giant bunnies

Yards Park was hosting a mini fest to celebrate the arrival of this art installation of giant blow up bunnies. It was bright and sunny and giant bunnies seem to make everyone smile.

school is cool

So many moments from the preschool photo roll lately... Highlights as always are movement and music class, block center,   and the playground (where you were the wagon puller with two kids riding over the bumpy snow). You loved pajama day and started a back scratching lineup.  You love creating an "office" with a roof and desk for your keyboard and phone.  You love talking about space and making a jet pack to wear.  You love the new "very official" sign in sheet where you write your whole name.  You loved bringing in your violin to share with the class on my cooping day.

brain chase

We are on Brain Chase Week 2 and the adventure is even better this time around.  In addition to an online "writing teacher" that sends you feedback on your different writing samples, they added art and engineering challenges.  The art instructor the first week taught them about shading to draw an egg (Aiden worked on his for a long time to get it just right).  The engineering instructor asked them to create a "bouncy egg" by experimenting with what happens when you submerge an egg in vinegar.  After many squishes ours burst leaving its membrane shell, which the boys thought was pretty cool.  The second week he experimented with creating a paper airplane he could control and creating a collage out of old magazines.  He was pretty pumped by his final product and very first collage.  The clues in the videos he's figured out so far use a special decoder ring that twists.  It's pretty cool!

reptiles

The toy shop we used to frequent was hosting a reptile show (just after swim/ guitar and time for brunch at Orso) and the boys were pumped.  They asked for brave adults at the end of the show to hold that giant snake.  J jumped at the chance and was in the "danger job" close to his head, although the mom at the end was getting "hugs" and had to pry his curled tail off her arm. Ah!

thaw

The valentine's candy is all gobbled up and the last snowzilla piles are finally fading away (although that big snow pile ice chunk is still there, but about half the size).   The boys and their buddies were outside without coats playing in the squishy yard.  The thaw might not last through the spring, but we'll take it!

snow day

It's easy to forget that Tuesday this week was a snow day after a Monday holiday, because the rest of the week was 50/60 degrees!  But here is the snow from the snow day - and if we'd had a snow day for this amount of snow in Ohio we wouldn't have ever been in school during the winter. But it was just enough to enjoy some sledding and not quite enough to make shoveling a task, but plenty to enjoy an excuse for a warm cocoa when we came back inside.

school is cool

Keaton's class visited the post office (same field trip Aiden went on back in the day) to see the big sorting machines and everything behind the scenes. Keaton kept imitating the noisy post office that says grbrrrrtt!

Feelings week at school meant that the teacher took photos of all the kids looking happy and sad and they made posters describing those moments. The angle of these photos makes them look like caricatures!

More play with the old school keyboards, playdoh, potato heads, and a sensory table full of colorful noodles!

good list

It was coooold around here, so we cozied up at the movies with our buddy Devin and Snoopy ;)  

The Puppy Bowl followed by the Kitten Bowl was a huge hit around here on Super Bowl Sunday!  

Aiden is hooked on drawing and animating with Javascript in Khan Academy lately and he made a program to look just like his new BeanyBoo puppy.  

Keaton gets in some playtime with his future kindergarten buddies every week.  It will be great for them to know so many familiar faces in the fall.

little loving hands

Our second Little Loving Hands box arrived a bit ago, and it was three crafts this time!  While Aiden was busy doing the bead weaving flag keychain which he knew how to do, Keaton glued together all the cutout pieces for the military solider man card.  Then both boys were excited to put on some plastic gloves and get to work on the tie dye bandana. Thankfully, they concentrated on not making a mess ;)  The next morning it was dry and ready to pack up for Our Military Kids to send to the children of deployed soldiers.

love bugs

Our neighborhood Valentine's party is put on by the Mom's Club and I was on the party planning committee this time around. The theme was Love Bugs and we sponsored the nearby nature center to come with live bugs for the kids to "cuddle." The boys were so brave carefully picking up the shiny beetles and they even convinced me to hold the long millipede.  We had a bunch of bug crafts: a heart caterpillar card, beetle balloons full of beans and rice, a toilet paper tube ladybug puppet, and a butterfly magnet clip (which I organized).  The kids also decorated their own cupcakes and enjoyed lotsa treats!  The dance party led by my super fun friend was a highlight for Aiden. He had his face painted like a love puppy and Keaton wanted a dragonfly (since that is his class at school).

valentines

The boys kicked off the long weekend with their Valentine's parties at school.  Keaton's class calls it a "Feelings Party" after spending the week talking about all sorts of feelings and then explaining what love is and how you show it. Aiden's class collects gift card donations and then they go around surprising support staff with them along with other "random acts of kindness" - which seems like a great way to spread the love! - and then they celebrate with cherry 7up ice cream floats, a heart pencil craft, and a funny game where they tried to unwrap a Hershey kiss with big mittens on.

