mental health weekend...

You might have noticed a few dates missing in my "fun fridays" posts. Those would happen to be the Fridays that we had the stomach flu, that we discovered G had brought home head lice from school for us all (awful 3 week ordeal that I won't go into, unless you want me to, and believe me, I know way more than you ever want to know about those yucky critters), and when G&W&C got strep throat. We are used to ailments of various sorts, that is the nature of the beast with many small children, but all of these things fell right on top of each other. And that was enough to make this momma and dadda (mostly the momma, who has been trying so hard to have more patience and perspective and grace...and let me tell you grace goes right out the window with head lice) go crazy. So we (mostly I again) decided a little mini vacation was in order over the long President's Day weekend. And while we did not escape to a warm tropical destination, a hotel stay with a pool down the road a bit and some activities we don't do often here in the cities was just right for us. And these photos will be enough to keep me smiling through whatever infectious disease comes next...

the ice castle at the MOA:

 

(SOOOOOO cold, but so fun, must be true Minnesotans....)

fun at the hotel:

(watching Wild Kratts from bed in the morning =)

(then tackling dadda to wake him up for a little fun with photo booth on the iPad)

(nice pool for the ages our kids are at - this side was only 1 ft deep)

(and this side was 3-4 ft deep - G LOVED the slides and that she could touch through the whole pool)

(H was a little unsure at first, but eventually had fun...and learned the cutest trick ever that we will have to take you all back to the hotel pool to show you =)

(and oh did these two have a blast!  many hours were logged in the pool by the time the weekend was over)

We also did Sea Life MN at the MOA, lunch at IKEA in our favorite spot where we can see the airplanes fly in, and of course pizza at the hotel for supper one night.  This is the first time in over a year and a half that we have gone anywhere other than to our parents' houses (we love you parents!!!), and although we didn't drive far (and that part was nice), it did feel like a get-a-way and we all enjoyed it so much!

fun friday, 2.15.13...

(blurry photos brought to you by my cell phone and forgetting the big camera...=)

Anyone guess where we went?  An experience in and of itself that the kids had a hoot with.  S had the day off, we all went to pick G & W up from school, told them we were going somewhere crazy, and drove the half hour out to the large outdoor store where we admired the animal dioramas, camping supplies and aquarium, and resisted buying outdoor gear and large containers of mixed nuts and gummy peach rings...

valentines 2013...

OH, why do I love this silly holiday so much?!  And WHY do I love homemade valentines so much?!!  I know I know I said last year that I would NEVER do this again, but even I knew at the time that I would.  And we did.  After the crazy start to 2013 that we have had you would think that I would cut my losses and buy the $1.99 pre-made packs at the drugstore and call it good.  But I think that we all needed a little fun and extra love this year, and it was theraputic to a point for me to focus on valentines.  And I spent A. LOT. of time looking for and prepping ahead of time so that my dear crafty kiddos could do most of the work themselves, which to me was totally worth it.  There was a little less procrastination, a lot less frustration, and no tears this year  (I attribute this part to a little more planning and starting earlier, and part to having Aahma B visit and help out!)...so I deem it successful.

For W, we made valentine postcards (fitting in with their post office theme in Kindergarten this month), borrowing the heart guy from this blog.  I printed the postcards on the computers with the heart body on the front and "Happy Valentine's Day!" on the back, and W drew the heart guy on the front, glued his given labels for his classmates on the back as well as signing his name.  Oh, and stamping a heart stamp for the stamp.  He also made some for his Sunday School classmates and cousins.  We were really impressed with his focus on this!  While it took a couple days to complete everything, he would diligently work for 15-20 minutes by himself completing them (although he loved having a little help from Aahma B too!), even paying attention and adding ties to the shoes of his classmates who had tie shoes! 

C also made some of these guys for his Sunday School class and cousins!

 I thought they turned out pretty cute!!!

