Oh Those Imaginations

It used to be that rugs were used to wipe our feet on. Then, I started using them to hide all the stains on the carpet. Then Seth and Sam started wrapping themselves in them pretending to be Moses in a basket on the river. But the latest use has been my favorite: a leaf blower. Why not?

Seth in green jersey, Sam in blue

Can you guess what they are doing in these next pictures?

Seth in blue hat, Sam in yellow Construction work, using their baskets as dust masks. Of course.

And in these next pictures they are driving to their basketball games, in warm-up gear, with their bags packed. I heard them discussing that they needed to run errands first so they needed to take separate cars, and would meet up at the gym. Silly boys.

Don’t you love Sammy’s smile? He’s laughing with his brother. I love those boys! Seth boy

For The Love of Jerseys

I’ve briefly mentioned how much Seth and Sam love jersey’s. They’re crazy about them! This should give you a good picture of how serious they are about their basketball gear. Every morning for the last week or so, the boys have gotten themselves dressed in normal clothes (sweats and a shirt) per my request. Then, about 10 minutes later I will notice that things are quiet and they are missing. Where do I find them? Stripped to their undies and putting on their “basketball clothes” because they “have a game.” Basketball clothes include a jersey and mesh shorts. If that isn’t enough, now they are “packing” (putting into their Easter basket) their warm up sweats and sweatshirts for the “drive to the game.” Go ahead and count: yep, by 9:30 in the morning each boy has gotten out 3 outfits. Yes, it does drive me bonkers. It also means that we do a lot of clothes changing throughout the day, because it’s not exactly shorts and tank top weather. Oh well, if this is their “thing” who am I to stand in the way?

In fact, I love them so much I am helping them in this jersey madness. Not only did I pick up a couple bargain jerseys at recent clothing resales, but when my parents were asking about birthday ideas for the boys, I suggested Blazers jerseys for each of them. Being the awesome grandparents they are, my dad quickly ordered not only cool black Blazer jersey’s, but also customized them with their names and numbers (Ben’s and Caleb’s numbers). And then, not being able to wait until their birthday, they sent us the jersey’s for a surprise for Seth and Sam’s Easter baskets. Aren’t they the cutest things ever? Of course after they arrived, they were ecstatic and in awe that they their names and numbers on them. They got to wear them two days in a row, and when I put my foot down for the third day they had big breakdowns. Same scenario this morning when I told Sam that “no he can’t get the jersey out of the dirty clothes” and “yes we have to wash it” and finally “if you can’t handle NOT wearing it every day, mama might just have to keep it for awhile.” It’s a good battle to fight, though, because these jerseys are awesome! While out doing errands with the boys wearing them, they get lots of compliments and “Go Blazers!” cheers. One gentlemen told the boys, “Nice shirts.” Their reply? “They’re not shirts, they’re jerseys!”

  

Sammy is on the left, Seth on the right.

First Adventure of Spring

Saturday was the first day of Ben taking a whole week of vacation from work. We were planning to meet Ben’s parents in Hood River after naptime to drop the kids off for THREE NIGHTS, so we wanted to do something special in the morning as a family.

The boys LOVE trains and always spot the max train as we are driving along the freeway, so we have been wanting them to actually ride on it. And what a better place to ride it to than the Portland Saturday Market? Ben and I had never done that, so it was a new adventure for all of us.

Our first stop was at the zoo to check out the old steam engine train on display (we always drive past it but never get to see and touch it up close!) It was actually pretty cool. My favorite part was when Seth and Sam saw the big logs, they starting retelling the Richard Scarry story about trees, “Then the logs will “float down the river, then get jammed, then go the chipper.” They are learning so much so quickly!

Sam in orange, Seth in blue (check out the cool hats Aunt Kristi made them!)

Seth and Sam seemed to really enjoy the max. The route from our house to downtown is perfect because there are some spots that max goes really fast, two tunnels, and then a slower downtown section. It’s been a couple years since I have rode the max, and I had forgotten the diversity of people that ride (sometimes we are so sheltered here in our suburban home!). I love exposing the boys to lots of different kinds of people, and explaining to them that God made them all. The market was fun, busy and loud. We didn’t linger and look at many shops, but instead headed to food court, bought pizza for the kids, BBQ ribs for Ben and Persian cuisine for me. It was all great. We sat by the fountains and ate while we people watched. The boys scored some cool crowns from a couple guys promoting Liberty taxes and sported those the rest of the day. The outing ended with messy sweet potato cupcakes on the max ride home. 

By the time we got home, we were all exhausted, but happy from the adventure. The boys’ favorite thing was “the max when it went fast.”

