Family Fun in January

Well, the new year got off to a great start around here.  Mike and I are trying to take advantage of as much pre-baby fun time as possible.  The boys have moved to a no-nap schedule which has allowed us to do some more fun activities lately.  Sam started the new year with a new doo, a nice short one...

I have embraced my addiction for pinterest by trying some of the homemade art/craft/science projects.  We made some homemade playdough the other day.  The boys have been sporting hats lately, pretending to be the "real life" mario brothers.

Daddy did another fantastic facepaint job with dueling spidermen.

The boys started practicing their shaving skills.  Can never start too young!

We did some rocketship balloon races, experimenting with how fast we could shoot things down the string.  We eventually strapped some superheroes on there for a ride too.

 The boy also "helped" me watch baby Leo the other day.  I'm not entirely sure, but I don't think a serenade of "Spectacular Spiderman" was exactly the lullaby he needed at the time.

 We had a special family day today (Monday) as Mommy and Noah were off school.  We went out to lunch and then took a special ride on the carousel at the mall.

 We capped off a fun day with Sam's first movie theater experience.  We saw "Wreck It Ralph" which they both seemed to enjoy.  Sam did a great job and sat through the entire thing!  Thank goodness for the little booster seats, otherwise our bitty guy wouldn't have been able to see the screen!

Fantastic Holiday Week of Awesomeness!!!

So, hope all of you enjoyed the lovely holiday season.  We had quite the whirlwind of excitement around here.  It started out the week preceding Christmas.  We decided to give the boys the gift from us early so they had time to enjoy it before we headed out for lots of celebrations.  The look on Noah's face tells it all, the Batcave was a success!

 

 The weekend just before Christmas, we went up to the lakehouse for a holiday weekend with the extended family.  We had about 20 people staying at the house and it was a blast!  Noah and Sam had lots of quality cousin time and Mommy and Daddy got a break with all the willing helpful hands!

The boys got lots of fun gifts, including remote control cars and a spiderman punching bag.

 Christmas Eve we headed directly from the lakehouse to PaPa's house in Chicago Ridge for a celebration with the Rodriguez side.  Again, Noah and Sam reveled in the cousin time with Nick and Cesca.  

 The boys were lucky recipients of large (4 ft tall) spiderman for coloring, many star wars and superhero items, watches and talking superman and batman guys.

 Then we drove to LaGrange to wake up Christmas morning with the Hewes side.  Noah had been hoping Santa would bring him a small puppy to snuggle (like Sam has) and he was happily surprised with one.

 We had a nice rather quiet morning with my parents and Uncle Josh, and opened a host of Jake and the Neverland Pirate toys, some more spiderman toys, and a giant stuffed Pooh bear.

 Pooh Bear even hung out with Uncle Josh for a nap.

So this week has been spent recovering from all that fun and enjoying our bounty of gifts.  There was some fun with fake mustaches...

 Philie scored us some face paint which Daddy cracked out right away for some fun.

 Wolverine!

 Sammy sat nicely to get the Ironman look...

Since it was just the 4 of us for New Years Eve, we decided to have a "fancy" dinner.  Dress was up to  the individual.  So Sam went with the dapper look for a bit before then changing his mind and ending up in a spiderman costume.  Noah went straight for the spiderman costume (as we never allow them for mealtimes this was a special treat).  I went with a dress and pearls and Mike rocked his jammies.  

 After our fancy dinner of Chinese food and chicken nuggets at the dining room table, we got out a set of 50 glow sticks for a preschool/toddler rave party.

Even Ellie got into the spirit (well perhaps forcibly).  So whew, that was our holiday season.  Wishing everyone the best 2013!

Our tiny gymnast

So this fall we signed up Sam for gymnastics with the Schaumburg Park District to work on some core strength and overall coordination (and for FUN!).  He goes with Mommy once a week when Noah is at preschool.

 It's a class of 3 other two and three year olds, and Sam does a pretty nice job following directions.  They start out with some stretching.

 For the last class of the session, the kids got to play with the parachute, which was a big hit.

 Sam's nemesis for the class has been the long trampoline.  I think he feels a little uneasy about the bounciness and his ability to maintain balance.  But we've gotten to a point where he'll go by himself and tries to jump a couple times.

 They do a circuit around a little obstacle course with climbing, etc.  Sam has mastered a beautiful somersault too!

 The balance beam!  He worked on this one on the floor and also a more typical looking one that was a few inches off the ground.  They also spent time each week trying out the uneven bars and the parallel bars as well.  Lots of fun!

 The pit!  At the end of each class, the kids climbed around in this pit filled with foam blocks.  Overall it was a great experience for our soon to be middle child.  We had such a great time, he's signed up for the next session.  And big brother Noah's going to give it a try as well!