More Than Alphabet Soup

May

2010-06-06T22:49:00.000-05:00

May was about two things around here: birthdays and illness. The first part of the month consisted of one birthday party after another, cummulating, of course, in the big party for our new three-year-old.

Like the shiner by his eye? He ran into the sofa a few hours before the party, just in time for it to get good and red before pictures. Oh well. He got seven different packs of Hot Wheels, and was thrilled by every last one.

We had a blast with friends

and family

and then birthday season was over, and 24 hours later the littlest guy was miserable. They've all had ear infections on top of a cold; Noah and Owen are on round 2 of antibiotics. So that's where we've been.

Three!

2010-05-18T23:21:00.000-05:00

Three years ago yesterday, this little guy arrived.

My sweet, imaginative, michevious boy

Three is gonna be great!

New Orleans, Part 3

2010-04-21T21:44:00.000-05:00

Our last day in New Orleans, we met one of Mark's old friends at Old City Park. Katrina left it under a foot or so of water, but it's been totally restored and is now glorious.

We fed the ducks

and dug in the mud.

Peek a boo!

Then one more time to run around before heading back.

It's about 9 hours of driving between Dallas and New Orleans, so the game is always to find fun places to stop along the way. This time we happened upon a kite festival in Baton Rouge. The boys got to make their own itty-bitty kites

and go down the bounce-house slides, over and over and over again.

It really was a fantastic time. And it feels so good to , a week and a half later, finally be done writing about it.

New Orleans, Part 2

2010-04-18T23:42:00.000-05:00

Audubon Park had this nice little pond, perfect for throwing sticks,

and these great trees, draped with Spanish moss,

and, of course, plenty of room to run free.

Then it was back to Rory's place, so we could watch the street cars

and enjoy the breeze.

Rory is an aspiring professional musician, so the boys like to get their rock star on.

Right now

2010-04-17T23:55:00.000-05:00

New Orleans

2010-04-17T22:25:00.001-05:00

Last weekend we had a fantastic time visiting Mark's family in New Orleans. It was the first time in ages that we've been there in nice weather, so we spent half our time in one park or another. Owen has discovered the joy of the swing.

We took an absurd number of pictures (seriously, 300+ over the course of 3 days). I've actually been putting this off because it's too hard to pick a reasonable number of pictures to post, but maybe I'll just spread the picture dump over several days.

Rory had this toy accordian that was a huge hit with all the boys, even our newest musician.

We took the streetcar from Rory's place, as per normal. After a nap on his uncle's shoulder, Nate's cowlick started taking over his whole head.

Then we head out to Audubon Park, with it's absolutely amazing trees.

We had a leaf fight under this tree.

The price of this shot: I spent the next fifteen minutes pulling bits of leaves out of my bra.

Serves me right for going to the bathroom

2010-04-07T22:10:00.000-05:00

Only for Easter

2010-04-05T23:44:00.000-05:00

Hear Him, ye deaf; His praise, ye dumb,

Your loosened tongues employ;

Ye blind, behold your Savior come,

And leap, ye lame, for joy.

Wordless Wednesday--To the park!

2010-03-31T23:39:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Wordless Wednesday for this excuse to share some of my favorite pics.

Coffee filter spring decorations

2010-03-29T21:57:00.000-05:00

We have had the best time lately making these coffee filter prints.

The boys dribbled food coloring onto the coffee filters. Some of them got pressed together to make symmetric prints, but most ended up pretty random. They went through an entire container of coffee filters.

Then Noah picked out a few to string up in a garland.

And now we're all decorated for spring!

A word of warning, though: food coloring stains.

Half the fun for the boys was getting to use the normally off-limits food coloring, but I'm sure we could have used watercolors with equal success.

It starts early

2010-03-24T21:58:00.000-05:00

Several months back, when the boys were having a hard time cleaning up like I'd asked them to, I was inspired. I grabbed Nate's stuffed lamb, channeled Lamb Chop as best as I could, and had Flower ask them for me. Presto! The playroom was clean in no time. And ever since then I've been periodically bombarded with requests to "Make Flower talk! Make Flower talk!"

So now the boys are the ones making everyone talk. Nate, in particular, can give voice to just about anything. In the last few months he's made a puppet out of a spoon, a cube, a vast assortment of his stuffed animals, an equally vast assortment of matchbox cars, his toes, and, on one pointedly ignored occasion, his penis.

Boys are different.

