All Done, Trying T-Rexs, Parks and Rec and Kitty Love

Catherine's been working on her sign language.  Here she is "all done" (who would have ever thought a messy face, blonde mullet and buck teeth could be so adorable):

 I should have gotten out the calendar but the other day for approximately 2 minutes, the kids played "nicely" with the same toy at the same time.  I won't go so far as to call it sharing, but it was peaceful for a few seconds.

 We have an old dry sink inbetween the dining room/upstairs living room that houses a basket of toys and a basket of blocks.  Though I try to keep all the toys downstairs in the play area, these probably get played with the most while I'm in the kitchen.  For waaaaaay too long we had the lego box in there and there were always a hundred legos spread across our floor and overwhelming number for all of us.  I finally switched them out to our Tegu blocks which are awesome because a) there are only 26 and b) they are magnetic so they naturally clump together.    Catherine approves:

 Look at that wild hair!

Another favorite past-time is the piano.  Matthew's been working on "playing" his ABCs but he's kinda a diva about it and I have to sneak my pictures:

Now we're having a great time with Uncle Ed, Matthew loves his new T-Rex shirt from Uncle Ed:

This is his second shirt that plays off the T-Rex Trying theme, which cracks me up all the time:

Matthew's a big fan, but mostly he's enjoying his visiting play mate.  He has a touch of what Catherine had but that didn't stop him from taking Ed to splash in puddles:

 And give big hugs:

 Catherine was very intent the whole park trip on watching a 6-7 year old girl:

And some mediocre shots of just the kiddos as I fiddled with my camera settings.

 Catherine was only content to hang with me for a few seconds before she went crawling around to check out the snacks in the other strollers and get into mischief.  There was also a little (maybe 5-6 year old) girl who was very concerned about a "boy" named Catherine.  It's a rough life when you get to wear your brother's hand-me-downs.

And Catherine loving on her kitties:

 Looks like Catherine says we're "all done" with this post, see you later:

Exploring

A few weekends ago we explored Dinosaur Playground, which really is one of the coolest parks around. Matthew's still a little young for it, but it won't be too long. Here he is being defiant yet cute and removing his hat:

And holy goodness, could there have been anything cuter than him waving at his own shadow.

Digging for dino bones

The park is full of these series of tiles with kids illustrations of dinos.

The "climb through time/rock layers" climbing wall. This geology nerd approves!

Some more of the park Matthew has to look forward to!

We've been playing a lot with Matthew's new birthday toys. Here he is with Old MacDonald, whom he loves.

Well, except when Old MacDonald runs his tractor into Matthew. Then he is less than thrilled.

This weekend a good friend of ours from college and a new friend came to visit. We took them to the museum of the Rockies. Matthew hung out with the Triceratops (Jack Horner's favorite dino according to the morning paper today!) downstairs for a bit.

We came home to a storm that inhibited our trip to the hot springs, but brought us a double rainbow out the back door.

Sunday we headed to Lewis and Clark Caverns. Matthew made it to the cave entrance

as did John and Elizabeth.

Unfortunately, about halfway down the cave, Matthew decided he was not impressed so he and I headed back out. Now that Matthew's learned to crawl and move, he's not overly happy being carried at all or sitting still. John, Elizabeth and James ventured through and James got some of these pics. I can't wait to go back when it's a little more appropriate for Matthew or when we have a great babysitter willing to sit out the tour.

All in all another excellent weekend.