Snapshots

H noticed the shower curtain hooks, little knobs with H and C, for hot and cold, and said "look, it's H for Harrison and C for Charlie!"  Cute!  I didn't think about that when I put them up there. 

 The legs kept falling off of C's little robot toy, and I joked with C, saying he needed to take the robot to the doctor.  He ran and got his doctor kit and started working on the robot.  Dr. C to the rescue!

 Rainy morning on Thanksgiving break, out come the tunnels, and before you know it, I have tunnel children!  What a fun morning!  Tatum stayed away.

 Peeking on my sleeping babies and found C, asleep under his pillow.

 H, sleeping in a log/sculpture at the airport.

Most days are pretty good, lots of smiles and good times (with the occasional brotherly fight) but then sometimes its just like this!

 C, showing how "stong" (strong) his food was making him.

 Dressed up in the paper bag Indian costume he made at school.  He was very proud of it.

How C drinks water from the sink.  Feet dangling.

SweetHart's visit, part 2

 Morning snuggles!  There were lots of these!  Tatum too!  

 There were several puppet show performances that SweetHart was invited to watch.  They are funny anyway, but become especially exciting when Tatum decided that the puppets look like fun playmates.  

 Play-do/crafts/and more! It all happened here!  I've never seen C use a fork and knife to cut his food, I have a hard enough time getting him to not use his fingers to eat, but he readily used a little Play-Do fork and knife to cut up his Play-Do.

 We each made a little scrapbook of SweetHart's visit.  It was a fun way to remember all of the fun things we did together.  Each book was so different for 2, 4, 30, and 62 year olds.

 Finally got SweetHart to read in the tent.

Taking SweetHart to the "airporch" (what H calls the airport).  H wanted to bring some of his 'tickets' ( slips of paper) so we could go on the airplane too!  He keeps asking how many days until we go to Pop and SweetHart's house.  C keeps saying "Ionnagoerpene" (I want to go on an airplane!)

What a wonderful visit!  

SweetHart's visit, part 1a

We accomplished so much while SweetHart was here!  Lots of good play times, meals made and eaten, things/clothes mended/hemmed, a little shopping done, lots of hugs, she kept each boy on their own one day, visited me at school, and more!  Come again soon!

Tatum tried to do yoga with her one night, the boys tried another night.  Not entirely successful with the boys!  They would both try a pose here and there. 

 Everyone was very good at the "corpse" pose!  

 We tried some of the treat ideas I had seen on Pinterest, pretzels dipped in white chocolate (to look like pumpkins) which the boys shared with their classmates at school, and some acorns made of Nutter Butter minis and Hershey kisses for their teachers and family members.  Fun to make with the boys, and I was glad to have SweetHart there to help me do a little damage control.

 We ate out at the BBQ Pit, yummy!  It's been probably about nine months since I've eaten at a restaurant, what a treat!  We all enjoyed!  H was so lovey to SweetHart, lots of hugs and kisses.

 C was giving me lots of BBQ sauce kisses!  He likes taking 'selfies' with me.

 A trip to the mall and the Merry-go-round (H calls it the Mini-Merr (?)).  What fun!  SweetHart even got on a pony.

One rainy afternoon, we got on boots and colored our hair to take Tatum for a walk.  Evelyn joined us, and I didn't have to do any convincing to get SweetHart to color her hair!  Just a little red and blue hairspray can work wonders on a dull afternoon!

Happy Sanksgiving!

Happy Sanksgiving! (as H would say).  This school year has flown by (so typical to say, I know!)  I half expected it to take forever to get to the holidays this year, but it has gone a lot fast than I thought it would.  

We have so much to be thankful for!  A good home, a good job for me, a good school for the boys, so many blessings, and I think I can finally say that we are in a much better place this year than we were last year.  What a difference a year makes!

 Turkeys!

The feathers were made with H's handprints, the body is C's foot, and H wrote "Gobble" under the turkey.  They also signed their own names on the back.

