A pic a day, part 2

 Tatum, my early morning prayer partner

 At a play date at a church gym with some buddies, we brought our own bikes, but C somehow ended up with a pink helmet on a pink bike!

 Music together!  

We visited Daddy at his office and of course had to visit the phone booth.  I hope the windows were clean - C was smooshing his face against the glass and I know I saw his tongue once or twice. 

C was riding the H train!  H kept saying "all aboard!"

Chicken scratch

 Today one of our neighbors invited us over to see their chickens!  The boys were both so excited!  C was sure to wear his bike helmet...just in case!

Peggie let the boys feed them chicken scratch.  They loved throwing it in and seeing the chickens go wild for it.  Somehow Gabriella, Peggie's little girl, kept throwing it over H's head, so he ended up with a head full of bird seed!  Thankfully tonight was bath night.

C was helping give them water.  He looks a little nervous!

Peggie even let H check the coop for eggs!  He picked a few out and we got to bring them home! Quite an experience right in our own neighborhood!

A pic a day

I actually, finally got an iPhone earlier this month, and I have been enjoying taking a picture a day (or at least close to) and sending it to the grandmothers.  Here are a few of my favorites:

 "I'm drawing the shape of a food.  Lots of food!  Can you tell me what it is?"

 H picked his own outfit yesterday...  Sunglasses, anyone?

 C is all about balls!  He even sleeps with them!  This is one that H actually got for his birthday, but C has claimed it for himself.  One day (he was carrying his ball) he was singing and I asked C what he was singing about and he said "ball!" 

 H was so happy to have Tatum snuggle with him and watch his morning show with him.

"This is how you rinse your mouth, brother". 

This morning I told H to go brush his teeth before school, and he said "yeah, because I have spider breath!"   

Sweet dreams

Don't let the bugs bite you!

 (H's version of 'don't let the bed bugs bite')

(And thanks for the pillowcases, SweetHart! 

 I'll spare you the sleeping picture of me asleep on my SweetHart made pillowcase.  

You can thank me later for that!)

Hold my hand

Walk with me, brother!

Happy Valentines day!

 We found some fun little valentines squishy guys that H wanted to give to his buddies for Valentines day.  I sewed together little pockets and he wrote an H and made a fingerprint heart on each one,  he was very proud of making them all by himself!

 There was a valentines party for H's class.  Their class parties are fun!  They had a little Valentine themed cake walk.

C was quick to find some festive streamers to play with!

The kids made love bugs!  I thought that was such a cute idea!  H's love bug had three eyes, two heads and two sets of antennae, while the others had the more traditional two eyes, one head, and one antenna set.  I love his more for its uniqueness!

Yummy snacks, decorate your own heart shaped cookies.  C, of course, didn't want to be left out!

 I think the high light for H was the valentines boxes!  Stuffed full of goodies from all of his buddies!  I think he carried the box around for about three days straight, periodically checking out each valentine and having me read them to him.

H's love bug!  Notice the Mardi Gras beads too!  

Hey there!

How ya doing?

Oh my gosh!

 As H would say, "Oh my gosh!  I not believe it!"  He's four!  These past four years have flown by, and I can't believe how much H has grown and changed, and how much we have also grown and changed!  H is so excited to be four and do big boy things!  

We had a robot party for H yesterday.  About six of his little friends came and celebrated with us.  We had a gear toy and a robot toy (along with the rest of our toys) to play with.

 The kids made marshmallow and pretzel stick robots.  They all turned out cute and unique, and the kids could assemble them with minimal help from the parents.  And, when they were made they could eat them!  Yay sugar high!

 H's robot

C's robot 

(He didn't want to be left out!)

Then it was time for cupcakes and goodies!  I am normally a stickler for homemade treats, but H decided he wanted funfetti cupcakes with funfetti icing, so we did!  We also had chex mix, fruit salad, and juice.

