Fishing!!--May 9, 2011

Lately, Oliver has been BEGGING to go fishing, so last night we headed to one of the little lakes in the neighborhood!

Eli was getting a little restless while we were waiting for Pat and Oliver to get the fishing gear ready, so he took off down the sidewalk around the lake. Here is comes...

...and there he goes!

This picture makes me smile...Oliver is casting and Pat is ducking!

The 3 Jaberg fishermen!

My boys!

Oliver finally caught his first fish of the season! When he pulled it in, Pat said, "Wow, Oliver! You caught a whopper!" And Oliver replied, "Oh. I thought I caught a catfish." Ha! Ha!

Soccer pre-game show--May 7, 2011

Oliver had his last soccer game of the season this weekend. Before the game started, Pat was warming up with Oliver and Eli decided he needed to out on the field, too!

Eli's newest trick at Oliver's soccer games is to run onto the field as fast as his little legs will take him, giggling the whole way, until Pat or I run and grab him! He thinks it's a fantastic game...Pat and I, not so much!

Reading time!--May 9, 2011

I'm really excited how much Oliver and Eli enjoy books! Oliver went through an early reading stage where he would get frustrated and not want to read, but he has really picked up reading again lately. Pat and the boys were sitting and reading so nicely, I just had to grab the camera!

After reading the same book over and over and over again, as requested (or rather demanded) by Eli, Pat started to read the book as fast as he possibly could. When it was Oliver's turn to speed read, the "dog" and "frog" in the book started to turn into "flogs" which was absolutely HILARIOUS to Oliver! He got the giggles so badly that he had a hard time reading!

Hat Parade!--May 2, 2011

All of the first graders at Oliver's school were asked to create/decorate a hat. After much discussion on what he wanted his hat to look like, Pat came up with the idea to decorate a hat with patches representing Oliver. So, Oliver and I ironed and sewed 30+ patches and buttons on his hat! He had baseballs, basketballs, footballs, soccerballs, race cars, books, dogs, school supplies, and much, much more on his hat! We also put a number 7 (since he is 7 years old) and his initials on it. Let's just say that local sewing stores got a lot of business from us to create this hat! But, Oliver thought it was pretty cool!

Then, all of the kids brought their hats to school and put on a "Hat Parade" program for the parents. They each modeled their hat as another student read a short description of the hat. I was pretty proud of Oliver...all of the other kids read just one description, but he was asked to read the descriptions for 4 of the kids with special needs that weren't able to read. He did a really good job!

The kids also sang several "hat" songs which were very cute!

Playing outside--May 1, 2011

It was so nice outside the other evening, and we took advantage of it! Eli did some serious mowing!

Smiley face!

Eli has also learned to loved his car! In one of his "No, David" board books (which he LOVES) one of the pages shows the main character, David, riding his toy trike down the street saying "Wheeee!" That is one of Eli's favorite pages and he now and sits on his car, pushes off, sticks his legs straight out and yells all the way down the driveway, with no regard to his speed or the end of the driveway!

Off he goes!

My big, big boy!

Oliver and his friends recently discovered that a very small bump in our front yard makes a good place to jump their bikes. (He's not going to be very happy with me when I tell him of my plans to put brick around the area, and make it into a flowerbed!)

The sheer joy of being a one-year-old running around outside!

Oliver on his "scootboard"--May 1, 2011

At a garage sale last week, I found this scooter for Oliver for a couple of dollars. He already has a scooter, but this one swivels and has four wheels like a skateboard, but has handles like a scooter. Anyway, he was thrilled and he and Pat named it his "scootboard." He desperately wanted to try it out at the dirt track at the park, so we took him there on Sunday (...I know, we should have been at church, but we decided to have a family day!) He had so much fun "jumping" the small bumps! And no, he didn't just come from a soccer game...he chose to wear a pair of his soccer socks to keep his legs warm. Some people choose to wear pants on cool days, my son chooses to wear shorts and long socks!

Easter--April 24, 2011

Before we went to church, Oliver and Eli opened their Easter package from Grandma Jaberg! (Notice Eli is refusing to look up...which I think you'll notice as a recurring theme in almost all of our Easter pictures this year!)

Easter goodies from Grandma Jaberg!

This was the best photo I got of the boys...again, Eli wasn't interested in posing for pictures. The next one is an example of how most of the rest of our pictures turned out!

Lovely!

Thank you, Oliver! I can always count on you to appease my obsession with getting good photos on special occasions! What a handsome boy!

Eli found his Easter basket!

And so did Oliver!

Eli enjoyed the BEAUTIFUL weather by swinging with his new ball from his Easter basket!

Later in the afternoon, we drove to Hesston for our annual Diller Easter gathering. After dinner, all of the "Diller" kids (except for the babies) had fun hunting for Easter eggs! This is all of them posing before the hunt began.

My boys at the Easter egg hunt!