Logan has been producing a lot of art work lately. He’s never been much into drawing or writing, but that has changed in the past few weeks. My intuition says that, once again, he is a child who does everything in his own time and, more importantly, he does things when he is confident in his abilities. He’s not big on failure so he waits until he knows he can do it (I wish he would “know” that he can pump himself on a swing…now that would be nice!) Last week, he was writing words like “cat” and “toys” with chalk on our back porch. He climbed into our fort and wrote FH everywhere for “Fort Houck”. This afternoon while Aiden was at school, Logan and I played on the driveway drawing with chalk for at least 45 minutes.

Tonight, they were watching a pre-bedtime episode of Bernstein Bears about loving your home and having friends move away. I guess Logan was inspired…well, that and the fact that he really wasn’t ready for bed. He requested some paper and did a few quick drawings. Plus, to my knowledge, he wrote “mom” and “dad” for the first time.

This is a picture of our home and me in the window. Under the window, he wrote mom (and yes, I labeled it as his first time…I have problems…I know)

On the back of the page, he wrote dad and mom (I’m super excited about the prospect of getting a mother’s day card this year with my child’s actual writing on it! I have proof…you CAN write mom!)

After his first picture, he needed to draw another one (aka: he really needed to continue avoiding bedtime). I’m sorry, but he’s fond of yellow on black. This is a picture of Daddy standing in the door of our house which is hard to see. There is rain (the small blue dots) and lighting in the sky (but not striking our house as he was quick to mention). The blue circle at the top of the house is where Logan and Aiden are sleeping. When I asked him where I was, he said I was sick with chicken pox and sleeping. When I asked him how I got the chicken pox, he said a chicken tickled me (rest assured, I told him all about “actual” chicken pox). Daddy, he said, is standing in the door smiling because he left something at his friend’s house and he sees his friend bringing it back. “What is his friend bringing?” I asked. “His umbrella,” replied Logan. “No,” he corrected, “it’s really an Xbox game”. Who knows their daddy?! ;)

Aiden did a little avoidance art work as well. This is Aiden holding a balloon.

The last part of this post is mostly for the purposes of documentation because, God willing, it’s only a phase. Another thing Logan has taken to recently is NON STOP talking. The house could be on fire, Aiden could be trying to tell me/him/anyone something, Brady could be screaming and still Logan would go on talking and talking. I think he’s got so much in his head that it’s just leaking out of his mouth. Most of his sentences start with “mom…mom…mom…” followed by: “did you know?”, “can you?”, “can I?” or “what if?” Typical examples: “mom…mom…did you know 3+10 equals 13?!” (Aiden joins in on these and either repeats exactly what Logan said or tells me what two other numbers equal) or this one “mom…mom…what if people were heads and heads were people?! That would be a head with a small person on top! That would be funny”.

This past Thursday, on Earth Day, Logan had his school field trip to the Red Oak Nature Center. Leading up to the trip, the class talked a lot about recycling/reusing/reducing (we “reused” a broken dump truck last week by stacking empty favor boxes on the back where the dump used to be and made it “a toy transporter” <—Logan’s idea). We even did our own Earth Day craft at home using a egg carton container (which, I might add, was itself made of recycled materials).

Here is our craft: We made these last weekend and then took them to the sandbox where we, briefly…until the boys lost interest, made a kingdom of egg-carton people. * Posting note: Brady just wandered into the office with a strawberry and saw this picture. He said, “I made a bug” which reminds me that he did indeed make a bug instead of a person. His had no hair, but pipe cleaner legs sticking out from all around. He took it outside and destroyed it before I could get a picture.

Here are the moms and kids from Logan’s pre-K class meeting up outside the Nature Center building. Both morning and afternoon classes were combined for the field trip which met at noon. It was the first morning in a LONG time that did not necessitate a rush off to anywhere in particular. We pretty much chilled until 11:15 and then headed out with a lunch packed in the car for the trip home. 

My boys waiting to go in: I know it looks like he’s squeezing his head, but Logan is trying to make Brady look at the camera. *Posting note: Brady just wandered in to the office again and said, “look…Brady sleeping!” Now he’s trying to climb on my lap saying “I wanna see down” (which means he wants me to scroll down and show him the other pictures). He is also saying, “I wanna see brudders” (brothers)

There were TONS of cool interactive things inside the main building.

