Friday, January 30, 2015

PET show & 100th Day

Lance's 1st official school project - the Pet Show. The project was to create your own pet out of recycled materials or materials around your house. It could be a real pet or make-believe. He had to name it and tell a couple facts about it at the pet show in front of parents and friends. He had his idea ALL picked out before the note even came home....... A FOX! So off went to the library to get lots of books about foxes.

He started collecting materials over a couple of weeks - choosing what the body would be and the feet and the whiskers (& a couple of ideas from Mom and Dad too!) But he was very concerned that our materials weren't going to turn into his fox..... SO we came up with this diagram to show him just how it would all come together!


Then, after a few segments of glueing and stuffing and cutting, etc., 

It finally came together!

WALLA!

I present to YOU: COCONUT

Lance did a great job presenting and he won the award for the most unusual eyes, which were all his idea so it made him soooo excited!
I'm sure we won't be so excited about all of the school projects headed our way over the coming years - LOL!

& I can't forget a VERY exciting day at school these days, 100th day!!!

Sunday, January 18, 2015

CHICAGO weekend

Despite that Lance's fever spiked just as we arrived at the hotel - & the boys are just at those ages to make a getaway NOT feel like a getaway to Mom & Dad.... we still made some memories and enjoyed our quick weekend trip to Chicago. (We never made it to the Boat & RV show, but found a few other things to do!)

The boys were pretty excited about packing their "OWN" suitcases & carrying them - woohoo! 
Why is a hotel room so fun and cool for kids? LOL. 
The ride on the train was the highlight for Chase. 
Because the train was re-routed we had to get off a few blocks away from our hotel and do a bit of walking - chilly in the windy city, but there wasn't too much complaining. We did take a quick stroll around Wrigleyville - the boys weren't too interested in another pic! Ha! 
WILLIS tower fun! Lance's highlight of the weekend no doubt. 

A fun, impromptu weekend trip - and how lucky to be a short 2.5 hours from such an amazing city! 

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Fire & Ice

Mid-week snow & ice fun, complete for Keegan with a fire in the fire-pit?!? Why not? & Let me just say, the slide off the deck has created MORE fun in all seasons for the boys!!! WELL worth the money spent for sure!

Snow forts are so much fun!!!
Chase couldn't get enough of the "snowslide!" 
Just a boy & his firepit! ;-) 

Saturday, January 10, 2015

A week flies by

When you sit down at the end of the week and reflect (in my case this involves looking through iPhone pics from the week) It's crazy to think of everything that you crammed in - in such a short amount of time. In the heat of the moment and through the week I feel like the week is flying by & then when I look back at all of the events or memories that took place, it really does astonish me how much was accomplished and really how much time we had in the week. Here are just the moments that I actually snapped pictures of....... (thank you iPhone for begin so incredible handy and convenient!)

Monday - Cookie Dough Balls (Lance asked all vacation if we could make these and I didn't have all of the ingredients, so I made sure the Monday list included these!) After lots of practice with baking, he has finally mastered the skill of rolling a ball :-) Chase has a ways to go - he did enjoy making cookie dough "snakes" though!

Tuesday - The heated blanket! It might be the family gift of the year - EVERYONE wants to use the heated blanket. Especially in cold, -20 temps! And if we leave the blanket out (even when not on) Daisy finds her way to it too! I love Chase pretending to sleep with that BIG old grin on his face.
Lance had a 2 hour delay for school and enjoyed some extra TV time this morning.
"What, the red light is on & it's warm down here, come on?"

Wednesday - Lance's 1st NO SCHOOL day, due to cold temps. Amazingly enough, I didn't take a single picture this day. Although we should have stayed home, we ventured out for most of the day. First to the gym, then to play at the play place at Burger King (almost 1.5 hours, just the boys and they played so well together. It was to enjoyable watching them laugh and have fun together without the arguing and fussing!) Then to the library to get FOX books for Lance's 1st big school project - not sure who us more excited?!?! :-)

Thursday - No nap for Chase (We won't be doing this very often - talk about supper time crabby pants! - but he was SOOOOOO cute at the time and I gave in to his request) And then playing with snow inside! I forgot how much they enjoy doing this - Lance could have played for hours with it. Maybe Chase would have too if he weren't so tired. We did a little family weight lifting and exercise before going to bed...... Lance got a stopwatch for Christmas and we were timing each other on Mountain Climbers. The boys got hot, so decided to do them in their underwear! Giggle city let me tell you.
Chase really just wanted to eat the snow!!
And I can't leave out the fun Hangman game Lance & I played. I have to say, I am just loving watching him learn & grow & being able to play games with him! One of my favorite things about his age right now!

Friday - Chase now likes to read me books while I get ready in the morning - it really is the sweetest thing ever. He had a little trouble holding this huge book! 
& so I don't forget, he's obsessed with the Ghan train & is convinced we're going to ride it together in Australia some day - oh buddy, I can only wish for that moment! 

Lance had his last Tennis lesson and then it was Family movie night at his school. (Dad got pretty lucky finding a friend while walking into the school and he got to enjoy a couple of adult beverages off-site) While the boys and I watched Dolphins Tale 2. Busy, busy, busy day and night.
Saturday - Gma & Gpas house and  night out! We took donuts to Grandma & Grandpas house in the morning, where Grandma continued the teaching process of tying shoes (Lance is not at all excited about doing this - And Grandma has so much more patience with him on this than Keegan & I) -p.s. - Lance loves to wear his shirt & tie from his Christmas concert - maybe I should but him a few more? ;-)
Then, after my 1st photo session of the year in the afternoon (& a flat tire on the way) Keegan and I enjoyed an evening out with friends Brad and Sarah for Brads birthday. Always feels good to get time out together, and a nice sit down dinner without "kid-type" interruptions. Thanks to Sarah for arranging the evening & thanks to the cousins for babysitting!
Sunday - Christmas tree goodbye & a last minute photo session with the tree (including a few tears) Those pics to come later! Then the boys had a blast playing in the snow on the driveway and helping Dad with the chainsaw (Until he turned it on and it was too loud for them - ha!)
They each got a turn chopping with the Ax too.... Pretty cool stuff.
And this was our week - pretty typical really! It included time-outs, crying, laughing, yelling, reading, games, frustration, baths, points being taken away, picking up toys, family dinners (with no TV which is killing the boys), iPad, Leappad, lots, lots more..... & mostly - LOVE!

How did I get so lucky to call this MY life??? I need to think this more often throughout my week, that is for sure. I get so caught up in the "not perfect" moments of crying and hitting and whining & complaining - but when I look back to realize how little time those moments took up & what good moments took up the rest, I should feel nothing but JOY. What we're doing here is living - living each moment & each day that we have been given. It really is pretty amazing.

Sunday, January 4, 2015

FINALLY.....


"Mommy, mommy.... I looked out my window and there is enough snow to go sledding today, I'm really not teasing!" This is what woke me today. It's the last day of winter vacation and this is all he has wanted since the first day. I was thinking I would have to crush his excitement when I peeked out the window, but it actually snowed more than we had anticipated. So...... a quick shovel and blow of the drive-way, a stop at good Old McDonalds for a quick breakfast, and off to the sledding hill we went! There were a few tears of cold and frost bite and a little whining for taking turns on the cool new "tube" Dad got, but all-in-all - a fun sledding morning!!

Chase loved going down by himself on the tube, but wasn't a fan of the climbing up by himself.... so Mom got a good work-out climbing back up the hill with him! Cheers to a good snowfall, tired boys, naps, and "buddy" iPad time :-)