Sunset Park

In the last week, we've been invited to Sunset Park at least 3 times. Sunset Park? Where's that?

Turns out, it's a brand new, gorgeous park about 2.5 miles from our house! It's HUGE and has two playgrounds, big fields, nice stone walls, tall grasses, rocks, bridges, a water play area, and plenty more. You can even see the ocean from the field!

The playground equipment isn't your normal playground either. It's really neat stuff that all twists, turns, bounces, and has all kinds of things to explore and discover. Mom and Will stopped by the new park after Kylie's LAST APPOINTMENT this morning, and then the whole family headed back to the park before dinner. Daddy got in on the different playground equipment, too, letting Will spin him in the bucket seats. We'll definitely be visiting this park a lot more in the next few months.

*Kylie's appointment went well, she's getting ready for her big debut next week!

** In case you are thinking Will looks tall in these pictures, you wouldn't be the only one...many people have made that same comment this week. We've been watering him.

Santa Bread...in March?

Daddy was pretty disappointed to have missed Christmas with us this year, so he declared he would be making Vonichka this weekend, before Kylie arrives. He gathered the ingredients and began the 2 day process on Saturday evening, with his trusty sidekick, Will. The boys mixed and kneaded, pounded and poured, and shouts of, "It's ALIVE!" could be heard from the dining room as they added the yeast.

This morning, they rushed to check the dough and Will came running in to declare, "Mommy! BREAD GROW REALLY TALL!" Before heading to the flower fields, the boys rolled the dough out, added the raisins and almonds, cut the loaves, and prepped the next step. Phew! What a morning!

This afternoon, as we napped, the bread baked and filled the house with a yummy smell.

So...Merry Christmas. In March.

That Time of Year

This is Will's 4th time visiting the flower fields! 4 times! He's only 2.5! We went when Mommy was pregnant with Will, when Will was 8 month old with Great Aunt Pat and Great Uncle Tom, last year when Will was 21 months old, and now this year!

Wow! That's 4 years of colorful tractor rides!

This year, the flowers are blooming on the far side of the field, so the tractor ride was considerably longer than before. Not that Will minded. At. all.

We told Will we would be going to the flower fields today as he went to bed last night. Boy, oh boy, the kid has a memory and a mind! He woke up this morning FULL of questions about the farmer and the tractor and what color the tractors would be and if the farmer would have a hat and if there are horses and pigs and hay on the tractor. He continued asking all of these questions until we actually had the experience of the flower fields this morning.

And so. It's our last time at the flower fields. We did the kids' passport activity this year, collecting all the stamps at the stations to earn a turn in the miner's water and search for hidden gem stones.

Kylie seemed to enjoy it as well, and we topped off the (85 degree) morning with lunch at the diner. Milkshakes, anyone?

We also would like to wish Aunt Leah a very Happy Birthday today! We hope she enjoyed her day as much as we enjoyed ours!

The Kids

Mommy was trying to take a picture of Will lounging on the kitchen floor the other day, but Kylie kept peeking into the photo. We'll take this opportunity to share the first picture of our two children and wish Grandpa Platenik a very happy birthday! Happy Birthday, Grandpa!

After a fairly tiring day when Daddy was working late, Mom and Kylie had retired to the couch when Will decided Kylie deserved even more stickers than she already received at the doctor that morning. Daddy showed up just in time to capture the moment.

And, last but not least, Will has been working on some modern art for Kylie's future room. (really we just got some canvas on sale at Michael's and let the kid have at it with some Kylie colored paint) Jackson Pollock, anyone?

Fire Truck

This weekend when we stopped at Michael's to get some craft supplies, there were two fire trucks in the parking lot offering rides for a small fee. The guy owns his own company called at http://www.hiremyfiretruck.com/ and will be hanging out up in the parking lot for the next month on the weekends. We didn't have money or time for the ride on Saturday, so on Sunday, we went back to catch a ride with Daddy.

The boys had fun on their ride and then explored the trucks and all their glory. It was, apparently, New England fan day for their outfits so they are all decked out in the red, white and blue team colors.

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In other news: Mommy is now considered "full term" (37+ weeks), which means Kylie is safe to join us at any time. Today's checkup went the same as all the others, except Will is such a pro at these that the doctor doesn't even touch the doppler machine anymore, she just hands it to Will with the goo on it and he finds Kylie's heartbeat. He then promptly asks for a paper towel to clean Mommy's belly and, after all is clean, he requests "two stickers please". One for Will, one for Kylie. Next week is our LAST doctor's appointment before the big day. What will we do on Tuesday mornings after that? Perhaps be a family of 4? (plus all visiting guests!)

O*R*E*O

When pregnant Mom impulsively buys Oreos at the store, everyone benefits.

Daddy took this opportunity to teach Will what he declared to be an essential lesson: the dunk.

While this cookie and dunk is actually the 2nd, Will's first dunking experience was something we won't soon forget. It was so cute to watch him copy Josh and listen very intently to the directions of how to dunk and eat, but not let the cookie fall apart.

Like I said, important life lessons from Dad.

Basketball

We don't even know what week we're on for Sports Class anymore...this was supposed to be the last week, but there are 3 more classes to make up after the rainy weekends so...we'll just call it Basketball Week.

That is what the kids played.

And the parents.

Will, as you've probably seen before, knows his basketball. He's got skills he's been perfecting since Unkie J gave him a hoop for Christmas two years ago. He practices at the park, too.

As long as there is Sports Class next week (there's an Easter Egg hunt scheduled for the same field), they will play basketball again and then the last two weeks are tee-ball. Tee-ball! Our favorite! We can't wait for our slugger to use his skills in a team environment. It should be amusing when he tells everyone to "STAND BACK!" like he does to Mommy and Daddy at home.

Ice Sk8ing Adventure

Ever since learning we were moving east back in November, Josh has been determined to take Will ice skating.

This afternoon, public skate time was happening at a post-nap time AND Daddy was home from work early, so off to the skating rink we went.

Will is always so determined to try (and master) new things, so he had his game face on. First, we rented the skates for the small-footed boy.

Then, after both boys were laced up, it was on to the ice! At first, we passed on the EZ skater tool, but after a few rounds on the ice with Daddy as sole backup, we decided to try out the EZ skater for our independent little man.

You can see the progress he made in the video, which is pretty impressive considering he's only 2.5 and has only been walking for a year and a half.