With Logan and Aiden both in some sort of school right now (Logan in pre-K and Aiden in Little Learners), plus the fact that Aiden loves to do “projects” at home, I have been getting quite the influx of art work in the house. I have a hard time finding enough fridge space for all of these wonderful creations so I wanted to create a designated area where they could be on display. I decided that the hallway between the formal and every-day dining rooms would be a great place for an art gallery. I had planned to have this whole thing done back in July, but I’ve had some set backs along the way. For example, my plan was to spray paint baking sheets and then use these amazing Uppercase Living embellishments (sold by my dear friend Lisa) to make them look similar to the framed old tin ceiling tiles we have in the living room. My idea was that all the art work could be hung on these sheets using some really adorable magnets I found at Office Max. The first set of pans I used were non-stick and um…the paint did NON stick to them. I bought some cheap-o ones that worked better, but Brian found one in the garage one day and used it, unknowingly, as a drip pan for oil. Long story short, I started and re-started this project many times. I also had a hard time finding wall hooks that I really liked. I finally found a set of painted hooks that are modeled after old outdoor water faucets. After much delay and some dismay, my Gallery is done….almost….I still have to have Brian hang one shelf for our 3D projects (like the rocks the boys painted in summer camp last July). Here are some pics of (drum roll please): The Gallery at The 554:

Here is one side of the hallway. The shelf will hang above the pan nearest the light switch. There is a picture on the pan closest to the camera so you can’t see the full effect of the “tin tile”  

Here is the other side of the hallway. There is one hook by itself which we’ll use to accommodate projects of the “hanging” variety like the Halloween mobile Logan brought home last month. I should have hung it a little to the left, but whatever. The thermostat there on the wall is so definitely not part of my display…

Our first induction into the gallery: Logan’s “sentence” from school last week when he was the class leader. Each day there is one child chosen as the leader; they help write a sentence and then circle a given letter (obviously that day’s letter was t) 

Bad picture (what’s new!) of the shelf still left to hang. But mostly…..I’m done!!! I’m excited about our new art-work display area and I hope it makes the boys feel proud of their creations!

Today, as we do 2-3 times a week, I took the boys to the playroom at the gym so I could get in a little work out. Despite the fact that many of our neighbors also go to the same gym and, despite the fact that they often have playmates there, the boys are not at all happy when I tell them where we're going. They always moan and groan, but eventually pick out a toy each to take with them and head out. Some days they all trot off once we arrive, but some days Brady has a hard time saying good-bye. The girls in the playroom, however, are wonderful and always get him to calm down. They have built a relationship with me and my kids, several have even sat for us at our house. Eventually, they all have fun while they're there. None-the-less, when workout time is over and I re-enter the playroom to pick up my boys, I always get the greatest mommy gift: a big 'ol three-way tackle of love! There is a little door separating a "drop off / pick up" area from the "playroom". I usually open the door and go in to help the boys with coats and shoes. When the girls see me, they shout, "Logan! Aiden! Brady! Mom's here" ...and then they come a runnin! My favorite days, like today, are the ones where they all get to me at the same time. I squat down and open my arms and they all try to topple me over. Ah....the love of a few good (little) men! Nothin better!



Just to finish up some of the last week's fun events, I wanted to post about the surprise the kids all got at preschool last Friday. Our town just built and opened a really big, very nice, new fire station. The weekend before Halloween, there was an open house where kids could go and sit on the trucks, tour the place and enter a contest to get a ride to school on a fire truck. Well...guess who won that ride? No...not Logan, we didn't even make it to the open house. BUT...one of his classmates did! The teachers kept it a surprise, but told the parents to stick around on Friday with any younger siblings. It was a blast! Lucky Dylan and his mom arrived at the school and then the firemen parked the truck in the parking lot. The kids all got a demonstration of the equipment and even got to climb inside. Logan's teacher was kind enough to let Aiden tag along like one of the students and even Brady got to walk through the truck with his brothers. She took some great pictures! Brian likes the one below of the boys so much that he wants a copy for his desk!

How is it that I haven't blogged in like a week?! Honestly, it's because work for me has been very busy lately including mid-day conference calls (which are extremely hard to do with the boys running around) and working as many hours as I can after the kids are in bed at night.

So...I have a lot to say (warning: potentially boring post!)

