We like to read, yes we do!

 Saturday morning reading with me.  I'm so glad Scot was home to catch this, though not a great picture of all our eyes.  I read to them so much, but don't have pictures of it.  Any other moms have this problem?

 Like I've said before, the boys are such great friends and do most everything together.  That includes, of course, squeezing on a chair and going through a book.  This one with baby farm animals.  Drew pointing to an animal and Evan saying what kind of animal is, and then both boys  making the appropriate sound.

Reading with Scot is such a special treat.  He loves to read the Dr Seuss ones, and we all love listening.

Oh, Drew boy.

 I came down to the kitchen an hour before dinner to find Drew raiding the fridge.  Something that is not allowed in this house.

But it was hard to fault his choice of snack.  So I let him go with just a warning for his first offense.

Pinteresting

I held off on getting on Pinterest for so long.  Everyone kept telling me how much I would love it, but all I heard was "time sucker!" so I stayed away.

Boy am I sad I did!

It's not a time sucker for me, although I'm sure it could be if I let it.  Instead, I've gleaned the neatest ideas for organization, crafts, and things to do witht he boys.  It pretty much takes the 2% of me that thinks I'm creative and pushes me to act on it.

I have quite a few things "pinned" to my various boards, and most will wait until it gets cold again and we're not spending every waking minute enjoying the sunshine, but I thought I'd share a couple of the neat ideas I've gotten and done.


Date Sticks

I really liked this idea.  The original has a lot more extravagant date ideas to choose from, but that's the beauty of Pinterest.  It's a huge soundboard for ideas and you make them your own.

On our date sticks (to be used when we're indecisive about what to do or where to go...) we have 3 categories (hence the 3 colors): home/free, under $10 out, and over $10 out. 

Some examples of "Home":  Movie and popcorn, looking at photo albums with sorbet, board games and snacks, put a puzzle together and 20 questions, create something in the kitchen, art project
Some cheap dates out:  Window shopping with coffee, visit the aquarium (we're members) and grab coffee, dessert only, breakfast out, tea time at a bakery, people watching with jelly bellys
A few of our "expensive" dates:  Jazz club, Hockey game, Target shopping spree, Progressive dinner out, Simple dinner out/movie in

This is an idea Scot wishes he had come up with.  I'm just glad someone did.  The original idea has "I love you because..." typed on the sheet of paper, and that's all well and good, but since I also want to tell Scot how I respect him, I left the paper blank so it can just be a love note/encouragement board.

I will say that I really like the fact that this frame I found (half off at Joann's!) is flat and so when we write, we're not battling with a bulky frame.  Something to think about if you do this, too.

Yay For Spring Wreaths.  Versions of this wreath are all over the Internet and Pinterest.  They're so easy and cheap (if you use the foam copper pipe insulation) to make it's hard to NOT.

My favorite part of the wreath are the felt flowers.  So easy and so fun!  I think I may need one more up top to balance it out, but we'll see how I feel after a few more days of looking at it.

One of the neatest ideas is how to easily organize your sheet sets.  What you're looking at (if you can't tell) is a pillowcase with the folded bottom, top, and matching pillowcase inside.  When I need to change sheets, I just grab a "pillow" and know everything I need it inside.  So clever!

 Drew is getting solid wooden blocks for his birthday. (Shh...don't say anything to him about it!)  And what's a "house" without little people to go with it?

 This little green shirted boy is my favorite.  And they were so easy (and cheap) to make!
I got the wooden pegs from a local craft store for under $3 for all of them.  A little over $2 for the acrylic paint, and then brushes I had.  Add a little over an hour of time and voila!

 This is family number 2.  Gotta love the Broncos shirt, right?

Note on these little guys - use paint for the eyes and mouth.  I thought I would be cool and use an extra fine sharpie.  Nope.  Bled and so some of them look a little frightened (or frightening!).

Frugal Fun: Frozen Fresh Herbs

This summer - and even now - you can clip, chop, and save those luscious herbs in your garden, or in the little plastic container you buy at the store, but only use 4 of the 20 leaves.

It's so simple and the results are amazing.  The herbs will freeze green and when you need them, you just toss in soup or stir fry, or what ever else needs fresh herbs!

Here's how!

Chop your herbs and measure 1 tsp or 1 TBLS into an ice cube tray

 Add just a little bit of water.  Just enough to cover the herbs up.

Freeze.

Once frozen, pop the herb-cubes out and put them into a labeled bag.  

You want to know what's in the bag and how much each cube is.  :) 

Kids say the darndest...

I haven't done a post purely about the boys and the funny things they're doing/saying.  So, here you go.

Recently, Evan and I have been playing Uno at the end of his "school time" on days Drew naps and he doesn't.  I love it because it's interaction time with him, he's learning by sight his numbers really well, and just problem solving skills.  The hilarious thing is that when we get to the end and he's left with one card he calls out "Uh-oh!" instead of Uno.  Which is interesting since when he wins, he's actually sad that he has no cards left.

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We were driving home from playgroup the other day and Drew was starting to fall asleep but I didn't have a diaper on him, so I was encouraging him to stay awake.  At one point I said "Come on Drew, don't sleep - just fight it!"

Evan looked at me and said, "Mom!  Why should he fight?  Do you know what that means?  Fighting is not kind."

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Someone asked Evan what his name was recently and instead of telling them, he spelled it out for them.  As in, he replied like this: E-V-A-N!