My boys loved the fish room the best (it also had a terrarium with stick bugs in it…shockingly, Logan has a long-time love of stick bugs even thought he’s never seen one. In fact, during the Winter, the kids in his class had to draw a picture of a creature that crawled into their mitten. Logan drew a stick bug.)

After a short video about a cave on the property and a talk which included learning all the sign-language signs for the seasons and weather, we all went on a hike.

Here is the cave with Brady crawling out the small side. There is a BIG entrance and a LITTLE exit…

 

Logan sat on top of the cave for the group picture (second from the right). They are doing “raccoon eyes” for this shot. I usually use mascara and a hot shower, but this works too.

The cave was right by a bank of the Fox River. Shocking that my kids wandered down to find rocks to throw in (this is a standard “activity” at the park near our home, also located on the River)

They super didn’t feel like taking a picture…they were tired and hungry by this point (except Logan I guess). We left right after and hiked back to our car. The boys had PBJs and all but Logan passed out on the way back. I ended up transferring Aiden to his bed for what amounted to the first decent nap he’s taken in at least 9 months (over an hour and a 1/2). This also led to a surprisingly sweet and fun little boy that afternoon…who couldn’t fall asleep until 9ish that night. Why oh why do naps make great kids who stay up too late?!!!

In other news, Brady is borrowing a scooter from our friends down the block until 16-month-old Matthew needs it sometime next Spring. He LOVES it! When it was time to come inside on his first day of scooter riding, he was distraught. He stood just inside the house and yelled into the darkness of the garage (I had closed the outside door on our way back in), “my kooter…my kooter” until I let him bring it in the house. Today was day 3 of scooter riding and he’s already able to balance on the 2-wheeled Razor that Logan rides! Brady: touring the kitchen on his kooter.

And finally, also in Brady news, our little 2-year old has recently earned himself the name of “Pterodactyl”. Whenever he is 1. tired and 2. upset about something, he will look directly at the source of the offence (usually me, daddy or his brothers) and SCREECH really loud. He opens his mouth wide and like shrieks at us. Brian and I have a really hard time not busting out laughing at him…which usually makes him screech again…complete with a little forward nod of the head. I’m sorry…but it’s funny.

Between myself and Brian, I can honestly say that we have a handful of super useful skills. Among them are Brian’s ability to cook like a gourmet chef and my ability to sew a straight line (super handy if you need a square or other basic shape!). Landscaping, however, is not one of our strong suits! We have planted, dug up and re-planted something, somewhere every spring. Our front bed is, again, practically empty after a bush planting gone bad. We have finally decided to purchase a landscaping plan (soon…I hope).

Included in one of our many attempts was a smattering of tulips. When they came in one spring, we decided they were too sparse and needed better grouping. In the backyard, we planted some around baby lilac bushes that are now down to the ground and completely cover the flowers anyway. When we dug up the errant flowers, we missed a bunch and ignored a bunch (and then never replanted the old bulbs anyway). Now we have 20-some tulips randomly coming up in all different areas of the yard which is, again, a testament to our serious lack of vision on the landscaping front. Last week, I let Aiden use our (surprisingly sharp!) gardening scissors to help me cut the flowers that had bloomed. He was super excited to be given such awesome cutting power. Together, we collected enough to make a cute little arrangement in a mason jar. Another handful of flowers bloomed just the other day. Aiden is already asking when he can cut them down :)

In other news, it was so warm a few days this week that we actually broke out the water toys. Don’t be fooled though. The shot below was taken near the end of the day, when shadows had eclipsed the back yard and it was not, by normal people standards, warm enough to be 1/2 naked running through water. Tell that to these two who begged and begged to play just a little bit longer…

Brady, my only sane child, asked to be brought in because, “I cold”. Here he is, wrapped in a towel, watching our new family favorite show, “zoomy zoomy” (It’s really called Umi Zoomi and it’s a super cute show about math skills, counting, shapes and patterns.)  

