This morning, Logan and Aiden got up quite a bit earlier than I thought necessary (what’s new?!) Aiden, for example, was raring to go at 5:55…the moon was still clearly in the sky for goodness sake! I gave them milk, dry cereal and turned on the cartoons before sneaking back to my warm bed. A little while later, in comes Brady carrying giant pillow Sha Sha (this is a very very typical morning, by the way). I moved everything over and made room for them (Brady and the giant dog). Usually about this time (6:30 or so), Aiden and Logan reappear for cuddling…they climb in, hug me for a while and then start getting silly and start goofing around. This is when I typically make my exit…it’s too scary to stay in bed with three boys tumbling around – I’ve had my hair pinned down enough times to know it never turns out well for mommy.

This morning, however, as I was cuddling with Brady and Giant Sha Sha, Logan opened the door and stood there for a minute. I lifted up my head to see what was going on. He stood in the doorway looking at me for a second, then bent over and picked up a big tray off of the floor. On the tray were two plates and on each plate was a piece of toast with a tiny smear of butter on it. He said, “I made toast for me and you”…then he looked at Brady, “but I guess Brady deserves some too…maybe you guys can share one piece”. I thought it was the cutest thing ever! Then he said, “I tried to make you coffee too, but it just came out as hot water”. haha! (for the record, Brian taught Logan how to use the single-cup coffee maker…he just didn’t get all the steps right this morning so he brewed some hot water).

Then we had a little bed picnic. Best toast I ever ate…or…um…shared!

Today, Logan had good news to report after school – he was given a “Character Counts” award during an assembly for the pillar of fairness. There are 6 pillars and, for each one, a child from every class is chosen (by their peers / teacher) to get an award. This is the 4th one this year…I think. There is a cute display in the hallway at school where all the kids’ pictures are posted on the different pillars…obviously I’ll try to remember my camera the next time I’m there and take a picture!

Our good friend works at the school so I sort of knew before Logan got home. She also snapped a picture with her phone for me. I put a circle around Logan.

He brought home a certificate and a pencil as his award. I just took a picture of the pillars on the certificate…better for understanding the whole concept (basically, rewarding kids for being good people which I LOVE). The whole program is called Character Counts and it’s run through our whole school district. The words on the award say, “Congratulations! You have been nominated by your classmates as the person who is the most fair! Please continue to let your true character shine through!”

Logan’s teacher made me a copy of Logan’s journal from today. She said “Logan wrote about his Character Counts award in his journal today. Thought you might want to see it” This says:

I wun a cir count tickit a evree wun clapt for me

translation: I won a Character Counts ticket and everyone clapped for me.

When I got the text from my friend, it made me laugh because it reminded me of when Logan brought home his “Fairness” lesson drawing last week (my friend is actually in charge of the whole program and teaches the lessons so Logan reported that Mrs K had been in class – so exciting!) So here is a drawing I did on Tuesday of last week just randomly playing around with the boys. It’s one of my go-to doodles (the boys were NOT buying that the M’s in the sky are birds...can you believe it?!)

Next thing I know, Logan has sat down and sort of copied the drawing. The brown puffs are clouds. There is a boat in the water and Logan is sitting on the beach, holding a rope that goes to his boat.

So then Wednesday at school, he has his “fairness” lesson and he draws a picture of someone being fair. He draws: a person crying (far left), him bringing that friend a band-aid, and a mean person who hurt the friend (Logan’s friend that is). The funniest thing (besides that this shows him being nice more than being fair…but whatever) is that each person had their own palm tree. I asked Logan why that was. Because, I found out, this unfortunate exchange obviously occurred, “in Hawaii”. He also drew a sandcastle. I laughed when I saw this because the “hurt person” looks like a girl wearing earrings (those are tears I was told) and bleeding from her booty (which is actually true).

So while his drawing from school wasn’t spot-on for “fairness,” I have no doubt that he is quite a fair kid! He is the peacemaker of our house and is always willing to compromise…guess that’s what happens when you have 2 younger brothers who are always after your things (and he after theirs…let’s be honest!) I got all choked up (see Den!!!) when I looked at all his stuff from today. I am one proud mama because, really…I hope my kids are smart and talented and everything else when they grow up, but most of all…I just hope they’re happy, good people! sniff sniff.

