Time for Art

Aren with cardboard and chalk

Alex with paper and marker

Ajay with coloring book and marker

Aren with a pink tongue after munching on chalk

Play dough.  Aren cannot get enough play dough time.

Alex with his play dough heart.  And he feels he has to cross his eyes for every other photo.

Sharing the love

Aren just luuuuvs Gracie Mae, our almost 13 year old calico kitty. 
He crawled under his crib to cuddle up with her one evening before bedtime.

She loves him right back. She must think of him as her own since she's bathing him.

Remember that snow?

It is supposed to be in the 80's today which makes it hard to miss the 22 inch snowfall we had just a couple of weeks ago. 
The boys enjoyed playing in the snow.  Me, not such a fan.  I'd rather enjoy it from the inside and now go out in it.  However, I knew Aren would want to play outside in that white stuff so I bundled him up and out we went.  (These pictures come from multiple snow days)

These cute mittens didn't have fingertips.  The mitten part covered his 4 fingers but did nothing for his thumbs.  He was not happy.

The boys tried to help shovel the driveway.  The snow was too heavy.

And too thick!

Back inside for a mug of hot chocolate and a friendly game of War.

We didn't get the drive completely shoveled and Biju got stuck before he could even turn in.  Our lovely neighbors came right over without being asked and helped us dig out.

Ahh, yes, these mittens work much better!  Alex gave two thumbs up for these homemade mittens.

Remember these boys from the wrestling post?  They went out to play in the snow, too.

Aren wouldn't keep his mittens on - I tried two pair!  And when I took him inside he was screaming mad - not because his hands were cold but because he wanted to stay outside and play some more.  Brrr!

Cold brothers.  (Aren didn't have any snow boots so I took a pair of crocheted booties from last year and slipped them on over the shoes to keep them a little less snowy.  It worked!)

I don't think I'll ever understand

A friend and her two boys came over to play the other day.  The boys had a fine time wrestling. 

I see them rolling around pushing and tugging on each other and I just don't get it. 

Sure, it's good for getting out their energy and I'm guessing it helps with other skills/brain connections/etc. but it is all lost on me. 

Wrestle, wrestle, cry because you got hurt, get mad at the one who hurt you even though you knew that actually getting hurt was inevitably going to happen, go back and wrestle some more. 

 

While we're here and talking about brain connections (aren't we?) I'll show you the "Velcro" board I made Aren.  I took some old hook and loop stuff I had in my sewing box and hot glued it to a board and some blocks.  This entertained Aren for quite some time! 

 

Too bad the hot glue didn't hold better.  He keeps asking for it again, though, so I need to re-glue everything down. 

Ahh, children

Back in January my sister called to inform me that her husband had scored some free tickets to Sesame Street Live.  6 of them!  So she would take her younger two and wondered if I was interested in taking my older two.  Well, of course!  I know Aren would have loved to go but then he would've gotten bored about 5 minutes in.  (Just like all of the other kids his age that were there!)
I got a shot of the kids waiting for the show to begin:

Ajay, Kyleigh, Alex, Shelly, Audrey.

The kids loved it.  Even Ajay, who kept whining about not wanting to go, had fun.  I think it had something to do with a neighbor kid telling him he'd seen the show before and it wasn't any good.  I'm glad Ajay made up his own mind that it was a fun show.  He's 7 and Sesame Street is a bit young for him but I think just seeing everything in live action with loud music and flashy lights helped him forget to be "too old" for the show. 

And now on to Aren. 

As a mother of three boys you'd think I would know by now NOT to turn my back. 

Aren went into the bathroom and pointed to his little potty seat.  Alex, ever helpful to his little bro, helped him get his pants and diaper off.  I went ahead and put him on the seat and let him try to go.  I can't remember why I left the room but when I came back, this is what I found. 

A quick (long) rundown of January

I have pictures loaded to Blogger to share with you.  I had hopes of writing cute posts to go with each one and explaining all the fun that came with the photos.  But since I'm having a hard time getting on here to do all that I'll just bombard you with the photos and give a brief description of things. 

Aren convinced Daddy to read book after book to him.

Alex was thrilled when he got to feed a peacock at the zoo.

Time to measure up with the penguins!

"This looks like a good seat to have a snack."

Aren is allergic to a certain antibiotic.  At least he wasn't itchy.

 I hosted Bunco in January and made up these coffee mug cozies as prizes.  (I'm missing a picture of the sparkly green one.)

It was nice enough for light jackets and a visit to the park.

Play dough keeps my boys occupied quite often.

Alex woke up to a birthday sign and DONUTS on his birthday.

He also got a beautiful sunrise that morning!

The evening of Alex's birthday we went to a function at Ajay's school - he got to do some dancing with his classmates. (He's in the blue shirt.)

Alex couldn't resist the temptation to dab his nose into his cupcake.

So Aren tried to, too.

Ajay was a little cleaner with his.

Alex was trying to show the family in India his frosting covered tongue.  Too bad this was just a regular phone call.