Spring and Summer

Why boys love Grandma's house.

Cruisin'.

Seth refuses to acknowledge that pedals serve any use besides convenient footrests for when your dad pushes you around on the bike.

The fulfillment of Seth's lifelong dream: to get inside a real Herbie car. Good thing Grandpa George and Grandma Lynne happen to have one in the back yard. Better than a tree fort by far :).

He talks about Grandma and Grandpa's Herbie car all the time.

Do ya think they could be related?

Discipleship in naughtiness.

Star Wars is ever present in the LeBret household.

Easter 2010

We had a very relaxing Easter at home with just the four of us. Complete with the traditional ham dinner and all the egg and candy stuff. This is the first year we've done Easter baskets, egg coloring and the egg hunt. The commercial part of Easter turned out to be pretty fun for the kids, but the highlights of the day were still being with our church family for Resurrection Sunday and spending a relaxing afternoon as a family, enjoying each other and making memories.
One piece of candy inside each egg is definitely enough - most went back into the candy dish anyway. Luckily, it doesn't take much to keep him happy and he enjoyed finding eggs in the living room all evening without them containing anything at all.

Benjamin is actually walking more than crawling these days, but the long grass was giving him fits. I have days like that.

You get to pick up the eggs a bunch of times when your little brother keeps knocking the basket over.

What was that wire thing for again? Oh well. Happy Easter!

Around the House

Here's what's been happening around our house in the last month or so, at least the things we have pictures of. Benjamin is now starting to jabber quite a bit and has quite a few words that are understandable to mom and dad and other parents of small children. He's quite a sweetie but easily agitated and gets kind of carried away with the shrieking whenever provoked. Probably has something to do with the older brother. Just guessing.

Seth is starting to get more interested in "school" kinds of stuff and will go get activities off the shelf more than he ever has before. He likes to play Candyland, though I use the word "play" rather loosely here - he likes to get out all the pieces and move them about randomly while talking about colors. He's still very much into colors, shapes, letters and numbers. I've been trying to push the classification more, rather than just letting him play with them, but it's pretty hit and miss depending on his mood. He asked to get out his snakes the other day, which is a tub of double sets of differently colored plastic snakes, frogs and various bugs. They were meant for matching but he never really took to it. He found his all-time favorite snakes, which are the two orange and black striped ones (obviously "tiger snakes" to any three year old). This time he got out his tiger snakes, played with them for a while, and then said "Mom, what do tiger snakes say?" I wasn't really paying attention, so I asked "what?" He responded with a very theatrical "RAAAAAHR!...... Hissssssssssss!" This one's gonna be fun.
Costume from Christmas. Most of the accessories have already been broken, but at least we have documentation of cowboy cuteness.

Disposable toys...so much fun for a special day and then they're gone...thank goodness.

First night with both boys in the bunk bed. Benjamin transitioned pretty well at night time but still takes a lot of his naps in the crib so that the two boys will actually sleep instead of yelling to each other between bunks.

Three guesses what happened here.

Seth loves "playing letters." You're not really supposed to talk about "playing" with the Montessori materials, but hey, if he loves "playing letters" I'm really not going to be fussy about it. Note that even when pursuing high level academic achievement, Herbie cars are never far away.

It's moments like this that cause a mom to hang on to hope amidst all the madness.

While Joel was away

While Joel was in Papua New Guinea for most of February the boys and I went to visit family. I was supremely disappointed in my photography habits, realizing toward the end of the trip that I had hardly remembered to use the camera at all. So, sorry to those of you who weren't captured on camera - we had a fun trip and loved seeing you all!
Benjamin loved his bathtime fishies. And I think Papa Roger must have had fun too.

The men on their traditional "tractor" ride.

I don't think it matters how cold it is when you get to ride on a lawnmower with grandpa.

"Benjamin, this is really good. A little cold, but very tasty."

"No, seriously...try it!"