Teacher Work Day

Friday was a teacher work day.  Oh, and so was Thursday.  And Wednesday was a half day.  Oh, and so was Tuesday.  And tomorrow we have no school.  When you add in the two snow days we've had and look at the forecast for this week, you should probably be asking yourself if the kids go to school at all in January.

No, no they don't.

But this did give us the opportunity to go somewhere in DC on Friday that I have been wanting to take the boys for a while but it isn't open on the weekends: The U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing.  Or, in other words, the place where they make the MONEY.

It is a pretty high tech operation.  Which naturally meant that we weren't allowed to take any pictures.  The U.S. Government tends to get kind of antsy about that kind of stuff.  We did, however, spend some quality time in the gift shop (the boys still have Christmas money burning in their little pockets) and if you look carefully at the following pictures you can see Josh hugging holding his money (just printed on the outside skin) football that he bought.

After looking at the money, we headed west to see some of the monuments.  And after the harrowing drive into DC (okay, not really all that bad but I hate driving into DC and am positive that it ages me about 15 years every time I do it - which is not often), we had to make good use of a sunny winter day.

First up: Washington Monument (a.k.a. the giant pencil) which is still undergoing post-earthquake work.

Next:  The WWII memorial where the boys posed next to a sculpture of soldiers working on airplanes (like Grandpa Roberts did in WWII) and next to one of soldiers jumping out of an airplane (like Uncle Doug and Aunt Rachel did in the not too distant past).

My Virginia boys!

Then: The Korean War Memorial.

And finally:  Lincoln.  We totally forgot that Monday is Martin Luther King, Jr. day and so were a little surprised at first to find the place packed and some school kids rehearsing.  I can only assume there is some sort of event going down on Monday, but in the mean time Michael took a minute behind the pulpit.

It was all very fun and driving wasn't as bad as I thought until I got off at our normal exit off of 66 and we spent 10 minutes just getting off the highway.  But the boys did beautifully.  I am more and more grateful all the time for them all being older and our ability to go do outings like this where everyone can walk and take care of themselves (mostly anyway - they still think of me as their sherpa).

New Year's Eve

Yesterday morning I had this great idea that we should spend the evening doing fun activities with the boys and all stay up until midnight to welcome in the new year.  First of all, let me say that this is the sort of idea that Jason is supposed to shoot down from the get-go.  Second, we actually had a great time.

But where is a mom to go for last minute ideas for New Year's Eve?  Well, Pinterest, of course!  Which is what led us to an evening of fun and hilarity - often due to my pinterest fails.

We started off with numbered balloons on the wall.  Inside each was an activity.  The boys took turns trying to pop the balloons.  That was a show in itself.  Considering all the balloons we have had pop in a sad boy's face over the years, it was hysterical that the boys could stomp on, squish and body slam these balloons (party balloons from Walmart) and they wouldn't pop.  Jason came to the rescue eventually with a pen.

#1 - Make (dry) Jello covered grapes.  The boys loved rolling the grapes in the powder and getting to lick their fingers afterwards.  Then the grapes went into the fridge to be consumed later.

#2 - Make magic play dough.  Fail.  This was supposed to be cornstarch and shaving cream mixed together to make a light, fluffy dough that is easy to mold.  And since we have a Costco-sized stash (from Costco, actually) in the basement and cornstarch is cheap, I thought this would be great.  But, it turns out I neglected to ask Jason a rather important question about his shaving cream: Was it cream or a gel?

It was a gel.

Only Ben's worked out (although he still could not be convinced to touch it), but the boys all enjoyed squishing the shaving gel and cornstarch between the fingers.  The most unexpected part was that my hands smelled like Jason's face for the rest of the evening.

#3 - Wii Sports Tournament.  Can't go wrong with Wii Sports.  Ben beat Jason at bowling, Michael and I tied a respectable 6-6 in baseball and Josh creamed everyone he played against.

#4 - Make marshmallow popcorn.  We were running a little behind schedule, so I took on this activity while Jason worked on #5 with the boys.

#5 - Make rubberband shooters.  Pinterest win!  Pencils + clothes pins + hot glue + rubber bands = awesome.

