Saturday, February 28, 2015

Indoor shenanigans and such...

It has been cold.  Yep, cold.  Like averaging 14 degrees for the entire month of February.  Sigh.  But we've kept our spirits up with plenty of inside fun!  Noah had his 100th day of school, and wanted to dress the part.  He wore his Hawaiian shirt (to look retired), some glasses, and some flour in the hair for a little color!

 Thank goodness for iPads, seriously they have offered entertainment when mom & dad are out of ideas or energy.  Ellie doesn't seem to mind her status as pillow.
 The boys all got subscriptions to magazines for Christmas.  Noah is reading some Spiderman and Isaac is reading some Sesame Street.  Sam has Disney Junior off somewhere too.
 Noah recently has had some Fridays off due to institute days, etc.  We tried some group mustaches.  Isaac did NOT enjoy!
 Valentine's breakfast.  Heart cinnamon rolls and heart bacon!

 Giant indoor tic tac toe board quickly became a map of roads for cars!
 Kjersten and Josh's weekly Sunday visits help significantly too.  We've started a "tradition" of playing Battleship.  Isaac shows off his selfie skills!
 We had a blast on President's Day celebrating Fred's 7th birthday at Glow Golf!
 Bamma discovered a book about DiNovember.  Think Elf on the Shelf with dinos.  So we've started taking our own photos of the dinosaurs in our home up to no good.  
 Sam and I made some bird feeders with egg cartons, peanut butter, and seeds.  We had no customers at first, but finally today we've had several winged visitors.  Sure signs of spring, right?
Hoping the temps start to improve as we get ready for March and some birthdays!

Sunday, February 8, 2015

Blizzard schmizzard!

Had lots of fun indoors and outdoors lately!  Daddy took the big two to the craft store and they came home with decorative letters to paint/design for their room.  Here are the finished products!

 Our oldest (furriest) baby had a birthday last week.  Miss Ellie turned 9!  We celebrated with a snowy walk and some special dog cupcakes!

 Noah's news of the week was another tooth loss.  This time it was a big top one!
 Sam's been working on focusing/being patient.  Here he channels his inner yogi while in the car line waiting to pick up Noah.
 The big news of last week was the blizzard!  What was initially forecast as 5-8" eventually came to be 19"!  It was insane!

 I was trapped in the house with the heathens while Mike was away on a trip to California!
 The wind/snow combo on Sunday was intense!  But we forged out in the afternoon on Saturday to survey the increasing amounts!

 Meanwhile back inside, Sam shows off his impressive build.
 Snow totals were crazy!
 Fortunately, school was cancelled on Monday for everyone, so I had a chance to tackle this beast of a driveway.  The snowblower wouldn't start!
 2 hours later, it was done and I was exhausted!  But better to have to do it at 8am than at 5am!
 The boys and I did "clean mud" which involved a combo of torn up toilet paper...
 Ivory soap that's been microwaved...

 and water.  It was a big hit with the small two.  Noah didn't care for the squishy texture, but watching the ivory blow up in the microwave was well worth it!

 Back outside after the storm had passed revealed just how deep it was.  Sam standing next to our lamp post!
 Noah was covered to the max against the subzero windchills!
 Ellie only lasted a few minutes, she was basically swimming in the snow!
 Snow selfie!
 Meanwhile in San Jose at the Gruenhagen-Desai house...
 Our littlest one is fast approaching his 2nd birthday.  He acts more like his brothers everyday!
 Don't mind me, I'm off to college!
 Along with acting like his brothers, Isaac has to be in on all the wrestling now as well.
 Attack Daddy!
 Mid week shopping trip to Aldi!
 This weekend has been spent on prepping our Valentines!
 Bamma project of the week, snowmen at night!
 And today (Sunday) Daddy showed the boys how to use cabbage juice as an indicator for acids/bases.  The cabbage juice changed colors!
 Fascinating science with Dad!
So, onward and upward hoping for peeks of spring sometime soon (but not holding our breaths)!