Art class

Michael started a new art class today: Dozers, Trains, Monster Trucks and Racecars! The teacher is the same woman that taught his pottery class in the fall and she is awesome. All of the other kids in the class also have a toddler sibling tagging along, but Justin is the only boy. He really participated in class today, so essentially I'm getting two for one. Much easier than chasing Justin around the ceramics room.

 Today's project was a kind of collage that Michael covered with paint and then drove on to make tracks. I think it will look pretty cool once it's dry.

Justin also made a picture with tracks. His first real artwork! The class is 4 weeks long, so I can't wait to see what other projects they will do!

A gift for Jesus

Luke just brought this home. I think it must have been hanging in the classroom for a couple of weeks as it looks Epiphany related. That's Luke in his "old-fashioned" clothes, giving a shiny crown to baby Jesus because "it would be beter then the crown of thorns."

Dining with friends

 Justin has a waffle with syrup (DIP! DIP!) every morning. Often, he dines with his friends: puppies, babul (bulldog) and na-nas (mickeys). Sometimes, one of the puppies gets up close and personal with the syrup. Then, mommy has to sneak it into the laundry.

Winter Hike

Yesterday, we went for a hike at Blendon Woods. It snowed for the first time on Friday and Saturday and will be gone by tomorrow, so we wanted to enjoy it while we could.

My kids are so hodgepodge--boots, coats, hats, mitts and snow pants (which they aren't wearing) --nothing matches. I think I tried at one point to have coordinating sets for winter, but then one kid grows too much, one doesn't grow enough, some items wear out and don't pass down, new items appear from who-knows-where and you end up with hodgepodge kids.

What the . . .?

How did Justin get the bag of M&Ms? How did he proceed to empty it so carefully into the bowl? How did I miss him doing this since I was standing in the kitchen at the same time?

A map of the study

Luke made a map of the new study in school today. It's probably my favorite thing he's ever drawn! I just love that he has Mom's Phd, Dad's Phd, mom's masrs dugry and Dad's mastrs dugry all hanging in a row. I guess I didn't expect that Luke would notice that mommy has degrees, too, especially considering that I forget myself that I have a PhD half the time!

Barracks and a Study

When Bo was here, we moved Justin in temporarily with the big boys. Then we all slept in one room in Toronto. It went well enough that we decided to make it a permanent move. Justin is still not ready to be in a toddler bed (well, we're not ready to have him in a toddler bed), so for now he will sleep in the pack n play. We bought a foam mattress pad and cut it down to make it more comfortable. The pack in play fits perfectly between the bunk beds and Luke's dresser. When he moves to the toddler bed, we will have to rearrange a bit, but it should still fit fine.  The big boys are not bothered if Justin cries during the night, although we are still fine tuning bedtime. They do have a hard time all going to sleep together as Luke and Michael keep playing with Justin and not letting him sleep. We've tried putting Justin to bed first, but the boys cannot seem to be quiet enough not to disturb him when they go to bed (we'll keep practicing). Right now, we are keeping Justin up until the boys fall asleep and then he'll go down fine. My kids have never played in their room, so transitioning their room into a bunkhouse for boys just makes sense. Justin's name is on the wall now (the other boy's have theirs up on the other walls), so there's no turning back! Sure, I could have made the boys' beds for the picture, but I was going for realism! BTW, there were three kids in this room when we bought the house--three girls sleeping in twin-over-full bunk beds.

 The reward? A study! Matt has really wanted a place to quietly be away from everything and I do work from home, too. We moved all of the bookcases in there and have been able to bring up some of our own books for the first time in probably 3 years. We probably need a different desk as this is a computer desk without a computer, but it will work fine for now and it does have our printer/scanner on it. Luke does his homework on it and Michael likes it, too.

 The kids' books are in here, too, and Luke just had to try out the new reading chair we got on clearance at Value City. Our degrees are finally on the wall, too!

This will also be our new guest room. It should be much warmer and more comfortable than the playroom was and allows us to send the kids down to the playroom to get out of our hair when guests are here.

Michael and Kay

I did a post like this once before back in 2008. More than 3 years later, Michael's uncanny resemblance to his grandmother Kay seems to just get stronger with time. It is simply remarkable.

   

Then and Now . . . yikes!

My flower girls, Jessie and Allie, at my wedding in July 2000. Jessie was 6 and Allie was 4. My Aunt Debbie adopted later in life, so my cousins are about twenty years younger than me. I actually haven't seen them since the wedding, but I'm friends with them on Facebook.

 

Which is how I got this picture . . . . Wowzers!