marbles

The Tiger Cubs had grand plans last night to work on earning a badge for learning about and playing marbles. I had made the purchases and included enough so that Marcus and Ewan would each have their own set also. I got everyone loaded into the car in a somewhat timely manner and started out into the snow (that, per the Weather Channel, should have been rain). It took us a good 15 minutes to get from our town to the highway, and even there, cars were going 35 mph. I called the troop leader to see what lay ahead for driving and he said the roads were horrible and he was cancelling the meeting. No arguement from me. I made a turn on the next road I could and slowly made our way back home. Good thing the boys had all brought their own electronic entertainment, and Kella took a nap. The boys still wanted to play marbles, so after Liam went to bed, we taped out a space on the floor. They had fun, but sometimes got frustrated because they had not quite mastered how to shoot the marbles. They had practiced with their bakugan balls (remember those?). Ewan tired first and got frustrated that Marcus and Cale picked up the game faster than he did. No worries, we played for "friendlies" and not "keepsies" and everyone got their marbles back. Kella made and enthusiastic audience and appreciated all the movement from the boys.

not the regulation circle, but the square works for training purposes

must have been an exciting play for Kella to clap :-)

the joy of boys

The latest happenings at our house involve Cale and a bakugan ball.  For those who may not know, bakugan are plastic balls that pop open into different critters-kind of like transformers.  The boys decided to bowl with these toys, trying to roll them between the other's legs.  Marcus rolled one of the balls between Cale's legs and the next thing we hear is Cale crying.  He accused Marcus of hitting him in the face with the bakugan.  I'm pretty sure we (or I) said something like "Marcus, apoligize to your brother." and "Cale, when you play like this, sometimes accidents happen.".  I looked over and Cale had his hand on his face.  He took his hand off and there was blood running down from a cut next to his eye.  Marcus, immeadiately started sobbing, "I'm so sorry." and Cale started crying from the sight of the blood.  Andy got Cale cleaned up and we agreed that he would probably need stitched, so off to the ER they went.  I stayed with the others and Marcus calmed down once I convinced him that Cale would be fine. (then he wanted to play the Wii-crisis over).   Marcus made me smile with his use of words, "I'm so ashamed that I hurt Cale."  I told him, "it's not ashamed, you feel guilt."  "Oh, yeah, that's right." Turns out, Cale didn't need stitches after all-just some dermabond.  He's got a smidge of bruising at the site, but that's it.  Quite a nice ending to our Sunday.

While Andy and Cale were gone, I went upstairs to lower the blinds in the boys' room.  Imagine my surprise to find the interior pane of this window broken.  If you look hard in this picture, you might be able to see the outline of the breakage.  Ewan said the window was broken when he raised the blinds.  Andy theorizes that a toy was thrown at the window when the blinds were down.  No one would have noticed that the glass was broken since we don't raise the blinds all the way very often.  *sigh* Guess it's time to make friends with a glass repair-man.  I'm sure this is the first of several broken windows we are sure to have with the boys.

snowy day

we went to the Indiana State Museum

On Monday, all the kids were out of school. For "fun" we decided to go to the Indiana State Musuem.  It was free to get in with a can of food for MLK Jr. Day and even Andy and I had never been before.  The boys were excited to be going somewhere, and we let them bring their DSs in the car.  It was pretty busy-who wouldn't want free admission?  I think the kids like it, though.  They may have just liked getting out of the house.  And, they got McDonalds for lunch-lucky kids!

The museum had a fair amount of stuff for kids to touch.  This is a table of paw prints.  You got to guess what animal made each one.

Inside a wigwam.  Everyone thought that was pretty cool.

The pendulum clock. 

In what we thought was a recreation of a 2 story brick school house was a community room set up with old-fashioned kid games.  Marcus rocked out the top.  Andy impressed everyone with his top skills, too.  The volunteer kept telling kids to go ask Andy how to spin the top.

Liam did okay.  He ended up in the stroller after a while because he would take off like a 2 year old does.  He wasn't happy at first, but in this room, he would climb out of the stroller, get the toy, and climb back into his seat.

The boys.  We got them all a snack before we left.  The sugar kept them mostly content until we got home.

The girls.  Kella loved the attention of people coming up to her and telling her how pretty she was, how pretty her hair was, etc.  She would smile and clap and look all cute. 

