Saturday: a tour of McDonalds

We took a vacation day today.  The boys were super excited about it, until we told them we were going on a t

our of McDonald's.  We were going to try out a whole bunch of them and rate them on the food and how the looked, etc.

The boys were not amused.

So we stopped at another McDonalds (drive through this time, to get a cookie).  The boys were very not amused and possibly worried; it was hard to tell.

But we finally reached our true destination, Great Wolf Lodge, and gained some wolf pups.  Joshua wore his ears for quite a while.

We elected to do some of the non-water park things while waiting for our room to be ready.  In hindsight, this might not have been the best idea as they had to switch our room and then it took about an hour for them to clean the new one.  I'll admit...I really wanted to get into a room by the end.  I'm not sure why I cared quite so much, honestly.  Ben and I both had headaches and that wasn't helping anything.

Anyway, enough ranting.  Besides not having a room, we had a good time.  The boys especially loved the magic wands, as we expected would happen.  Joshua is ready to fight the bad guys and didn't stop telling us.

We made stuffed dragons.

We ate ice cream.

And watched a science show.

We waited around a bit longer, looking at the water park, and finally our room was ready.  We took a brief rest and headed out for dinner.

After dinner we were getting ready for the water park and the boys were being so silly.  It was crazy.  Joshua was looking for his swimsuit, stepped on it, and still couldn't find it.  So...fun stuff like that.  We finally all managed to get ready and left for the water park.

We all had a good time.  Isaac is big enough to go on the slides unaccompanied if he desires.  (How did that happen?!?)  If he was able to go with a parent he did that though.  The nice part about doing the water park "late" is that the lines were pretty fast.  Joshua did a lot of laps around the lazy river, but seemed to have a good time still.  I'm hoping he'll go down one of the little slides tomorrow; I think he'd enjoy it.

The boys managed to fall asleep even though there was a ton of noise in the hallway.  Phew.

Friday: congrats

*Dad had a very nice write up in a magazine from Hope.

*Isaac leveled up from level H to K in reading.  It was odd because Wednesday I was wondering how he was going to get to K (the goal by the end of the year) if he only goes up a level or maybe two every testing.  But suddenly it happened!  Phew...Isaac remembered to read all the small words.

*I spent quite a bit of time on the phone today.  This is a kudos to me because I don't like talking on the phone.  The people helping me were very nice, so that made it easier.  It also wasn't what I had been planning doing, but ended up being necessary.

Thursday: Happy Valentines

Happy Valentine's Day!  Luckily, the boys did a bunch of fun things at school because we didn't do much at home.  They came home with a bunch of loot though!  (Including a magnifying glass that had a weird focal length.)

Joshua joined us for karate today as my special person.  He wasn't thrilled about it, but he said that he liked escaping from the traps.  (I.e., self-defense)

This evening Isaac was reading a silly book to Joshua.  I aligned the camera so that I could see them and Isaac heard it moving.  He proceeded to look at the camera a while, wondering why I moved it.

Wednesday: break

Today Joshua was at school all day and I had my break day.  I got some work done, some fun stuff done that I needed to do, and took a nap.  The nap was a bit longer than it should have been, but I just could not wake up.

Tuesday: snow day

Today was another snow day.  It was somewhat expected, as they were calling for ice.  (Ben and I heard the ice and it helped us not sleep well for several hours.)

It ended up working out ok.  I was on break today, so I just changed Joshua's daycare schedule.  I'll still get my break without kids.

Isaac played with play-doh for several hours.

We got out the Jell-o molds from Christmas.  We need to make some modifications to the procedure, but the boys had a fun time playing with them.  My non-jello-eating boys even ate some Jell-o.

Soon after this I went to snow blow before Ben got home.  It had started snowing beautiful big flakes and really quite quickly.  So afterwards Isaac joined me outside for some excellent sledding...he had such a great time.  He kept playing outside when I went in...Joshua had been working on a small Lego dragon the whole time.  He continued working on it with me sitting nearby and finished it.  He did a great job concentrating and getting the pieces in the correct spot.

Isaac: 81-85 months

I've still been taking monthly pictures, much to the chagrin of my children, even if I haven't been posting them on a regular basis.  I have it down to almost a science and if the children cooperate it can be done in less than a minute.

I'm not going to right as much stuff about the individual traits, but Isaac is still a wonderful kid to be with.  He's doing well in school, plays with his brother, and is super silly.

