Christmas Sheets

After the squeal of delight upon opening his new sheets.

The boys and I all got new sheets for Christmas this year. Excitement was running high.  Bryce recieved "How to Train your Dragon," Micah "Mario Cart Wii," and Matthew "Cars," mine are micro pulsh and oh so soft.  All the boys are tucked in with thier new sheets and mine are waitng for me.

A 32 Degree Day in December

The boys had a blast playing in the snow this afternoon.

Matthew helped daddy shovel by putting more snow on the side walk and drive way!

A snow ball fight broke out. Some how I was a target even though I wasn't playing - just taking pictures. Micah attacked Derek and he returned the attack by throwing snow by the shovel full. The boys thought is was great and so did Lucy.

Of course much snow was eaten.

All three boys wore the hats they recieved from Santa when we visited Bentleyville last week in Duluth.

3 Days in Duluth

Last week, we spent 3 days in Duluth with my mom and dad. It was a wonderful time of being together. We stayed at the Edgewater and spent at least 2 hours each day at The Edge Waterpark.

The vortex pool was a favorite along with all the falling water and the slides. Bryce spent a lot of time on the lazy river with Grandpa. Matthew loved to play catch in the pool while Micah was going in circles in the Vortex pool. The hot tub was also popular as we all got chilly from time to time.

On Tuesday, we went to see the Voyage of the Dawn Treader. The boys loved going to the movie. That evening we went to Bentleyville. The lights were beautiful. We all visited with Santa and the boys recieved new stocking caps.

I hope the boys have lasting memories of the time we were able to spend with Grandma and Grandpa. It seems like time is one of those things that we just take for granted and it is precious. I long to build lots of memories of my boys with both sets of grandparents - I know I have many.

Cookie Decorating

It's Christmas time and that means cut out Cookies. I found Krusteaz Sugar Cookie Mix this year. It has made my cookie baking go so much better. You don't have to chill the dough and it rolls out beautifully. Today, the boys and I decorated most of the cookies - I forgot to buy another bag of powdered sugar and we ran out of frosting. Opps!  Micah and Bryce were thrilled to be able to decorate cookies, so Matthew had to join them too. Matthew wasn't so sure at first as he knew the cookies weren't safe for him, but in the end he had fun and was able to participate with us. I am so happy to be able to have fun with my boys and creating great family traditions. We ended up with 3 cookie sheets of decorated cookies with more to be done :)

Building a Roman Road

While we are studing Ancient Rome, the boys and I are reading City: A Story of Roman Planning and Construction by David MacAulay. The boys are enjoying about all the different process of planning out a city. Tonight, they made a Roman Road that we had for dessert.  The cake is the earth, dug out to make way for mint curbstones,  chocolate chip rocks, carmel sand, and of course marshmallow stones. Then the sides were frosted green for the grass. It was fun build a road with them and tell them that we used the same process for laying our patio this summer. They were impressed that we used a process developed in Ancient Rome.

From 2010-09-01 Minnehaha Regional Park

From 2010-09-01 Minnehaha Regional Park

Playing with Fire

The boys painted cardboard wreaths first then we melted the wax. Matthew had lots of fun melting the candle wax onto dryer lint to make Nana fire starters. It was a fun day of crafts for all.

From 2010-09-01 Minnehaha Regional Park

Derek has decided to train the boys from a young age to play with fire.