Trip accomplished.  The boys were slightly worn out from the walking.  And, it was nice to go somewhere all together.  I think I would like to go back with more of a plan to see the exhibits.  Maybe next year.

from the little camera

The little camera we have is still hanging around. I let the boys take pictures with it, and I use it when I do not want to pull out the new, bigger camera. Both these pictures were on the little camera. I don't know who took the first one, but I love this picture of Marcus and Cale. I like to call them my "twins" because they are 16 months apart. I don't think Marcus has any memory of being an only child for a short time.

Then, there's Liam.  Styling it in his new sunglasses and current favorite jams.  You can also see he is sporting some wristbands.  Very cool.  I'm glad I caught this picture, because I did not get one the day he wore the sunglasses and superman cape to church.  He made quite the impression on everyone.

basketball saturday

We are in the middle of basketball season here in Indiana. Marcus and Cale are busy with practices and games. This week, everyone was able to see both the boys play. I brought my new camera in the hopes to get some awesome photos and figure out what all the buttons mean. I have been offered the advice of reading the instruction manual, but I prefer on-the-job training.

In game 1, the Indiana Hoosiers duked it out with Michagan State.  Mich. St. is the probably the "best" team in the K-1 league.  They have several kids that show some skill with shooting and ball handling.  Cale is one of the better players on his team right now, so he plays much of the game and gets his hands on the ball more than most.  I think in the game he scored at least 10 points (out of 25 pts total) and was at the line shooting free throws twice (of which I think 3 of the 4 went in)

Cale was tickled to be guarding one of his little best friends-Alex.

The cheering section was ready to go.

Cale and Ewan both asked for spiked hair this morning.

The Hoosiers pulled out a win: 25-24.  Cale got the basket with about 1 minute left that put his team up for the win.  There was plenty of cheering/yelling from the parents, especially at the end as the score closed up.  I hope that I didn't shout too much.  I usually try to cheer for any player that's doing well (it is K-1 ball, after all).  Many times what I yell at Cale is "pass the ball!" since he likes to take the shot instead of share the ball.  He is getting better at that, but still sometimes will wait for one of the "better" players to open up instead of passing to an open teammate.  I did look over and see Cale's friend upset that his team lost.  I felt bad for him, it is hard to lose.  I think that was their first loss of the season.  All the teams play each other twice, so a rematch is coming. It was an exciting game to watch and it's fun to see Cale's skills improve.

On to game #2: Wake Forest (gold) vs. Miami (orange).  A few weeks ago, these teams met with a Wake win.  Marcus played a good amount of the game.  He does a good job on defense.  He held onto the rebound he got and he tried to go for a shot once.  Andy also pointed out that the person he guards does not get open to shoot, which is good from a defensive standpoint.  This is the 3rd grade league and these boys play rougher, now that they are older.  I think Marcus is a little intimidated by the roughness and I have to remember that he is sometimes a whole year younger than some of his teammates.  Wake played a good game, but came up short 15-14.  The important thing is that Marcus likes playing, which he said he did when I asked him later.

Tiger Cub outing

the scouts and Ryan G.

..and then Liam and Ewan wanted in a photo

You may know that I am the den leader for the Tiger Cub group at our church.  Part of their program to earn their tiger badge is going on little field trips.  Last night, we went on a tour of a local radio station in Kokomo.  It was a great experience, since I had never been to a radio station before.  The evening on-air person gave us the tour and his was very patient with our group which consisted of 2 adults, 3 scouts and 3 extra children (Ewan, Liam and Kella).  The boys all especially liked being able to talk like a chipmunk into one of the microphones and liked seeing all the lights and buttons in the studio.  I was glad to give the kids the experience! (and glad when it was done and I could corral my kiddos back into the car)

January home improvement projects-done

Every year, I like to make a "to-do" list for the house. Sometimes, we get to the projects, sometimes we don't. For January this year, I wanted Andy to insulate the garage door. This is something that we have talked about doing for 3 winters, now. Liam's room is above the garage, and we really felt that his room would be warmer if we did this project. Last spring, Andy put up insulation in the garage on the exterior walls, and we felt like that helped, too. The project took Andy hardly any time at all.  Now, our garage door looks a little bit like a quilt.  And, the garage is significantly warmer (good for the dog) and Liam's room is warmer, too (good for Liam).

