More Snow Fun

Friday was another snow day, so we made the most of it. I had so much fun playing with the boys out in the snow. One of those days when I was glad I wasn't in a hurry and could just "be" with them, if you know what I mean. Check out what we did – we made some snow paint. Food coloring + water + squirt bottle. Note: the squirt bottles worked much better than the spray bottles. Here is a little of our artwork. Caleb had the yellow squirt bottle and he painted here and there and it looked like you know what in the snow! You can see it in the upper right hand corner of this picture! This was lots of fun! Next, onto snowman making.

Pretty cute if I do say so! Oh what fun! Eli and I made predictions on how long it would take our snowman to melt. I said 5 days and he said 6 days. Lastly, was some sledding fun down a perfect little hill my parents have in their backyard! They both loved it. Hot chocolate made by Pamma was a perfect ending to our fun time in the snow! Eli prayed for snow, God answered, and we enjoyed!

2 posts in a week – seriously, I'm on a roll!

Tara

The Fair

Last Monday, we managed to make it to the fair. It's always around Eli's birthday, so a fun tradition for him. In fact, the first time he went to the fair, he was 9 days old! Can you believe 1st time parents took their newborn baby to the fair?! (Me-yes, Lance-no). One of Eli's favorite things to do is to ride the gondola which goes up over the midway so you get a great view of all the rides, games, etc. This year Caleb & I rode too for the first time. Very fun! Next we let them ride some totally overpriced rides- but they enjoyed the 3 rides they got to do (next year we will come on buddy day when you can ride 2 for 1)!

I don't think Caleb was tall enough to ride this ride, but we sort of sneaked him on anyway!

Oh, how I love these 2!

Next we ate some fried fair food. I've decided, despite the newest fair food craze - the best value is the funnel cake and I've hardly ever been disappointed. $6 for this and we all shared. Eli wanted cotton candy @ first, but then decided that the funnel cake was equally delicious. Caleb did not want any at first, but then gave in and decided he liked it as well!

Since it was getting late and it was a school night, and I was 9 months pregnant - we made the boys choose between the petting zoo/ baby animals & the cars @ the Expo center. Any guesses what they chose? The cars. So off we headed to the Expo center. While there we saw this butterfly house exhibit. It was a huge net that housed over 5,000 butterflies! $3 to get in and of course they both wanted to go, so Lance took them while I waited outside.You can see the butterflies clinging to the top of the net. Eli liked it okay, but Caleb was the one that really loved it. You couldn't touch the butterfly wings, but they could land on you and crawl on your hand. Eli didn't want any part of this (he has crawly thing issues - can't say that I blame him), but Caleb was all over it. Lance kept helping him get butterflies on his hand. This is quite possibly my favorite picture to date of Caleb!

As they left, the workers checked their backs to make sure that no butterflies had attached themselves and would be leaving with them. Then Lance walked all the way back across the fair (since we parked in free parking) to get the car and meet us out front (since I am with child you know!)

So fast forward to the next morning when my husband went out to his car to leave for work. What do you think he found in his car? That's right a beautiful blue swallowtail butterfly. Unbeknownst (I've never used that word before!) to us, we had smuggled that butterfly right out of the butterfly house. It was amazing! We figured it had to have been on Lance's jacket or in his bag and traveled all the way across the fair, back to the car with him. The boys were thrilled with their new pet and named him "Switcher" because he was 2 different colors when he opens and shuts his wings. He stayed with us for a whole week . Then we took him back to the fair on the last night (just kidding, but that is what we told Eli because he was so upset at the thought of the butterfly dying). So that is our fair story! A great memory for us!

Tara

Rocks, Sand, & a Gator = Heaven!

Yesterday, my mom called to inform me that dad (aka Papa) had borrowed my uncle's truck, trailer, & gator to unload rocks and sand in case the boys might want to come out & see. Ummm, yes : vehicles + dirt, rocks, sand, etc. = pure bliss for my boys! I love unplanned fun and believe me, it was a day of fun for them.

Many rides in the gator with papa to get load after load of sand.Here's what they were working on. The sandbox that Papa has been promising to make. It is perfect and plenty big for lots of cars, trucks, monster trucks, shovels, buckets, etc. They worked hard (Okay, Caleb not so much) to finish. I'm sure we'll be spending lots of time here. Thanks Papa for making a sandbox!

Thank you LORD for delighting them with such a fun day! You are so good to us!

Tara

Simple Things

Today, simple things brought lots of joy to the boys. I love moments like this. We went to a park by a lake in our area. We had packed a picnic lunch & created a nature scavenger hunt which they were very excited about. First, they found all 10 items on their scavenger hunt, then it was on to the big hit of the day!Throwing rocks into the lake! This took up a majority of our time. Who knew this would earn me the title of "best mom in the world" according to Eli! "Did you see that big splash mommy?" - over and over again. Isn't it so true that the best things in life can't be bought at a store or watched on tv - but must be experienced! I love getting to experience these things all over again with the boys.

Tara