Birthday Chiptole…. and Science!

In what has become an annual tradition… here is Ben enjoying his birthday Chipotle. ;)

The other two got into some sciencing today… mostly of the vinegar/baking soda/food coloring variety… we exploded a plastic bag, make popcorn kernels dance in water, and then mostly poured things for awhile. ;)

Birthday Sleepover Success!

Well, we survived our first foray into little boy sleepovers!

The kids had a blast. They played a ton of Wii, watched Pokemon movies, played laser tag, and ate a shameful amount of junk food. They say they were up until about 1:30, although they were pretty quiet after about 11. 

In an attempt to keep the little ones out of their hair (because they wanted to be RIGHT in the middle of it all), we set up a mini sleepover in Simon's room and hooked up a little tv to the x-box up there. They had their own popcorn and glowsticks. They were (mostly) content…. it took some convincing that their setup was as cool as Ben's. 

Ben's two little friends, Sujay and Tommy, are such nice kids.  I like them a lot! They've been over separately, but never together. It's a great little trio.  I fed them a pancake breakfast this morning and Tom just left to take them all home. They were still chattering about Pokemon.  

Now… to air out the junior frat house basement. LOL.   

Garden Time and Party Time!

Ben and I went out this afternoon and picked out seeds! He was a good sport about this and ended up kind of having fun. Hoping to take our little garden up a notch this year. Ever since last summer, we have talked about having one garden that is exclusively hot peppers so we can make our own hot sauce. I got some seeds at Home Depot, but I also need to order a few specialty ones from the internet.

We also stopped at the grocery store and I basically let him pick out whatever he wanted for Friday night sleepover snacks. I don't think I have ever had so much junk food in my cart. I said this when I was in line and Ben said, "You NEVER have junk food in your cart!" LOL.

Sour gummy worms, Skittles, Doritos, regular chips, Oreos, ice cream and toppings…. I tossed some green grapes in the cart too in hopes maybe they'll eat them.  Likely futile, I realize.

All this and he wants to order Chipotle for dinner that night.

Between looking forward to Friday and to dodgeball tonight, he is kind of bouncing off the walls!!!

Best Day!

Yesterday was such an amazing day, weather-wise! I had wanted to get over to the garden shop to get some seeds to start but Ben had reached his max of errand-running time. His spring break is somewhat cramping my errands style. HA! It has been nice having him around otherwise though. ;)

Simon has made this wonderful little friend, Nick. Nick has been over a few times, but yesterday, Simon went to HIS house.  They actually played outside for awhile. (Nick's mom made them.. YES!!) She says they rode scooters and bikes and talked Minecraft. LOL.

Nick and Simon have so much in common. Neither of them play sports, which is HUGE. Simon is always hanging out by himself at, for instance, Ben's basketball games, even though several classmates are there too. It seems every other kid on the planet wants to play basketball/baseball/lacrosse/soccer/all of the above.  He just doesn't have it in him. He can enjoy a backyard game of wiffle ball/kickball/basketball or whatever once in awhile, and with some practice, might be able to play some of the rec sports sports well enough to at least get by, he just doesn't have a competitive bone in his body nor any interest whatsoever.

Anyway, so he and Nick are peas-in-a-pod in many ways and it's just NICE.

Right after Nick's mom dropped Simon off, our neighbor came knocking at the door, so Simon never even came inside yesterday until bedtime. Totally unheard of.  I was so excited, I didn't even make him do his homework. (Technology Tuesday makes that easy… he was just supposed to play on two websites) ;)

Ben, Simon, and the neighbor spent two solid hours digging in the vacant lot next to our house. This is their favorite thing to do lately. I actually had to relocate them because I discovered yesterday that they HAD been digging up a spot at the top of the driveway, which I now have to fix and plant grass seed on.  (boys!!!)

They got all the hammers out of the garage workbench and went to town… looked like a tiny chain gang out there. Ben says they found flint and every time they hit it, it would spark. Cool! :)

Hoping today brings more warm-sun-shiny-weather fun! :)

Spring Break… for one….

