superhero room

For about $30, I was able to update Andrew's room from a guitar room (which sadly, he's no longer in love with) to a superhero room!

I call this one: cutie on a stool

blurry. grrr!

Andrew wanted to have his snack on a bar stool, so of course Mason wanted to do the same. He just looked so cute sitting at the bar, I couldn't resist...

way cooler than a company meeting

Matt was supposed to pick up the boys yesterday and have them most of the night while I was at a company meeting in Seattle. Instead, he woke up feeling worse than he did the day before and spent the day asleep on the couch.

Rather than coming home after work to spend time with his germs, I decided to head over to Bell Square (and play in their germs instead). Then we explored the mall, enjoyed Z'Tajas' happy hour and went back to play some more.

The biggest difference between Andrew and Mason is Mason's desire to do things on his own. Andrew rarely, to this day, gets excited about being able to do something on his own. Another big difference is Mason's love for shoes! It's so funny to me because Andrew preferred to be barefoot and shoes were hard to put on him because he had such round little feet. I never understood why parents would buy their kids multiple pairs of shoes. I get it now. :)

Since he was pretty young, he has understood the concept of matching. He would dig in his shoe bin to get matching shoes and bring them to me. (Genius, I know). Anyway, he loves shoes. He had only been playing for a few minutes when he started running to the shoe cubbie. I thought he was trying to escape the play area so it was kind of funny to see him stop and search for his little shoes instead.

The mall is getting a Disney Store so they have this giant picture of Mickey on the wall. Andrew is not smiling because he loves Mickey. He's smiling because he walked up and punched him, and when I asked if that's what he did, he got a big smile and started cracking up. He's turned violent. I blame Koen. :)

Here he is pondering life's big questions while admiring the waterfall at Lincoln Square. Kidding. He's making his normal wish to be able to fly like a superhero.

still too cold

It was beautiful outside today, but still way too cold to play. We went to a park and ended up only staying for about 20 minutes because I was freezing, Mason's nose was running like crazy, and Andrew kept asking why the playground was too cold to touch...

I've been debating a trip to the zoo for the past couple weeks, but because we go pretty early in the morning, and the zoo is mostly shaded, I think I've just convinced myself that it's not quite time yet. Bummer. I'm ready for spring.

messes

I finally realized why Mason's messes are so much bigger than I remember Andrew's ever being. I would've never given Andrew 96 crayons to dump on the floor! But since Andrew has the big box now, Mason has access to it. And I get to pick up 96 crayons almost every day. It's cool.

don't look, Joe

Warning: gross, messy food pictures below...

For some reason Mason kept closing his eyes while he was eating his dinner the other night. Then he would look up and do this crazy fake laugh. The whole thing was funny enough to me that I decided I'm fine posting pictures that might gross some people out.

horse

I wish these pictures turned out better! They were having so much fun playing horsey up and down the hallway. I love it when they play together and it seems to be happening more and more these days.

super bowl recap

I watched the half time show and a handful of commercials. I ate 32 pounds of delicious food. The kids were cute. Done.

My favorite picture is the middle one - Mayli taking a picture of Mason. :)

missing contestants

Last night we had a delicious dinner at the Leonardson's. Some other stuff happened too, but that's the most important. :)

All the kids lined up watching Toy Story 3.

We left their house at the kids' bedtime. We both put our kids to bed and then moved the party to our house. Where we rocked it!

This picture is a little blurry but it captures the night perfectly. We're such awesome (or not...) singers, there were times we couldn't talk we were laughing so hard. Good stuff!

they're so old

We celebrated Madisyn & Alli's birthdays yesterday. Alli turned 10 in January and Madisyn turns 12 later this month. Crazy.

We started by watching Alli's basketball game. It was high action at the end when Alli got the ball and ran it down the court for the game winning point at the buzzer!

Madisyn, Matt and I took turns playing with boys outside of the gym to keep Mason from running out to join the game.

This is a pop bottle full of stuff to do tons of experiments with. I love the University Bookstore - we always find such fun stuff there. That's also where we picked up Madisyn's cool diary.

And we ended the party with banana splits!!

Happy birthday to the coolest 10 and 12 year old girls I know! :) Love, aunt Lori (and uncle Matt, Andrew & Mason, too).

being 4 is awesome!

Andrew has been in a school-type setting since he was two but has never really done any homework type stuff. Now that he's in the 4 year old classroom (which is considered Pre-K), he is really starting to learn a ton and loving it! Since he could use some brain-using activities and I'm so, so done playing superheros, I decided to buy him some activity books.

He couldn't wait! I gave him the book to practice his letters and told him we'd check out the other ones during Mason's nap. He was very proud of himself and kept asking me to look at what he did. And he kept telling me that he thought Mason looked tired. :)

I just thought this was cute. As I was trying to get a picture of the books, he basically posed for me.

The books are awesome! And it was fun to read the instructions and watch him go for it.

breakfast, please

They changed up the schedules a bit at school, so now Andrew spends the first 30 minutes in the same building as Mason. Mason loves it! Today when Andrew sat down for breakfast, Mason decided to sit next to him on a tiny little bench seat. Cuties!

PS. Andrew's shirt was $1 at Walmart. I can't stand that place, but we're finding it somewhat doable if we go at the right time. A lady in the toy isle told me about the sale. I ended up with 3 t-shirts for Andrew for $1 each and 2 long-sleeved shirts for Mason - one was .75 and one was $2. That's 5 shirts for $5.75 in case you weren't following along. Crazy!

February sunshine!

It's still a little too cold for me to really enjoy being outside, but we couldn't resist a quick walk in the beautiful February sun! I always love it when Matt is outside with us because it allows me to play with my camera. :)

hearts

I decorated our house (and the blog) for Valentine's Day! I love Valentine's Day - not sure why, really. Maybe it's because I love sunny February days and chocolate. And I've always thought the "xoxo" thing was cute. And I kind of think hearts are fun too. I guess that explains why I like it...

When Mason noticed what I was doing, he grabbed this (Easter decoration) and stuck it on the couch to help me out.

And Andrew got out his Valentine's Day cards to match up his friends with the right superhero.

early morning conversations

Andrew: Mom, what are you going to be when you grow up?

Me: I'm already grown up. I work at a construction company.

Andrew: Oh. I'm going to be a superhero. I don't know what my costume will look like but it'll have real buttons (he's talking about laser buttons). And I'll be able to transform into anything I want. I'm going to be an awesome superhero.

I don't need a nap...

... I'll just relax with my Batmans.

a quick bug

Matt stayed home with a sick Mason yesterday. He's had a very full nose that has been draining down his throat giving him a horrible cough the last couple nights. Yesterday he woke up with a fever and spent most of the day asleep on the couch.

Thankfully by dinner time he was feeling good enough to eat a little and rock out to some Guitar Hero.

Both boys were loving it. I couldn't get a picture of them both smiling/dancing at the same time, so here's proof that Andrew loved it too.

Mason definitely doesn't quite have the guitar figured out like Andrew did at this age. He's more of a singer or maybe a drummer/harmonica player. :)