Cool train layout

The best part about the wooden train set is being able to build and rebuild them. So many people I know confine their tracks to a table, or even nail them down because “my kids keeps breaking the tracks.” I think that’s the best part! The kids (and grownups, sometimes) build for a day or so, play with the track for a day or so, then take it apart and start over. I think the construction is often more fun than the playing.

On that note, here is an awesome elevated layout that Alan and Lex built this morning. I’m not sure who’s idea it was to elevate the roundhouse and turntable, but it looks pretty cool!

train set

train set - 2

Lex

Lex on Eve

Eve on Lex

I tried to get a nice picture of Eve laying on Lex, but they quickly spiraled into a pile of silly giggles.

the whole track

The whole track

Here is a pretty boring video of them playing with the tracks. They insisted I make it and then they watched it a bunch of times, giggling the whole time, for no apparent reason. :)

Overall we had a nice quiet day. Alan got up with the kids so I could sleep in a bit. Yay! I managed to read the paper and exercise. Alan put the closet doors back on the closets in our room. Yay! Then he went to work (to make up for taking Friday off) and the kids and I played board games and read books and hung out. I asked if they wanted to go to the playground or something, since it was a beautiful day, but they both insisted on staying home. Eve spent the whole day in her PJs. All in all, a lovely Sunday!

Pretty princesses

Molly and Eve

Molly and Eve

Molly and Eve up close

Lex did not want to be in these pictures, but he really wanted to take them! He needs to work on not covering the flash with his hand (hence the dark corner).

Doodle Pro message

Lex also took a bunch of pictures of the floor (the messy living room!) and one of this message he wrote on the Doodle Pro.

A birthday-riffic day was had by all!

Happy Birthday to Me!!

I had a great birthday today.  Thank you everyone for the wonderful birthday wishes.  We went out to dinner last night with Grandpa and Grandma, came home with fun balloons that entertained the kids for hours (well, maybe like 1/4 hour anyway!), until we opened the bag of books from Grandma… and the kids plopped right down to read.

Books and balloons

Books and balloons

This morning started with presents from mom at 6am.  They arrived in the mail on Wednesday and the kids have been dying to open them, even though I keep telling them there will be nothing fun for them.  First thing this morning we were opening presents anyway.  They had fun, despite the fact that the presents were for me :)

Lex went to school and Alan stayed home today.  We had a nice day.  Alan did lots of “honey do” tasks like hanging the memo boards in the kids rooms and cleaning the windows.  I did some cleaning (yeah, not a super fun birthday activity, but it’s sooo nice to have a clean house!) and then baked cookies.  When Lex came home we had a family snack together, which was nice.  We all got hepped up on birthday cookies then went outside to run around!  It was sunny and in the mid 50’s today.  Can’t ask for better weather for a November birthday!!

Lex up high

Lex on top of the swing set

Lex up close

Lex up close (he was adorable tonight, I took lots of pictures of him!)

Parrish and Eve

I tried to get a picture of all three of them. It took some convincing for Lex, but Parrish and Eve were all smiles.

Three kids

This the best I could get of the three of them.

When it got dark we came in for dinner.  While I was cooking Lex decided to take some pictures.  He’s pretty good with the camera.

Birthday girl

Birthday girl! The prettily packaged cookies are not for me, they are for a pregnant birthday girl coming to vist tomorrow. She should be eating many more cookies than I should!

Me and Lex

I actually took this one, at his request, because my arms are longer. :)

Eve

Eve, up close!

After dinner it was the usual routine, bath, stories, bed.  The kids were perfect.  While I was laying with Eve I whispered “Thanks for celebrating my birthday with me today” and she whispered back, “It wasn’t really your birthday because we didn’t eat any cake.”  :)  Love it!  I guess by those standards tomorrow will be my birthday.

Eve writing

One more picture. Eve made cards for our friends tomorrow. She worked diligently until she had a nice card for each of them.

I’m off now to fold some laundry and watch some 30 Rock!  Happy birthday to me!

Birthday cookies

The other day Lex asked if we could make birthday cookies for my birthday. Hmm… OK! We are making cake tomorrow to share with Julie (her birthday is Monday and we like to celebrate together), so I thought cookies today would be perfect. Apparently by “birthday cookies” Lex meant Chocolate Chocolate Chip cookies. Yum! I found a good recipe on Allrecipes.com and whipped up some cookies while Eve napped and Lex was at school. I forgot how quick it is to bake without interruptions :)

Ingredientsbirthday cookies
* 1 cup butter, softened
* 1 1/2 cups white sugar
* 2 eggs
* 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 2 cups all-purpose flour
* 2/3 cup cocoa powder
* 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
* 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Directions
* In large bowl, beat butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla until light and fluffy.
* Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt; stir into the butter mixture until well blended.
* Mix in the chocolate chips and walnuts.
* Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. (I used a small cookie scoop and they are the perfect size!)
* Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in a 350° preheated oven, or just until set. Cool slightly on the cookie sheets before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

My little girl

Where did my baby go? Who is this girl in this big bed? She sleeps with a doggie, much like the baby did, but suddenly she’s huge! She wears 4T clothes and ponytails, can reach from one end of the bathtub to the other, and insists on privacy in the bathroom (for her, none for me!). Happily she still naps, when I let her, but what happened to my baby? Where did she go?

Sleeping Eve

Sleeping Eve.

Self portrait

I love Eve’s self portraits. She draws herself a lot lately. And writes her name everywhere. She doesn’t have arms in most of her pictures, but she always tells me about her smile and why it looks like it does. Sometimes it’s big, or small, or not a smile. I love it.

