Friday Night Fun

The weekend is stretching before us with nothing on the agenda besides praise team on Sunday morning. To celebrate an open weekend (a rarity in this household), we declared our Friday to be Super Slumber Party Movie Night. (Yeah, family movie night would have worked, but I did not think of that one first.)

Tonight's almost double feature included Kung Fu Panda and Kung Fu Panda 2 (dubbed "almost" due to some technical difficulties with Kung Fu Panda--major scratches which are to be expected when getting your movie for free from the public library). The boys decorated everyone's tv tray or lap desk--Isaac's idea to make it more like Red Robin--while I made the chicken nuggets. 

"Eating" dinner while watching the movie--like their table decorations?!?

After enjoying our dinner, we had a short intermission (due to the technical difficulties mentioned above) to find a point in the movie that actually played and used this time for bathroom breaks, jammy time and bed making (rolling out the boys' sleeping bags). They snuggled in to finish the first one. 

These new sleeping bags have room for the boys to grow!

Nice and cozy

When the second movie started, they excitedly set up their little tables to enjoy the chocolate popcorn we made in preparation for our big night.

Delicious!  A movie time favorite in this house

Focused on the new movie!

As I write this, the boys are cozy in their sleeping bags on the living room floor. Not asleep...yet but hopefully soon.

Paul has already talked about showing Cars and Cars 2 for Super Slumber Party Movie Night #2. I guess we will have to wait and see if we do this again (you know, see if they actually fall asleep and are not too unbearably cranky tomorrow since we overloaded them with media tonight).

Our Little Artists

Creating "deco glass" creatures

The boys have been getting a lot of use out of our little art table...constantly coloring, painting, or creating something. We are amazed at their creativity and imagination as well as their contentment with some very simple things (i.e. the iPads they each created with pieces of cardboard and proceeded to help their cousins make, their own angry birds set, and so much more). I am thinking about investing in some Scotch tape stocks since our boys go through it like it is nobody's business.

Angry Birds artwork including their original piggies and blue birds

A cardboard iPad

Here are a few pictures of the boys being creative. I especially love the way they focus while creating things--either their tongues hanging out or their lips pulled between their teeth.

The finished "deco glass" creatures

 The fun they have during the process is worth the mess we get to clean up afterwards!

Donuts...Yum!

Paul's family has a homemade donut recipe that is absolutely wonderful. The boys have been asking when Grandma and Grandpa N will be visiting so we can make donuts again. Unfortunately, they will not be out here soon, but they did send us a donut maker for Christmas so we tried it out today. (Caleb kept asking when we were going outside since that is where we usually fry the donuts when Grandma makes them with us.) Not frying the donuts in lard did change the flavor a bit, but, overall, we thought they tasted delicious (just a little bit healthier if a donut can be called that).

Putting the batter into the donut maker

Dipping in the frosting

So proud of his creation

Also proud...

The finished donuts with frosting and sprinkles

It was fun making donuts this way, but it is definitely more fun making them with Grandma and Grandpa!

Sweet Days of Summer, Part III

Our final stop in Minnesota was visiting Paul's family. Again, we enjoyed a wonderful time and did a lot of fun things. We started our time in the Cities for Paul's family reunion where we caught up with his cousins and extended family. Before we went home, we spent part of a day at the Mall of America where the boys loved exploring the Vikings store and shopping with Grandma at the Lego store.

Once we got to the farm, Paul got to help his brother clean out the bins--a good reminder of why he is a teacher. The boys were so excited because they each got to ride in the semi with Uncle Brian to bring the corn to the elevator! The boys enjoyed visiting Great Grandpa Nelson in the nursing home and getting to feed the fish outside his room and ride in his wheelchair.

{Click on the picture above to see an enlarged version of it}

We played lots of games, inside and out, with the Play-doh smash game topping the list as the boys' favorite. Uncle Brian even got down on the floor to play Legos with all the cousins. Thankfully, the weather cooperated so we were able to spend some time at the lake, and we even got in a trip to Dairy Queen with Gpa and Gma N while at the lake.

And this post makes it official that we are now caught up with our 2011 summer vacation adventures. Our time with family is something we always treasure and look forward to each year. 

The Good Life

Growing up in the midwest, California was this far-off place that seemed so exotic. Now that I live here, it is just home. However, there are days where I want to pinch myself when I realize that we live in "exotic" California. Take today, for instance...well, I will just let the pictures show what I mean (and remember, that it is December 30--wintertime):

Doing a little writing with his 90s sunglasses

Proudly trying out Isaac's skateboard and protective gear

We actually had to go inside sooner than we wanted because we were just too hot in the blazing sun. What a tough life! 

Sunbathing beauty--enjoying the good life

And just another joy of living in SoCal

Sweet Days of Summer, Part II

We enjoyed a few days at Mom and Brian's house. It happened to be the hottest week of the summer with the heat index at 115 degrees and higher. Because of that, we spent a lot of our time in the house--playing games, watching movies, fixing puzzles, singing with Brian, and just enjoying catching up with each other. We did manage to spend some time outdoors--playing baseball and also engaging in a colossal water fight with Brian. 

Due to the warm weather, we also got to "enjoy" the annual meet-in-the-basement-in-the-middle-of-the-night because of a tornado warning a little before 4:00 a.m. one of our last nights there. Fortunately, our boys had no clue what a tornado was so they thought it was pretty cool to hang out with everyone in the dark listening to the weather reports; I am okay with not repeating that drill during our visit next summer! No tornado touched down, but we did get some hail (the picture of Paul's hand below shows a piece of hail about the width of his finger).

{Click on the picture above to see an enlarged version of it}

We finished our time with Mom at our family reunion. It was a blast catching up with everyone who was able to come even though it was too short. While we were there, we did a lot of chatting, playing games outside, introducing our kids to all my cousins' kids, and enjoying the general hubbub that comes with a gathering of 62 people (if I added correctly).

It is always a great time to be with family, and we are thankful to be able to spend an extended time with everyone during the summer when Paul has the time off. 

Sweet Days of Summer

We originally intended to create picture videos showing the fun we had this past summer while visiting family and friends. However, since we had issues with sound in our last one, we just kept putting it off and never got to the rest of our vacation.  Because we are nearing the end of this calendar year, I wanted to at least get some of the pictures that have not made it here yet.  

Below is a quick look at our short visit with Brad, Jayne and Cohen. It was so much fun to spend time with them, see where they live and work, relax and catch up with them. The boys loved playing with Cohen, and we were spoiled with a day in Breckenridge with them as well (most of the pix are from there).  The boys really liked being in snow--not something that is typical for these California boys and definitely not typical for any normal August day for us.

{Click on the picture above to see an enlarged version of it}

Thanks, Jansens, for letting us end our vacation with you. We had so much fun!