huggie

Misters Scooby with peanut butter toast, bed head, and huggies!

Before:

 During:

 After:

fresh beats

We are in love with our new keyboard (thanks to Gran and Pop!) early Xmas, late bday present extraordinaire... Aiden ran down to play DJ on it this morning with the jamming headphones. He has figured out how to get his favorite 'skydiving' dance track to play over and over. KC likes when the keys sound like helicopters. It is pretty cool because the keys light up and can give you lessons! I think it will get a lot of play time and now our basement has a complete set for a band.

whoosh

In the whirlwind of our trip to Ohio, we got to visit one of my dearest friends in her new cozy home complete with the cool clubhouse slide her handy husband built in their new basement. Aiden caught a glimpse of this in a photo beforehand, and couldn't wait to go visit Connor's slide. That slide sure delivered the fast fun swoops. The pop up blow up football guy delivered some punches too, so everyone got out some energy - and it may have been a last spurt of energy left for the day ;). The buckeye balls and other treats helped keep everyone going - thanks S family!

grateful

What are you grateful for? Holidays may change as kids get older and new kiddos come along, but I appreciate the moments when we can spend time together. Time to celebrate a new nephew with surprise blue frosting, time to make cookies with Gran, time to ride on Pop's back, time to enjoy a new drum from Guatemala with a drummer uncle, time to pretend to be an upside down bat, time to chase zhu zhu pets around the house, time to build a giant lego pyramid, time to make a grateful tree, and just time to be together...

fifth

I figured this was Aiden's fifth birthday celebration with some kind of birthday treat. Five for a five year old, right?! Thanks for everything Gran and Pop for the best Lego pyramid, etc and especially to Lizzie and Woah for the giant smiles and second turkey lurky dinner! (and fun monster puppets etc earlier) We miss you guys!

pen glen

One of our favorite spots for a relaxing outing... We were bummed to miss the Twelve Days of Xmas exhibit (which we really liked last year) since it opened later in the day, but we will just have to come back for the holiday. Aiden loved the object treasure hunt more than last time even...clipboards make very official fun business. Aiden was the vet and KC was his assistant taking care of stuffed possums with a rumble in their tummies. The binoculars were KC's favorite to watch the black squirrels munch in the swirly snow flurries outside.

also art

We took a trip to the Cleve Art Museum and the beautiful new atrium. It was fun to see some new art along with our old favorites. The little cafe was tasty - thanks to the steak clay bread wrap, J added harissa spread to his Xmas gift list.

art

A giant batch of fall art from school and restaurant kid menu doodles... Enjoy!

happy

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!

May your home be filled with warmth and laughter.

school

We are so grateful for a great class for Aiden this year.  He's officially going to school full days now (until 3:00).  The afternoon class is only 8 other kids so he gets a lot of extra lesson work and group projects with the bigger kids.  It's been a great year with the calmest, nicest group of kids and teachers. The kids all seem to really like each other. Aiden told his dad that "Mimi and Angie forgot that you aren't allowed to kiss me at circle time even if you are in love," so maybe they like each other a little too much ;) (For the record, Mimi is in the red dress and scared looking Angie is in the Beatles shirt)

I am now officially working for the school as their marketing consultant.  It's an awesome work from home gig and I'm so happy to contribute my time to the school (and now also get paid instead of just volunteering which last year exceeded 150 hours).  I'm glad to keep my resume alive a little bit ;) and continue this sort of gig in the future.

thankful

These brothers just make me so thankful.

thankful songs from LB on Vimeo.

cruisin'

Happy Monday! Hope you go cruising through this fun holiday week. Playdates a plenty around here... It's nice with the bigger guys especially to go to my friend's places where they have trampolines (which although kinda dangerous, burn energy like you would not believe!) This particular friend has the best ride on truck which fits three kids, doesn't go too fast, and has a radio that mostly tunes to NPR - convenient for interested mommies ;). Even the little guys get in on the cruising!

Mr. O's bday

We celebrated with Mr. Oscar on his 4th birthday. Good old fashioned games (like an egg race and pass the dragon) and some dazzled construction hats ;)... The trampoline caused a nearly broken toe for Aiden... but at least it was nice enough to bounce outside. And the best part was that daddy was home when we got back! Woot!

tourney

Two and a half hours on the soccer field with a hyped soccer guy and his enthusiastic brother without dad means mom deserves a medal too! Real referees and what Aiden thought was a real field...a flaky astro turf from h-e-double hockey sticks that stuck to everything including KC's lips. It looked like grass flakes and little plastic dirt bits - glad they try to make it realistic...but I'm not too excited that we decorated the van with those clingy bits. I found it in KC's ears too - Ug!

