Little Robots

 

They get their mechanical acumen from their father!

Games

 Ruth, Ken and I decided to settle into a game of scrabble. We all wanted to avoid too much competition and just have fun. So, we played with loose rules!

Occasional fake words were accepted (sorbini:a tiny Italian sorbet, sneato: super neato). We didn't keep score and we mostly tried to impress one another with our creativity.
We are going to have to do this more often!

First still life

Jared presented us with this masterpiece one morning. He is starting to want to draw things that he sees! Pretty accurate, we think!

Grandma Strikes Again!

My mom let me know one Sunday that she wanted to come visit that Thursday.
It was far too short, but we ate good food, had wonderful bonding time and even did a project.

She does excellent voices!

Jared, true to form, wanted to help cook for his Grandma. So he helped me make hot chocolate for breakfast.

And we painted this

Into this.

Hopefully, I'll show you a bit more, when I've finished the touch up painting and can start all the decorating that is in my head.
I was lucky to have two Kindt women behind me, making things happen.

Shedd Aquarium: Wonderful Day, Terrible Pictures

Almost a month ago now, Ruth scored some free passes to the Shedd aquarium!
Awesome right?
Well, also included was tickets to the shows!
We're talking over a hundred dollar day, and all we paid for was gas and parking!

 Waiting for the dolphin show (Ken was in India, so he was having his own adventures)

 Dolphin tank (but, of course, you can't take pictures during the actual show)

 Jared spent most of his time running between these displays to click on anything he could!

Rosie had a grand time watching all the fish.

And for the whole day, we didn't lose either child. Miraculous.
To top it all off, we then met with my parents at Ikea.

It could almost make this homebody schedule more adventures!

Broken Boy

Uh, Jared broke his arm this week.
While we were hosting a large party and weren't keeping a good eye on him. (Guilt, anyone?)
He wore a splint over the weekend, until we could see a specialist on Monday.

It was so hard to keep him safe for those few days. I didn't realize how much running, climbing and wrestling are a normal part of his life!

When he did lay down, he actually napped. My boy, who quit napping when he was two, napped.

But fortunately, he didn't need pins, so he got his cast! We are so glad he is on the mend!

Happy St Patrick's Day

We're pretty low key about St. Patrick's Day at our house.
Lucky Charms for breakfast
Wear green
And an Irish American meal for dinner (Corned beef, potatoes, cabbage, soda bread)
 

 This is becoming a Jared tradition. Have cabbage? You also have a hat (complete with fork)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Snowy Day Projects

The cold weather pushes me to do something crafty.

I made a couple of sets of mittens, using Jared's hands as a pattern.

I made Rosie a "hair hat." It was easier to make than I thought it would be.

This one is my brilliant idea! I like the front facing bookcases they make, except for the fact that they can't hold very many books.
But putting books away is really hard, when you are little. The coordination of holding books up, while putting more in is quite impossible.

So I installed a set of bookends on each shelf. They have little holes in the base, so I just screwed them in. It has been great. Now, the kids can help put books away again!