Jamison's talent

Talent only a mother can love.

Trout Days and farmers market

The first weekend of May here in WI means fishing opener. The weekend where Pat gets his fishing license heads up north for a "man's" weekend with his dad, uncle and some friends. For us at the Cullen house it means....Trout Days in Cross Plains. The weekend of garage sales and brats at the Lion's Club tent stands. While I did not find any "must haves" at the garage sales, the boys made a haul! I think we own all of the cuddle friends that were for sale. (they did not buy all of these....but all of the new ones had to get to know the old ones)

Then on saturday, the boys and I headed to the Dane County Farmers Market.... got some cheese, ate some ostrich, kettle corn and amish baked goods. The boys had their pick of what they could eat...Jamison picked out this donut and Peter picked a beautiful rainbow cookie. Everyone was happy until Peter saw what Jamison picked and wanted that instead. He claimed that his tasted bad and wanted something new...meaning Jamison's donut. Sorry buddy.

The Square was blooming with the "the most red tulips I ever saw" (Jamison) and we had to stop and smell a lot them.

All in all the weekend was fun and we were happy for the beautiful weather.

Colored Arrows and some bonus trolls

Today, while we were walking home from preschool Jamison was explaining how he works. I guess he has arrows in his brain. When the arrow is blue, he is grumpy, red=happy, yellow=sad, green=nervous and orange=worried. Peter asked how he would feel if the arrow was purple or pink....i guess there are no emotions for those colors. Jamison said that his arrow is blue but after nap it will be red. I cant wait for it to be red....he is quite grumpy today.

Well...i would say momma's arrow is black...stressed out. The boys have been full of too much energy and it has been raining like cats and dogs so we have not been able to go outside as much as we would like. Peter has also found pleasure in getting every cheap shot in at Jamison and has been a down right bully at times. He is terrible. AND every sentence in this house begins with MOMMA. I asked the boys if they could start a sentence with out saying momma first...and now they go "Hey you, can I have a X" Not exactly what I meant...we are still working on that.

Jamison has been into making "creations" for his meals. So here he is enjoying Yogart cheerios, strawberries and a biscotti all mixed together. Maybe he will be better at trying new things...or should I say...eating what I cook.

The boys gross motor skills have been improving...so much is scares me. Now sure who is going to be the first one that breaks something...i am guessing Jamison.

On our continued troll hunt we headed to the Little Norway (it just opened for the season) to capture the last trolls (or so we thought). Nope, they are not hiding under the bridge like one would think.We think these are the "brothers" and I attemped to get the boys to pose just like the trolls but had no luck. The boys could not think of how Peter would be able to balance on Jamison's shoulders like that. While talking to the nice ladies there and telling them what we were up to one lady thought that there was another one on the lawns of Little Norway. So she was very nice and led us to this poor troll who was cracked in a storm. THEN (can it get any better) another lady gave us a lead to where another one was hiding. We have gone past this one many many times and never saw it. Can you see it? We had to stop and capture that one also! Peter thought this one was a little spooky.So for all of you that have been counting.... that is 20 Trolls (the brothers count as 1). We believe there is at least 1 more at the Mt Horeb Museum (yes, there is a whole museum devoted to Mount Horeb) but the museum is only open fri/sat from 10-4. Guess where we are going on friday. For the women of Women's Weekend who will be getting a card in the mail...there are 4 trolls not posted (not two like the card says). Find them, and a pitcher of beer is on me!

Spring Program

Today was the spring program at school. The boys did great and i am grateful i did not have the nose picker. (that would be Quinton in the front row).
It is still weird listening to the boys sing songs about Jesus, but that is what you get when you go to a christian preschool.

We also part took in the Mount Horeb City Wide garage sale. The boys were a great help but if I ever do that again...i will need help. It was a really long day for me and the boys. Here is Jamison taking a break in the shade. With the warm weather....comes scraped up elbows and knees. The below wounds were obtained with in 5 minutes of putting the short sleeve shirt. I cant wait for shorts season.

Easter weekend

**Update** with pics!

so quess what....the computer is not working again. Isnt there a saying "the cobblers family has no shoes?" Something about IP an address...i dont know. I was assured that he is "working on it" We will see how long it takes. So, highlights with out pics...

Momma emailed EBunny and asked him if he could come a day early since we were going to be at GmaVan's house for easter. The Big Bunny was happy to come early...until he remembered that we have a beagle. Well, EBunny was chased out of the house by the crazy hound and spilled two buckets of eggs filled with tatoos, candy and money all over the back yard (insert cute picture of two boys in their PJs running all around the back yard picking up eggs) . Wini was still hot on the famous rabbits scent even after we found all the eggs and ran away chasing him all the way back into Stewart Park and was gone for about an hour. Pat lured her back by shaking her food dish with food. That darn beagle! Fortunately...EBunny was able to hide some nice baskets with goodies.

The Easter weekend was complete with a day trip up to Green Bay to visit our cousins and another egg hunt. (insert photo of 4 Van grandboys opening eggs full of candy and money).

We also received a package from Germany with some fun new puzzles, yummy german chocolate and our favorite german rain pants...the best invention EVER! Thanks Heike! (insert picture of two happy boys with rain pants)

Pat has made progress on the deck demolition (insert photo of demolished deck) and we are looking forward to building a new one. Pat has been very resourceful and has been using the wood from the deck to make many things for around the house....sides to his trailer, platforms for the zipline that he is planning to make with the neighbor and a new potting bench for me for mothers day...that I am not suppose to know about but know about.

Weather here has been fabulous! and we have been spending a lot of time outside.