Last Monday I took the boys for their H1N1 vaccinations. I was so super proud of them. They knew exactly why we were there and we even talked about how the shot was going to hurt just a little. They stood in the long, but quickly moving, line and kept saying things like "is it our turn yet?! I promise I'm going to be brave!" Logan was very intent on going first...until we got into the room. Suddenly he decided Aiden could go first. Aiden actually had no problem with that, let me take off his shirt, watched the needle go in and didn't even flinch. As soon as Logan saw Aiden's reaction, he jumped up, took off his shirt and yelled, "me next!" Brady went last and did cry...until the nurse brought out a bucket of lollipops...then it was all fine and dandy.

Other Monday things: swim class and soccer. We recently switched our swim lessons to a new place. Logan and Aiden are in a class together with two little girls. They goof around and act crazy when they're supposed to be paying attention, but it's a blast to see them share their first activity together. I think the overall content of this class is much better than their old ones where they did the exact same thing over and over and over again. They work on a variety of skills and seem to get a lot more time with the teacher. However, the pool is colder and so poor Aiden was shivering like crazy last week. I plan to take their swim shirts tomorrow...maybe that will help a little. Logan....well....I'm starting to understand that Logan isn't comfortable with change and has a bit of his mom's fear of failure. The second week of class, he sat on the edge and refused to go in until I threatened to take him to the locker room to get dressed if he wasn't going to participate. Last week, he was very upset when I told him it was swim day. I gave him a little space and went about getting the other boys ready for our day. A little while later, I found him, sat with him and asked him to please explain to me why he didn't want to go to swim. Well...it seems that he's afraid he's not going to do it right. I guess the repetition of the other class was comforting after all. I explained that no one does something right the first time they try and that's why you go to a class. The teacher is there to help you so you just pay attention to her, practice on the side of the pool and do your best. If you aren't sure that you're doing it right, ask her to help you - that's why she's there! I was so proud of him! He did exactly what I suggested and was even trying everything on the side while he watched the other kids. During our discussion at home before we left, he also mentioned that he felt a little frustrated at karate. He joined in the middle of a testing session (hard to explain), but the whole class is about to start over again so he's going to be just fine. We decided together that I would tape the class so that we could work on the moves at home together...not to make him the best in the class or anything like that, just to make him comfortable because he LOVES going to karate and I want him to have fun.

So wow - I had more stuff to write about, but that was a lot! I'll talk about some more of last week's stories another day! I do have pictures though!!

One day during lunch, Aiden wanted some of his stretchy lizards with him at the table. He also thought they should have some food. I found our left over Halloween sprinkles, picked out some mini candy bats for the lizards and put them in a bowl. I thought they sort of looked like bugs (which is what we always talk about lizards having for lunch). Aiden made sure each of his pets had at least one "bug bat" to eat.

That same day Logan brought one of his McDonald's Bakugans to lunch. This little guy obviously needed food too so he got the orange sprinkle part of the "sprinkle mix" (this is what's left over after you pick out the bats so it worked out well...)

Have I mentioned how the boys love to steal my camera!? I had a LOT of crazy pictures to delete from last week. This one made me laugh! Logan and his friends on the street have a crazy exchange program going on where they trade toys or "borrow" from each other all the time. I usually have a pile of "things to return" on my counter top. Logan was obsessed with this batman for like 2 days. It belongs to AJ. Inspired by his love, we added a batman toy to his Christmas list :)

We have a new tradition at the 554 these days...invented by Logan (wow...this is a Logan-heavy post!) Anyway, last week we made homemade soup with cheese bread for dinner on Friday night. It was a chilly fall evening and it seemed right! That night, Logan was eating his soup and said, "Hey! I have an idea! Every Friday, let's make soup and have grilled cheese sandwiches! We'll call it soup Friday!" Brian loves cooking and we all love soup (not to mention grilled cheese or cheese toast) so we decided it was an excellent idea. This past Friday, Logan requested Tomato soup. Brian made an amazing version of an old favorite which included bacon, mushrooms, cream, a little gin and diced tomatoes. He also made his own focaccia bread. I'm such a lucky girl! :) Anyone remember our grand plans to make a family cookbook complete with pictures? I think we're going to simplify that idea and start with a Soup Friday book.

