brothers

This month was full of extra brother time between our FL trip and all the snow days - Bonus!

air dry

We all have a love of kneading, pulling, rolling, and pulling... Especially on cold, school delay mornings... These little animal guys are a collaboration between Aiden with my help with the base guy.  Keaton makes me smile as he snatches every extra bit he can to make a huge ball of what he calls "smooshy pushy relax dough."

ice skating

Aiden loved his mini lesson at the rink so much that he was super excited to take weekly lessons.  He just started this week at the ice arena right around the corner from our house. I caught his second batch of exercises after the extensive parent orientation, where I was itching to get out to the ice to see how he was doing.  The instructors were so nice and encouraging.  They did some group jumping and it was funny to see the little popcorns bursting and some times tumbling.  At the end, they all got stickers on their noses as a goodbye treat.

Ice skating first lesson from LB on Vimeo.

nut crackers

When Aiden was invited to his girlfriend's sixth birthday they mentioned continuing the winter holiday spirit with a Nutcracker theme.  Little did we know that the kids would all be rehearsing and performing a little mini show for all of us (should have guessed since her mom owns a bunch of dance studios in the area).  I captured some snips on video (my video ran out during the part where they had fake snow falling from the ceiling!)  The presents that they danced around with had their party favors in them.  The rat king job given to that dad would've been J's dream job. The kids were giddy and excited to perform and jazzed up and ready for cake afterwards.

N u t c r a c k e r from LB on Vimeo.

swinging

This great place that sells play sets opens for play days throughout the winter to let kids play on all their display setups. During the coldest days before our break in the sun, we visited and it seemed like a good idea to bring one home with us. So we had our new play set delivered in the snow right when we got back from our FL trip. Makes sense, right? But it will be ready for us as the weather warms and it's even fun in the snow, although snow pants are slippery - good on the slide, not as good on the disc swing ;)

posing

Here are some more grab bag shots from my dad's camera...  Trying to get our traditional walking on the beach shot this year took three different takes and many outtakes... But that pretty much sums up life with a 6 and 2 year old. But we did get a shot of the whole family at Poppie's 92nd birthday party - a miracle!

goofing

We had lotsa relaxation time with babies hanging from the bar, pool floaties bouncing around the room, and costumed kids running everywhere hunting for treasures.

Here are some video snippets of smiley guy's first toe dip in the ocean, swimming/floating, and hunting for cool coral.
Florida from LB on Vimeo.

zooing

The Palm Beach Zoo has become part of our tradition when visiting FL in January.  It's the perfect size so we can pretty much cover the whole zoo in one visit.  They have sone great daily animal shows with up close visits with some great birds, an alligator, a sloth, etc.  The otter and the area with faux ruins a la Indiana Jones are favorites.  The gift shop safari helicopter and fly glasses were a hit - Thx G and P!

pooling

We were a bit chilled in Florida, but we did make it to the pool a few times.  The water was warmer than the air most of the time. The new floaty guys were a big hit. (Thx!). One time we had a chameleon swimming with us - oooh boy I mean a real one!

sailing

Thanks to Gumby/Pokey and Captain Scott for a great sail!  It is a fun time full of costumes and plenty of smiles.⛵️⚓️

beaching

We've been sneaking in some nice beach time.  We started the week with a cool crisp beach that warmed nicely over the next few days.  This is the first year that they both really like playing in the waves so I have my hands full a bit.  But I can tell that trips to the ocean are going to be more and more fun as they get older.

The littlest cousin buddy had his first toe dip in the ocean and he seemed to like it.  Look at that smiley guy:::

There are more pics on the big camera... Coming soon...

traveling

These travelers insist on helping, which I try to allow (which means we are sloooow).  The smallest bag we brought is still pretty big for KC, but he kept trying different ways to carry it. They both did well on the actual flight.  KC's only slip with the inside voice was when he really wanted to loudly sing What Does the Fox Say (apparantly it's not cut out to be a quiet song in his mind).  But he didn't fuss much when I tried to redirect him back to his Bendaroo mega pack (he played with these waxy posable strings for over two hours!  His fingers were waxy by the end of the flight). He made tons of mini superhero foxes that hid in his cup den.  Aiden was across the aisle from us in a two seat by himself (lucky duck!). He was Mr. Independent reading and pulling out his own fun from his bag of tricks.  We landed in Florida just after bedtime, but they were very excited for a giant running hug to their grandparents.

lunar new year

It's been a tradition to attend this library program to celebrate the Lunar New Year. The kids presenting the lion dance and crafts seemed even more enthusiastic this year.  They even repeated the dance twice.