I meant to post this picture a couple weeks ago when all the boys in the house, included Brian, got haircuts. They both looked so cute with fresh cuts, I had to take a picture! Little and big BMH:

This past Friday night was beautiful. Just a tad chilly…nothing a fire and some blankets can’t cure! Brian and I hauled our gas-driven outdoor fire pit from the garage to the backyard along with the cushions to the outdoor seating and gathered our kiddos together after dinner for a little fire time. Ahhh…outdoor fire season is here - YEAH! Despite the productivity of the neighbors around us, we also spent a good deal of time sitting/laying/sleeping and reading on the outdoor couch the whole weekend. Saturday we were completely useless until at least noon. From my place on the couch, coffee and book in hand, still clad in “lounge wear” (ie: pajamas with undergarments and a jacket), I watched our backyard neighbors trim, mow & fertilize while the guy next door seemed to have hired a team of men to help him super mow and aerate. Brian gave in to the pressure and did a good deal of yard work Sunday morning…and I finally admitted a need for more food in the house and hit the grocery store (but then it was back to the outside couch for more reading that afternoon!!)

Brady: ready in PJs and under a blanket – settled in for fire time!

I see a perfect spot for me…too bad daddy has my blanket on top of him (can you guess which one it is? maybe the only pink one in the bunch?!)

So the boys did a little less sitting than we did, but they had a blast playing with bubble stuff on the porch. They also behaved themselves well enough that we didn’t ever have to get up which was lovely…

Lacking the ingredients for s’mores, Brian split a banana, loaded it with mini kit kat bars from the left-over Easter treats, wrapped it in foil and threw it on the fire.

This is either 1. A picture of the boys anticipating the best dessert ever or 2. The boys singing and dancing to their new favorite “song” which goes “Shake your go-go, shake your go-go”. Both of these things happened during our fire. The go-go song, Aiden claims, came from Yo Gabba Gabba. When I asked him, “what is a go-go?”, he turned around and pointed to his (tiny) rear end.

Admiring planes in the night sky

And here we are again Saturday morning…looks like daddy is still trying to get some rest.

Aiden took my camera for a while. This is me watching something…maybe I’m thinking “hey! what’s with the productive yard work?! It’s only 10 and I’m trying to read here!” 

me and Aiden – shot by Logan.

When my children say, “oh yeah! I love (fill in name of food you just told them for the 4th time you will be preparing for dinner),” do NOT believe them. Upon delivery of said dinner to the table, they will decide that while they may like the meal you made, they just aren’t hungry for it right now. Either that, OR…they will suddenly declare great distain for the food which only an hour ago they claimed to love (strangely they do like the veggies…probably because they get one of the same three every night and have grown to accept them). Now, I have heard tale of children who eat whatever is put in front of them…oh to have those kids in my house! Our motto is: serve them what we’re having and ask that they take at least X number of bites per item on the plate including all veggies (X = age of child). If they don’t like it, they can pick something else healthy (something that requires no heat or massive amounts of effort to prepare…toast is permissible despite need for toaster). If you don’t eat all your dinner, noooooo sweets, don’t even ask. Shocking fact from tonight’s dinner: Brady totally digs goat cheese. He didn’t necessarily like the pasta and meat sauce, but he couldn’t get enough of the herb and garlic variety I brought to the table to sprinkle on my meal. The other boys tried it and made faces. Brady climbed on my lap and said “I wun more! more! I wun more!” He ate at least 6 finger swipes! Wonders never cease.

Engine Company #554: Yesterday it was raining and we were heading out to have dinner with our friends. The boys all wanted to wear their firefighter rain gear. We played “fire truck” all the way to Lisa’s house (most dialog, sound effects, and action phrases supplied by Logan…look how stinkin happy he is to be in “costume”)

Logan: “This way to the truck! The fire is out of control, we’ve got to get going!”

Brady

My neighborhood friends are all working (madly) on our subdivision’s elementary school’s “Spring Fling” event which takes place tomorrow night…Hawaiian theme. They totally think they tricked me into making a tree for “pin the coconut on the palm tree”. Rrrright girls…twist my arm…I so hate crafts! The orange, yellow and blue felts were left over from the camping crayons last year. I had this thick paper downstairs and I discovered, thanks to a loan from Susan, that I super love spray mount!