Last weekend, Brian was downtown for the Bear’s playoff game against Seattle. He made me promise that I would have the boys dressed in their “Bear’s gear” while he was gone. Like he 1. has to remind me or 2. has to remind the boys. Once I mentioned that the Bears were playing, all three of them needed to get suited up (their request). Logan is particularly fond of doing the whole get-up and, although we don’t actually own football pants, he says that soccer shorts work just as well. He decided that he needed pads though…which we certainly don’t have. You can’t tell from the pictures, but I put a folded up wad of paper towels in each shoulder area for him. He then repurposed his race-car-driver helmet for football.

I wonder if I’ll be doing this again today. Daddy is already off for the Bears Vs. Packers Game. GO BEARS!

The bad news is that there were a lot of injuries this morning at the 554. It all started when Icicle the Penguin “hurt his wing in the animal show” <—the animal show consisted of Icicle “flying” over the banister on the second floor down to the living room. Logan rushed him into the “emergency room” (aka: the kitchen). The good news is that nurse mom has a fine stash of various wraps left over from daddy’s multiple soccer injuries last summer.

After a patch up on Icicle…there seemed to be a wave of additional injuries. Now remember, Brady has about 12 stuffed dogs all named Sha Sha. We have to differentiate them with nicknames. Giant Sha Sha hurt his head (wrapped!), baby paci Sha Sha needed a “spot bandaid” (no problem!), baby pillow Sha Sha also suffered a head injury (but the bandage looked more like a Ninja head band so Brady declared he was now “nimja Sha Sha”)

I think I mentioned that I lost my camera so here are some low-quality shots of the morning via iphone:

Our first patient: Icicle. I was informed that this was a wing injury so we wisely decided that he should have it pinned down so he wouldn’t flap it around anymore

Here is my conversation with Brady (who was running excitedly in circles around the kitchen) about paci Sha Sha’s bandage needs:

Brady: “can you put a little some wrappings on him’s ear…a little ban-naid I said, the spot one…put it on him’s little cute head, O KAY?!”

Me: “you want the little tiny circle Band-Aid?”

Brady: “that’s rrright!”

You can’t actually see the it in this picture, but paci Sha Sha got his tiny spot ban-naid on him’s little cute head.

in all his excited running, Brady did legitimately catch his little toe on the floor. It was fine after about 10 seconds, but he declared, “I need one a things the Sha Sha’s have”…so we wrapped his foot. Strangely, his other foot started hurting so we wrapped that too. Here is a pic of him with the first bandage:

Just a picture of the boys playing around. Aiden and his animals escaped harm so he was busy playing cowboy. Oh…and in this picture, Giant Sha Sha is wearing a pair of “wolf wings” which is a headband with wolf ears on it that we got from our stay at Great Wolf Lodge.

Sometimes I get so irritated at winter…and not just for the reasons you would think. I love the snow and don’t mind the cold – it’s beautiful and fun given the right circumstances. My irritation stems from the fact that it’s usually NOT the right circumstances. Most of the time we have great snow to play it, but it’s far too cold outside. This week, however, has been awesome. We got a good amount of snow, it was warm enough to bundle up and play outside AND, huge bonus, it was the exact right kind of snow for snow balls (plus the guys got awesome snow ball makers for Christmas from Aunt Diana!)

I had to shovel the driveway so I got everyone ready and out we went. Some of the neighbors were out as well so it turned into a little snow play date. Lunch afterwards consisted of grilled cheese and hot soup…obviously. Now that’s a perfect snow day!

I think Brady lost my camera at soccer last week so I’ve been using my phone. Here are some shots and a video I took:

Logan & Sam   

Brady (who was missing from the group shot)

Next time I have to remember to turn my phone sideways for videos. As you can see…this video is in the shape OF my actual phone:

We have a bit of a problem in this house with children staying in their own beds. I think I can count on one hand the number of times I have gone to sleep and awoken in the morning without seeing 1-3 of my children. Sometimes I wake up and realize that someone else is sleeping with us…or several someone-elses.

