Richie and Jen

Sasha has been crazy excited about playing baseball for months. He had already decided it was his favorite sport way before he even even picked up a bat. I was a little worried he’d be disappointed by how much standing around was involved, but he told me it was “even more fun” than he imagined.

Gearing up.

First at bat.

So excited to be on base.

Ready to field.

A little team meeting at the end (that’s Gatorade, not blood all over is face).

It was only like three months ago.

We don’t hide the baskets or overdo it on presents. They each got one thing and a little bit of candy. That was still enough to get them (and a very strange dog) pretty excited.

Sasha got a big ball thing he can bounce around on,

Rustic got a solar powered robot kit,

and Kola got a mini safe.

Then it was time to freak out over eggs:

And finally, time to bounce like a fool on your new toy:

Here’s what we’ve been up to since Spring Break:

Aunt Meghan came to visit. Since she’s graduating soon and since the boys won’t be able to go out to see it we had a little party for her. Rustic is still in his pajamas at lunch because he didn’t tell me he needed clothes washed and was out of underpants.

I made her this giant 6 layer sprinkle cake that I found on Pinterest.

It fell over after this picture. Apparently I need to make the layers flat before I pile them up.

The boys and a couple friends went to ride go-carts.

We had Easter (I’ll do a separate post on that- too many pictures):

Sasha got all dressed up for his first grade open house.

I was able to convince him to stand next to his little friend so I will have this picture to show my grandkids how cute their parents used to be.

And Sasha had his first baseball game.

It’s been like a month since we were in Chicago. Whatevs. I’m busy going to the gym so I can bulk up for pool season. Here’s what we did on day two:

First, Sasha and Rustic had to wear the same outfit while watching tv.

Then Sasha had to eat more breakfast than I did.

And Rustic ate more than Richard.

Which made Sasha sad.

Kola didn’t seem to care about anything other than bacon.

After breakfast we headed over to Navy Pier to go to the Chicago Children’s Museum.

We spent a lot of time watching the boys play with cardboard.

Then Sasha got to dress up like a fireman.

Before we all went to build things.

Then Rustic found a kindred spirit:

Then off to the waterroom:

After this we pretty much pretended we had seen everything and bribed them with hotdogs so we could go home because Sasha went from all sweet and cute to super angry like he does when he’s tired.

We had a great time and I’m actually looking forward to going to Chicago with them this summer.

A few weekends ago I found a great deal for a hotel and we decided to take a mini trip to Chicago.

Since mostly our weekends consist of this:

doing anything is exciting.

So it was crazy exciting to go all the way to Chicago and eat at the top of the Hancock Building.

Even if Kola was slightly terrified when we got closer to the edge.

Everyone is much happier on the ground.

Also, Sasha is willing to pose pretty any stupid way I can think of.

We walked down Michigan Ave for a while.

And then we got to The Bean which, for some reason, makes the children even more odd than usual.

After it was determined The Bean could not be removed we carried on our way.

They’re trying to be serious like the lion.

We finally made it to our hotel:

Which was way too fancy for any of these fools.

There is something very wrong with every person in this photo.

I made them pose nice before this could happen:

Our view (if you squint and look to the left you can totally see the Lake):

Then it was time to go to the pool.

There was a lot of flexing going on.

And then a lot of splashing:

Finally it was time to get some deep dish

and watch the game

before heading to bed.

A few weekends ago we took the boys to Great Wolf Lodge in the Wisconsin Dells. I got a great deal on Groupon, plus they didn’t have school on a Monday or Tuesday so they got to use the park for quite some time.

The boys had lots of fun on all the different slides, the wave pool, and the lazy river (which was super small and was more like a lazy trickle, but whatever).

There was a big Tornado thing where you drop fast and spin around.

The two little ones loved it.

Our hotel room was a suite, which meant I could look over the balcony on this:

Without having to be too close to this:

Sasha was super duper, ridiculously excited about going to “bucket-of-palace” which is how he said Buckingham Palace, not matter how many times we told him the right way. So,  we got some hot chocolates and went over to see the (little because it was winter) parade for the changing of the guards.

Afterward we were going to go to the stables where the Queen keeps her horses and buggies but it was closed, so we went to the Queen’s Gallery, which is a tiny little art museum which is technically part of the palace.

So Sasha can say he pooped in Buckingham Palace, because he totally dropped one in the art gallery rest rooms.

On the way out they all wanted their picture by this tree pretending to be the queen:

Standing in front of the palace:

After the palace and a little lunch we headed over to Westminster Abbey.

I can’t take Richard anywhere.

And, as a final shot of our trip to London, I leave you with what I had to look at for 90% of the time:

Another place we took the boys to was the London Transit Museum. I was pretty sure it was going to be lame, but it was actually pretty interesting to see how London went from horse drawn carriages to the huge Underground system.

The boys in front of an old horse drawn double decker bus.

By an old steam engine.

Getting read to travel to Hogwarts.

The three weirdest bus drivers ever:

After seeing all the transportation the boys needed to be fed. So we found this little sandwich shop and sat in the basement.

 Then they demanded we take a picture in front of this giant Rudolph by Covent Garden.Then we walked over to a church by Nelson’s Column,

(you can see old Nelson on top of that pillar back there) where we did some brass rubbing.

Sasha concentrating.

Rustic showing off his masterpiece.

These two were very serious.

Mine was the best, obviously.

We took the train out to Hampton Court to see Henry VIII’s castle. They had these little robes you could put on to pretend you were a member of court.

Kola was too cool to keep his on, but Sasha and Rustic did.

Sasha, with that puffy coat on, looked just like a little Henry VIII.

So, we walked around with the audio guides for a little,

until all they were doing was pressing buttons on those and not paying any attention to what was around them, so I had to take them away.

They were very serious about being royalty.

Soon, the young king grew hungry:

As did his cousin, Prince Rustislav, visiting from the East:

Kola was their servant -

I’m not sure what he was serving, but that’s why I’m not a king.

They were having some sort of stand off about territory and women.

I think Sasha, I mean Henry VIII, won.

As with all of our other trips, Sasha went from being very happy (and fed, and he even managed to poo in the royal toilets) to a crabby brat in about seven seconds.

He wouldn’t pose in front of the actual Henry VIII’s portrait without being threatened.

He pulled out of his little mood when we took them out in the pouring rain to go through a maze. I think it’s actually better it was raining because I was able to keep my hood on and just look at the ground so as to avoid a claustrophobic induced anxiety attack.

Thankfully Rustic has some very strange sense of direction and got us to the middle of it in like 6 minutes.

 

I only have one picture of the boys with Nan and Grandad that is decent.

Here it is: