This morning the big boys asked to play outside while I made breakfast. It was lightly raining so I said "sure! go get your crocs and coats on". But, they were smarter than mama and remembered the raincoats and boots that GG and GGpa gave them for Christmas (we keep them in the dress-up bin right now). They got ready in record time (funny how Logan is so slow about getting his cloths on until he's super motivated to do something fun like play outside!) They also grabbed their spider man umbrellas.

Conditions for a perfect rainy day:
1. No Thunder and Lightning - check
2. Light rain as opposed to downpour - check
3. Puddles for jumping - check
4. No wind - ahhhhhhh....bummer

They were back inside within 5 minutes saying that it was too windy. I told them to put the umbrellas down and just jump around in the water, but they decided to call it a day... maybe we'll have a perfect spring rainy day here soon...

Of course I took pictures though....they look so cute in their fireman raincoats!

I just simply can't WAIT to see Brady join in these kinds of activities too!! (he was still snoozing in his bed at 8 while Aiden and Logan were outside....and had already been up for a WHILE)

....well, it's certainly not a spotty red Brady!!


I took all three boys grocery shopping on Sunday (I'm insane...yes...Aiden threw multiple temper tantrums the ENTIRE time). They asked for, among a gazillion other things, more jello. Since I have banned Brady from eating or, rather, playing with jello, I decided to go with an old personal favorite - knox blocks! I LOVE these things!! I remember thinking they were so cool when I was a kid. Every time I buy the ingredients, I have to look up the recipe. I am going to put it here mostly for my own future use:

4 packages knox gelatin (1 box contains 4 packages)
4 packages sugar free jello (whatever flavor you want)
3 cups boiling hot water
* mix all together and put into a pan. chill in fridge and cut into squares....or into whatever


Since it randomly snowed yesterday, I made ours into snowflake shapes (ok...that...and also...it's the only small cookie cutter I didn't destroy with the crayon making project). Aiden was my little helper. He did some cutting and then passed out the snowflakes to his brothers.




"Here Brady....stop playing in the cabinet and have a jello-flake"

So...Logan was up and playing when I started writing this post today. He wanted to know what I was doing so I showed him the stuff I wrote yesterday. He saw the rocket with duct tape and was inspired. He started asking me to cut pieces of it for him and he made what he named "The Champion Racing Rocket Shooter" <-- he likes to make up names like that (right "Ice Thrower"...I mean Auntie Denna!)

He taped a ball, a block, a sword and a spy gear laser to his shopping cart and ran it all around the house. I just can't say no to creativity! :) Tonight in his room, Logan used his "Bob The Builder" magnetic blocks to make "Daddy's work building and hotel room in New York". I thought that was pretty cool too. He pointed out your room daddy!!

Last week was Spring Break. Logan didn't have preschool and the younger boys didn't have any of their classes either. We had some fun stuff planned like play dates, a couple trips to the gym and just general non-sense around the house. We tried a little more potty training for Aiden <-- he is PERFECT in his trips to the bathroom, but only if he is completely naked. If you put cloths or underwear of any kind on him....no dice. I wasn't as diligent as necessary so we're no closer than we were BEFORE spring break to having a fully potty trained kid <-- boooooo.


Our week started out with a busted TV lamp. This is just something unique to the kind of TV we have. Once every 2 years or so, the lamp burns out and needs to be replaced. No big deal except that you have to special order the bulb....and daddy has to be home to install it. Our TV burned out Monday night. The bulb and daddy didn't arrive until Thursday! Basically, a burned out lamp meant this: no TV of any kind downstairs, no DVDs, no Wii, no recorded shows for mommy to watch after the kids were in bed (all my shows start at 7 or 8 and I never get downstairs to watch them until around 8:15 or 8:30)...and let's keep in mind that there were NO classes, preschool or any other scheduled activities for the week. I'll admit that the kids have been playing WAY too much Wii lately so I took the lack of TV as a positive thing....and it REALLY wasn't bad at all....except for those few times when everyone was going crazy, I was trying to do something like prepare a meal, and I really really needed to have to ability to put on a quick show!


Nothing crazy and out of the ordinary happened during the week to prompt a blog post, but we did start a craft for Easter. It's not done yet because we have to find one missing piece, but I'll post our progress so far. I also took a lot of random pictures including some displaying our ever increasing need for duct tape...


