Just a swingin'

lil sis loves the swing!!!

Science Experiments

I came across a few ideas a while ago that I wanted to try with the boys.  The first one was home made lava lamps and the second was mini volcanoes.  I knew that the boys would be really interested in both things and that it would help pass the time on a day when we didn't have any other fun things planned.  

The lava lamps had about a 1/3 of the bottle of water, then the rest was oil.  You can use either baby oil or vegetable oil (I am sure you could use just about any cooking oil really).  Then you add a few drops of food coloring to the bottle.  Next, you break up Alka Seltzer tablets and put the pieces into the bottle and watch what happens.  We found that the baby oil didn't work quite as well as the vegetable oil in our experiment.  We also took this experiment into the dark bathroom and lit up our lava lamp with a flashlight..very cool!!!

For the mini volcanoes, I gave the boys a cup about 1/2 full of vinegar and food coloring and a small container of baking soda and a spoon.  They got to see what happened when they put tiny amounts of baking soda into the solution and what happened when they put lots of baking soda into the solution.  They had fun with both experiments! :)

Happy Birthday, Big Brother!!!

My baby turned 4 years old a few weeks ago.  Four.  Yikes.  Four years has gone by so fast, yet so much has happened in that time.  We decided not to do a big friend party this year because we were in Texas and because we had 2 celebrations in Texas (not to mention a party for my brother and one for me as well), one on his actual birthday and one at school a few days later.  Five separate parties to celebrate four years of age seemed a tiny bit excessive, so we will save a friend party for next year.  I don't even want to think about five yet though!!!

(these pictures are all out of order -- sorry, blogger has a mind of its own)

this bounce house was one of the best gifts -- he and his bro have used it daily! 

I love the confusion on all of the adults faces.  

Trying to figure out how to put the marble run together..

checking out the bounce house while her brothers sleep

Ryan let Owen help him open all of his gifts.  Such a sweet brother! 

pretty girl!

excited to see the bounce house going up!

my loves! 

the birthday boy on his birthday! 

looks like she is going for a cupcake.  :) 

trying out his new bike! 

love

you have got to be kidding me with this hat..lol

Happy Birthday!!!

Fun in the leaves

 These pictures make me smile.  It was Christmas afternoon and my kids were still in half of their pajamas even though we had been up for at least 8 hours and it wasn't our first stop of the day.  They woke up early, as usual and we had Christmas with my Dad.  We decided to leave them in their pajamas when we drove to Nana & Papa's house because we thought they would be comfy and might possibly nap (didn't happen).  Once we got to Nana and Papa's house, they wanted to play so we just never got around to changing them or putting into their fancy Christmas outfits.  They had SO much fun playing in the leaves.

the only picture I have of anyone in their Christmas outfits.  Maybe I need to stage a photo shoot...hahaha! 

North Pole Breakfast

The day after Thanksgiving we woke up to find our elf, Hank, here with a yummy North Pole Breakfast from Santa himself!  The boys feasted on powdered donuts and yummy chocolate milk.  Mommy and Daddy had a few donuts as well and peppermint mocha coffees.  We read the kids the Elf on the Shelf book and they got a huge kick out of it.  Hank brought them a special gift (movie night treats and a movie to watch).  Hopefully Hank will remember this special breakfast and keep coming back year after year!!  

Start Your Engines!!!!

A couple of weeks ago we were in the basement playing with the boys.  Little Bro started getting really excited and demanding that "Nyan" get on the train.  Once he was able to get his big bro on the train it became clear what Little Bro was trying to do.  He wanted to race!!!  They would hop on their ride-on toys and wait for us to yell "Green, green, green" and zoom across the basement.  There was a lot of laughter, lots of joyful screaming and lots of fun!!  Daddy even got in on the races! 

Little Bro Wins!!!!

My brother spent the entire fall touring with his band.  It just so happened that he had a couple of days of a break while he was in our area!  YAY!!!  He spent a few days with us and we had the most wonderful time running around outside, enjoying the fresh air and playing.  He is so great with the boys and they adore him.  I blame him entirely for Big Brother's Christmas list --- a guitar and a drum set.  He wants to rock out like his Uncle B! 

This little boy decided he was so big and did the swing all by himself!!!