Train ride

2010-03-23T22:46:00.000-05:00

The boys have been begging to go on a train ride lately. So today, Mark took off from work a bit early and we met up at Ft. Worth's mini train.

A beautiful spring day, a train ride, popcorn, and the playground and a picnic after. It really doesn't get any better than that.

Imagination chair

2010-03-22T22:06:00.001-05:00

A good friend passed on her daughter's outgrown car seat to us, so we'll have one for Nate when Owen needs the convertible one he's in now. I thought we might put it to good use inside until then.

To make our Imagination Chair, I pulled out some foam stickies and some colorful string. (I did test the stickies first, and yes, they do come off of the fabric cover easily.) Then we set out to decorate

and pretend.

Courtesey of Noah--me imagining ice cream was the healthiest food on the planet and could be eaten for breakfast, lunch, and dinner

Noah as a sleeping cat

'Twas Fabulous Fun!

Back to normal

2010-03-22T21:44:00.000-05:00

Lovely.

Texas weather

2010-03-21T22:36:00.000-05:00

Just a few days ago, we had this:

Today, the second day of spring, we woke up to this:

Ack! Perfectionism

2010-03-17T23:39:00.000-05:00

Somebody once told me that my problems with keeping house stemmed from perfectionism. It made no sense to me at the time--if I'm a perfectionist, why do I allow things to fall apart so badly? But now I see it. They're always creeping up on me, the thoughts that since things will never look the way I want, I might as well not even try. Paralyzing perfectionism.

So at least with the blog, I'll let the perfectionism go. I had planned to go back and show every good picture and share some nice moments out of the last few weeks. But no. Just this:

Cousin Natalie and Nate

There. Now that's perfect.

He likes it!

2010-03-15T23:36:00.001-05:00

I'm way behind on everything I want to write about--most especially the COUSINS! last week--but I had to skip to today. Today is a red letter day, for today, Noah finished his 5 bites of asparagus. And said, "Yum!" And allowed me to give him more. And ate that too.

Discarding the Christmas-colored sprinkles he puts on his oatmeal and the occassional lick of my lime sherbert, this marks the first time since toddlerhood that he has willingly eaten anything green. Has he really turned the corner? Cross your fingers for me.

Monday Monday

2010-03-08T22:45:00.000-06:00

Nate's favorite day is Monday. Every day he asks me what day it is, but if I tell him it's, say, Thursday, he corrects me. "No, it's Monday!" So when Monday does roll around, he is overjoyed.
"What day is it?"
"Today is Monday."
"Oh thank you thank you thank you thank you!!!!" (No amount of exclamation marks could overstate the 2 year old excitement here.)

What will he think of Mondays in, oh, 20 years? We shall see.

Spring!!!

2010-03-03T22:01:00.000-06:00

Lookie what's in our backyard:

It's finally been warming up. Yesterday was gorgeous, so after voting we went adventuring.

This was, at times, a flag, a tree, a castle, a hide-and-seek game, and simply a way to annoy little brother.

Time to spend the next month outside, before it gets too hot to move.

Last week

2010-03-01T23:22:00.000-06:00

Lots of Daddy fun

"Cleaning" the floor

Crystals of all kinds

Brotherly love

Rec center fun (why do I never take my camera there?)

Volcanoes!

Hungry Hungry Hippos

Roary the Racing Car,

which led to running around the house yelling "Go Go Nitro Boost!"

over and over and over

A new trick

Important business

Cupcakes!

Karnival time

Yes, I know we're almost two weeks into Lent--they still want to dance around the house to Mardi Gras music nearly every day.

Making pretties

Lots and lots and lots of Hot Wheels

and more brotherly love

All is well.

Representative art!

2010-02-22T22:12:00.001-06:00

Nate has been going through one of those big jumps kids do. Usually it's hard for me to define exactly what the change is, but this time it's easy. Art with meaning! He's drawing things: himself, a bird, me. He's got a specific idea for what he's doing, even if it's not at all apparent to anyone else.

He's drawn other things that are more easily decipherable, but this one is my favorite so far:

Now this may look like a heart surrounded by circles, but not according to Nate. He had me help him draw the heart. Then, starting in the lower left hand corner and working generally counterclockwise, this is what he drew:

Owen

My hair (it goes all the way around my head)

My bottom

My legs (the two lines above my head)

My shoes

His hair

His shoes

and then across the top of the heart

His nose

My nose

Owen's nose

Gramma's nose

Munner's nose

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

His comment on seeing this hung up later: "I dwew a wot of noses!"

