The A Team Week 26: So Lucky

This week was St. Patrick's Day.  Now as far as I know, there is no Irish in our family.  However, that didn't keep us from celebrating how incredibly lucky (or rather blessed) we are!  For example, we have two healthy little boys that bring endless joy into our home, Eric and I both have jobs that we enjoy to provide for our family, we have wonderful family and friends to spend time with plus so much more.  As I've said before and will say (many times) again, we are totally Blessed Beyond Measure!

Avery & I enjoying the Spring weather

Two days after Eric hung the birdhouse that he and Asher made, there was a birdie couple checking it out.  Apparently they couldn't get their financing though (or they were freaked out by their neighbors (us)), because we haven't seen much of them since.  Side Note: When Asher asked where they went I suggested that they probably went to Menards to get supplies for their new home.  Today (over a week later), when Eric asked him if he wanted to go to Menards, Asher replied, "go see the birdie!?"

Video: Ja-cqueline

As I've said before, Eric loves getting Asher to repeat silly things that he says.  One of the latest is "Ja-cquelin" from this YouTube video.

Video: Bubbles Bubbles Bubbles

Eric introduces bubbles to Avery, who is amazed.

On Wednesday, I was "lucky" enough to enjoy another day home with my boys.  Even though St. Patrick's day was the day before, I decided that we would have a belated St. Patty's Day celebration together with a day full of green food:

For breakfast, I made Asher green pancakes (he thought they were pretty awesome).

After nap time, I gave Asher some Lucky Charms (which he'd never had before) and made him some green milk.  He ate up all of the Lucky Charms marshmallows first and immediately wanted more.  I told him to eat the rest of the cereal and he was pleased to find they were not just like Cheerios (which they look similar to), but rather were also frosted. :)  The milk though, he thought was absolutely AMAZING.  He could not stop telling me, "I like this drink Momma", "this drink is Ummy."  You would have thought I gave him a milkshake or something much more exciting, but it really was just dye and milk.

Finally, for dessert after dinner I gave Asher Kemp's Mint Cow Tracks ice cream...which we love to search for the "little cows" together while we eat.

As you can see it was so good, we had to make sure we got Every.Last.Bite.

Besides our day of green food, the rest of the day was pretty great as well.  In the morning, we met some of our IBC playgroup friends at the Kenosha Museum for a Wednesday children's time that they have.  Unfortunately it is only a half hour long and we were 15 minutes late, so we missed the first half, which was the story time learning about ocelots.  We did get to take part in the second half though which included craft time (coloring animals).  Then we spent another hour or so touring the museum with our friends and playing in the museum's children's learning room.

Asher, Allison, Elias, Hannah & Zach

Asher, Zach & Theo

Touring the museum with Theo, Asher & Britni

Checking out the infamous Kenosha Mammoth with Britni, Lilou, Theo & Asher

Avery enjoyed the sights from his stroller.

Asher had a great time walking with his buddy Elias and his mom Allison.  I couldn't help but realize that he looked like such a "big boy" walking around with his friend, rather than with Mommy and Daddy.

Checking out the animal furs and old musical toys that the museum had.

Making artwork in the Children's Learning Room

Trying out the binoculars.

After the museum and some lunch at home with Daddy (who came home to visit us all), we enjoyed a little bit of rest time and then a great afternoon playing together at home and at the park.  It really was a great day with my boys and made going to work on Thursday much harder than usual.

While Eric was home for lunch, he caught Avery teething on the coffee table!  At this point, we have never had to yell at our dog for chewing on our furniture, but have caught both of our boys doing so as they work on those new teeth.

Another reason that we are very "lucky" is to have such great relationships with our families.  Every time I see Asher and Avery with their Grandparents it truly brings me joy.  We are so "lucky" to have them in our lives and so "lucky" that they truly want to be a part of our boys' lives!  That said, my parents surprised us this week by deciding to come down for a visit.  Not only that, but they took Friday off, so that they boys could stay home from daycare and play with them for the day while Eric and I worked.  Avery and Asher had a great morning with Grandma and Papa and in the afternoon, the four of them headed to Crystal Lake to spend time with their cousins and Auntie Erika and Uncle Aaron...not getting home until almost 9pm!  In the meantime, Eric and I finished up our work for the week and then were able to enjoy a wonderful date-night dinner at La Fogata.  I honestly cannot even remember the last time that we had a dinner alone together, I felt so "Lucky!!!"  :)

Asher playing with Papa at the park.

Avery enjoying some tummy time with Grandma...who was really good at sending me pictures to entertain me at work!  :)

Asher & Papa enjoying story time together

Good work Grandma!!  Avery actually took a short nap!

For dinner I suggested La Fogata, but told Eric that if we go there we had to save room for dessert...their fried ice cream is AMAZING!  Eric usually has very little desire for dessert unless it is oreos, but I made him at least pretend to be sharing this with me so I didn't look like a total pig.  I'd like to say that it was a 50/50 effort, but...

On Saturday, we headed out in the morning (with Grandma & Papa in tow) to our weekly swimming class.  "Lucky" for us, Dad was able to get some pictures, since taking pictures is now basically impossible with each of us having a kid to hold in the water.  The class went well, but our littlest man wasn't a big fan.  We have noticed that although he loves the water, he is not very tolerant of unpleasant temperatures.  With the water being a bit colder than we would prefer, he mostly just wanted out of the pool from the moment we entered and had no desire to do anything other than snuggle up to me as tightly as possible and suck up my body heat.

(2) Videos: Whatchya Eating Asher?  "This"

I've said before that Asher and his Grandpa M (aka Gramps) love to share cheese curds.  This weekend, Asher wanted to share some curds with Grandma and Papa K.  When Eric got them out, he wanted to send Gramps a video of Asher showing him what he was eating and expecting Asher to say, "Cheese Curds Boy!"  Instead, when asked the question he simply said, "this".

Singing the morning songs

Avery & I, Eric & Asher, Theo & Fab & Lilou & Britni practicing their kicking

"Cleaning up the water"

Avery was willing to participate in "cleaning up the water"...but he wasn't real happy about it.

Britni & Lilou, Avery & I, the instructor & Asher & Eric.

When swim lessons were over we had a tasty lunch at Cracker Barrel and then headed home for rest time.  Then, once the kids were snuggled up for sleep Eric and I were "lucky" enough to go on another date!!  This time we headed to the movies to see Insurgent.  It was pretty good and really, the only thing that mattered is that we had TWO dates in one weekend!!  (Unfortunately that probably means that we've already met our quota for the year.)  When the movie was done, we headed back home to round out the day with the family.  Again, I was very "lucky" as my (pretty awesome) mom made me my favorite dinner (rigatoni and meatballs)...what a great day! :)

Avery enjoying a bottle with Mom.  I am always amazed when I see him take a bottle since I never saw Asher take one (he only would drink bottles at daycare).  Thus, watching Avery hold his own bottle seemed crazy to me!

Enjoying our delicious family dinner.

Our "Lucky" week ended on Sunday with church and lunch at Tazinos with Mom, Dad, Aaron and the boys, who came to visit for the morning (poor Erika was not so lucky and home with the flu).  We said goodbye to everyone and then headed back home for rest time.  Then we enjoyed a lazy Sunday afternoon and prepared for the week ahead and even though the "Lucky" week was over, the blessings never stop.  :)