I would like to title this series of photos as, “FACES ONLY A MOTHER COULD LOVE”

Haha, not really, she is very loveable! But these just crack me up!

The weather around here has been so nice! I relented one day and got out the swimming pool, and the hoses, and the squirt guns, and the sprinkler. After a good slathering of sun screen, the kids played themselves into a heap of exhaustion. The house had never been so quiet. Note to self: Bring out the hose more often!

We spent Sunday afternoon making valentines for each other. I go through almost a whole bottle of glue during these little “craft sessions.”

Luke cut out this piece of black construction paper and we had this little conversation:

LUKE: Mom, guess what this is?

MOM: I don’t know. Is it a leaf?

LUKE: Nope. It is how much I love you!

Best valentines present, ever!!

We’ve all been feeling some major cabin fever. Luke was having a melt down out of sheer boredom. I blurted out, “Guess what we get to do today?” He immediately stopped whining and said, “What?!??” He was so excited. Then I just waited for it to come to me. I didn’t have a plan at all. “We…get…to…(thinking, thinking, thinking)………..have a winter picnic! Inside. On the floor!

Hmmmm. Not my best idea, but it was all I could think of that morning. Luckily, he thought it was the coolest idea EVER! We were going to the store that morning anyway, so I said he could pick out two things to eat at our picnic. He choose Sprite and Cheetos. Classic 4-year old taste!

I spread a huge blanket on the floor to catch all the orange cheese crumbs and peanut butter smears.

Unfortunately, Sophie now has a unhealthy love of Cheetos.

Step 1 – Get excited that your mom let you have a piece of bubble gum!

Step 2 — Put your lips together and blow

Step 3 — If steps 1 and 2 don’t work…then there is a strong possibility you can’t blow a bubble yet.

Step 4 — Scream out in frustration!!

Step 5 — Let the depression set in.

Marianne was working at the Festival of Trees, so I took the kids up. All the trees were beautiful and there is no way I could have picked a favorite. It was heartbreaking to see the trees in memory of so many sweet little children.

We bought some tickets so Luke could play some games. Here he is decorating an ornament.

This was his favorite. The GIANT bubble!

And doing some ice fishing

Luke was insistent that we wait 45 minutes in line to talk to Santa. He was very excited to tell Santa he wanted a transformer. Luke told Sophie he would tell Santa that she wanted a chicken robot. It’s a good thing too, because Sophie just cried in his face.

While waiting for Thanksgiving dinner to be ready we let the kids get rid of some of the wiggles by going to the pond by mom and dads house. Luke REALLY wanted to bring a fishing pole from grandpa’s house but I told him I would make him one instead and it would be way more awesome than grandpa’s! I grabbed some string before we left and hoped we could find a long stick at the pond.

Ta Da! Homemade fishing pole. WAAAAAAY better than grandpa’s real pole.

And what fish wouldn’t want a tasty thanksgiving bite of a….leaf?!

I told Luke that the fish must have already eaten their Thanksgiving meal and so they probably weren’t hungry anymore. That explanation was blown when the guy right next to us caught himself a big fish. Thanks a lot for that. He was a little disappointed in our impromptu fishing trip, but he kept his pole for next time We’ll see if I can find something more tasty for the fish to bite on next time, haha!

This picture doesn’t really need an explanation.