Then, last week, Menards had an ad featuring a thermostat with a remote sensor.  So, you could control the temperature of a certain room of the house is you wanted too.  We thought this would be a great thing for us, because then we could more closely manage the temperature of the 2nd floor.  Purchase made, and Andy installed that last night.  We had some minor technical difficulties that resulted in it having to be taken off and reinstalled.  And, then a furnace issue which, luckily, turned out to be a blown fuse on the furnace (a late night trip to Meijer fixed that).  Everything is working, now, and we can say that we are done with projects for January.  Time to rest up for next month.

sleeping arrangements

The big news for Liam is that he has been sleeping in his "big boy" bed since last Friday.  And, he loves it!  He climbs into bed, we tuck him in, and he stays in his bed until we get him out-after naptimes and bedtimes.  It's funny, because he hasn't realized he could get out of bed on his own and roam around his room when he's supposed to be asleep.  Good for us, I guess!  But, he's nice and cozy in his new bed.  And, since Andy insulated the garage door, Liam's room is warmer, too. (his bedroom is above the garage).  I went ahead and put Kella's pretty sheet on the crib and managed to attach the bumper-one of the breathable ones.  She's not quite ready to sleep in the crib yet-she still wakes up a couple times a night and I don't know if she would wake up Liam.  But, everything's ready when she is.  Also, I will probably be painting the blue walls before she moves in to a green color-make it a little more of a neutral color for her.  We'll still keep the hot air balloon decor.

Here she is!  Looking big in her crib!

Here's Liam's new bed.  You can tell that all his dogs moved over with him.  It can get a little crowed over there, but he likes it.

Kella @ 7 months

Kella turned 7 months old on the 29th of December.  She is really changing and getting bigger. *sigh*  As you can see, she's at that stage where most everything needs to go into her mouth.  She's got her two bottom teeth in and with all the chewing, I'm sure that the top ones are not far behind.  She loves activity and loves when her brothers talk to her.  Her nap schedule is slowly becoming clear.  She take a morning and afternoon nap with a quick catnap in the evening.  Right before she's ready for a nap, she usually starts to "get lippy" and yells about everything.  She's eating stage 2 foods and like all her fruits and hardly any of her veggies.  She's so sweet and everyone is always telling us what a good baby she is!  We love her!

took the kids to a birthday party at a cool indoor play area

I took the boys to a birthday party yesterday for one of our neighbor friends. It was at a place called Recreation Unlimited. They are known for their playsets and other outdoor fun yard stuff for kids. They also let you have parties there and just come in to play on all the wooden playset they have built indoors (probably about 12 playsets, 4 trampolines and a small basketball court). I picked up Marcus and Cale a little early from school (and Cale got his wish to be a "car-rider" for once). I had to wake Liam up early from his nap, too, and that was a little rough, but we managed. The party was nice, and the boys ran around and did some hard playing. The trampolines were a big hit. In fact, Cale said that's what he wants for his next birthday. They were pretty cool.  It was a fun time and something to remember as a place to play when it's too ick outside and we're feeling some cabin fever.

A couple of the trampolines had basketball nets with them.

Ewan had a blast climbing all over the playsets. 

Man, if I had a million dollars, I know my yard would be sporting some of their products. :-)

New Year's Eve at a hockey game

We were able to take everyone to an Indianapolis Ice hockey game this year thanks to Andy getting some free tickets.  The boys were excited to go, but were extra happy when we said we would get them some popcorn at the game.  That's all they want-the knowledge that they will get a snack.  This was Kella's first hockey game and we took Grammy Linda and Grandpa Jerry along, too.

Even Liam did well, after Andy got the popcorn.  Kella did fine, too.  I think she liked all the action.  The game ended at about 830, so we were home well before midnight.  I think it was just Andy and I up when the clock struck 12, and that's just because we were watching a DVD (Sherlock-highly recommended).  So, it was a nice way to spend the last day of 2011 and a nice last fun activity for the boys before going back to school on Monday.

Christmas again

Grammy Linda and Grandpa Jerry came out to visit over New Years and brought more presents for the boys.  Our children are definitely lucky to be spoiled by our families! 

Ewan got a slingshot monkey that screams when you shoot it.

Cale with some books and games.

Marcus with a new Scrabble game.

Ewan practicing on one of the wooden flutes they got.

You think it's going to be aqua globes-turns out it was socks!-one of Andy's favorite things to get. (who doesn't like new socks?)

some Polish stoneware for me :-)

A toy for Kella that the brothers thought was cool, too. They had to show her how to work it.

And, a little trampoline!  Needless to say, the boys were very excited to open this.  Much time has been spent jumping since then.