We have a Million Games in our house. Birthday's bring games - Santa brings games - Grands gift games - we havea a Million Games (seriously). Remember when you were a kid and you took the games and made them into other games - then you lost all the pieces and your parents couldn't play the games, you couldn't play the games, but no one threw the games away. I remember doing that with Risk. I took all the little pieces and used the big world map to play as if the pieces were traveling and living in the different countries (I should know geography better now that I think of this). Oh, and then there was that Spill the Beans game - I had the bean pot, but no beans. Anyway, our kids are doing this now. Spidey takes Jenga and for the love of him makes towers and other structures, because of this we are currently missing 1 piece (we have Lincoln Logs, but he doesn't build with the toy/game intended to do building with - probably because it isn't creative enough to do exactly what you are supposed to do with exactly what you are meant to do it with) - he also takes our Boggle game, tips the timer and then uses the cubes to create 3 letter words (this we are not going to discourage). Babers does this too, but he just likes to throw the small pieces all over the place. SuperStar kinda does this, but really she will set the game up correctly and then leave it out - thus enabling Babers addiction to throwing things (this is most annoying with puzzle pieces).

We are trying to re-educate them on the use of games - our concept to do this is very unique - you may want to try this as it is really working - we are actually playing the games with the kiddos. We are doing Family Night on Sundays (this is a non-negotiable time where we are all together doing something - right now the non-negotiable time is meant to keep BigGuy and I in line as there are always things that need to be done, later when the kids are teens it will be non-negotiable for them) and we find that since we have broken out the games they are starting to be used appropriately (well, maybe we are fooling ourselves, but we feel better about the fact that they are at least being used for what they were created for in addition to the other creative uses the kids have found).


This is SuperStars fav game - Twister. I was left out because apparently someone has to be the spinner. Honestly, I didn't mind because I got to take pictures to share.

Surprisingly this game is one the Entire Family can play. See Babers there in the front? Did you see him in the last pic? He randomly inserts himself into whatever position everyone else is in - although he moves completely and doesn't have his hands or feet on anything we have called. But he is in there and he is having fun. When Spidey fell out Babers also made himself fall to the ground and said, "I out".

Then there were two. BigGuy really gave it his all to hang with SuperStar (or he at least did a great acting job when he lost his balance).

In the end SuperStar was our Twister Champ - how could she not be? Look at that flexibility!!

How Totally Gorgeous is He?

It doesn't matter what they are doing - my kids are gorgeous. Yes, they can be messy, they can dress crazy, they don't always brush their hair, but they are gorgeous. Here is a perfect example. Spidey wouldn't be happy with me for saying how beautiful he is, but dang...he is beautiful.

Easter Here in Central Illinois

This year we spent Easter doing something different - we didn't travel from place to place. It was odd and kinda sad - and it was fun and kinda exciting. We went to our church (or the church that we are pretty certain will be ours). It was nice - we have searched the Catholic churches and didn't find any that we totally felt at home with - then we were told about one that we had not clue existed. Every time we have been there other parishioners talk with us - this week a nice gentleman even gave each of the boys Easter Books. I think he thought BigGuy was awesome because he was balancing both boys on his lap and the boys were doing a great job (not paying attention, but being good in church). After church we went back home - BigGuy started the pork shoulder thing - we had Easter Egg hunts (the kids put one on for us and Spidey forgot where he hid the eggs so our hunt took forever). We played games. It snowed (of course). We watched a movie together. We skyped Nanny and we skyped Papa & Gramma J. We called our other grands. We ate Taco Bell (BigGuy put the pork shoulder thing in too late and it wasn't done in time for dinner). We even had the chance to sit and talk to the kids about what Easter means - we were quite pleasantly surprised to learn that they knew a great deal about the true meaning of the holiday. We really enjoyed the day.

Bunny Time

Our Sunny Spot

We have a new family member - well, she is a temporary family, but we are finding that we adore her a great deal. Sunny. Her mom is a friend of SuperStar's. They were in class together. Sunny's mom, AB, has moved with her family for a short while. Her dad took a job in FL and the whole crew decided to move until August to be there to support him.

So far Jakey and Sunny get along smashingly. The only disagreement they seem to have is when to go out. Jake very much wants Sunny to go outside when he does and play. Prior to living with us Sunny spent most of her time running 10 acres. Here she has less space, but can spend time in the house more. At this point she often looks like she thinks Jake is crazy for not wanting to lounge around on the carpet. However, she is a good sport and much of the day they spend jumping around and pestering one another in the back yard.

The only real challenge Sunny has had is the counters. To her the counters appear to be a place that we place food to see if she can figure out how to get it. She has eaten Spidey's leftover stir fry (I don't think he cared), some chips that SuperStar had saved, we find her licking the dishes in the sink (perhaps she is just helping out with the chores) and her big "get" was eating my birthday cake. She didn't eat it all, she was polite enough to leave some for the rest of us.

Piece of Cake

This weekend we were blessed with a visit from more of our family. What was extra special about this visit is they weren't repeaters. Lucky for us most of our friends and family have been to visit repeated times. However, not everyone is close enough to do this and this past weekend BigGuys little brother and his family came up from the center of MO. As an added bonus, BigGuy's dad came up from just outside of STL too. Credit for this visit belongs to my sis-in-law and myself. We were selfishly seeking to attend the Hearts at Home convention - so while the guys were visiting and playing with the kids we snuck away for the day and attended the conference (more about that later today on my blog - can't do it all at once and there is so much catch up to do and so much getting ready for our weekend away this holiday weekend).