Juice lid art

2010-02-19T23:04:00.003-06:00

We go through bucketfuls of juice around here--I can polish off a container of orange juice in a day, and the boys are nearly as bad with their grape juice. I've been saving the lids from the juice canisters for a while now, trying to think of some way to recycle them. I had some vague ideas of using them to make a game, or maybe a mobile, but today I just pulled out the permanent markers and let them have at it.

A loop of tape on the back, and they stuck beautifully to the latest art gallery, the front door.

That's Nate's flower in the lower left corner. He kept having me help him draw things, then coloring them in so that the lid was completely covered.

A lovely life

2010-02-17T23:11:00.000-06:00

It's been a lovely few days. First of all, no one is sick! It was four days from when Nate got sick to when I did, and then another four days later it was Noah. Yesterday was another four days, and I was really holding my breath, but Mark and Owen seem to have escaped it.

So, we've had fun with the neighbor boys.

And bubbles.

And cuddles.

We've discussed how cheese is made, and ketchup too. (Did you know people make homemade ketchup? Crazy!)

We've enjoyed lollipops

and taking pictures of crazy Daddy.

Noah took this one!

We saw friends at the rec center, and then again at the mall.

We grew salt crystals

and investigated the resemblance between Grover's nose and a certain part of Mommy's anatomy.

A conversation: "Mommy, how do people in Arizona get rid of their trash?" "Well, mostly the garbage trucks pick it up, just like here." "But Mommy," in his best I know you're just being silly voice, "how do they get over all those bumpy bumpy cactuses?"

Today we hit the library (it's been over a week, so of course we need a fresh stack).

Then off to the park.

Time for a nap.

Then bead necklaces

to match the oh-so-cool candy braclets from Target.

Cuteness!

How do you mend a broken heart?

2010-02-14T22:05:00.000-06:00

This week for stART we read One Zillion Valentines by Frank Modell. It was a spontaneous library pick, cute but not especially memorable. I liked it mostly for the page with lots of hearts in various sizes patterned in various ways.

We decided to make several different types of Valentines for our friends. First up were typical collage heart Valentines. I showed Noah how to cut out a heart from a folded sheet of paper. Then came the fun part: glue sticks! I don't know why they like glue sticks so much.

We also made some play clay hearts, using this cornstarch clay recipe from 5 Orange Potatoes.

The idea was to string them up and give them as necklaces, but between sickness and snow I never had a chance to get any ribbon. So theyl'll just hold a lollipop and that's it, once we finally see friends to give these to them.

And, finally, we also tried to make some heart-shaped crayons to give to friends, using the crayon-making kit Santa brought Noah for Christmas. (Santa couldn't find the actual Crayola Crayon-Making Kit that Noah requested. Santa also thought said kit was seriously overpriced. So Santa hit the thrift store instead.)

The crayons turned out beautiful.

But. Getting them out of the mold proved impossible to do without chipping the hearts. One of them broke into three different pieces. Not the message we were trying to send! So I tried warming them in the toaster oven--I was hoping to get them just soft enough to be fixable. But I left them in too long, and ended up with a big puddle of crayon wax.

So it was back to the drawing board. I reasoned that, since spraying the heck out of the mold with Pam (aka my usual solution for every sticky situation) had not worked, maybe filling the molds with water would keep the wax from sticking.

Well, the crayons did come out of the mold okay. And the tops looked lovely. But flip them over, and:

Ewww!

So tell me, if anyone is still reading this and actually knows, how DO you mend a broken (crayon) heart?

Roller coaster life

2010-02-13T23:26:00.000-06:00

The official snow total for Thursday was 12.5 inches--the all-time single-day record for Dallas. It was more like 6 or 7 inches for us, but still an insane amount of snow, and incredibly beautiful. Enough even for a real Texas snowman. So that was the plan for Friday: build a snowman or two, drink hot chocolate, gaze out the window.

The reality for Friday: Noah woke up throwing up. He spent the day laying on the sofa and watching TV. (At least we didn't lose power.) Nate was still too intimidated to venture out alone, and I couldn't leave Noah. And so. They both missed what will probably be THE snow of their whole childhood.

Oh well. They did get to play on Thursday. And there was enough snow left today for Mark to take Nate out and help him make this:

It's snow-Beaker!

