multifunction gift

This ski rack attachment for the bike rack that attaches to our car was one of the Christmas gifts this year. B "helped" me assemble it and at various times he proclaimed it to be a house, a carwash and a firetruck. But the best part about the thing is now that it's fully assembled it is (for the time being) a miniature jungle gym in our living room.  

Holiday Talent Show

The boys and their cousins put on a talent show during a holiday family gathering.  They put a lot of time into preparing (complete with a 'security guard' at the entrance before the show) and they managed to include all the kids of various ages and make the whole thing pretty entertaining.  There were magic acts, coloring by B, some comedy, and musical performances that their oldest cousin announced while LT played interlude music on the piano. The video is of LT and his cousin playing Canon in D together on the xylophone and piano and you can hear B at the beginning trying to get in on the action by singing part of "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep".

bottle cap collection

The boys (mostly A) collected bottle caps during our Croatia adventure last summer. Admittedly this isn't exactly the most interesting picture but it does serve as a nice memory of the trip.  

dinning out with the big cousin

Photo credit to Papa. 

LT & Baba

From grandma camp last summer. 

Cousins and grandparents and uncles, oh my!

Holiday Program

Last year after the annul school holiday program LT said he was going to take the elective choir class this year so he could be in more performances during the program. I was supportive of the idea but sort of assumed it was just a passing thing that he'd forget about or move on from by the time, many months later, he actually had to make his choice for arts elective. But I underestimated how serious he was about it. He took the choir class the first half of the school year and performed in several extra songs during the program. He even had a short solo in one of the songs the choir performed - Holly Jolly Christmas! A was in the program too, of course, with his class and their 6-7-8 buddy class singing Seasons of Love.   

Myself

B is at that stage where he's wanting to do some things (getting out of the car or into his chair at dinner) independently and he'll proudly declare "myself" when he does.  We had our little box of gloves and hats out yesterday getting the big guys ready for school on a snowy morning and B rummaged through it and picked out this hat to put on. He happily told me, "myself" when I found him wearing it. 

Cookie Decorating

 One of my favorite parts of the holiday season is baking.  We always make cinnamon rolls (not negotiable) and some sort of holiday treat (at least one).  Its so fun that all 3 boys can help decorate Christmas cookies this year.

Art of a 2 year old

A has artwork in a published book!

The daughter of the woman who founded the boys school recently published a book in which she used several students art work.  A was one of them and so we went to the book launch at the Tattered Cover last week!  We are so proud of him.

X mas tree decorating

 Our family tradition is to put up the Christmas tree the weekend after Thanksgiving.  One of us puts up the tree and gets out the box of ornaments and let the kids take over from there.  This was the first year we have ornaments at all levels!  LT can reach the top, A the middle and B gets the bottom pretty well decorated (and undecorated).  

The best I could do

For 6 months, we have been trying to have dinner with some good friends, but due to both of our busy schedules, it took 6 months.  Finally we had dinner together last week.  These are the best pics I could get of these 6 wild boys.  

Botanic Gardens Lights

B and a friend

 As I've said before, little B doesn't get a lot of playdates with kids his age.  We are just too busy (and most of his friends are the third child also).  Last week, however, one of A's friends nanny took the two older boys to Spider Monkey to meet several other friends and I kept the two younger brothers and did little guy stuff.

 I forgot how short their attention span is, so in less than 3 hours, we had 2 snack breaks, painted pictures, played legos, played trucks, went on a walk outside to look at trucks, played with playdough, jumped on the trampoline and built a volcano.  

Volunteering with my big guys

The big guys and I volunteered last weekend to help make welcome boxes for African refugee families who are new to the country and celebrating their first Thanksgiving.  It was so wonderful for the boys to hear some of these family's stories and hear the horror stories of fleeing their country and the near impossibility of getting into the US.  LT thoughtfully asked, as we were writing personal cards to include in each box, "they speak so many languages and are brand new to our country.  How will they understand my card in English?"  

I am definitely making this a tradition that we do as a family (and B can go next year for sure).  It was a good reminder of all the things we have to be thankful for.  

Wrapping Paper

 As I've mentioned before, its difficult to find activities for our different aged kids that everyone enjoys, but yesterday I got out the paint and some big paper from a box that came and the boys made wrapping paper.  And everyone was happy, win win.

Zoo with B

 This week was a warm one and so B and I went to the zoo one afternoon.  As is typical in our family, his favorite parts weren't the animals, but the tuk tuk and walking on rocks.

But I loved seeing the tiger walk above us!  I hadn't seen the tigers using the elevated walkway before and it was pretty neat.