::bubble mower::

I really wanted to get Max a little plastic lawn mower to go along with the new yard. I knew Kris was going to have to do some mowing, and what's more fun than mowing the lawn with dad? With your OWN mower no less.
I couldn't find a plain old little plastic one though. These days all there are (at least out here in the progressive east) are plastic mowers that blow bubbles.
I thought it was kind of cheesy, but I bought one anyway.

Once it finally quit raining we got it out and he started mowing.
It's actually super cute. There's a little mechanism inside with a fan. When the little bubble stuff bottle is filled and the mower is pushed, it makes a little noise and blows bubbles from the fan. He LOVES it. He's mowed the lawn so many times in the last week.

I'm not sure what the indignant face here is all about, but I'm sure he's saying something to Sultan. That's usually how they communicate.

I love the mower. I'm so glad I got it, even though I just found it for like $4 less at Target than at the local weird store I found it in. Still worth it.

Bubbles!!!

**Oh, and yes, the lilacs do smell good. They're wonderful, and I'm going to miss them because the blossoms are starting to disappear. But luckily I took a lovely photo or two, just wish I could add the scent to the pictures.

::last week::

So I just have a little more to say about mothers day, though it know it's old news.
It was the best mother's day I ever had.
Kris took care of everything--cooked, cleaned, etc.
Breakfast was delicious. He got Max all ready for church and cleaned up.

After church he made lunch and we got to eat it OUTSIDE! It was so nice, and the day was sunny and gorgeous.



After that I got to take a nap, and Kris played with Max in the yard. Having a fun yard is so great.

Then I got to work on photos for a while on the computer and relax while Kris got dinner ready.

After that he took care of the cleaning and all the bedtime preps for Max (which he usually does anyway).
It was such a great relaxing day. I feel so lucky to have such a great little family!

::::

We sure do love our new yard.

::big city day trip::

Kris had a work event yesterday in New York city. We talked about it and decided it was cheaper for him to drive and take the train, and that way he could take Max and I along.
We left in the morning and got there around noon. Kris went to his work thing and Max and I hopped on the subway to head uptown to the American Museum of Natural History. Wow is that a BIG place. We shared an incredibly overpriced yucky lunch in the cafeteria ($17 for sandwich, drink, cookie) and then headed up to see what we could find. There was way more stuff there than we could ever see in a day.
We started with the North American mammals hall. Taxidermy heaven, let me tell you! It was cool though, Max liked looking at the animals.

Though of course you wouldn't know he's enjoying himself from his face. That's not the face I'd be making if I was standing in front of an insane moose fight, that's for sure.

This facial expression is slightly more appropriate, though not much. Man those bears were huge. That one standing up had to be twice my height.

Seems being stalked by bears and being swallowed by enormous crustaceans looks about the same.
The ocean stuff was really cool. I'm not sure how many of the animals were models vs taxidermy jobs, but they all looked cool. And there was an immense model of a blue whale hanging from the ceiling. I was impressed.



This picture is of a really tall wall where they had animals divided up by kingdom, species, phylum, etc. It was really neat. I could've looked at it forever, but of course with Max around we only look at things for a maximum of about 3 seconds before moving on.
Unless it's some computerized thing of course--then we stay there for hours. Boring.

I don't think I've ever seen anybody using those interactive computery things besides little kids. Do you think anybody's ever told the museum people that?
Mr Webb's dream:


After the ocean I took Max up to the top floor to see the dino bones. I was hoping I might get cell reception up there, since the place is way too immense to have any downstairs. It barely worked. It was a good thing it did though, because Kris got done early.
We explored some dinos. I think Max is still a little scared of them though. He wasn't that interested in looking very long.
And I don't blame him. I think they're pretty frightening myself sometimes.

Like that claw, YIKES.


I don't know how many peoples lovely posed pictures max spoiled by walking right in front of them as they pressed their shutters, but I know it's more than one, and I'm guessing not less than 10. Oh well. Do you really need a cheesy posed photo of yourself in front of EVERY single exhibit in the museum?

No way. We don't do cheesy posed photos around here. Never.

Luckily Kris finished up right about the time that I got tired and Max started running away from me around exhibits, giggling and dodging. Since I don't think that's fun we headed out back down to the subway.
On the way out we saw one of Rachel R.'s friends.

Ewwwww. He sends his love. I told him you didn't want to see him anytime soon.