And Noah is mostly feeling better, and Owen is cute as always.

So I guess we're on our way back up. But I'm dreading this coming Tuesday.

Snow day!

2010-02-11T21:20:00.000-06:00

We work up this morning to magic.

An inch of unexpected snow already on the ground! There was nothing for it but to head on out before breakfast.

and then, of course, again later

Nate was not completely thrilled--the neighbor's dogs came out early, and I think he got spooked--so we headed out to go to the rec center and bounce in the bounce house. Then, donuts! And watching the birds mob our pinecone birdfeeders.

A bit of a rest

and then time for more snow

and Valentines

and still more snow.

Today's been the most snow of any day of the 15 years I've lived in Dallas. It's been absolutely gorgeous, and so much fun to get to enjoy it with my boys.

A much better day

2010-02-10T23:28:00.000-06:00

After feeling wretched on Monday and just plain tired yesterday, I was ready to go again with the boys today. So, off to the museum!

Even in the middle of the science museum, it's important to take a reading break.

We've been to the Dallas Museum of Nature and Science three times now just this year, and they're still begging to go again soon.

Then this afternoon there was time to get ready for Valentine's Day

and to enjoy silly hats ($1 each at the grocery store! Go Mark!)

and hilarious big brothers, too.

Bleh

2010-02-08T15:11:00.000-06:00

I only thought we were done being sick. It hit me this morning. Thankfully before Mark left, so he took off today. Just hoping and praying it doesn't hit him or Noah or Owen.

Weekly highlight reel

2010-02-07T23:03:00.000-06:00

The week started off lovely:

We made and hung pinecone birdfeeders, then the boys stared out the back door, expecting birds to immediately descend.

Noah discovered Shel Silverstein and fell in love with poetry for the first time.

We painted with brushes dangling from strings (thank you Mary Ann Kohl),

and then (kind of) cleaned the floor.

Owen discovered that fists are good for more than sucking on: they can move things around!

We went to the mall, found several cheap pairs of pants for the younger two, and had the most enormous ice cream cones ever--all without a meltdown.

Valentines decor was created,

and the floor was (kind of) cleaned again.

Owen watched and charmed us all.

And then Wednesday, we took Noah to the doctor, as he's been complaining for weeks now about being sick. He hasn't shown any real symptoms, but Mark had a lingering sinus infection that left him tired but functional, so we thought maybe it wasn't just Noah drama.

So we get there, and the nurse asks him what's wrong. "Ummmm....well....sometimes....when I run really fast, I get all out of breath." Okaaay, then, anything else? "Wellllll....sometimes, when I go like this," and here he starts trying to do the splits from standing up, "it kinda hurts my legs."

Somehow the nurse makes it out of the room without laughing, Noah braves his way through a blood draw to check for anemia, and we get our lollipops and go.

And then the next morning Nate throws up all over the loveseat. So long, guilt over ignoring Noah; hello, guilt over needlessly exposing Nate to germs at the doctor's office.

He was one pretty sick little guy for a few days, but now he is better, the Saints have won the Super Bowl, and all is well with my world again.

Shel Silverstein line drawings

2010-02-06T20:30:00.000-06:00

A Mommy's Adventures hosts this lovely little link-up:

Noah has discovered Shel Silverstein and has been devouring A Light in the Attic over the last week. So, one day after Quiet Time, we made our own silly line drawings to go with Silverstein's silly poems.

I proposed that I read him a poem, he draw a picture to match, and then he could see the illustration in the book, but he wasn't having it. I think he was a little intimidated--he's such a perfectionist, and I think he believed his drawings needed to mirror the originals.

So we turned things around. He read me a few poems, then I sketched a picture to match. Once he saw that my pictures could be different than the books' but still be silly, he was ready to go. I read him Play Ball:

Play Ball
Okay, let's play, I think that we
Have everyone we need.
I'll be the strong-armed pitcher
Who can throw with blinding speed.
And Pete will be the catcher
Who squats low and pounds his mitt,
And Mike will be the home-run king
Who snarls and waits to hit
One, loud and long and hard and high,
Way out beyond the wall.
So let's get start-- What? You? Oh, yes,
You can be the ball!

and here's the result:

(pardon the wrinkles--evidently someone snatched it out of the book and trampled it on the ground before I could get a picture)

The only problem we ran into was that he'd already read his way through the book, so he had already seen all of the illustrations. In a few months I'll check out another Silverstein book and we'll try this again before he's seen all the pictures.

