Needs batteries

I guess we have more battery-operated toys than I thought. Lately, whenever something doesn't work (or Brennan just can't get it to work how he thinks it should), even if it doesn't use batteries, Brennan matter-of-factly says, "Not working. Needs batteries."

A day in the life

Yesterday I decided I was going to try to take a picture every hour throughout our day. Just to see what it would look like. Maybe gain some new perspective on what our days are like. It turned out to be a pretty typical day. I don't know if I gleaned any knew knowledge from this process. Maybe if I look back over it over and over I'll have some poetic insights. But not today. So, hope you enjoy our day!

7:30am - Breakfast

Smoothies and Panda Puffs and toast. Please note what Brennan brought to the table: 3 of the 5 paci's he had in bed and his hammer. Kaelyn was studying an animal alphabet card. I believe it was E for elephant.

8:30 am - morning cartoon

Doc McStuffins today

 9:30 am - Entertaining themselves while I get ready to go

There was a fight over the butterfly net. I guess Brennan won. He also found his paci again.

10:30 am - Running errands

11:30 am - Whoops! Forgot to take a picture. I was too caught up getting lunch ready when we got back from errands.

12:30pm - Playtime!

Chase and Ring-around-the-Rosie. I think this was "we all fall down."

1:30pm - Reading books before nap

Sorry Brennan! You have a blurry face.

2:30pm - Nap and quiet time

Kaelyn painting quietly.

3:30pm - Still nap time

Kaelyn moved on to a workbook. Not sure this is the most ergonomic way to sit while working...

4:30pm - Bike ride!

5:30pm - Dinner

Beans and rice tonight. They pretty much just ate the rice. And only because I melted some cheese on it. Kaelyn may have tried to eat one of her beans. (You can see I was being lazy since Matt wasn't home. I didn't even bother clearing the coloring stuff or sunscreen bottle off the table.)

6:30pm - Play time

More chase in the backyard

7:30pm - Getting ready for bed

I was surprised Brennan was smiling here. He was actually pouting because he also wanted to use the lion towel (which is Kaelyn's) and refused to get out of the tub. He finally got out after she was done with the towel. Kaelyn was upset that he used the same towel as her because she got it dirty. I just wanted to get them both in pajamas.

8:30pm - Mama time! (Matt was out of town for work)

This is what the rest of my night looked like. Wine. Chocolate. Laundry.

It's a bird, it's a plane...

... no, it's Super Brennan!

Superman likes to fly but apparently he also likes to pick dandelions. I've received countless bouquets in the past few weeks. From both of the kids.  The dandelion bouquets not only remind me it's Spring, they really make me feel like a mom (just in case I somehow forgot). What kid didn't pick little yellow flowers and proudly give them to their mom when they were little? It's like a right of passage to the toddler and little kid years of motherhood.

And for the record, he wore that Superman pajama shirt all day yesterday. Even to our fancy lunch to celebrate Mother's Day. Thankfully he also let Matt put a sweater over it to go the restaurant. This was actually the third time in the past week that he's left his pajama shirt on all day, even out in public. Oh, well! Choose your battles!

My boys! :)

His first taste of lemonade. I think he's hooked.

Flying their "kites" on a very blustery day. Dada had better luck with one of the real kites later.

Sweet and thoughtful. Too bad that pose only lasted another 2 seconds.

Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful moms in our lives! Love you all!

Of Ants and Lions

It is Spring here. Finally. But with that comes lots of little bugs. And some bigger ones. I actually just called and scheduled the exterminator yesterday. But while we wait for him to come out and solve our bug problem there are a few random ants crawling around by our back door. Although she doesn't freak out like she did two years ago, Kaelyn still does not approve of ants in the house. Her solution? To roar at them like a lion in hopes that they will run away scared and tell all their ant friends not to dare come in the house.  Not quite as effective as the "Bug Man" but quite funny and entertaining for me to watch. Especially when I then hear her softly say to the ants, "It's ok. The lion is gone. You don't have to be scared." And then 5 seconds later she roars at the top of her lungs again.

In other weird things Kaelyn does, last week she decided during quiet time that she wanted to do "under table art." I thought this meant she would sit under the table and color or draw. She is coloring and drawing like crazy these days. At breakfast, in her bed, on the floor, standing up, lying down, you name it. She wants to be an artist and an author after all. She's even started her own book already. I think she has about 5 or 6 pages done. So I figured of course she would want to color under the table too.  But this is what she actually meant by "under table art."

According to her they did it at school. But I have heard or seen nothing of an "undertable art project" from school.

Where does she come up with this stuff?

Wall Art

While I am all for adding new artwork to the walls in our home, what I saw when I turned around from making lunch yesterday isn't exactly what I have in mind.

