School Days and A Walker (not the zombie kind)

I cannot believe how quickly time goes. I feel like Eli was a little baby just yesterday but at the same time I can hardly remember it. I'm caught in an after-children time warp! Simon also had his first birthday in July! What?! I'll post pictures of his birthday but they all happen to be on his Nana's camera. Getting off topic.
So, Eli had his first day of preschool yesterday. I think that I may have been more nervous than he was. He seemed to be pretty excited that morning and was asking me every minute if it was time to go yet. As soon as we got to the classroom door however, he hoofed it in the other direction. It took some coaxing and some bribery with a lollipop but he made it there in the end. The parents were allowed to stay to make it a good transition for the kids and so the teachers could go over any questions with us and what not. He held my hand for a good part of it and wouldn't really go play with the other kids. Eventually, his lovely teachers got him to play with the playdoh while I just sat nearby. By the end he even went willingly into the little circle where they sit "criss cross applesauce".  All in all I think that he had a good experience and he told me later that he really liked school. Let's hope that holds up tomorrow when I have to drop him off and can't stay. Fingers crossed!

All smiles

So very proud of him!

Off we go

Lots of milestones lately! Our little Si-guy has finally starting walking on his own! He has been doing just a couple of steps for a while but since we went to Edmonton he has been able to pick it up and do it all by himself. He has been getting way too heavy to carry around so I am absolutely ecstatic that he is walking. He is pretty proud of himself too. There are still times when he walks around and he gets a surprised look on his face like he can't believe that he is doing it either. I also can't seem to get any pictures of the front of him while he is walking because he is always chasing after his big brother. I am going to have my hands full with two rambunctious boys running circles around my kitchen table but I am also so excited for them to be able to play more together.

Eli took this one

Trying to get in on wrestling

Sweet revenge!

Summer Time Fun

Well, I suppose that if my sister can find time to update her blog then I guess I don't have any excuses.  I'll try to upload all of our summer photos little by little so this post isn't a mile long. We had such a great time in Edmonton when we went. So much fun in fact, that we are going back again in just a few days! Unfortunately, Bruce won't be able to join us because he is swamped at work but his effort is being rewarded so hopefully he will have more down time in the winter months. After we got back our friend Ashley stayed with us for a while and we got to explore some of the places near Langley that we have not been to yet. Basically summer so far has been busy but very fun. We need to pack it all in before Eli starts preschool in the fall! What a big kid he is!

Sharing secrets

Hello from the tram

Ashley captured this gem

My sweet one

Post-splash park ice cream!

Everything is Batman

Well it seems I still have yet to take any pictures of our new place and at this rate it looks like it may never happen. I just forget and then it just doesn't seem like a priority, given the fact that I would feel the need to make sure the house was spotless before I took any pictures. Although, the basics can be pieced together from the background of my pictures of the boys. Sorry for being lazy.
For a while now Eli's dearest love has been Batman. Anyone who has seen the Halloween photos from last year will agree with me. Absolutely every game that we play ends up having something to do with Batman. If we are playing Lego then of course one of the little Lego men is Batman, if we are playing with his Hot Wheels then of course one of them has Batman driving inside, if I am telling a story about a shark who is trying to make some friends then of course Batman comes a cuts him in half and eats him. Here are a couple of my favourites from over the last little while. If you thought you couldn't play Batman and Joker with nail polish then you would be wrong.

Batman baby food

I think the purple one is Batman

Batman outside with straws

Practicing his moves on Daddy

Simon wisely stays out of the fray

Building a Batman "death trap" (his words, not mine)
for his Sesame Street toys out of floss

It is so much fun to just sit back and watch his imagination work and listen to the funny dialogue that he makes up for all the characters. We are all getting so very excited to go to Edmonton and see everybody and to meet Eli and Simon's new baby cousin. It is less than a month away now and every day Eli asks me if we are going on a plane today. Pretty soon I will be able to say yes!

Just Simon being cute

Updates

I think that we are finally settled and completely moved into our new place! Actually I think I still have one last big Rubbermaid bin to go through, but that's pretty good considering that I started with about a million of them (that number is completely accurate). I still haven't taken any pictures of the place so that will just have to wait. So far we are all enjoying it though. Eli loves the yard and plays outside every single day. Bruce is so much closer and I am so happy that he is usually home for dinner.  Even if he has to go back to work he can still eat with us and then head out again because he doesn't have a 45 minute drive ahead of him.  We have even been able to hang out with the Gasser family a few times and I am so relieved that we haven't been missing them too much. The other day Denise and I took the boys to Burnaby Lake and had a picnic and walked along the trails there. The boys had a blast and I think that Denise and I found a pretty good halfway point between our two houses. While we were walking around we had both boys in the strollers and there was a little ditch next to the path. Eli suddenly asked me to stop saying that he had seen a frog and I kept saying it was probably a bug or something but he was insistent so I stopped. Sure enough he had somehow spotted this little frog among all the pond scum and other stuff in this ditch. By the end of the day we ended up seeing about five frogs in total and Eli only destroyed one of his sneakers when he tried to step in and go after one of them so I call that a win. 