We have been trying to use the “sleeping bag method” for midnight intruders (that being that I set up their sleeping bags on our floor and if the boys want to come in, they are welcome…but they can’t sleep in our bed). Logan especially, God love him. His elbow and knees literally turn into daggers at night and his little body has a way of becoming larger than life. He manages to take up at least 1/2 of a king-sized bed (which was, incidentally, purchased when we expecting Brady because we knew a queen wouldn’t hold up to 5 people). The sleeping bag method works pretty well, except that Logan will, almost hourly, check from his spot on the floor to make sure that the bed is still off limits…and of course he’s sleeping on the side closest to me so I have to sadly tell him that yes, the bed is only for mommy and daddy…and then after about 3 checks I just get cranky at him – poor kid.

Brian left for a week-long trip Sunday night so I was all alone. Logan came creeping into the bedroom around 1:30. Having not set up the sleeping bags and being tired and…a little lonely, I let him come on in. Well…then Aiden appeared around 3:30. That was fine because Logan had been instructed to settle the wiggles and keep his dagger elbows on daddy’s side. Aiden is a sweet little snuggler so we were all good. Round about 5:30, in comes Brady. He’s a “face me and let me breath on you” kind of snuggler. I waited about 10 minutes until he was out, slowly extracted myself, took a quick shot with my phone which was sitting bedside, and snuck off to my own little haven in the guest room. I heard the boys wondering where I had gone around 6:30.

Not a good shot by any means (iphone), but: Aiden is farthest to the left, then Brady is snuggled right up next to him. The tiny empty area next to him was my allotted space and you can just make out Logan’s head under the second orange pillow going to the right of the picture. Our bedding looks shiny with the camera flash!

I’m a slacker! Here are Xmas pics!

First off, the house Aiden made with daddy at his Holiday party…it was eaten bit by bit and was delicious…could have used more MnM’s in my opinion ;)

The cookie plate. I wrote “Dear Santa, We’ve Been Good”…Logan drew the picture which is Santa in the middle…him and Aiden on the bottom.

Brady being goofy before bed on Xmas eve:

Granted we kept the boys up until 11 on the eve before Xmas eve (at Great Wolf), but we were shocked when no one stirred until 7:45 Christmas morning. Aiden was up first and needed to check out the scene. Santa brought him: an expansion pack for his Quadrilla marble run and…

…the coolest thing ever, Draganoid Colossus bakugan.

Next up, Logan:

Who was totally excited to get Lego Rockband (he loves to sing!)

Plus, despite mommy’s wishes against MORE weaponry in the house, Santa caved and brought a big giant Nerf gun. awesome.

The biggest Christmas miracle: we had to wake up Brady. Here he is, starting to stir. You can see the new color of their room which Brian painted the weekend before we left for the water park (more pics to come as I am currently in the process of finishing the decorating)

What a face!

Christmas candy – what more could a boy (with a massive sweet tooth) want?!

Opening a crazy habitat thing…I think I’m supposed to help him hatch some sort of eggs in that. I haven’t pulled it out to fully examine it yet.

Craft stuff from GG and GGpa

Grams: here is the pile of stuff I purchased on your behalf for the crafty trio:

I also got them 4 of these cool scientific experiments. We’ve done them all already!

Logan saw me doing some online shopping for daddy one day and expressed an interest in a “kid sized” jacket like the one I was ordering. Just so happens that we saw them at Costco. We snuck one home for him…a whole suit actually (tee shirt, jacket and pants!)

I think Logan looks more legit! I don’t think Daddy is trying very hard!

Despite the face he’s making, Aiden was thrilled to be the proud owner of a new Mario Power-Up shirt (videoaholic loves him some Super Mario Brothers!)

A couple weeks before Christmas, Brian and I sort of simultaneously came up with the thought that we should take a mini family vacation to the Dells for some indoor water park fun. During the Christmas of 2007, we were in the Dells and took the older boys to a water park. They were, at that time, 2 years & 9 months and 17 months. Now we have a 3, 4 and 5-year-old…time to really have some fun! Brian always takes off 2 weeks around Christmas and we weren’t traveling or hosting anyone this year so it was good timing.

I suggested a cabin we’ve rented before, but Brian had been checking out rates on Great Wolf Lodge. We found a perfect room there and booked it up. We left Wednesday, December 22nd and arrived back home on Friday, December 24th. We had a total blast (despite the fact that Brian was super sick on the day we arrived…driving there with a fever of around 101…he was much better by Thursday though – phew!).

