This past week was our spring break. Logan didn’t have school and most of our other classes were off as well. We teamed up with some friends and did a few really fun things. Activities for the week included: lunch at the BK playground with cousin Jack (after swim class…which was not cancelled), playgroup on Tuesday (Logan was so excited that he got to go for a change since he wasn’t in school!), 2 dinner play dates – always fun, a trip to the mall for pictures with the Easter Bunny, glow-in-the-dark mini golf and lunch at the food court, a trip to Chuck E Cheese with Connor and Ashley and then a fun family outing on Friday with Daddy who took 1/2 a day off from work. For family day we went to check out a new burger joint called Five Guys (thumbs up all around), then we went to see How to Train Your Dragon (HUGE thumbs up all around). To round out the day, we went to an indoor splash park at one of the local YMCAs (very cool and another round of GIANT thumbs up!)

By Saturday, we were all sort of pooped so we hung around the house for most of the day. Logan and Daddy ran errands (more to come later on our multiple trips to Menard’s & Home Depot!) while Aiden and I made some Easter crafts.

I didn’t take my camera with us much during our adventures. I did snap a couple shots with my phone at Chuck E Cheese though. Here is Logan riding “rainbow bike”…that’s my name, not the actual name.

As soon as we arrived, I bought a balloon and secured it to the back loop of Brady’s jeans so we wouldn’t lose him. He has been a chronic wanderer lately…and he’s fast too! We called him “balloon baby” and trust me, we needed to track him down many many times during our visit. Here he is with Barney on a train ride. I should have taken a picture where you could see the balloon. For the first 10 minutes, he was more interested in the fact that Chuck E was following him around. He would just stop to stare up and behind him, point and say “Chuck E!!”

I was super impressed with our Easter Bunny photo experience! Brady was absolutely enthralled with the bunny. He stood there waving at him until it was our turn. Aiden decided last minute that he didn’t want to do the picture. I thought for sure I was only getting a shot with 2 boys, but then the bunny reached over into a basket and showed him the striped lollipops that you get as a treat after your picture. VOILA! – Aiden was game! This is the first time I’ve ever taken the boys to see the Easter Bunny!

And speaking of Easter, here are the eggs Aiden and I made yesterday (again, craft from Orientaltrading.com). I have since attached the ribbons that came with them so our “Easter egg tree turned shamrock tree” is now, once again, an Easter Egg Tree!

Aiden got into a groove of making his eggs into people. From left to right, these are Aiden, Logan and Mommy. He gave himself “little feet…because I have little feet”. We ran out of eggs before he could make Brady and Daddy.

Now ladies, don’t be jealous, but I had to take a picture of my super sexy husband yesterday. There really is nothing finer than a man making fresh salsa and guacamole!

Ok fine…so said man doesn’t like me taking his picture. Haha funny guy. Put the knife down and keep cookin’!

I wish you could smell the area right above this cutting board! Brian used his Himalayan salt block (thank you Nana and Papa) to make scallops which he marinated in orange juice and spices. Some of the salsa went into a shrimp ceviche which we ate out of giant margarita glasses. So yummy! The boys…well, they had PB&Js for dinner…stinkers don’t know good food when they see it!

It’s taken me forever to get around to this post! I knew it would be a long one so I’ve been procrastinating!

Logan was the lucky recipient of 2 birthday parties this year. I didn’t want to add all the preschool friends to the neighborhood party, so we did his “usual” party on Saturday, March 6th and a playgroup party for his preschool friends on Monday, March 8th since that’s the only day they don’t meet for school.

After much debate, we settled on a Spy theme. The invitation, designed to look like a mini file folder with the words “top secret” on the outside, detailed that all guests were needed for “Mission Birthday Party” and would be trained to help solve “the case of the missing goody bags”

As guests arrived, we took their pictures in sunglasses and a knit cap. These were used to print up spy training badges. After each training activity, the kids got a star placed on their badges. After pictures, everyone assembled in the front living room for a briefing which included news that three spies had infiltrated the Houck Spy Training Academy. Their names: Victor Violet, Evil Dr. Green and the Blue Bandit. They had worked together to steal all the goody bags, but had left them in the training academy along with a bunch of clues. The kids were told that their ultimate goal would be to find the treats, but they needed some training first!

Step one (crafts): I printed some fingerprint cards from the Internet and the kids used different colored ink to take their prints. I also found kid-friendly examples of standard finger print types which I copied and put out with the crafts. There were magnifying glasses on the table which the kids could use to compare their own prints to the actual ones. The other craft was “decorate your own binoculars”. I found some pretty cool collapsible binoculars on Oriental Trading.com which actually work surprisingly well!.