Ben is home all by himself this week and thus far, I'd say he's pretty darn happy about that. This morning, he rode along for school drop-offs, which he wasn't happy about because I woke him up and made him get dressed and eat breakfast before 8:30…. but he eventually perked up. Then he came to the library with me and "helped". (actually he just played Civilization on my laptop while I worked on some things… but Mrs. T was happy to see him and he also got to say hi to one of his favorite teachers from last year)  After that, I took him over to Old Navy to get uniform shorts and let him pick out a few things. He actually REALLY likes to shop for clothes (for himself), which is sort of funny! I had to rein him in!

I took him to lunch and now we're home for a little bit watching a history channel documentary about stealth bombers together before I have to go pick up Jonathan and Simon.

Wait, I take that back, he just left me to go shoot baskets in the driveway. LOL.

It's super weird to think that this would be my life if he had been an only child. It's so easy and he's great to go places with without the younger ones. (often, he's the one that causes the most trouble when we're out with all three… ) Then again, life would also probably be super boring in a lot of ways! I wouldn't change it… it's just strange and interesting to imagine….

Cinderella Story….

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you… the CMRC 9-10 Champions!

Ben's Birthday….

Ben's 11th (!) birthday is coming up quickly and we still have no idea what to do. He was wishy-washy on a birthday party. I think this is because he was anxious about mixing friends from his old school and friends from his new school.

Yesterday, he said he had changed his mind, but now it's kind of too late to do a full-on party. I had told him he could have two friends over for a sleepover, but he's lukewarm on that too.

There is anxiety about pretty much every possible decision. I have NO idea where he gets this. (that was a joke there…. ha… ha… ha…. )

This kid has such a hard time making decisions!

Now I'm just trying to figure out a fun day trip we could take him on by himself.  He keeps asking to do something without his brothers. We've done all the downtown stuff a hundred times. Aquarium, Science Center, etc….even Ripley's Believe it Or Not (which was awesome, btw!)

I just don't have any good ideas.  Maybe the Spy Museum in D.C.? I don't know… I guess I should start researching. LOL.

Snow, More Snow, Basketball, and a Fat Cat...

So we got some serious snow. The kids hardly even wanted to play in it. Even they are ready for spring! I think they spent a total of MAYBE an hour out there?

The birds were happy I had put a feeder outside. :) 

The cat was entertained, though slightly annoyed he could not go out and "play" with his "friends". 

We were initially quite creative and busy…. Jonathan wanted to replicate something he had done at school with snow, baking soda, vinegar, and food coloring.  This kept them entertained for about 45 minutes, so totally worth the mess! After this, everyone dispersed throughout the house to play Legos, build forts, and ask me every three minutes if they could play Wii. 

We also made snow ice cream for the first time. The kids loved it. Me? Not so much. The sugar didn't dissolve so it was super gritty and awfully sweet!

These pics were the day before the snow, but I had to share. We were at PetCo and saw this cat. The photo does NOT do it justice. I have never seen a domestic cat so big.  It HAD to weigh 30 pounds, at least…. 

And this is my littlest monkey waiting with me in the carpool line. He sometimes asks to have his picture taken. I happily oblige. :)

In other news, Ben's basketball team WON yesterday, which means they are one of the two teams in the championship! First year since Ben has been playing that has happened! They usually win the first playoff game and lose the second one.  The game got kind of physical and Ben actually fouled out. He was SO upset. But it worked out in the end and now he's just excited to be in the championship game! So, we are back on Wednesday for what will (finally) be the last game of the season. :)

Wacky Wednesday...

When last we left our intrepid baby humans family…..

Let's see….

