Hangin' with my Big Boy

I am so lucky to have my Mom so close. She loves to take the boys down to her place at the lake and give me a bit of a break. She usually takes Mason once a month for a few days and this time she has the twins so I could have some special time with my favorite big boy. Before the babies came along, Mason was our entire world- he has adjusted well to having 2 baby brothers but still needs individual attention and this weekend was ALL about him. We ran lots of errands, ate pizza, baked cinnamon rolls, watched Star Wars, planted flowers, played miniature golf, visited Daddy at work and took lots of silly pictures. (Yes, we crammed alot in...) He sat with me through an eye appointment and was sooooooooooo good. So, after we were done he saw this photo booth and wanted to do it- how could we not???

The nice folks at Lens Crafters cleaned and "adjusted" Mason's glasses for him. He keeps saying they are sooooooooooooo shiny!!!

Our fun Photo-booth pics

We love and miss the twins (Mason has asked several times when they are coming home) but its VERY hard to spend an entire day doing fun stuff like this with 2, 15 month old babies in tow. I have cherished every second of my special weekend with my boy.

Random...- A funny Mason quote from today- "Mom, you better shut the sunroof right now, your hair is getting really messed up!" (We have my Moms car and she has the van.)

Here we go, go, go!!!

I have been trying and trying to get a video of my babes walking TOGETHER for awhile now. One of them always falls, one always heads off in the opposite direction, Mason grabs the camera--- you get the point. Well, my hubs can take all credit for this one- I was not even home last night and look at this!!! Brady and Logan- walking- TOGETHER!! = Perfection! Love it! (Please note big brother Mason cheering them on in the backround)

Backyard Fun

The kids and I have really been enjoying the gorgeous Spring weather. We have already had a handful of amazingly warm days and this was one of them. I always like to give Mason a choice in what we spend our afternoons doing- the park, the pond, scooter rides or just backyard fun. On this day he wanted to stay home and just play with his brothers (sweet, I know). The kids all really love the sand and water table. Although ours has become just a sand table as when you try to leave water on only one side, it always just becomes a MUDDY mess!!! So rather than fight it, go with it! They have lots of buckets, sifters, NEON rice and some shells I brought back from Mexico. The boys will play in here for hours and while we do buy sand at least every couple of weeks- Its so worth it to watch them being creative, playing together and just doing what brothers do.

This is classic Mason- made a basket-"Ohhh YEEEAAAAH!"

The boys spotted a grasshopper. Mason and Brady tried to go after him but Logan couldn't be bothered long enough to stop his sand scooping.

Brady- 16 months today

Logan- 16 months today

ABC's

Ho-hum, another yucky day here in North Texas. I'm usually game for just about anything outside but even I cant stand to be out in this snowy, cold mess. The wind is just howling and its pretty miserable. So yet again I'm trying to find things that are at least some what educational that we can all do together and not go cccccrrraaazzzy!!!

So today's activity was based on the good ol' alphabet. Mason is 3 and got this Leap Frog movie for his birthday last year. He has watched it a few times and I thought instead of breaking out Peter Pan again, we would do this instead. Letter Factory is very cool as it has a cute story that takes you thru the entire alphabet. Mason knows parts of the song and even makes the sounds of the letters. So, I decided that we would have Alpha Bits for snack while we watched and I challenged him to find each letter as Lily and Tad explored the alphabet factory. He did a pretty good job and even asked to watch it again. He was very proud of himself each time he found the correct letter. So, all in all- fun, educational and FREE on a cold winter (um, spring?) day.

Searching, searching, searching.....

Rainbow Cupcakes

Start with this......

Blech---what a cold, nasty day outside. We went from the sun shining, birds singing, wearing flip flops at the park to this nonsense... What a tease.
So, I needed to find a few activities to keep everyone sane locked up inside for the day. We all love sweets and Mason loves to help with anything so I stole this super cute cupcake recipe from my girlfriend, Jenny. She calls them rainbow cupcakes but ours were more tye dye. I tweaked it a bit because I only had NEON food coloring at the house but they still tasted great and obviously my boys could care less. People, it does not get any easier than white cake mix- seriously, this is for anyone with kids old enough to hold a spoon. I even let the babes (age 15 months) get in on the stirring action. (But to be honest- most of the time Mason and I were making our treats, the twins were strapped in their highchairs, eating a snack watching a Baby Einstein)

My little chef hard at work mixing and blending.

Follow the directions on the super simple white cake mix box (don't forget the whipped frosting)Separate batter into however many colors you want to add the food coloring. Mix until well blended. Layer your colored batter into cupcake pan. Don't worry if it's not perfect, its still fun and they will turn out fine.

Delish!

