Friday: two tired boys

We got home from our small vacation today, and we have two tired boys.

I about to read to them at bed time and Joshua didn't have any water in his cup.  The normal routine is to fill it after reading so that he can hide under his covers, so not having any isn't that much of a surprise.  He bursts out crying, "is anyone going to fill my water bottle???"

Isaac had a hard time getting to sleep due to a nap, so I let him stay up a bit later.  He was playing in his room with a ThinkFun game.  (They do a lot of the single player logic puzzles that Isaac likes.)  He comes downstairs crying after a little bit..."I read 'ThinkFun' and I [didn't want to]."  I'm not sure exactly what he said as it was rather difficult to understand.  I'm still a bit confused as to why this would have been a problem...

Wednesday: Lego

We went to Meijer today to see who exactly was the crazy drivers...me or the boys.  Turns out, we're all good drivers!  Ben must be the crazy one.

Then we went to a mall with a Lego store. This mall also had escalators, and that is what the boys seemed most excited about.  We did that before going to the Lego store.

We took some pictures at the Lego store and all filled up a bucket from the pick a brick wall.

We got to the hotel and let the boys stay up past their bedtime to play with them a bit.

Tuesday: mattress/cleaning

Today was a semi-relaxed day.  We played and did some work in the morning as we were waiting for someone to pick up an old mattress.  I didn't have a pick-up time, which was a bit annoying.  Anyway, around 11 I was done with waiting so we slide the mattress outside and made a quick trip to Lowe's.

Both boys still fit in the race car carts, and they had a grand time.  I kept telling them they were terrible drivers as the cart swerved this way and that way.  They insisted I was a terrible driver, and the game kept going all day.

We had our new house cleaners today.  It went well.  It was a bit slow, but there is so much to learn the first several times that I was expecting that.  I finished a few quick things after they left and tada!  The main area looked wonderful.

During this time Isaac and Joshua were supposed to clean their rooms.  However, Joshua had other plans.  He cleaned his room during rest time and was all done by the time the house cleaners arrived.  Ha!  I bet that isn't what you were expecting.  It isn't what I was expecting either.

Joshua had his quilt pictures taken today.  Google is rolling out a new thing called color pop, which I rather like.  Oh, I just noticed that there is a bit of color under his arms on the quilt.  But it is still rather fun.

Monday: zoo

The boys and I, along with Dad, went to the zoo today.  The first time we stopped at the bear enclosure it wasn't moving at all, but it started moving while we were next door, so we headed back.

Grey Bear had been in the backpack, but came out to see the bear.  (We stopped by again at the very end, and the bear was pacing right next to the glass.  Joshua and Grey Bear jumped every time it got close.)

We visited a lot of animals.  Isaac could have stayed at most of the exhibits longer, while Joshua was ready to go pretty quickly after spotting the animal.  They both did a good job of leaving or waiting as requested though.

We stopped for some playing at the natural playground and Isaac started pulling the wood around and said he was going to make a lever.  He then told us the parts of a lever and identified them for us...science camp taught him something!

After the zoo the boys had a Klondike Bar at Dad and Pat's for lunch.  I hadn't really be expecting the zoo to take quite so long, hence the ice cream for lunch.  They then invited us to stay for rest time, so the boys got to play with some 'new' toys while I took a nap on a nearby bed.

Joshua and I played Duplos for a little bit, and he gave me a bunch of pieces and told me to make a statue in the middle of the house.  Then he told me it should be a statue of a seagull.  I finished it and he made a few tweaks to make it just right.  Needless to say, I don't think that building seagulls out of Dulpos is my strong suit.

Sunday: class is done

My summer class finished on Friday.  As always, there were some interesting quirks to the class.  However, the most notable this semester was that everyone turned in their work on time or early.  This made the last week of grading quite easy and I even got to submit my grades on Friday.

Now I have a few weeks off before thinking about next semester.  I have most of the prep work (that I need to do) done, so it shouldn't take me more than a couple of hours.

Saturday: birthday

Today was Joshua's fourth birthday.  While he still seems young because he's the younger sibling, when I actually look at what he's doing I notice how 'old' he's actually getting.

His birthday party isn't for a week yet, so we gave him his birthday present today.  He got the Police Legos.  While very similar to the Firefighter Legos, this one has bad guys.  They have already captured his imagination.  He's suddenly gotten very good at putting sets together.  He still likes us to find the pieces for him, but beyond that needs minimal help.

We just ran out of blueberries, so we went to pick some more this morning.  The boys weren't really thrilled about it, so we bribed them by saying we'd get a birthday treat afterwards.

They also got to play on the playground for a bit.

It was a good day, but I'll admit by the time dinner was finished I had heard, "Mom! [Pay attention to this.]" a few too many times.  I'm glad my children want to talk to me, but they wouldn't stop talking!

Friday: conversations

Joshua: do we get to see Grandpa again? 
Amanda: no, two times is enough for today.
Joshua: two times isn't enough!!

Joshua, to Grandpa Paul: Will you bring Grandma Pat to my birthday?
Grandpa Paul: of course.
Joshua: Grandma Pat will make my birthday special.