Creativity

The boys wanted to make a craft they saw in their latest Hi-Five magazine.  First they decorated some coffee filters with washable markers.

Then spritzed them with water to make the colors run.  Spray bottles are the best.

During Milo's naptime one afternoon last week, Levi and I painted with some watercolors.

I love the stuff he comes up with.

We used his paintings to decorate a couple of gifts.

This is Milo's work.  I'm not as excited about this creation as he did it with crayon on his bedroom wall...

Weekend

It was so nice to spend time with my Mom and Dad last week.  It hadn't been terribly long since Christmas but I was really missing them. 

As usual, we all got treated to lots of goodies and fun. On Saturday night we went bowling together and on Sunday we had a superbowl party. What made our superbowl party so unusual and wonderful was that during it,Nana took all 5 kids to Target to pick out a toy. The remaining adults got to eat party food in relative quiet. ahhhh.

Ruby asked me to take a picture of her and Milo sweetly posing.  Then Ben came and photobombed the scene making it even more awesome.

The big boys reading during a house-wide rest time.

Ruby and Papa during quiet time.

Things got a little dicey when my Bialetti espresso pot broke. Joel improvised and brewed some coffee using various pieces he found in the kitchen.

My little model.

The boys soaked up lots of reading time.

I absolutely love it when my mom laughs this hard. The boys are both squeezing limes to make juice for reasons that escape now me.

Bedtime snuggles.  Milo is modelling one pair of his new PIDERMAN jammies.

And here's the other pair!

Picture Time

Nana and Papa have been here visiting. So much fun. On Saturday they took the kids to get their pictures taken. Cuteness abounded.

Sick Day

Ay yi yi. What a week. Last Thursday was a doctor's apointment for Milo for an eye infection and sinus infection. He passed both on to me. Wednesday, Lucas had oral surgery. Thankfully he's healing up and is much less swollen today. Milo started throwing up on Wednesday and spiked a fever. Yesteray I had a fever, too, but so far have kept all my food down where it belongs. Levi seems to have escaped everything except for the eye infection. We all look pretty pitiful.

I'm so glad it is Friday. I feel like if I can just get some rest maybe I can kick the last of this sinus infection. It really took me down. I'm still in a lot of pain from it.

Cuddled up with Netflix.  It looks like they are deeply enthralled in some heavily nuanced politico documentary but really they are just watching Blues Clues.
 

 

I told them to look like they were sick.  The expressions are a put-on but you just can't fake that skin pallor.

During rest-time Levi constructed a fort.  He used some peg-board (this one, in fact.  He had removed all of those screws!), paperclips, a fleece, and a bungee cord.

Milo's had a rough time.  Poor kid has needed a lot of cuddles this week.  Here he's getting ready to nap in his brother's bed because his bed has no sheets or pillows.  They are all in the washer.  Again.  I feel as if I need a Lysol bath.

Still has some sweet smiles for me even though he's struggling.

Bear Beware

Little boys and guns- this baffles me.  Levi and Milo have practically zero exposure to them but you wouldn't know it to see them play.  I think all they know about guns might have been gleaned from looking at plastic army figurines.

Here they are using the fireplace logs as guns. They are valiantly protecting me from a wild bear. Check out their respective glares. Those are bear-shooting expressions.
 

 

 

Life

A busy week here. Milo and I came down with a pretty nasty bug of some sorts. On the up side, there were a few afternoons of really nice weather. The boys loved being reunited with their riding toys.

 

 

Levi took the wood stacked by our fireplace and arranged them like this.  Then he requested some yarn or twine.  "I want to make a raft."  He declared.  I love the ideas he comes up with.  I also love that he has a Daddy that will offer some guidance with raft building.

 

 

Play Date

We had a play date with cousin Ben last week. The boys alwasy have so much fun hanging out with him. It was a cold and rainy morning so we went to Crown Center to check out the toy stores, eat our snack, and run through the sky walk.

 

 

 

 

Wintry

Here are some more sledding shots. While we had snow, Levi was out playing in it as much as possible. Milo did not find the cold as invigorating and preferred to stay inside. We did coax him down on the sled a few times. He would only go down the hill with me on the sled with him. It is a small hill but really was fun- except the part when I got snow down the back of my pants.

 

 

Snow Boy

Here are some pictures of Levi enjoying the snow-fall we got a couple of weeks ago. He was thrilled to have 'snowman snow'. The temps were warm enough that the snow easily packed.  He made four snowmen.

 

 

 

 

Technical Difficulties

I've got pictures to share but have been having trouble uploading them here the past couple of days...

Creatives

Levi and Milo received several creative kits as presents this Christmas. They have been having a lot of fun with them.

Special sculpting paper from Auntie Corrine:

Paint-your-own train sets from Gran and Grandpa:

2nd Annual Gingerbreadextravaganza

We had so much fun last year we decided to do it again. "Gingerbread" houses out of graham crackers and lots of candies.

Levi's modern looking triangular shapped house was awesome.

We love hanging out with this crew.

I helped build Levi's house a chimney and he cleverly used a marshmellow as smoke.

Look at Team JoelBen's house!  Check out that entry way.

 

Ruby did her house all by herself.  It turned out so cute.

The entertainment of the night was when the kids convinced Joel to walk on his hands.

I think Kelly's house won.  She had a porch and pool and a wreath.

Milo made one with Lucas.  He enjoyed that almost as much as scarfing candy.