The coolest thing was that the boys only knew that they were getting “a big surprise” (Logan guessed a puppy) and that it was coming on Wednesday morning. We had several clues wrapped up for them as we made our way into Wisconsin and to our final destination.

A picture of all the surprises I wrapped. Yes, the 3s look upside down, but they aren’t (weird Cricut cartridge). Red bows for Brady, Green for Logan, White for Aiden.

Unbeknownst to the boys, the bags were all packed in the car along with the other clues…we covered everything in the trunk of a van with a blanket and then put our snow sleds on top as a misleading clue in case Logan leaned over his seat to peek in the back.

Here is the first box:

It was full of road-trip gear: snacks, juice boxes and the movie Despicable Me (which we had already seen and then watched at least 4 times during the trip)

We stopped about an hour from home for breakfast and then let the boys open the second clue which contained 2 pairs of PJs and a new snoopy toothbrush set for each of them. The hint: we’re sleeping somewhere away from home for 2 nights! I didn’t take a picture of the 3rd clue which they opened about a hour after breakfast, but each one contained: the boy’s bags that they already have with their names on the them (smooshy backpacks) filled with: one of their bathing suits, their goggles and new bathrobes we found the week before at Costco sold as swimsuit cover ups (in the middle of winter? how lucky!)

Arriving at the hotel / indoor water park:

Exploring the lobby

The coolest part of the room: a 3-bed cabin tucked into one corner complete with it’s own TV just for the kids!

The rest of the room

After a 3+ hour drive while sick, daddy needed some down time. I was pretty nervous to take the boys all by myself, but the 4 of us headed to the water park. Here they are, ready to go in their new robes (these were so awesome too…they feel like towels and were perfect for walking to and from the park)

Exploring our options: there are 3 rooms to the park. This is the first one. We were walking through and heading to the back room which had a great play area that all three of them enjoyed plus the wave pool and some water slides we did with Logan the next day (he was the only one tall enough to go ALONE on most of the rides)

After a nap, daddy made an appearance and even did some of the slides with the older boys.

Me and my boys

Every night, they have stories in the lobby. I had to take a picture of the great decorations from the stairs leading to the 2nd floor:  

Aiden watching the Clock Tower Show

The animals on the clock tower sing and then some animatronic people come out and sing more songs. It’s cute. Then they read a story, give out prizes for coloring contests etc. At the end of the usual show, the animals sang a 12-days of Christmas song that included “drifts of snow in the lobby”…at the end of that song, they spray these tiny bubbles (or something) from way up in the 3-story ceiling and it actually does look like it’s snowing in the lobby. The kids loved it!iaedn

We just missed getting a shot of Logan throwing his arm around Aiden.

mommy and Bear

daddy

Brady hugs a fake snow penguin

Logan met Rowdy the Reindeer

The next morning we bought a “paw pass” which gets you a bunch of stuff including art projects in the craft room, a game of Magiquest, a “stuff a pet” from the gift shop and tokens for the arcade. Here we are heading to check out Magiquest:

There is a building sort of adjacent to the main hotel that is 4-stories high and filled with all these crazy chests, pictures that talk, screens with animated people on them etc. You use these wands to make everything work and go on “quests” which are mini scavenger hunts. After you finish the quests you can do an adventure like kill a dragon. This is a picture taken of one of the 3 giant screens from the second floor.

This is a big tree with tv screens in it:

You point your wand at one of the screens on the big tree and get the instructions for your scavenger hunts:

We found some treasure! The wands make the chests open up and glow inside.

Back in the room, eating left over pizza from the night before, chilling out in the boys’ room and watching Christmas shows on the Disney channel (I think we went to the water park again after this)

crafts in the craft room! Together we made a sand-art thing to bring home for our “art from travels” shelf and then the boys did the coloring contest. The next day, before we left, we went back and painted some stuff :) I think they could live in this room for a few days!

At the arcade:

After dinner that night, we decided to watch a movie in the room (I brought a ton of food including popcorn). I decided that we needed chocolate so Logan and I made a visit to the fudge shop in the lobby. I was saddened to find out that there was NO dark chocolate to be had anywhere! I had to settle for peanut butter fudge :)

Before we left on Friday, we had to quickly finish our quests so we could go kill the dragon. It took a couple tries, but we got him. Brady was terrified of this guy (he’s an animated dragon on a screen, but it’s noisy and big!)