The Dinner Routine

This is how we eat dinner around our home.

Mom and Dad enjoy a nice conversation between these two monkeys:

Olivia has to eat dinner with the iPad.  I know I know...but she actually eats her food this way.  Tonight she had a healthy dinner of salmon, wild rice, peas and strawberries.  If there wasn't an iPad involved it might have only been the strawberries.  I pick my battles.

Then there is Finley.  There really isn't any hope.  He won't eat dinner...no matter what we do or give him.  He is just not interested.  Instead, he chews his socks off with his teeth and then puts his feet on the table.

Dinner is served.  Enjoy!

Finley's Beloved Tonka Truck

Olivia:  "Mommy, is that Finney's Badonkadonk Truck?

Oh Auntie Abbie, thank you for teaching her about badonkadonk's.

Blocked Tear Ducts

Finley had to have surgery this week to expand his tear ducts.  He has had some issues with the drainage of tears in one eye.  He looks like he is constantly crying.  Poor little dude.

He was such a trooper.  The surgery only lasted ten minutes or so.  The doctor said it went very well.  He did have some troubles waking up and adjusting to being at the hospital.  Once he finally adjusted, ate some food and drank some milk we were allowed to leave.

{This is what happens when you make a 1 1/2 year old wait...they destroy your blinds}

Enjoy the Outdoors

Here are a few pictures from our weekend outside!  Enjoy!

Mid Scream!

{But Mom, climbing up the slide is so much more fun}

{Isn't she a beauty}

{Red winged black birds are a sign of good luck in our family.  I better go buy a lottery ticket!}

Beautiful Orchids

Olivia bought me a beautiful Orchid for Mother's Day.  She even picked it herself.

She literally picked it herself.

Scott and Olivia went to pick up some donuts from Hy-Vee on Sunday morning.  As they were walking in the door I could tell the trip did not go as smooth as usual.

Scott let Olivia pick out whatever flower she wanted to give me.  Of course she picked the most expensive one and he let her hold it in the car on the way home.

Olivia was all smiles when she walked in and handed me the pretty pink flower and said: "here Mommy, I picked you a flower".  Scott then handed me the pot that it was once planted in.

I am now nursing an Orchid stem and leaves.  Hopefully it will bloom once again.

I guess this is what we get for having Olivia pick the pretty yellow flowers (otherwise known as dandylions) in our backyard.  

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to the worlds best Mom.  You have molded me into the person that I am today and have been a great role model for how I should raise my children!  I hope you have the day that you deserve.

My family celebrated this weekend by going out to dinner on Saturday and then spending the evening flower shopping at Lowes.  Scott let me have free rein at Lowes, most of you know how hard that is for him.  He didn't buy one thing for himself!  He didn't even ask me "if we really need that" once!

Today we are planting the flowers and crossing our fingers that they all live!

Here are some pictures of my little helpers.

This was not helpful as the gutter did not belong a mile away from the house.

The kids had a grand ole time.  We may have wasted a lot of water, lost a whole bunch of dirt and needed to strip down to our undies before we went inside (the kids that is), but it was giggles galore.

Check Out These Moves

They've mastered the somersault:

Okay, so we use the term "master" loosely.

Easter Round Two

We celebrated our second round of Easter last weekend at my parents house.  Emmie was in town so the kids were in heaven.

Of course they got another Easter basket and went on a second Easter Egg hunt. 

These kids love their Emmie:

That's the stuff, bring on the chocolate!

Olivia was more excited about the money!  Proof that she is a true Belgian!

Maybe we need to find some easier eggs to open.

Olivia was able to dye easter eggs and decorate cupcakes with Gramma and Papa, too.  There may have been a few missing cupcakes after this outing.

Eat Your Heart Out Ladies

There are no words for this!

Easter Round One

In true Waletzko fashion, we celebrated Easter twice this year.  Our kids celebrate most holiday's twice, so why do anything different with Easter.

Easter with the VanVooren side of the family had to be postponed one week so Auntie Abbie and Emmie could make it into town, so we had a celebration of our own at our new house.

We started off the morning with a play date with my good friend from high school.  We met up over at her dad's house.  My kids, were of course, glued to my side for the first few minutes.  That is until they realized there was a puppy in the house.  Livy thoroughly enjoyed her visit with CeCe and keeps asking when we can go to CeCe's house again.

Once we got back home we (ahem...the Easter Bunny) hid the kids Easter baskets so they had to hunt for them:

Then we had a little Easter Egg hunt in the backyard.

Finally, we ended the afternoon with a cookout at our new home with Gramma, Papa, and Momo.  I'd say it was a successful first round of Easter celebrations.