Como Zoo...

Lucius and I took an adventure to Como Zoo one morning. We walked around the monkey building, visited the polar bears, and ate our picnic with the cougars. After lunch we hung out for a good long time with the giraffes. It was a beautiful 80 degrees in the giraffe building, plus I adore these amazing animals. Before we left we made a flat penny and browsed the gift shop. It was a fun day.

A week in review...

The neighbors invited us out to play in the giant snow pile across the street from our houses. It was a fun afternoon digging in the snow and building a snow tunnel.

The night we finished the Percy Jackson book, I offered Oliver my phone to text a thank you to his aunt Dana. His face literary GLOWED he was so excited I was serious about letting him text. He typed out every letter and punctuation mark. He even learned to send an emoji. After he sent a few to his aunt, I told him it would be okay to send a text to his oma.

 A few nights later his daddy let him use his phone to send more texts.

Lucius was super whiny one afternoon and sat down on the couch next to me. He didn't want to go play, just sit and whine about how bored he was. Eventually I looked over and he had fallen asleep. I think he wasn't feeling very good, poor guy.

Attempting to have a quiet evening involves a little pre-planning. I printed out these cute Valentines cards and gathered my cross stitching supplies while the boys were at school. Lucius was super excited to make a card for his teacher. After dinner one night, I helped him for a few rows and then he took over. It's nice that he's learned about patterns from all the story times we go to. He followed the pattern meticulously (lower left to upper right and repeat). He was cross stitching for a good 45 minutes before he stopped to go play. Oliver wanted nothing to do with the cards, but wanted to "embroider" his project. He wasn't following a pattern but used his imagination to create his masterpiece. He embroidered for a solid hour before he was done. A lovely quiet evening was a success.

I had a dentist appointment to fix a chip I've had in my front tooth for more than 20 years. Before I went in I took a photo in the car. Lucius photo bombed me. Then after the filling, I took another photo and again Lucius snuck in.

After Church Sunday I stopped at a Little Free Library (just because) and the boys found a couple books to read.

Reading books...

Last week Oliver and I finished our first novel of the year: "The Lightning Thief". The first of the Percy Jackson series given to Oliver by his Aunt Dana. It was pretty entertaining, especially for a kid who LOVES mythology. I found it quite page turning as well. Almost picked it up a few times to read ahead without him, but I didn't.

Last year we read about 7 longer chapter books/ novels. I'm hoping this year we can read at least 12 (one per month). Any awesome book suggestions for young readers are welcome. Lucius has listened to all the books we've ever read, he just said Percy Jackson scared him so he didn't listen to it this time. Seriously my all time favorite thing to do with my kids: read aloud to them. Plus I get snuggles at the same time.

A list of all the longer chapter books/novels we've read out loud together over the last few years:
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
Stuart Little by E.B. White
The Mouse and the Motorcycle by Beverly Cleary
The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo
Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie
The Adventures of Pinocchio by C. Collodi
The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
The Magician's Elephant by Kate DiCamillo
The Water Horse by Dick King-Smith
The BFG by Roald Dahl
Darius Bell and the Glitter Pool by Odo Hirsch

Cleaning day...

We recently started keeping track of screen time minutes. One day I realized there are just a LOT of screens for the boys (far more than when I was growing up). There's the ipod touch where they listen to songs & audio books, my smart phone which has a few Spanish learning apps we play together, the TV and DVD for movies & the occasional sports game, the grandparents ipads- lets face it almost all their grandparents have an ipad with fun games on it, and we have a leappad with games to play. That's a lot of screens. We sort of kept screen time to a minimum the best we could, but it was getting to be too much to remember who had how much and when.

So I threw together a few screen time jars for each of the Little Misters and one with overflow minutes. Each week they get about 50 minutes put in their jar (we started small on purpose to see how it goes). Then throughout the week they can chose how and when they'd like to spend their minutes. Occasionally they will lose 5 minutes of screen time as a consequence for really bad behavior. As well as earn screen time minutes for doing extra jobs around the house. For extra jobs they can chose to earn screen time minutes or cash for their piggy banks.

Its interesting to see how they spend their minutes. They no longer complain about fairness or beg for movies every day. They can visually see how much time they have left in a week and are starting to portion out their own minutes, knowing once they use it up they have no more till the next week. It's been a real success all the way around in my book.

So the other day I wanted to clean the house. Chores (put your own laundry away, clean your room, etc) we do because we're part of a family but sometimes there are extra jobs. Like scrubbing the shower stall and bathroom floor. The boys divided the job and did it without complaint, earning extra screen time and a bit of cash. Then they asked Mormor if she had extra jobs she needed done. She mentioned her bathtub needed a scrub and the front entry floor could use a cleaning. Oliver and Lucius worked together, pretty well, to accomplish both of those jobs. I am so proud they are helpful and worked hard to see the job to the end.

Sledding...

We had been battling nasty colds all week, so when Saturday rolled around and I was feeling a little bit better I decided it was time to go sledding. We haven't really been this winter yet and I didn't want to miss a chance. The weather was beautiful and my energy was better than it had been. So the boys and I piled into the car and drove down the road to the closest sledding hill. It was pretty busy on the hill but we made a space and went down a few times. Well the boys went down, I took pictures and saved what little energy I had.

Eventually I just wanted to go home to rest, even thought the boys could have probably stayed all day. I'm glad we were able to make it out.

Inflatables...

The same day we went to Brickmania, we also had a birthday party to go to. It was held at an indoor inflatable park. They had several inflatable things and an indoor playground. Lucius found the swing and was up there for a long time. I think he misses all the parks and playgrounds we go to in the summertime.

Then of course they both spent a lot of time on the big inflatable slide. Marmee even took a few turns going down with Lucius. Oliver was busy hanging out with his second cousin the birthday girl. 

What a fun birthday party. So glad we could make it. Hanging out with second cousins is always a treat!

simple pleasures: Brickmania

Brickmania is for Lego lovers of all ages. We went over to spend Lucius' Christmas money a few weekends ago. He REALLY wanted a Lego Hulk minifigure and they happened to have one for sale. He was super excited. Then we walked around to check out the train displays. Brickmania won't be open as often as it has been in the past, so I'm glad we made it before they close their open houses.