This is a horrible picture because they were all moving so fast, but the three boys all found foam swords and had a little battle in the front hallway. I thought it was pretty cute because I'm starting to see all THREE of them playing together a bit more...even if it means sword fighting (gotta love boys!!) Easter Egg Tree: When I was little, my mom did this one year and I've always wanted to try it again. I bought the brown eggs for our project because I figured that they would be more decorative. I'm going to post all the details on the projects blog once the tree is complete, but here is what we did: Chip a hole in each side of a (real) egg.....

Blow the white and yolk out of the egg (run water inside the egg afterwards and rinse it a couple times!)

Initially, I thought I would use the eggs for breakfast that morning (waste not, want not)....but there were too many tiny shards of shell mixed in for my taste!

Random picture: Brady waits on the floor before we start painting our eggs. He's wearing the San Francisco shirt I bought for him last weekend :):)

Here are all three boys ready to paint eggs. I bought 4 colors that sort of match the decor of our house (how thrilling for the kids, right). It's sort of hard to see, but the eggs are all dangling from a hanger attached to the chandelier above the table. My initial idea was to hang the finished ones up there to dry....but the knobs on the kitchen cabinets were a much better and easier solution.

Even Brady painted (he pointed at the eggs hanging from the light and said "ball" "ball" until I gave him one and a paint brush)....

...then he ate it and I had to confiscate :)

By the way, the kids are dressed like crayons (bright colors) because we had planned to go to the Children's Museum that morning, but we changed our plans to go next week instead. I like to dress them like that for easy spotting in crowded places...usually in bright orange, but Logan and Brady didn't have anything bright orange that was clean.

After the boys were done with each egg....I added a little "something" to them (so much for artistic integrity, but it was my contribution to the project....right?!) Plus...I think it might make the overall tree look a little more....cohesive, if you will ;)

Eggs drying in the kitchen. Now we have to go on a nature walk to get a branch and put up our egg tree. It snowed today (and then melted) so maybe sometime this coming week!

One interesting thing did happen last week. I found Brady covered in a strange red rash. It was on his face, forehead, ALL over his hands, up his arms and even under his chin. The source???

red jello!

(I'm not kidding when I say that he was spotty for the rest of the day! That's it...no more red jello in the house - it stains!) When we went to the gym that afternoon and I told the girls who work in the kid's playroom not to be alarmed. "He's not sick," I said, "he had a bit of a run-in with a jello cup." When I got back from my workout, one of them told me, "you're not kidding! It's all up his arms!" I wonder why....look at that kid go!

Not sure why I thought this was so cute, but today Bray found a new way to use the little play table today....turn it over and rock in it!
And now on to the subject of duct tape. I think it's a true testament to the nature of boys that Logan now will break something, run to me and say "mom....we need duct tape!" I half expect him to say "STAT!" We used to use it to tape different toys together to make even BETTER toys (ie: we used to tape a rocket to the underside of an airplane and we also used to tape a superman to the bottom of a different vehicle). Now we use it to fix toys. One other observation: we have a lot of foam toys!

Duct tape used to fix a stomp rocket

...and used to fix a sword (I was about to throw this one out when Logan suggested a repair job instead! resourceful little guy!) I have started keeping the roll of tape up in one of the kitchen cabinets for easy access....I wonder what we'll do with it next...

These pictures are for GG and GGpa. Here is what Logan did with the birthday money you sent him: super hero kick board for the pool (in June I guess)

And....a (foam!) shark water shooting toy. Like I said....I guess he had summer on his mind. Either that or he and daddy went to Target the day the pool toys all appeared on the shelves!

Here's how you work the shark: put him under water, pull back on his tail to fill him up, take him out of the water and look for one of your little brothers.......


Logan currently likes to run around the house with this thing using it for a variety of other purposes...I anticipate it might need duct tape before summer arrives!