Step two (bomb defusing): I made three different trails of yarn (in 3 different colors) with black balloons tied along them. The trails led up the front stairs, in and out of all the rooms upstairs, plus a few closets, and then down the back stairs to the basement. Each team had to follow their line and “defuse” (pop) the balloons along the way.

Step three (games): In the basement, I had set up 2 laundry baskets which contained different dress up cloths like hats, masks, sunglasses, boas, and capes. The kids were split into 2 teams for “the master of disguise relay race”. Each person had to put on 3 different things, run down and back, take off the cloths, put them in the basket and go to the back of the line. The next person had to wait until the child in front of them had taken off all the disguise items before they could start. The boas were especially popular since they were quite easy to throw on (moms were helping each team). We played spy music for the race like the themes from James Bond, The Pink Panther and Mission Impossible.

Next game - Pass the Password (aka grapevine). Again, the kids were in two teams, but seated in a circle on the floor. We gave the first child in each circle the sentence, “the secret password is…” and then a funny word like spaghetti or fun. They had to whisper the password around the circle with the last child announcing the password out loud. Aiden, the last person in one of the groups, announced at one point, “the secret password is…I don’t know”. :)

After a dinner of hot dogs and cake, the kids were split into 3 teams by age (2&3 year olds, 3&4 year olds and 5&6 year olds) for the final challenge: Mission Good Bag Recovery. Nana and I had made three different scavenger hunts tailored to the three different age groups. For example, the 2 & 3 year olds had clues that were mostly pictures while the oldest kids had rhyming clues. (I had walked randomly around the house a few days prior to the party taking shots of good hiding spots with my camera and then had the pictures developed for the little kids.) Each group was given a manila envelope with a picture of their particular “bad guy” on it and the first clue inside. Each clue in the hunt was hidden either inside of a balloon that had to be popped or inside of a white envelope with the appropriate colored finger print on it. The youngest group had to find clues with purple finger prints and pop any purple bombs (balloons) that they found along the way. The middle group followed blue clues and bombs. The older kids followed green. Some of the envelopes in each hunt contained puzzle pieces. Each team’s final clue instructed them to meet together in the front room to put the puzzle together. The message on the puzzle led them to Logan & Aiden’s “super hero spy closet” where daddy waited inside for the password “goody bag please”. He hammed up his role with a gruff voice that scared 1/2 the little girls. ;)

Here is the picture I took of Logan for his spy badge. I have to, unbiasedly, admit that he did the best pose!

Rather than post all the pictures individually, I made a little album of them below. Click “view full album” and then “view slideshow”

Tuesday night before bed, I was reminding the boys that the following day was St. Patrick’s day. I told them that maybe there would be some fun stuff waiting for them…that maybe mischievous little leprechauns would sneak in and play some jokes. Logan sort of freaked. “Um…but those aren’t REAL are they mom?” (nervous face). I ended up telling him that they were pretend and maybe mommy would do some fun things for them instead. While reassuring him, I’m thinking to myself, “Oh…so it’s fine if some big, jolly fat man climbs down our chimney…and it’s fine if his elves (like our “elf on the shelf”) watch you all during Christmas season and play games while you sleep…even a fluffy bunny with eggs is welcome, but no little Irish men!? Come on!” To keep it tame, I just left them a note:

ignore mis-spelling of leprechaun…and messy handwriting.

The next morning, they were TOTALLY pumped when they found the note and started looking excitedly around the house for more stuff. (un-prepared mommy say “what?!”) Aiden was talking about how leprechauns turn all the pictures in the house upside down so, while they weren’t looking, I turned the art in the gallery upside down and called them over to see. Then…while they were running else-where, I snuck into the kitchen and grabbed the green food dye and squirted it into the downstairs toilet (they thought that was awesome…idea totally stolen from my friend Kristina!) Later, when questioned on how they turned the water green, Brian explained that leprechauns have green grassy feet from walking around in Ireland. They must have stepped into the potty on accident and turned the water green.

After school that morning, we made the rainbow cupcakes I had been planning all week (a very tedious baking effort, by the way). When all the big kids got out of school, everyone from our neighborhood playgroup was invited (last minute, because whatever…the more the merrier) to join us in our scavenger hunt and to share our cupcakes.

Family Fun Strikes again: here is white cake mix divided into bowls and dyed different colors. You layer the colors into a cupcake pan. I used a spoon to gently move all the colors to the edges of each cupcake…it took a while.

Besides some little color bubbles on the top, they turned out just like the picture in the magazine!

