School House Restaurant

 I love the way Benton's school does their curriculum.  The kids choose a "theme" and then the teachers tie in what they need to learn.  One of the most recent themes was Restaurants/Food.  They took the kids on a field trip to Red Robin where they got to go back in the kitchen and learn about the different jobs that people do in a restaurant.  Then they began the process of creating their own restaurant.  This bulletin board shows the process that they followed for creating their restaurant.  On top are the different books they read that went along with the unit.

They created a sign for their restaurant.  The name that they voted was the Rose Flower Garden Cafe.

 Next of course they had to invite customers to come and eat.  Luckily Jason had the morning off and was able to join us.  I think Benny was so cute in his apron and his little notepad that he took down our order on.

 Benton seated us and served us our food.  Jason ordered Spaghetti and Meatballs.  The choices were Spaghetti and Meatballs, Stone Soup or Pizza.  There were brownies for dessert.  The kids made all of the food.  Benton's group was in charge of the brownies and he was very excited for his dad to eat one of them.  If you know Jason, you know he does not like chocolate AT ALL.  But he very willingly ate his brownie and raved to Benton about it.  What a good sport.

 Then the Benny checked us out with the fake money that they provided us.

Of course, Paisley wanted to participate also.

 We had a really great time and I LOVE his school.

A Little Science for the Little Ones.

 Tab has been very interested in how things work lately.  We are constantly running to Google, so learn how something is made or how something works.  So I figured he would be interested in some experiments too.  Boy was I right. Thanks mom and dad for buying that awesome book full of science experiments for the kids.  It rocks my world and theirs! (BTW, no I didn't have another kid when you weren't paying attention.  I was babysitting for a friend.

We were doing the old suck the hard boiled egg into the bottle trick.  They were very amazed to see the egg slowly inching its way into the bottle.

 However, dad got involved and got impatient so he stuck the bottom of the bottle into a bowl of ice water.  The egg moved quite quickly at this point and broke the egg because it sucked it too fast.  The kids were still amazed that a big solid chunk of egg made in through and had to be cut up to get it out.

Valentine's Day

     Valentine's Day was pretty chill as usual around these parts.  Paisley got invited to a party with several other too young for school kids.  She enjoyed that but what she enjoyed the most was having her hair in hearts.  She now regularly asks for her hearts.  I'm glad that she likes having her hair done because i enjoy doing it.

 Jason worked as usual, so I fed the kids something simple and put them to bed.  And then I made us a yummy dinner to enjoy all by ourselves when he finally got home.

 Though Hobbes wanted to wake up.  He didn't want us to truly be able to enjoy alone time.

 And of course we topped off the evening with one of Jason's most frequently requested desserts, Taffy Apple Pizza.  The recipe can be found here.

A Little Vaycay...

 In February, Jason was FINALLY able to take some much needed time off so we made it up to Jason's parents house with the kids.  Grandma took us all to a place called Monkey Joe's.  Basically it was a huge room filled with inflatable toys.  The boys had a blast.

 Paisley was a bit timid at first but quickly warmed up.

 One evening, Jason took the boys on a "nature walk" in the woods behind grandma and grandpa's house.  The boys liked the rock wall.  I'm sure Jason did too.

 They really liked the stream/creek/whatever you call it.  (I never was sure of the difference between the two.)

 See they had a blast throwing stuff in the water and poking about with sticks. (Why Tab has Benton's coat on and Benton has Tab's coat on, I have no idea.)

 Doing what nature was intended for.

 Remember the stream?  Tab wasn't listening to Jason and fell in.  Did I mention it was really cold outside?  Jason said he told the boys to start heading to the house after this happened as it clearly made a quick end to the nature walk.  Jason was trying to talk to Tab about what happened, etc. and Tab was just getting really angry (not unusual for Tab, but this was a bit different apparently).  Finally Jason got it out of Tab that he was having a hard time walking because his boots were full to the top with water.  Apparently Tab was having a genius moment and couldn't figure out the solution to his freezing cold heavy feet.

