pine cone destruction

Pine cones - check.
Hot glue gun - check.
Googly eyes - check.

pine cone tower - built.
pine cone people - made.
pine cone cannon - functional.

The residents of pine cone tower were enjoying a peaceful afternoon when the villainous Dr. Pine transformed into a gun. A gun that mutilated and destroyed pine cone life as we know it...

Pine cone cannons and guns? Definitely not my idea.

Blast You to the Moon Smiles

There is a club of retired individuals that regularly fly remote controlled airplanes at the park next to my parent's house - every morning.


And almost every morning - when we were living with my parents - the boys and I would take a little walk around the corner to watch the airplanes fly.


So... Much... Fun.


Watching the airplanes fly was magical for my little boys.
And I knew the we needed to do something about their new passion for flying.


So we made our very own jet pack rockets with plans to launch our bodies and dreams into outer space. We emptied cereal boxes and stole some plastic cups from grandma and started glue-gunning away.


Once the glue was dry, we took our first flight.
Definite smile material for everyone.











Chieko Okazaki once spoke on the importance of smiling. Smiles have power to encourage, love, and create happiness. She made the point that there is never a short supply of smiles. Smiles should not be saved for those you wish to impress, rather smiles should be shared more readily with the ones we love.


Making homemade jet packs with my kids makes me smile.
And I love these smiles...

But sometimes the important smiles occur spontaneously and effortlessly during the small and simple moments. Moments of holding your child's hand to feel them spontaneously do the three-squeezes-means-I-love-you-pattern or kissing your husband as he walks in the door from a long day at school/work.

These smiles and the happiness they create blast my heart to the moon with joy.
I am so grateful for the magical moments smiles create.

Oh, and by the way, I still can not find the box that is hiding my adobe lightroom photo-editing software... and it is driving me nuts to post pictures unedited. Anyone have experience with Photoshop? If so, do you love it?

A Marker Lid Christmas

Christmas is here, and we are so very excited. The day after thanksgiving we opened all of our Christmas boxes and greeted our Holiday friends. Stuffed animals that tell stories, favorite Elmo ornaments, and comfortable Christmas blankets are all unpacked and being enjoyed - and I love it.

Christmas time is so fun.

But as we set the tree up and assembled all of the ornaments, something was missing.
I could not figure out what it was.
So I thought and I thought and I thought about it.

Nothing came to mind.

Then one day I was unpacking the 2 toddler bin of clothes for Colton (the eighteen month clothes are now too small) and while I was folding some khaki church pants I felt something bumpy in one of the pockets.

I opened the pocket to find...




I am not kidding.
Do you remember Caleb's obsession with marker lids?

Do you remember that he wanted to carry these superhero marker lid friends with him everywhere so we had to make a car and recycle our socks and altoid containers to hold them?

And do you remember how they evolved into bunnies and men with funky hair?



Well.
We decided that our Christmas tree was definitely needing some marker lid love.
So we hot glued some pipe cleaners to the top of the marker lids,





and we hung them on our tree.






And now my friends, Christmas is complete.
Santa can come and the reindeer can fly.

Measuring Friends

Colton would much rather play with measuring spoons and/or cups any day.
Forget the trucks and give this boy something to measure with.

Future cook or builder... what do you think?

When Colton had an absolute fit last night because he wanted to hold every single measuring spoon I own at the same time and his hands are simply not big enough, I knew it was time for some intervention.

I took the all the spoons away.
I know.
Bad Mom moment.


But hold on.
I am about to redeem myself.

After he screamed and screamed for his measuring utensils, I finally tucked him into his crib with a cold bottle of water and five million measuring cups. With a smile the size of Texas, he fell asleep to the sweet sounds of clanking plastic teaspoons and tablespoons.

I put the older boys to bed and pulled out my hot glue gun.

I'd like to introduce you to our measuring friends.





Don't they make you smile?

I also love that all of the measuring spoons attach to a ring. Now baby Colton can run around the house with a dozen measuring spoons attached to a simple ring. Life is so much easier now.

Turkey Pirates

Remember these fun Goldilocks and the Three Bears wooden spoon puppets?



And remember how baby Colton had a hard time crawling around with them?
But he loved them so much that he endured the hardship and somehow got around the house with wooden spoons in his hands?


