First Communion

They grow and they grow and they grow!  All of the sudden it seems my biggest boy is ready for his first communion.  It was a great day and I must say I did not expect to be so moved by the ceremony.  It is a rite of passage and Ben took it all very seriously.  I remember feeling almost sick to my stomach at mine I was so nervous but not my Ben.  He is a gulp in life kind of guy and loved it.

Poor Jack was not so into it and had a grand mal temper tantrum at having to change his clothes to go to church.  Always lovely when the grandparents are down to visit!  We found out why at the church though as he very quickly fell asleep with Don.  It turned out nicely though because when it was time for the parents to go up to the front for the first communion my dad came with me because Don had his arms full.

So there we were, three generations celebrating a special moment.  Could not help but shed a tear.  Ben of course was totally excited to eat his treat and happily skipped through the church.  Gotta love his spirit.

Great Wolfe Lodge

This is the boy who fell asleep only one time ever before bedtime.  What could possibly make him sleep like this?

And this boy too???  How did we do it you ask?

Great Wolfe Lodge!  One Wednesday deep in the dark part of winter Don and I knew we needed to get out of our house.  we have wanted to go to Great Wolfe Lodge forever so we figured this was the perfect time.  We booked a room for the following night and the look on the boys faces when they learned where they were going was priceless.

We scurried around buying our supplies and getting ready to leave the next day.  While we did this Jackie decided to do some recreational chair jumping in his brother's room.  Unfortunately this resulted in a quick side trip to the ER.  That poor kid scraped most of the skin off his nose and it was swollen!  Luckily the ER doc assured us the chlorinated water would not affect his nose.  Thank goodness because we could cancel the room and the whole point of going there is for the huge indoor water park!  Disaster averted.

The hotel was totally amazing.  We spent our time going from the water slides to the gift shop where Jack built a teddy bear complete with karate suit and where Ben bought a huge cup full of candy (which would later give him a very sore belly).  In the evening we hit the arcade in the basement.

The arcade was perfect for them and for 40 bucks worth of tokens they each got to choose some army men to take back to the room with them.  It was a great trip and we all had a blast.  The water park was impressive, big enough that you had a hard time finding each other if you got split up (or if you left your glasses in the room-I wandered for a good 20 minutes at one point).

Ben set up his 'room' in the sitting area complete with cup o candy and movies on the laptop.  He actually ended up staying up after all of us went to sleep.  He was feeling pretty grown up that evening!

It was a great trip and we will be back next year.  It is a great way to get out of those winter blues!

Winter Project 2011

Have I mentioned before that we are finishing our basement this winter?  Well if I haven't I should because it seems to be consuming much of our spare time lately.  My two little guys have been very patient with all of it though.  I suppose this little beauty of a homemade jungle gym a la Daddy helped. 

As did using the space for an impromptu Beyblade tournament.  One where no adult (ok I confess it is me me me who is always nattering) "Don't hit the walls, those things leave marks!" Because there are no walls yet to worry about.

Wish this photo was clearer but what can you do, my photography skills leave something to be desired.  Now little Jackie it seems actually has a bit of a passion for home improvement.  On this particular night we use over 200 tapcon screws to secure the sub floor to the concrete.  Daddy would use the hammer drill to make the hole and Jackie followed behind to put the screw in.  He developed a procedure which he used at EVERY single hole.

1) Jack picks up his box of screws to go to the new hole (even if it is only a couple feet away he without fail would bring his box with him).
2) Jack walks over to the hole and uses the toe of his shoe to kick all of the concrete dust off the hole.
3) Jack then locates the hole by stepping on the plywood to make the dust poof out of the hole.
4) Jack installs the screw and moves to the next hole.

This went on for almost an hour.  Not too bad for a 5 year old.

Super Awesome Racetrack...And It Actually Worked!

Santa brought us a really awesome book called Boredom Blasters and well it is really good.  Trust me we have more than a few duds because this Mom is a sucker for activity and craft ideas but this book has delivered on it's promises.