The scavenger hunt involved finding colors of the rainbow and the clues led from the kitchen to: Brady’s red chair, an orange magnet on the fridge, a yellow ball on top of a clue under the white board in the dining room, the green tunnel on the playhouse and then under a blue bag tucked by the side of the porch (guarded by a blue lizard) which covered the pot of gold:

Here was the crew pre-hunt

The older kids took turns trying to read my messy handwriting and words like “gotta” which one of the moms said, to the poor child trying to read it, wasn’t really a word. I felt bad! I actually didn’t plan for the kids to read the messages or I would have written more clearly (oops) I don’t have readers yet!!

Aiden, triumphant after the search with cupcake in hand (I added cool whip “clouds” to them right before serving…handy in hiding the crazy dots on top!)

This actually isn’t the best example, but the insides of the cupcakes were super cool! Another one I cut open had nice, straight lines inside!

Brady and Jackson were playing together a lot. It was super cute so I took a bunch of pictures. Brady was, unfortunately, showing Jackson how to have a sword fight with pieces of tall grass.

They had a blast together running around,

Later followed by some laughing and serious ponderings over chalk in the clubhouse tunnel.

Darn you Apple, for making your phone so entertaining and simplistic that even a 2-year old can use it…and lose it.

Seriously though, I’m usually super happy to hand over my phone for entertainment value when one of the boys is stuck somewhere like the doctor’s office or the hallway during someone else’s class. The boys, however, want to play with it a LOT more than that. Brady will push a stool over to the charger and get it down to play “light saber”. This is an app that makes light saber noises when you move the phone around. Bear will gallop around the house waving the phone to make the noises. I saw him doing this exact thing last night…before dinner. I made a mental note to find it after I finished setting the table, but I didn’t and then I couldn’t find it this morning. We had the following conversation in the car on the way to Logan’s school:

Me: Brady, do you know where mommy’s iphone is?

Brady: I pay light saber!

Me: Do you know where the phone is now?

Brady: at Bady’s house (at Brady’s house)

Me: I think it’s lost Bear

Brady: I fine it for yew!

Me: Wow, that would be very helpful!

When he failed to deliver on his promise of finding the phone, I decided to think like a 2-year old…who likes trains…and the play kitchen…and “culering”

voila! Of course it was dead…and covered in a slight coating of Brady…um…guck. (Least anyone think I’m daft, I forgot to mention that my first move was to call the phone several times while walking through the house…this isn’t the first time it’s been misplaced…although it’s usually stuck in the couch somewhere which is my doing)

I’m super excited for St. Patrick’s Day tomorrow!! We’re mostly Scottish around here, but it’s turned out to be a significant day in our lives on many occasions. Tomorrow, for example, marks the 10-year anniversary of the day Brian and I “met”.

We started the week with a few crafts. I was planning to make rainbow cupcakes with the boys today, but I doubt they will come inside long enough (they are currently out playing with a friend down the street). I also have a scavenger hunt for them tomorrow. I’m big on scavenger hunts lately…which will be obvious if I ever get around to posting about Logan’s birthday party.

Here are our crafts:

Last year’s Easter egg tree turned Shamrock tree (oriental trading company crafts):

Rainbow pot: Paint 1 flower pot black, use paper shredder to shred 3 pieces of green paper and stuff into pot. Bend pipe cleaners, one at a time, into the pot to make a rainbow. Tomorrow’s plan is to hide this pot & fill it with gold (aka: Rollo's) <—scavenger hunt

Subject: Be still my beating heart...

message:
I was just creeping around the house with my pointiest high-heeled shoe held high above my head after hearing a strange noise. It turns out Logan had fallen out of bed. The strange thing was that he didn't cry or come out right away. I stalked the garage, the front rooms and the basement before I heard him mumbling. He was sitting in the doorway of his room, sleepy-eyed, saying, "I fell out of my covers...I'm ready to go to bed now...are you ready to go to bed (ie: can I come with you to your bed)?" I was happy there wasn't an intruder...and that I didn't have to hurt any of my shoes.

By the way, he told me tonight that he's afraid of thunder because he thinks lighting is going to strike our house. I told him that only tall buildings with metal spikes on them get hit. Hey...it works for now I guess, but I think he's worried about the Sears Tower (and no...I will not call it the Willis tower...stupid new name!)

Logan has been taking golf lessons (1 class so far) and he’s really pumped about them…at least for now. So much so that he wanted to practice in the basement. We shot over to Dick’s Sporting Goods after school today to see if we could find some “basement approved” practice balls. I thought it would also be useful to have one of the mats they use in class (or at least something to use as a tee), but the mats were sadly $25 and I’m not ready to spend that knowing Logan’s class history. While at Dick’s, I remembered a carpet remnant we have in the basement and thought maybe I could get a small piece of pvc pipe and put it through the carpet to make a nice little tee. Right after that thought, I turned around and found a set of three plastic driving range tees for $4…now that’s what I’m talking about!