We are excited every time family come to stay - the kids are beside themselves excited everytime a cousin comes to stay and SuperStar has a special place for CuznA1 because they are a year apart and both pretty girlie with a rough house side. Spidey has a special place for any of the girls, but I think secretly enjoyed that CuznA2 would listen to him (when she chose to). Babers loved having CuznJ - same height - same language - same diaper dependancy. Household Exec (my sis-in-law) and I enjoyed the day - BigGuy, TW and Dad all enjoyed reconnecting - and well, the kids loved playing together - So to celebrate us we celebrated with cake (and repeated trips to Starbucks - as a side note, it was nice to have others who understand and appreciate a jonesin' for that chain)...........

Spidey & Friends

Here is a cute pic of Spidey and two of his classmates all ready to go on stage. Very Handsome Boys.

Spidey's Debut

Our Spidey was the star of our show last night! He was in his first class production. The Kindergarten/First Grade Musical. The whole thing was very cute. He came home from school and SuperStar was fussing all over him - they decided that after they had a snack they would go upstairs and she would help him to pick an outfit since she had done this sort of thing before and knew how he should look. In the end they actually ended up on the trampoline and I picked his clothes out - but they both approved of my pick and he looked terribly handsome. He also had a big part in the show - only 10 of the kiddo's got to come to the microphone to sing a portion of the Kids in the Bed song. As he got up there and sang his part, "Roll Over, Roll Over", people all around us said, "ooohhhhh" because he was so cute. We were so proud.

C is for Cookie

C is for Cookie and they are almost all delivered. We have 25 more deliveries to make - Yippee!!!!! The total amount we need to collect is $1,834.00 - to date we are around $1,472.00 (I think - this is using recall based on minimal sleep because of the time change and Spidey peed on BigGuy [in his sleep while cuddling] this morning getting us up and out of bed at 5:30am new time/4:30am old time). So far only 1 cookie order error - which belonged to me because I wrote down Peanut Butter Patties instead of Peanut Butter Sandwiches for a M2M friend. Although I am laying the blame on the ABC Bakery, they really should have come up with more distinguishable names - Dosidoes and Tagalongs are much more difficult to confuse.

Regardless - at the point we are now, if the world caused us to not be able to complete delivery before the due date this Friday - we could easily write a check for the remainder and not lose our house!!

Yea Super Kids!!

No posts this week - I have been super sick with Strep and it has pretty much wiped me out. BigGuy was a saint and worked from home while keeping an eye on me and handling Babers (who was weirdly good - he must be feeling poorly too). However, the Super Kids have been working hard at school - they both brought home report cards this week and...........

Straight A's for both of them!!!!

Being in Kindergarten Spidey gets graded on a 1,2,3 & -, /, + basis - so while they weren't A's they were All 3's and All +'s (except for two / which were for listening - imagine that).

SuperStar gets graded on the traditional D,C,B,A & -,/,+ scale - she received All A's (4 of the 10 being A+'s) and All +'s. Her PE teacher noted that she has Great Balance in gymnastics - SuperStar has taken this as confirmation that her career path should be in the circus as a trapeze artist.

A Birthday Celebration - the fairytale version

Yesterday, March 3rd, was my birthday. It was a lovely day, well, it was raining, but it was very nice to have my whole family home. The kids were home for Casimir Pulaski day (if you are curious as to who he is and why we get that day off here I will tell you later). BigGuy took off to celebrate my day and keep the kids at bay. He let me sleep late. Spidey slept late with me and snuggled me as we were waking up. That was super sweet. BigGuy even shut the door so that Babers and the dogs couldn't come in and disturb us. Once awake we did a few morning needs to be done things and then headed out of the house to have some breakfast. Before breakfast we needed to sign SuperStar up for GS Camp. We were told that the registrations go fast and furious and fill up quickly, so we wanted to be there early. We got her and her cousin into the camp of their choice. Yea! Then off to IHOP. This was kinda funny - Spidey had talked about IHOP for days - "I want to go to the International House of Pancakes" was his mantra. Once there SuperStar pointed out how lucky we were that we had an IHOP and an International House of Pancakes. I pointed out that IHOP was an acronym for the full title. Fun things you can learn.

Anyway, after a lovely breakfast during which the waiter was always on top of things and the kids were extra lovely and well mannered we headed to pick up some videos. We also had to go back to the GS Office to meet my co-leader and return some cookies. Easily done. Once home the kids watched their videos and BigGuy went to get the makings for dinner and a cake. I did some tasks needing done. Once home from the store we made a big ole pot of chili and then he and the kids made a cake. BigGuy had to shuttle the kids to swim lessons so I had a little over an hour all to myself in the quiet. It was nice. After they got home we had dinner and then they lit the candles for my cake. SuperStar worked hard on a bracelet for me that is almost finished - Spidey gave me a sweet hug for my birthday - Dawson didn't scream much for my birthday and BigGuy gave me a lovely day filled with his efforts to make sure it included everything that I was wishing for - and his famous Carrot Cake (if you haven't had it you should!!).

Happy Birthday To Me!!

We have a New Moo

At the end of the summer we noticed the new cow hanging around - and we also noticed he was a bit more then a cow - we figured when we weren't looking some cowjinks were probably happening. Then we noticed that the cows were changing - one in particular started to get a bit bigger. Then a week ago we noticed that she was having trouble keeping up with the pack as she ran to the food when Farmer Guy threw the bails over. Then we watched her be crated up one night to go "somewhere". Now we see why.........