Check out this peek at the dragon brother's dance and drum:

Dragon Dance from LB on Vimeo.

brothers

These guys had some bonus brother time these past few weeks with school closures and late starts, too bad part was spent at the doctor's office...but once those antibiotics kicked in and the quarantine was lifted they were living it up.  Fingers crossed the rest of us stay healthy!

tidbits

This week started off with sunny skies and mild temperatures.  Keaton attended a fun birthday gym party (but probably should've been napping instead of eating cake and sliding on zip lines, etc) while Aiden tried out ice skating for the first time (he liked it so much he wanted lessons).  We rode bikes, played with imaginext in the yard, visited the library (that on top of spaghetti book made Keaton giggle), painted at school, enjoyed our favorite hot cocoa (from Silly Cow Farms), and then Aiden came home from school and wanted to go straight to bed.  Very out of character, but no fever or distinct redness on his "sometimes sore" throat...until the middle of the night when the 102.5 fever showed up.  The next morning we were the first at the doctor and the strep test was positive.  The antibiotic "bubble gum tasting good guys" did their job and we are laying low to recover (and hopefully the rest of us avoid getting sick).  The switch n go airplane/dinosaur guy kept Aiden company in bed through many naps... what a pal!

space dragons

After seeing how excited the activity room full of boxes at Keaton's school made all those kiddos and receiving two giant boxes with some new furniture (for "customizing" the house as Aiden calls it), I figured on the long cold days we could enjoy some box fun.  The space station has a giant communication channel (which looks like a long piece of packing paper strung across the room) controlled through the robot arm (which looks like Aiden or Keaton's arm most of the time) in the main rocket.  Floating in space is a giant dragon's nest (did you know they use packing paper?!) with dragon egg treats hiding in it.  Dragons in their nest like to be fed gummy worms. How will ever convince these space dragons to clean up their fun?

rock on

Some jamming in the last few weeks...
Rock on from LB on Vimeo.

tidbits

Who knows where the days go lately??  Whoosh, and it is almost the middle of January!  It's been back to school, school delays, friend's birthdays, practicing piano (done with primer B this week and learned the Star Wars theme and Mickey March), playing in melty snow (sled shields!), making our own foam snow (not a good idea!), trying a new tomato soup recipe (with a special request for a straw from KC), lotsa board games (KC won his first independent Chutes and Ladders), twisting up some Fuzzoodles guys, and plenty of cinnamon buns fresh out of the oven.

would you rather

Live in a home without electricity-OR-in a home without running water?
Without electricity because I have to drink water most of the time and I could get really thirsty most of the time!

Never be able to drive on the freeway again-OR-never again make a green light?

Never go on the freeway because if each time I went to the lights I would just be stopped and I wouldn't like that.

Have to learn to walk all over again-OR-learn to write all over again?
Probably write all over again because I like writing, especially my cursive

Try to pogo stick on ice-OR-skateboard down a steep slope covered with sand?
Pogo stick on ice because here's why, I can't even pogo stick because it's even more dangerous!

Get everywhere by crawling-OR-have to stand on your hands when you are stationary?
I would probably crawl everywhere I go because I like acting like a baby

Have to spend a month with no explanation wearing a cape everywhere you go-OR-wearing an eye patch and carrying a walking stick?
Wearing a cape with no explanation because if was red everyone would think I was dressed as Superman and I wouldn't have to say why I was wearing it

Age only from the neck up-OR-from the neck down?
Age only from the neck up because I really don't know the difference.

Eat ice cream flavored poop-OR-poop flavored ice cream? 
Neither because they are so gross, but I guess poop flavored ice cream because I don't want to eat actual poo

Run across a hungry alligator's back-OR-run underneath an angry elephant?
Under an angry elephant because with the hungry alligator I could get eaten and I'm really fast and I might be able to zoom right under an elephant easily

happy gran day

Bonus flipgram to take another moment to say Happy Birthday Gran Gran! 

 Mommu, we love you for all that you do!

hello

If our family had a greatest hits collection it would definitely include this cute little anthem with different hello greetings that Aiden learned his first few months in school.  The Hello song still pops up around here and now Keaton's started singing it on his own a bit (here at 33 months):


Hello song: Keaton edition from LB on Vimeo.
And a flashback with an older Aiden (he was about 35 months old) in September 2010:
 
Hello to all the children around the world... from LB on Vimeo.

brothers

This duo made the most of the two week vacation together.  It was back to school today, and boy were they glad to see each other at pick up time.

cousins

A little post holiday get together for the cousins... My quick shot strategy on the iPhone creates this - KC is playing games:

sledding

We got an unexpected two inches of snow last night and the new sleds were ready for the swim club hill a few houses down the road.  It was fun to slide Keaton there on his new sled even over the bumpy ice chunks on the parking lot. The very first run down though the sled cracked on some of those chunks!  Then Aiden's sled got a ding, so we left with one in tact sled and info on the foam sleds these other kids had.  These Brennan brothers know how to make their mom laugh or maybe they just couldn't help slipping, sliding, and skidding everywhere.  I am thoroughly amused myself making this trailer from an iMovie template:

Sledding Trailer from LB on Vimeo.

botanical

We had a nice mild day, so we grabbed the chance to head to the Botanical Garden's train and sculpture holiday display before it closes for the year.  The theme was World Fairs.  There were a ton of landmarks recreated out of organic material, a few gourd hot air balloons and a giant twig globe. The details are amazing, but my favorite is still the animal houses from two years ago.  We topped off the day with a trip to the new bigger location of Ted's Bulletin - the server recommended an Oreo PB milkshake which was delicious and I couldn't resist the gingerbread lemon pop tart to go!  Closing out the holiday season with a spin on trains and gingerbread ;)