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Evan loves teaching Drew his letters.  They'll be reading and Evan will point and say, "Look Drew, this is a B.  It says buh like in button.  Can you say B?  (drew says B).  Good!  Now say buh buh buh!"

Drew's newest phrase is uh-oh!  It pops up everywhere with him it seems.  Something falls on the ground.

Uh-oh!

Scot leaves the house.

Uh-oh!

We have to take him out of the bath tub.

Uh-oh!

It's the universal "I don't like what's going on right now" phrase.  But it's just so cute.

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The little monkey man is still climbing as if his life depended on it.  The wavy ladder, or the "Caterpillar Ladder" as I call it, at the park is his newest favorite.  It's a ladder that Evan didn't attempt until he was 2.5 at least.  And even then, with help.

We helped Drew the first time a week or so ago, and then just stood by him the next few times, making sure he didn't slip.  And now, we receive surprised looks from parents standing by as we watch him from a few yards away.  What can I say - the kid is sure-footed and there's nothing I can do about it.  He also has an older brother he adores and wants to keep up with.


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Over the last few weeks, Drew's vocabulary has exploded.  As in, every day he has 5-10 new words in his pocket, and I've lost track of what he can and can not say anymore.  He understands everything we say (within reason, of course) and can actually have a mini conversation with us.

What's really sweet is that he and Evan can converse now.  Little conversation happen through out the day and it warms my heart.  It may just be about a toy or game they want to play.   Or going up to their room to read.  Or their opinion on the weather.  But it's adorable to see them becoming best friends.

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This is the way Drew counts: 1,2,3,1,2,3,1,2,3 - YAY!

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we're practicing with Drew saying and showing "two" when asked how old he in in prep for his birthday

Me to Drew: How old are you?
Drew: TWO (showing all his fingers)
Evan to Drew: that's not two, that's five. this is two. (showing) ok, so... How old are you?
Drew: TWO (still showing all five fingers)
Evan: No Drew, that's five. Let's try again. How old are you?
Drew: FIVE!

First Sleepover and the Aquarium

The other night the boys had the opportunity to have some of their favorite little girl friends sleep over.  All day, Evan kept asking when Emma and Grace were coming over to sleep.  Not to play.  Not to watch a movie.  Just sleep.  It was precious.  If only they actually slept like they were supposed to...we ended up moving Drew to a pack n play in our room after an hour and Gracie ended up reading books to herself about an hour after the other 2 had fallen asleep.  Amazingly, they all slept til almost 8!  The girls' mom (and my friend) E, came and picked them up and we headed with packed lunches to the Aquarium.  Such a fun filled time with great memories!



Pretty jazzed to be having their first "fun" sleepover!  And with girls!

All tucked in...but NOT ready to sleep we found out.

Yay for the aquarium.  Ready, set, GO!!  Boy was I glad both E and I were there - there's no way I could have kept track of all 4 kids on my own!

We decided to have our picnic lunch out behind the aquarium on this platform overlooking the lake and part of downtown.  It was overcast, but just warm enough to enjoy not having coats on.

Evan, Emma, and Grace - Drew was tired and was laying on the ground at my feet for these shots.  Poor kid.

We love sunshine!

The days out here in Ohio for the last few days have been magnificent.

And we've been soaking up that sunshine we love.

 

Pi(e) Party

Each year now, we host our annual Pi(e) Party in honor of National Pi Day.  This year was more low key than last as I made it just dessert and not dinner, too.  So much less stress!  Next year, though, I think we'll do make-your-own pizza pies!  (Thanks, Jon, for the idea!)

Anyway - we had a nice turnout and we all had a blast talking and laughing and getting to know eachother. 

This is a tradition I love.

Thank you to whoever started it.

This is what it's all about, right?  We had this year:  whoopie pies, mini key limes, white chocolate rasperry, pear apple cranberry, and traditional apple.  They were all delicious.



The kids sure enjoyed their whoopie pies before heading upstairs to watch a movie!

The men segregated to start with.  Talking sports, work, and who knows what else.  Bottom line - I think they all had fun.  And with pie - who wouldn't?

Lady friends!!  I am so blessed!

These three babies were all due within a week of eachother.  They are, in actuality, all within 16 days of eachother.  Still really close, though, and don't all the momma's look beautiful?

Just in case...

...you wanted to feel as though you attended Evan's first swim lesson.  Well, now you can!

 He was so excited to get started.  I wasn't sure how he'd do, but positive pure pressure ended up to be a good thing.

 Playing Red Light, Green Light.

Blowing bubbles

His teacher (who was wonderful!) showing his how to point his toes while kicking.  I think he caught on pretty well...

 Kick, kick, kick!

 

It was so funny to watch allt he kids. The instructor would say, "Ok, arms strait out in front!" and ALL the kids would just scrunch up even more.  She was so good and patient with the kids!

 

 Just a little bit straighter, but not by much.  He was not very comfortable with his whole body being suspended in the water I don't think. 

 1,2,3 DUNK!  

 

He did alright with this one.  Much better than I thought he would.

 

And this was his favorite when we asked him.  He kept saying that he felt like a polar bear just floating on his back. Haha.  The things kids say!

And here was our practice session for using his goggles, which he loved!

We have 7 more lessons, and I'll try to let you all know how things end up. :)