyed the working mill model and being able to make the water wheel turn:

The working lock model was an all-around favorite:

Having touched everything they were allowed to (and a few things they weren't) inside the mill along with finding all ten chicks, the boys each won a chocolate egg:

As we left the mill, the kids were excited to discover a nesting swan hiding in the reeds:

Ms. E and I decided that a nice warm day and good behavior had earned the kids ice cream:

With tummies full of ice cream we decided to go for a short walk and ended up being able to watch boats go in and out of a small lock:

We only left because the kids started complaining about being hot!

Exploring The Outdoors

It is definitely spring here!  All week the weather has been hanging out at around 70 degrees and today we decided to take advantage of it!

During the afternoon, the boys and I walked to our neighborhood park:

We started out at the big kid park where there are a lot of ropes for climbing:

Brayton got in what climbing action he could:

Then we wandered over to the little kid park where the boys had more mastery of the equipment:

 There was a group of children playing at the park as well and they let the boys join in with them.  However, there were a few lost in translation moments.  First, all the kids were declaring what they were going to pretend to be and Brayton announced "Fire Truck!"

An older British boy looked confused and said, "Fire dragon?"

"NO!  Fire Truck!"

The British boy still looked confused, "Fire Soldier?"

Brayton, indignant and annunciating as well as a two year old can, "Fire Truck!"

The British boy was still confused so McColley clarified, "He wants to be a fire truck."

The British  boy looked at McColley and said, "Oh, doesn't he mean fire engine."

Brayton shouted. "Fire Truck!"

Both older boys shrugged and the game moved on.

Through the course of the game McColley and a second British boy discovered they are both four.  There was an instant bond.  When it came time for us to leave, McColley waived good-bye to the boy and said, "See ya later buddy!"

The British boy was taken aback and said, "But my name is Lenny!"

We were already mostly out of the park so McColley just waived again.

We then walked home and waited for Daddy to come home from work.  When B did get home, he took the boys out to an environmental program where the kids got to learn about an endangered newt.

They then got to go out on an expedition to find newts:

They were able to spot several black newts and one yellow and black newt:

Or "NUTS!" as Brayton called them:

 When Brayton told me about their newt hunt, he also added that they'd found alligators, penguins and turtles.  B and McColley assured me he was exaggerating.

And, yes, the boys do still love our new car and its built-in DVD feature:

A Hypothesis

My hypothesis: The Maguire men have mutated a protein that kills all X-chromosome sperm in their bodies.

Proof: Generation 1 - 3 boys out of 3 total children

Se.an, Mich.ael and Br.ian

           Generation 2 - 4 boys out of 4 total children (so far)

McColley, Brayton, Dr.ew and Pearson

Yep.  We're having our third boy!

 We had our 20 week ultrasound today and to quote the tech, "There's a willy!"

He will be named Pearson Bruce.  Both of these pictures show his profile.  You can see his hand (with thumb sticking out) better in the upper one.

He was pretty good-natured throughout the ultrasound.  The tech only ran into trouble trying to get a good view of his stomach.  After I switched my position a bit, she was able to get all the views she needed.

Right now his chest and head growth are a few days ahead and his femur growth is a few days behind, but everything is within normal range.  She got a good visualization of all his major organs and they are all where they are supposed to be.  He also has a good strong cord and a healthy placenta.

Now we just have to wait 20 more weeks to meet him!

Also, please click on our baby pool link to place your guess as to when he will arrive.  The link is located right under the picture of his growth on the left sidebar.

Preventing An Invasion

So... apparently this is the enemy:

 After seeing my last post, my Aunt Berta e-mailed me with a major warning about mint's invader-like growing pattern.  Apparently we should have done some more research instead of just trusting the 'plant this!' packaging.

As an aside: Um... should we be worried about any of these herbs? They are marjoram, parsley, thyme, rosemary and sage:

With our new knowledge of mint's issues, we decided to dig it up:

And put it in a pot:

It is now segregated from the rest of the garden (which we hope will be enough to control it):

Now, if anything were to take over our garden, I vote for these:

Or these:

We have been very pleasantly surprised that the previous owners of our house left behind a plethora of beautiful tulips.  Every time one blossoms it makes our day!