The Cat in the Hat

The Cat in the Hat visited the Library - do you recognize Thing 1?

Andrew really was the perfect choice for the role. He had a great time running around the room.

But, the Cat finally caught him when "it was time for Mother to come home."

Valentine's Dinner

I think Valentine's Day is my favorite holiday of the year (and I think I say that every year.) It is a holiday of low expectations = high satisfaction (as my friend Laura likes to say.) I love decorating the table and blessing my family with a love-ly meal.

The kids helped me decorate this year. I put all of the hearts on the table and they announced that their Valentine animals (gifts from Grandma last year) should join the celebration.

Andrew also added the heart that he made in school.


Scott is becoming quite the photographer...


He asked me how to zoom and then just walked closer to the animals to take this. I said, "well...that's one way to zoom."
We ate heart shaped meatloaf and had a delicious dessert - graham cracker crust, nuts, coconut, chocolate chips and coated in sweetened condensed milk. It was wonderful - reminded me of Samoas. I baked it in our heart-shaped pan and it actually turned out on the plate without breaking. I would hate to have served a broken heart.

Merry Christmas?

I know it is the wrong holiday, but what better way to show love to an opinionated two year old than to let her pick out her own outfit. This morning it was..."I NEED to wear my reindeer!!" I was pushing for the pink heart dress, but guess who prevailed?



There is so much joy in these pictures, I can't help but love this little one.

Oh, and the pigtails are a bribe. I told her I would take her picture if she would let me put her hair up. It worked!!

Pinewood Derby

This is our first year in Cub Scouts and our introduction to the Pinewood Derby. I had never heard of it before January...but now I think of myself as sort of an expert. It's amazing what I learn as a parent.

Scott made Mr. Frumble's Pickle Car (from the Richard Scarry book)


I was so proud of him and thought it turned out really well. He did much of the work himself, including sanding and painting. Below are all of the cars from his pack. The first row are the Tiger Cub cars (1st Grade). The second row are the Wolf Cub cars (2nd grade). The Bear Cubs (3rd grade) and Webelos (4th and 5th grades) are on the next tables. As you can see, most of the boys chose to make real race cars.


Another great part of the day was hanging out with good friends.


They raced three cars at a time and each boy's car was raced three times. Here are Scott and two others placing their cars on the track.





There they go!!

...and the finish line. I think this was taken after the finish. Scott's car did not win any of the races. The lesson we learned is that we need to add more weight to his car. The starting block weighs 5 ounces and the finished product can't weigh more than that. But, you want it to be as close as possible to that weight...like I said earlier, I'm becoming an expert. :)



This was a family event!! I wonder how many of these kinds of things Amanda will have to endure? Then, I wonder how many "girl" events the boys will endure for her sake.
Overall, I'd say it was the best event that we've done in Cub Scouts this year. The best part was Scott was able to work with Derrick to design and create the car. He used some power tools (with supervision, of course) and really enjoyed doing what Daddy does. It was a great time of bonding for them. And I'm sure we'll participate again next year.

Little bit of snow

Today was the perfect snow day. We awoke this morning to a beautiful blanket of wet snow. School was delayed two hours...the perfect amount of time to sleep late and play for a little bit outside while waiting for the bus. There wasn't even the normal stress at breakfast when we realized Scott had not yet finished his homework. He had plenty of time to finish it.

Other Moms may disagree, but I think we should have a delayed day at least once a week. :)

Farley's Birthday

We began birthday season around here by celebrating Farley's birthday. In the past I've made a carrot/peanut butter cake. It is supposed to be edible for humans and dogs, but without eggs and sugar, Farley was the only one who ever ate it. This year, I just gave him a glob of peanut butter with dog biscuits as his candles. He was four, so there were four biscuits.

19 teeth!!

Some kids lose their jackets at school. Others may lose their homework. Scott lost a TOOTH at school today!

