Donuts with Daddy at Appletree...

Here's my (Tara's) take on this adorable event. Gavin was beaming to have Daddy in his classroom on "Donuts with Daddy" day at school, and not a single daddy missed. Isn't that incredible...and so encouraging? Mrs. Tonelli's take was interesting, in talking with her after the event. Whereas moms come in and socialize and spend time with their kids and other classmates, she said that the dads spend their time in the classroom intentionally focused on their own kids and don't do lots of chummin' around. Makes sense--just considering the basic differences between men and women--and I bet it made the sons and daughters feel so special and noticed.

One of the first things that all the kids in Gavin's class did was line up to sing a song and hold up these flash cards. It has been too long since this day, so I (Brent) can't remember what it said but I think it was something like Happy Father's Day. Gavin was super excited, as you can see by this nice face I caught him making.

One of the highlights of the day was that each child answered a series of questions about their dads and then the parents got to guess which dad was being described. Apparently, mine included quite a few things that had been inherited from Tara. For example, I guess I locked Gage in the car at some point. I had to just laugh and smile and take one for the team. Gavin's highlight was probably watching all the dads, including me, do the tootie tah dance :) It's something that is best left seen in person rather than being described, needless to say, Gavin gets a HUGE kick every time they do the dance. It was awesome to be a part of Gavin's school day and see him in his element. I am so glad that he has been in AppleTree. It has been an amazing experience for him and his teacher is really a huge influence in his life.

Gage at soccer tots...

This is Gage finally taking part in his own soccer class. He has waited patiently for so long on the sidelines during years of Gavin's classes. All the coaches know Gage and have come to love him as well. They are super excited that he now gets his own turn out on the field. Here is Gage sitting in the goal or "monkey house" waiting for instructions. What's funny is he almost always has a smile on his face, but is looking quite serious at the moment.

In theory, all of the kids get in the middle of this parachute to play "motor boat" where the parents spin the kids around. Gage has never quite been on board with being on the parachute and prefers to stand around the outside and spin it with the parents.

Here is Gage waiting quite patiently for some stamps from Coach Seth. I think more often than not he has Coach Guy and Coach Tracy, but Coach Seth is an equally awesome teacher and loves kids. We also appreciate that he keeps kids in line. We are looking forward to Gage and Gavin both getting to be a part of outdoor soccer this summer, too. I love that they get to run around and be active while playing soccer. It was a big part of my (Brent's) childhood, and I am happy that they can have the same opportunity.

Magnatiles...

Now that I see this picture, it is hard to tell how incredible this actually is. It's a three-dimentional garage that is also symmetrical. Gavin has an amazing gift for patterns and building structures with magnatiles, legos, building blocks, ect. Recently, Mrs. Tonelli remarked that Gavin was building things at school that she couldn't even remake if she wanted to, while showing them off to the other various teachers at Apple Tree.

Here is another view of the structure, but the picture just doesn't quite do it justice. What is also kind of interesting about this picture is that all the clear magnatiles are actually supposed to belong to Gage...but they have a way of making them into Gavin's room and into some huge project on a daily basis. Gavin's room is actually covered in little building projects like this. He seems to be running out of room to store them all.

Zach, Lorna, and Camille visit...

How cute can one sweet, little niece get, really? This is Camille in one of her many adorable outfits. This might have been taken when Lorna came home for a week or so when Zach was traveling so much with work.

Gage gets a kick out of babies, in general, and really enjoys trying to feed Camille. He recently quit calling her "Meal" and has moved to calling her by her real name. Speaking of names, I think that Gage is also trying to figure out who "Miss Tara" is these days. So perplexing, right? Why would Mommy have another name to other people?!

Gage in jammies...

I (Brent) love this picture of Gage. He looks like he kind of has this bowl cut thing going on, but he is always such a sweet helper. He is in one of his favorite spots here: the kitchen. He loves to cook and get involved and almost always brings in his step stool to get in on the action and to get up on the counters. Shortly after arrival, many questions of "What ARE you doing?" and "What is going ON here?" start being asked in rapid succession.

Taddy #1...

