Day 53- Saturday Play and Mardi Gras Parade

Colton in his play "Toys Are Us". It was only him and another little girl that came (school was out this week). The story in a nutshell was that she was a stuffed bunny and he was a stuffed teddy and they wanted new outfits so they ran away to the Build a Bear. The toys changed outfits a few times, danced around (a lot), then some new kids tried to buy them, but they didn't have any tags to be bought, so they got put back on the shelf. They danced around more and then went back home to their children. He had a lot of fun!

I was a little nervous about taking the kids downtown Burlington, but our new friends/neighbors helped me. I am so thankful because it was crazy (and pg, thankfully), and a ton of people!

A few of our Mardi Gras decorations

Two cute revelers.

Mom wouldn't let him have any beads.

It looked this way for 5 blocks!

Sleepy

Day 51- So close to crawling

Carson is ready to start zooming around the room!

And enjoys life sitting up with out mom putting a pillow behind him.

Day 46-Activity on Church St

Quiet cheery conversation. The competitive barks of two dogs determining who is greater. Hollow clangs of the church bell notifying everyone that it is 11:00. A passionate petitioner trying to convince others to support his cause. Lively discussions occurring in little groups as they walk along window browsing. Store owners preparing their window dressing for the Mardi Gras celebrations this week.

Colton had his Saturday drama club today and Jesse wanted to relax at the hotel with Christopher, so Carson (by nursing default) and I took a leisurely walked down Church Street to pass the time. It's sometimes fun to just observe people and absorb all of the sights and sounds that are happening all at once.

This week we went to our typical weekly activities and also checked out Open Gym at the local Gymnastics center. Christopher has been obsessed with "fuzzles" since he was 6 months old. These foam blocks were beyond his ability to resist. Here he is picking the little bits of fuzz stuck to the cubes.

Colton had a great time in the blocks too!

Today Colton's play was called "Hide and Seek". A boy played hide and seek with his friend, looking through many strange rooms in his huge mansion. Rooms such as "the Black Hat Room" where strange figures danced with black top hats and bowler hats on, a room with "zipping midgets", a tea party with ghosts, a circus room (colton was a dog?!) and finally a "frozen room" where they were all frozen statues. It was pretty cute/funny.

Christopher wishing he could join his brother on stage.

Carson enjoyed the show.

Day 42- Ten on a Tuesday

Oh, with all that is going on, I don't know where to begin. So I'll do a list... Ah ha, ten on Tuesday!

1. Happy late Valentines Day! We went to church, had lunch at Olive Garden, and relaxed the rest of the day! I will be enjoying my Massage today!!!




2. We like ice cream. With the B&J factory so close we get the freshest icecream! (Not sure if it works that way with frozen stuff, but it seems creamier... yummier!)





3. Jesse and I are trying (as hard as we can-see #2) to join some of my family and friends in the the Biggest Loser competition!

4. Guess which boy is learning how to use the potty? Though has issues with change and does not prefer to switch from the white diapers to blue Pullups or, heaven forbid, underwear. It has brought him to tears. Though here he his post-pottying, enjoying his candy reward!





5. On Saturday, Colton made his acting debut on the stage. In three hours the kids created a 10-15 minute play and then performed it for us. (I tried to get it on YouTube to add to this blog, but the slow internet kept giving me problems, so you only get a single picture.)
May I introduce Colton as the Council Warrior in the play "The Vanishing World". We'll see what they come up with next week!



6. Some one is in a big boy car seat (not yet turned forward). My back is happy that I will not be toting around the baby carrier anymore.






7. He REALLY likes ice cream. Mmmmm, ice cream bliss...








8. Having fun with my camera in the car. Christopher is the photographer, Colton, the very willing subject. (Suits their personalities more than you can imagine)




9. Learning to crawl is hard work, but I am determined to find and eat stray Lego or
Bionicle pieces.




10. One of our favorite relaxation activities. Get into our jammies, snuggle into our bed (I really miss my king size bed), and watch a movie. Our new favorite series is Planet Earth by BBC.

Day 37- Ice rescues

Latest update: Just plugging along with Colton's school and day to day life. We hope to go to New York in a week and a half. We only have a couple days (since Jesse can't take days off) so we are trying to prioritize what we would like to visit the most and then plan another trip later- if we are able to stay longer!

Carson giggling

Rescuing our snack from the clutches of the Ice Bandit

Christopher eating a grape he rescued

Colton pointing at the strawberry he plans to rescue next.

Carson as SuperWhy

Oh No! The Ice Bandit stole all of the Bionicle
Masks and froze them in a block of ice!

Colton rescuing masks

Hurray! All of the masks have been freed!

Day 32-(or more like week)

This week has been pretty crazy trying to figure out our schedules for homeschooling, naps and time for "energy release". Jesse and I had a powwow this morning to figure out to make the days run smoother, get a more concrete routine and still have time to do the normal stuff. Like laundry and meals. Besides Christopher has been taking between 2-3 hours per night to finally fall asleep. This is the most frustrating of all. And yes, we have consistently tried everything.

Anyway since I couldn't do "daily" posts, I'll just recap the events of the week starting with today. We went down to Burlington Winter Festival, conveniently right downtown on Church Street and saw all of the cool ice sculptures. Colton wasn't with us on the last one, so he thought it was pretty neat. Unfortunately there was a bitterly cold wind that I wasn't prepared for, so we had to stop twice to warm ourselves up. First time was in the chocolate shop where they also served piping hot cocoa and the second was in the bagel shop with warm bowls of soups!


Click on pic to see larger

Yes. It was REALLY cold.

At the candy shop (taken by Colton)

Bionicle Battles

Wed. Colton's first night at AWANAs. He picked out the design of his car

(more to come. It's a secret) and had a great time.

And this little guy has been scooting all over the place and getting up on all fours!
Except that every time I grab the camera, he stops!

Day 27- 1st Day of School with a field trip!

Today was our official- unofficial first day of school at Atchley Academy. Mostly just an Math assessment to see where we need to start off, a "study" in what happens to things when they freeze (actually over the last couple days), and a field trip to the best place to check out frozen stuff. Yup. Nothing says first day of homeschooling like a trip to the Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Factory. Hope he doesn't think that every day of school will be like this!

Frozen juice!

Learning is yummy!

Colton with the vintage ice cream scoops

Jesse and Christopher on the tour

(We actually do learn a lot on the factory tour about production and entrepreneurship- you just can't take any pictures about that part of it!)