A very happy Fourth of July

My very awesome mother decided to treat her kids (and their spouses and kids) to an impromptu family vacation in Kansas City.  We added an extra day on to the trip and stopped about an hour outside of KC to visit our "country" sister for the fourth of July holiday and some small town fireworks (a very nice break from the overcrowded firework displays at home where the trek to and from the car takes longer than the fireworks)

 They are well supervised (I actually cloned out my husbands toes because it messed up the shot but he's right there)

We stuck to smoke bombs (and a smoke canon), black snakes, and poppers

The kids were thrilled.

At dusk we headed on to a nearby fireworks display that put on an impressive show

Last year we were mid drought for the fourth of July and almost all the fireworks displays were cancelled.  My youngest doesn't even remember seeing fireworks.  I'm very happy we were able to remind him :)

Celebrating Valentine's Day

We are not big on celebrating valentine's day in this house.  Once upon a time (before children) we went on a real valentine's date to a fancy restaurant, with a fixed menu, and a steep bill. Since then we've realized that a steak dinner at home with a bottle of wine is just our style.  No fancy gifts, cards, or flowers.  Well, sometimes chocolates.

Then I remember that we have kids and I should probably put a little more effort in to celebrating.  Or at very least put up a few pink paper hearts and bake a special dessert.  We made a chain of hearts and my little helper helped hang it. Oh and Phil got some marbled red velvet cheesecake brownies for dessert

This photo was submitted to the I Heart Faces photo challenge – www.iheartfaces.com.  The theme is hearts.  Visit their blog to check out the other entries.

A Very Happy Holiday {smile because it happened}

It was a good holiday.  I didn't take a lot of pictures this Christmas since I was often busy holding a kid; helping a kid unwrap a gift; holding a wine glass; or bent over laughing with (or at) my family.  We had a very merry Christmas and a very loud New Year's eve.

Snuggling on Christmas Eve; trying to draw out bedtime for as long as possible

  Hours of intense (and quiet!) playing with new toys and legos...

Lots of days just hanging out in PJs til well past 10 in the morning...

We spent many, many hours with family.  They got to play with their cousins day after day.  No school; just play.  The mild, warm temperatures made it possible to get outside more.

Here it looks like he could be my little assistant: posing babies.  Really he is just giving his baby cousin a cuddle and softly petting her head.  Their older cousin with her holiday sparkles on.  And a typical room throughout Christmas day, filled with 10-20 people just enjoying the togetherness.

We tried really hard this year to teach our boys the real meaning of Christmas and that it's not just about the toys and presents.  In the end their favorite part of the holiday season was getting to see all the family, and that's a pretty good start.

Now we're back to school; back to work; back to routines; a whole new year ahead of us.

Happy New Year to everyone.  I hope 2012 is filled with great things to come.

Valentines Day | DIY Crayon Hearts

We've been stuck inside a lot.  I can't remember how long its been since the ground wasn't ice or snow covered.  We been busying ourselves with projects and way too much Wii.  We needed to do Valentines for 20 classmates and I've always wanted to try melting crayons to make new ones.  I found a silicone mini heart shaped mold and thought heart shaped crayons would be perfect for Valentines this year ~ I just hope none of the kids thinks they're candy and tries to eat them.

Supplies needed:
Crayons (we have tons of broken cans, restaurant crayons, etc)
Muffin pan (mini works best, any shape will do, but this project may just ruin it for future use so choose wisely)

Peel the wrappers from the crayons (I used an exacto knife and slit down one side to make it easier for them to get the wrappers off).  Break up the non-broken crayons and place in mold.  Put in a 220 degree oven for about 20 minutes.  Let cool.  Some of the darker color combos just mixed into a solid dark color but most made great color mixes.  We had fun popping in bits of gold, silver, and white from the few crayons we had in those colors.

The kids (my niece joined us for the day) put the crayons in little baggies (I think they are candy bags) and decorated them with punched out hearts and circles from old paint chip samples.

There is a layer of cloudy wax that forms on the top - it doesn't have color and makes the one side of the heart concave.  I shaved this off using the slicer/grater.  This was a very easy project and a good way to use up those broken crayons - my crazy kids won't use crayons if the tip is broken off.  The decorating the baggies and getting Evan to sign his name 20 times was the hardest part.

Happy Valentines Day everyone!

Christmas in review | DIY therapy packs and Lightsaber earrings

We had a great Christmas and New Year.  We started the holiday break with the capture of a tiny little mouse.  The process of capturing it took several hours and a lot of chocolate chips as bait.  Once we had him captured we put him in a rubbermaid tote and fed him different foods until it was time for his release.  This mouse likes bread and chocolate chips but NOT cheese or peanut butter.  huh.

Then it snowed. A lot. When the weather turned nice and it hit nearly 70 degrees I thought it would be a perfect time to release him.  We were ready to head out the door when the tornado sirens went off.  Then actual tornadoes came through the city.  We hung out in the basement. So did the mouse (thanks to my kids tearful pleas).  Weeks later the mouse is still with us.  This was the week for him to go but now there's snow on the way.  Sigh.  I'm gonna leave this release thing up to my husband... I'm sure he'll be released tonight regardless of snow, tornadoes, or firestorms.