We went to "bulldozer park" and played in the sand and climbed trees (insert photo of two monkeys, i mean boys, in a tree).

And today was a very big day, Kindergarten screening day. The day where the boys get to tour the school, meet the teachers and check out what they are going to get themselves into next year. The boys did well and are still excited to go in the fall. Jamison did express concern that he missed Peter (they were in seperate sessions) but I think he will be ok. I am still not sure if they should be in the same class or different classes....i see benefits to both....but hopefully things will all work out and noone will have to seek counceling.....even me. The stress! my kids are almost in school! YIKES.

Hopefully we will get the computer up and running this weekend and be able to load some pictures.

Egg Time

This week the boys are off of school for spring break. We have had no problems filling our week because the weather has been getting nicer and nicer! (although I am looking forward to school again...then I am guaranteed a couple hours of peace.) The boys had their first birthday party to go to at "Pump It Up", one of those crazy inflatable slide/jungle gym/playhouse things. When I asked them if they wanted me to stay with them or play with the party attendees Jamison responded " You can go, I would like some peace and quiet". Well kid, you are not getting peace and quiet there but ok. They had a blast and asked when they can go back again.

We also dyed our eggs. Surprise! what colors did they do? Orange and Red! We also had no casualties! All eggs remained in one piece! Now, if the boys would only eat them...guess we will be having egg salad sandwiches for a while.

And finally this week, we had a play date with Ryan, a preschool classmate. I asked Ryan's mom if she wanted some parental support or if she was fine with the boys there herself. She requested parental support which made Jamison upset. He wanted to play there with out me and said "I thought you wanted to have some fun 'mom time' " I promised that I would not play with them and said that I will be drinking coffee with Ryan's mom. I am seeing a trend....my kids are already to leave me in the dust...I thought that happened around 8?

More deck demolition and preparing for the city-wide garage sale. Spring is coming! Woohoo!

Fun with aunt KT

So Katie came for a visit to get some nephew time in before she heads off to Mumbai, India for 6 months (I am already looking for airline deals and ways to convince Pat to let me go!). The boys wanted to show her the back woods...and promised not to get muddy. Well, something about a boot stuck, then a butt full of mud, and a change of clothes later.....They went back out fully covered in rain gear.... back to the mud. This is a before picture. And the the very needed after picture. And then the close ups. Boys love mud! We wish KT save travels to India and hope she has a great time! Not too much work! We will miss you! You would think I would need to keep permanent markers away from the little boys....no! I have to keep them away from the big boy also. Pat decided to give Peter a tatoo...nice! Hopefully it will wear off before summer.

Signs of Winter (ya, you heard me)

I cant believe this...3 more inches of snow. It would have been pretty if it was November...but no. It is not. I have to be grateful that we were not repetitively hit with snow in March like we were last year.When it is crappy out.....we go bowling!
Beckie-119, Jamison-79, Pat-127 and Peter 49. The most amazing event was Peter's 3 "gutter balls", and that is with the bumpers up. Can you believe it! He was able to roll the ball in between the pin and the end with out hitting any of the 10 pins...not just once, but three times! Poor guy.And Jamison was fascinated with the black lights and what they did to his underware. Perfect form Jamison!We also bunked the boys beds again, this time Peter in top and Jamison on bottom. Both boys are pretty happy with the set up and the added space in their rooms. We can now lounge on the bean bags for story time. I think the boys will have to grow into those bean bags.

Signs of Spring

The boys and I decided to go into the woods to look for signs of spring. There have been a few warmer days then it goes right back to 27° and I just dont believe spring is coming. We discovered the two willow trees have buds, and even the apple tree!. Worms are wiggling under rotton logs and the rhubarb is popping up. We found this awesome cool mushroom (and had a quick reminder that we do not eat anything that we find in the woods unless mom or dad says it is ok) and the most exciting.......(at least for nature geek mom) was a butterfly. We did not get a picture but if an insect can get its wing flapping spring has to be coming. We then went beck down to the boys favorite pile of downed trees...tried out our balancing skills and pretended to be a sloth. The most impt thihg for the boys to do was to get muddy...and they did a really good job at that. Back in the house...we made new crayons by peeling all of out small old ones, sorting them into color families and melting them in the crockpot. (thanks crockpot lady). And at lunch we discovered a note from daddy. Peter and Pat have been having the battle of the hard salami...both feel that salami is natures finest food and both feel they need to eat it before the other one does.
Pat and the boys started to disassemble the deck. We are planning to put a new one very soon...and lets face it, men like to take things apart more then put them together. The boys love to help and have picked up Pat's dropped tools about 20 times and have hauled pieced of old decking. The deck has been declared a "no zone" so hopefully no one will forget and run back there and fall through the holes. hmmmmm I put my money on Jamison being the first one.

(I forgot to load these last week)

I brought the boys some cool, magic t-shirts. The boys have worn these every other day since I came home. Here they are in their normal state. And here they are in the sun light! THEY ARE MAGIC. The weather was really nice last week and the boys spent a lot of time riding their bikes. Here is Jamison trying to keep up with Nathan, the kid that lives next to this parking lot. He is 8. Peter is making great progress...he will be super speedy in no time! This past weekend the boys and I headed up to Green Bay, to give Pat some BFT (boy free time), spend some time with gma and gpa and for me to have dinner at a friends house. We went to the Appleton Childrens Museum...sadly I forgot my camera. Jamison was out of his mind! there were too many fun things to do. Peter spent time in the water area and the craft area making a solar system. The boys had a great weekend and loved grandma's impromtu art project! glue, pipe cleaners, glitter and a toilet paper roll.....amazing! Whew, I caught up...now if it would only stop raining around here....