Jason made a target on an empty box and set up a shooting range for the boys.

So much fun.

#6 - Play a family game.  We got Apples to Apples Junior for Christmas and have really been enjoying playing it, so we did it again last night.  It is a fun game that everyone can play, although Ben could use some help.  In reality, he doesn't usually want help - he just wants to play the top card in his pile, which usually has absolutely nothing to do with the topic of that round and is often hilarious.

#7 - Get sleeping bags and pillows.  We all have our own now and we thought it would be fun to "camp" in the front room.  The boys loved this idea.  Loved.  And this is how we discovered that the crickets we bought for Rocko start chirping at 3 in the morning.  ::facepalm::

#8 - Watch the Muppets Treasure Island.  Found this movie at the library yesterday and thought it would be fun.  I don't know if it was or not as I fell asleep.

However, what we did discover at this point was another pinterest fail: the grapes.  Apparently, I should have paid attention to the grape-Jello flavor combinations the lady had listed on her blog instead of just looking around and thinking, "OOOooooOOOOohhhhh!  Jolly rancher flavored!"  Yeah, they were pretty gross.  Luckily, we still had some other (uncontaminated by Jello) grapes and the marshmallow popcorn was good.

#9 - 2013 Interview sheets.  And to bring the year to a (relatively) calm and quiet close to help the boys go to sleep as soon as possible after midnight, they filled out an interview sheet about themselves in 2013 and drew pictures of themselves on the back.  We thought it would be fun to this every year (let's pretend for a moment anyway that I organized enough to keep on top of that).

And we all made it to midnight!  Happy New Year!

Christmas & Eve

It was a very Merry Christmas here this year and it all started off Christmas Eve morning with pancakes which were so happy to be eaten by three little boys.

The big excitement Christmas Eve was dinner and fun at Oma and Opa's house.  But that wasn't slated to start until the evening, so the boys had a lot of excitement and energy to burn off during the day.  Jason took one for the team and engaged them in an epic wrestling match.

Sadly, I have no pictures of that evening with all the fun and food.  Suffice it to say that the food was delicious.  And the evening's entertainment (a nativity play put on by Aunt Audrey and most of the kids) was hilarious.  Josh cast himself as the "wise chicken" and did a disturbingly excellent impersonation of a chicken (can I use the term impersonation here?).

Being a little tired with all the Christmas prep, I had threatened to sneak into the boys' room that night and change their clock back an hour.  They are under strict instructions not to leave the room until 7:00am and I figured the adults in the house could use an extra hour (although I must boast that this is the first year that all the gifts were wrapped before Christmas Eve night!).  However, this idea appalled my mother so I agreed not to do it.

So here they are at 7-0-0!

Much paper ripping later, we had three happy boys with lots of new loot and very warm hats.

Don't let this picture fool you - this is a very happy Hulk boy.

And the best part of Christmas day: they get so involved with their new toys that it's hours before they start begging to playing on electronics.  Hooray!

Santa Update

Well, dang it.

The boys had all heard the truth about Santa.  We can it the trickle-down effect.  Once the oldest knows, there is very little we can do to prevent that kind of information from being leaked.

Plus, we figured once they were old enough to ask if Santa was real or not AND could not be put off by the question of "What do you think?", we should tell them the truth.

(And as a side note, this knowledge took down the whole fictional holiday pantheon: Easter Bunny, Leprechauns, Tooth Fairy, etc)

So, the myth of Santa was gone.  But, we still like Santa.  We still watch movies with Santa.  Santa is still fun.

And we have tried very, very, very hard to keep this information contained so as not to incur the wrath of other parents.

But now Christmas is less work for us.

Until this week.

Apparently, and oh-my-gosh-whose-idea-was-this?, last week Michael's teacher had the kids write emails to Santa using a website where Santa sends an email back.

Uh oh.

Michael came busting in the door yelling, "I BELIEVE IN SANTA!" and proceeded to show me his email proof.

Alrighty.

