Pancakes with Bampa

This is what Graham thought about his first pancake made by Bampa (and Jackson)! 

He ate TWO whole pancakes!

My mom had this amazing piece of silverware that was a fork on one end, a spoon on the other, and had some knife prongs on art of one side!  Jackson was enamored, and he LOVED cutting up his own pancake :)

DEEELICIOUS!

We all finished, and Graham was still going to town!

The chef and his patron :)

LOVE these faces!

Saturday Fun

These yummy toes were all I wanted for breakfast!!!  So delicious, especially in his "big boy" pjs!!!

Life is good at Mimi and Bampa's!

Our first stop of the day was Barnes and Noble to meet Auntie Dale!  Conveniently, they were having story time while we were there!  Unfortunately, this story time was ON the Nook!  WHAT?!  The kids sat in front of the Nook counter watching the Nook read to them!  Craziness :(  The woman facilitating the story time, however, was really good and interacted with the kids as much as possible still.  Jackson was so stinking cute sitting and being such a good listener.  He LOVED wearing his Dr. Seuss hat since the stories featured were Dr. Seuss :)

Mimi, Auntie Dale and Graham

SQUISH!

We had such a good time catching up!  After leaving Auntie Dale, we grabbed some lunch and then headed out to Nan's again so we could do some grocery shopping for her before she comes home.

We came home to relax

In the evening, Katie came over and babysat so we could go out and celebrate Mom and Dad's 37th anniversary!!!  Josh and I will be celebrating our NINTH anniversary this summer, and that seems impressive, but nothing like almost FORTY!!! 

Bampa's Last Palio

We started our first full day in Evanston off with lunch at IHOP.  Jackson experienced the amazingness of his first Funny Face Pancake :)  We also visited my grandma who was still in the rehab center after breaking HER femur about a month ago :(  She is slated to go home on Monday!

After an early dinner, baths, and putting Graham to bed before my friend, Amanda, came over to stay with him, Jackson, Mimi and I headed to Roycemore for our third Palio in a row!!!  I have included the links to my posts from the last two years--they have all the fun facts about why this is such a special event for me.  Jackson was excited for many things: to watch the kids in their show, to eat his light-up lollipop, to wear his special pins Bampa gave him, and to be Bampa's special helper :)

Jackson sat so well through the whole Lower School program.  After the kids had all finished, my dad came over and got Jackson's hand to go stand with him by the podium.  He stood SO well while my dad talked.  Then he took hold of the Palio banner and helped carry it over to the winning class!!!  How cute is he???

Passing along the much-coveted Palio banner :)

FINALLY enjoying his lightsaber lollipop!  Unfortunately, the candy doesn't actually stick into the stick.  It fell on the floor multiple times :(  I gave it back to him a couple of times when it fell discreetly, but eventually I had to take it to the bathroom and rinse it off since I felt like everyone was watching me give my kid his lollipop back after it kept falling on the floor!  LOL  

LOVE this picture!  Jackson was SO good--he stayed for the WHOLE program this year, which means we didn't get home and in bed until about 10.  He LOVED it, and I have loved sharing some special Roycemore memories with him!

Jackson's First Palio!

The First Palio at 1200 Davis St.!

Graham's First Flight + Hot Dogs All Around!

I had SUCH a successful first flight with TWO kids by myself!!!  I wasn't too worried, but you never know...  Things started off on the right foot when my bag was NOT overweight :)  We got to the beginning of the security line, and we were immediately directed to the family area, so we got through right away.  I had a helpful guy behind me who helped me send all of our stuff through, and the TSA staff were SO friendly!  Like, chatty friendly!  It was a nice change of pace.  We got some breakfast, and then went to get tags for the stroller and car seat.  I asked the agent at the gate if there was any way to have a seat for the car seat if there was an empty seat.  He said, "Of course!"  I was NOT expecting that!  Graham smiled at him and won him over extra ;)  So, we boarded the plane and enjoyed the back row all to ourselves!  

 Jackson kept himself entertained on the Nook playing a new app based on "Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood"--he's obsessed!  He also quite enjoyed his apple juice beverage :)

 Graham did this for the majority of the flight!  YES!  That means I got to read my book!  WOO HOO!!!  When he woke up, we had about half an hour left, and I just fed him puffs while he kept hanging out in his seat.  Awesomesauce :)

Mimi and Bampa picked us up, and after a quick pit stop at the house, we headed right to Herms' for lunch.  Jackson was pretty excited to have a hot dog there...FINALLY!  He also surprised us all by eating it in a bun!!!  That definitely hasn't happened yet!  He condimented it with ketchup and honey mustard--whatever floats his boat...

 Graham enjoyed his first hot dog!  YAY!

 Happy munchers :)

A Little Bike Riding and a Snow Day?

 We were so excited to have Susie, Joe and Rachel come over on Saturday!  This was our last hang out date before their sweet baby boy joins our group!!!  The weather was supposed to be crummy all day, but it actually ended up being a nice day!  They brought over Rachel's bike and her new helmet and bell to ride with Jackson.  Josh put Jackson's new Spiderman bell on his bike too before they all took off!  Jackson has FINALLY gotten up the courage to ride down the side streets off of our street that have big hills.  He LOVES it, but it does make us a little nervous and he takes off tearing down the sidewalk!   