This was a cool one.  Draw a race track on sheets of paper and cover it with another sheet of wax paper.  Then plop, plop a couple drops of different colors of food coloring on the paper.  The drops are the race cars and the engine power comes from the straws.  Blow your drop through the twists and turns on the race track with your straw and see who gets to the finish first!

It went on for a whole hour!  Not bad Boredom Blaster peeps, not bad.

A Bad Day For Gingerbread!

I spent a few years wishing both of you were older at Christmas time.  Looking back I see now that that was the single most silly thing I could have wished for because now that I have my wish I want to take it back!!!  I wished you both were old enough to be crazy excited for Santa to come, old enough to absorb some of our Christmas traditions, old enough to really participate in all that is Christmas at this house.

I got my wish but what I din't count on was all the side effects of my wish.  For example, a neighbor reported the following statement from her son the other day...

"Ben and Jack are getting rocks for Christmas because they don't believe in Santa"

"WHAT" I asked?  How could this be.  However it is true, my Benny boy at 7 years old (soon to be eight) heard the nasty rumors on the playground.  You know the ones that go around every year around this time and then again at Easter.  The only thing is that this year he has given them some consideration.

I spoke with him and asked him if he believed and he looked at me and asked in a most serious tone,  one that made me feel he really needed the truth and he trusted me to give it to him,

"Well Mom, is there a Santa"

It was an awful moment because generally I try to be quite honest with my boys and if the question had been about anything else in the world I would have told him the truth.  

I didn't though.  I lied.  I lied so he could have one more year of magic.  So I could have one more year of magic.  I had no idea this might very well be the last year both of my boys believe.  I know that Christmas will still be super fun even if they don't believe but I just wasn't ready for it to be over.

So I have vowed this year will be Christmas overload!!!!

And so this week-end we indulged in some gingerbread cookie ornament decorating.  Oddly enough it really didn't go to plan.  I blew up the mixer before the frosting really got mixed which resulted in thick lumpy glue that the boys had a hard time piping onto the cookies.  Then after we hung the cookies on the tree they kept breaking on falling off the tree.  Blamed this on our little dog for the longest time until I realized what was happening because it has never happened before.

Despite these little setbacks the boys had fun and I had fun doing it with them.  You know one day they will be teenagers and likely not so excited to decorate gingerbread so until that day comes I am going to absorb these moments, commit them to memory and take them with me into tomorrow and all the other days to come.

Machine Gun Kisses

A new twist on the old.  You know how you blow a kiss to someone?  Well these two monkey's have figured out a much cooler way...instead of just blowing the kiss with one blow you do several short blows turning the kiss into a machine gun kiss.  Oh how I love these boys!

Techno Bonding

Yes, I know it is wrong on many levels but a nice cuddle at the end of a long day outside can't be all bad even if we do each have our own little screen.

Geocaching, Real Live Treasure Hunting

We started geocaching about a year ago. It is a real live treasure hunt for kids and for adults too. you go to the website geocache.com and upload coordinates to your GPS to find the treasures. Then after following the trail you will reach the area the cache is hidden. Some are large containers which hold all sorts of treasure (think dollar toys) while others are micro caches which only hold a log book to mark your find. It is a great way to explore for a few reasons:

1. You get to explore new places that you didn't know even existed.

2. The thrill of finding a hidden cache is intense. I have seen cheers break out amongst groups of avid seekers-usually by the adults!

3. It is the perfect activity to do with another family.

4. At the end of a day of geocaching you have had much fresh air and exercise, your dinner will taste great!

5. This is the best one and the reason that never fails to amaze me. Your children WILL walk for hours (like at least 3!!!) and not complain even one time because for them this is big time treasure hunting and they are willing to work for this kind of fun!

On this day we went to a local walking trail to geocache. The day was perfect, no sun but still very hot and two sweet boys to enjoy the activities with. Nice.