Warning to the casual reader: this post is quite long and probably boring ;)

This past weekend, Auntie Denna was alone since Uncle Tom had his annual "go watch basketball with his friends in Tahoe" weekend. They bought a new place back in December and I had yet to see it. We made plans for me to visit and to bring Logan!! I've taken Brady on a few trips to San Fran, but he's getting to the point where traveling for 4+ hours on a plane just doesn't sound like a good idea. Logan, on the other hand, is finally reaching an age where he can be entertained and reasoned with during a journey like that. Plus...he's been wanting to ride on an airplane and go to San Francisco for quite some time. He was SOOOO excited. We talked about our plans for weeks and discussed what we would take for the plane and for Auntie Denna's house.


The night before we left, daddy and the boys FINALLY managed to actually "surprise" mommy. The boys hide under blankets all the time (giggling non-stop so it's no shock when they jump out and yell "surprise"). It's our jobs, as mommy and daddy, to make like we have NOOOO idea where they are, feign worry, question out loud what has happened to our darling children etc. I was trying to get Brady ready for bed when Brian rushed in and said "come with me right NOW!" I walked into our bedroom and saw a little pile of blankets on the couch so I started my whole "gosh....I wonder where Aiden and Logan could be"....
...and suddenly, they both popped out of the suitcase on the floor behind me! I was ACTUALLY surprised. Good trick boys! This is a picture of them doing it again (and again and again). Pardon the naked baby, like I said...I was in the middle of getting him ready for bed (or...maybe I was at the START of getting him ready!!)

We headed out super early for the airport on Friday morning. It was such a joy to wake Logan. He was all warm and groggy and confused until I whispered "it's time to go on the plane baby!!" He perked RIGHT up and got all happy and excited! Here is Logan, with Scruffy Puppy, waiting to get on the elevator from the parking garage at the airport. Scruffy was our traveling buddy...Logan either held on to him like in the shot below or held his ears together and sort of dragged him along. Logan LOVED the moving walkways in the airports and is now a champion escalator rider (I didn't realize that he had never been on them before and the first few we took were a bit scary....I had to run up one continuously until he took my hand)

We were on a pretty huge plane on the way out. It had the typical 2 seats on each window with another row of 5 seats in the middle. We were smack dab in the middle of the middle seats. Brian was bummin' that we weren't going to be able to see out a window, but we took a couple walks during the flight. We looked at the mountains below (discussed why they are covered in snow), watched the air blow through the engines (discussed WHY we can see the air), looked at all the clouds and looked at all the stuff inside the doors like the emergency doors and the compartments where the emergency slides are stored. Each seat had it's own TV screen (on the seat backs). The channel selections were GREAT....there was a channel that showed the flight's progress on a map, the miles we had flown, the miles we had left, elevation, speed etc. Here is Logan with his headphones on. He was either watching the TV or watching a movie on Daddy's archos. He is holding a special new green transformer I bought for the trip.

There was a Disney Channel option on the TV programming and guess what!? Our (newest) favorite cartoon Phineas and Ferb was on!!!! I was SO excited. It played twice during our trip so that killed at least an hour of time!

We're here!!! I had to laugh because I got the totally typical "are we there yet" at least 20 times during the flight.

Auntie Denna and sweet baby Ryan picked us up at the airport. We had a few problems finding baggage claim so thank God Den was there to help us out. She actually found our luggage and then came to find us...as we were coming off of the transportation tram <-- I swear I'm not a traveling newbie...I just wasn't paying attention when they told us where to go as we were leaving the plane...I was talking to daddy on my phone instead! After we left the airport, we went straight to Fisherman's Wharf and Pier 39 (did I get that right Den??). I was thinking Boudin Bakery for lunch, but then we saw the Rain Forest Cafe. I know...totally NOT a San Fran thing, but Logan was going on and on about an aquarium so we thought it would be fun. (note: according to Logan, McDonald's is MUCH better than Rainforest Cafe! When I was reading him the menu, I asked him what he wanted and he said "McDonald's"......shrug). He did LOVE the fish though!!!

After lunch, we walked along the pier (stopped in and did some shopping at GAP....thank you Auntie Denna!!), moved quickly past all the GADS of street performers, and went to see the Sea Lions. There weren't nearly as many as usual, but Logan was thrilled to watch them for a few minutes.

These floating bouyies are usually FILLED with sea lions. We still got to see a bunch of them though...swimming around and laying in the sun. Plus...bonus - it wasn't as smelly as usual :)

Logan wanted to look through the "beenoculars" so Auntie Denna held him up and we tried to aim it at Alcatraz or any number of boats floating in the bay.