Here is this day’s creation:

I used a sharp pair of scissors to poke a hole in the back of the carpet and stuck the tee through.

Logan taking swings in the basement: He recently got the little green pail from Ella’s birthday party and it makes the most perfect ball container! As you can see, this is his back swing. I would like to say it was a practice swing…you know, before he stepped up to the tee…but he has only taken 1 lesson so…

Today Logan turned 5 (big sigh). We had a whirlwind of a weekend which started Thursday and ended yesterday (Monday). I’ll post more on the two birthday parties we had at the house. For now, I just want to share some random pictures of the boys.

Last Wednesday it was nice and sunny. I decided it’s never too early for sand and picked up a few bags at Home Depot (plus OK…I had some stuff that I needed to do for Logan’s party) I figured a nice, outdoor activity…that I could watch from the kitchen table, sounded like a good plan!

I’m still not saying we’re done with snow for the year, but the boys have been outside…in various states of dress (coats and shoes when we can get to them before they dash out) to play in the yard and in the sandbox at least a little every day. Let’s face it, 40 degrees is downright balmy when you’re used to single digits.

Happy Victims of Advertising: Last year, sometime in November, the boys started seeing ads for Pillow Pets while watching The Magic School Bus. They would always yell for me to come in. “MOM…you HAVE TO SEE THIS! We really want those!” Um…pillow pets? Really? I ignored the request…until it happened like 10 times. Logan, by the way, has practically the whole commercial memorized. “Mom…they’re good for kids…of all ages! It folds out into a FULL SIZED pillow!”

Auntie Denna went on the search around Christmas and they were sold out EVERY where. Logan actually asked Nana for a pillow pet for his birthday. I guess if it’s been over 4 months and they still want them…so be it! Nana was kind enough to give Brady and Aiden “early Easter gifts” so they got pets too. These things are actually pretty cool and RIDICULOUSLY soft! Brady wakes up and asks for his “piddo ped bug” <—pillow pet bug. Aiden got a frog and Logan got a Whale. The boys got these wonderful creatures on Thursday night shortly after Nana’s arrival at our house. Logan made me print out the picture below plus another one of him and his pet so he could take them to school and show his friends. Who knew!?

And now for the today’s creations: Sadly, we had to take Nana to the airport this afternoon. When we got home, the boys were quite stir crazy from the car ride. While Brady took his nap, Logan and Aiden hit the playroom and made…some pretty cool stuff

I couldn’t get Logan to stand still long enough for a decent picture

Of course I spent my day thinking about the March 9th, 5 years ago, when Brian and I become parents. Talk about a great creation!! (thank you God) ;)

If only I could live this day one more time…

Ok…I realize that it’s now March and Valentine’s Day was…a while ago, but I just never got around to posting the stuff we made. Better late than never?

I found several great hand-made valentine’s ideas for Logan on familyfun.com. He picked out a rocket one that was supposed to be constructed with a roll of lifesavers and a Hershey kiss. So…did anyone else realize that they no longer sell lifesaver rolls? I couldn’t find them anywhere! So there I was, standing in the candy aisle in Walgreen’s with all three kids going nuts just SEEING so much candy, trying to figure out a back-up plan. Mentos: too big. Rollo’s: too big. Then I thought about individually wrapped rollo’s, but there were none to be had (I saw them at Target the next day…after I went to plan C). Anyway, I finally settled unhappily on peanut butter cups. Miraculously, no one in Logan’s class as a peanut allergy this year so I hot glued four of them together with the kiss on top.

Logan was in charge of writing his name and gluing on the “flames” that I cut out for him.

Ta-Da!

Aiden and Brady both needed to take Valentines to their pre-pre-school classes so I used my cricut to make a bunch of these and then hot glued the candy on top. I think the loves of my life go in this order: Brian and the boys, my iphone, my nook, my cricut, my Keurig coffe maker and my hot glue gun. 

The final dated picture for this post was taken back in late September at the Yogi Bear Camp Ground Halloween Weekend (remember the Crayons Gone Wild?). The brochure for this year came in the mail today and our kids are in it (again! hilarious!) I was shocked last year when I opened up the brochure and found a picture of our rock band group. This year the picture is smaller and included in the “come have a birthday with Yogi” section. They do look quite festive! I’m thinking they should add, in the fine print, “crayons not included with the party” ;)

Brady is in my arms off to the side and not in the picture. Ella is hidden a bit behind AJ and Aiden’s blue hat is blocking some of Mackenzie’s face, but still…how cool is that?!!