Here is the yummy bread!

Logan and daddy getting ready to chow down.

And now to Brady news:

theyyyyyy'rrrre baaa-aaack - the long forgotten Thomas trains! Logan loved, loved, loved, loved (get it??) Thomas when he was Brady's age. It started at 16 months and ended about a year later. In that time, we accumulated a lot of trains, a train table and tons of wooden track. These days we have GeoTrax LAND in the basement which all three boys enjoy. I even recently moved the train table to Aiden's room for his marble run. Bear saw Thomas on TV one day and has been requesting it frequently. Aiden and Logan will sit and watch it as well so it's definitely a go-to crowd pleaser. Today, Brady found one of the wooden Thomas trains and was rolling it along the floor. I got the rest of the trains out of the hallway closet, set up a track on the floor in the foyer and he played with it ALLLLL day long (save for the 2 hours we went out to see the movie Astro Boy in the morning <-- very cute movie by the way, and during his nap)

In this picture, he is pointing to the trains and saying "my trains!" Other things frequently heard: "tains tains! go tains! hoo hoo!" <-- that is Brady's train sound! He will often get frustrated while trying to hook them all together on the track. He'll find one of us, do a "come with me" motion and say "help - tains!" Logan was a doll and helped him out a lot today when mom and dad were busy.

The tree in our backyard is shedding pine cones like crazy. Some of the (older) neighborhood boys have been throwing them around and my kids have followed suit. This afternoon, Brian went out and collected a bunch of them with the boys. He found a craft on the Internet, which I then did with them (crafts are not Brian's strong suit). These are pine cone owls. Cute...not too hard to make!

The pipe cleaners and pom poms we have on hand in the house are all in Christmas colors so our owls look a little like they belong on Seasame Street :)

So I just packed away Halloween decorations, leaving some of the more “fallish” items in place, and added a few others for this Thanksgiving month. However, I feel like I’m already thinking and planning ahead to December (which is usually not at all like me since I’m a November baby and get irritated when people seem to skip right over this time).

First, Brian got an email last week about a little boy who has terminal cancer. His family is celebrating Christmas early this year. He loves Christmas cards so his family sent around a message urging people to send them. I got the same email from another friend later in the week which makes me happy – l read that he has already received thousands of cards!! Last Thursday night, Brian and I spent some time making one with the boys. (pictures below)

Second, I have been beyond perplexed for about a month now every time I think about what to get the boys this year. I’ve spent hours and hours pouring through toy catalogs and on-line sites trying to sort it all out. We want to be on a strict budget mostly because they don’t NEED to get a million things. I want the few items that we pick out to be meaningful and special to them. So, I made my choices and ordered everything! I didn’t even leave the house, but I do have to admit that my major purchase DID come from Target! May I reiterate: I have a Target problem!

Third, I just spent the morning trying to get my three boys to stay still, smile and look cute simultaneously in the hopes of getting a picture good enough for our Holiday card. Our usual tradition is to take a family picture at Thanksgiving, but it seems like I then take a couple weeks after to get my act together, order, wait for the order to arrive, address etc. and then I’m “late”! I had stopped by Carter’s last week to get Aiden one of his Christmas wishes, “basketball pajamas that actually fit me.” This was a request we got after I had to take away his old ones, which were WAY too short, and reassign them to Brady’s drawer. Anyway, while I was shopping at Carter’s, I saw some very cute Christmas PJs. I started poking around and the ones I liked looked to be well in stock…until I began checking the sizes. Out of 5 piles of these pajamas, I only found 1 size 4T! So…I grabbed a 5T, the 4T and a 2T. After the boys woke up this morning, I put them in the holiday jammies and had FOUR different photo sessions with them…spread out amongst playing, eating and general hanging out. I took over 160 pictures. Not ONE is that great, but I was dying laughing while I reviewed them – 3 boys together are funny!!! I got enough decent ones to make a card though so – CHECK! I also uploaded them to Costco.com and made about 5 different ones for Brian to review and pick!

At this rate people, I will have my act together this year…I think….

Below is the card we made for Noah Biorkman. I made the mistake of letting the boys choose Christmas pasta for decorations. I need to find a padded envelope! It was hard to trace Brady’s hands so I painted them and cut out the prints…but not before I realized I used a different color of green paper. Oh well. Aiden’s are in the middle and Logan’s on the bottom. Aiden wanted to draw “the stem”…that’s why it’s blue!

