botanical

Our annual pilgrimage to the Botanical Garden to see the trains and the natural structures.  This year there were 33 lighthouses and huge tall ships.  The scale was amazing!  It competes with the tiny creature houses from the first year as my favorite.  I was excited to see a lighthouse from Bristol, RI and even two Ohio lighthouses from Toledo and Cincinnati.  We then took the scavenger stamp hunt around the gardens to explore some more.  That place never disappoints!

faces of hook

Just finished a giant amount of editing work (with over 5,500 images this month!) and I finally had a chance to load the ridic number of no-flash photos I took during Aiden's performance.  We were so excited that we have family close that could come see the second performance.  Aiden was excited by the chocolate coin fangrams too ;). Thx Bs!   

So much fun to see the many faces of Hook:

gingerbread house

Building a gingerbread house means bellies full of candy for the boys. Aiden said he put four candies on the house for every one he ate and he thought that was a good ratio - which he learned about someplace - I told him the best ratio was 0:5.

Our cute little gingerbread house from chocolate land according to Aiden:

cookie

It's holiday cookie Friday! 

tidbits

The water main break on the street across from us led to noisy nights of these trucks (that need to constantly back up with that beeping noise!) working hard to get the water back for our neighbors.  I guess we shouldn't complain because we kept our water and the boys were amused by all the equipment parked outside our house.  One morning we got to watch this little tank truck load back onto its trailer.

This guys loves to add to the drawings his brother gives him with his own little guys.

The holiday party at the piano teacher's house was hopping - I think she knows everyone in the neighborhood!  She served three giant hams and still ran out.

I'm hosting Aiden's Destination Imagination team meetings this season.  I'd never heard of DI, but it's so perfectly perfect for Aiden and all his precocious buddies.  They are preparing a "mish-mash animal" which they create a fun show about in a habitat structure they create.  We will meet each week for different "instant challenges" including this one where they had to pretend to be an elephant AND their favorite animal - then we had to guess what their favorite animal was...

In art class, Aiden created a birds eye view of his make believe home.  It just happens to look a lot like a ninja turtle ;)

The light bright is such a classic.

The mild days mean even more playtime in the woods next to Keaton's school.

This birthday party at the local martial arts studio was one for the books.  I was laughing when he gave them a long talk about how they can't use their kicking and punching skills to go after bullies because that would make them a bully - aaaaand Happy Bday kiddo!

tidbits

Xmas cards with all three xmas stamps because I couldn't decide which I liked best.

Despite the bleh reviews, my boys both loved Peter Pan Live and I think watched it about 2.5 times total.  Aiden is prepping for his Captain Hook role with some tips from Christopher Walkin ;)

Lotsa notes being taken around here, even right before bed… gotta record those details of the day.

Mr. Tinny Crumple and his son Foil Crumple - so many foil guys! Aiden even gave one to cousin Pete as a "souvenir"

Scorpion pops from J's Tucson trip - so brave!

Really awesome batch of early Xmas presents that included the coolest flying alien ship - Thx Nana and Grampa!

Homework includes mapping the vowels in the spelling words

What?! Sugar rimmed cranberry margaritas at the start of a whirlwind week!

ten days

Ten Days until Christmas… the countdown is on…

Merry Christmas from LB on Vimeo.

premiere

The premiere performance of Captain Hook was this morning… I have these snippet of video to share (sorry for the iffy quality since the lighting in there was so tough - but I ordered the professional DVD they will record at tomorrow's performance).

 Aiden had so, so much fun:
Neverland Adventures from LB on Vimeo.

one sec fall

I've kept up with the daily one second video clips… It's fun to see how fast the fall goes by!  It felt like that in real life too!
One Second Fall from LB on Vimeo.

school cool

It's hard to decide whether Keaton or I enjoy my days in his classroom more… He get to share a special favorite toy at the end of each parent coop day.  He just loves fielding questions from his friends and telling him where he got it, where he keeps it, and what it does…with a huge smile!  He also loves being the line leader and the guy that rings the bell at the end of recess. 

My favorite is hearing him interact with his friends.  The girls came over to him this time and asked him to be their Prince - His reply: "Nah, but I can be your King!" Ha!

gingy

Gingy was thinking TGIF?!

neighborly

The neighborhood holiday party was another hit.  The school gym teachers run all these fun games… We arrived during the hat making winning the tallest hat award.  Then the silly games continued: opening a series of wrapped boxes with oven mitts on, vaseline on your nose to pick up cotton balls relay style, lick bubble gum out of a pile of whipped cream and try to blow the biggest bubble, wrap up your friend like a snowman with toilet paper, and graham cracker gingerbread houses.  The boys were excited by their favorite prize: those sticky hands where they can pretend to be superheroes and collect all the filth ;)

stakes

We had a fun time making these winter stakes at the kid's workshop this month.  They are tucked next to the house to keep them mostly dry so those fun stickers stay nice.

drawing

While Keaton wasn't feeling tip top and J was out of town, Aiden curled up with so many books I lost track and found his "long lost favorite" Ed Emberly books.  There were some old drawings tucked in there and Aiden made some funny new ones.  I think it's funny that its "normal" to say Sir Aiden, but "optional" to say Sir Keaton.  Aiden added those arrows after I asked about it, because he didn't want to "upset" anyone…compassion for his brother ;)  Also, "Notice: more names than able to fit on paper" is definitely true and he even made his sick brother giggle with all those funny names.  Word searches are also really popular around here….even ones with numbers and letters!

good list

My new zoom zoom is so smooth, not at all rattly like that giant van.  Our needs have shrunk and I felt silly with all that big empty cavernous space in the back of the van where we hardly ever even put up the third row seats.  After driving around in some of the SUVs with third row seats I realized I could still have the luxury of extra space with kid friends, etc  Enter the Seinfeld ridiculous product placement on his Comedians in Cars online episodes where I decided I liked the MDX as Tina Fey awkwardly gazed at it.  The commercial were the symbol takes off like a rocket ship just sealed the deal.