Can you spot him?

Our frog friend

A view from our picnic bench

You can't see me, Mom!

Little explorers

On the way back we were all getting pretty hot (I have the sunburn to prove it) and we saw these sprinklers in a soccer field near by. By this time Eli had already gotten his feet all muddy so I figured a little wash down couldn't hurt. Denise was brave enough to run around once or twice with the boys but I opted to hang back with the babies.

Run!

I cannot believe that in the last month Simon has become a big ten month old! He is such a sweet little thing and it is so much fun to watch him learning new things and playing with his older brother. Pretty soon I'll have a one year old on my hands and I will probably have one of those meltdowns that only moms can have when they see their little ones growing up. I cannot wait to get to Edmonton so everyone can see him again. It has been so long and babies change so much in the first year. Only one month left!

Getting a bit too big for his carseat

Just waiting for Eli to come back
from the bathroom

What are you looking at?

Wrestling with Daddy- I mostly love
this picture because Simon looks
like a great big chubby ball

Probably thinking deep thoughts

Easter

Well Easter has come and gone and I think that we will be eating Mini Eggs for another week at least. Bruce's family was able to come visit us for the weekend so we had an excellent Easter.  While they were here we did so many activities that it's actually kind of hard for me to remember now everything that we did. This is the first time that I can recall Bruce's birthday falling on Good Friday but the timing was actually quite nice because we were all able to go out for his birthday dinner.  We also left the boys with his sister and his Dad and went to see a movie! I was so excited because I haven't been to a movie since Simon was born. For someone who is as crazy about movies as I am that is nine months too long. That felt more like a gift to me than to Bruce but we a had great time.
Eli and Simon even got to take a little swim in the pool at the hotel that Bruce's family was staying in. Eli absolutely loves swimming so I think that probably tops his list for the weekend, other than the copious amounts of candy of course. We did the traditional hunt and egg decorating and I even made Easter dinner! I think it turned out pretty well considering I am definitely not the best cook so I'm proud of myself. Of course though, I forgot one of the dishes for dinner in the fridge (I think that might be a Larsen family tradition). All in all we had a very lovely Easter and now we just need to get ready for the impending move! Probably won't update until after we are settled in our new place just because we will be too busy.

Time to devour!

Harry Potter Preview

So this weekend a friend of mine threw an amazing Harry Potter party at her house as kind of last big thing before Bruce and I move. I'll end up posting a few of the pictures from the party but I haven't had a chance to play around with them because she had set up a green screen... yeah that's how awesome this party was. There was butterbeer and chocolate frogs and games and I found the snitch! Anyways just wanted to post this little preview picture. I was Professor Trelawney and Bruce was Colin Creevey (the camera he had is being used to take this picture). See if you can guess who everyone else is! 

Hogwarts Class of 2014

Good Days

Sometimes there are days where I start counting down the hours until bedtime at around 9 in the morning. Sometimes however, there are days like today and the stars align and both of your kids are happy at the same time! Days like that have been happening more and more lately (and now I've jinxed it) as Eli learns how to play with Simon and as the rainy season is coming to a close. I really am such a lucky mom because my two boys are the best of friends. Sure Eli drives Simon a little crazy and vice versa but Eli usually asks me if Simon can play in his room with him.
I think this post will just have a ton of pictures that we've taken (Eli included) over the last couple of days. Oh! Also, our plane tickets are booked and we are headed to Edmonton in June.  Eli asks me literally every single day if we can go to Grandma's house so I had to put a little calendar on his wall to count down the days. He told me today that we really had to go right now because Joker was at her house and he needed to rescue everyone. We are both very excited for the trip!

Sliding is the best!

A sunny Spring evening

Fighting crime with Eli is exhausting

Learning to stand

1...2...3... Eli's out!

Too cute

Handsome boys

That picture just reminded me that I only realized this week that Eli's eyes aren't blue anymore. For the longest time they have been just like his Daddy's, then one day I looked over and suddenly they were more green like my side of the family.  It's just pretty noticeable in this picture where he's next to Simon's big blues.

Forts! 

Eli proudly sharing his lollipop

More please

Look at that sweet face- not mine by the way

Eli took this one- He had put the photo of my
Grandma on the floor so he could take pictures
of it and then Simon had to take a look at it.