Spring thing

We've been having lots of fun around here! The weather has been awesome and we've been taking full advantage of it. This weekend we went out to the Appalachian Trail. There's a beautiful lake and the leaves are just starting to come in on the trees.

Check out the view

Mr. Tristan, tree hugger, earth lover

2 of my favorite boys

There were still lots of leaves on the ground too and the kids loved all the jumping and falling and leaping and throwing! We also borrowed our neighbor's tractor and Mark and Tristan aerated, seeded, and mowed our yard. A ton of work but Tristan thought it was an all-day amusement park ride! While Tristan helped Mark, I worked with Pierce in the sandbox. We are trying to learn about what goes in the mouth and what doesn't. He's getting much better!Life will get a lot easier when this fine line is determined! Pierce continues to enjoy life at full speed. He toddles as fast as he can after his big brother with so much determination. He will be our skydiver, I'm sure of it. Tristan will probably follow after him but Pierce will be the instigator. I'm going to need lots of therapy.
Yesterday was another beautiful day so I took the kids to the zoo. It's still early in the zoo season so we practically had the whole place to ourselves! We thoroughly enjoyed tormenting the monkeys and petting the cow. Tristan informed everyone that the cow had pooped so it was time to go home. In other news - HUGE NEWS - Tristan is now sleeping without his bink!!! Yay T!!!!!!!!! I was sure he was taking that thing to college. He made the decision (with only minimal encouragement...) to send his bink to the Bink Fairy who would then take it to a little baby that needed it. We put it in a package and he put stickers on it and colored it and we wrote "BINK FAIRY" in big black letters. Then Tristan walked it out to the mailbox and put it in. We said good bye and raised the flag. And would you believe the mailman took it?? I watched and distracted as I saw him stop at our mailbox. He turned it over and over and glanced towards the house. I'm not sure if he saw me wave but he took the package. In another town they might have thought it was a bomb. I have enjoyed our little small town for lots of reasons; this is one of them.

T is doing great. He's been so brave. He still asks for his bink and says he's sad about it but he knows where it is. We've gone out to the mailbox to check and it's definitely gone. We talk about how happy the new baby is that got his beautifully wrapped bink and how sweet he is for giving it to them. I'm so proud :)

After his first no-bink nap we had a Big Boy Party at the local ice cream shop. He got a scoop of chocolate ice cream with sprinkles AND a cherry. Pierce only got a few bites because he's still a little baby with a bink. Here is a picture of my proud, proud big boy after his very first nap without his bink:

And a picture of the chunkey monkey, just because it's a cute picture :) That's really all the news right now. We are supposed to get lots of rain this week so we'll have to do some puddle jumping before the sun comes back. Hope you are all enjoying your spring things too!