This guys has the same cuddle friends wrapped in his arms every night, one dog and two bears with boo bear tucked over his shoulder.

Santa hats deserve a spot on the super list.

Pouring your own molten chocolate into your warm milk for the win!

Funny bug masks cause boys to make lotsa funny noises.

These wooden puzzles where the pieces are good for a lot more than just puzzling.

Watercolor are this kids' best friend… He rinses his brush for the "best action!"

This fun Playmobil Christmas village is providing lotsa scoot up to the shelf entertainment.

The mild days where the bow and arrow chasing games exhaust you so you lie down for a rest.

gtown

I forgot about these snaps from our chilly stroll through Gtown right after Thanksgiving…  Keaton was thinking very hard about those Baked and Wired cupcakes.  Aiden was itching to get out on that ice rink, but we had a nice dinner overlooking it instead.

cousins

We had such a nice visit from my cousin Pete. The boys were so excited to pick him up from the metro after his conference, so they could come home to read the best book he brought them - The Book With No Pictures by that guy from the office and short story author BJ Novak.  They all made each other giggle so much!  They played lotsa rounds of try to nab the pumpkin.  Aiden even made Pete his own foil guy - a cousin to Mr. Tinny Crumples.  Keaton loved flying through the air especially as Santa.  We even took him to visit our reindeer topiary friends at Mosaic.

better soon

Someone has to hang up his Santa hat for a bit, but big brother left his favorite teddy to help him feel better...

This was my first clue - asleep on the floor in the middle of the day:

hat

This goof on Mondays when I tell him it's time to get ready for school:

tiny tots show

What a fun morning we had at the Tiny Tots show at our local high school.  They introduced all of the orchestra instruments along with songs from all these fun characters.  Keaton was beyond jazzed...  His favorite was the funny banana that chased the clown during the circus song.  Close seconds were the Happy Song Minions and the Chicken Dance…  Can't forget getting a high five from all the guys at the end… and being so excited that his santa hat matched with Santa's.

falls visitor

More pics from Great Falls inside the Visitor Center.  The boys loved watching the real kayakers down in the water, so it was a treat to get to sit in one.

great falls

After our botched tree hunt, we took a quick jaunt over to the Great Falls.  I think it was the first time Keaton remembers seeing them, and he seemed pretty jazzed.  Aiden was a master climber this time traversing along any rock formation he could find… (those boots since have literally split open from all the fancy climbing moves and running around on the playground at school.)

tree tag

Our tree hunting day became milder and milder… and when we finally found our not too tall, not too pokey, very nice smelling tree it was nearly tshirt weather.  The boys played tag in the line of trees.  The guys loaded our tree into the delivery truck and it took the quick ride home to our house.

tree farming

Well, we had our own Griswold Family moment at the Christmas treat farm.  It was sorta comical and sad all at the same time.  We thought we had the perfect tree farm spot, not too far away on a perfect mild day… But it was too good to be true.

Good news: No one fell off the giant sleigh.  

Bad News: All trees where either over 10 feet tall or under 4 feet.

Good news: We were all amused by Aiden's hat choice.

Bad news: Keaton wasn't at all amused, especially when J tried to pretend we were taking home one of the many invasive weeds.

Good news: It was still picturesque and we had a little walk around the farm… 

Bad news : No official timber this year, but  we still got a tree at the cut stand down the street from our house and they delivered ;)

first

This little goof loves his Santa gear.  

We kicked off this month with one more tooth down for Aiden.  He lost it at school  and the clinic gave him a treasure chest which he looooves!  I swear they had similar adorable plastic chests when I was a kid.  The tooth fairy brought him $2 for tooth number two.  He also got to write his name on the classroom tooth chart.

merry mosaic

The tree lighting and singalong at Mosaic was on a pretty nice night.  The big screen was playing the videos with the bouncing snowflake to singalong. You could even walk through the center of the big tree this year and see all sorts of lights inside.  The reindeers were out to greet the crowd.  Santa didn't have any line so we said hi in the lobby!

o mansion

Where do I start on this unique place?!  I'd heard about it from a kid friendly blog otherwise I might not have known how welcome kids are.  It's three connected row houses that were built in the 1890s by the architect of the Capitol Building for his family. It's essentially a feast of architecture, art, and memorabilia.  There are vintage and signed guitars everywhere which was a big draw for J.  Everything (including fixtures) is for sale in the mansion, so you can buy some of the kitsch if you want.  The big bonus for our little detectives is that there are 32 secret doors in the over 100 room mansion!  They are hidden all over the place and we only managed to find 12 - The docent told us that people usually only find about 7 secret doors.  There is a room dedicated to John Lennon with his photo projected on the bathroom rug.  There is a room that Rosa Parks lived in for a few years when she lived in DC.  There is  something elegant, yet unrefined about the whole lovable place tucked over on O Street.

Mansion Tour from LB on Vimeo.

cookies

We made some gingerbread cookies with some schnazzy cookie cutters.

santa letters

The boys wrote some Santa letters and read some holiday books at the botanical garden.  Aiden's list included Ultra Agent legos, Gran moves to VA, Pop moves to VA, Imaginext, and ThinkFun… pretty good list ;)