Well.
I decided that we needed to make some thanksgiving turkeys.
So we made a couple.




And we love them.
Mostly.

Colton now runs around the house with wooden turkey sticks in both hands smacking them against anything and anyone he can reach with them. Wooden spoon play is now a when-Colton-is-asleeping-activity for the big boys.

But regardless, the older boys loved playing with their turkey sticks. While walking home from school today, Conner suggested that we transform his thanksgiving turkeys into pirate turkeys.

Now we are talking.
Pirates + Turkeys = Totally Awesome





When I asked Conner what it is that pirates turkeys eat, he told me that he did not know and that I should call my husband to get the answers to my questions.

I called Nate.
He did not know either.

I may not know what pirate turkeys eat, but I do know how pirates turkeys get around town.





They have ditched the pirate ship to ride around on top of batman's car.
Seriously.
Pirate turkey.
Life does not get cooler than this.


And you totally know that after I write this post, I am going to start writing a story about the pirate turkeys that save a certain holiday and bring peace, joy, and goodwill to all mankind... one "Gobble Gobble ARRRRR" at a time.

crawling with wooden spoons is a challenge.

Meet our new puppets.

Baby Bear, Papa Bear, Mama Bear, and Goldilocks.



The boys and I made two sets last week during Colton's nap.
One set for Caleb.
One set for Conner.

The boys helped paint and design their wooden spoon puppets.
Lots of fun...
Lots of fun for everyone but Colton.
He was pretty upset that he did not have his own set of wooden puppets.

So for Colton's-big-one-year-old-birthday, Conner helped make Colton his very own set of wooden spoon puppets. And the puppet present rocked the world. Colton couldn't care less about the super-cool-dump-truck-set he got for his birthday, all he cares about is his wooden spoon puppets.



CJ loves his puppets.
And despite the challenge, he has mastered the art of crawling with two (or sometimes three) wooden spoons in his hands. Pure talent.

Wooden spoons. Who knew?

chick-ology 101

I enjoy Easter. a lot.
I love the deep spiritual significance.
I love the spring time feel.
I love the Easter eggs.

I have secretly been planning Easter baskets, eggs, and activities for months.
I am so excited that it is finally here.

This week the boys and I pulled out all the Easter eggs to practice our egg hunting skills and learn a little about chick-ology 101.


First, we had to build a nest for our eggs





Sheriff Woody was recruited to act as the mama chick.

At first the boys were not too pleased. They wanted to play mama chick. There was quite the debate about whether the sheriff could really keep the eggs warm enough. We eventually had to incorporate many blankets and pillows.



When the conditions were absolutely perfect, the baby chicks emerged from the eggs.
Cute, warm, and hungry.



We were ready to feed their appetites with some tasty worms.
The chicks really like to eat them... and so does Colton.



Such a fun game.
We played it for days.

Eventually, we decided that we needed to make more baby chicks to play with.
I really need to invest in googly eyes.




These baby chicks are a bit older than the "hatching chicks" and they needed a home that was easily transportable.

So, we made a little pet carrier for them.




Caleb loves it.
It is like a little suit case that he can carry around with him everywhere.



He had to try it out by going up and down the stairs with it at least a dozen times.



So incredibly fun.

I found packages of eggs for forty cents a pieces at Hobby Lobby. I went a little egg crazy. We are having a lot of fun sorting eggs by their color, hiding eggs with numbers inside and then lining them up in the right order once they are all found, and basic word spelling with letters hidden inside each egg.

My boys are awesome egg finders.
The Easter bunny is going to have to get a little creative this year.

Marker Lid Evolution

Caleb has a serious fascination with marker lids.
He loved to wear them on his fingers and play with them as if they were action figures.



So I decided that eyes were necessary.
Action figures need eyes to sword fight.



Caleb took the marker lids with him everywhere.
One for each finger to be exact.
But marker lids slid off fingers and I was beginning to spend the majority of my time looking for the marker lid that fell behind couch, under the bed, and all over the van.

The superhero marker lids needed a car -badly.
So we made one.
No wheel drive. Bright green. One door entry. Cardboard interior. Seats six. The perfect car.



I don't know when it started.
Maybe it was the many advertisements for the Disney movie Tangled.
Maybe it was Uncle Spencer and his long "China hair."
Or maybe it was the fact that Caleb learned to say the word "hair."

