Animal Lover

Isaac is all about animals. We make a regular trip to the pet store in downtown Wake Forest to visit the "chilas" (chinchillas) and the rabbits. They're probably going to ban us if we don't buy something soon! With the emergence of spring, there have been a ton of creepy crawly critters and bugs in the yard for Isaac to play with. Here he is with his first inch worm.

Family Traditions

It's a Slivensky tradition to take pictures on Sundays when you're dressed up for church. Who could resist taking pictures of this cute little man?

Falls Lake

One afternoon after a doctor's appointment, Isaac and I ventured over to Blue Jay Point on Falls Lake. That particular day, Isaac decided to chase a squirrel through the woods so he could show it the stickers he got at the doctor's office ("qurel...sticker...see it??) Poor squirrel, but by doing so we found a trail down to a really beautiful spot on Falls Lake. A few weekends ago, Isaac and I took Daddy to our new favorite spot to show him the boats and how to throw rocks in the lake. Here are a few pictures from our day.

Isaac & His New Swing Set

I've fallen a bit behind on blogging, so I've got some catching up to do. Isaac got his new swing set two weeks ago. We took him out after work on that Monday so that he could see it for the first time. We walked out on the deck and he immediately seemed amazed. Remember all he'd seen was the clubhouse part before going to bed on Sunday. So we walk down the steps and into the grass and he takes of running with excitement yelling "a box!". The 10-foot slide box was still laying in the yard and he ran straight for it and straight into it! They always say there's no need to buy kids anything because they always like the box or the packaging better. Brian and I just laughed.

After playing in the box for a few minutes, he immediately went up the ladder into his clubhouse and down the slide.

Here he is in the crows nest trying to figure out how to climb up on top of the railing. We thought he'd be satisfied with platform up above the swings, but just after this picture was taken he looked at Brian, pointed at the roof, and said "up". Our little adrenaline junky!

We've spent quite a bit of time in the clubhouse, on the monkey bars and on the swings over the past few weeks. He absolutely loves it which makes all the hard work of the weekend well worth it!!

Isaac's Swing Set (Day 2)

We worked on and pretty much finished Isaac's swing set today. There are a couple handles to put in place, but other than that we are done!! It went surprisingly well, and we all had a fun time building it. Isaac even helped out some today. Here is the day in pictures.

Finished product from Day 1...

Starting on the top floor...

A great little helper...

We've got walls!!

Top floor is done...

Isaac checking out the "crow's nest" before bedtime. He is SO excited about his clubhouse!!

The finished product...

Monkey bars on left, swings on the right. This clubhouse is too cool!!

Isaac is already a pro at the ladders...the rock wall is going to take a couple more tries. He spent a lot of time checking out his clubhouse and his picnic table today. I can't wait to see his expression when he sees it now has swings and a slide!!

A special thanks goes out to Isaac's crew for all their help:
Daddy: Project Foreman
Opa: Daddy's right hand man
Oma: Isaac's right hand man (She kept up with him all weekend!! We owe Oma big time!)
Rhonda: Wood Fetcher and Opa's relief! Expert at windows!
Cindy: Hardware Sorter Extraordinaire and Oma's helper!
(For the record, Mommy was the project supervisor and direction interpreter. I basically barked orders all day! Thanks to everyone for putting up with me!)

Isaac's New Bees

In addition to this weekend's swing set project, we also got our two new hives of bees. Tonight my dad (Opa) and I put the bees in their new hives. As promised when the first hive came to a tragic end this winter, here are the details of starting a new hive.

Each hive has a queen bee. The queen bee comes in a little package (shown below) with 5 attendant bees. The attendants are responsible for making sure the queen gets fed and for eating through the sugar in the end of the box to release her into the hive.

You take the queen box and rubber band it to one of the hive frames. It usually takes about 5 days for the attendants to eat through the sugar and release the queen into the hive. Keeping the queen in the box allows the rest of the bees to accept her as their queen so that by the time she gets out, they won't kill her and your hive will survive and grow.

Bees come in 3 pound packages of approximately 12,000 bees. Yes, I said 12,000...crazy huh? You spray the bees down with sugar water to keep them calm. Then you take the little square off the top of the box and shake the bees out of the box and into the hive.

Here are dad and I with our bees and our goofy "costumes" for handling the bees!

Finally, here is a video of us putting the bees in the hive. For those of you who have never met my dad, he's as crazy as I am. Both of my parents are a lot of fun. I hope Isaac can say that about his parents one day too! Dad and I are both in agreement that beekeeping is addictive. It's a fun hobby that I'm so glad my family is all involved in thanks to my brother-in-law Mark. I'm so looking forward to teaching Isaac about his bees as he grows up!

Hopefully we'll have a big crop of honey for sale late this summer!!

Isaac's Swing set

Isaac turns two years old on May 17th. For his birthday, we bought him a swing set. The trick is to assemble it before his birthday!! We decided this weekend was a great weekend to start. We got a great start after lunch today and hope to finish tomorrow. Here are the photos of our progress.

Here is where the swing set goes...

Unpacking the 4 huge boxes took by far the longest...

Starting the framework...

Oma watched Isaac all day! Notice all the swing set pieces in the background!

We finished the framework, the picnic table and the bottom section tonight...

Overall, a very productive day. We're all resting now, but it's back to work tomorrow! I think Isaac is really going to like it.

A Boy and His Tractor

There's just nothing like kicking back with a cold one after a hard day's work. It's a hard life for my little farmer in training.

Two Weeks of Easter

Isaac had quite the Easter this year. After 6 egg hunts, 2 egg coloring sessions, and 5 Easter baskets of goodies, I think it is safe to say that this little boy is a professional at the holiday part of Easter! He's still pretty little, so the spiritual side of Easter is something that will come in the next few years. Brian and I have both tried to explain Easter and Jesus to him. We thought we had done a great job when Brian asked him on the way to church what Easter was about and he said "Jeesie" which is how he says "Jesus" at the moment. Of course, when I asked him the same thing today he said "eggs"...so he's a work in progress, but he's still little...he'll understand soon enough. The following is a picture montage of the past couple of weekends of fun.


More interested in the playground toys than the eggs

"Egg dye...not the worst thing I've ever eaten"

His favorite orange egg

Checking out the loot from Oma and Opa with Cousin Madeline!

Dyeing eggs at home with Aunt Rhonda and Aunt Cindy

Hunting eggs with Daddy and Nana and Grandpa's

Isaac and the Easter Bunny

Another Use for Olive Oil

Let me set the scene:

1) Get stickers in an egg at the school Easter egg hunt.
2) Put stickers on legs while sitting in car seat.
3) Get stickers wet playing in the dog's water bowl while mommy isn't looking.
4) Stickers dry still on legs.
5) Stickers don't peel off at bedtime.

6) Get an olive oil leg treatment in the kitchen sink.

7) Soak for 5 LONG minutes and cry.
8) Watch mommy carefully scrape stickers off with her fingernails.
9) Rinse and shower.
10) Bedtime!!

Lessons learned - Always have olive oil handy. No more stickers on Isaac's skin!!