This holiday I tried to get the boys involved in the season of giving.  They were in charge of picking out certain gifts and were given a very meager budget to do so.  We also focused on making a lot of our gifts.  Big brother picked out ornaments from the Missouri Botanical Gardens for his teacher's gifts.  Then we set about making a pen holder/gift wrapping.

We wrapped some aluminum cans in scrapbook paper, glued on ribbon around the top edge, and tucked the ornaments inside.  We added stickers to circle magnets to make this one even more multi-purpose.  Now its a pen holder-note holder-gift wrap.

We have several neighbors on our street that are older single ladies.  We try to visit them when we can.  They love to see the boys and are so touched at even the smallest gesture.  So we set about making small gift bags for 8 of our neighbors.  We baked lots of cookies.  Chocolate, chocolate chip and Beacon Hill cookies drizzled in chocolate.

For the other handmade gift to go in the bags we decided to make what we call boo-boo packs.  You fill a fabric baggie with rice (or wheat), add a few drops of essential oil, and sew them up.  They can be microwaved to use as a heat pack or put in the freezer for use as a cold compress or for boo-boos.  I made eleven of these.  The first one took forever.  Then I went on youtube to check a video on how to thread a sewing machine and the rest were done in minutes.  They turned out very nice.  I'd give a tutorial here but seeing as I needed to look up on youtube how to use my sewing machine you might be better googling diy therapy packs to find a better tutorial.

After delivering the bags of goodies to eight of our neighbors (the delivery took longer than the making of the gifts; the neighbors like to visit; another lesson for the boys on the holiday spirit of giving... giving time)

When we got home I set to work on making Lego lightsaber earrings for my sister who is sort of a Star Wars nerd.  Now that I have been thoroughly schooled in all that is Star Wars and I am surrounded by these adorable Star Wars legos the creative ideas are endless.  I don't typically make jewelry so this was a wing-it DIY project but they turned out and she was pretty happy with them.

Then the Christmas madness began.  We do Christmas presents on Christmas eve morning since its the only quiet, relaxed time we have to really take the time to open presents and be together just the four of us.  The boys loved their presents and spent the day with new legos...

Then it was a weekend FULL of family.  Presents at my mom's house; presents at Phil's mom's house.  A million cousins to play with all weekend (and week) long.  Tons of time for me with my family and in-laws.  A really wonderful holiday.

+++++++++

After unwrapping all their toys and opening a few the boys decided to play with...

a box.  Yep, it was a rollercoaster among other things.

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday.  I know we did.

A long weekend of giving thanks

Since we don't host Thanksgiving dinner and don't have to be anywhere until after noon, Thanksgiving morning is a very laid back morning for us (thanks to you mom and mom-in-law!).  What to do with this lazy morning?  Break out the Nerf guns.  The Nerf guns were birthday gifts from September.  I've been hiding them because I didn't want to deal with the fall-out of unleashing my two little guys with guns and ammo.  But it was Thanksgiving and they pleaded so nicely that I caved and opened them.  Correction, dad caved and said we could open them, then he went back to bed for a morning nap. (thanks Phil).  We hung the target up on the window and both boys were very good about only shooting at the target (thanks boys, good boys).  We got some target practice in.  Their skills improved a lot once Phil reappeared and gave them a little lesson in aim.

Then we headed out to Phil's parents house for Thanksgiving dinner (lunch?) number 1.  There are nine grand kids here and six of them are 5 and under.  LOTS of fun.  They love Mimi and PaPa's house. Love it. I love how much they love it there. (thanks God for letting me meet and marry in to such a wonderful family)   We had the first snow of the season.  Not enough to play in but enough to make everything look pretty and bright.

Lots of playtime with cousins.  The "big" kids are so great with the younger ones.  They play with them til they drop.  My kids never sleep so well as they do after a day with cousins.

 Then on to my mom's house for dessert and more cousins.  How are these kids still on their feet?  The adults went out for our annual siblings T-day night out drinks while the kids stayed for a slumber party at Grandma's (thanks Natalie and Mom!).  It was a very full, long weekend with lots of family time.  I am so very thankful for my family(s)!  I am so very exhausted but I'm also very much looking forward to more at Christmas time.

Happy Independence Day!!!

freedom (noun)

1. The state of being free, of not being imprisoned or enslaved.

2. The lack of a specific constraint, or of constraints in general; a state of being free, unconstrained.

We had a wonderful Fourth of July weekend with the requisite parade, carnival, barbecue, swimming, and of course fireworks and family. The boys got to go to the parade with their cousins and they were all absolute troopers in the stifling heat. The candy and bubbles were main attractions for them (never mind that there were clydesdale horses and marching bands!)

That's Maddie-O catching bubbles at the WG parade. >>>

Freedom is a slippery slope for me as a mom.  Of course I want my kids to have freedom... freedom to express themselves, freedom to be creative, freedom from fear and all the injustices and bad things in this world.  Is it bad that I just don't want them to be independent quite yet?  Maybe when they're 30 I'll be able to let go.

Oh and for the time being that whole freedom thing we're celebrating does not extend to their rights to the candy jar.  I've definately put constraints on that ~ sorry boys!  I think half the fun was checking out their candy stash anyway... that's them below checking out the candy loot for about the 100th time. 

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend!