Vacation

Luke had a week of vacation in September, and one of the things we did was go over to the Mall of America to visit the Aquarium (and the Lego store!). The boys loved the aquarium. (Luke and I thought it was overpriced for as small as it was, but that may be because we're cheap and old.)

They loved the tanks of jellyfish.

Here's Benny trying to hug some!

There were lots of oohs and aahs and pointing, although it was a little challenging to capture it because there was always something else just as exciting coming up!

The Lego store was closed for remodeling, but Ethan was a trooper and enjoyed browsing through the much smaller version they had open. We also got to stop on the way home at Cousin Trevor's football game!

Pictures ...

Since I'm not going to catch up with all the posts I was going to write, I just posted pictures here. Some of them are repeats from other blog posts, but some are new. Enjoy!

The Fire Station

Our local homeschool group recently had a field trip to the fire station. Ethan and Alex loved it! One of several things they got to do was spray the fire hose. They did it together since Alex needed a bit of help.



They both thought it was great!

The summer is over, we started school a couple of weeks ago, and despite my good intentions there are many blog posts that haven't been written. I have pictures of family gatherings, a field trip to the fire station (although I may share just one picture from that anyway), and summer activities that I had intended to post about. I am in awe of the moms that homeschool, run a business on the side, do all kinds of creative things with their kids, and find time to blog about all of it - I am not nearly that good!

So instead, I'll just post these pictures of my boys. They are all pictures that make me want to grab the boys and hold on to them ... maybe if I hug them tight enough they won't grow up so fast ...

Wishes

I was helping Alex in the bathroom today, and as we pulled his pants up he was muttering to himself.

"What are you saying?" I asked him.

"I just wish we could turn this into dirt," he said, gesturing at the floor. "Then I'd turn into a steam roller and you'd turn into a crane and Benny would turn into a cement mixer and Ethan would turn into a dump truck."

"What about Papa?"

"Ah, let's see ... he'd be a digger. And Yellow would be a fence."

And that would be a perfect world to a three-year-old.

Too bad it's the end of summer ...

... rather than the beginning! Luke and I have been talking about (and saving towards) buying a motor home for a while. There are a lot of reasons we thought it would be a good purchase, and a lot of traveling with the boys we'd like to do. Luke's been watching Craigslist and the Buyer's Guide all summer, and we've gone and looked at a couple that weren't right for one reason or another. This last week, he saw one in the Buyer's Guide that looked like just what we wanted. We went and looked at it Tuesday evening, and ended up buying it! Here are some pictures, mostly for those of you who have let me know you're anxious to see what it looks like. (Hi Dad!)

Outside:

Standing in the "kitchen" area, facing the front (the couch turns into a bed, and there's a bunk over the cab):

And this one is standing by the bunk/driver's seat area. The sink, microwave, and stove are on the right, and the refrigerator is on the left. There's a small hallway with the toilet and vanity on one side, and the shower on the other. Then there's a queen-size bed in the back.

There's no dinette because it's been modified to accommodate the needs of the previous owner. His son was handicapped, and it was too difficult to get him into the dinette. There is a small table that flips up in between the two chairs; I forgot to take a picture of that.

So what do the kids think?




They love it!

(They also like to make funny faces.)

End of Summer

We start school on Monday, so this weekend was our last official weekend of summer vacation. We celebrated with a family day at the Weston Aquatic Center and a buggy supper! I have lots of pictures of the boys playing in the sand and water area of the Aquatic Center, and a big fat ZERO of them actually in the water. I meant to at least get one of Ethan flying down one of the big, twisty slides, but it ended up being too challenging to have two little people to watch and take pictures at the same time. (Luke was going with Ethan on the slide.) There was a lot to enjoy in the sand area, though.

They had watering cans, cups, shovels ...

The boys were enthralled, and sometimes slightly annoyed to have mama want them to look up from their play ...

There were troughs of water, spigots they could turn on ...

a pulley system with scoops attached to the cables ...

(You'd think I never fed this child, wouldn't you?)

I love how they concentrated so hard on their play.

Benny laid down and rolled in the sand.

We capped off the day with a buggy supper - fly burgers, butterfly pasta, cheese worms, and ladybug cupcakes. I'd planned on having this meal just for the fun of it earlier in the summer, and it got postponed because of all the unexpected traveling we did when my grandpa died last month. I took pictures, and discovered that it's very difficult to get good pictures of food. It makes me appreciate all the beautiful pictures on the food blogs that I see. So instead, here are pictures of the boys enjoying their ladybug cupcakes.

When they got done, I asked Benny to show me his face:

Good-bye, summer vacation! We've enjoyed you so much this year!

Tall Ships

Ethan recently got to go spend some time with Grandma and Grandpa all by himself! It was a rare treat that he enjoyed greatly. They went to a Woodchuck's game, watched fireworks, and went to Green Bay to see the Tall Ships. He had so much fun!



Here he is with Grandpa.


And you can see that steering a ship is serious work!

Lessons from my children

Never ask, "Is it possible for us to be any noisier?" unless you are prepared for a demonstration. And yes, it is possible. Always.


"That will make a mess!" is a reason to do something, not a reason to stop.