I don't know.
What I do know however is successful superheros must have hair and lots of it.
Hair creates an illusion, protects identities, and looks plain awesome.




We were happy.
All of us.
Marker lids and all.

We felt fulfilled and satisfied... that is until I started assembling the Easter decorations and realized that we were lacking bunny puppets for the boys. That is when the marker lid evolution occurred.



The superhero action figure marker lids evolved into plush bunnies.



And we love them.

I wish I had caught Caleb's response with the camera.
So so so cute.
He is in bunny boy paradise.
Which he totally deserves.
Did I mention that he chose to potty train himself this week???


Marker lids... who knew?

The Apricot Trap

We are hoping to catch a Leprechaun tonight with our magical trap.



Leprechaun is kind of a big word.

Conner continues to call them Apricots.



We are going to catch a little mischievous man who is required to grant three wishes... or jam.

Either way, I am happy.







On a completely different note, look who pulled himself up to the dishwasher yesterday. This kid is going to be walking before I know it.

I missed the picture moment, but you can still see the red spot on his forehead from the little crash that occurred when he lost his balance.



I love that drool that is always hanging from his mouth.

Theme of the Day: All Dog House

Conner has been begging for his very own dog collar for months.
I have consistently refused... until today.


We had our own little dog party with dog treats, bones, a dog house, obedience school, and word fetch.

We talked about the difference between hands and paws.
We discussed how dogs brush their teeth, bathe, and comb their hair.
We even touched upon the subject of how dogs use the bathroom...



The older boys were pretty happy.
The baby was pretty entertained by his brothers the dogs.



And on a totally different topic, I was pretty excited to take pictures of these little toes.
I love them.


This all boy house is going to the dogs...

What do an Altoids box and sock have in common?

Growing up, Nate was known as the boy with all the jokes... I mean all the jokes. Everyone would gather around as he told tales of frogs in blenders and elephants in refrigerators. He could go on for hours, and I am pretty sure he did.

Desperately wanting to impress this brown-eyed hottie, I started my own joke collection. I purchased multiple packages of the sticky Laffy Taffy candy to only discard the sweets and keep the jokes. Pretty soon, I had my own joke collection that won the heart of my curly haired jokester.


Caleb has this thing for toys. We can not leave the house without a favorite toy (or two) in hand. All too often, Caleb becomes frustrated with his two small hands and their inability to carry fifty toys at once. The world might as well end in these hours of complete desperation.


In honor of my Laffy Taffy history- What do an Altoids box and sock have in common?




They both carry toys!




Caleb has solved his inability to transport all his toys at once with socks and Altoids boxes.

How many cars can fit in a mommy sock? Six or Seven.



How many marker lids fit in an Altoids box? Five to Six.




Problem Solved. Joke told. The End. This princess is living happily ever after with her joke telling prince, three adorable boys, and an array of marker lids.





Thank you Laffy Taffy. I owe you... so much.

The Superhero Car

I told you about Caleb's Superhero Friends.

These friends are great... that is until you try to survive the grocery store with ten friends holding onto your fingers. We lost three friends.

Yesterday when I announced to the boys that it was time to go to the store, Caleb instantly ran for his friends. When I told him that his Superhero friends needed to stay and protect our house, Caleb was more than upset.

Out of sure desperation, the ingenious Caleb invented the superhero car.



No wheel drive. Bright green. One door entry. Cardboard interior. Seats six.



The Superhero car accompanied us to the grocery store. With pride, Caleb walked around the store holding tightly to his best friends in their bright green box. I would give anything for a picture of that moment.

I should have been making dinner...

Instead I spent some time with my glue gun.




Caleb has this new found fascination with marker lids. He loves to adorn his fingers with purple, pink, yellow, green, and orange marker lids.





He walks around the house with his marker lids on his fingers pretending they are his superhero friends.






Tonight we decided to get a little creative. Dad held the teething baby while we dressed up our marker friends with googly eyes. We made marker friends. Lots of them.





We made a house for our marker friends with a cardboard box, magazine cut outs, and paint.





Even marker friends need a place to sleep.





oatmeal + marker friends = two happy boys.




Now I just need to discover how to preserve my markers while my boys are playing with the lids... man I love my boys.