The End of January

We had quite of a bit of snow, and then it got really warm (in the 40s) for a few days.  The boys thought that was perfect for playing outside, and playing "ice cutters and ice truck loaders" 

This is the day I was getting dinner ready and the boys came running downstairs with some tools and making Ghostbuster spraying noises and said, "You're gonna die if we spray poop."  And then went on to tell me it was actually special poop that, when sprayed on something, made something go back to the way it was before.

Pace sets up obstacle races nearly every day (why do I even pick up the pillows and put them on the couch?!).  He was very excited when David was timing him that he went from 7 to 8 to 9, then finally 10 seconds, "Yes!" (arm pump) "That's just what I always wanted!"

And this is when I was doing some sewing and Max came bounding in my room, "Hi Mommy!"  Then walked over, patted my chest and said, "You have big ones."  I started laughing and said, "Big what?"  He just pointed at my chest again. and looked up at me and grinned.

Pace has really gotten into drawing lately.  He'll draw his own monsters, dinosaurs, space ships, boats, etc. etc.  This one is a fish catching boat machine.

We had a Ward Church Activity last night.  We were put in teams and had to complete a few team games.  This one was putting a cookie on your forehead and you had to eat it without using your hands to hold it.  Pace got pretty frustrated when he'd put it on his head, look down, and it just kept falling to the floor.  "I just can't do it!"  He screamed in tears.  I assured him I couldn't, either.

IKEA day

We finally decided to bite the bullet, rent a trailer, and head up to IKEA for book shelves, toy and game shelves, office desks, office chairs, full-length mirror, a new king-sized (!!) frame and mattress, and...I think that's everything.  It looked like IKEA had exploded in our house for about a week while building everything and breaking down boxes.  The boys were super impressed with lunch there, and of course found the stuffed animal bins and each picked out a new puppy stuffed animal.  

The week IKEA exploded in our house.  The boys had no complaints, loved having our new mattress on the floor in the main room, had a couple campouts on it, and loved making the boxes their hiding places and canvases.  I love that we have enough shelves for everything to be put away now.  Although I would say I still spend over half my day picking up after these boys.

The other good news is that we finally unpacked our last box.  I got all our books put away on the bookshelves.  The boys insisted we make a fort out of the rest of the boxes, so this was our entire afternoon one day--making a fort for them and their dinosaurs.

Everything finally unpacked and put away!

Project: Snake

The Library has cute Literacy backpacks with 2-3 books and a stuffed animal or puzzle or game that goes along with the books.  The boys always say they wish they had the animals in the backpacks (like they need more stuffed animals??!!).  One day we found a backpack with a snake in it, and I decided that was something I could tackle for our project day that week.  So after the library we went to the craft store and the boys picked out their own soft fabrics and buttons for eyes.  We cut out of the shapes and they helped me stuff them.  As soon as they were done, the boys ran and got their smaller stuffed animals and started feeding their snakes and making their snakes munch munch munch the little animals.  I have to admit, I was pretty proud of them playing so realistically.

Volcano

For experiment day last week we made a volcano from a National Geographic kit.  I thought we'd be able to put it together and erupt it in one afternoon, but after we opened it we found a packet of plaster we had to mix, pour into the plastic mold, and let dry and harden for 24 hours.

Squishing up the plaster mix and water to pour in the mold.

When it was finally dry, the boys painted it and erupted it with David while I was out with a friend.  Instead of just taking pictures, as I'd requested, David decided to make a video.  It was pretty adorable--an adventure about Chuck the penguin.  The boys loved the video, and I'm hoping we'll see more Chuck adventures!  The kit came with enough material to make the volcano "erupt" a few times, so this was a few nights later.

Watching the Chuck Penguin movie with David.  If the boys hear the music playing, they'll come running to climb on David's lap and watch it.  There's a fight scene between Chuck the penguin and the Red Dragon that makes Pace laugh so hard he gets the hiccups.  Every time.

Back Home

When we pulled up from St. George, the boys begged to put on their snow clothes and played outside for a couple hours.

New week, back to cleaning, chores, workbook, etc.  The boys love it when we sweep and mop because they can play in chair mazes and chair caves.

While we were in St. George, Pace's cough and cold quickly developed one morning into writhing in pain and screaming and crying that his ear hurt.  We did an ER visit and got antibiotics for his ear infection.  When we got home, Max, who had the same cough and cold, did the exact same thing--started crying, holding his ear, and writhing in pain.  Thankfully the pharmacy over dispensed the antibiotic, and I divided up the bottles between the two boys.  This was when Max told me he needed the "Orange medicine like Pace" to feel better, and then fell asleep for a few hours.

So...finally checked some things off my to-do list:  

1. Hanging the boys' coat hooks (from Papa Jay).

2. Updating our measuring thing (transferring the boys' heights from a piece of cardboard to this) and hanging it at the correct height on the wall).  Oh--the new ornaments we have hanging on the Christmas Advent Calendar from Mom Mom are from a 25 Days of Christ Kit.  I found this kit online that comes with a book with scriptures about Christ's life and quotes from the LDS Church officials/Prophets.  You read one a day and paint an ornament.  We had this as one of our projects this Christmas, too.  Instead of reading our normal "scripture can" in the morning, we read one of these and decorated an ornament.  I'll give an honest review:  the ornaments held the boys' attention for 2-3 days only, but I made them sit and listen to the rest of the scriptures and quotes for our morning foundations.  I ended up doing all the ornament painting, and we didn't make it all the way through, so when I packed Christmas this week, I packed the kit with a handful of unpainted/unmade ornaments.  That just means we'll have one project ready to go for next peak, right?!  I loved the quotes and decided to go online and print out the full talks and am reading them this month.

3. Finally hanging framed photos on the walls (I'm hoping to get to book shelves in the next week or two, so I cleared the boxes of books out of the front room).

4. Creating updated nursery song packets.

Feeling better the next day, we hit Max's workbook.  He was working on the pre-writing exercises and was so excited that making "Criss-cross X's" were just like the X's in his name!  And then he said, "I have a A, too, and M.  But I not have a round-about in my name!"  He thought that was a pretty good joke.  (Max writes his name very well, now with the letters in order, side by side!  Just a few months ago he'd randomly write M, A, X all over the paper.)

He loved writing his G's--after the practice letters, I make 2-3 dots for him to connect and practice writing on his own.  He loved the lowercase g's (I'd tell him to make a little roundabout then scoop it up); he kept asking me to "Do More!"