Flashback Friday

Flash back to a few weeks ago, when we were all sick....oh wait, that's today. Here's what we've been up to, when we are not "dying" from a nasty cold that has made it's rounds.

Hopeful Hero is delightful. There is not much more to say.

 She now smiles when she sees the camera

 And makes lightsaber noises as she chases down siblings.

 We go to the Home Depot Kids workshop. Peaceful Hero is showing off his coaster.

 The Peaceful Hero is starting to steal all the attention in group shots.

 And in this one:

 And Halloween was super cold. It was fun to take the kids out trick or treating, but super cold. The Hopeful Hero took one look at the bee costume and started crying, so she went as an adorable little girl---which is not much of a costume.

Applesauce!!

We got to make applesauce two weekends in a row! I love making applesauce--the first weekend, my cousin was kind enough to come up and help us make enough for our family. The second weekend, I taught two friends how to make it. It was awesome and sometimes I think applesauce is like liquid gold. And it should be consumed often.

We had three little helpers:

 Two helped run the saucer for about five minutes and were adorable.

 And one emptied boxes:

So she could carry them around and sit in them. And she was our taste tester. The apples met her approval, and I loved having little nibbles out of several of them.

Accessories

Hopeful Hero is so much fun! She loves to accessorize and is often found wearing "bracelets" (usually hairbands) and "necklaces" (anything she can put along her neck). She loves her sunglasses though. 

 So much that she had to share a pair with her best friend.

Because if you can't share a pair of sunglasses with your friend, then you're not a very good friend.

Walky Talky

We have been living for the past three months with an imaginary real animal that Peaceful Hero has created discovered. This is how we have to talk about them. I decided to take notes and share them here. These are things that the Peaceful Hero has shared with us, in his own words as much as possible.

-Arms on it's back

-Eleven Legs

-Eats glass cups, empty plastic bottles and plastic milk bottles

-Lives in dark caves

-Leaves it's house through windows. It breaks through and don't repair it.

-Climbs out of dark holes by climb up the slipperly ice and then climb up a ladder and when they are out they knock it (the ladder) down back into the closets.

-Don't like candy.

-Eat a rusty house.

-Are really big--almost touch the ceiling.

-Can run ZOOM! (100 miles an hour.)

-Can jump almost to the sky. 

-Looks like a turtle shell head. (Stuck to them.)

-Have fur, just on the shell.

-Good one's have no eyes, bad ones have eyes.

-Bake a walky talky to eat it.

-Stand vertical on 2 legs, the other legs help it swim.

-None tail.

-No blood--chocolate milk instead.

-Breath fire like dragon.

-How high as a giraffe is.

-Breath under water, have gills.

-Friends with fish, turtles, giraffes, nice sharks, nice spiders, star fish and whales.

-Scare people for fun. Nice walky talkys scare mean people and bad walky talkys scare nice people.

-The good ones have swords

-They don't have mom's they just live in caves.

-Eleven good ones, Four Bad ones.

-They live in dirty water, dirty for us, but it's clean to Walky Talkys.

As of a few weeks ago, we have added:

-Live in families.

-Like to run red lights when they are running late

-Have every kind of lightsaber. (I think he means color....)

-Big Brother Walky Talkys are good and kind and can fix toys.

-Sister Walky Talkys hit Baby Walky Talkys and break their toys.

-Now there are 100 good ones and still 4 bad ones.

So with all this information, I attempted to draw a Walky Talky. 

And This week the boys asked when we are going to get our own Walky Talky. For some reason, I'm not really interested in getting a blind sword/lightsaber welding, fire breathing, window breaking, red light running animal. The boys are ready to build a big dark cave in our back yard for a Walky Talky to move in. I've told them that when they see one then we can start talking about how to catch it. 

Overheard

At Home Depots Kids Workshop:

As they were walking in, someone commented on what good little helpers we have.
Peaceful Hero: I am not little. I am BIG and today I am pretending to be REALLY BIG!

While hammering nails, Friendly Hero: I am pounding really hard like I am crucifying someone!

Hopeful Hero is saying all sorts of animal sounds and we are overcome with cuteness when we hear hissing of snakes, mooing of cows, quacking of ducks, arm raise with a splatting noise for elephants and all sorts of other things.

Zoo

Zoo's are awesome! We got to go to Utah this summer and one of the first things we did, after a family reunion was go to the Hogle Zoo. I enjoyed watching the sea lions and seals preform. The boys were less impressed.

 Hopeful Hero liked walking around the small animal building.

 The boys are looking at some snakes.

 We got to go to a bird show there. It was really fun! The birds were flying over head and it was awesome!

 They asked for a volunteer and they picked out the Friendly Hero! After he said his name and smiled for the audience, the lady told them to release the California Condor. The whole audience gasped, and she quickly said, "just kidding, it's a morning dove!"

