Thursday, February 27, 2014

GUH!

The boys and I have had a great time watching old videos lately.  This is one of our favorites.

Enjoy!

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

It's the Little Things

It's little things that make me so very happy.  These three bring me so much joy.  And pain.  I haven't forgotten the pain.  All I hear right now is screaming and hitting coming from the playroom.  But I'm choosing to focus on the joy.

 The boys got these new egg chairs for Christmas from Grandma and Grandpa Huebel.  They love them!

 I have to soak up all of these harmonious moments.

When I saw this picture I said "Hey, Gus has pants on!!"  That is pretty rare.  Gus wearing pants and asking to paint 2 minutes after his grandparents arrived make this one special picture.

My boys tell me they love me constantly.  Their father has taught them well when it comes to giving compliments.  But it is moments like these when they aren't actively trying to be sweet or thoughtful that make my heart super happy.

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

A New Year's Eve Party

On New Year's Eve we had a house full.  My parents were here.  Debbie and Pam came back from Florida so they were here with Sophie.  And then a neighbor called at the last second asking us to watch their son since the sitter had come down with the flu.  It was a loud, crazy night.  Since Debbie and Pam weren't here for Christmas, the boys had not gotten their presents from them yet.  So, before our extra guest came over, Sophie and the boys sat in the living room and opened present after present.

Sophie decided to wrap one of Hans' presents.  He wanted it to be the worst wrapped present there ever was, and Sophie was up to the challenge.  She even purposely spelled things wrong.  You know it is bad when I notice right away something isn't spelled right.

 After presents and lots of food and lots of boys running around Sophie decided to beat Hans on the Wii.  Hans sure talked a good game, but Sophie had the skills.

 Since we had such a fun night on the 31st we decided to make the 1st another fun night.

 The party animals.

 These horns that Grandma always insists on buying them somehow got lost the next day.

Fritz even decided to live it up.

So even though it is February...Happy New Year!

Friday, February 14, 2014

Harlem Globetrotters

Hans found out the Harlem Globetrotters were in town and said we had to go.  He has been wanting to take John to see them since they saw them on TV last year.  Hans also figured Sophie would love to see them too.  So Debbie, Pam, Sophie, and our crew made plans to make the drive down to Peoria, IL.  We also decided to keep this a surprise for the boys.  I'm glad we did because we almost didn't make it down there.  We got a ton of snow the night before and it was snowing a ton and blowing all over the day of.  School had already been cancelled for the next two days and they were advising people to stay off of the roads. But I was determined.  We spent a lot of money on these tickets and, since the Globetrotters were still having the show, I don't think we would have gotten the money back.  Money doesn't normally motivate me, but it sure did in this case.  So we all piled into Pam's Envoy and I drove through blowing snow all the way there.

 John was trying really hard to figure out why we were here.  He kept asking if this was a college basketball game.  Debbie assured him we would not have traveled this far with the weather like it was for a college game.

 Then the Globetrotters came out and it still took John a few minutes to figure out what was going on.  He was very excited once it all clicked and he realized these were the funny basketball players from TV.

 They put on a great show.  John was very concerned that the Globetrotters weren't going to win since they were losing so badly at halftime.  



 Anders had 4 adults to mooch food from the whole game.  That was probably his favorite part.

 These guys are pretty strong.  I can't believe they can get themselves up there.  This coming from a girl who would probably die doing one pullup.

 So this guy kicked the ball to keep the other team from making a basket.  Gus said wants to learn how to do that.

 The Globetrotters had a lot of audience participation.

 There was much dancing.

 And lots of smiling.


 At the end the players stuck around for autographs.  Our crew decided to take advantage of the small crowd and waited in a couple of lines.

I'm so glad we made the trip.  It was worth the blowing snow and white-out conditions to and from the stadium.  My husband has made me an honorary viking because I have some mad winter driving skills.

Monday, February 10, 2014

Sledding

It was so cold when my parents were here, but we did find a little time to do some sledding.  My children are big wimps when it comes to the cold.  As much as they like playing in the snow, they hate getting dressed for the weather.

We really have the best yard for sledding.  When we moved into our house the neighbor kids came over and asked if we were going to build a fence.  They were pretty excited to find out we were not going to.

This looks like fun.  I'm actually surprised Gus went for this.

 I didn't think things through and let Fritz out while the boys were sledding.

