Favorite Things

Today is Ash Wednesday and tomorrow is Valentine's Day. It seems wrong somehow that Valentine's Day doesn't come before Lent this year. One is about sacrifice, the other about indulgence. We have been indulging in some favorite things this month. Some old favorites as well as a few new favorites too...

Botanic Gardens afternoons

Cold, but sunny

Homemade pizza

Taylor has perfected his recipe and it sure is good. This is not something we will give up for Lent.

Lightsaber battles. 

Noah won't win because he spends too much time looking at the camera. Andrew, on the other hand, is only focused on domination.

Noah's rockin' those mismatched jammies! To be fair, he probably started the night with a matching set, but they usually don't last until morning.

Valentine's Treats

In a burst of boredom-fueled inspiration, Andrew and I made some cookies and crafted a few Valentine's decorations. Anything involving scissors will buy me at least 20 minutes of quiet time. As long as no one looses a finger, I consider it a success.

I'm still calling these Valentine's Day Cookies, even though they are not red and most of them are made with Christmas cookie cutters. We improvised.

Noah started at Harwood two days a week, and we are adjusting to the schedule. He's there on Tuesdays and Thursdays and seems to be enjoying his new teachers and new classmates. He's teaching them all his favorite songs and signs. The boys' favorite song right now is this juice box song. I have to admit, it's pretty catchy. Consider it a Valentine from Andrew and Noah!

January Slowdown

After the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, January has been a nice change of pace. We've spent most of our weekends at home trying to stay warm and dry. A few random shots...

Noah loves his Glow Worm!

Andrew engineered a cardboard box airplane

The boys love their cars. Noah is the mechanic and Andrew drives the ice cream truck. Which also doubles as a crime-fighting vehicle.

Andrew has a star chart, where he can earn stars for his chores and other jobs well done. He accumulated enough blue stars to be rewarded with a trip to the toy store. After much indecision, he picked out a package of balloon rockets. I think Taylor had some influence on this decision, and now I understand why. We all had a great time with them!

On a particularly rainy day, we had a paint party. Andrew insisted that he was painting a picture of the beach. It was a very abstract beach, lots of reds and browns. I think his goal was really to cover every inch of the paper with paint, which he accomplished nicely. It's hanging up in Noah's room now, on the only empty wall big enough to contain such a masterpiece. It actually looks really nice there - I'm thinking of adding a frame.

Noah ate the red paint. I'm pretty sure he thought it was ketchup.

We made a quick trip to the mall...but still had time for a carousel ride...

Hopefully February will bring some sunshine and blue skies. But it doesn't hurt to be prepared for all kinds of weather...

Three Christmases

Christmas rolled into the home stretch with lots of hustle and bustle of holiday fun. And plenty of relaxing at home too. The boys were on break from school and usually lounged in pajamas for most mornings. Not too bad, really. 

Nana gave us a really cool gift last year. It's an awesome Nativity set, complete with shepards, wise men, a camel, and a well. An actual well, bucket and everything! We set it up under the tree, and the boys enjoyed playing with it. Of course, Andrew had Baby Jesus coming in on a jet plane and Noah may have sat on a wise man. But it helped us to remember the reason for the holiday. Andrew heard it many times this year - Christmas is about more than the presents...

Now on to the presents! We enjoyed three Christmases, really. First, we celebrated with the Webb side of the family. There was family, food, and a little something for the little ones.

Then came the big day - Christmas Eve. First stop is Babcia and Jadek's for perogi, soup, and fish. And maybe a few adult beverages to kick off the festivities.

The grand finale is at Nana's house: more food, fun, and a pile of presents taller than Andrew. After dinner, the kids can't wait any longer. The presents are distributed and chaos insues.

When the evening was over, the kids were worn out and ready for bed. With the children dreaming of sugarplums, Santa could do his thing!

(Monster truck - he really did listen!)

 (Had a little fun playing with Andrew's new superhero gear)

For the last two years, I have tried to take a picture of all the kids together on Christmas Eve. And for two years, they have not cooperated! So I ended up with a bunch of goofy shots, which may be more fun anyway...