Texas snowman

2010-01-28T22:29:00.000-06:00

This winter has already seen the most snow of any year since I moved to Texas, but even our stunning white Christmas didn't produce enough snow for a real snowman. So we decided to make our own instead.

I folded over a large sheet of craft paper, then sketched and cut out the snowman figures. The boys each decorated one. Nate wanted me to help him, but really I just kept a hand on the marker and he did most of the drawing himself.

Noah's snowman

Nate had to add mittens and feet, just like Noah's.

Noah stapled them together most of the way around, and then we crumpled up some newspaper to stuff the snowman.

Don't make my mistake--after I took this picture, I realized we'd never be able to reach all the way to the top. I had to take out some of the staples on the side to be able to stuff the head.

I tried to get the bottom flat enough and full enough that Frosty could stand on his own. He's not quite independent, but close.

Now we just need to break out the cotton balls and have another indoor "snowball" fight.

My special floor wax

2010-01-28T00:03:00.001-06:00

Every once in a while, when the floor gets extra dirty, I let the boys give it their special treatment. I fill a bucket with soapy water, give them some rags, and let them go at it. The floor ends up completely soaked, but at least it gets clean(er).

They always end up taking off their clothes as soon as they get wet (so, basically as soon as they get started). This last time, I was in the laundry room when I heard the gleeful sounds of brothers going nuts. I thought I'd find my living room had turned into a lake. What I didn't expect was to find it had been turned into an ice skating rink, with the boys sliding around it on their bare bottoms. I guess you could say they were buffing it in the buff. Works for me!

So if my floor seems to have a certain unusual shine to it, now you know why.

Quiet Time is working!

2010-01-18T22:34:00.000-06:00

Ever since Noah gave up his nap, around this time last year, he's had mandatory Quiet Time while Nate sleeps. He's required to spend half an hour by himself in the bedroom. Mostly this is so Mommy can have 30 minutes to regain her sanity, lest the afternoons be filled with yelling and hair-pulling and general grumpiness, but also so Noah, who typically hangs on our every movement, could have a chance to learn to play by himself.

So for months he would pop out every five minutes or so, wondering if quiet time was over YET??? He would take books to read, because reading is just about the best entertainment ever, but he never wanted any toys, since if he can't play with Mommy or Daddy then it's just no fun. Half the time when I'd go to tell him quiet time was over, he'd be sitting on the bed staring dejectedly into space. The guilt was extreme, but how else to keep from losing my mind?

The past few weeks, though, it's changed. Now when I go to check on him, he's got his nose stuck in a book and ignores me for a quarter of an hour. Or he's built something elaborate: a utility truck/helicopter, a rocket/apartment building, or today's creation, an ice cream factory, complete with conveyor belt and delivery van. He's having fun! By himself!!! And I get to sit and center myself for half an hour guilt-free, and then go enjoy pretend lime sherbert with my big kid.

More Pick and Draw fun

2010-01-12T22:49:00.000-06:00

The creator of Pick and Draw, Rich Davis, thrilled me by showing up on my post about his game and leaving some great suggestions on how to extend the fun. I loved the idea to use the faces to illlustrate and dictate a story, but Noah couldn't be pinned down for that one. He was, however, game for making some puppets, so that's what we did.

I cut a page of cardstock into 6 pieces and let him go at it. We glued the pictures to popsicle sticks, and voila! Simple puppets.

Nate at some point decided that his guy, Dem, was eating a brownie, and then a pink brownie.

Dem is quite the messy eater.

3D bird masks

2010-01-07T22:45:00.000-06:00

As a teacher I was terrible at coming up with my own ideas, but I could always steal others' ideas and make them work for my own situation. Homeschooling seems to work the same for me. This fun 3D bird drawing went over great with the boys.

I folded the paper as directed, then stapled the beaks to paper plates. The boys saw this and immediately turned them into masks. They decorated a bit

and then a bit more

and then we spent the next half hour flying them around the house.

Mine says "tweet" and eats berries, Noah's says "quack" and eats worms, and Nate's makes airplane sounds and eats oatmeal (of course!).

Growin' Owen at Two Months

2010-01-05T23:01:00.000-06:00

Owen is two months old today. Already! Watch him grow:

at the hospital

1 week old and passed out at the dinosaur exhibit

almost 2 weeks and WIDE AWAKE for formal pictures

3 weeks and just almost smiling at big brother

4 weeks--Mommy sure is cozy

Hanging with the guys at 5 weeks

6 weeks

7 weeks--Merry Christmas!