After a quick nap, we packed up our car and headed for Hood River to drop the boys off for three nights. Yep, three nights of quiet, good sleep, and freedom! We said our goodbyes to Seth and Sam and then drove up to Timberline Lodge for dinner. I had never been to a ski hill, and the weather was beautiful making the views fantastic. Check out our dinner view:

 

The snow drift in this next one may seem pretty normal—unless you knew that we’re on the 3rd floor of the lodge! It was amazing how much snow there was! (check out the icicle on the top left corner of the picture.)

We stopped at a viewpoint in Sandy on the way home (because we could and didn’t need to worry about bedtime) and got this picture:

We came home to peace and quiet and rest for the next couple of days. It was our first time at home without the boys since they were born. We really didn’t do much at all; we stayed in our sweats, slept in, Ben watched a ton of basketball, and I scrapbooked 8 pages (I’m caught up to summer of 2007, ha ha). We walked to Subway on whim (because we could and didn’t have to be home for naptime). We went on another dinner date to PF Changs and spent some time with friends. It was really wonderful. Seth and Sam did fantastic on their “sleepover at the grandparents house.” It’s really nice to know that we can do that more often! The next couple of days we are returning the favor and watching Caleb and Levi for Ben’s parents so that they can have a break too. It’s a pretty good deal if you ask me!

Snow

Sadly, this was the first time the boys got to play in the snow this year. After their wimpyness splashing in rain puddles the past couple of weeks, I wasn’t anticipating a long play session…but they actually did pretty good. Sam was very intent on “we get to eat it?” And Seth managed to dump a big pile of mud on the deck, because he was trying to fill his bucket with snow (hopefully not to eat it; although the dirt streak on his cheek would indicate that there was some mud eating). After they played, I made them snowshakes (recipe here from friend Mindi’s blog) and we watched a bit of the new show on Discovery channel called “Frozen Planet.” I thought that was a very wintery thing to do.

Sadly, this was the BEST out of 5 pictures of the boys. They are horrible at this posing thing!

Sam finally got to eat his snow.

Seth and his mudpile. Note the mud streak on his face. And one can imagine how dirty his gloves are at this point.

March Madness!

I know it may be surprising to everyone, but March Madness is a big deal in our household. Opening night we all had our brackets filled out, and the boys were dressed and ready to play their own basketball games. I got some great pictures of Seth and Sam and their game:

Our brackets all on the fridge.

Seth, Sam (photo 1); Sam, Seth (photo 2)

Seth was really into pulling his shorts up while running around the “court”, thus making for some really funny and dorky pictures.

Seth with his shorts up, Sam running with his tongue out (just like I did as a kid!)

I know I’m biased, but can you believe Sam’s jump shot form in these two pictures? Seriously? A two year old with perfect jump shot follow through!

Seth going in for the dunk as Sam runs laps around the court.

Spring Into Good Times

When the boys were babies, I stressed out about the clock changing and how it would mess up their schedule. But now that they’re older, I didn’t have a second thought about Spring Forward. Apparently I should have, because the boys woke up crazy, cranky, whiney, and naughty. I don’t know how many times during the day Ben and I looked at one another quizzically and asked, “Are we on the funny farm?”

Thankfully, our week didn’t continue that way. It was actually quite wonderful. My perspective is always a bit different on life after a week of sickness: it’s nice to have life back to normal. We had a fabulous night on Tuesday: we went out to eat at Red Robin (the boys were so excited for their favorite: pizza and fries, and we were just happy they were eating again after a week of strep throat!) and then we got frozen yogurt, letting the boys pick out their own toppings. Little things like that are so fun as family. We capped off the night with the boys playing football in the living room and then each of us filling out our own March Madness brackets to put on the fridge. Simple, but special. Traditions in the making.

Here’s our week in photos:We wore a lot of hats: Sam  We smiled and laughed a lot: SethWe wore mom and dads shoes: Sam Seth, asking for a hug from Sam (mom’s idea)Neither boy willing to walk for a hug Finally I bribed them for this picture

  

New development: Seth starting holding a pen the “right” way—without us showing him how to do it. I wonder if he’ll be an artist!

Tuesday’s art project: bunny rabbits using cotton balls.

Sam: the basket around his neck is actually serving as a dust mask for his sawing (pretending to be like daddy). I’m not sure what purpose the cowboy hat is serving.

This is Wesley, the sweet boy that I watch a couple days a week. We have so much fun with him!

Wesley LOVES splashing in puddles and probably would do it all day. My boys, on the other hand, were total wimps about it. I caught one of their few actual splashes in this picture, they then proceeded to complain about it being cold and their pants being wet.

It is not easy to capture three kids on film. Especially when my boys were as cranky and uncooperative as their faces illustrate. (Sam, Wesley, Seth)Take two: no luck. Alas.