 Here is the bird eating out of his hand!

It was really fun to go to the Zoo with our Aunt K and Grandma! We are excited to come back to Utah again in December!

Chocolate Chip Pancakes

Mom, these were yummy. We should totally have them again!

Sign of a good meal! If it's all over her face, it was put into her mouth. If she's clean then the floor is a mess!

Here comes Kindergarten!

 Friendly Hero is on his way to Kindergarten! He is so happy! This is on the "first day" which was a back to school day. Our school is doing a gentle start---gentle on most kids and on the school and teachers. It must be insane with all the new kids and trying to get them ready.

 Smiling for his teacher!

 Waiting for the bus on the first day! He is so excited to go!

Climbing onto the magic school bus! I am so excited for him, and we are ready for this change and development as a family!

A Splash Pad

Once we were all safely bathroomed, we walked along the river in the parks. We enjoyed a splash pad. It was really fun. 

I first got to show the kids how to walk through the fountain with the stroller without getting soaked. We did have a three hour drive a head of us, and driving in sopping clothes isn't fun.

Another way through the fountains, and this time without shoes.

I love catching sprinting pictures and their joy. (Not that I was the photographer--I was too busy taking care of Hopeful Hero...but you get the idea.)

Then there were some swings for us to sit on and enjoy. And it is nice to be in the pictures!

A few of the river.

We had so much fun in Cincinnati. I love having family close! We also planned the next excursion. Our cousins will come to see us in September and we will get to make Applesauce. I get to induct my cousins to the family---you're not officially a Cutler until you've made Applesauce. I'm so excited!

River Walk--Or a study in Bathroom Sprints.

On Saturday we headed to downtown Cincinnati to walk along the Ohio River. I had heard great things about the parks there. We took a few wrong turns and the boys loved the train bridges and the freeway passes. It's so much fun to travel with little boys!

We got to walk across the suspension bridge. And by We, I really mean my cousins and a few of my children. We made it onto the bridge and a quarter of the way, when the Peaceful Hero called out, "I have to go POTTY!" Well, that means that there is two minutes until we have an accident. So I got to turn around and carry Peaceful Hero in the Potty Sprint. I was very grateful for my cousins, since they were there to help out. 

Isn't my cousin beautiful?

On our way back--no accidents--we saw a barge and had a lot of fun. They were on their way back from another state, and we all headed back together.

While we walking back, we had another bathroom sprint, luckily it was a different child. Friendly Hero also had to go.

Almost to the bathroom. The man in orange laughed a lot and was very friendly to see me run back and forth with two different boys.

This was a really cool picture taken through the waterfall fountain at the bridge.

A Museum

We have a museum pass that lets us get into over 250 different museums for free. So we made sure that we went to the museum in Cincinnati that worked with our pass. It was a good museum. I think we would have been disappointed if we had to pay to get in, but since we got in for free it was a GREAT museum!

Right at the beginning we found some bug related items. Which had to be documented to show the Bug Hero. He was missed dearly by the children. We explained that Bug Hero was an expert on bugs. And after explaining what an expert is, we asked them what I, the Math Hero, was an expert in. After a few thoughtful moments, the Friendly Hero said, "Um, Children?" And he was right.

There was a fake cave exhibit. It was a section of the museum that was a cave, like two or three stories of walking around, tight sections, a waterfall, a river, stairs up and down, stuffed rats, a spelunker (reminding us of cave safety), darkness, ac blowing to make it colder, stalactites, and stalagmites. I thought it was really cool. The boys were very hesitant. There were two paths, and we took the easier path first and they didn't like it until the end. I then asked Friendly Hero what type of animals lived in caves and his eyes lit up, and he nearly yelled "DRAGONS!!" and Peaceful Hero added that they lived there because they don't like the light. And they raced around to the start and we did the easy path two more times at top speed to be like a dragon. They didn't want to do the other level, but My cousin and I did, so we led them down the steps and they were very careful. The Peaceful Hero was happy as long as my cousin carried him. I carried the Hopeful Hero. And the Friendly Hero was quite upset that his flip-flops got wet in the splash of the waterfall. He leads a difficult life.

There was a live bat demonstration. We watched part of it, before interest was lost. Hopeful Hero loved pointing at the bats.

 There was a fake glacier. I didn't know that the Cincinnati Valley was formed by a glacier. But it was, and we got to walk through a fake one. It was really noisy. And this is Friendly Hero's "normal face." The other option is tongue out.

 Here is the outside of Museum Station. There are about four or five museums here. But we only had the pass to one of them. But it was a perfect way to spend the morning.

 Peaceful Hero was a little bit grumpy about the bright light and that lunch was delayed. (And we can't really blame that...)