Dinner & cutting grass

This is a series of photos Craig took at the dinner table the other day. Andrew has a myriad of expressions & positions while eating. This is only HALF of the photos from the series...





He is into mowing "with" me now. He will ride his tractor as long as I ride mine. Which means I don't get too much actual mowing done. But hey, how many years will I be able to say my son "liked" to mow?

Outta the way, I got grass to mow!

Getting dressed

Nate is slowly but surely learning how to dress himself. Here is an example of what he goes thru before actually getting his clothes ON.
Maybe a real hat would work better on my head.


OK - down to business... you want me to do what with this shirt??


Then there was the day they both wanted to wear hoodies.


I can't complain a bit... for the most part these boys don't really care what clothes they wear. Except shoes, Andrew really knows what shoes he wants to wear each day. So we don't have to stuggle with the "what", just the how and when.

Birthday time!

Happy birthday to Andrew! He is 3 (too many) years old. And to prove it, here are some pictures from his party.

And what's a party without decorations? Mind you, ALL the decorations ended up in this one spot.

Its safe to say this was a crowd pleaser of a toy. You can almost hear the sounds coming out of his lips...
Andrew wanted an excavator cake. I was going to actually scuplt one, but it fell apart in the process. SO I put a toy excavator on TOP instead. Whella!

Make a wish little Do. (our nickname for Andrew is Do-drew).
Nate licking the frosting from amoungst the crawler tracks...WAY better than licking the spatula!

On the actual day of his birthday, we had doughnuts! Candles stick just as well in those for future reference.
Some friends were spending the day with us. After doughnuts we decided to create volcanos for a bit of entertainment. (Yes, green volcanos... I ran out of red food coloring)

And here are some random photos Craig took on his birthday.

Nate drew a road with sidewalk chalk and proceeded to line up every outdoor piece of "equipment" that we own!Andrew: "You can't have any, Nate."Nate: "Oh MAN!"

Nate getting back at Andrew for not sharing...

Do you think Nate caught him again?

Craver Mud Bowl I

OK - it all started when the horses got out next door... they were running thru our backyard this morning and then around the neighborhood a bit.

So this afternoon I took the boys out to track the horses movements thru the yard. It was pretty easy to spot the hoof prints in the soft grass. Then suddenly we came across a particularly WET section of our yard. That was the end of our horse hunt and the beginning of Mud Bowl I (of which I am sure there will be many more). As soon as Andrew stomped once, I knew I had to just let them dive in.

It was SO muddy that Andrew's shoe got suctioned off his foot. Take a look...

The mud-pie chase!


This is the photo that coined the phrase "Craver Mud Bowl".
Mom giving Nate the stiff arm! (I don't know much about football, but am told that is what I'm doing here).
Look at our mess - hehehe!

PURE joy!


The clean-up took 45 minutes. But their shoes - well, we'll have to deal with them tomorrow!

Our travels to the southland

Between the 2 snow storms, we headed south to visit some very good friends in Beaufort, SC. Our start was a bit slow as we dug out 6 inches of the white stuff just to get up the drive!

It's been quite awhile since we've seen them and this is the 1st they've met Andrew. It was a wonderful trip!! Even our 13-14 hour drives were good.

Here is what the boys looked like just about every morning at the breakfast table:




There was a really cool park in the neighborhood - we only went once, but oh it was a blast!


There was a 2-story clubhouse in the park. Andrew was enthralled with the little house down below - it was HIS little house for the day.

Try THIS the next time you go swinging: Nate likes to swing on his stomach and just push with his feet back and forth. Well... Craig started pulling his feet back to about shoulder height and letting go. I'll let the photograph tell the rest of the story!

Yet another morning :)

I don't know quite how Andrew does it, but here is a face he makes frequently these days. Your guess is as good as mine as to what he is thinking!

On one of our last days, we headed to Hunting Island Beach - about an hour from Beaufort. At first the boys just played in the sand & one of those streams that form at low tide...

Nate's digger was well oiled and working overtime:

But then it warmed up enough that they both ventured into bigger waters - The Ocean.

And they go IN:

And, back OUT: In and out it was for quite some time laughing all the while. What a joy they were to watch - just look at those faces.

It was such a fun trip for all of us!

Wanna play possum?

OK - this is not about the boys, but I thought it was cute. This little guy (or gal) was in our neighbor's herb garden. He let Craig get right up next to him - and he practically smiled for the shot!