Make-Your-Own I Spy Books

With the snowy weather that we’ve had this past week, the boys and I have spent way more time at home than usual. We’ve enjoyed playing in the snow and the pace of life slowing down a bit. While the novelty of the snow is fun, I’ll admit I’m beginning to get a bit stir crazy. I can only play cars, trains, legos etc. so many times!

Yesterday, Jack and I decided to do something a little different. We made our own I Spy book. Have you seen these books before?

    

My boys love to look for objects in the pictures. I love these books because they don’t require me to read them. The boys can actually do them together. We love them so much, we decided to create our own.

  

We brought out a bunch of our toys and I put the boys to work setting them up. The sillier, the better. When we had a whole assortment of toys set up, we got out the camera. I let Jack take the pictures, since this was his book. Once we’d snapped some pics, we printed them out on the computer and stapled them together into a book.  Simple. Creative. Fun.

Fireplace Update

We’ve been wanting to update our fireplace screen for some time. The antiqued brass just dated the fireplace and we wanted it gone. We found a great replacement at Home Depot for $200. Simple, black, and modern. We got it home and immediately took off the old, dated screen, throwing it outside. We couldn’t wait to get the new screen on. After nearly 2 hours of agonizing and frustrating attempts, we surrendered and accepted that the new fireplace screen was not going to work. We couldn’t get it secured, it didn’t sit flush with the brick, and for $200 we didn’t want to risk that it would just fall off.  So, we sat back depressed looking at the gaping hold in our fireplace, not certain what to do.

Then, inspiration hit.  I love following home improvement blogs and I thought back to several posts I’ve read on different blogs about spray painting various things in households. Why not spray paint our old fireplace screen?  It might fail miserably, but at just under $5 for the spray paint, I had very little to lose.

I found this tutorial online with a fireplace screen nearly identical to ours and went to work.

Here is the paint that I used. It cost only $4.34 at Home Depot!

 

After a few hours of work, here is the finished product. Not too shabby for under $5!

Lil’ Rippers

Yesterday we hit the slopes with the boys. We had a bit of a rocky start, but once we had quelled tears and set frustrations aside, we all had a blast!  Jack gained courage on his new skis and even figured out how to turn! Emmett had more fun running down the hill screaming at the top of his lungs. At the end of the day, after watching Jack ski, Emmett decided to give his skis a try and learned quickly!

This is what I did a lot of the day—chase my two boys!

Both boys show their stuff on their skis.

Proud Jack. Crazy screaming Emmett!

And some videos of the boys in action!

A New Year’s Retreat

 

A Getaway. We always say that we should do it, and we never do. Well, we finally did. And it was SO worth it.

We dropped the boys off for their own getaway at Grandma and Grandpa’s house and then we escaped. Our destination: Alderbrook Resort.

We had the perfect 24 hours. We ate delicious food, read books, sat in the hot tub, and even rang in the new year with a champagne toast and fireworks. It was absolutely perfect and so needed.

Our room was the second one in on the top floor. The view in the morning from our room.

Tom opens the special bottle of champagne we’ve been holding onto for years.

My favorite spot in the room—the window seat. I sat here for several hours reading and looking out at the water. Enjoyed my champagne there too!

Celebrating the new year with a champagne toast and fireworks in the restaurant.

Now that we’ve got a taste of the delight of getting away, we definitely plan to do it again!

Christmas

Christmas, oh where do I even begin? It was busy and magical and we spent it surrounded with those who are most important to us: our family.

Our celebration began on the night of the 23rd celebrating with my side of the family. The kids delightfully tore open packages to discover the treats that lay inside.

Emmett and Zoe both rip at their packages with wonder.

Emmett got some talking dinosaurs and Superman. Jack got a LeapPad.

 

 

 

 

 

The  post package opening carnage.

Nana B and Boppa B with the grandkids. Emmett and Boppa read a dinosaur book.

The longest I could get them to sit still to take a picture of their Christmas duds.

We went to the family service at church late in the afternoon. Jack and Emmett enjoyed the songs, especially Silent Night because they got to hold a lit candle.

Christmas morning the boys woke up in their own beds to discover that Santa had visited. He brought them a house and a racetrack!

I’ve just now realized that we took very few pictures on Christmas morning. I think we were as excited as the boys!

Late morning we packed up and caught the ferry to Grandma and Grandpa R’s house.  The kids could hardly wait to open their packages. I think we managed to shove a few bites of lunch in them before the presents began.

We spent the rest of the day eating and playing with new toys. Emmett was so wiped out he crawled into Grandma’s bed and took a nap!

Christmas 2011 was a joyous occasion. We are so thankful for the love and support of our families. It was truly a memorable holiday.

Happy 4th Birthday, Jack!

The culminating event of Jack’s birthday week was, of course, his birthday!  As is the tradition in our family, Jack was treated to breakfast in bed.

Next he got to open his present---a new bike!!! He got to ride his bike (no training wheels) later on in the day. I’ll post about this later!

Then it was off to preschool where he got to have a Christmas party. Emmett and I got to join him!  We had snacks, did crafts, and sang Christmas songs.

       

That night, we had some friends over to help us celebrate Jack’s birthday. We ate food, played, and even ate some Spiderman cupcakes!

Jack was blessed with an incredible 4th birthday. Not just a day of celebration, but an entire week!

Jack’s Shining Star Day

 

On Thursday of Jack’s birthday week, he got to celebrate his Shining Star day at preschool. On this day, Jack got to wear a special hat, bring treats for his classmates, and create a special poster with things that he likes. This is the special way that his school honors birthdays.