Our furry friend

Our neighbor is trying to sell his house, so he's often getting the call from the realtor telling him to scoot out so prospective buyers can be brought by. Easy enough for Kevin and Ashley to go run errands, but it's harder when you factor Izzy into the equation. Izzy is their pug who came to visit last weekend when we had them over for dinner. To say that Grace and Alex were excited about a dog actually being in their house is one of the biggest understatements of the year. Alex was in so much joy we thought his head would explode. So when Kevin stopped by to see if we'd watch the dog for a couple hours today there is no way I'm going to say no. And as I thought, my kids were in heaven.

We're going to have to get ourselves a dog soon.

Our pal Izzy. 

Alex gets so excited when Izzy shows up at our house that he can't even make any noise. He'll run over to the dog, run back to me and just stand there with both hands over his mouth, eyes open wide and just about as excited as a 1-year old can get. 

Grace tries to entice Izzy to come over for a picture. 

Grace was in heaven since Izzy decided to crash out next to her on the chair. I think the dog would have actually taken a nap if she didn't have Alex coming over continually trying to poke her in the eye. Grace has the "I don't know how to smile yet" smile going on in this pic.

Drop the cucumber. Drop the cucumber. 

100 degrees and it is only April

Don't need to add much more to the title here other than to say much to Grace's delight we finally pulled the pool out for the kiddos to play in.

Alex had a great time in the pool this year now that he can finally move around in it on his own. 

My little bathing beauty. She was concerned about the swim suit because her belly button showed (she only had one piece suits last year). I finally convinced her that it was okay - that was how the suit was supposed to fit. 

The tiny pool slide actually gets lots of use, though Grace is so long now her body just about spans the entire thing while sliding down. 

One of our egg hunts

Here are some pics from the egg hunt they held at Jim's office. They really do a big shindig for the families - lots of easy kid games, a craft or two, a cake walk, and a huge egg hunt. It was nice because Grace and Alex were in the same hunt group (age 4 and under). And Jim gets to show the family off to his coworkers.

Notice Jim is holding Alex back to keep him from rushing the eggs. 

Grace is checking out her number on the cake walk. She eventually won and picked out chocolate cupcakes with sprinkles on them (no big surprise with that choice - Mommy tried but couldn't talk her into picking the carrot cake). 

Alex is trying to figure out how to open the egg. This is right before the squeal of frustration after which just about EVERY egg is then handed to me to open. 

Digging in the dirt

I jumped in this year and decided to start a garden. I'd been wanting to do it for a while (ever since Jim and I realized that at least one big patch in the backyard gets a fair amount of sun), but it was a spur of the moment decision at Redenta's to pick up the seeds with Grace. So I hand-tilled a tiny patch and she and I planted lettuce, tomato and bean seeds. I half expected them to not grow, but lo and behold we actually have plants coming up! I think I'm more excited than she is - hopefully everything will survive and we'll get to harvest some veggies. I think she will really like picking cherry tomatoes.

Tiny tomato plant. 

New pole bean sprout. 

Bad picture of the lettuce sprouts, but the best one I could from across the bed. 

No boys allowed

Grace likes to watch Max & Ruby every morning on Noggin. This morning was the episode where Ruby is making a cake for the umpteenth time and Max keeps hitting the kitchen table and knocking ingredients on to the floor. Ruby finally bans Max from the house by posting a "No Max" sign (Max with a circle and line through it).

Well, Grace identifies with Ruby a lot while watching the show. And so when Alex started bothering her in her room this morning ("Mom, Alex is messing everything up") she decided to make a little artwork to start the day off right.

Alex is frowning in the middle (maybe holding one of Grace's toys?), and all the X's mean NO ALEX. 

Here is the sign posted on Grace's door. It's taped up with about six pieces of tape, and is only as high as a 4-year old can reach. 

Night Out

So I can't believe I haven't posted about our kid-free evening last weekend. Mom & Dad took BOTH kiddos back to Ft. Worth for a sleepover last Saturday night. And we are happy to report that the evening went off without a hitch - apparently both kids were great. I knew Grace would be, but even Alex went to bed without freaking out, and also woke up the next day sans Mama without freaking out. It probably wore Mom & Dad out, but they seemed to survive pretty intact also.

Jim and I had just about a perfect evening - we walked down to the The Old Monk for some excellent fish and chips. Then we decided the evening was so nice we walked over to the closest Starbucks to enjoy a beverage out front (nice to do without having to occupy small kids). Of course we had to end up at Froggie's, because the best time to go to a toy store is WITHOUT kids. The weather was beautiful - clear with a cool breeze. And the people-watching was great. We ended up with a nice little 2 mile walk, a few beers, a yummy coffee, and topped it all off with watching Tivo'd programs way into the evening. Aahh.