  Our Thankful leaves.  Each day in November we would write down what each one of us was thankful for.  I want to save these and write on the back side next year.  I wonder how different our answers would be.  Some stand outs from the boys were for H: Halloween, his new book, bread, trees.  C's main two were gummy worms and bread, but he also was thankful for his scooter, Evelyn etc.  I've been thankful for time with my boys, Mama (SweetHart's) visit, Saturday lunches with Nanny and Mary Ann, and more.  What a full and blessed life we have!

My two biggest blessings! 

She's Here!!!

SweetHart came to visit!  She couldn't have come soon enough!  It's been so good to have her here for snuggles, stories, good food, some extra love and support and so much more!  

We made Pumpkins (pretzels, white chocolate, and chocolate covered raisins) to share with H and C's buddies at school.  The boys had fun putting the "stems" on the pumpkins. 

(H still calls the pumpkin patch the "pumpkin hatch.")

 I think more of C's "stems" ended up in his mouth than on the pumpkins.  He's a good taste-tester!

 Our factory line 

(I exist!  I'm always taking the pictures, never seem to be in them...)

 Lots of good stories take place here!

 Tatum decided to join us for a little Yoga... 

It was not too bad until he decided it was time to give kisses.

 We went to the play place at North Monroe on a rainy day.  It was only us at the time, so me and SweetHart were climbing and having just as much fun as the boys were!  C was helping SweetHart down the "boo" (blue) slide.  He could not be convinced that it was actually yellow.  H loved the huge purple slide.

 Early morning love

Boys.....

Snapshots

"Boy with the big heart"

(by H) 

Tatum decided to watch Wall-E with H.  

Usually he lays down by the boys, but he seemed to be watching it with them. 

A little grocery shopping.  

This activity never gets old!   

Blowing bubbles, popping bubbles, and eventually doing face plants in the bubbles. 

I've stopped adding food coloring, is there something like food coloring that doesn't stain? 

Friday night=pizza night!

C started playing around with the pizza box, then they decided to start decorating it.  Too bad you can't frame a pizza box because it was a work of art! 

Play-do!

C thought it was hilarious to have his little toy guy play Play-Do too! He kept putting a tiny pinch of it in the toy's hand and laughing.

 Making Play-Do "gummy worms." 

 We've started our "Thankful Leaves for the month of November.  The boys have come up with some pretty interesting things they are thankful for.  I've meant to do something like this for the last few years, but finally got around to it this year.  I hope to make it a tradition in one way or another.

The nutty professor!

Playground fun

These are from two different park visits.  I love this weather for outdoor happenings, when its not too hot and not too cold!

 Slide hair!  

C's hair is very fine, so it doesn't take much static for it to stand up!  H thought it was hilarious!

 Beautiful!

 It is fun to see as H gets a little older how his activities at the park are changing.  Instead of just swinging or sliding, he explores, collects rocks, finds things to balance on, and uses his imagination more.  

We were looking for the huge dragonfly at "Dragonfly Park" and H said he would "sniff it out."  He started sniffing in the air and "following his nose."  We discovered that the dragonfly was gone!!! I'd like to know what happened to it!

 Hunting for acorns

 Basking in the sun

Swinging.  

I love what good friends the boys are (most of the time!)

They've also begun the ("Mama, C's looking out my window!" and the other day C came to me screaming and crying, when I asked him what happened, he tearfully said "Brother touched me!"  I had forgotten how silly sibling annoyances can be.) 

Weeeeeeeee

Fruit Loops!

I decided Fruit Loops would be a fun thing to have this weekend!  With all of the rain we had over the weekend, H told me "Sometimes it rains for 30 days!" (He was talking about the Noah story)  So we had a little lesson about that - read the Bible story and then made Fruit Loop rainbows! 

Most of C's ended up in his mouth, not too many made it to the page, and all of his were "orange." 

H made his rainbow and then ate the Fruit Loops color by color.  Then he decided he would cut out the rainbow and glue it back together on blue paper.  He does pretty well with scissors! (C calls scissors "lizzard"). 

 The next day we made Fruit Loop necklaces.

This took some serious concentration!  About 10 Fruit Loops made it onto C's necklace.

H was working hard!

They both loved making (and eating) their necklaces!

It will probably be another year before I buy Fruit Loops again, but it provided us with a couple of fun activities and lessons!