Don't get me wrong. I'm glad my kids like to express themselves creatively. But this isn't the first inappropriate place Brennan has colored lately. And I haven't been having the best luck removing the so-called artwork.

My first reaction was to scream, "Brennan! No!!!" Which I immediately knew was the wrong response and tried to correct. But it was too late. Brennan went in to full pout mode, hunted down his paci's, curled in a ball on Rudy's chair and refused to eat his lunch. He eventually forgave me and decided to eat, whether from hunger or because he forgot what he was upset about, I don't know. But I was still stressed about getting that crayon off the wall.

Luckily, we live in the age of the internet, and with a quick google search I had a possible solution. A hairdryer! Yep, a hairdryer. First I tried removing with my go-to all purpose cleaner - warm water, Dawn and vinegar. Didn't touch it. So I decided to try the hairdryer advice, and sure enough, after pointing the dryer at a section of the wall for about 30 seconds and then wiping, it came right off.  I'm sure a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser would have worked too, but those things are darn expensive and I didn't have any in the house. This way was much cheaper and I didn't have to go to the store.  Now, if only it would work on the art on the t.v. stand, end table and the pen marks Kaelyn got on the hall wall...

Tiny Dancer

I had actually already had the title of this post in my head when, coincidentally, we heard Elton John's Tiny Dancer on the way home from Kaelyn's last ballet class.  She's been taking a ballet class at the rec center for the past five weeks.  I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little (ok, a lot) disappointed when the teacher told us at the first class we couldn't stay and watch.

We finally got to stay and watch for their last class. It was worth the wait. I was so impressed with how well she did and how much she had learned in just five short classes. And she was a great listener too and followed all her teacher's instructions. Most importantly, I loved seeing the joy on her face while she danced.

Oh, and by the way, when we went to buy her leotard and tuto (a.k.a. lifeguard) I was certain she would pick one of the pink ones. I was taken by surprise when we ended up with a black one. BUT... I think she picked the one she did because it had the poofiest tutu and the most sparkles.

She learned the five positions.

Chasse.

Skipping.

Twirling (her favorite).

Plies.

And leg lifts.

(I was having trouble with the video for those last two, but I'll keep trying to see if I can add them later.)

Looks like we have a little ballerina on our hands.

Easter in Wisconsin

Since we ended up having a long discussion over Easter weekend about what we had done on previous Easters and the answers were a little unsure, I thought I had better record this year so we can all remember. Or at least look back on something in writing to jog our memory.

It was a short but busy trip to Wisconsin this year. We were there less than four days but managed to pack a lot in to the time. Unfortunately, since Brennan was just getting over being sick and didn't sleep much on the 7 hour ride there he was cranky for most it.

Like our trip to Monkey Joe's. I almost wanted to not go because I could tell he was sleepy before we left, but Kaelyn had really been looking forward to it and asking me for months when we could go again.

He did a couple jumps and went down the big slide with me a few times but wasn't very happy the rest of the time.

At the end he only wanted to play arcade games. However, 5 of the 7 games were out of order. Including this racing game.

Sorry, Kaelyn. I didn't get any pictures of you since Brennan wouldn't let me put him down. But at least one of you had a good time. I'll have to ask Maya for her pictures and add some later.

Later that day we visited Uncle Joey at the fire station. Which we thought Brennan would love. But he flipped out about 5 seconds after walking through the door.

Kaelyn was a lot braver this time though.

Looks like Auntie Jenny finally got him to smile at something.

Hooking Kaelyn up to the machines to see her heartbeat.

Oh, the one thing Bren did love was that silly microphone. He made everyone sing into it at least half a dozen times.

Tate, finding out what it feels like to be a firefighter.

The full get-up.

On Saturday morning we got to see Tate play soccer. I think both kids enjoyed watching their cousin, who was the star of the game, even if they get a little distracted.  Running around the bleachers is a lot of fun you know.

And the obligatory egg decorating. Maya bought some fancy stuff this year. We had glitter, gems, jewels, crayons, makers, stampers, stickers...

Sunday morning egg hunt. Brennan found one!

So did Kaelyn!

Another thing that made him happy were the treats he found in the eggs. Especially the mini Larabars. That was pretty much all he wanted to eat after he discovered them.

Kaelyn with her Easter basket. In an attempt to reduce the junk this year Maya picked up some bunny bread from Great Harvest to replace the chocolate bunnies. The kids didn't seem that excited about it but I thought it was delicious. And they still get plenty of treats.

We did actually go to Easter mass and have a delicious Easter dinner (lamb, mmm, my mouth is watering now) but I went ahead and let my camera battery die so I didn't get any pictures. Maybe Maya can send me pictures of those too.

What should we do next Easter?