Tag: play

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The collector among us

As I was getting lunch ready today, Nolan came into the kitchen to requested that I tie the strings of his apron.  I asked if he was going to help me with lunch – he said no, he was going to work with his tools.  Apron = tool belt today, I guess.  Mini-man #2 then promptly requested an apron of his own.  Since we only have one kid-sized apron, I made due with a dish towel folded in a triangle for Lincoln.  He didn’t seem to mind.  He left the kitchen and returned with two buckets filled with random things from the toy room.  He set them on the kitchen floor and began to show me what was in them.  I’m pretty sure he has entered the “collector” stage.  I guess if things start to go missing, I know who I need to look to first.  🙂

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OTW – crafts, cookies & party shirts

Friday afternoon after nap time, I pulled out the “magical box of craft supplies” and let the boys use their imaginations. They each selected a piece of construction paper and loaded it with stickers & popsicle sticks and then punched out stars. We also pulled out the glitter and made a few ornaments for the tree. I love that part of my job as a mom means I get to play with fun craft stuff alongside my kids.

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We were invited to a Christmas party on Saturday afternoon. Nolan and Lincoln helped me bake cookies to bring along. We made my Grandma Fran’s Gumdrop Cookies. (They’re my dad’s favorite, so I made sure we had extras to send my parents’ way.) I loaded the cookie sheets with dough balls and let the boys add the gumdrops. It was the perfect activity for them – just about as much fun as eating the final product.

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Today as the kids were getting ready for the day, Nolan told me he wanted to wear his party shirt to school. I figured it would be good practice for the birthday celebration we’re having for a friends of ours on Saturday. Once Nolan had his shirt on, Lincoln made it very apparent that he, too, wanted to wear his party shirt. Here are the partiers playing in their hut after dinner.

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Best job ever

Tonight as we were watching the boys play in the fort that is currently taking up half of the living room, Jake gave me a zerbert. The boys found this extremely humorous and quickly tackled me so they, too, could zerbert me. (Lincoln attempted his with his bink still in his mouth :)) Only a mom could be blessed to receive “I love you’s” in the form of something that sounds like a fart. I can honestly say I have the best job ever. I love my house of boys!

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Birthday part 3

Nolan had his first preschool conference this morning.  From the sounds of it, he’s doing pretty well 🙂  I’m glad he is enjoying it as much as he is.  I catch him singing things he learns in class from time to time.  Those moments really make me smile.

After conferences, I took the boys to MG to swim.  We picked up Nana and headed for the pool.  Both boys had a blast going down the kid slide and playing in the zero depth area.  I wish I had brought my camera to capture the excitement on their faces when the fountains and waterfalls came on.

Tonight we celebrated my birthday for the 3rd time.  How’s that for a three day party?  My parents and brother came over for cake (Angel Food this time) and ice cream.  Afterward, we hung out in the porch with a nice warm fire and Nana read to the boys.  I love that my kids have opportunities to spend time with their grandparents, aunts & uncles.  They are loved by so many people.  What a gift that is to me as their mom.

Today’s randoms from Nolan:

For some reason he wanted to attach balloons to his pockets.  I don’t ask why anymore, I just roll with it.  (See the last picture above)

While in the porch this evening, he told Nana & Papa the “mometer” (thermometer) on the wall “measures the number of colds outside.”  Papa then asked if it measures the “number of hots” outside in the summer.  Good question, Dad 🙂

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OTW – nature, family, scrapbooks & cake

We met friends of ours at Springbrook Nature Center on Friday morning.  There is a visitor center with live and formerly live animals that the kids enjoyed looking at.  I’m not much for snakes, but they had some pretty cool ones that were native to MN.  Maybe I didn’t mind them so much because they were contained in their aquariums.  Once we were done with the inside part of the visit, we ventured outside to walk one of the trails.  The older boys had fun running ahead of us while my friend Brooke & I pushed the little ones in strollers.  It was a beautiful morning to be outside.  We ended up finding a grassy clearing and hung out there for a while so the kids could explore, play & eat a snack.  They had so many animal crackers I don’t think any of them needed lunch.

Side note…Nolan has a book called Help’s on the Way! It’s about rescue vehicles.

Firehouse Tales

In one part of the book, Red, the firetruck helps rescue Milky, the ice cream truck.  Milky is a big, white, boxy, truck.  On our way to the nature center, Nolan said from the back seat, “Look at all those Milkys!”  I paused for a moment, wondering what in the world he was talking about.  When I looked in my mirrors, I noticed that we had just passed the RV sales lot with all of the big, white, boxy, RVs.  I couldn’t contain my laughter 🙂  To his credit, the RVs DID in fact resemble Milky.

Friday night & Saturday I was able to spend time with friends organizing pictures and putting together a scrapbook with pictures from our engagement & wedding.  This has been a project I have been meaning to start for quite a while, but just haven’t gotten to it.  (I wonder why.)  Now that I have things organized and also have a scrapbook to put the finished pages into, I’m hoping to be able to complete the book some time in the next year.  We’ll see…

While I was doing my thing on Saturday, Jake took the boys to Hastings to see Auntie Kari (who was in town for the weekend), Grandma & Grandpa.  From the looks of the pictures, they had a good time playing outside!  They also helped wrap my birthday presents, which was pretty cute to see.  I made sure not to look closely at those pictures until after I opened the gifts.

