The Inventing Room

I put one of the above photos on Facebook and wrote, "Right near some dispensaries but that's not what we're doing here. That's liquid nitrogen popcorn."

We took Adler (Blane too and LT was at a friend's house) to this place called The Inventing Room where they make desserts with fun stuff like blow torches and liquid nitrogen.

baby laughs

card games

We like to play games as a family and Blane likes to sit with us and 'play' too by throwing cards and putting them in his mouth. I found some cards just for him that he can use (and destroy) and not interfere with the actual game.

Tuesday nights

 Brian takes each Tuesday night to do something for himself.  The boys and I (usually) have lots of fun.  Last night they took the lenses out of some old glasses and were trying to make Harry Potter glasses (very new obsession).

 A sure entertainment hit is the hot glue gun.  They built these snowmobiles last night while Blane and I cooked dinner.

And just to make things interesting, this week is earth week at school.  Yesterday one of the challenges was to eat by candlelight to save energy, which we did.  Immediately afterwards, all lights were switched on again (and forgotten to be turned off by the kids).   But, we did the challenge.

chief

One kid is chosen at random each week in Adler's class to be the 'chief' for the week, which is kinda like being a special helper to the teachers for the class. The chief also gets to share some pictures and special items from home. Adler's turn was a few weeks ago and it was a big deal to him. He shared some baby pictures of himself and some of our family from the blog books. And he also showed off his body sock among a few other special things.

Geronimo Stilton

Last year at the school book fair LT was introduced by a friend to the Geronimo Stilton series. Typically for LT, he was a little hesitant to try something new at first but once he discovered he liked the books, he's gone through an impressive portion of the sixty some books in the series.

We went to the book fair again this year and LT found two in the series that he hadn't read yet. Geronimo Stilton was on hand to autograph books and LT let Alder get one of them signed (somehow I missed a pic of LT in the line).

Still cute, even when he's mad

Blane, just like the other two, bit me.   It hurts.  I yell "NO" loudly, they cry and never do it again. 

Saturday morning nap

Spring Break '16

We went to Puerto Vallarta over the kids' spring break, which was a nice trip for the whole family. Blane had a lot of firsts on this recent vacation. First time on an airplane, first time out of the country, first time swimming, first time in the ocean. It wasn't the first time he'd heard his dad butcher the Spanish language but there was more of that than usual. Blane was a very good and easy going traveler.

 

Different routine

When Brian travels, things are a little different around our house.  We eat when we want and what we want (usually at a restaurant so I don't have to cook or clean) and our bedtime is a little different.  The big boys get themselves ready and in bed and read for 30 minutes.  I was really impressed last week, the turned off the lights quietly after ready at exactly the time I told them to.  Usually I put Blane to sleep and then worked or got caught up on cleaning and laundry.  We sure like have daddy around, but do OK when he's gone.

Big Kid

 My good friend had a little girl the same time we had Elsie, so she's nearly a year older than Blane.  They weigh exactly the same, Blane is a big kid.

One of the boys

 We went out to dinner with our friends a few times this week (they also have 3 boys).  Blane fits in perfectly sitting at the table now!

swing

Sand Castle

Its amazing what these two created with just sand and water last week.  One day they built this incredible sand castle with just their hands and sand.  

6 months!

This kiddo is 6 months already and weighs in at 19.1 pounds (nearly 2 pounds bigger than LT was at this age, and he was a big guy!)  B was very brave getting his 4 vaccines.  

Easter

 We were in Mexico for Easter, but we planned on celebrating it when we got back with my parents and brother.  However, we lucked out because my two youngest cousins from each side just moved back to Denver and were able to come .  Another cousin and her partner happened to be in Denver visiting the same weekend and so we ended up having quite a large Easter celebration!  Unfortunately Brian was in South America and unable to join us this year.  

 As usual my mom did an easter egg hunt (limited candy, but very thoughtful small gifts for each child all color coded).  

 Tim and Nina just moved from Boston and its so fun to have them here!

 My youngest cousin on my dads side, Matt and my cousin Shisha and her partner Laura.

Adler was very into the hunt.

These two are just adorable.  The picture is terrible, but they have a blast playing together everytime we see her.  

Blane got a new book that his brothers found in the hunt.  

So. Much. Cuteness