Our little artists

Today was a beautiful sunny and almost warm day! We haven't had many of those lately so we took full advantage. We pulled out the paints and easel and got to work...

Cole is double fisting it here. He said he was painting a rainbow!

Cole was excited to figure out that he could make the color purple from his red and blue paints.

Dylan was very excited about his green paint. After I took this picture he decided to paint both hands green.

After dinner the guys discovered the joys of a sheep skin rug.

Happy Birthday Nana!

We had another visitor this past week...Nana Suzanna!
We had fun playing and eating and of course reading library books. Here Nana is reading to the boys while they eat lunch...what a treat!

We all went to watch Daddy play indoor soccer...and while Daddy got his soccer shoes on the boys decided they needed to take off their pants and put white socks on their feet and hands. Oh yeah, their firefighter hats too!

What lucky boys, they had 3 people (mom, dad, nana) ready to read to them...morning, noon and night. (Thanks Grammy Carol for the great PJ's!)

We took Nana to a local farm to see all the newly born lambs. We met up with the boys' friend Mei Zhen...the three of them were ready for anything in their colorful hats, big coats and rubber boots.

Nana celebrated her birthday with us...so we HAD to make an apple pie!

The boys practiced singing (and playing the piano) Happy Birthday Nana all day...then finally we sang it when it counted!
Thanks for such a great visit Nana!!

That's what I'm talking about

Mama's collage friend, Deadra, came for a visit this week. Mommy and Daddy loved hearing stories of her travels to southeast Asia and India! One day we can travel again...right!?
The guys had fun entertaining Deadra with their different coloring techniques.

The guys 're-discovered' their ABC blocks after Mom and Dad put them away for awhile (since all they would do with them would be to dump them out and not put them away!). They got real good at making tall stacks!

Then they discovered that they could stack them even higher if they stacked them on books instead of the carpet. We recently got the book you can see in this picture, Mr. Frumble's Worst Day Ever, and after reading this book Dylan will come up to me and say 'I'm having the worst day ever!' or just 'I'm having a bad day'. He will say it with the most serious look on his face. Then he'll crack a smile and run off giggling!

Here is a glimpse into Mommy and Daddy's evening entertainment at the Fiegener house.

Special Visitors

Grandpa Charlie and Auntie Lesley came for a visit this weekend. The boys were so excited to have other people to play with and read stories with. We are all finally just about over this nasty cold that had us house bound for the last 2 weeks. With a house of 4 it usually takes at least 2 weeks for everyone to recover. No fun! So visitors were a welcome change! Good thing because we have a friend visiting mid-week and then Nana Suzanna is coming next weekend!

We took Grandpa Charlie and Auntie Lesley to the guys favorite restaurant to eat burritos. The guys can practically eat a whole burrito EACH from this restaurant!

If you haven't noticed over all our postings, the guys always convince our guests to read them story after story after story. So almost all of our photos of the boys and family also involve a book!

Thanks for all the stories and fun times Grandpa Charlie and Auntie Lesley! Come back soon!

goof balls!

We have all been trying to recover from a cold this week...but the guys still manage to make us laugh with all the silly things they do!

Daddy loves getting big hugs from his guys!

I mean really, who doesn't love taking their shirt off part way and running around pretending they are crazy hats or long hair!?

How old is this guy?

Dylan really enjoys helping clean off the tables. Here he is scrubbing their little table and is taking great care to get it very clean!

We received several raspberry plants this week and the guys did such a great job of helping to plant them in the yard. They especially liked pulling the dirt off the clumps of grass that Daddy dug up!
Like I said, they are always up for being a little goofy!

Hikes, Cupcakes and Birthdays

This weekend we headed out to a local wildlife refuge for a hike.
Dylan is giving a thumbs up for this trail and boardwalk.

Cole is telling us what the brochure says about this overlook.

The guys were looking for towhee birds in the big oak tree above. I'm not sure why they liked the name towhee so much but they saw one at the beginning of the hike and were talking about it and looking for more the rest of the walk.

Later that evening we all helped make 'egg-free' cupcakes for a birthday party of a friend. Cole likes to stir!

But the boys most enjoyed discovering the joy of licking the bowl. Daddy showed them his techniques.

Here is Lina the birthday girl...and the boys' strawberry cupcakes on the table. Yum!

Camping in February!?

This weekend we headed off to the coast for a camping trip.

When we got there it was beautiful weather...cold and perfectly clear. Our first stop was a mandatory one to look at the boats and sea lions in the bay.
Here Cole is standing in front of a large ocean mural.

The guys had so much fun looking at the 'parked' boats and running up and down this board walk. Dylan is about to attack and wrestle Daddy to the ground. The three of them ended up in a pile on the ground laughing so hard they couldn't get up!

Dylan's silly smile.

The gang...mostly.

We camped in a yurt at one of the state campgrounds. They have electricity, beds and a table and chairs. They also claim to have a heater...but I think that the word 'heater' is a bit of an overstatement for the 12' x12' electric toaster in the wall. If I can still see my breath after many hours of the heater being on I wouldn't call the yurts 'heated'. So the boys had a blast and fell asleep quickly...but by morning we had ALL ended up in Mom and Dad's two sleeping bags. Let me just say...two zipped together mummy bags is not meant for 4!!
The boys woke up happy so I'm not one to complain...too much! Here they are eating a hearty breakfast of bananas and warm oatmeal.

Once we packed up we headed out to the Hatfield Marine Science Center to look at some fish. Here is Dylan and his silly smile again.Inside the center the boys got to touch all sorts of sea life in these great 'touching tide pools'. Cole did NOT want to leave. He kept saying that he wasn't done playing with the fish.

Dylan is listening to stories about what he was touching.
The guys can really have fun anywhere they go...especially if there are rocks around. We had to spend another 15 minutes out front of the center to check out all the fabulous rocks!
Cole was not ready to leave the rocks either!