As each friend came over he asked "did you bring me a present?"  I love the honest transparency of little guys!  He got some fun presents that will keep him occupied for a little while.  He had a great birthday party!  He was also star student this week, so he got to bring show and tell to school each day this week, Daddy came to read his class a story on Monday, and I brought cupcakes and taught a little music lesson to his class on Friday.  With Mardi Gras, Valentines Day, star student, and a birthday this week, I'm afraid next week will seem a little lack luster....

Mardi Party

We had a little Mardi Gras party (H calls it a Mardi Party) on Tuesday.  We invited the neighborhood families and had a great time!  Jambalaya, salad, king cake, cajun music, beads, and the littles made some masks!  Everyone had a great time!  I'm already looking forward to next year!

From H's camera

 That's our dog, Tatum.  Brother is holding him.  He's nervous.

 Tatum is on the deck.  He wants to jump on the table!

 I actually took this picture!  The boys were just cute!

 That's Mama, brother, and Tatum.

That's Tatum on his bed.  It's little.  But you have to leave him alone sometimes.

The boy in the yellow hat

 This week we got C a yellow construction hat and a little football.  They have been inseparable! 

 

 He would not let us take them away at bed time, so he slept with them.

 In the car or stroller, he discovered that he needs to turn the hat around so it won't keep hitting the back of his seat.

Cheese!  

We have been limiting the pacifier to sleeping times, so it seems like the hat and ball have replaced the pacifier as comfort objects.  

He has taken his ball to the store, to the nursery at my Mom's group, on walks, and tried to take it in the bath with him too!  I hope we don't lose it!

Sick Day

 H woke up in the night with croup and had a low fever this morning, so he stayed home from school. Our morning activity was rubber-bands!  I didn't realize there were so many applications.  I am not quite sure exactly what we learned this morning, but we sure did some discovering! 

 

 My original thought was to sling them on the wall.  

But that pulling back without hurting yourself was a little tough.

H looks armed and dangerous!

 

 C thinks rubber-bands make great bracelets!

 It didn't take too long before they decided to fix my hair... I wasn't so crazy about that idea.

 C thought they should all go in his pockets!  It was entertaining to watch him try to get his little arms around his big belly and into his uncooperative pocket!

 Rubber-bands hook very well on noses too. 

We have a little lacing sheep that has disks.  Somehow H discovered that you can wad up a rubber-band in the hole and blow it out.  C cracked up whenever he would do it. 

What a fun morning!  I feel like I don't get the chance (or always have the energy) to do some of the activities I would like because we are busy with school, errands, housework, etc... So, I am quitting it all so we can stay home and play with rubber-bands and paint and discover and lay on the floor and tickle each other!  We don't have time for school and housework!  We have more important things to do!  

I guess that is not reality, but we sure did have a good time discovering the joys of rubber-bands on H's sick day today.

Tuesday night love

"Look, Mama, it's a heart leaf!"

H found this little love note in our car port this morning.  

I thought I'd share it with you!

Times

H was showing C how to play a game on his toy last night.  A sweet moment between the brothers.

It reminded me of this picture of me and KK when we were little!  

Welcome to our art show!

Yesterday H's school had an art show!  They had just completed a unit on art, they studied various artists and methods of creating art and practiced them.  They invited all of the families to the art show to close the unit.  H was so excited about it, and we had fun seeing all of his art!

 That's when I was at my art show.  

(The kids welcomed us and then offered cookies (decorated like a painters palate - of course the M&M paint splotches were the first things to be eaten!) and lemonade.  Cute hosts!)

 That's my race car, it's just a race car.

(Pictures in the clouds)

 Those are what all of us did at school!  We made a little circle first, then we made a big one, a round circle around the little ones!

(H's "Space Sparkle" picture is on the red background, on the second row.)

 That one, let me tell you, that's with the strings paint.

 That's the 'brellas and the leafs. 

(They made rain out of rice on the umbrella picture.)

 That's when we were painting flowers.  We painted them, and we did blue, then we did green, orange, yellow, pink, red.

(They dipped actual flowers in paint and then made prints with the flowers.  All of the other kids had blue sky and green grass, but H had blue water and a green river bank.)

 That's when me and brother were laying down giving a hug together.

(I guess it's always just the right time to have a middle-of-the-hallway tackle!)