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Sunday evening, Jake’s parents came over so Jake and I could go out to dinner (a day in advance) for my birthday.  We went to Biaggi’s and had a fantastic meal!  Our server was a friend of my brother’s, so it was fun to catch up with him a little, too.  We ended the evening with pumpkin pie and funfetti cake (made by Larissa).  It was a great birthday-eve!

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Gophers with ribbons

This is one of those posts that my boys will probably ask me why I did this to them, but it was too funny to not record.  For some reason, we have a gold ribbon that has floated around the house for quite some time.  It has been many things – a belt, a string of xmas lights, a fishing line.  Today, Lincoln finally “asked” for his own ribbon, so I pulled a blue one out of the stash of them I still have from when my mom used to put them in my hair as a kid.  Both boys were playing with their respective ribbons tonight when Nolan asked Jake to tie it around his head.  I think he was asking for more of a bandanna on the forehead look, but both kids ended up with bows in their hair.  Sorry guys, I couldn’t resist posting these.  (I swear Lincoln looks like our friends’ daughter J in the 3rd picture.)

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Thank goodness for visitors

Today got off to a bit of a rocky start – I had to raise my voice and ask God for patience too many times. I was happy to have visitors this morning that brightened up the day and took my mind off of the fact that I was feeling like a crummy mom. My good friend from college, Heidi, and her son J, came to spend some time with us. It had been a while since we last got together, so we had a bit to catch up on. Little J is now on the move, so it was fun to see him crawling and pulling up on things. He is getting so big! My boys enjoyed the company. They’re always captivated by other people their size, but especially when the kids are younger than they are. Lincoln takes an extra special interest in the wee ones – so much so that I need to keep a close eye on him because he tends to think the babes are sturdy like he is. Not to fear though, I’m sure J will catch up to my boys soon enough. It will be a fun day when all 3 of them tear around the house 🙂

I’m writing this entry at work tonight.  I had to come in to take care of a few things and now I’m heading home to try to finish the workbook chapter for my moms’ group study tomorrow morning.  I feel like I’m in college lately – trying to keep up on my reading, but not having much success unless I have a deadline staring at me.  Some habits are just hard to break.

One more tidbit for the day.  On the way home from the grocery store, Nolan said to me, “I’m not a boy anymore.”  I questioned, “So what are you?”  He replied, “A preschooler!”  In a way, I guess he’s right.  He is no longer a “little” boy who needs his mom all of the time.  He’s definitely becoming an independent, preschool boy.

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Silly faces

I picked up a game at a church kid/toy sale that we store under the love seat in the living room.  I’m not sure why it ended up there, but it’s convenient – the kids can get to it, but the dogs can’t.  (The dogs like to eat cardboard & game pieces just about as much as they like to eat books.)  We never play by the rules, but have fun putting together silly faces.

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When Dad’s away…

the goofies will play.  Jake had a dinner outing for work tonight, so the boys and I spent the entire day together.  The closer we got to bedtime, the sillier things got.  I think everyone was a little over tired.

Nolan has been asking me about my swim goggles lately.  I don’t know who told him I owned a pair, but I guess that’s not really very important.  As a “reward” for finishing his dinner tonight, I pulled them out and let him try them on.  Not to be outdone, Lincoln also had to have a turn.  He didn’t want them anywhere near his face.  Apparently he thought they made a better necklace.  Next up, the two of them decided the laundry basket that I just emptied would make a good boat.  Initially, Lincoln sat in it while Nolan pulled him around their room and then dumped him backwards.  They both thought it was hilarious.  Then they climbed in together (emphasis on climb, for Lincoln) and laughed some more.  I think we had a double case of the sillys tonight.  I’ll gladly take those ANY night over the whinys, sobbys or the tantrumys.

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The day that ended with cake

I should have known today was going to be a challenging one when I lost my necklace (I ended up finding it) and Lincoln blew out his diaper all within about 10 minutes of getting the day started.  We made it through breakfast relatively unscathed and then the boys decided to turn one of their storage tins into a drum.  I had given them wooden spoons to use as microphones, but I guess they made better drum sticks.  The rest of the day was actually kind of a blur.  I was exhausted and had hoped to take a nap when the boys did, but unfortunately, Lincoln only napped for an hour, so I braced myself for an afternoon with a moody toddler.  By the time dinner time rolled around, between the kids and the dogs I was going crazy and looking for someone else to keep me company as I headed there.  I even posted my plea for company on Facebook.  One of my friends responded saying, “I can’t keep you company, but I’ll open the door and welcome you to crazy when you get here.”  I got a much needed laugh out of his comment.  Thankfully, when Jake came home I was able to take a few minutes to catch my breath.

After dinner, the kids thought it would be funny to wear books as hats, so that’s what we did.  Once again, no matter how nutty some of their antics make me, they can always make me laugh.

Nolan helped me bake a cake today.  It was hard for him to wait until the evening to dig in to it, but he made it.  He asked if we could put candles in it and have a “pretend birthday.”  That sounded good to me, so we lit 3 candles and sang “Happy Birthday.”  When we got to the part about saying the birthday person’s name, I paused and waited for his response.  He said, “Mommy!” and we finished the song.  Guess he’s heard my birthday is coming soon, so we’d better practice 🙂