 Rachel decided to join him, so the daddies went off to keep track of that!

Our last picture with Susie pregnant!

 Susie and I did some laps around our cul-de-sac with Graham...in his stroller.  NOT on our bikes ;)  After they exhausted the outside playing, we ordered Chinese for dinner before Susie and I went out to do a baby errand and then have a dessert date at Cracker Barrel.  We had the most amazing apple dumpling deliciousness!  YUM!

On Monday we woke up to a snow day?  This was probably the most frustrating one so far.  There was a very light dusting on the grass and cars.  NO reason for Jackson not to go to school.  GRRR!  We actually ended up having a great day at home!  LOL  I got the house clean a day early, everyone was in a good mood, and we just enjoyed hanging out.  Jackson had asked if we could watch a movie together and have popcorn because we had done that the week before (I had DVRed "Gnomeo and Juliet" for us to watch together) and that was his favorite thing!  I told him we could do that on Tuesday.  So, on Tuesday, we went to Wegmans for groceries and picked up "Rise of the Guardians" to watch.  Both movies were SUPER cute!  We watched during Graham's nap, and then we took a walk to the Redbox at the end of our neighborhood to return the movie.  Jackson was dying to ride his bike down the big hills again, so the plan was to do that on the way home.  On his way down the first big one, he began to wobble and ended up flying into a mailbox and falling off his bike :(  THANK GOODNESS FOR BIKE HELMETS!!!  All he ended up with was a scraped hand.  The scrape is a little bad, but for how bad the fall looked, he is in good shape!  I have since found a couple big bruises on his knees, but still not bad at all.  We did carry his bike home, but he is already talking about riding down the hills again!  That was a scary moment for a mama to watch!  I'm sure there will be more between these two... (As they sit on the floor wrestling as I type!)

Cars and Trucks on St. Patrick's Day

Graham loves pretty much everything about life, but I'm always looking for what will keep him busy and happy for a few minutes while I do X, Y, or Z.  He was having fun with some small trucks in Jackson's room (these small Chuck the Truck trucks that are a great gift, especially paired with something like this), so when we came downstairs, I pulled this car ramp toy out of the playroom for the boys to play together.  (We LOVE all of the Wheelie cars that go with this toy and a couple others we have.)  They LOVED it and played so happily together :)  It made my heart SOOO happy!!!

Graham really liked the little spinny party ;)

Checking out some new-to-him trucks.  These are one of my favorite gifts to give to little boys--perfect for little hands discovering the wonderful world of things with wheels :)

Such a big boy...

Making a move...

LOVE this sweet little face!

Brothers and their trucks :) :) :)

While this fabulous playing was going on, this AMAZING corned beef brisket was cooking away in the Crock Pot.  It was SOOO yummy!  I cannot wait to make it again!!!

Grandma Cullen's Irish Soda Bread and Cinnamon Jell-o rounded out dinner.

Grandma Cullen's Irish Soda Bread

Makes 2 loaves

4C Flour

1/2 Sugar

1T Baking powder

1tsp Baking soda

1tsp Salt

1/3C Butter

1 1/2C Buttermilk

(1 1/4C milk + 1/4c vinegar or just buy reg buttermilk)

1 Egg

2C Raisins

Combine dry ingredients. Cut in butter with a fork or pastry blender. Add buttermilk, egg, and raisins and mix well with a wooden spoon. Knead for a minute or two to fully incorporate. Separate into 2 balls. Place in greased round pans and smash down to fit. Slice deep crosses into each loaf. Bake at 375 for about 40 minutes.

Enjoy!!

 For dessert, we had Shamrock Protein Shakes.  Josh loved them--they were more like the shamrock shake that hooked him years ago.  He felt the ones last year and this year were not living up to the original standard...  I think we are on the right track, but I think I would like regular vanilla yogurt better rather than the Greek yogurt.  Plus, the mint extract is REALLY strong--beware!

Overall we had a great St. Patrick's Day!  Jackson was full of fun facts about leprechauns, rainbows, pots of gold, and all things green thanks to school :)  I LOVE all of the facts that he is packing into that head of his!

Graham's First Haircut!

 Graham's hair had gotten SO long!  It looked quite handsome right after his bath when it was neat and combed, but the rest of the time if had just become a mess on his head.  So, it was haircut time before our big trip!  Jackson was my photographer for the event, and he actually did a really good job!  I have also included some of his artsy photos he took :)  Above is the before shot!

 During when it was not so bad...

 Still not awful...

 This is not fun anymore!  It went WAY down hill from here :(  

 Cute little feet

 Graham was rewarded with a fun bath afterwards, and he seems to have forgotten the trauma.  I am loving his cleaned up look!

 Jackson caught Daddy right as he was coming in the door.

 More Grahammers

 I liked the wiggly/blurry edged effect on this one.

And a pajama pant self portrait by Jackson :)

For comparison, here is the link to Jackson's First Haircut!  His was MUCH earlier at just over three months!