May 2010

The weather is finally warming up again. I dropped the van off today to get the oil changed and walked home with the boys. We stopped at the park and had lunch there; the boys really enjoyed it. Anthony has been sleeping off his time in the sun for almost 3 hours now!

Here are some pics and videos.

Vince is quite the little soccer player. Can't wait to see him play on a team next year.

Someone left me a surprise.

They finally re-mulched the park. The boys watched them all day. Vince wanted to go over and thank the guys who were fixing our park. We settled for a quick drive by on our way to the store, and Vince got to say thank you out the window.

Milk time for the boys = cuddle time for the family

Me and Val on Mother's Day

Vince catching up on his reading.

We had a bunny in our yard...the boys were fascinated.

Vince likes to dance along to the Jolly Joe's song on The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything.

Self-inflicted Raspberries

Anthony tries to reach his own belly, but can't quite make it. Needless to say, this is a priceless source of entertainment for the Ripley family.

Anthony Strikes Back

A rare post by Dan Ripley:

Today I got to stay with the boys while Lacy went to a women's function at church. During the boys' playtime, I noticed Anthony, our youngest, has developed a movement-to-contact strategy. The boys were playing with their large train set and Vince built a tower out of blocks and proudly turned to me to show it off. Anthony, who had been lying in wait, began walking over to the tower and was immediately fixated on destroying it. Vince noticed this immediately and became very protective of the tower. It's my opinion that Anthony had already devised this plan in his mind: to distract Vincent, have him chase Anthony and then destroy the tower. It went like this: Anthony approached the tower in an aggressive manner. Vince began yelling, "No, Annunie, no Annunie!" Then Anthony grabbed one of the trains on the table, and the chase began around the train table. Poor Vince fell right into Anthony's trap. By grabbing the train, Anthony lured Vince away from the tower, and as they came full circle back to the tower, which was now unprotected, Anthony leveled the tower with one strike and threw the train in the opposite direction, and Vince fell to the ground, screaming, "Annunie! NOOOOO!!!" I could only sit back and shake my head as I saw these events unraveling before my eyes.

Spring time

We have all been enjoying the warm weather. The boys love being outside so much that I've had to get creative with ways to get work done. I folded laundry on the front porch a couple days, and I try to get reading done while the boys play with their toys. Hopefully our next house will have a fenced yard so I can let them play on their own! Enjoy some pics of our spring season.

Before we moved the lawn chairs outside

Morning milk and belly button check.

Working up an appetite

Lunch on the porch

Dragon PJs from Nana

Vince was driving his truck with Stephanie and he thought it was hysterical when she started driving it too. We all love it when she comes to hang out with us.

Anthony says no

AJ's expressing his opinion more and more these days.