 Later during our visit, Jason's sister, Kristine, and her two kids came over to play.  Grandma broke out the parachute and they had a blast bouncing Benny's cow (that he names Cattle) around.

 we also enjoyed some sack races.

 Tab tried to use the sacks as parachutes.

 Getting ready to race.

 Benny was the winner.  Apparently it is difficult to hop in a sack when you have a little girl in yours with you.  I can't imagine why?

Snow at long last

We finally got some snow towards the end of January that was enough for the kids to tromp around in.  They lived it up for the short time that the snow lasted.  As you can tell, it was very sunny out.  I believe it may have lasted two play worthy days.  Jason and I were disappointed in the lack of snow strictly for the kids sake.  Well, we were also disappointed the the snow fort block form thingies we got the kids for Christmas were a total waste this year.  But hey, maybe next year right? 

Brotherly Love

 I know that I've expressed this before, but Tab is such a fantastic big brother.  This helps me a ton!  He will pick him up and bounce him when he is crying.

Or just lay on the floor and talk to him and play with him to keep him happy.

 Sometimes he will get a book and read to him.  Surprisingly, Hobbes usually enjoys this.

 And sometimes Tab will just pick Hobbes up from wherever he is and bring him to be with him while he is doing whatever it is that he does.  In this instance, he wanted Hobbes to watch TV with him.

 Tab loves Hobbes to death.  With Spring weather in the air, Tab has been wearing baseball caps more often and wanted Hobbes to wear one too.  Lucky for him, Hobbes didn't mind wearing it pretty much all day.

New Year's!

We really didn't do anything special for New Year's! We must be getting old and lame because we didn't stay up till midnight. Actually I'm pretty sure we were in bed by 10. But we did take the kids out to the Peeps Fest. Just Born candy company (which makes Peeps) is nearby and they held an event. It was quite fun for the kids. There was a magic show and a bounce house and all sorts of stuff.

The kids really enjoyed making Peeps S'mores.Paisley couldn't be bothered to feed herself because she didn't want to get her hands messy.The boys on the other hand had no problem with getting messy.Every now and again we like to change it up, and Jason takes pictures to prove that I actually exist.They had a crazy guy there making balloons. And when I say a crazy guy I'm only half kidding.Benton and Tab both requested swords.
Paisley requested a pink mermaid. She couldn't have been more pleased with the result. She kept that thing for weeks. She didn't want to get rid of it even when it had lost all of the air and all that remained was an empty, wilted, twisted up balloon. It had to "disappear" while she was taking a nap one day.
The boys thought this was pretty cool.
The event was held at the Bethlehem Steel Stacks. It looks kinda gross but it is in actually a pretty nice place with the old Steel Stacks kind of set in the background. It was a nice day out with the family.

Christmas!

This past Christmas had it's ups and downs. The down side was that Jason had to work, and it was a LONG day at that. The poor guy can't catch a break. He has worked every single holiday, both small and large, since starting residency. The up side was that there was a ton of family here with us to keep me and the kids preoccupied from missing him too much. My sister, Alissa and her brood came up from Florida. My parents came up as well. So Jason was able to enjoy what little time he did have...It is much more fun to wrestle with 8 different kids, after all.I think Grandpa enjoyed that he pretty much always had at least one kid snuggling him.
Christmas morning was kind of wild. There were 9 kids between my sister's family and ours. There were 6 adults. That makes for a stinking TON of presents under the tree.
We got up at 5 AM, so that we could open stockings and Santa presents before Jason had to leave for work.
Miss Pais got to open the first present.Paisley got her Strawberry Shortcake. She couldn't be bothered to look away from her long enough for a picture.The boys both got scooters. This is the part where I publicly admit that my husband was right about the scooters and I was wrong. They were the perfect gift and they love them.The best Christmas present I got this year was getting to spend time my best friend. I was so excited for Christmas mostly for the purpose of getting to sit with my sister and knit and blab. I miss it terribly already. Alissa, please come and knit with me again.