Quotables

From my littles:

As we were driving in the car to a park one day, Jonathan: "Mom!  It's amazing!  Math is everywhere!"  In case you're wondering, the math/science momma inside of me was SILENTLY cheering!!!  I do not know where this comment came from but I loved it.

We were driving past some newer neighborhoods a little ways from our house.  Some of the homes were somewhat large.  Jonathan was looking at the houses near the road and pointed to one: "Mom, what church is that?  It's kind of different, but that is a church, right?"

When asked what his favorite state was, Caleb responded without hesitation: "Iowa."

Land of Moss and Ferns

Where is the land of moss and ferns, you ask?  Visiting our dear friend and her family in the Northwest... seriously, I was just amazed at the moss everywhere.  They have to use this stuff on their lawns called Moss Out to grow grass.  The moss was beautiful and green and kind of like an enchanted forest, though :+)

 My little gems were jealous of Aunt Carla's donut when I sent them this photo!

 Are these some awesome looking donuts or what?  I must admit, I am a sucker for tons of really creative food choices: this donut shop delivered!

 These two actually try to take good photos... I just take sub-par pictures of them doing it with my phone.

Hiking in the enchanted forest... the three dinks with the moss.

We had great fun playing with her boys, too, but of course I didn't take any photos of that :(  I did deliver a gem of a game that will keep Abby occupied with her oldest for a while.  Now, we wait till summer and get ready for crazy boy fun!!

Hair and Style

In the never ending saga of style around here, I present: the saga of the hair.  Jonathan decided on a whim that he wanted a mohawk and he spent a fair amount of time in the bathroom with my hairspray and my brush perfecting his look.  I have no idea where this style came from; no other children at school or at church have this going at the moment.  None the less: a mohawk it is.  I have already had the conversation with myself that hair is not a battle I will fight.  Even though I like things less mohawky.

No mohawk, yet :))

In Other Winter Fun

Winter Fun... in random order:

 Caleb, painting pottery while Jonathan was at school

 Knights in shining armor

 Mud... lots of mud and four boys.  Need I say more?

 This is the boys' lego city... hours of fun had here.

Caleb's dragon.  Playmate, sleepmate, and now photo model.

Snowy Fun

This is the snowiest winter we've had at this latitude.  By far.  And, it has been great fun!

 Making a snow fort with neighbor, Mary.

 The "room" inside the snowfort

Our snowy family.

Now that it is mid-March, we are ready for spring.  50s or 60s and sunny, please.  

I Don't Prefer

It's winter.  We have had lots and lots of snow for our latitude.  And cold temps.  I take very few photos when we are indoors, but I'll try to upload the random few that we have tomorrow on our snow day.

There have been tons of crafts... so many I've stopped photographing them all.  So many crafts.

There has been snow play.  Sledding is a family favorite.

We are on book number twelve of the Boxcar Children series as the boys (especially Jonathan) LOVE to have them read aloud.  Ask about the books and the stories, and you'll get an earful from either boy.

Caleb is reforming his vernacular to exclude the word,"hate".  Instead, he is encouraged to use the words, "I don't prefer..."  If you are a mouse on the wall here you might hear: "I don't prefer you to do that,  Mommy."  "I don't prefer to walk Jonathan to school."  "I don't prefer to play that game."  "I don't prefer that soup."  It makes me laugh every time and certainly makes his displeasure about not getting his way more amusing.

Jonathan is becoming a piano playing fiend.  Practicing teaches us about working hard even when we don't love it, but for the most part... he loves playing.

Caleb told me today that I was his favorite Valentine and Jonathan told James that he was his favorite Valentine.  We are stretching out that lovely holiday of hearts and cards a bit longer.

From our winter wonderland to (maybe) yours...

Pinterestishness

I do not have an account, I do not plan to pin things.  I just look there for fun things to make with the littles around here.  Since I care minimally about the quality of the finished product, we do all kinds of random things that look fun.  I have an interesting thought process that those of you without boys would not have: there are these fantastic-seeming things that people use to bring order to books, toys, crafts, you name it in their homes.  I am going to say that these people either do not live in their homes or they do not have boys in their homes.

Example: People have decided to use rain gutters for bookshelves.  I thought it seemed totally nifty until I spent the day watching my boys turn over chairs, little tables and the like to make a "fort with things to climb on".  Let me tell you that those nifty rain gutter things would not be used for books around here... it would be our own indoor climbing wall.  A robe belt is a lasso, the doll stroller is a racing cart, blankets are sleds, and so the list goes.  They would love little more than to have free reign on the glue gun sans the motherly supervision.

So, from the land of random uses for things... I'll be passing on the nifty ideas for today.