our lego castle adventure

this past weekend we went to Minneapolis
mostly to visit the Children's Museum
because their new exhibit is

Lego Castle Adventure!

this was built by a 13 year old boy- he entered it in a Lego building contest

(I think he won!) it's amazing... so many details. You can check out his story here.

It reminded me of something Mickey would do...

it was like being at legoland again(but smaller).

the kids had a fantastic time- this exhibit was right up their alley!

Mickey was in 7th heaven.

they could have played in there all day

this is happy!

the boys jousted

we can't wait to go back again- hopefully a couple more times before it's gone!

More pictures to come tomorrow...

stuff

(reflecting back on when she was younger and making plans for the future with her friends):

No one of us ever said, ”I hope I have a big house full of things that I bought just because they were on sale.”
We never talked about our intentions to own so much stuff that we would spend our free time trying to organize it all.
No one said, “I hope my future kids have so many toys that they can’t pick them up because it’s just so hard.”
{ quote from www.smallnotebook.org regarding loosening the grip on "more stuff"}

good point.

i just found her blog and was amazed to find out that her family just up and decided to move to Italy for a year- just because! Um. that's my dream. Now I just have to save enough money to make it happen... I love it when people actually do something that everyone assumes they themselves could never do. It suddenly makes it seem very possible!

this makes my heart happy

President's Day freezer paper shirts

I made these great shirts in honor of President's Day {using this tutorial} and the kids loved them. When they got home from school I said "Did your teachers and friends like your shirts?" And the boys said "I don't know. No one said anything." :( Mickey said: "It's like no one ever notices my new shirts at that school!!" I told him I would have noticed if I was there... Mary Beth said a couple Kindergarten teachers liked hers.

Well, we love them so that's all that counts, right?

Also, isn't it strange that my kids had school today?!?

my new bff: the NOOKcolor

John got me a NOOKcolor for Valentine's Day and I LLLLOVE it!! I wasn't sure how I'd feel about not holding a book and also how my eyes would feel but it turns out I like reading from this better than a book and my eyes actually seem better too! Now I want everyone I know to get one so that we can "lend" each other books. Did you know you can also borrow ebooks from any library from your computer??? I didn't! Then you just transfer them to your NOOK. That's what I'm doing today- figuring out how to do that.(do you think I'll have to first pay my $30 fine at our library?? ugh.) It also plays pandora, several games, and you can go on the internet. They said they will be adding more apps all the time. And every Friday they offer a free book for downloading. I just finished reading Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult- REALLY good. But sad.

Valentine's Day Supper and Scavenger Hunt

Every year we set up a scavenger hunt for the kids. They LOVE it! At the end they find their special Valentine's Day surprises from Mommy and Daddy.

And since V-day landed on a weekday and mornings are kind of busy around here we decided to serve their special pancakes, strawberries, & whip cream breakfast for supper. Yummy- this has always been one of my favorite meals. (Mom, I'm sure you remember!)

We had a really nice day- and as you can see Mickey felt well enough by the evening to participate in the hunt and even ate a bit of food.

Kindergarten Valentine Party

Mary Beth's class had a party with games and snacks and treats. I made sure I was there to take pictures even though I wasn't one of the mom's assigned to help with the party. :)

You can imagine how much she loved the cookie decorating station... A LOT!

Jeffrey's 2nd grade class come to Mary Beth's class to help the little ones read their Valentines. Of course I made sure we were there to experience the fun memory with them:). It was so cute to see especially because we were there 2 years ago watching Mickey with Jeffrey do the same thing! I don't know if MB's teacher thought it was strange that I showed up 2 different times that day just to take pictures but... I didn't care!

Happy Birthday Amber!

"A true friend is someone who thinks you are a good egg even if you are half-cracked."

-Author Unknown

monster valentine shirt, heart shirt, and a sick little boy...

I made Mary Beth and Jeffrey Valentine's Day shirts this year

(Mickey said he was just going to wear red) but....
he got sick at 5am. Jeffrey came to our room and said "Mickey barfed. And he didn't make it." Nothing wakes you up in a state of sheer terror like those words do. Thankfully he has wood floors in his room and not carpeting. John cleaned the whole thing up for me because he knew there was no way I could handle it without barfing myself. This is one of the reasons he's the best husband in the world. When we got back to bed I thanked him for cleaning it and he said "Happy Valentine's Day." So that might have been one of my presents?? :)
Anyway, so poor Micks Micks has to miss another Valentine's Day at school(he missed his preschool year too!!) after he worked all weekend on his Mario Brothers valentines and this bag and Mary Beth and I made brownies for him to bring to school today. :( I'm trying to make his day special at home and he's getting to watch a bunch of movies so that makes him pretty happy. John dropped off his valentines to his teacher and his bag so that he could still get them all today. It just breaks my heart when the kids miss special days because they are sick.

And as a side note: Jeffrey wanted to give his little friend Stella a special valentine so I made her one of my felt flower pins. Jeffrey was all excited to give it to her.

my valentine

Happy Valentine's Day John Porter.

I love you.

Homemade Crayon Valentines

I found this idea here last year and Mickey did the option without the crayon but this year Mary Beth wanted to do them and make the crayons for them. I thought it was perfect for little kindergartners and a great substitute for a sugar-y treat. We made the crayons the same way as last year-- I posted about it here.

Mary Beth also took the time to draw and color individual pictures on each kid's envelope- all according to what she thought they loved. I wish I had gotten a picture of that!

Kindergarten Valentine sledding party

Some of the parents in Mary Beth's class organized a sledding party for the kids last night. It was FA-REEZING but they all had a fantastic time. Why don't kids ever notice that it's 40 below zero outside while they are playing??? I took pictures for what seemed like 3 hours but it was probably 20 minutes- which is very uncharacteristic of me. (not the taking pictures part obviously, the standing outside in winter for more than 2 seconds part) As soon as I lost all feeling in my legs and feet I ran for the warming house and didn't leave it for the rest of the evening. We all had supper there and Valentine treats- fun fun fun!

However, on the way to the van at the end of the night, Mickey cried and firmly stated(shouted) over and over: I AM NEVER GOING OUTSIDE AGAIN WHY DO WE LIVE HERE IT IS TOO COLD HERE IN THE WINTER I HATE WINTER I HATE JACK FROST WHY DOES HE ALWAYS HAVE TO BITE MY CHEEKS I'M SOOO COLD AAAAAAAGGGGGHHHHHHH!

I love it when he perfectly verbalizes exactly what I'm thinking...