They pass out valentine treats they have all worked really hard to write everyone's names and their own name on (which was 15 kids plus four teachers for Keaton and 25 kids plus two teachers for Aiden).  They put together shell necklaces with Gran in FL (thx! "Shell we be Valentine's?") and found these fun valentines with punch out animal glasses (Aiden's wearing the tiger below).  Out of the big pile they received, I think Keaton's favorite was the Oreo cake pop and Aiden's the candy watch. My favorite was the sweet and thoughtful letter Aiden carefully crafted for me - it even had a lift tab to prove he is my kid and knows what I like ;)

love

holiday flashback

Before I cleared the hundreds of little snippet videos off my phone from the holiday season, I put together this little movie on IMovie.  Aiden's been asking about when the next "Brennan Bros trailer" would be out ;)  So here's a Flashback Friday coming at ya:
Holiday Season 2015 from LB on Vimeo.

sci center

The Experiment Bar had a full menu of new choices including DIY snow and snow slime.  Watching the snow particles grow brought out lotsa smiles.  Aiden built a really well balanced hoverboard for the wind tunnel.  The faux DJ record player with the big imagination blue blocks was a favorite.  They had a tabletop electron microscope and both the boys had a chance to try it out on a shark tooth and a butterfly wing.

interview with KC

One word to describe you would be: 

Cutest

Why do you like being a kid? 

Because you can play with your daddy and mommy

If you could be any animal, which one would you be and why? 

Baby cheetah because I could protect myself when I'm sleeping because I'd look like a honey badger 

Tell about a funny time in your life. 

When Aiden took on of his cookie and put it behind his back at Zoe's Kitchen and he said "hey mommy, we're missing a cookie!"

What is your favorite thing to do? Why? 

Play ninja turtles because they are actually half shelf heroes that are fun to play with

What do you love most about your brother? 

When he helps me do stuff like turn on the light

What was the nicest thing you did for someone? 

Clean up my toys

What do you think you will be doing 10 years from now? 

Diving into the water so I can be a scuba diver and see animals from the seas that I've never seen before, and I can find lotsa coral and sea treasure

What is the grossest thing you can think of? 

Poop

What is your happiest memory?

The field trip today when we went to the post office and we saw the machine that went really fast - pzzzrrwww!

good list

I'll never know what it is about February, but it's kinda a bummer month, isn't it?  I feel like maybe there is too much little stuff going on that distracts from the regular routine or just piles it on... It's been a notorious month in the past with furnaces breaking and other huge irritations. This month it's just a bunch of little stuff and I should feel grateful so far... but it would be nice if the electrician figures out what's going on with our downstairs lights constantly going out.

I'm helping organize the neighborhood Valentine's Party this weekend.  It's all about "love bugs" and we even have someone from the nature center coming with bugs the kids can hold ;)  We have tons of craft kits to put together before then... This butterfly magnet clip for hanging up kid art etc was designed by Aiden, my helper.

We are moving into the last month stretch with Destination Imagination.  The kids have a full script and they are working on props/scenery.  

GoNoodle continues to be a great energy release for the boys.  The online games, dancing, and funny songs help the kids unlock these funny characters.  They send these funny certificates, like this for Chris Shabob - Hooray for Filet!

The Odd Squad show is a huge hit in our house.  This freeze screen made me laugh because I think each of the kids has an expression that some of us parents had after almost two full weeks of school called off due to weather and holidays - and then they called a delayed start the morning they were supposed to go back!  I felt lucky that my boys were on the good list during that whole bonus break.

first violin recital

Keaton had his first violin recital on Saturday, and everyone was proud.  He was hoping they would be "in a big special room," but he was excited to show off his program. It is pretty amazing how much he learned since the start of the class in the fall.  He has the perfect "marshmallow hand" bow grip and he keeps his impossibly small violin balanced (learning the basics of violin seems tricky to me! J deserves big credit for practicing with him nearly all the time and keeping the patience train moving!) 