8 weeks and discovering what a wonderful thing a fist can be

2 months old today and happy as can be

Pick and Draw

2010-01-05T22:16:00.000-06:00

Mommies Little Artist is hosting this giveaway of Pick and Draw, a cartoon-face drawing game. Noah and I tried it out today, and he absolutely loved it! He did the sample game dozens of times--I thought he'd get bored with it, but he seemed to enjoy doing the same one with just slight variations each time.

Cyclops!

Mommy's version

This was a huge hit, and did exactly what I hoped it would: give Noah a head start (ha!) to really getting creative.

Glittery snowman

2010-01-04T22:49:00.000-06:00

Today Noah announced that he wanted to do some glitter art. With glitter glue and glitter and sparkles. And I think, hmmm. I've really tried to give him space to create as he will, but it sounded like he just basically wanted to make a mess, and at 5 mess-making with our nicer materials is just getting old.

So we talked about respecting our art supplies, and we talked about what his plans were. At first there were none, but with a little prodding he came up with making a snowman scene. His eyes started lighting up, as a vision of his project launched itself in his head.

Maybe I need to push a little more structure onto our open-ended art. He looked so excited have a direction in mind. I'm still calling this our glitter-themed Open Ended Art, as it was really all him. And it turned out so cute. No pictures this time, since halfway through this Nate woke up and threw a still-tired, snotty-nosed fit for the next 20 minutes. Sigh.

Why I never make the beds

2010-01-03T21:33:00.000-06:00

Nearly every day, this happens:

or this:

Letting them pile up every blanket and pillow we posess buys me up to an hour of this

nearly every day. And all I have to do is keep being lazy.

I win!

Planning, Planning

2010-01-02T23:37:00.000-06:00

Tree's put away, decorations packed. Toys are even almost organized--a minor miracle. Time to get back into the swing of things.

Ambitious plans are afoot. Beyond this blog, there's the preschool art group I'm working towards too. Plus the inevitable overplanning of day-to-day stuff. I plan too much when I'm paid to teach; why should homeschooling be any different? Nice thing with that is: leftovers! Love them for dinner--now I just need to organize better so I can use up the leftover activities too.

It's a work in progress, and that's okay.

Pop Bottle Science

2009-12-31T20:33:00.000-06:00

My main reason for starting this thing is to have a memory album for my boys. But it sure is gonna be nice to be able to play in all the contests, giveaways, and weekly whatevers I see around, like this science fair at Ordinary Life Magic. She's giving away science books by Janice VanCleave, and I'd say go and join in, but A) the contest is over today and B) the only person reading this right now is me.

Anyhow, we finally had a 2 Liter bottle in the house (thank you Aunt Jane), so we could do two short little experiments I've had my eye on for a while, plus a bonus to qualify for the giveaway.

First up was Clicking Quarter. We put the empty bottle in the freezer for an hour or so, moistened the quarter, and then brought out the bottle and put the quarter on top.

As the air in the bottle warmed, it moved the quarter, with some very satisfying click click clicks. The boys were fascinated, and Noah might have even understood the science behind it.

Next up was Matter Takes Up Space from Janice VanCleave's website. We put a balloon over the mouth of the bottle and attempted to blow up the balloon.

That was as much as any of us could do. The air inside the bottle kept the balloon from expanding any more than that. I think this one went over Noah's head, though they both thought it was neat.

Last up was Oil + Water = Lava Lamp. We poured vegetable oil and water tinted with food coloring into the bottle and noticed how they stayed separate.

I thought the blue dye would make the separation more obvious, but it just confused them. It mixed with the vegetable oil enough to turn it green, and Noah just focused on that.

Two Year Old Creativity Knows No Bounds

2009-12-31T00:05:00.000-06:00

The boys use the basketball goal nearly every day.

They play lots of different games with it.

But I think today was the first time it's ever been used as a Christmas tree.

New Year's Resolution--Check!

2009-12-30T23:21:00.000-06:00

I rarely make New Year's resolutions, and even more rarely do I keep them, but this year I've accomplished one already. Create a blog to record what we do and have a memory book for the boys--check!

Now if I can just stop my perfectionism from taking over and making each post take an insane, unsustainable amount of time, I might actually be able to make this work.