He has been working on it for about two weeks. I asked him yesterday if it was still hanging in there, which I think made him determined to get it out. So, he worked and wiggled it during calendar time today. I had to laugh. Don't you remember fidgeting during "boring" times in the school day? What a perfect way to pass the time! And, Mr. Math has already figured out that he only has 17 baby teeth left. 20-3=17

:)

What have we been up to?

It is hard to believe that January is over...gone...poof. It went by so quickly. I wonder why...and then I remember that we only had 13 days of school. Of the four weeks, we only had one that was a full five days. It feels like we are still easing into the year from the Christmas holiday, but we are a full month into the new year.

But, we had a fun January. Here are some scenes.


These two simply love each other. They have such a good time playing in the morning after the bus picks up Scott. Here they are finishing a bowl of peanuts. I mix three or four kinds (Party, Honey Roasted, Unsalted, Salted, etc.), throw in some raisins, other nuts, etc. and call that "snack" for two or three weeks. I made a batch this morning and they are finishing what I couldn't fit back into the jars.


Andrew also fills his extra time before school starts by dressing his "friends." Here Bingo is sporting the farmer look, complete with Batman socks. I have to check twice to make sure Bingo's clothes don't make it into the dirty clothes basket.


I believe this was Andrew's shopping mall. He had this entire structure put together before I knew what was happening. But what impressed me the most was the way that the customers enter the mall. They had to perform an intricate system of flips and hops over the pillars. But, do you notice the ramp at the bottom of the picture? That is for wheelchair access.


Amanda plays with her babies everywhere...including the kitchen floor.

You'll notice that Scott isn't in many of these pictures because he spends the majority of his day at school and doing homework. By the time he plays, I'm working on dinner and don't think to get the camera. But, we occasionally take a break...like Thursday when we had good friends over to play. In the four hours they played, I never heard a cross word between them...even between brothers.

They gathered all of the gumballs and had war from the pirate ship - so fun!




Amanda enjoyed watching the boys play from her swing.

And now we are on to February. Groundhog Day. Farley's birthday. Valentine's Day. So much excitement! So many traditions. And we have birthdays just around the corner. Parties. Cake. Friends. I just love this time of year.

First Grade Thinking

Scott's teacher included this in her newsletter last week. Kids are so funny...

*From the mouths of babes: I posed this question to the class and they responded very candidly!

What do you think you will do and look like when you are 100 years old?

Lory: I’m going to be in a wheelchair and I will be old and wrinkly.

Miles: I will have brown hair and I will be watching TV and eating popcorn.

Caroline: I will have grey hair and I’ll have a cane.

Hamdan: I will look old and have a beard and moustache and I’ll have a wheelchair.

Maddie: I will be sitting on the couch doing nothing and just watching TV.

Justin: I will not be able to walk and I will look wrinkly.

Chloe: I will look like my great-grand-mommy and my mom and my dad will take care of me.

Zane: I’ll be dead! There will be a grave on top of me and there will be so many dirt on top of me and I’ll be white.

Kylie: I will be old and I will be in a wheelchair and I won’t be able to go down the steps any more. That’s all.

Daniel H: I’ll have grey hair like my grandpa. I’ll be old and I’ll be fixing lights.

Ellison: I think I will have glasses and nice hair. I’ll be watching TV all day.

Michael: I will be old and I will walk around.

Emily: I will have white hair and I will sit on the couch, that’s all.

Scott: I won’t be doing anything but probably exercising or driving around in my electric wheelchair but I’ll probably invent another electric wheelchair. I think I’ll look like I have wrinkled skin and lots of dots on me.

Keyarra: I will be wrinkly and I will be in a wheelchair.

Maheer: I think I will be able to walk very slowly. I think I might have a cane and I will be very old. Old means somebody who walks very slow. It’s like somebody who has part of their body broken and some people have a wheelchair.

Gabrielle: I’ll have wrinkles on my face and I will need a cane. I can’t walk.

Daniel M: I think I’m going to have a beard and grey hair. I may be watching movies and playing games with my wife.