Onions

It's hard to believe how much plants can grow in just a couple of weeks. Here are our onion plants that the boys planted on the 9th. Luckily, we've had lots of sunshine and I've been able to get the plants in lots of sun. It's been really fun to watch them grow. Let's hope Gilbert the cat doesn't eat the seedlings like he's done to our tomato plants in the past!

Happy Second Birthday, Spencer!

Today is Spencer's second birthday! We celebrated yesterday with family- Nana & Pops Dwyer, Grammy & Grampy Simpson, and Uncle Matty and family. The cousins enjoyed running around and hitting each other with balloons, while Spencer's favorite activity was riding his new 4-wheeler (called a "BROOM")... This 4-wheeler is very well loved: it was given kisses before bed, it got its teeth brushed at bedtime, and it earned an all-out, fall-down, kicking and screaming tantrum when it was taken away for the evening. We had one very sad little boy when he and the 4-wheeler needed to be separated in order for Spencer to go to bed. It took a while to fall asleep, but he was ever-so-happy to see the 4-wheeler this morning. And now, when he walks away from it, he points & waves at it and says, "back" (as in, I'll be back!)... A boy and his toys...

The boys at age 2

Spencer right before his second birthday, a few days ago...
And Ben right before his second birthday, August 2008...

Ben is the summer baby and Spencer the winter baby-- in fact, they are exactly six months apart in birthdays. We celebrated Spencer's second birthday (and Ben's 5 1/2 birthday) yesterday with family...

Time to start thinking about the garden!

This year we're going to try and plant onions in the garden, so here are the boys getting the potting soil mix ready for planting the seeds. Ben had a great time using his hands to mix the water into the soil... Spencer was more apprehensive about doing that, but enjoyed using chopsticks to mix the soil.

Spencer didn't want to take a nap yesterday, so I took the boys outside to play. After a few minutes on the 4-wheeler, I realized that Spencer was really quiet, so I looked down and he was snoozing!!!

Boys

Spencer really enjoys eating snow (wonder where he saw that??!)... He would be outside all the time if it were up to him. He is practicing all sorts of new words, and will attempt to repeat just about every word that comes out of our mouths. He's also climbing out of his crib... almost. He successfully got out one time, but now he simply climbs up on the side and yells "down! down!" until someone rescues him... Luckily he hasn't fallen yet, and I see a big boy bed in his near future.
Ben competed in his second karate tournament last weekend and participated in four events: flag sparring, sumo, fight sparring, and forms. He's pictured here with his trophy he won for getting FIRST place in the fight sparring category!! Guess all his karate work with Daddy paid off. He's very proud of his trophy, as he should be...