Magic Moments

If these pictures were taken anywhere else it would be considered the dead of Winter. But, this is what Spring looks like in Minnesota.  Today was beautiful so we rode our bikes at Lake Phalen along with every other person and their dog (seriously). Snow is forecasted for the rest of the week. It's almost April 1st and the Lake was still iced over. Spring will come, Spring will come. That has become my mantra.

For the theme this week I just had to capture a couple more pictures of the boys fighting the Kangaroo. The battles continue and I continue to laugh. I think this make believe game might go down in history as my favorite imaginative game the boys have come up with. They are honest to goodness scared of that Kangaroo. This past week I heard crying downstairs and it sent me in a panic because I could not find Sage. I was frantically yelling for Tom to come down and we finally found Sage in the basement shower under a blanket of which he couldn't get out from under. Aiden got a firm talking to about not abandoning his brother and hiding under the blanket was banned because it scared me. This all happened, of course, because the boys were hiding from the Kangaroo. :) 

We frequent our library a lot! Sage LOVES to play there and Aiden usually is in need of more books, so it's almost a weekly trip for us. It's close by, it's great entertainment, it promotes all good things (like reading and playing!) and it's free. What's not to love?  The thing I love the most about our library is their Paws to Read program. I've posted about it before, but it's a simple program where kids can sign up to read to a dog. Aiden has done it several times. In fact, it was a big motivating factor for him in learning to read. He so badly wanted to read to the library dog that I signed him up as soon as he learned to read and I told the librarian he was 5 (cause that's the rule, you have to be 5) even though he was still 4. Anyway, we've always read to Cookie, a sweet little dog that looks a tiny bit like Lassie. However, there is a new dog on the block and his name is Dudley. And he just happens to be a Golden Retriever! As soon as I saw t...

There will be a day when my kids are older and maybe my blog will look a little different because they might not want every single detail of their lives on the world wide web. But, today they are little and today was significant. Today is a day I want to remember. Despite the fact that I frequently fail and end up apologizing to my children and asking for forgiveness, they are learning, they are loving God, and they are growing in their knowledge of His saving grace. Today Aiden was a shining star all morning long. He was happy, he loved school, he was sweet to Sage and he was obedient. And then the afternoon came rolling in and with it came a 180 degree turn for Aiden's attitude. A certain chain of events transpired and a crying, yelling, long and drawn out tantrum followed. It was ugly. The cause for the tantrum was that I had said "no" to something Aiden wanted and believe me, I looked back and thought to myself if only I would have said "yes" this crisis c...

 Sage is learning SO much! I love child development. I love watching it happen. It's so intricate yet systematic. If I ever go back and get my Ph.D. (a girl can dream, right?) I'd be hard pressed to get it in child development. Maybe I've noticed the boys' development so much because when I go to work every week I don't see development. At least, not normal development. Every week I pick a target to work on with my sweet little girl and for two pain staking hours that's what we do. What I teach my kids at work is something that typically developing kids don't need to be taught because they absorb it, naturally and normally. I love my kids at work and each day I come home thankful my own kids don't need 40 hours a week of intensive therapy for years and years just to communicate at the most basic level. Anyway, this week I noticed Sage has developed the ability to compare sizes and generalize them across objects. He said to me this week, "Mama, t...

Evening is my FAVORITE time of day. The day is winding down and most of my to do list is done until tomorrow. The boys are clean and snuggly in their jammies, dinner is on the table and the quietness that comes after the boys are in bed is just around the corner. After we've had lots of stories and tucked the boys in Tom and I usually get to loaf on the couch and spend a couple hours together. Yes. I love evenings. And we all love it when Daddy is home for dinner. Daddy coming home marks the official start of evening and he misses dinner often enough to where we always cherish it when he's home. One of these weeks I'm going to figure out how to do a family photo with me included! However, I figured it was almost fitting that I'm not in my chair at the table. Most nights I feel like I don't sit down to eat until everyone else is finished anyway.

It seems as if the boys are constantly in some state of undress. And if they are dressed it usually includes some sort of costume. While I wouldn't have it any other way, sometimes I find myself wishing they would just wear a normal, cute outfit. :) Sage ended up in his undies and his super cape this morning. He is my silly child so after only a moment of being shy in front of the camera he quickly started running around and even added a belt and a sword to his ensemble.

It's still winter. I read that the Weather Prediction Center is predicting cool/cold temperatures through April with more snow in store. Sigh. I usually handle winter fairly well, but this Winter seems worse than previous years. After the business of the holidays I declare it hibernation season until Valentine's Day and that usually works well. We do nothing, stay home and play with our Christmas toys, and eat lots of soup. This January I enjoyed the lazy season thoroughly and indulged in several novels, started a couple non fiction books, and watched the entire 5th season of White Collar in 2 weeks, so all in all it was okay. However, the frigid temperatures didn't end and so it's March and we're still basically hibernating. When the boys and I need to be reminded what it feels like to have the air warm our skin and see green plants we go to the Conservatory. Today we needed another reminder so that's where we went. After the conservatory the boys begged for th...

While morning isn't my favorite time of day, I do love breakfast. The boys love breakfast because they always tell me they are starving and demand ask for eggs, grapefruit, and toast or baked oatmeal.  I love breakfast because it's [in theory] a quiet start to the morning before we hit the ground running. Breakfast also means the start of school with Devotions, Bible History, and Reading. Although I didn't expect it, Sage listens to our readings everyday and absorbs quite a bit. And if I'm lazy and haven't started reading yet, it's Sage that demands to hear a "tory." Aiden's picture is evidence that we've made it through week 26 of school and have just 8 weeks left.

Sage doesn't know he's learning. He just knows that he's running on numbers, jumping on numbers, and clapping on numbers too! This is the best kind of learning!  This photo is my second favorite only next to the one of Aiden reading in the bathtub. He's absorbed in a new series called A to Z Mysteries. They must be pretty good!

On Saturday we spent the day at the Science Museum. The new exhibit there just happens to be Dinosaurs and I just happen to have a Dinosaur enthusiast in my house. Now, I could write a novel about Dinosaurs and about how I don't really care about them and about how I think they are ugly and on and on. But, I'm trying my hardest to tell Aiden a better story about Dinosaurs than the story evolutionists present. I know for a fact that parenting my littles right now is most likely a walk in the park compared to the challenges I'll face when they are teenagers. But, as we've studied Dinosaurs Aiden has expressed some doubts and has asked questions I don't have answers to and I'll be honest, I had to catch my breath. We have been honest with Aiden about evolution partially because we've chosen to and partially because we've had to. Evolution has flooded children's literature and T.V. and it borders on brainwashing, in my humble opinion. So, we are studying...

Since we don't count Fridays, we just now reached our 100th day of school. It's been a good 100 days jam packed with lots of learning both on Aiden's and Sage's part and mine! We have 8 weeks of school left, 4 Kindergarten classes left, 7 more times of AWANA and 7 more Bible Studies left (but who's counting??) before our routine will change for the Summer. While Summer will still include a healthy amount of learning, it'll be more laid back around here and I, for one, will welcome the change of pace...and the warm sunshine! For 100's day the boys made a special snack, but first had to count 100 of every item they added to the bowl.

I procrastinated posting my Week 10 photo because I was hoping for something really creative to strike me. I was also hoping for a chance to get a picture of all four of us since the theme was "Familyness." But, getting a picture with the four of us required using the tripod and the camera remote. I haven't mastered using either of those things and the boys had no patience for my practice. And, I didn't really have a moment of inspiration, so this is it. And, it's good. Familyness on a Saturday morning with no agenda is perfect in and of itself.