One thing I’ve learned from my kids is that they have an amazing memory for “what happened last time”. For example, a while back we had friends over for the afternoon who, sadly, hadn’t been to the house in a while (I’m talking about you Karen!). Logan wanted to know if we were going to throw water balloons against the patio wall with them. I had NO idea what he was talking about until I realized that we did that the last time they came over.

This year, Logan had very set expectations about Easter: baskets to be waiting on the landing followed by an egg hunt and then “big” presents in the basement. I hate to disappoint, but the bunny did a few things a tiny bit different this year…well, not much, just a little.

Here are the boys, pre-Easter, decorating eggs. I found a really cool egg spinner at WalMart that even Brady could do. You put a hard-boiled egg in the spinner, add a few drops of color, put the lid on and press a button a few times to make it spin and spin. Brady wasn’t allowed to wear cloths during the coloring:

They were pretty cool looking! We used these to make egg salad for dinner on Easter Sunday night (new family tradition? I think so!)

I saw these super cool egg holders in Family Fun and wanted to try them. I should have really read the directions as they are for blow eggs, not hard boiled ones! Pipe cleaners are no match for the weight of an actual egg (but they’re cute, right?!)

On Easter morning, the baskets were, as anticipated, waiting on the front stair landing. All the most important elements, according to Logan, were included: peeps (which I will forever think of as “stretchy chickens” thanks to my friend Laura), chocolate bunnies (dark chocolate this year…you know, for mommy…in case the boys didn’t finish them all…) plus just a few little trinkets like bubble blowers and gum shaped like eggs inside of mini little egg cartons – too cute!

Smile and say “peeps”

The Easter Bunny left a note… (he’s not the best at drawing egg shapes I guess…)

I made quite a fuss about cleaning the house before the kids went to bed Saturday night. I have to give credit to the Easter Bunny for noticing the effort and for rewarding the boys for the extra “neatness” in the house. The card had the bunny’s signature “prints” on it…which the boys found on their feet and hands when they woke up.

Brady needed a little help finding eggs, but he was THRILLED about the whole thing!

Logan checked the front porch after finding an egg perched on the door handle.

Aiden, mid hunt:

There was one big egg among many little, candy-containing, eggs. The big egg had a note instructing the boys to follow the bunny’s path: to the playroom, then the pantry (where, it said, he had a snack), then the basement and finally to their rooms (where he hopped on their beds  and kissed them…hence then bunny prints on their hands and feet) and then under their beds.

Here is Brady finding his Easter Bunny surprise under his crib

Wow – it’s the very Thomas train he had claimed the Easter Bunny would bring (how amazing is that?!) It’s “Toby,” whom Brady calls “Tody Train”

Everyone settled on the rug in the big boys’ room to sort through candy and play with the new stuff. Logan got a little trick track set. Aiden got a Leapster letter drawing game (which is, by the way, super cool and teaches kids to write upper and lower case letters along with basic shapes and letter sounds)

Still in jammies, the boys enjoyed a little bubble time out on the patio

Brian’s side of the family arrived around noon for brunch and another egg hunt out in the yard courtesy of Meemaw and Grandpa. The four youngest kids searched for eggs with their initials on them. Again, we had to help Brady find the “B” eggs, but it was really cool overall. Aiden, Logan and Jack not only hunted for their own eggs, but helped each other by yelling out when they found someone else’s egg.

 

The two older boys were totally troopers and helped in the hunt

Max manned the fort!

6 boys…what a joy! Our 7th boy on this side of the family was missing since he lives with Aunt Sara and Uncle Peter in Arizona. Denay’s 1 (and a 1/2!) boys were also sadly absent since San Fran is too far to travel for brunch (oh, but Den…there was some good French Toast and honey baked ham…you so wish you were here!)

Hey, look at that – a picture of us!

The next morning, the boys found some interesting uses for their Meemaw-issued Easter baskets (Brady sat in his and said “mommy…push me!”)

Too bad mommy took and hid the GOBs of candy they got between the eggs and as treats after the hunt. Again I ask…was that Easter or another Halloween? No matter, I’ve been using the candy as bribes for the older boys to go to bed. Hey, it works and they usually forget they’re supposed to have chocolate with breakfast when they wake up the next morning. And, in case you’re wondering, there are still 2 FULLY in tact dark chocolate bunnies…but don’t remind my kids ;)