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!