 Fritz got a little too excited.  We learned pretty quickly that Fritz can't play outside while the boys are sledding.

 It was only 19 or 20 degrees outside this day, so the boys just went down one more time.



It looked like so much fun that my dad decided to give it a try.

I'm not sure that Anders ever went down.  He was way too cold to find any of this any fun.  Can't say I blame him.

Saturday, February 8, 2014

Let's Make a Messterpiece

I've blogged about this place before.  This time I actually got to go to Make-A-Messterpiece.  It really is a lot of fun and I see why the kids like it so much.  The boys were very excited to bring Grandma to the fun art place.  I'm sure they were excited to bring Grandpa too.
 Right after hitting the colored bubbles the boys geared up to make a colorful splash in the music room.  I'm pretty sure they spent more time getting all the gear on than they did in the room.

 Ready to make a little noise and a whole lot of mess.

 There are two rooms with a wall of windows so you can watch your kids.  I wasn't adventurous enough to join in on the fun this time.  I like how I say "this time" like I'm going to be adventurous next time.  I think I'll leave the mess making to my children.  They are experts on the matter.

 Then the boys chose the Experimentation Station.  On the docket...fizzballs.


 If you haven't already noticed, Gus loves the shower cap that he gets to wear in the music room. 

Seems like we always go back to the basics.  Nothing beats some homemade play-doh with lots of glitter mixed in.  And Gus is still sporting his very cool hat.  This thing stuck around for a few days.  Feel free to send him an envelope full of shower caps for his birthday.

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

My Goofballs

Last summer, while the boys and Sophie were in Florida, they named themselves Goofballs.  They even went as far as to numbers themselves oldest to youngest.  They even sign birthday cards that way.  "Happy Birthday Goofball #2.  Love, Goofball #1"  Debbie thought it would be cute to get a shirt made.   For Christmas this year I gave the Goofballs a special shirt.

Debbie and Pam even bought them goofball glasses.

 Goofball #4 was being, well, a goofball and refused to take a picture.

A big thank you to my brother, Mark, for designing the shirts for me.  All 4 Goofballs love them!






Monday, February 3, 2014

Children's Museum

Since it was so cold here, we decided to go the Children's Museum to get out of the house.  Everyone else had the exact same idea.

 The bubbles are always a big hit.  Usually we have the whole place to ourselves.  I have to admit it isn't as much fun when it is so crowded.


 Gus wanted to get in the big bubble.  I guess it was bad enough that he went onto the platform with kids he did not know.  This is pretty big for him.  He wasn't too sure about it once he was there, but I'm happy he made the effort.

 Anders didn't feel like waiting his turn for anything.  Instead of throwing a fit (thankfully) he just went to other parts of the museum.  Now, if I can just get this kid to tell me before he moves on, we will be golden.


 Gus really wanted to build a car.  He was very specific about this.

 They had a lot of fun and did very well with the tools.

Maybe I can get my little builders a tool set next year and put them to work!

Saturday, February 1, 2014

A Trip to the Zoo

My parents came to visit a few days after Christmas and the boys had big plans.  Unfortunately most of the plans included being outdoors and the weather didn't look like it was going to cooperate.  There was exactly one day that the temperature got above 20 degrees.  The boys had to take their planned outdoor activities and pick one.  The zoo won hands down.

  I wasn't surprised the zoo won since John and Gus had yet to see the baby gorilla and baby snow leopard.

The gorilla habitat.  It looks very pretty and smells pretty awful.

The baby gorilla is still pretty little and relatively cute.  The baby snow leopard no longer looks like a baby.  He is about the size of Fritz.

This is a crazy bunch!

 After the gorillas we had to stop for some hot chocolate.

 The kids always enjoy painting their faces.

 John was a lion.

 Gus was Spider-Man.  Like he would be anything else.

 Anders needed a hand and Gus was willing to help.  This kind of stuff makes my heart melt.


 Then we almost has a complete and utter melt down because we did not have enough maps for everyone.  But I have to give these two credit for figuring out a way to share.

 They walked hand and hand for quite a while.

 We had a fun day and the boys were worn out.  I'm not sure if John is actually reading or sleeping.

 I don't think I even pulled out of the lot before this one fell fast asleep.

This one?  He is a ham and had Grandma sitting next to him.  That kid was going to soak up every bit of attention he could get.