Nothing says love like this...

This was Daddy's surprise Valentine's Gift to the boys. It was a big surprise. We brought Big Brother's friend along too. They were so excited once they figured out where we were. 

Before the show started.

Check out those awesome earplugs!

It was so loud in there! Here is some of what we saw. The red truck was driven by a girl! It was my favorite. The boys all loved Grave Digger the best!

They had 3 motorcycles in this cage. Unbelievable!

This was a quad with a jet engine. It was loud and we could feel the heat all the way to our seats.

All in all, it was a hit, even if little brother slept through the 2nd half. I'm pretty sure he might be the only person to ever sleep through that intense noise!

Happy Weekend....

This is for Grandma Sheryl...

Grandma Sheryl loves buffalo. Big Brother brought this home from school. When I asked him why he wouldn't want 100 buffalo, he responded, "Didn't you see how big their patties are?"

Please Pray

My niece is in the hospital with breathing issues (maybe whooping cough). Would you please pray for her healing? Please pray for my sister and brother-in-law who have 3 kids under age 4. They have so much on their plates right now. It's hard enough when your kids are healthy. 

Happy Valentine's Day!

We didn't send out any Valentine's Wishes- so here's what you get! 

Hope you had a great day with your loves. We didn't do much, but had a fun time anyways. 

If you're wondering, I got Kevin a phone charger for his car and he got me a fold up lawn chair for relaxing at the summer baseball games. We're so romantic- don't be jealous!

Little Brother was part of all the action at Big Brother's school party.

The line of boxes waiting for Valentine's at school. Can you guess which one was Big Brothers?

Was this your guess? We made these from recycled items- a round container from dishwasher tabs, oj containers, styrofoam bowl, can and paper towel rolls. I say he turned out mighty cute!

It's like a 2nd Halloween. I can't believe all the candy they get for Valentine's Day!

This was an idea I took from here. The boys loved it and they loved the chocolate kisses!

Hope you had a great day! I had to end on this sweet little love note...

Frosty the ....

Well, honestly, I am sick of winter. We haven't had a ton of snow, but we have had too much cold! We've had 3 snow days due to such cold days, not because of too much snow! This week we had a 2 hour delay due to below zero temps. When you only go to school for 3 hours, a 2 hour delay makes it hardly worth getting out in the cold for an hour of school. So, we declared it our 4th snow day since the new year. Before the latest storm hit, we headed out to build Frosty. He's still out there- a bit blown over and a little unrecognizable. Here's to hoping he'll melt this weekend!

Not sure why my kids insist on goggles when we are out in the snow? Whatever!

Dear Lego Genius Man

I assume you are a man. Women wouldn't do this to other women.

Thank you for creating little pieces of plastic to get embedded in my feet when I'm racing around trying to make dinner.

Thank you for creating little pieces of plastic that little brothers can put down into the heating vents and couch cushions never to be seen again.

Thank you for creating new sets every season so my son forgets about the ones he HAD TO HAVE and now obsesses asks for the new ones incessantly!

Thank you for creating new sets so that he is already planning his September birthday party and his Halloween costume. (It's February)

Thank you for creating new sets so that he is asking for a Ninjago bedroom instead of the Star Wars Room we just completed less than 6 months ago.

Thank you for giving us hours of pleasure building an awesome race car, airplane, or spaceship only to be ruined within 5 minutes of playing with it after completion.


Thank you for constantly advertising them so we can't forget about them!

Thank you for putting the only Lego store in Denver 30 miles away on a very snowy afternoon.

Thank you for charging us as if they were made of semi-precious metals.

(I say this tongue and cheek- they are really an awesome toy. This past weekend was full of Legos. Big Brother had leftover money from his birthday and fell in love with the new Ninjago lego sets. I promised to take them to the Lego store, only to find that it started to dump snow when we were ready to go. Soon, we'll be getting one much closer to home. Not sure if that's a good thing or not! The Lego store has buckets where they can create their own guys. They each did 3. They are above. Little Brother named his "Nick", "Kevin" and "Your Favorite Blue Guy". Not sure if that last name will stick very long- kind of hard to remember!)

My Alarm Clock

Every morning, usually before sunrise, I am met by this little face. Sure, it's cute here, but not as much in the dark when your not sure what is sniffling and snotting in your ear! He usually crawls in our bed, or I go to his with the high hopes of getting more sleep. Those hopes are almost always shattered.