81 months (Sep 18)

82 months (oct 18)

83 months (Nov 18)

84 months (Dec 18)

85 months (Jan 19)

(high block)

This is the smile when something really hits his funny bone.

Monday: yellow!

Isaac and I officially got our yellow belts today.  They were running a little late, so I had Joshua take most of the pictures to keep him occupied.

Isaac getting his belt.  (Yup, you can't really see Isaac.)

Me getting mine.

There were also a lot of pictures of the hearts on the wall.  Joshua was very through in getting them all.

Some pictures afterwards.

Sunday: normal day

It was a pretty normal day for a Sunday.  Isaac continued the floor maze, but didn't quite realize that if you're walking a maze you need a bit more room.  I told him to make the lines longer...he did, but not by much.

Saturday: playing

Isaac and Joshua played really well together today. 

I'm pretty sure that a significant part of parenting is hiding when your kids are content.

Friday: maze

Joshua and I did several errands in the cold today.  They were rather fun.  We stopped at a potential school for Joshua next year.  It looks great, but the drive is just a tad bit longer than I was hoping for.  It is definitely in the running though.  We stopped at Joann's and then Barnes and Noble to get that sticker book he was so worried about.  He also talked me into getting a treat, which was rather fun.  After a quick stop at the library we came home.

I decided to tape out a maze.  Using painter's tape, I put lines all over the floor.  

Isaac thought it was rather boring.  I told him I ran out of tape.  The amount you see if from about one roll of tape.  (We'll probably get some more tomorrow.)  And while Isaac said it was boring, he and Joshua proceeded to play one of their games for almost an hour and a half...so I think it at least got that all started.  

There are two great things about it...

1) While it's all over the house, we aren't going to trip over it.

2) If Ben and I are lucky, the boys can finish the maze themselves tomorrow and it'll take hours by the time they add some "extras".  I'd venture to guess what they can come up with, but I'm sure I'd be wrong.

Thursday: kids at work. again

Well, Isaac started out the day with a 2-hour delay.  It quickly changed to a snow day.  Ok, an ice day.  It wasn't too icy near us, but I could imagine that it was icier in the country.

Isaac came to Hope with me.  again.  I'm a bit sick of having children with me on work days, but at the same time I can be very happy that I can bring children to work and keep them in my office.  I'm especially glad that they are old enough to stay in the office themselves.

I made Isaac do all his valentines and his math homework.  Dad brought him out to lunch, which was wonderful.  By the time Isaac went to the bathroom I was done teaching and he was so sad that he hadn't gotten any screen time.  (He got some later in the day.)

In other news, Isaac and I tested for our yellow belts in karate today and we both passed!  I was expecting we would. 

Wednesday: well, that all worked well

Today there was a two hour delay due to ice.  Joshua wasn't really supposed to go to daycare due to the fever yesterday.  I had a 10am meeting.

But...

It all ended up working out really well.  Ben slept in a bit to deal with being ill yesterday and was leaving for work right as Isaac needed to leave too.  So they went off together.  Aunt C said she could play with Joshua for two hours while I worked.  My meeting was canceled, so I could work from home.  I got a lot of work done in those two hours and was rather happy with how the morning worked out; it could have been so much more annoying.

Isaac 'bought' a show-and-tell pass for school so that he could show pictures of our new cats.  He took a few more pictures first.

Tuesday: more sickness

Well, everyone was somewhat sick today.  Joshua had a fever, Isaac came home because of a bad stomach, and Ben and I were sick too.

Tuesdays are the worst day for kids to be sick.  Joshua came with me to work and stayed in the office.  (He took a nap under a desk.)  Ben was able to pick up Isaac and might have been rather glad about it since he wasn't feeling good either.

I came home and slept for about two hours.  I'm sure it was partly because I was sick, but at the same time last night was really bad for sleeping.  Right after I turned off the lights Joshua started coughing a bunch.  Then he decided to get up for some reason and came to tell me that I still needed to get him  a new sticker book. 

Sunday/Monday

The cats made a heart.  Horizon is sticking his tongue out about it though.

We finally got a good picture of them together.

Isaac wanted his picture with the cute cats too.

At the last minute Isaac thought it might be 100 days of school today, which means dressing up as an old person.  We quickly put his bow tie and suspenders on.  It wasn't 100 days today, but oh well.  He took them off at school.

Joshua worked on his red mech so hard this weekend.  He even put some of the stickers on himself.  It's almost done...it just needs some feet and banners.  However, the red mech got side tracked when the two dragons, Voltron, and Push the dragon had to find the shark army.