Working Hard

Josh with one of his gifts from Aunt Sara and Brett (a hard hat that reads engineer) and a tool bunch from Uncle Carl and Natassha.  He's so serious!

Memorial Day

The last day of the Silver's From Texas trip, finally turned out nice.  We went to the parade for Memorial day in downtown Arlington Heights.  

Josh pulling his weight, really he wanted to pull the wagon himself

Ready for the parade to start.

Papa and Mimi soaking up the sun, a little closer and in less shade

Madden and his family found us, and joined the fun.

Josh on the right, waving to the parade.

Family Picture

 We caught these family pictures in front of the fountain in the Rose Garden at the Chicago Botanic Gardens.  It was a yucky day, and pretty much down poured the rest of this day.

Happy 2nd Birthday (Party) Josh!

We didn't end up with as great weather as last year, but we grilled for Josh's birthday and invited a few of his friends over to play.

photos

Pinata

Terri and I making the piñata for Josh's birthday a la this blog . http://www.younghouselove.com/2011/05/making-a-pull-string-pinata/  We didn't have to do quite as many steps, but I think it was my first time paper mache-ing.

Afternoon snack

Josh brought the craft table and chairs up from the family room, and invited frog to join him.  On the menu: Bacon bits.  A bit different, but there is protein, and I encourage this pretend play.

Joshphoto

Josh caught this photo of me Sunday morning before I left to work a bridal fair for Mary Kay.  Since we do take so many pictures, he's rightfully been interested in doing what we are doing himself.  Usually the pictures he takes get deleted because you can't really even see what they are.  Then for a period of time, he was putting the camera up to his eye and taking a picture..but the lens was in his eye practically.  Now he's gotten both steps to a better level and actually has a subject in the picture.  Now to start talking about focus...Maybe he'll take the pictures of his own 2nd birthday party.

Soccer

Josh busy reading on the way to soccer in the morning

Josh and Colin actually prefer to knock the goal down, rather than kick the ball into it sometimes.

Morton Arboretum

Our Chicago Botanic Gardens got us in to the Morton Arboretum Free on Friday.  It was a great day for it too.  Lately, Josh has gotten our routine, after breakfast, we're usually out in the morning.  However, he's forgotten the step where I normally do a few chores around the house before leaving (i.e. pack a snack, lunch, load or unload the dishwasher, or washing machine).  He's been all about the "go-go", wanting to get in the car and go.  So we arrived at the arboretum earlier than the Children's garden opened at 9:30.  We checked out the children's maze.  It was perfect for Josh.  It was nice to walk through the Conifer woods, too.  If it wasn't further from our house, I might almost like this better than the Chicago Botanic Gardens.  Oh, and the HUGE bees was a check in the "con" column as well.  But was beautiful!

 Playhouse in the children's garden

 It was still a pretty hot day on Friday, so this frog water fountains was a big hit.  You can't quite tell from the picture, but Josh was soaked.

Breakfast on the patio

Tuesday was the beginning of summer like weather here in chicago

A day at the park

Happy Mother's Day

Big Trucks

Saturday after soccer we checked out the Big Trucks event at neighboring Palatine.  We've read books about trucks, and certainly driving to our daily adventures (I mean activities) we encounter all kinds and sizes of trucks.  This was a great FREE event for the kids to get in to the trucks and see them up close, safely.

 tow truck

 mixing truck

 school bus seat.  When Josh sees a school bus driving down our street or when we are out and about he screams "Coo Baa".**  Recently he's even been able to identify when there are two or more.  So smart he is.  

Josh and Colin, though they probably won't be riding the school bus together until middle school, when they certainly won't be sitting.  Gosh, so un cool.

that's me and Josh driving the bus.

fire truck

a truck that provides home restoration services, must have been free advertising for them to come, but look, the back of the truck is so much fun to run around.

the only time and part of a police vehicle I hope I ever see Josh in.  Well, maybe he could be a law enforcement officer, but that would be at least 20 years away.  

Garbage truck.  also an exciting vision on our street twice a week. ***

**One day, when Jared came home and was asking Josh what he/we did that day, Josh kept screaming what sounded like "Cuba".  Vehemently.  Jared had to come down stairs, laughing, asking me what Josh was saying, because certainly, we didn't go to Cuba that day.  Ends of words and the letter s don't quite come out yet, so "school bus" sounded like Cuba.  Obviously.
***Maybe I never saw the garbage truck when I was growing up, but they can drive STANDING UP ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE TRUCK.  So cool.  

Gardens

we met some of the moms and kids from the moms group at the Chicago Botanic Gardens. It was a GORGEOUS Day.  Thanks Jennifer for catching this pics.

 by the sensory garde

 in the rose garden

behind the rose garden.  this is not even supposed to be anything to look at, but leave it to toddlers to find jumping on a door to be the most exciting part of the day!

Wagner Farm

Today we visited the Wagner Farm in Glenview.  I thought there would be more animals to pet, but I guess since it's a working farm, the animals aren't pets.  Or to be petted as I heard the docent tell one of the three school groups that were there.

will Josh even know what a typewriters is?  by the time he's my age, will we even have computers with keyboards?

milking the fake cow, since again, you can't touch the animals

Chickens and hens and roosters.  Even I'm not sure what's the difference.  We did hear a clucking and a "cock-a-doodle-doo".  I think Josh made the appropriate connection.

These sheep were very aggressive...they saw Josh and came over quickly, probably thinking he had yummy food for them.  I told him to stand back, I didn't want them biting him.

Baby pigs.  When I asked Josh about this picture later, he said night-night.  Yes, they were sleeping.  They looked like they were in a milk induced sleep.

Finally, the requisite Josh on a tractor.  note the million dollar houses in the background.  this farm is not really that far out there.