Friday, February 26, 2010

art friday

I gathered up some of the artwork Levi has been doing this week. During one of our art lessons, I told Levi how learning to copy what you see takes practice, but all you have to do is see the shapes and copy them. He's been practicing, and practicing, and has made so much progress!
Here's the whole family on the Axiom, with Wall*E. Be sure to check out my baby bump...

Here's a silver mine, the kind worked by slaves in ancient Greece.


Some silly little robots from a magazine.

He spent three days on this one, adding things from memory to a sketch from a book. There's a mixer truck that's being loaded with sand and water. And there's a guy running a crane from the top, which he drew from memory of a construction sight near Nana & Pappy.

These are the squirrels from the other day. Poor, hungry, little things.

He is so proud of his sketch book. And loves getting a chance to show it to people.



And so do I.


PS - I know March doesn't start until Monday, but I had a few minutes to change things up, and thought I'd do it while I had the chance!

Thursday, February 25, 2010

the bump


I can't believe we're nearly 1/2 way there!
Monday marks the mid-way point, and I'm feeling great (most of the time ;-) and the boys are enjoying patting the baby. Levi likes to press his ears to my belly and listen, and Micah has to stretch way up over his head to gently pat the baby bump.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

My View...

The boys had fun with some glue, tissue paper, and a bright sheet of paper. I showed Levi he could draw a simple design and then make it into a cool picture, and Micah showed off for the camera.



I have been thinking a lot about the blog lately, and what I want this little space in the world to be. Not sure yet, but there are so many aspects of our life as a family, and there are so many ways to go.
Maybe I should just tie the camera to my wrist...

Monday, February 22, 2010

our weekend

easy weekend fun...

fun with stamps...

What? Doesn't everyone make ancient Greek coins for fun?

I think the kids are ready for spring! They've been camping a bunch...

Hope you have a great Monday!

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

squirrel post


Wow. This was the highlight of my day. We felt sorry for the squirrels (due to their not being used to it any more than the rest of Maryland's inhabitants, they do not hibernate). Their food stash, which is already running low sice it's February, has been buried under a good three feet of snow for a really, really long time.

So we tossed out some chunks of bread. One hungry squirrel was willing to run out into the falling food being pelted out the front door to grab his share.

We watched them for a minute from the window, maybe, when Levi blurted out, "Where's my sketch book? Quick!"
We dashed around to find it, along with his box of colored pencils, and he spent a good, long time sketching those hungry squirrels.

It was so cool.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

snow comparisons

Today, I thought we'd do a quick comparison for you. This is our newly decorated birdfeeder, and all around it are real, live icicles. Icicles - truly a marvel for this fifth generation native Floridian. So here's the amazing (to me) comparison. Here's the first picture:

And this is that same spot, a mere two hours later! We just don't get these here, let alone like this!
And here is what our porch looked like after the last two blizzards! Crazy, huh?

I have to say, when the sun comes out and shines on all that snow, it fills the house with every bit as much sunshine as our summer days! Cool, huh?

Monday, February 15, 2010

my valentines

We had such a great time getting ready for Valentine's Day. My hubby brought me these for a fun treat...
Me and the boys got the house ready by breaking out the watercolors. We painted I don't know how many hearts, and then the boys got a big kick out of watching me run them through the sewing machine to make garland. Totally not my idea - I've seen it around the internet on several blogs - but totally fun! We had enough to do our living room windows too.

I think he likes them!

And then I was sneaky and made some valentines for my little valentines, without them knowing. I've seen Soulemama make these (or something like them) quite a few times, and thought my boys would like little books of their own.
So the boys woke up Sunday morning to find their little books and a little coffee filter stuffed with a dozen jelly beans and tied with a red thread. A dozen beans each was a huge deal to them, since they usually get one bean when they use good manners or do something especially kind or help me out with something.
And then they found their books.
"Mommy! I love my book! I love it!" as he hugged it and beamed at me.

And then Micah and I made some cinnamon rolls (from scratch) for breakfast.

Yup, it was a great Valentine's Day!

Friday, February 12, 2010

Snow Days

So, Nana and I took a couple of very excited little boys out to play in the snow. Anthony and Brandon were hard at work, digging us out (thank heaven that Daddy had that plow to get a huge ton of it!).

Can you see the mini-mountain of snow on the other side of my van, where the guys had been shoveling to? Wow! It's even more than we had in December!

In fact, it was so much snow that the best (and really only) place the boys could get around easily was the plowed driveway! And yes, I got hit with that pile of snow :)

Micah was hillarious! He kept trying to throw chunks of snow at me and missing. After a while he just carried it over and started pounding my leg with it.
Whack, giggle, giggle, whack, take a bite of snow, whack, repeat...



Nana's snow angel... It was so deep, she couldn't get out without help (that happened to me in December)!

And here's Levi trying to run in waist-deep snow...

Ker-plop.


We had so much fun! And to think, as I type this, another blizzard (with all its photo opportunities) is raging outside! Crazy!
Love you Nana, thanks for coming to play and play and play with us :)

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Nana!

During the blizzard last weekend, we got to have Nana with us!
...Showed Nana some serious creative skills...
....knitted three pair of Ribby Wraps in 30 hours....

...built with pretty much anything we could get our hands on...

...and made some early Valentine's cookies! Yum!

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

reading buddies



Aren't we lucky to have such great guys in our home?