Eve - a self portrait

Eve - a self portrait

This is just a fun picture from this morning. Lex was giving Eve (in her booster seat) a hug goodbye before we left for school. I tried to take a picture and they both turned around. :)

Morning hug

The very best birthday card ever

Happy Birthday To You Mom

Happy Birthday To You Mom

Eve Love

Eve Love

She made the card all by herself. She wanted to buy me one at the grocery store the other day and got mad at me because I wouldn’t let her :) So she decided to make me one instead. She knew exactly what she wanted it to say and I only had to help her a little bit with the spelling. Then she added a cake (with candles all around it) and ice cream on the front, and a picture of herself on the back. “This is when I was a baby,” she said, “so I only had one hair.” :) Happy (early) Birthday to me!

Happy day in the pool

Today was a happy day in the pool and I was so bummed that I didn’t have the camera! We got to lessons and everything was as we expected, Lex and Eve together in the appropriate level. Even better, the regular teacher wasn’t there and the lesson coordinator (whom has taught Eve before and is SUPER friendly) was there instead. That made me happy because Eve was a tiny bit nervous about the new class and the big pool, so I think it was helpful to have someone she knew teaching, and someone who knows how she swims and what she’s capable of doing in the water.

They were both great. I was worried they would distract each other, but they didn’t. They both paid attention and once Lex even tried to help Eve. “Like this Eve, watch me,” he said when the teacher told them to assume a position she wasn’t familiar with. She watched him (and the teacher helped her too) and everyone was happy. Eve still needs to work on holding on to the wall at all times instead of swimming away whenever she wants to, but the teacher told me after the lesson that Eve did great and it was a pleasure having them both in the class. Yay!! I really enjoyed watching them. I felt like for the first time in awhile Eve was really being challenged in the water, and they both did so well and I felt all warm and fuzzy watching them. I think I had a huge smile on my face for the entire half hour. At one point the instructor asked Lex to back float to her, but Eve kicked off the wall at the same time, so they both floated over to the teacher together. I was wishing I had my camera then!! Oh well, there’s always next week.

Lex is getting much braver in the water too. He is wearing goggles now and today he even left them on the entire time without fidgeting with them. After lessons we went swimming together in the current pool (twists and winds like a river, with current), and Lex even put on a floaty. The pool has a bunch of awesome floaties that the kids wear and they can bob along in the current without going under. Eve loves wearing one, but this is the first time Lex would try it. He loved it too, of course. After Eve had swallowed about half the pool she wanted to go over to the splash park instead. Lex did not. He came with us for a few minutes, but then I offered to let him put the floaty back on and go in the current pool by himself. I expected a big NO to that offer, but instead he said OK! What?! He was thrilled to try it alone… until he actually got in the water. I watched him from afar and he hung out on the steps a bit, monkey crawled around the wall a bit, and about 5 minutes later came back and said he didn’t want to swim alone. I can’t really blame him and I was super proud that he was willing to put the floaty on and try it! They are growing up so fast!!

I’ll try to get pictures next week, but for now just envision happy smiling kids in the pool and a mommy, grinning from ear to ear!

Little Detectives

Lex reads a lot of Encyclopedia Brown and Magic Tree House books and lately he has started making his own “cases.” For example, yesterday he announced “The Case of the Missing Puzzle Piece” and proceeded to tell Eve the clues. Eve happened to know where the piece was and wanted to jump right to the solution, but Lex made her listen to all the clues first. Then she announced “The Case of the Missing Puppy” and ran upstairs to “solve” the case by finding puppy right where she had left it. :) They seem to like these detective games so at dinner I asked if they wanted their own notebooks to write down the clues. They were psyched! Eve even abandoned her dinner to get right to work. Not exactly my goal, but oh well.

Eve at work

Eve at work

Puppy the case

Puppy The Case - still working on proper word order, I guess.

This evening Lex grabbed his notebook for “The Case of the Wrong Puzzle Pieces” because he had built a big puzzle and decided some pieces were put together wrong. As he was writing “The Case… ” in his notebook, Eve fixed the puzzle. Haha! So his book says “The case” and then “Solved!” :)

Our “no plans” weekend

After a few super busy weeks I promised the kids this would be a “no plans” weekend. It turned out to be a bit of a lie because Alan and I had a few plans, but nothing for the kids. The kids spent two days inside, painting and drawing and playing and doing whatever they wanted to do (for the most part!) Lex had a small meltdown when I had to leave for a few hours on Saturday afternoon and a much larger meltdown when Alan and I went out Saturday night. I paid the babysitter very well for that. She said he settled down eventually, but it wasn’t a pretty sight. Fortunately she babysits for us regularly and knows that he isn’t normally like that. And she promised she would come back again. Phew! Anyway, our weekend in photos.

Painting

They painted up a storm Friday night. We had drying pages on the table, in the bathroom, in the office, everywhere! It was great.

Eve painting

Eve loves painting, especially big pictures with a big brush :)

Drawing on the white board

Eve has been drawing people lately.

Organizing the drawer

Lex helped me organize a drawer in the kitchen.

A proud Lex

He was so proud of this project :) And super helpful! (the red mark on his mouth is chapped skin. I've been sneaking in at night and putting A&D on it, so it usually looks better in the morning, but worse again by evening. Hopefully it clears up soon!)

One organized drawer

Yes, those are cardboard boxes. Cereal and cracker boxes, to be precise. I wanted to see how it worked and if I liked it before investing actual money into the project. The cardboard boxes may be temporary... or not, only time will tell.

Color-by-number

Lex made himself a color-by-number yesterday. He's so funny.

Finally, here is Lex this afternoon. Nothing like some fun math problems on a Sunday afternoon. All self-driven. Alan and I were answering questions when he asked them, but he was motivated for math!