For G, we had a hard time coming up with an idea, but then I saw this blog post and asked her if she wanted to make bookmarks.  She didn't really want to do those bookmarks, but she liked the bookmark idea.  So we came up with something similar that allowed her to paint, which is really all she wanted to do this year.  G started by painting a bunch of abstract watercolors.  I then printed out "Happy Valentine's Day!" on a bookmark template, and she then addressed and signed them.   We cut apart both the printed sheets and the watercolor sheets, she punched heart shapes out of the water color side and we glued it to the printed paper so the white showed through.  Lots of little steps, but easy to accomplish and once again G did most of it herself!

(oh what our college textbooks are used for today...)

G didn't have enough of the bookmarks to give to her Sunday School class and cousins, so she also did some heart guys like the boys, and a few of these, gluing some of her punched out heats to the back of some of the printed bookmarks.  Also cute!

We borrowed Auntie C's corner punch (thanks!!!) with the intent of rounding the corners too, but the paper was too thick to easily do this.  So she did that for teacher ones to make them a bit more special...

G also had to make her own Valentine box at home and she came up with this adorable mailbox. 

Now being that I love homemade valentines so much you don't think that I would let the kids have all the fun, do you?  I also came up with a valentine to send, but due to the craziness of getting the kids' done on time mine were sent out a little late.  Good thing we love each other all year, right? 

 I took this to frame for S as a Valentine's Day gift, and then sent out prints to family and friends as well... 

fun friday, 2.8.13...

lots of love this Friday prepping for a fun holiday next week...

...and happy to have a very loving guest with us too!

another doodlebug...

So using the new tractor calendar that Boppa R gave him, C got to put a sticker on everyday that he was able to go to the potty all by himself all day with no accidents.  And we told him that when he had 10 stickers in a row, he could go to Doodlebugs, the pre-school program at the nature center that W attended last year.  Everything finally started going smoothly and sure enough, those stickers lined up and soon it was Doodlebugs Day!

I was so proud of him!  But being that we know the Doodlebugs routine, I don't think it really hit me until that morning how big my little guy was getting!  Really, off to pre-school?!!!

be still my heart....

OK, and when they all lined up I seriously died.  How can I have 3 kids in school already?!  And how proud and happy do they all look!!!!

C was not nervous at all about going.  First of all he knows the Doodlebugs routine since W went through it last year, and since W doesn't have school on Tuesdays, we signed him up to go with!  So fun for them to do this together and it really made the transition easy for C.  Then he will be a total pro when he goes by himself next year.

The program is on Tuesday mornings from 9:30am to 11:30am.  They play, read a book about nature, and do crafts and activities that go along with the book.  This first day they talked about Groundhog Day, read a story(don't remember which one), played shadow tag outside (they always go outside no matter what the weather!), and then turned cracker and cereal boxes into little groundhog faces!

C was beyond excited and so proud to tell us all about Doodlebugs and his teachers and the kids in his class and show off what he had done.  We went over to Mrs. L's after school and had a special snack and told her all about it, and then when Dadda came home, we celebrated with supper at noodles & co!

We are so proud of you C!  You are such a big 4 yr old now and we are glad that you can go to Doodlebugs and learn and explore on your own!  But we are even more glad when you come back to tell us all about it...

a blessed January 2013...

I know January was a long time ago (moved to Jan date on blog though to remember where it is).  Although with the amount of snow and cold that we have had this spring yet it really doesn't feel like it!  And if you would ask me about our January this year, I might sigh and say it was one to forget - lots of sick and head lice.  I still get tired and shudder thinking about it all.  But in looking through my January photos (long story, but we thought we lost all our photos - we didn't! - and have had to go through a bunch of folders to get them visible again), I found quite a few that made me realize our January wasn't all terrible.  In fact there were a lot of moments that I was thankful for!  So that was the push I needed to start back again with my monthly posts...help me get back to counting our blessings and thanking God for all of them!  (but the sick and yick?  we can forget about that, can't we?)  Also it will be a place to share some of the fun random photos that we end up with...