Much to everyone's surprise, Ben's basketball team won their first playoff game last night! They play again on Saturday and if they win, then they have to play again on Wednesday. As cool as that would be for them, I partly hope they don't win because he's signed up for this Wednesday night dodgeball league thing at SkyZone and he has already missed the first two games for basketball. :\

It was Wacky Wednesday at preschool yesterday. Always super cute! The kids follow handprints on the floor to go in a different entrance and crawl through tunnels to get to their classroom where things are all kinds of wacky. I, however, neglected to consider how averse my youngest child is to "wacky" and changes in routine. LOL. We got through the first part of the wacky entrance (a back stairwell) and he stopped dead in his tracks at the first tunnel, looked up at me and said, "I do NOT want to go to to school today!" Thankfully, I was abel to distract him and hustle him through to his classroom and bypass the rest of the wacky before he started to freak out. I think the rest of the day went ok… WHEW. Close call. ;)

In other Jonathan news, Simon came home from school with J's kindergarten packet two days ago! Weird to be filling all this stuff out for a third time.  (insert requisite "Wasn't he just born?!"  "Time goes too quickly!" statements here)

Our kindergarten roundup appointment is on March 30th! Still not 100% sure on the kindergarten thing for J, and likely won't be until August…. but still registering him and we'll see how it goes.  Roundup day will actually be very telling and helpful as far as seeing how good of an idea this is… will he go with the teachers to the stations? Will he be compliant for the screening? Stay tuned.

Not much new in Simon-land. We have discovered a new chapter book he likes and wants to read on his own. Its title will come as a surprise to no one. LOL.  And by "discovered" I mean it had been on his shelf for months? Maybe since his LAST birthday. A friend of mine was talking about it last week and how much her son liked it and I said, "Wait! I think we actually HAVE that!"  I had put it on the shelf and forgotten about it because it's a TOUGH book… no pictures and tons of words per page.  I didn't consider its read aloud possibilities though… so that's what we're doing….

I read a chapter to him very night and then he usually tries to read some on his own, which is AWESOME!  He even took it to school this week as his "drop everything and read" book. I love that!

He has gotten really into his Rubik's Cube lately and was excited yesterday because he "solved the blue side". I didn't have the heart to tell him that he'd have to UNSOLVE the blue side to solve the other colors…. LOL.  He has asked for a triangle shaped Rubik's Cube for his birthday…. for anyone needing a birthday idea for him! ;)

More snow today. Thankfully, I made it to the library yesterday while Jonathan was at school. Came home with a pile of books.  I also have ingredients to make an awesome cake, broccoli cheddar soup, and homemade bread today. Can you tell I have high hopes for this snow day? ;)  Also, miraculously, Tom hasn't tried to leave for work! Not sure if he will…. hoping he just works from home today. 

Still enjoying my Facebook hiatus, but I'm worried I'll end up cheating today since we're stuck here with the snow and all. LOL!

They Are Not Messing Around...

New school does NOT play around with homework… this is an example of what I mean when I tell people that the work there is not HARDER than bcps… in many cases, the work itself is actually easier… but the expectations are sky high. (which is great… but yikes… snow day work… LOL…)

Stupid Cold… sports...birthdays…. cellos….

Argh. It did turn out to be a cold.  Jonathan has it too and seems to be on the same timeline, so I guess we picked it up at preschool or the grocery store. LOL. Ah well… could be worse. Still, annoying and time sucking. I haven't gotten anything done this weekend.

Ben's basketball team lost their last game of the season to a tough team yesterday morning. Close score though, so super frustrating. Even more frustrating is that we are scheduled to play the first round of playoffs Wednesday night against the ONE team that beat us really badly during the season. Ugliest game of the season. Kind of discouraging since, once you lose in the playoffs, you're out. On the other hand, it immediately frees up all upcoming Wednesdays and Saturdays until swim season. ;) So, positives and negatives there. ;)

He says he wants to play basketball for his school team next year, which I think is AWESOME. It will provide a built-in frequent and regular social outlet, which he desperately craves and I can't always give him enough of because…frankly, two little brothers sometimes make that challenging.  He likely won't make the "A" team as a sixth grader (and a tiny sixth grader at that), but they have a "B" team. There are barely enough kids to make an "A" team, so he'll be able to play in some capacity no matter what. (Hooray for small schools! LOL!)

Trying to decide what to do for his 11th birthday. We were talking about a cool home-party glowing backlight bash, but a few days ago, it occurred to me that he has only been invited to ONE birthday party this year, which makes me think maybe 11-year-old boys don't really have "birthday parties" per say…  and that this is some unspoken rule i'm not aware of since he is my oldest?  Anyone have any intel on this?

Tom and I were talking and we're thinking maybe we'll offer him a cool day out/trip somewhere (Philly? Great Wolf?) and then let just let him invite two friends over for a sleepover one day soon.

Yesterday, I took Simon to cello and met the teacher for the first time. (Tom took him last week) He's very nice. He does GREAT with Simon.  I was particularly impressed when the lesson was over and he said goodbye. Simon sort of mumbled goodbye in reply and looked the other direction (as he tends to do)  The teacher actually stopped him and said, (very nicely) "Simon, can you look at me when you say goodbye?"  OMG! This is something I always encourage teachers to do with him because we are REALLY working on this.

Anyway, Simon is doing much better with the individual instruction. He has taken him back to the very beginning and is working on perfecting his bow hold and tone, which the large group teacher didn't really have much time to focus on with the kids.  He says he is doing very well! When he practices, he takes it very seriously now and is doing a great job. I think this is definitely going to continue be a good activity for him in many ways. :)

Not much else to report. I have been going combing through my archives, starting at the very beginning, replacing pictures whose links long ago went dead. Also adding labels. Those weren't an option way back "in the day!" LOL. It's a long project, but I've just been doing a few pages a day. It's amazing to look back at the very beginning…. when I first found out I was pregnant with Ben, his ultrasound, all the crazy things I cared about as a first-time mom… I even have an entry about his first cold with a photo of a pile of "supplies". I'm sure these elementary school years posts will seem just as funny a decade from now when I have a 21, 18, and 14-year-old. (OMG) I love having it all to look back on and laugh and revisit though. :)

On a sadder note, in light of current events in our little town, I also find myself being incredibly thankful for three healthy pregnancies and deliveries…. and, even more importantly, three healthy kids. You see, one of Simon's preschool classmates who also goes to our elementary school, is losing her battle with leukemia after a third relapse. It's heartbreaking and, to my mom-brain, completely unfathomable and unfair. As I revisit old posts about stitches, colds, ear infections and just regular childhood stuff,  I can't help thinking how Ava's mom has not lived without constant worry for her daughter's life since she was two years old. :(  Praying for them often…. I can not even imagine.

Loser...

Poor Ben. He went to put on his new glasses this morning and couldn't find them. It was five minutes before we needed to walk out the door, so I was pretty perturbed. He kept insisting he had put them RIGHT on his nightstand last night. And, because I have at this point memorized the list of standard Mom Replies, I kept saying, "If you had PUT them there, that's where they'd be!"

Then he started stomping up the stairs saying how he loses EVERYTHING and that's when I realized I needed to take a step backward.

Of all moms he could have been given in the whole entire world, there is probably no mom that understands that child's brain more than I do. I empathize with him 100% and completely understand how it's possible to lose a pair of glasses in your own room 12 hours after they were given to you. Sometimes, I don't verbalize to him just HOW MUCH I empathize though; and I really should.

My own mom is wonderful,  and empathized with me on many things; however my constant losing things frustrated her and it was not something she really understood. It was also not something that at ten years old, I could really explain. Thinking back to when I was in 4th and 5th grade and lost my mittens at school about once a week, it would have been nice to have someone say to me, "I know. It's really hard for you. I get it. It's ok."

So, I looked over at the clock, we were already five minutes behind schedule. I sighed and tried to ignore it.  What's a few minutes late, right?  Then I handed him his old glasses and said, "Look. I understand. I lost every mitten, hat, and scarf I ever owned when I was a kid. Grandmom was ALWAYS mad at me. I could never explain where they went, they would just disappear."

"Yes, but I lose my GLASSES!" he retorted.

"Ben, the only reason I *didn't* lose my glasses when I was your age is because I didn't HAVE glasses anymore when I was 11. Otherwise, I would have lost those too. I remember once, Grandmom once bought me this cool snowman pin that I begged and begged for at Valley View at Christmastime. It had little red lights that blinked on and off. She told me NOT TO LOSE IT because it was kind of expensive for a silly little Christmas pin.  Guess what happened? I lost it sometime the next day."  Grandmom was SO mad.

He laughed at that.  ;)  Sorry, mom. :P

I promised to scour his room when I got back and bring him the new glasses if I found them.

Of course, when I got back from dropping him off, I immediately found they had fallen into the bottom drawer of his nightstand that had been open.  I took them up to school with a note inside that said, "You were right! You DID put them on your nightstand. They fell into the drawer." :)

Sometimes, I think I actually I get this mom thing kinda right….

Greased Lightning! ;)

Last week of session 3 stroke clinic for Ben yesterday. They always do something fun and different for the last week. The first session, it was dry land training stations, the second one, they did a mini-meet, and this time, they did time trials. This wasn't much different than the mini-meet except that after freestyle, they just sent kids by age group and they could swim whatever stroke they wanted to check their times.

Ben did free and back. Check out his freestyle video! WOO! He shaved 22 seconds off of his best time from last summer. 22 seconds!!! Even HE couldn't believe it. He has been kind of angsty about swimming in the 11-12 group this year, but this was a 9-12 group (mostly older and perhaps more importantly, almost entirely TALLER) so he left feeling really great about the upcoming season!

He swam 50 Back too and I think his time was 57 seconds and change. He needs some work on backstroke turns, which he has never had to do because the 9-10's in our league only swim 25 Back, so this was new for him…. but otherwise, it was awesome!

Three Kid Updates….

I hate when I let too much time pass between entries. I don't know where to start.

I guess i'll start where I left off. So that test Ben said he didn't need to study for…. he managed to get an 80%. Pretty respectable. But, he'll be reviewing next time.  ;)

We got to visit Ben's school last week for an open house. It was our first chance to see him in his classroom. It was an eye-opening experience, for sure. He looks really, really happy and comfortable. We saw morning meeting (a little thing they do every morning in homeroom), writing and tech (they were typing something in the tech lab that they had written), and math. The fifth grade is divided into three math sec ions and his math class has 13 kids in it The small class means there is NO hiding… the teacher walks from desk to desk to make sure everyone is doing the right thing and understanding.  One of the the things that struck us as most interesting while we observed (we saw Ben's classes and also wandered into some middle school classes), is how readily kids raised their hands to say they needed clarification on something or weren't getting a concept.  No one seemed worried about looking stupid or getting a wrong answer… and the teachers were in no rush to move on until everyone was on the same page. That's a pretty big deal!

As for Simon --

He just started private cello lessons with a new teacher. The large group situation wasn't working well for him, which the school instrumental teacher waited three entire sessions before decided to share with me. (and only after I asked) At any rate, it was a good move, because he came home from his first lesson yesterday all smiles, saying, "Mr. G says I am a good cellist!" He loves it!

He is doing well in school. Math and spelling are his best subjects. (spelling is the big surprise!) They have been reading chapter books in school finally… just finished Freckle Juice and another one called Elevator Duck. He also picked up his first chapter book to read on his own. (He loves to be read to, but has never had any interest in reading a chapter book of his own accord) Handwriting is still pretty atrocious and his teacher gives him extra practice on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Truthfully, I'm just biding my time with that until he can just type everything. I don't hold out much hope his handwriting is every going to improve all that substantially. LOL. 

He has been playing a TON with Scratch and Makey-Makey lately. He persistence with this amazes me. Yesterday, he fashioned a room alarm that involved a Scratch program and an aluminum foil step near his door. When you stepped on the foil, it set the alarm off on the computer. Color me impressed. We basically let him play with Scratch, Makey Makey, and anything else coding/invention related as much as he wants even though it's technically "screen time". It's the one thing he is extremely self-motivated about… he REALLY has a knack for it and he has taught himself a ton. 

Not much new in Jonathan-land. He stays for extended days at preschool now more days than not and seems to like it.   :)

He has gotten more into writing lately and is doing it more and more (on his own terms of course) He asks me how to spell things all the time and I've started keeping a little notebook with words he asks about so he can reference it when he needs it. I find it strangely interesting that he can read pretty much anything, but asks how things are spelled. (If I make him slow down and sound it out, he can do it himself and then can recognize the word once it's spelled correctly… but usually can't just flat out spell a word on his own… even an easy one like "cat")  Seriously, isn't that weird and interesting? You would think with the reading would come the spelling; but obviously they are two completely different processes for him. 

We just a ton of snow dumped on us last night. The big boys and I went out sledding in the early evening. They had SO much fun. It was nice that Tom was home so Jonathan could stay inside because he's kind of high maintenance in the snow most of the time and doesn't last very long. LOL. 

Now that we have had one really good snow, I am anxious for spring to come. I'm ready for warmth and sunshine. I've been pretty tolerant of winter thus far, even though it's my least favorite season… but yeah, it's time for something new. ;)

Learning Experience….

Today, Ben has his first BIG test since being at his new school.  It's a reading test on the book they just finished, Fever 1793.  The teacher sent home all kinds of studying information… they even had to fill out this super detailed sheet about HOW they were planning on studying.

They have a folder with all their papers from the unit that they have to turn in today with the test. Discovered he was supposed to be doing this in science too… thankfully, I've only tossed a few graded papers. Unfortunately, no one mentioned this folder thing to Ben (or me).   (mid-year start issues again…people assume you know things.) So he only has like maybe 3/4 of the reading papers. Worse, several of them are from before he started, so they aren't completed. I'm a little irritated that this wasn't something anyone bothered to tell us (to keep everything in this folder) and the incomplete papers would have taken him hours and hours to finish, so I didn't make him do them. :\  He'll probably get marked down substantially but so be it. It wasn't fair to him. I really need to have a conference with his teachers to get on the same page… they are very hard to communicate with via email in that they don't respond… like EVER.  They told me early on that they have issues with mail going to spam, so I never know if they got it and didn't respond or if they never got it. Hence, REALLY need a face-to-face.

Anyway, so they were supposed to study. Ben basically didn't. He had a basketball game last night and the night before, he spent almost two hours on other homework. I tried to get him to at least look over it last night before basketball, but he said he feels confident in the material. I am apt to believe him… he has gotten As on every quiz he has taken so far and hasn't done anything except go to class, do the homework, and read the story. I considered pushing the matter to enforce good habits, but decided to use this as a learning experience. If he aces the test (which he very well might), then great, he knows himself and when he needs to study. If he doesn't, well, then, next time, he'll listen to me.

We made a deal that if he gets a low B or lower, we study together next time.  We shall see!

Busy Weekend....

Our weekends just get busier and busier. Even with one activity per kid at the moment (and not really, because Jonathan doesn't have anything yet!), it feels like we just run from one thing to another.  Such is life during these years, I suppose.

Anyway, so Saturday started off with a basketball game for Ben. Simon and Jonathan save up screen time for this and spend the entire game playing in the corner with their devices.

It was a great game! Ben was starting at a new position and coaches Tom, Clayton, and Pap had a new strategy for the team.  It resulted in our first win of the season and Ben scored three baskets! (the most ever in a game for him!) He was on cloud nine!

See the coach behind Ben?  He's actually a major league pitcher who currently plays for the Pirates. (that's his son with him, A, who was in Ben's class at JES)  Anyway...so here's the funny thing about this. He's a pretty competitive guy, right? You'd think? Pro baseball player and all....? He spent part of the game yelling in Tom's direction, "It's JUST A GAME!!! Settle down!" LOL. In fairness, Tom is an intense coach.... it's NEVER just a game. He is SO LOUD. (I sometimes cringe on the bench and pretend I don't know him)  So the major league pitcher is less competitive in rec basketball than my husband. Holy cow.  That's scary.  Who knew?

I didn't notice the woman holding her ears in this photo of the final score until I uploaded the picture. I had to laugh... because there is a decent chance she is holding her ears because of Tom's aforementioned loudness. (Tom is black sweatshirt, left) LOL!

Anyway, so that started the weekend off nicely. :) After that, Tom reminded me there was a big football game on. (I assumed it was Sunday, not Saturday, because I pay zero attention to these things) He hates watching the big ones alone, which I understand....  but I was SO tired and had kind of a long to do list. I rallied though and went to the grocery store for dinner ingredients.... so he texted his younger brother.... called his parents... and I texted my other sister-in-law. (trying to give her a fighting chance at her husband NOT dropping what he was doing around the house. LOL)    Two out of three came and, much to Ben's excitement (our little house extravert), we had a house full of people for the game.  It went ok... everyone enjoyed dinner and dessert and Jonathan didn't have too many tussles with his cousin. So I really can't complain.   But I am glad football season is finally over for the Ravens.  The constant football stuff grates on my nerves. (not the having people over…  just constantly hearing about football in general)

Sunday, we headed off to church, then out to lunch. Home for some chores and, you guessed it... more football. (so much football this weekend.... gahhhhhhhhh)

I helped Simon out with his cello practice and he cooperated and did really well! He's learning to read the music a little and can play all three pieces reasonably well that they are working on right now. (two are just pizzicato... which I really hope they move on from soon!) We also worked on piano. He gets really impatient with this, so I'm trying to take it slowly. But he can find middle C now, and all the other Cs on the keyboard, and can play the first two basic pieces in the little piano book I got.  I feel like he's starting to get a little confidence with it, but it's very challenging to overcome his resistance to anything that requires effort. It can be done... (as I have seen with cello) but it has to be carefully and slowly or he gets frustrated.  He definitely has an aptitude for this, so I am determined to keep it up and build on it a little bit at at time.

At 5:00, Simon had his first Lego League meeting. We were invited by another mom, but it's this super small, new little group and she had to get approval from the mom who runs it. She said it was okay for us to join and it sounded right up Simon's alley. They spend the first 20 minutes learning Scratch programming and the rest of the time building Legos with a theme/challenge. One of the dads is a programmer and teaches the Scratch part, and the mom who runs it does the Lego part.

The whole time the dad was talking and explaining what they could do with Scratch, Simon could barely even stay in his chair, he was so excited. He finally blurted out, "I can make a GAME with this!!! Like MINECRAFT!!!"

It was really neat to see him among kids who are like him.... none of them really play sports... they were all SUPER into this programming thing and just wanted to talk about Minecraft and Terraria (which is a game Simon doesn't even know about yet!) During the Lego building part, they all got a little off track, but all in the same way... building robots and armies. The mom let it go because they were having so much fun.

I realized that I think this is the first time ever I have seen Simon really fit in with a group....

To say he loved it would be an understatement. He came home and spent the rest of the evening working on Scratch and basically had it all figured out by the time he went to bed.

Came home from that.... dinner. Simon played Scratch the rest of the evening and Jonathan joined in. (we are seriously needing another laptop around here these days.... I hate sharing my computer!!) Ben happily did some homework he had left.

And this morning we have a delay (and possible closure) for ice! YAY! (no, seriouslly YAY! I am still in jammies!) ;)

First Snow of the Winter!

We got some SNOW! Not very much. Three inches, maybe? Enough for it to look pretty, get a day off of school (and a delay today), sled in and play in. Basically, the good kind.

The boys went out a couple times and just hung out all day.... I tried out Tom's snowblower I gave him for Christmas. (who knew how fun that was?!?!).  

Ben has finally stopped calling this "The Worst Winter EVER!" (he was convinced it was never going to snow) ;)

Party Kid, New Year's Day, and Other Randomness....

Ben, we have discovered lately, is perhaps our most social kid. LOL. He LOVES having parties and having people over. The more people here, the happier he is. As with his sleep habits, this is completely the opposite of the rest of the family. LOL.  Anyway, it's very funny.

At any rate, he has been in his element the last two weeks as we have gone from one family event to another and had people over our house constantly. Last night, we had his Uncle Taylor and two cousins over (Aunt Sarah was home sick) and Nanee and Pap.  Earlier in the day, he had his friend Tommy over.

I'm hoping all this peopling is enough to tide him over until at least Sunday. I told him I need a people-free day today.... if for no other reason than to catch up on the dishes and clean up the playroom, the state of which currently, resembles a tiny frat house.

In contrast, his youngest brother is all out of sorts with the lack of routine lately, constantly having people in his space and not having me to himself.

We have had a WONDERFUL Christmas break though. I didn't realize just how much I needed OFF the school-schedule train for a little while.

We had a nice time last night with Tom's brother and his parents. Since Aunt Sarah didn't come, I didn't really have anyone to talk to (my mother-in-law doesn't really have a whole lot of interest in conversing with me, honestly), which meant I was pretty free to just do my thing in the kitchen and keep to myself, only occasionally entering into the ongoing-20-year conversation about Disneyworld. (they all always just pick right up where they left off)  I really don't mind this!

[begin Disney tangent] Speaking of Disney, we are planning our next trip for August. We just haven't figured out any way around going in the summer. I have a problem with the boys missing school for vacation... especially Ben now that he is in the intermediate grades and misses a TON when he is even home sick for a day. Simon is not a huge fan of make-up work and missing a week, or even 3-4 days for Disney would be a huge disaster right now.  So summer it is. And it's okay.... no worrying about flu season or whether our car will be iced in when we return.... we don't mind the Florida summer heat either.  It's the crowds that are more annoying to me... but the way we do Disney, even that isn't so bad. We just do as much as we can in the mornings and early afternoons and spend the rest of the time at the pools or doing other things, then sometimes go back to the parks in the evenings depending on how everyone feels.  Plus, the new Fastpass magic band system, while limiting our flexibility some, makes it easy to plan everything out before we go.
[/end Disney tangent]

I have been toy purging like crazy over here. Only, no toys have actually left.  I just moved them to the storage room until I can get them out the door without the kids seeing. The whole time i'm cleaning, Jonathan follows me around nervously... "Where are you taking that? What are you doing?" LOL. So I have to be sneaky.   In the meantime, the boys have re-discovered bunches of toys and games they haven't touched in awhile.... everyone is super into Jenga right now.

Today, we are just hanging out. I might de-Christmas some. Hoping the boys are happy to entertain themselves. :)  Right now, two out of three are still asleep... oh so nice. :)

New Pictures....

The boys and I were looking at old Shutterfly albums last night and I realized it has been forever since I  took and nice pictures with my good camera. I take it out every so often and snap pics, but I never take my time and set the white balance the right way or focus on their eyes....

Today, I bugged all three kids until I got a few halfway decent pictures. They are still not the best.... but better than what I had been getting with my iPhone! :)

...And to All, A Good Night...

Finally got A Christmas photo of the boys....   it's not great....I took it at the end of a three-hour Santa brunch and so they look a little disheveled. (at least the pancake syrup on Jonathan's sweater and his snotty nose didn't show up in the photo!) LOL.  Buuuut.... it will do. I didn't even notice that Ben had his hands on his hips until we got home and I looked at the pic. I was more focused on keeping Jonathan's hands out of his pants.