Week 49: Deck the halls

Between school meetings, exercise classes, Charlotte's speech therapy session, haircuts, Zach's friend's birthday party, and seeing Santa at Frank's work, there was very little downtime last week. We made a compromise with the boys that we are not putting up the huge tree this year, but once they cleaned their room we let them set up a small tree in there. (With no breakable ornaments!) They were thrilled.

Weeks 47 & 48: The current fun

This is the time of year when birthdays and holidays begin to collide...and it seems ridiculously busy. Trying to simplify has helped, but I would still rather hibernate until spring than do more shopping or add one more event to the calendar. This is how we had fun the past couple of weeks:

Played Wii U. We decided to give our one big family gift to them a little early.

Played well together most of the time over Thanksgiving break.

Painted.

And made funny noises apparently.

 

Zach broke something and Gabe drew a picture to place the blame!

 

Went to Target to find more stuff they want.

Went to the library.

Ate at least one item of the Thanksgiving lunch we made.

Celebrated Zach's birthday with a Wimpy Kid cake and a Legends of Chima Lego set.

Went to Ohio. Spent time showing their favorite games.

Made melted crayons.

Talked camera/computer stuff. Jen upgraded to the model I have.

Took the kids to a new indoor play area. They had a blast.

More hanging out and talking. It was a good weekend for that. Thanks Frank!

Had wonderful playtime with our friends!

Week 46: Veterans Day

Here are just a few pics from our week!

In case you were wondering, the boys want "everything from the craft store" for Christmas. Gotta love 'em!

It's getting to be hat weather around here.

Charlotte getting tucked in with all her babies.

She was still sleeping (like this) when I came to get her to go to the bus stop.

Zach was thrilled to be in the Veterans Day Parade with Cub Scouts.

Charlotte giving her input on Gabe's Angry Birds game.

Gabe happily wore his glasses to the movie. Actually, it was a surprise that he wanted to go to the movie at all.

Zach happily reunited some members of the monkey family that had been packed away in the basement. It's always fun to bring out new old toys!

Week 45: Warm and nice

Last week was mostly enjoyable for everyone except Frank. He had a bad cold the whole time (he's still feeling it), making him miss work Monday for feeling awful and then again on Friday for losing his voice. Zach and Gabe both had an off day on Thursday; Gabe got a scratch on his head from the playground fence and Zach ended up with a fever. I had to pick both of them up from school. So we had some crazy days but also some nice ones. The temp was in the 60's every morning and 80's or near it in the afternoons. Zach got his copy of the new wimpy kid book and read it in about 2 hours. Gabe read his first book for kindergarten homework and he was so proud. He practices sight words every day and eagerly points them out to me when he sees them written somewhere. And Charlotte walked up to the bus stop for the first time. She was cooperative for most of the journey. We hit Barnes & Noble and Chili's for some fun on Saturday.