We now affectionately refer to this guy as Taddy #1. He was generously given to the boys by Uncle Zachie and Auntie Lorna at Christmastime. Gavin and Gage took turns feeding their little aquatic "pet"(most days), and Mommy very occasionally (and emphasis on the occasionally, which is an important detail to the outcome of T#1) changed out the water as she was instructed to do in the Grow-a-Frog instruction manual. Soon after Taddy #1's front legs appeared (shortly after this picture was taken, I'm sure), he was found belly up in the habitat. We said nothing for a day while we made a plan and had no time or daylight to deal with the unfortunate situation, and then Gavin said after a nap one day, "Oh yeah, I need to go feed Taddy!" I swiftly redirected his attention to Daddy (vs. Taddy) in the basement while I proceeded to dispose of the stinky near-frog and murky water in our garden outside. When Gavin saw me coming back into the house with an empty container, he looked so confused. Had I just let Taddy go outside with no explanation or "goodbye" from the boys? I told him that he had unexpectedly gotten sick and died, and now he was with Jesus. He wasn't totally devastated by the news, though very excited when I mentioned ordering another one (free of charge, might I add, which was a bonus). When I consulted the Grow-a-Frog manual later, I was reminded of a very important fact: We were supposed to have stopped feeding Taddy when his front legs appeared. Uh oh! And we were supposed to have changed out the water a lot more frequently than we had. Well, now we have Taddy #2, and we're much better tadpole caretakers. Poor guys: Little do they know that this is the closest thing that they'll ever have to a real pet.

Butterfly Pavilion...

Gavin never tires of holding Rosie the Tarantula at the Butterfly Pavilion. Gage seems about ready, himself, but he has to be three to do it.

This is my lively Gavin, emerging from his chrysalis before he appears as a beautiful butterfly, very hard to contain at times.

That a boy...go ahead and hide your face behind a dragonfly rubbing (on site art project) and pose in the spider web with a total stranger. Gavin is a total ham. Wonder where he gets that?!

Megan's baby shower...

My friend, Diane, and I co-hosted a shower at my house for a friend of ours, Megan Bartocci, who just had their third baby. It was wonderful to have something on the calendar that really motivated me to clean up around the house. Brent was a big help too, of course, and after the celebration he said, "If this is what it takes to get a clean house, then you can host a shower here every month!" Not a bad idea, really.

Madison's birthday: part 2 of 2...

Here we are sitting next to Uncle Mike. Gage loves his Uncle Mike, and that day, in fact, he asked to hold his hand on the way to the party room.

I love this picture! Gage looks like he is looking up at a skyscraper when he looks up at Uncle Mike. Isn't this a great image of looking up to someone?!

Madison was so cute that day in her little birthday tiara. And doesn't Gage look like he's ready to pounce? "When can we eat the cake, Mom? Is it really necessary to cut it in slices?"

Gage likes to ride on Daddy's shoulders, though neither of them like it for that long, so I have to snap the picture quickly when it's happening. Brent is very ambitious, because he says that he's willing to walk/run with both boys in the Bolder Boulder this year. And I just really hope that his shoulders and arms don't break with all of the "hold you!" that goes on around here. My plan is to run it with some friends and come back to join my boys in their walking wave...and do some holding of my own, I imagine.

Madison's birthday party: part 1 of 2...

Cousin Madison turned three in January. Her birthday party was at a cool rec center near Karl and Jackie's house, and we all had access to the gymnastics area for the first part of the party.

Who doesn't like the foam fit, right? Well, actually, I don't really like it, which I discovered during Gage's recent gymnastics class at our local rec center. It's harder than it looks to get around in there (and to get out!), and you start to feel you're swimming in a germ cess pool when you're just rollin' around in all of the weird foam blocks that may have been around for longer than you'd like to imagine. Wow, I sound like my dad when he congratulated me for not kissing the Blarney Stone in Ireland. He totally ragged on Zach for having purposefully put himself in contact with all of those germs just to say he'd done it. So funny! Can you just hear my dad? I wonder if he would have avoided it in his late teens and twenties (really crazy for me to ponder how long ago Zach and I were in Ireland together...in college!), or if he saw germs the same way then too?

Here's our littlest man standing on top of the tallest balance beam. He grew to really like that part of his gymnastics class, and now he's getting better when he walks on it in his soccer class.

Here's Baby Sarah, Madison's little sister and our sweet niece. She just turned one.