Sadly, I think the family celebrated this weekend, but we’re still sending our card along with a dollar that will be donated to the Michigan neuroblastoma research center and the Michigan Make A Wish Chapter. Here is the address if anyone else is interested!

Noah Biorkman 1141 Fountian Viewcircle South Lyon,Mi 48178

Since he’s getting so many, I wrote down what the boys told me to write…short and sweet. Oh and yes, Brady won’t be 2 for another month, but it’s getting annoying to say he’s 23 months old.

Here are the best (hahahahaha, I laugh hysterically) of the pictures I took today. I am posting a bunch of them because they seriously made me crack up. Click on “slide show” for the full effect (or if you want to feel my pain as I tried to take these pictures!)

View Full Album

Last year, right around this time, Memaw and Grandpa took the boys to the library to check out some books. About a month ago, they did the same. The boys came home with the following: “Smiley Shark”, “Big Fish Little Fish”, “Hooray for Fish” (are we seeing a pattern here?) and a Star Wars book. One night, as we were reading “Hooray for Fish” for the umpteenth time in his room, Aiden started “reading” along. I had him try the whole book from the beginning. I was impressed that he knew all the words (had memorized the words that is..not that he can actually read them). Last year, I  video taped him “reading” the book “Skippy John Jones: Color Crazy”aaaaaaaaaaaa so I decided to tape this one too. The books were due back on Tuesday so I made this video quickly before we had to take them back.

I wanted to include a link to the Skippy John Jones post, but back then I didn’t know how to do embedded videos so there is only a link to youtube there anyway. Instead, I’m going to post both videos now. First: Aiden in 2008 “reading” Skippy (2 years and 3 months old) and then this year reading Hooray for Fish (which is quite hard to hear I might add…he was speaking quickly and slurring the words a bit). Logan helps finish the book and notice how Brady comes in and yells at me for pointing the camera to him. He’s got the paparazzi move down pat! Oh and I now remember why I taped the Skippy book…I thought it was so cute that 1. Aiden thought his name was “Skippy John Jones Color Crazy” and 2. He repeats to Skippy what he had, at that point, been told MANY MANY times “you only color on paper!”

Sorry for the delay on the Halloween pics (mom’s camera and the computer are not seeing eye-to-eye and I had some transfer problems). So…Halloween was a great success this year. Kristin and Joel hosted the “before” party and The Dietz family took the “after” party. After naps and some pictures at the house, we headed out with our three little super heroes around 3:15. The kids played, decorated pumpkins and had a little dinner before we hit the candy trail. After we made the usual path through our subdivision, we all gathered together for more playtime, more sweet treats and a taco spread for the adults. Perfect!!

I have to say that as of this posting, the kids have already forgotten about their candy bags…mom and dad, unfortunately, have not ;)

Lizard Boy, Rocket Boy and Fly Boy – ready to go! Mission objective: procure sweet treats (ah…looks like they’ve already raided the home candy bowl!)

By the way, we have some terrible trick or CHEATERS in our neighborhood! We left our candy bowl on the porch with a sign saying please just take 2 pieces. Of course, just like last year, it was totally emptied by 4pm (as reported by a neighbor who stopped by to find an empty bowl on our porch, Anne & Jeff’s porch and on Pete and Susan’s porch). They even took my sign!! <—which I made all cute on the computer too! In my head, they are Jr. High boys…meanies!

Back to the nice stuff….here are the back of the capes on all three boys

Rolling down the street to the Epstein party! We took the wagon around during actual trick-or-treating and, predictably, not one of the boys used it. Chad pulled it for us as it carried a bunch of coats and other “stuff”

“YEAH!”

Susan and Mackenzie dressed as mommy and daughter witches (Mackenzie’s request!) 

Here, the kids decorate pumpkins. Logan did his in about 3 minutes while Aiden was the last kid left at the table!

Susan and Holli

Brady snagged his first piece of candy as we left the Epstein house! “I am Fly Boy…I am off to find friends for this lonely piece of chocolate!”

The neighborhood gang.

