Father's Day

We started our celebrating of Father's day a little early so we could surprise Max. As you can tell in my last post, we prepared photos to surprise Max in his office so I had to do a lot of stalking to figure out when Max would be out of his office and we could sneak in. I just decided we were going to try to sneak in on the Thursday before Father's day because it looked like he had something on his Work Calendar, but I wasn't sure if it was an event he was attending. On Wednesday night, Max went to a church meeting so I kept Charlie up a little late and we prepped some Snickerdoodle dough, Max's favorites, and my least favorite, so we don't make them much. When Max got home form his meeting he casually mentioned that he should probably trim his hair because he had a training meeting the following day and he was going to be out in public! Yes! That was all I needed to know to be sure that we could surprise him! I'm terrible at secrets so this was incredibly exciting! Anyway, the next morning, immediately after Max left for work, Charlie and I put the cookies in the oven and packed up our surprises. We also went around our yard and gathered flowers that we could but in Max's office. It was so much fun!

We loaded up in the car and went to Max's office. It ended up being perfect because everyone was gone except the receptionist so we were still able to get in and decorate his office.

And all I have are cell phone photos...blurry ones at that!

On the card, each boy finger painted their own foot print. ON the inside was the survey that Charlie did. 

On Father's Day Sunday,Charlie and I got up and made Crepes and bacon. A breakfast requested by Max. This was how Charlie filled his crepe...1 piece of bacon (minus a couple bites) I scoop of vanilla yogurt, a handful of cereal, 1 blueberry, and strawberries on the side. That is exactly how he wanted his crepe and he ate it all gone!

We enjoyed breakfast then cleaned up and got ready for church. Charlie sang with the other Primary children in the Sacrament meeting Father's Day program, I had been working with him on a couple of the songs. so it was pretty cute to hear him bust out "I'm so glad when Daddy comes home!" Max loved it!

 After church Max went to visit a family while the boys slept, and I made dinner. When Max got home Miles just woke up and then we woke up Charlie and scarfed down our dinner. We then asked Max what he wanted to do for his Father's day evening. He said he wanted to go on a bike ride. Miles and I don't have a bike (here's to hoping we are able to pick one up through craigslist tonight!) So we loaded up the jogging stroller and roller blades again. We went to one of the paved trails in our favorite forest!

 I ended up not roller blading since I wanted Miles to get out and walk a bit, also Charlie kept putting his bike in the back of the stroller and it ended up being a little tricky to maneuver. Anyway. Charlie loved riding his bike with his daddy and chasing after him. Miles loved walking on the trail and exploring everything. I'm pretty sure he walked more than he has ever walked before. And I'm pretty sure he tripped fewer times than Charlie (that kid has a tripping issue)

A daddy and his boys that love him so so much!

At one point Charlie said "we're going through a tunnel of leaves!"

Such a fun evening and we got the boys good and worn out since they had such late naps. We love Daddy and we get so excited to celebrate him! He deserves every bit of it and more!

Brought to you by the Letter D

A little over a month ago Marissa and I decided to start doing a simple little preschool with Charlie and Lacey. We are having a lot of fun with it and it assures that we have a playdate at least once a week. Each week we focus on a letter of the alphabet and have activities and (sometimes) snacks that correlate with that letter. So about 3 weeks ago, we decided to do D for Dad and try to take some photos of our kids that we could give to Max and Richard for Father's day. I'm not posting about it until now because I was pretty good at keeping this secret until Father's day  Also, I should probably document more of preschool but I haven't been very good about it so oh well. 

But our trip to the forest was great, as usual! 

This is my kind of school!

So we of course had them sit on a log and hold letters!

Miles was not great at holding the letters, he kept throwing them then eventually ripped the A. Good thing he went last.

And then we explored more in the woods! 

They found a giant slug at the end of our trail!

We stopped on a bench to eat some snacks and for both kids to do a Daddy survey! It ended up getting a little hectic from here with William having a major blowout and Charlie constantly tripping and falling on his face (He had had another super early morning) When we eventually went to the car, I realized my keys were missing! Bah! It was already way past naptime and the kids were exhausted and grumpy! Marissa said she could wait with my kids while I checked the visitor center and our lunch spot. I didn't see them either place so I took a quick jog to the place where we had taken the photos on the log. As I was running I called Max so he could be ready to bring me the spare keys. I'm sure he was super confused by this conversations as I said something (while out of breath from jogging) about a stressful situation....and I might need your help, then I yelled that I found them. I then walked back to the parking lot and filled him in on what the heck I was talking about. I was so relieved. Miles must have pulled them out of the bottom of the stroller and they were hidden in some ground ivy so I didn't see them when we loaded up the stroller to move on. Oh I was so happy! And I was so grateful that Marissa was there so I didn't have to run my exhausted kids through the forest again. Needless to say, we got home and both boys napped. It was great.

My boys were pretty crazy with their letter holding skills so this is what came of it. I'll post about Father's day later as to show what we did with these photos.

2nd Annual Brown Family Triathlon

Our boys got to compete in their very first triathlon. An amazing family from church started a low-key family triathlon and we weren't able to go last year. So we made sure we could go this year. There is a swim course, bike trail, and running area but you could really just do as much as you wanted or your kids are able. We knew Charlie would love it, because any time there is a big open area for him to move his body, he is one happy boy! 

It was at this beautiful park that we had never been to. 

We got all official with our race number and age.

The boys!

The swim started and Max took Charlie out to swim while I stayed with Miles and played in the water. Charlie was kind of scared to be swimming even with his arm floaties so Max was basically swimming with a kids on his back. Miles loved the water and he liked floating on his back and looking up at me and saying "HI" then giggling. When Charlie and Max got back I was going to swim but then everyone had moved on to the next event so I opted out.

Max and Charlie rode bikes while I pushed Miles in the stroller on roller blades. (I don't own a bike yet...or a bike trailer, but the roller blades were awesome!) 

So when Charlie got tired he CARRIED his bike. Silly boy!

Then they rode like this for awhile.

Max ran with Charlie while it took me forever to get my roller blades off. I got Miles all ready  but didn't want to put his pants on because it was so hot! I started walking alongside Miles but then Max met up with us so he could go with Miles and I could run a little bit. 

And the Browns are extra awesome because they made medals for all the kid participants.

And our leg numbers again!

And here is everyone!

We then picniced in the grass where Miles double fisted his food.

We then went home. We are super grateful for the generosity of Ricole and Michael Brown. This was such a fun family event, (also, i included some of the photos from Ricole)