An eight-year-old will be willing to go to bed at 7:30 and get up at 5:00 if he believes that it will truly make him healthy, wealthy, and wise. "Wealthy" being the most important of the three.


Never ask, "What are you eating?" when there's no food in the immediate area unless you're willing to hear the answer, "Boogers!".

Seeing your kids cuddle together in a chair will always make you smile, even when you know it's only a matter of time before they start fighting.


"I love you, Mommy!" will melt your heart. Every time.

Photos in this post are completely unrelated to the text. They just make me smile. They were all taken by my talented husband.

How to Clean the Bathroom

Some of you may be familiar with Flylady* - one of the cleaning mavens of the internet. She has a theory that you can keep your bathtub clean all the time by simply washing one side of it every day as you shower.

I've tried her method. I think maybe Flylady doesn't have three dirty children that use her tub on a regular basis.


So I thought I'd share my method of how to keep your bathroom clean. With, of course, the help of your children.

Step 1. Choose the right time to allow your children to help you. Today we chose right before naptime because that's when I'm feeling most patient ... er, wait. Because that's when they're most cooperative ... um, never mind. Let's move on to ...

Step 2. Make sure to have a job for everyone. Benny used the tap to dampen his cleaning rag and then wash the mirror with it. This makes for a lovely streaky finish that is hard to duplicate. Alex used the spray bottle of (nontoxic) cleaner to clean the top of the vanity. Some might say that he was actually flooding the vanity, but the sink is right there anyway.

Step 3. Make sure you turn your back on the children to clean the bathtub. The demonstrates that you trust them, and allows for teamwork between them to develop as they unroll the toilet paper.

Step 4. Reflect on how important Step 1 is as you take deep, cleansing, breaths.

Step 5. Remove the toilet brush from the hands of any child who tries to scrub the floor with it. Remember, you have to clean the floor yet anyway.

Step 6. Explain to your curious three-year-old why it's yucky to splash in the toilet water.

Step 7. Pay close attention to what the children are doing. Otherwise, the one who had the spray bottle - who set it down while he went to the bathroom - will quickly take it back from the one who didn't have it. In retaliation, the one who had it taken from him may - just may, mind you - slam the toilet seat down on his brother as he finishes going to the bathroom.

Ouch.

Step 8. Put the children to bed for their nap.

Step 9. Clean the mess the children made.

Step 10. Clean the bathroom the way you did before you had children.

*Since I'm mentioning Flylady, I'll also say that one of my own family members (who shall remain anonymous!) has started her own homemaking website. You may want to check out The House Honcho.

Oobleck

We made oobleck today. It was fascinating - who knew that cornstarch and water, in the right proportions, would seem to be both liquid and solid? If you click on the link, it'll tell you how it works - something that Ethan was interested in.


Benny and Alex didn't care about the science; they just enjoyed the sensory aspect of the activity.


Aside from the scientific educational value ("Non-Newtonian liquid," anyone?) it was educational in other ways. Like "don't put too much food coloring in it, or your hands will turn colors". (See, we read the Suess book "Bartholomew and the Oobleck", so it had to be green!)


And "This probably isn't the best activity to try on a day you're leaving for a trip and have lots of other things to do. Aside from the obvious clean-up issues, you're going to want to blog about it."


But it was worth it anyway.

The Book Nook

This is the book nook. It's the area under the basement steps, and we've outfitted it with a beanbag chair and lots of books. One of the things I did this earlier this summer was rearrange our books downstairs so all of the storybooks are here in one place - in our crate "bookcase" system. I was pretty pleased with how it had worked. All three of the boys like to sit there and read or look at books. It's fairly easy for them to return the books to the crates. They like that it's cozy.


Then, the day after I did it, I walked downstairs and saw this:


As you could imagine, my heart sank. I didn't want to look in the book nook; I was afraid of what I'd find. But I did look. And sure enough ...



It was a huge mess. The first name that came to mind? Alex. So I calmly - gently - sweetly called him over and asked if he'd emptied out the crates. He was promptly told me yes, he had. But he had a perfectly good reason for dumping all the books.

"Me was playing with the crates, Mama!"

Life Lessons

Do you know what's worse than changing a poopy diaper?

Changing a diaper full of sand.

Do you know harder than changing a diaper full of sand?

Changing a poopy diaper that is full of sand.

These are the kinds of things they should teach in parenting classes.

Alex is 3!

Three years ... it's not a long time, really. And yet we can't imagine life without this little person who joined our family three years ago today. He was so excited about his birthday ... he got to go with Papa down to Piggly Wiggly and pick out donuts for breakfast (after he'd eaten his cereal and yogurt).


Then it was time for presents!


He must be growing up ... he graciously gave his little brother a turn on his new bike ...


It was a long wait, but Grandma and Grandpa came over for supper. They brought more presents, of course, but they also brought Uncle Luke and Aunt Trisha! Alex had been anxiously waiting for them all day. Grandma and Alex decided we should open presents right away, and then there was time to play with them before supper.


The best way to end a birthday evening? With cake, of course, preferably served outside.


Happy 3rd birthday, Alex! We love you so much, and are so thankful that you're part of our family!