Although everyone was happy and the sun felt nice during the four rounds of soccer and games. Plus Aiden is still wearing his new medal and insisted I hang up the poster the eagle guy gave him in his room.

We went home for naps and Aiden and I rested in front of our first viewing of the Polar Express. (We got a phantom unmarked package with the music cd for Polar Express and a chipmunk friend -was it from you?) The cd has been on repeat in the car and Aiden was begging to watch the movie. It was such a treat and made Aiden cry happy tears.

Then it was off to the BN book fair for Aiden's school. It was sticker craft heaven for KC and Aiden loved test driving the games and story time. It was a bummer that daddy wasn't there to read this year ;)

pop

Pop goes the weasel!

one year later

As a photographer, I feel obligated to test drive the competition... so I bought these Groupon coupon deals to two portrait studios (where they end up really charging you a lot for mediocre pictures in my opinion).  We had these portraits sitting around from last year that were just kinda blah, so I had the idea to recreate the same pose and make it sorta a kitschy series.  

So here is the difference a year makes:

bedhead

Mr. Five going on fifteen woke up and started building Legos #withthemostclassicbedhead

hey Santa

Santa is in town...already! We trekked out to the mall and wandered over to see him after some quick dinner at the Corner Bakery. We got to the Ice Palace with two very excited guys to find that Santa was off feeding his reindeer and would be back soon. In the meantime, Aiden got hyped by the new Ice Age decorations including a game to find Scrat's five missing acorns as you headed over to see Santa. Both boys got a bunch of fake snow in their hair as they twirled around in the Ice Palace. Then Aiden jetted around the corner eagerly hopping up onto Santa's lap. KC quickly joined him not missing a beat. Then he sorta looked up with an uncertain smirk to examine Santa's face...  That real beard had been combed so neatly, but KC didn't really want to lean against it.  Then all the photo ladies started a cooing frenzy and caught a decent shot of both the boys on a sleepy Santa's lap.

chalkin

The rain last night washed away our zoo with giant alien eating bunnies and angry birds orbit. Good thing I captured it with the camera. The boots were a special request by the one year old footwear lover. We weren't calling for the rain! I already miss those 70 degree days!

comic party

18 Superheroes and 5 Junior Superheroes in training (plus their parents) joined us at the Local Motion Studio for what Aiden called the best birthday ever. If by 'best' you mean biggest, loudest yet?! The studio made it easy to keep them all occupied and bouncing all around. The kids were greeted with a chance to pick out a super power. They added a sticker to their wristband so they could use that power in their class. The superhero training course helped them learn super speed, super strength, mind reading (aiden's favorite shadow copy games), shape shift (to turn into a key to fit through the key hole), flying (balloons were their test subjects), and laser vision. The junior superheroes learned how to play with as many toys as possible in a 45 minute period in the playroom... while occasionally peeking into the big superhero class. The cake (which did not have superpowers and sorta shifted/collapsed in parts) was covered in cutout sugar paper (I recommend this awesome stuff I found at Michaels!) and tons of M&Ms meant to look like dot matrix vintage comic book (which Aiden put most on all on his own). Daddy made tons of super hero subs on a stick, while Aiden and I finished cutting out the masks for the balloons and comic book stuff. All in all a fun fifth party for our comic kid, who really does have superpowers...at least according to his corny mom.   Thanks to everyone that came to make it super!

aaah

We finished out the week enjoying a shift back to warmer weather, the giant leaf piles all over the place, and even the earlier sunset streaming over the lake.

brothers

My little hot boxes don't mind the colder days... Especially when there are leaf piles to enjoy!

good list

Oh my goodness, I've had this good list sitting around for aaaages!  I think all summer long I've been moving it to later and later...But here is a list of fun things I will remember as "good" from this stage in the game... you know the bringing up kid's game ;)

Ed Emberly books
These books are absolute favorites in the drawing book category...which Aiden spent his summer exploring.

Amigurumi knits
I learned so many new techniques from these little toy knits... which I spent my summer exploring.

Postagram/ Sincerely apps
I love this app where you can load a photo in and write a message right from your phone.

Good eats
Cafe Rio limeade and green pork enchiladas, extreme cinnamon bread at Great Harvest, fresh watermelon steak, and grilling cheese all top the list of favorite treats.

321 cake
My mom found this recipe for warm cake straight out of the...wait for it...microwave in a minute!  Three tablespoons cake mix, two tablespoons water, and one minute in the microwave.  The trick it to have one box of angel food cake mix (which has dry egg in the mixture) and one box of whatever flavor cake you want.  I like to use a scoop of spice and a scoop of chocolate mixed together.  It's sorta fluffy but a nice consistency especially for one minute in the microwave.

Sing It!
This game on the Wii is an absolute favorite around here.  KC gets a decoy microphone, but soon enough there will be some genuine duets.