Boys and Their Toys

Mommy was out of town all last week and we just want to give a B I G shout out to daddy for taking care of us. He had a busy week at work himself, so he did triple duty on the home front. Thanks daddy! We love you!

We've decided that there really isn't much better than playing - toys, games, etc. Doesn't matter. Mommy always says that "Play is the work of childhood" and we take that very seriously here! Not only do we love to play but we also love to find new ways to play with "old" things. Take, for example, this game of "Ants in Your Pants" that daddy caught us playing . . . in the bathroom sink!

Mommy brought home a volcano experiment for us and daddy has made it explode almost every color of lava that you can think of. Here we are drawing the explosions in our science journals.

Uncle Noley and Aunt Christy were kind enough to invite us over a lot last week . . . so that we didn't starve mostly (THANK YOU!). They had some fun new things to entertain us with. Here we are working on some vehicles . . . a power tool is a great thing for a kid.I had to get in a great game of Shark Bowling. And we spent a ton of time playing marbles. Yummy food and toys . . . it doesn't get much better!
Sam Alert: Howdy everyone. Sam here. As usual, here are a couple of cute pictures of me from the week - Enjoy!

First up - me and my tools. Note the tongue hanging out of my mouth. It's here to stay!And second - me playing marbles. For the record, there is no concern that I have Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). I played with this game for at least a solid hour . . . probably even without blinking. I'm officially "marble obsessed"!. Have a great week everybody.

Bowling and Napping . . . .

We had a great Monday activity this week - bowling. We L O V E bowling! It's always stiff competition among the family. Here's an action shot of Sam. And Mason getting ready to set the ball on its way.A blurry but funny picture of me - - stuck in the ball round.And one more funky picture of us. Thank goodness for a bowling alley that has automatic bumpers and a ramp for us little guys. And . . . a drum roll please . . . the winner was: S A M. That little guy can really throw a ball.And the winner gets . . . ice cream. Here is Sam with his chocolate dipped ice cream cone. He really just loves the chocolate coating. Oh and the cone. Funny kid.We've had some funny napping experiences lately. This is how daddy found me the other day. And then a few days later . . . And then, of course, here's Sam during nap time. What's wrong with this picture? (He's awake.)We've been helping daddy with repairs around the house . . . here we are replacing the handle on a toilet. Life is good.Sam Alert: Hey everyone! Sam here. I have a theme for this week's "Sam Pics". See if you can figure it out.

#1 - Riding Brownie who, by the way, has a hat on.#2 - Using some tools to work on my trains. And yes, I have a hat on, but that's not the theme of the week.#3 - Doing some dot painting. I'm getting really good at art - I'm adding color to the entire picture and starting to stay in the lines.
Did you find the theme of the week? My tongue! I inherited this trait from daddy. Whenever I am working hard at something, I stick my tongue out. Pretty cute huh! Have a great week everybody.

Games, Games, and More Games

We are quite the game-playing family. We added some new games to our collection over the holidays and got to play some new ones while we were out and about. We've started a new practice of having game time most evenings before bedtime. We take turns picking games to play or things to do and then we do it together as a family - with all the technology unplugged.

Here we are playing Mouse Trap. I won this particular night!Here we are playing cars one night. One night we played football - everyone against daddy. And here we are doing a craft - transportation stickers! Woo Hoo!
Tonight was daddy's choice - and he decided to have us do a Reader's Theater. We all practiced our lines and then we acted out the "Three Billy Goats Gruff". Sam was the little billy goat, I was the medium billy goat, and mommy was the big billy goat. Daddy was the troll. We video taped it but mommy can't find where it went on the computer when we uploaded it. We'll post it later.
Sam Alert: Hey everybody! As usual - a couple of super cute pics of me from the week. Here I am playing football against dad.

And here I am playing our new Loopin' Louie game. Mommy had to track this one down on eBay and win a tight bidding race to get it. I LOVE it!
By the way - mommy thought that I should write down one of my current favorite things to say . . . . "I'm freezing a little bit". I say it all the time. Darn this cold winter! I'm ready for spring. See you next week.

Not A Lot To Choose From This Week!

Our days are back to normal it seems after the holidays. We're keeping busy and mostly out of trouble. The days are cold and the nights are long.

We didn't do anything really exciting this week. But we made it through the week. Here are a few pictures of us. I tried a new hairstyle this week - the single faux hawk. I liked it! Too bad I got a haircut this weekend and now I just have to go back to the regular old spiky hair.

We played dinosaurs.We had a piano concert.We played lots of games - here's one of our favorites . . . Cootie. Sam wins a lot!

And we made snowflakes - lots of them.

Sam Alert: Howdy everyone. I took my first official nap on a beanbag today. Here is a picture to document it. I was actually asleep about 5 seconds before this picture was snapped. It was a great nap. Have a great week everybody.

And a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

We've been having a hard time accepting the fact that Christmas is over and that we don't get to see Santa again for another year. Despite singing Christmas songs over and over and over, we've learned to let Christmas go. Instead, we're celebrating the next big occasion - New Years.

A new year means lots of things - we'll each be another year older. And when you have growing boys, there's always a lot of cleaning and shuffling around to do. We did that a lot this week. Sam had finally outgrown his crib and I was getting pretty big for a small toddler bed. So the parents finally broke down and moved us each up to bigger beds. That of course meant total room cleaning and reorganizing!

But it was all worth it - check out our new rooms. Here's mine:

And here is Sam's:

After mom cleaned out my closet, she found this super cool bed tent that they had for my new twin size bed. We love it!Sam and I both napped in the tent the other afternoon.
After that huge cleaning job was finished up, we did find some other fun things to do. Here we are practicing tying shoes with daddy - let it be noted that both Sam and I prefer velcro!We also took a trip to one of our most favorite places - the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point.

Here we are playing with the dinos.We got to spend some quality time at the water/sand tables. It helps if you have a daddy who's willing to hold you up the entire time so that you can avoid the raised but really crowded area of the table.I'm tall enough that I could reach in on my own, even without being in the raised area. Here's our baby Triceratops - we always have our picture taken here.

And if daddy is with us, we like getting a lift up to see the T-Rexs up close and personal.Sam forgot how big they are so close up. He was just a bit nervous.And another of our favorite dinos - the big Triceratops.We spent a fun New Year's Eve having Uncle Noley and Aunt Christy over for soup and games. They brought their Loopin Louie game with them - SOOOO much fun!

We played Uno Moo, and Gone Fishing. The games made the night fly by.

Before we knew it, it was New Years. Of course, we celebrated on Halifax (Nova Scotia) time so our "midnight" was really 9:00 p.m local time. What we don't know doesn't hurt us!Some party hats and noise makers really add to the fun!Uncle Noley took care of reading time duty and we were off to bed - Sam in his party hat and all.

Other than that, some good playing around the house kept us mostly out of trouble. Have a great week everyone.Sam Alert: Howdy y'all. Enjoy some cute pictures of me from this week. First up - me marching around at the stroke of "midnight".And me playing Loopin Louie - I think I may have won every game we played - at least in my own little way. See you next week.