They played 7 different songs and I put together a little compilation of the 30 minutes for you on this video.  They do a little routine to move from rest position to playing position - feet apart, sway, slide, tap, statue of liberty (violin in the air), dot on your neck, ready.  I think my favorite was that they bowed after each song.

KC's 1st violin recital from LB on Vimeo.

Ms. Claire's class started with six kids, but only three made it to the end - Here's the persistent crew:

year of the monkey

Happy Chinese New Year from these monkeys!  It's the year of the monkey!

We caught the dragon dances to kick off the Chinese New Year Celebration at Fair Oaks.

wubble

Almost forgot about this fun bit from Florida - Thanks to Lulu for sharing this glow in the dark wubble bubble.  That thing is nearly indestructible!

flashback friday

2013:

2016:

Young at Art Museum, Davie, Florida

this guy

Oh, Mr. Blue Googles, show us how you really feel...

nature

We were literally house bound for six days during this Snowzilla business, so it was nice to get out as soon as our roads were up to the task.  Our friends met us at the nature center where the kids created many scavenger hunts - most of which ended with the earthworm brain (bottom left).

inside

These guys have been getting along remarkably well.  It feels like the beginning of the summer when they have time to pull out all the long games and stuff that has been tucked away. Keaton is a full fledged big game player now and he loves playing independently.  

The jammies are pretty much our snow day uniform and that alone gets these guys excited.

The pieces to multiple games get made into other games and they even create their own boards with those big puzzle like pieces.  Playing the paper version of different strategy and dice games is very official business - thank goodness when dad is home!

These guys they can make the craziest creatures with the Curious Bonz sets.  They have funny names and parades too.

snow friends

The piles are already melting and our snow family toppled over.  But these brussel sprout eyed, spatula armed guys will live on in these photos ;)  The huge mounds of snow seem like they will be around for a while, but the big meltdown is on!

Everyone's making a big fuss as we enter the 7th snow day around here that our kids will only be in school 11 out of the last 45 days.  Sounds pretty good to me - why didn't this ever happen when I was a kid?!  

little loving hands

This box from Little Loving Hands is the best combination of crafting and giving back.  They highlight a different charity every month and send you all the supplies to make a craft that will be useful for that organization.  This month it was Ronald McDonald house and they made a snowman heating pad guy.  It was filled with rice that could be heated in the microwave, and it turned out so cute.  You even package it up with scratch gift tags before you send it along.  It comes with an info sheet that explains why the charity exists and how you can help. Best subscription box!  There theme is "throw kindness around like confetti" - and the box had confetti to celebrate ;)

sledding

These little daredevils love that hill by the swim club.  

sunny

When the Blizzard cleared out, the sun was shining bright and the snow was up past the top of the fence post, so you could just walk right over it.  The snow on the slide was so thick that it didn't budge very far when you went to slide down, so the boys just sorta fell off the side of the slide into the super deep snow below.  

gearing up

This was Saturday morning after about 20 hours of constant snow - it was very fluffy and light at this point... But it kept going for another 10 hours!  We did manage to pack this Plow Boulder guy together from chunks the snow plow left us.

Sledding was in slow motion since nothing had been packed down yet - but that sure changed over the next few days!

trip good list

Just as we left for the airport it started snowing for the first time all season.  It was just enough to have to de-ice the plane with a neon green solution before takeoff.  Which Way USA and the MadArt faces book kept these guys pretty well occupied.  They both get an A and it seems so much easier to travel now!

My aunt left fun presents for us since she skipped town this year - love this stone owl!  Thx! 

David gets the prize for the biggest sand wall jump - and these shots just made me smile.

Gran and Aiden found lotsa shells with the perfect holes to make some necklaces - for school valentines!

My sister (due in July!) can not make a bad smoothie - seriously she is a magician! Mine was boozy ;)

Tucked in under the covers for some extra Bionicle playtime!

This funny shark mask - danah da naah!

young at art 2

The puppet theater workshop was a huge hit for these three ham bones.  Who know how many times "Ladies and Gentleman!" was announced to introduce the show!  The boys had created a whole Wizard of Oz cast from all the recyclable materials.

Aiden remembered the huge Wave climbing structure.  They raced into it all the way to the top!  The stop motion and projection art area are a great place to chillax.  The Stomp area where they give you drum sticks to just bang on everything you see while sliding and playing was as loud as you'd expect it to be.  The technology to create your own art and shows is well integrated.  If we lived close by, I think we would live at this place.