Oh, I almost forgot to tell the best part. We took a bathroom break on the way out, and of course since my little boy is not the type to actually stay where I ask him to, he has to come in the stall with me. That's bad enough, but he's always messing around with the door when I'm in there. So of course, as I'm using the facilities the door swings wide open. There are tons of women and children coming in and out and everyone sees me. Even worse, he doesn't even close the door himself. I have to stand up and close it.
Awesome, right?

After I blocked that experience out of my mind very carefully we got back on the subway and went to meet Kris at Grimaldi's pizza, under the Brooklyn bridge. And boy was it good. We didn't even have to wait in line because it was 4:30 PM on thursday!

The crusts are thin, the cheese and tomato sauce is super fresh and the basil is whole. Mmmmm.

Can you see it steaming? Everybody should get a piece of this stuff. It changes your whole definition of the word pizza.
Anytime anybody wants to go we'll meet you there.

Then we got on the road and took the long drive home--oh, but not before Max decided he needed to poop and took up the Grimaldi's bathroom for about 20 minutes.
The joys of a five year old in the big city.....

::a walk::

I walked to pick upMax from school one of the days the last week we were in our old house. Our house is in such a beautiful area. Very much in the middle of the city, but the homes there are generally really attractive, and the yards are well groomed. Anyway, I brought the camera along so anybody that wanted to could share in the springtime beauty!

I don't remember seeing many trees like this before. We had a lot of blossoming trees in kansas city, but this is like a carnation tree or something! The flowers are huge and gorgeous. And oh so pink.

I love these trees. The flowers are almost like little cups or something, riding up on top of the branches. They're so delicate and attractive.









And my favorite little "blossom"?

Riding along in the prince's throne. We'll miss the our old neighborhood, it's beautiful!

**speaking of beautiful, go and check out this. My friend Amanda and I just started a little photography blog.  She lives in Oregon, so we're on different sides of the country.  We have a theme each week and we try to illustrate it in our own way.  I'm having a lot of fun with it.

::popcorn::

We were talking to one of the elders in our ward. He grew up in Arizona I think. He said he had never really understood the primary song "Popcorn popping on the Apricot Tree" until he came out here for his mission.
And it's true. We had lots of blossoming trees in Kansas City, but out here is even a notch above that.
It almost makes the winter worth it to see all this spring beauty.











I COULD take an armful and make a treat. Yum.

::drawings::

Max doesn't really like to draw. Well he hasn't in the past anyway. And coloring is kind of like torture to him for some reason. He likes to write though, as you would know if you've been reading this blog for very long.
So, because of the drawing aversion, I was pretty excited when he came home from school the other day with this:

It's Kris playing football. I love it. It's honestly one of his very first drawings that's not scribbles or smiley faces (which I really like too of course).

Then he came home from church with this:

I think it's the best likeness of Sultan I've seen in forever. I knew who it was immediately.
But can you see what's down there in the grass? Yep, it's dog poop. So gross.
He's into the realist movement. What can I say.

::balloon fun::

Max got a balloon from the pet store the other day when we went to get Sultan's gross bone.
It was such fun to have a balloon. It was tied to Max's belt loop and followed him all day. It went to bed with him.
Here's some balloon fun, and a few shots of our new backyard.

This was one of the few sunny days we had last week. It's been raining lots and lots, which we'll hoping will be great for our little grass seeds.



Does anybody know what kind of tree this is?  It's big, looks kind of like a maple, and all the leaves are red.  Right now.  In the spring.  It's really weird and I can't figure out what kind of tree it is.



Yes, I would definitely suggest resting your balloon on the scary beast with all the sharp teeth. Good idea.

I had to throw the balloon away tonight. Don't tell Max. It was a shriveled little ball on the floor of his room.
We had to have a lot of talks about why those balloons can't be filled back up, and why it kept sinking lower and lower.
Everybody's got to learn the facts of life sometime, right?

::mom day::

Happy Mothers day to our moms, they're the best of the best and we're lucky to have them.
We love you Kristen & Kathy, thanks for EVERYTHING! We LOVE you.

If you were here I'd let you have a turn wearing my mothers day crown that Max made for me at school.

Isn't it amazing?


And I'd let you eat some of my german pancakes.

And squeeze these adorable boys.


Wish we could come and come give you a squeeze ourselves. This will have to do. :)