End of Year Class Ceremony

Yesterday was Niko's End of Year Class Ceremony....  but he couldn't attend.  Niko was diagnosed with Strep yesterday and has felt quite miserable the last couple of days.  He missed his last day of school party too...  :(   

He is on amoxicillin now and hopefully will feel better in a few days.

Penguin Park

This weekend was nothing short of GORGEOUS!   So, off to Penguin Park!   I let Ryker drive us there.
 

 I like this picture of Niko-chan.... look how big he is getting!

As close as I could get to a group photo. 
 

LOVES the monkey bars. 
 

Who wouldn't be happy riding on a giant kitty?!??
 

Someone else loves the swing.

Mom's Day Weekend

 We drove to Chicago this weekend for Mom's Day.  Spending the weekend with my Dad was the only thing I wanted for Mom's Day so off we went.

This trip started like many other car trips for us.... barf.  Yay.   We can't seem to have a trip without some form of 're-processed food' to kick us off.

When we got to the house, we drug out our old toys.  This toy is easily 30+ years old, but is a favorite for any visiting kiddo.

One of the things I wanted to do over the weekend was to plant Mother's Day flowers for my Mom & my Grandma.   Here is what the graves looked like before we planted.   This is my Grandma's grave marker - usually my Aunt Kay plants the flowers, but we beat her to it this year.

This is the back of my Mom's grave marker.

 And the front.

The boys helped me dig up the soil for the flowers.

Kinda weird to see, I know but I like to think my Mom was happy to see the kids playing 'with her.'

 After!

After!

My Mother's Day meal.... mmmmm... some of the best pizza in Chicago.

Niko gave me his present early on Sunday morning.  YAY!  Look at that age... 31.  Sweet.  Last year I was 55, so this is a nice improvement.

I am looking good!

We drove home after breakfast... here is King Niko-chan grubbing down on dinner.

On the drive home, we put in a Yo Gabba Gabba DVD.  This was Ryker's first reaction to the show.... confusion & wonder.

LSU

Look who is ready to go to college.... or eat the dishwasher tablets.   Either way, nice shirt.

The Babe With The Power

When nerds have babies.  Yes.... he is 'The Babe With The Power.'

My Dad Dresses Me - Yes, Again

Yes.... those are Niko's shorts on Ryker.  They look like capris on him.

Broken Backs

Neil and I took a few days off of work to address our crappy front yard, or as we call it: Operation No More Neighbor Stares.   Here is Neil grinding down our sidewalk.  A while back, we removed the bricks because they were coming off and unstable.  The previous owners never sealed the brick walkway and the concrete under the bricks was damaged.  Due to baby-ville, this project sat dormant for almost 18 months.

I didn't take any photos of us re-pouring the sidewalk, but here it is ready to be covered with the bricks.

Smart people would have taken a photo of the pattern before ripping out the sidewalk, but we are not smart.   This took me almost 3 hours to figure out.....

This is a photo of the bricking almost done.   We finished laying the brick last night and we will finish tuck-pointing throughout the week.   Our backs are broken.... and we smell like Icy Hot.