Easter

Happy Easter, a tad late. I'm really behind on my pictures right now!!!

Dex the bunny, enjoying the puffs that were in his eggs

After our Easter morning of egg hunting and basket playing we headed to Marc & Lisa's for more egg hunting and child fun. Dex was LOVING the swing. Perry is so sweet to her little cousin-

Clark did awesome with the egg hunt-

Clark loved all the treats in his eggs

Park

Tuesday afternoon I was in Oak Knoll park taking some pictures of an adorable family. The two oldest boys were in first grade & third grade and I could see how much fun they have together. And, it made me so thrilled that our little guys will grow up so close, and I hope they will be best of friends. It's always fun getting a glimpse into what we have to look forward to... So as soon as I was finished snapping family pictures I took a couple of my own kids too :) Here is Clark drumming to the rock gods with his sticks.

It's amazing how fun sticks can be to a child.

And we can't set Dex down for a second without him trying to eat nature-

Dinosaurs Unearthed

This afternoon Shannon & I took our little buddies to the Science Center to see the Dinosaurs Unearthed. They were adorable holding hands wherever they went, and we had fun too.

Clark was really really intimidated at first. Actually he was shaking in fear, I thought he might have nightmares. I'll admit it would be scary to a little dude being in a huge room with giant life sized dinos that were roaring at you.

But once he warmed up to them everything was great and he and Adam had a blast exploring.

some nice woman offered to take a picture of us- and this is what you get when you try to get boys to smile for the camera when there's an AWESOME dinosaur behind us.

the boys liked that they could push different buttons and make the dinosaurs move and talk

run run run, it's fun fun fun!

digging in dirt is SO awesome

Clark has a button just like Adam

Bye Bye hugs- these little dudes are so sweet

And, finally... I imagine if Clark & Adam were in a band, this would be their album cover-

Shamrock Shuffle

This weekend Lindy, Nicolle, Madeline & I ran the Shamrock Shuffle 8k (5 miles) in Chicago. It was an AWESOME girls weekend, and I can't believe we actually did the run. It was my first, and I am proud to say we only walked about 30 seconds of it (to get a drink) and we finished the race in 53 minutes 46 seconds! Here are some pictures from the weekend, and HERE is the link to the rest of the album-

We got to Chicago on Saturday, grabbed lunch with Madeline, shopped around for a big in the snow, and then headed to Navy Pier to the Health & Fitness expo to pick up our race packets. We all had to rub the leg for good luck-

Saturday night we carb loaded with Beck at Cozy's noodles, which they opened in Evanston! It was one of my fave Thai places in the city, I was SO excited. Then EARLY Sunday morning we headed to Madelines, and then took the train over to Grant Park for the race.

Thank you Target sale section for our awesome socks-

Looking slightly nervous and not winded yet before we started running.

This picture I stole from the Shamrock website. Look at all these people! 36,000 people signed up to run. Of that just over 25,000 actually ran & finished the race. It was AWESOME running with all those people through downtown though. Even after living in the city almost 8 years I never had seen it from that prospective before.

Look at these guys! I love how most runners got decked out in fun green gear-

AHHHH, the post-race beer! I love a run that gives you free beer for finishing :)

This bear actually ran the race. Hilarious, so we had to get a picture.

After the race we grabbed more beers & lunch and then showered up at Erin's house and headed out for sushi! Rebecca & Franklyn were able to meet us out...

It was an AWESOME weekend. And I think we're all officially hooked- now we're just trying to find other fun races we can do too, plus I need that extra motivation in the gym!

Happy St. Patty's Day!

I just couldn't resist- I know not going to be able to get away with this for much longer!

CLAP!

This has been a big week in the DiTore house. Dexter started clapping, which is just about the most adorable thing ever. Now Dex will clap for just about anything that makes him happy, which is A.LOT. and then Clark will get excited that Dex is clapping, and he will clap too. And then they'll giggle at each other... which reminds me daily why we had two kids.

And, I think we can say that Dex is officially crawling. For two months now he'll move an inch or two and collapse on his belly. But now he takes off, which should make running after Clark even more interesting!

Then yesterday we watched on the video monitor as Dex got himself into a sitting up position... and then pulled up in his crib and was standing up. He had a HUGE proud smile on his face when we walked in to grab him (and make sure he didn't leap right out of the crib) So, we had to lower the crib mattress too.

And our big boy Clark has officially made it through his first full week in underwear. And while he has had a few accidents we're so proud of how amazing he has done. Our boys are getting so big, will someone please slow this down?!?!

Grillerman

Clark got to grill his own burger the other night for dinner with the help of his Daddy of course. I LOVE that the weather is getting so spring-like. I can't wait for more cookouts, long walks, play dates in the park, picnics, ice pops on the deck, and all the wonderful things that spring brings- Hurry up warm weather!!! The kids (and parents) are a tad stir crazy- and we got teased this week with a couple days in the 70s... If only it was here to stay!

bath

Last night while I was at the dentist Clark was helping Rich give Dex a bath, which is not an unusual scene at our house. But this time Clark kept pointing to the other side of the sink that wasn't being used and asking to take a bath there... hilarious, I couldn't stop laughing when he texted me this pic from his phone.

Miss Gabby visits!

One week ago today Rebecca came in town from Chicago with her precious new little baby Gabby. It was AWESOME getting to hang out with her again, and snuggling a fresh new baby was pure heaven. For some reason we didn't take a ton of pictures, but we did remember to snap a few when we went on Gabby's first walk. Although we didn't remember until we were in the alley behind my house, so the scenery isn't that awesome :) Anyway, the weather got into the 50s so we bundled the kids up, threw them in strollers and walked to Bread Co for lunch and the playground after. I really wish she lived closer and we could visit more often!!!!!

It's Potty Time!

Since the last post was all about Dexter this one is all about Clark. We started potty training officially on Saturday and Clark has done way better than we had expected. He had never even used the toilet once although we did put him on occasionally. But we went with the "three day potty training" method and so far the results have been pretty good. After 8 accidents on day one Clark went on the toilet three times in a row! Day two he had 4 accidents and 4 successes including pooping on the toilet, we were so thrilled. You would have thought we won the lottery :) Today's he's only had 2 accidents and he's doing so great. We couldn't be more proud of our little guy- and I HAD to post pictures of him in his undies, it's just the cutest thing!

Clark likes to help me clean. To the point if I don't let him do something he cries- but seriously why wouldn't I let him help??? So here he is dusting our mailbox (mainly because the lighting was better outside, and it was in the 60's today!!!)

Look at that adorable bum!

And I just couldn't resist posting this last one...