We started January off with a special visit from Aahma B!  She came to attend some fun art classes with the kids for their Christmas present from them.  First off she took both boys to a clay class at the nature center where we go to DoodleBugs.  They had a great time and in a few weeks we were able to pick up these materpieces:

The theme for the class was "Cheers" for the new year, so each boy made 2 animal glasses that they can drink out of.  W made a cheetah and a snow-shoe hare, and C made a fox and a wolf.

Aahma took G to a knitting class at a favorite local yarn shop.  They were hoping to go to an art class at the same nature center as the clay class, but not enough people had signed up.  That didn't stop the knitting class though!  G was the only person signed up for the class, and the instructor was wonderful and so impressed that G could knit and was only 7!  She and Aahma fawned over G and gave her a lot of attention which G just ate up.  The one-on-one was nice though as G learned to purl and has been having fun knitting and purling in her stitches.

There were no baby art classes, but H did enjoy some Aahma time as well and tried to impress her with reading the big kids' books...

Then the stomach flu hit!  Never fun, but S and I are always blown away by the empathy that the kids will show each other when someone is sick.  Like making up trays for supper with get well cards and flowers for example. =)

January means ice skating at school!  This was G's 3rd year ice skating and W's first.  G is getting better and more confident each year, and W was such a trooper doing his best on the ice despite lots of spills.  He always got back up without fuss and kept on going.  This showed us how much he is growing up...sigh!  The kids enjoyed special time with Dadda this month as Momma does NOT know how to skate at all so Dadda would take them to practice at the park rink when he had days off.  We decided as a family that Momma would have to learn to skate when H is in kindergarten - no more excuses then!

As mentioned previously, we also dealt with head lice this month along with a lot of other families at school.  The boys got buzzed or short haircuts because of this, and H thought he needed to be included in the fun.  So off came the tiny bit of fuzz in the back!  His first official haircut.

Notes:
:: S had his hours increased to 45 per week from 40.  Being salary and manager, this is not a big change for our family right now as he has been working 45 pretty consistently for the past 6 months.  We are not complaining much either as he is fortunate to have a 3 minute commute everyday where he could easily be commuting 5+ hours a week!
:: G is struggling with her math facts, particularly the mad minute time tests.  Trying to find some new ways to help her get past these!  We did get such a nice email from her teacher though telling us about how great G was putting on a play (small group assignment)...to quote "she was animated, expressive, and FUNNY!"  We have always known this (hello puts on daily shows since she was 3!), but it was fun to hear it from her teacher.
:: W jumped back into the swing of school wonderfully.  He seems to not be so tired at the end of the day too which is great.  His writing is getting so much better and he is starting to write words without having to ask for help all the time.
:: C's big thing this month has been getting over the last hurdle of potty training (yes, our boys were late potty-trainers!).  Everything is great except that #2.  But he is 4 now, so putting some big boy responsibility and the incentive that he gets to go to pre-school when he is completely potty-trained will hopefully do the trick.  It is definitely getting better!
::  H!  His walking has really taken off this month!  He started the month probably 30% walking/70% crawling, and ended the month walking almost 100% of the time!  He also added stairs up and down to his list of proficiencies.  He likes to say no when you ask him a question now, and the kids get a kick out of asking him no questions and hearing him "answer correctly" (like, Were you born in outerspace?  Can you fly?  Do you like broccoli? =)  Word list additions: Khay(Grace), noo(noodle), book, "Hi Da!", "Bye Da!", "Yuh-you(Love you)!"

fun friday, 1.25.13...

giggly girls sitting and knitting together... (sorry no knitting in this photo, will catch it next time)

silly mommas trying to re-create matching outfit photos for our babies, feeling like we did this just yesterday for our now preschoolers...(both sets are betrothed, by the way! =)

In the words of my lovely friend, "it was fun, in the crazy 7-busy-energetic-little-people way that we are so fond of..."