(6:15 am today waiting for his chocolate milk)

 Kevin is up skiing with friends for the weekend and it was just me heading up to bed (way too late) last night. The boys had a birthday party set for 9:30 am! So, I reached for the alarm. Suddenly, it struck me. I probably have a better chance of winning the lottery or getting struck by lightning than getting to sleep in so late we would miss a 9:30am party! 

I used to hate my alarm clock. Now, I don't know why! The ability to accurately predict the time I start my day sounds wonderful now. The ability to hit snooze and get a few more minutes of sleep sounds glorious.

 Someday, I know I'll have to use that alarm clock again (and I won't appreciate it), but for now the drips of snot before sunrise will have to do!

(Disclaimer- his black eye was not my attempt to hit snooze- he fell off a chair last night.)

Zero Days

This week we were hit (just like the rest of America) with weird weather! We had highs in the negatives and lows way down there! Big Brother just celebrated his 100th day of Kindergarten last week at school with a 100 Party. So, when school was canceled due to negative temperatures, I declared it a "Zero Day". (He doesn't get the whole negative number thing- so we just pretended it was really 0 degrees out!)

So, we started our zero day with a zero breakfast of waffles, peanut butter, honey and zero-shaped bananas. (We call these Monkey Waffles)We never got dressed, because you shouldn't when it's 0 outside. We bundled up tight and watched shows and did zero things productive! (Actually, I cleaned forever while the kids watched shows!)

This was Big Brother's idea since legOs have round pieces and this had a lot of zero-shaped tires. It took that Coke Zero to get me through this one!

We also baked some pumpkin muffins- which count because pumpkins are round and so are muffins. ZERO photos because there are ZERO left!

As a side note, just wanted to show you what the windows looked like for 2 days around here. This is actually ice on the INSIDE of our windows. Don't mind the subliminal messages that are intended for the hubby!

Have a warm weekend!

Ski Trip

On a whim we headed up to the mountains skiing last weekend. Big Brother took one ski lesson 2 years ago and we weren't too sure if Little Brother would even get out of the car! But, we headed up and figured we'd make the best of it! To our amazement they both loved it! 

Big Brother caught on so quickly and by the end of the day we were all going on the lift and coming down the green hills! The video above is a little long- but shows their skiing debut!

Little Brother used a back pack that had a handle and straps. I skied him down between my skis most of the day, but he did venture out towards the end. He even made it off the lift on his own a few times. 

All in all, it was a great day and we're hoping to make it up again soon!

Camo Boy

Big brother gets dressed and ready for school each day on his own. Today, he came down in this get up! I suspect he might be planning to escape from school during recess.

I wonder if his bride one day will mind having a camouflaged wedding or house decor?

Quality Time

From Jan 1 through the 21st, Kevin was home for 3 days. Yes- you read that right! His work took him away for almost 2 full weeks and then another week back to back. So, needless to say, we didn't get much "Quantity Time" with him. So, to make up for that, we really have been packing in the "Quality Time" when he was home. (He's home for a good while now~ no trips planned).

The first activity we planned was a Denver Nuggets Game. My mom gave us money for Christmas for a family activity. This is what we chose! We ate at a fun downtown restaurant, Mellow Mushroom, and headed over for the game. We bought our tickets through a school discount and were surprised to find we were sitting right next to our neighbors! Actually, 4 of our neighbors were there and all pretty close.

This bear is "cubbie bear". He lives at school and it was our turn to watch him for the weekend. Big Brother has been waiting for weeks to get him. He went everywhere we went. So, the boys even let him "borrow" clothes from another bear at home to go the game with us!

We stayed until part way through the last quarter. The Nuggets were up by 40 or more points. Big Brother thought it would be good to stay until the Nuggets had 110 points. When they made it, we headed home. Both of the boys enjoyed the night (so did we!)

Last Friday, Big Brother had no school. I woke up unable to stay home yet another day, so I quickly scanned some options and chose the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. It's a place we've never been. Being a "retired" science teacher, I have been wanting to go for some time. It was an amazing place. We ALL had a great time and spent the whole day there. A good alternative to staying home and cleaning (and fighting!)

Our first stop was in outer space- well, at least the space exhibit. They had astronaut outfits and rockets. Even remote control rockets and huge lit up globes. Being into Star Wars and planets made this a favorite section for the boys.

Checking out their infrared light emissions! 

When you first enter, there is a huge T-rex. Little Brother wasn't too sure about it! After reading endless dinosaur books, it was cool to see how huge they really were.

Lots of hands-on exhibits and tons of dinosaurs...