“I am Rocket Boy….I will destroy your attempts to take good pictures by blocking everyone with my fantastic cape!” I forgot to turn the camera around this year and take pictures of all the parents, armed with various recording devices (cameras, phones, video equipment)

“I am Fly Boy…I refuse to stand still for this picture-taking non-sense!”

“cheese”

“are we done yet?!”

“enough with this mask!”

I think this is the last time I saw Logan. He was quick…and I was on Brady duty…who was very definitely NOT quick!

See…here comes Bray and the other kiddos, save for Aiden, have come and gone!

“I think there is more candy this way!” The feet far in the distance are the dads…who always bring up the rear of our trick-or-treat parade. Bear refused to be carried though and he was having such a blast that I just let him do his own thing!

This is Aiden saying, “mommy! I got a BLUE LOLLI-POP!!” For me, the French phrase “joie de vivre” just pops into my head for this picture.  For those of you who did not take French, it means “joy of living”. What could be more joyful than the excitement a little boy takes from getting a BLUE lolli-pop I ask!? :)

“and I’m off!”

At the after party: Susan made the kids these amazing which-hat cupcakes and alien cookies – so cool!

The black part of the cupcake is a frosting-coated ice cream cone.

One of the few things that will actually get Brady to give up his much-loved paci…cake!

I was going to do a separate post on this, but here is Logan with his very first ever homework assignment…candy counting. Logan, Aiden and I worked on this together Sunday morning.

We counted, grouped, sorted and um…ate the candy stash.

Here is the pumpkin Aiden decorated at the Halloween party.

Here are Logan’s pumpkins. The one on the left is from the party and the one on the right is from school.

Today was the first run the super hero costumes…at least for the big boys. Logan had his preschool Halloween party and Aiden decided to attend the school parade in costume as well.

Before we left the house, Logan practiced his “Rocket Boy” moves (which are somewhere between karate and strong man poses)

If I were a bad guy, I would be very afraid! By the way, two of the many many words Brady has suddenly added to his repertoire are “bad guy” (seriously…that kid went from talking very little to at least identifying almost everything! pretty cool)

I had totally different visions for the boys’ capes, but this was the best I could come up with aside from sewing totally new ones. It helps get the “I made up my own super hero” message across.  Aiden in (most) of his costume. I have to go get longer blank pants for him tomorrow.    I love the flying cape effect!

Action shot!

Here comes the parade! We were standing outside of the school. I loved the teacher’s costume from the 3-year-olds class – she was an ice cream cone with sprinkles.

Here comes the pre-K class with Logan near the front waving to us

They walked around a few times

Aiden insisted I take some shots of him too (then he stole my camera!)

Me and Bear (there were more…I deleted like 20 I think)

The teacher went down the line and “introduced” all the different kids in their costumes. She did a great job with Logan who had apparently already told her QUITE a bit about Rocket Boy. Logan reported to daddy that someone in his class looked at his costume and exclaimed, “what the heck!?” One of the moms, who I have known for some time, asked me what my boys were dressed as. When I said “they made up their own super heroes” several people in line watching the parade said “oh” (as in I was also wondering) and then “that’s very imaginative!”

This is Logan and one of his best friends from school, Dylan.

I helped plan the class party so I got to attend and…take MORE pictures :) Here is Logan doing one of the crafts: pumpkin painting

Logan waves (lower left) as I take a shot of the room

One of the many games the kids played was pin the nose on the pumpkin (there was some debate amongst the moms and teachers regarding if they could see through the blindfold because most of them were right on the money!)

Snack time! These kiddos don’t get a snack every day because school is only 2 hours and 15 minutes long. The administrators have elected not to use up 20 minutes eating every day (good, in my opinion). So this was a really special treat for them.

And finally…some stories.

After school, I picked up the little guys who were hanging with grandpa and we headed over to the park where we meet once a week with our "old” playgroup friends to work out some energy and have lunch. Of the usual suspects (three families who go most weeks), we are only missing Alex from this picture. He was off for a hearing and vision screening, but his big brother Adam (top in orange) stayed to play. Aiden wacked Brady at some point during the park outing so I asked him to apologize. This led to a big group brother hug…which was super cute until Logan let go and Aiden toppled over on Brady knocking him to the ground…which was probably more painful than the original injustice Aiden was currently apologizing for. Oh well…I tried.