This is super unfortunate as he is not going to be getting the sled, boomerang or new bed he asked Santa for the week before Christmas.  The odds weren't good on any of those items to begin with.  But even though I am a bit of a procrastinator, the boys' presents were all purchased/ordered and even wrapped a while back.

What to do?  Resurrect the myth?  Relabel the gifts?  Have Santa deliver for just Michael the believer, but not for his unbelieving brothers?  Convince Josh and Ben to play along?  Or ignore it and hope it is all forgotten in the excitement of new toys?

So, although, recent events notwithstanding, I am very happy with Michael's teacher, if this turns into Christmasaggedon on Wednesday, I think I am going to ask Santa to put some coal in her stocking next year.

Concert Week

This week ended up being Concert Week for us.  

First up: Josh's recorder concert.  

Picture this: 60+ fourth graders with plastic recorders.  

I half expected them to be handing out ibuprofen prophylactically with the program.  But, no. 

Josh has been very diligently practicing his recorder this year.  And we, bad parents that we are, make him practice either outside or in the basement.  Giving a plastic tube with holes to a child can be just so very, very painful for the listeners.  Our half-hearted support notwithstanding, he has made a lot of progress and the concert was really not nearly as bad as I had feared.  I am so proud of him for his dedication and even more proud of him for getting up on the stage in front of a bunch of people and performing.

Second concert:  Festival of Lights at the DC LDS temple.

Choosing to attend this the Saturday before Christmas was probably not the smartest decision we've made.  Especially for two introverts who find crowds to be stifling and draining.  We saw a men's quartet that did a lovely job.  And then we wandered around the Visitors' Center and the temple grounds looking at the lights.

Santa

When the boys were little, they wanted nothing to do with Santa.  One year we even got tickets to ride the Santa train and Michael hid under the seat on the train when Santa came by.  Another year I searched far and wide to find a good Santa who wouldn't make Josh cry.  

Now, the cat is out of the bag on Santa and no one has a problem sitting on his lap and telling him what they want.

Go figure. 

Someone asked me the other day if the boys were upset about Santa not being real.    No, they aren't.  I think they deal with it like they deal with superheroes - they know they aren't real, but it is fun to play and pretend.  So, we watch lots of Christmas movies with Santa and we have Santa toys.  And I finally get my Santa pictures without anyone crying.  

However, I did hear Jason whispering urgently to the boys not to tell anyone while they were waiting in line to see Santa at our church Christmas party last night.

Baby, It's Cold Outside!

We got the first snow of the year this week!  Ben mistook it for a sign that it must be Christmas.  Poor boy has been watching too many Christmas movies - we don't do a white Christmas in Virginia.  We do a gross and muddy one, sure, but not white.  Even after we cleared up his confusion, he still seemed to enjoy playing out in the snow.

Snow meant two "snow days" (even for Jason WAHOO), so we tried doing some Christmas crafts.  I encouraged the kids to do some Christmas-themed paintings.  Michael painted Santa Claus.  Ben painted something highly abstract.  Josh painted WWII planes bombing submarines.  (At least they weren't zombie planes bombing submarines.) Merry Christmas!

We also tried making ornaments out of dough.  We used our Star Wars cookie cutters so the boys had a blast.  But, I didn't know very much about the dough and we rolled it too thin so they all curled up and died on our table over the next two days.  We'll have to try that again.

Eventually, everyone went back to school.  ::insert Irene's huge sigh of relief here::  I was able to get back into finals mode and finish all my tests.  Hooray!

On Friday, Ben and I bundled ourselves up and went into DC with some friends to go to the Botanic Gardens.  They have a Christmas display every year with structures made out of plant materials with trains zooming around.  

The boys loved seeing Thomas and Percy race around their tracks and then they wanted to pose in front of the "big pencil" for a picture.

 Rare photographic proof that I was along on this adventure.

Part way through we got an early Christmas visitor.  AUNT RACHEL!!!  And Ben was nice enough to let us all take a picture together.

I do have to say, that my life is considerably easier just carting one child around on adventures.  I enjoy taking all the boys to do things I think they will enjoy, but I definitely appear and am more sane with just my littlest buddy around.