St. Patty's Day Re-fashion

My girlfriend Mariah decided to throw a St. Patrick's Day party for all the kiddos. Complete with secret leprechauns, green treats and a rainbow with a pot of gold. She is sooooooooo crafty and always has the best parties so about 24 hours before I tried to think about what green all my boys had to wear. Well, as it turns out- not alot. I knew I had these old bibs somewhere that the babies wore last year so I set out to find them. I happened to have 3- don't ask me why, but I did. Just like the picture below. So, I got out 2 white onesies for the twins and a green striped polo for Mason and spruced em' up for the festivities. I sewed NOTHING, I'm a fan of stitch witchery and its soooooooooo easy. So I cut up the bibs, attached the clovers and presto- made with love by Mom and so cute!

The "before" baby bib

And the "after" finished onesies

I so wish I had a pic of Mason, but the only ones of him are with his back turned and running away to find the leprechaun's gold--- so again my life's mission is STILL to get a good shot of my 3 sweet boys together. One can dream....

Sun catcher-Mason style

This is about as simple as it gets but my 3 year old had a BLAST with it! We bought 3 clear, plastic butterflies at Micheal's and I let him decide what to use to decorate them. It would have turned out better if he would have used bright markers but I'm really trying NOT to control things and let him be creative in his very own way. I did break out some puffy paints and he was NOT a fan. Told me they were MUCH to hard and he didn't like all the splatter. Funny kid... Anyway, I think this cost me about $2.75 total for the 3 butterflies and it kept him entertained for a good, long while. He has given 2 away to his Nana and Papa and mine is proudly displayed in our kitchen window. Again, fun for him and all I had to do was cover the table, break out the stuff and let him go at it. A winner for sure!

Hard at work with his puffy paints.

And his beautiful finished butterfly in my kitchen window.

We call him Bruiser....

Look at my poor, sweet baby boy. All busted up... My boys are walking and Logie-bear is a combination of trip, fall, crash, trip, fall, crash... He is such a wildman- just goes and goes.. Gets up, brushes himself off and goes again. No family pictures anytime soon...

Logan- aka "Bruiser"

Fun with Fingerpaints

I am borrowing a great book called "Slow and Steady, Get me Ready" from a MOPs friend and thought today would be the perfect day to try out one of the ideas. There are sooooooooooooo many great developmental activities in this book and it is geared for kids birth to age 5. Fits my clan perfectly! I quickly flipped thru and came to finger painting. I thought that the boys would ALL love this so I got everything ready to go while they napped. I needed to make a pretty good amount of paint and have included the "natural" recipe below. I taped wax paper all over my kitchen table and gave everyone a chunk to work with.



As it turns out, Mason wanted nothing to do with this one. He woke up crabby and was over it before he gave it a chance, but I have PLENTY of paint leftover to give it another whirl with him when he feels like it. Really weird because he loves to finger paint. Whatever, the babes and I had a blast!

Brady (in blue) and Logan making a mess but having FUN!

Paint Recipe:
3 tablespoon sugar, 2 cups water, 1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup cornstarch (I used a bit more cs than this)

Cook ingredients on low heat until smooth and thick- after cooled, pour into jars and add food coloring. The GREAT thing about this is the fact that there is not a single ingredient that could be harmful if swallowed! My babies tasted it a few times while they were painting and I'm just fine with it!

Brotherly Love

My babies turned 15 months old the day I took this picture. Wow is just all I can say- time flies! I feel like we just brought our bundles of joy home from the hospital to join our family. They are at such a great age and I am having such fun watching them grow and see their little personalities develop. I always feel like they are such a package deal, they share a room, share a dialogue and have such a unique bond that only identical twins can have.

The last few days here in Texas have been just divine and we have been outside from almost sun up to sun down. I was lucky enough to have caught the most precious moment with my own eyes. Logan (on the left in the first picture) dropped his bowl of graham crackers and had a serious meltdown. They fell under the table and he couldn't get to them. Brady, without hesitation, started emptying his bowl and giving all of his crackers to his brother. If you know Brady, this kid can eat. My Mom says "you just cant fill him up" and its so true. But to see him so willingly give his brother his snack was just darling and melted my heart in a million pieces. They are indeed brothers by chance but best friends by choice and I am so proud to call them mine!

Logan (L) Brady (R) - Happy again!

Brady (L), Logan (R) both with full bowls!

Butterflies in the Snow???

Random- yes, but so are we.... I am NOT a super crafty, creative Mom. Lately I have been inspired by friends to do more than the typical paints, crayons and play doh (our norm).... And oh is my Mason happy about it! He ALWAYS wants to use glue, but more ends up on him, his clothes and the dog than anywhere else. But, what the heck, your only 3 once so why the heck not??!! The weather here in Texas has been a bit um, random shall I say so when I asked him what he wanted to do he said make butterflies---- in the snow. Spring sprung for a few days and now its cold, rainy and ugly again. So, I guess that's where his idea of "Butterflies in the Snow" came from. For the record, I DID let him do EVERY bit of gluing. I drew a line for our pom-pom butterfly and told him to glue on top of the line. I also of course bent the pipe cleaners for him and drew more lines for him to glue over. So glad glue dries clear because what the picture doesn't pick up is how much glue is actually on this piece of paper. Anyway, I say my kid is amazing!!

Working hard- glue, glue, glue....

And his finished product...