After stopping at one of the candy stores and procuring a GIANT bag of salt water taffy (yeah me!), we took a spin on the carousel. Look at my big boy trying to climb up all by himself! Of course we had to go to the top and he chose to ride a sea lion (what else, right?!)

Auntie Denna (pictured WAY below the top level of the carousel) waited patiently with baby Ryan. I was laughing because I have reached a point in my life where I get to go on carousel rides again, but I have to sit on the side in one of the "mom benches". This particular ride made me feel kinda nauseous...perhaps foreshadowing the events of early Saturday morning....

We stopped by a souvenir store on the way to the car and picked up a few things for the family. Logan has decided to collect pencils so he got a cool San Francisco pencil holder shaped...like a big pencil! (the top unzips and you put all your pencils and pens inside).

After leaving the pier, we took Logan to "the windy road". We kept telling him that we had a cool surprise for him on the way back to Den's place. After we went down, he was still asking, "so....are we going to go see my surprise now?" I was laughing because I remember going down that road the first time (at age 12 or so) and I didn't think it was all that exciting either. This time around....I thought it was pretty cool. Maybe you just have to be a bit older and wiser :) It's paved in red brick all the way down and it's hard to see, but it curves steeply back and forth 5 or so times.

Saturday morning, I woke up around 4am with a bit of a stomach bug (Brady threw up a couple times last week and I guess it was more than something he ate because I got sick and then, on Sunday as we were heading home, daddy got sick too). Anyway....after a little laying around in the morning (Wonderful Auntie Denna entertained Logan in the back yard with an airplane we had brought with us), I thankfully started to feel better. Unfortunately, it was a rainy and cold day so our entertainment options were limited. We tried to go check out a cool museum, but the line was literally wrapped around the entire building. We drove over the Golden Gate Bridge, drove back to the city, and got a slushy (Logan was happy!) Later that afternoon, Logan and I wandered down to the neighborhood park. It had the COOLEST stuff! Logan took a picture of me sitting in one of the only "swings" at the park - this giant disk thing.

A good majority of the space at the park was a sand box...filled with beach-like pebbly sand - totally cool!

There were two of these strange seat things and we couldn't really figure out what to do with them. Logan's idea was to sit inside one and have me spin him around. He LOVED it (see video!)

You'll have to excuse the fact that I had to spin him BY his head. It's hard to videotape and push at the same time.


Here, two local teens demonstrate how to use the disk swings :)

On the way back home, we took pictures of the houses that we thought were the "coolest". This was my favorite one - dark green with black trim. I love all the different garages on San Francisco houses!

There is just nothing like a street in San Fran....so unique and pretty!!

Yet another neat green house. Logan pointed it out (of course!)

Another amazing detail about the architecture are all the different wrought iron gates and door covers.

Here is Logan skipping down a hill

As we got closer to "home", Logan was walking and pointing at each house saying "no", "no", "no". When I asked him what he was doing, he said that he was looking for Auntie Denna's house. When we walked up to it, he pointed and said "yes!" I was impressed!!

Here is Den's building. I like the detailing on the window.

Ready to go back to Chicago!! Logan was quite sad to leave Den and Ryan. He was mopey as we went through the check-in line for our return flight. He perked up when we talked about seeing the rest of the family again. AND...we managed to get a window seat on the way home! We saw SO much cool stuff before take off too! We saw the line of planes waiting behind us as we pulled into a little waiting space on the side, we saw two other plans take off in front of us AND we saw two planes land on the runways before we pulled into line. It was a cool lesson for Logan on how the whole take off and landing thing is coordinated (we have a book about airplanes so we talked a lot about what it says regarding the pilot and the control tower while we watched out the window)

After a weekend of no naps, Logan was quite exhausted and fell asleep in the car on the way home from the airport. We were SO happy to see Aiden, Bray and Daddy again!! Poor Daddy was sick and couldn't wait for our arrival either :)

We had so much fun together on our special trip!! Thank you Auntie Denna for having us and for showing us the city!!! Next time, maybe Aiden can come too :) (new rules for traveling with just mommy...you have to be potty trained and sleep in a big boy bed!)