Monday: snow day! Birthday!

Today was a snow day!  I had been wondering if that would be the case.  It was rainy last night and turned into snow.  

We decorated the box for Ben's present.

Played Skip-Bo.

Joshua led me through a gymnastics lesson since his was canceled.

In the afternoon we went to help out at Kids' Food Basket.  We took puddings out of big boxes and put them in crates so that they can be easily packaged into lunches.  Joshua lasted about 45 minutes while Isaac helped until the job was done.  (They both did really well though.  Isaac was able to do a few more things and that helped make it more interesting.)

We got Joshua's school pictures last week.  He has such a nice smile.  He also has a hole in his pants, as I didn't realize that the pants would be included in the picture.

Here's the final box decor.  On the left you'll notice a J and an O... that was the start of Joshua's name.  He also put a 3 (with four arms) and a 7 for Ben's age.

Sliding the box to Ben.

Sunday: Catan

This evening Aunt C came over.  First she played with Joshua while Ben and I played Catan with Isaac and then she played with both boys while we went out for dinner.

Isaac did an excellent job with Settlers of Catan.  He's played the junior version a lot and he played the "adult" version with me once.  Playing with only two people doesn't work very well though because trading doesn't work great.  He did a really good job though and got right into the trading.  We helped out a little bit, but he made most of the decisions on his own.  Catan Jr. really is a great stepping stone to the full version.

Oh, it was great except for the time Ben played a monopoly on brick, of which Isaac had just gotten six.  There were some tears as he realized that he had to give away his newly acquired brick and he didn't get anything in return.

Saturday: wishbone

Isaac got the wishbone from the turkey this year.  He's been so excited to pull it and has been telling everyone his wish will be to go to IHop (within a day or two...the time frame changed a few times.)

Ben and I decided Ben's wish would be to go to IHop too. :D  Anyway, they pulled the wishbone apart and it broke off both sides.  Isaac was rather confused.  However, it broke off Ben's side first.  We then went to IHop for lunch.

We finished the Christmas decorating.  We have a ton of light strands up, and none of them match.  I love the lights, but it's a bit crazy.  I think I'll buy a bunch of lights at the end of the season sales and only use those next year.

Isaac also made some puppy ears.

Friday: getting ready for Christmas

This morning was an official "take apart Lego sets" time.  I needed the Lego shelf for the nativity and I expect (and know) several new Lego sets will be coming into the house and we were out of room.  So I got a Christmas movie and we all took apart sets while watching.

We did much better than I expected.  Not only did we completely clean up the upstairs shelves, but we got some of the downstairs shelves cleaned up too.  It was mainly castles...Joshua plays with them very hard and they've been coming apart for a while.  We bagged the pieces that were still together to make it easier to put them together next time.

We also put up some more Christmas decorations.  The boys are making all sorts of homemade decorations and putting them up.  It's kind of cute, but at the same time I wish they wouldn't put so many 'treasures' on my walls.  Maybe after Christmas we can take everything down, including the ones that have been there for a while.

Thursday: Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!  We started to take apart Legos yesterday so we'd have enough space for Christmas decor.  Isaac was very amused by the cantilever that he made during destruction.  Joshua was very worried about the lack of a star on our tree and started cutting out his own.

We went to church.  We were running late and so ended up sitting in the foyer.  The boys probably were happy about it as they can move around a bit more.  We also got to write on the windows what we were thankful for.  Isaac wrote food (and drew a carrot), people, and shelter.  It seemed like things they may have talked about in school.  Joshua drew a person and I wrote Grey Bear for him too, even though he didn't ask for it.  I'm thankful for Grey Bear.  I'm also thankful that while we do have some medical issues in the family the other areas of life are stress-free.

We had a little bit of time between church and going to dinner and the boys were crazy!!  But it was finally time.  We had a delicious meal.

Some Wii games were played and Isaac was so glad to have some screen time.

Joshua's star.  We'll see if it stays up for the rest of the season.

Wednesday: pre-Thanksgiving

Yesterday Isaac made a roll-a-monster for me.  You roll two dice to figure out how to draw your monster.  I rolled high numbers for everything - 11 legs, 6 heads, 7 spikes, (1 body by default), 8 mouths, and 10 eyes.

I tried separating the fish by gender again today.   I pretty much switched all most of the fish from the last time I tried to separate.  However, I just read that the ratio should be about 2/3 female to 1/3 male and I have more males than females.

We put up the Christmas tree.

Joshua wore his Indian hat from school.  He and Isaac were going to play pilgrims and Indians at one point, but I'm not sure that they ever really figured out how to do that...but Joshua kept the hat on the rest of the day.

We went to Wild Chef for Jacob's birthday.  Isaac made sure to have his sunglasses on hand for the fire part.

Monday: shopping trip

Joshua and I were at the grocery store, and we were trying to find some mittens since we lost one of his.  I saw some sunglasses on sale and paused...they were advertised at $4 but were actually only $1.  They only ended up fitting Joshua, but it's still a great deal.

While we were there, Joshua saw some Minecraft pajamas and thought Isaac would love them.  I took a look at the price tag and decided they were a bit more than I really wanted to spend.  We left to continue our search for mittens and Joshua brought them up again.  So Joshua is getting them for Isaac for Christmas...we'll see if they stay a surprise or not.

On the same rack were some Pickachu pajamas on the same rack that Joshua really wanted.  So I told him that we could get them for him, but he shouldn't look so it could be a surprise.  So he put his face down in the cart and closed his eyes.  He hasn't mentioned them again.