More January pictures…and a few sniffles

One weekend when Jeff was traveling, we had tickets to see a play on a Sunday afternoon.  Benjamin had woken up with what might have been the beginning of a cold, or…nothing.  He was feeling good enough that we went to the play, but by the middle of the play, it was evident that he was feeling crummy, and I was feeling guilty for bringing him.  I had planned to get some good pictures of the kids with mom, but as you can see...

Benjamin was not enthusiastic.  At least he didn't share his germs with anyone but us.

At least I got one pretty good picture of the kids with Mom.

And Benjamin came home and needed the Butterfly blanket right away.

In other news, Jonathan did his diorama book report on one of the books in the Wingfeather Saga, which we both HIGHLY recommend, and he made a battle between the Fangs of Dang and the Jewels of Anniera out of Legos.  (It took me a little longer to finish the four books than it took Jonathan, since I have significantly less reading time on my hands, but I thoroughly enjoyed them!)

And, after finishing this little job, Benjamin said,

"Now the window is filled with kisses!"

A Visit with My Grandma

The kids had some time off for President's Day, so we went to see my grandma.

I wonder how many dozens of family pictures have been taken on this step over the generations.

We got to explore Grandma's yard...

and play on the almost-ancient swing set.  We hope to visit again soon!

Bouncing!

Benjamin and I were invited to celebrate the birthday of a 3-year-old little buddy recently.  After we chose and ordered the gift, I wanted to make it feel a little more personal to him, so I covered it with easel paper and had him decorate it.  Grace had to get in on the fun, and by the time they were done, there was hardly a white speck of paper left.  He carried the gift around the house with him for a few days before the party, so I think it did feel personal to him!

We met the birthday boy at the new trampoline place, and it was super fun!  Pretty expensive…but a nice option for special occasions.  The older kids were irritated that they had to go to school instead of to the jumping place.  I'll make sure to give them their turn soon!

As you can see, it wasn't very crowded on a school day morning.  There was even time for Benjamin to touch his belly button for a moment of comfort.  I'm not sure how he's going to break that habit.  Breaking the finger/thumb sucking habit (for all three kids!) was much easier.

Some February Pictures

Another sleeping picture of Grace.  She and Benjamin go to bed at the same time, and then when we put Jonathan to bed, we usually go in and turn out Grace's reading light.  She's generally asleep by then.

Benjamin…well, he's generally not asleep.  Here he is closing his eyes for the picture.

And now Jonathan's off to bed.

Grace made a reading spot for herself on Ginny.

And, the Sands Alive continues to be a big hit every time we get it out.

For My Mom...

Probably only my mom will get the humor in this conversation, but I had to write it down.

It's Sunday morning, and Jeff is wearing his old, holly Gibson guitar shirt that I can't get him to stop wearing.  There is a little hole in the tummy.

Benjamin:  Why is there a hole in your shirt?
Jeff:  For my belly button to breathe.  It needs air, and it can breathe through the hole.
Me, to Benjamin:  But YOUR belly button does not need to breathe.  I know that's appealing to you, but you don't need holes in your shirts for your belly button.
Benjamin:  Like, "I APPEAL to Caesar!"

Oh, my.  :)

Some of Her Writing

Here's what Grace's writing looks like these days.  She tailored this homework assignment to fit her own agenda.  Which I thought was fantastic.

January 27

I kept her home from school one day because she had a runny nose.  I wasn't sure that she was very sick, but I didn't want her to share.  It turned out that I could have sent her to school - she perked up quite a bit around 9 a.m. - but she still had a pretty educational morning since she decided to write this story about unicorns.

January 30

This one's not really about writing, but I thought I should mention that the kids brought Valentines to school that said, "It's no mistake, Valentine - you're just 'WRITE' for me!"  We put a pencil and three tiny erasers in the bag.  We are such a nerdy family...

She had to write a page of "I" words, and this was one that she came up with on her own.  If I was that "ichy," I'd have a sad face, too!

February 18

There was another one from her page of "F" words at school (nope, she doesn't know enough to snicker when she reads that description) that said "Fooey!" and cracked me up, but I can't locate the picture of it.  You can take my word for that one!

A Sunny Afternoon in January

We are still in the midst of a terrible drought, but we have had fog more often this winter.  For awhile, we weren't seeing the sun very much.  So, when the sun was shining after school one day, I made the kids go outside and soak in some vitamin D.  Normal kids would have played ball, but mine brought their books outside to read while they ate their afternoon snack.

And then they remembered that scootering is fun, too.

IKEA

Jeff is still traveling off and on, including weekends sometimes.  I try to keep the kids pretty distracted when he's gone, and we hadn't been to IKEA since Benjamin was in diapers, and I got an IKEA gift card for my birthday, and I had a growing list…so, the four of us went.

The kids think IKEA trips are fun field trips, so they were all excited.  Jonathan is too tall for Smaland now, but Grace and Benjamin were excited to go play for an hour.  Here they are right after I checked them in, saying their goodbyes through the window.

My IKEA method is this:  Come in with a list of what I need, walk through the entire store and choose what's on my list (with maybe a couple of other things I didn't know I needed,) buy them, load the car, and return to SmaLand before my one hour deadline.  Jonathan was my trusty assistant (or, my left-hand man, as I call him,) and we made it on time without any trouble.

After picking up the youngers, we walked through parts of IKEA again to see kid stuff, and we had lunch at the cafe, which, again, is a big treat.  I didn't get a good picture of that, but they did really well.

They had to try out the rolls of carpet.

Now, I have to tell you that they kids were REALLY excited about a stop at the Lego store.  There is a Lego store within driving distance of IKEA, and since we don't have a Lego store very close to our  home, this was the highlight of the day for them.  And since they each had a very little bit of Christmas money to spend, and Jonathan got a gift card for his birthday, they were just about jumping out of their skin in anticipation of this part of the trip.  And they did have a lot of fun at the Lego store.

The not-exciting part of the trip was that I had to make a return at a store at the mall.  The kids sat under the counter while I did it.  Jonathan is not usually a hugger, but these two are, sometimes, even without prompting.

We had a fun day, we got a few errands completed, and we forgot - for a bit - how much we missed Jeff.

Vitamins

When the younger kids have time at home together, they come up with all kinds of fun things to play.  On this day, they were feeding vitamins (marbles from the marble run and circles punched out from the letters of Benjamin's simple words set) to Maddie and Luke.  They got big spoons from the drawer and spent a long time in the boys' room feeding them.  (And since then, Benjamin has made a tube from the marble run to feed vitamins to Luke fairly often.)  I'm not sure why this was so important, because the kids don't take vitamins.  Maybe they should, but that's another topic for another day.

After they were done feeding the dolls, they decided that everyone needed to go to bed.  So, Grace put on her PJs (since Benjamin was already in his) and they took both dolls and their beds to Grace's room. Grace read a couple of stories to B and the dolls, and then they turned out the lights and pretended to be asleep.  I thought that was fantastic.

Pinewood Derby #3

I am embarrassed to say that I didn't get a picture of Jonathan with his car this year.  (Bad mom!)  The appearance of the car - not its speed - was the only thing that mattered to him this year.  So, this is the design he came up with, and he and Jeff built it together.  I helped with the painting and gluing on the weights (which are also the studs.)

He was happy with his car, and that was all that mattered, as I mentioned.  Grace was happy to read under a table during the Derby...

and Benjamin was happy to play with cars on the test track.

And I hope I remember to get a picture of him with his car if he does this again next year.  Sigh...