Happy Birthday, Jonathan

Today was Jonathan's 6th birthday, which he began celebrating at 5:30 AM. Yes, 5:30. To say he was excited is a bit of an understatement.

We had a party for him last weekend while my parents were still in town. It was my chance to practice his "lego" cake for his kid party this weekend.

His present from us was a new IKEA bed. It took us a few hours to put together, and he loves it. He's put all of his stuff under the bed.

First night in the new bed!!!

Jazz dance

Benjamin and Alexander were in this jazz dance. They were awesome - and I'm still awed that Miss Kimmie got Alexander to do it! You'll hear my laughter and Jonathan's commentary - we had a great time!

Turn Off Week!

Well, this weekend we are getting our last taste of screens for a week. Monday begins Turnoff Week. We'll be turning off our computer, Wii, and TV for the whole week The kids think they can't survive, but they're going to try it anyway (they really have no choice in the matter.) I'll still be using the computer for work (that's one of the allowed exceptions) and for email check every morning (to check for school-related emails) but that's it.

My school, at my suggestion, is participating too, so we have some fun activities planned. On Monday we'll have a family kickball game. Friday we're going to Splash Park, and on Sunday evening we'll go to the Cubs. The rest of the week I'm sure the kids will be creative and find things to do. As it is, we don't let them watch TV or play video games during the week anyway. They're acting like it's the end of the world but I doubt it will change much.

The best part is that this week's theme on American Idol is "disco." I couldn't think of a better week to miss!

Look here in a week for an update...and hopefully no one will catch me cheating on facebook!

Dance recital

The boys' dance rectial was last night. Here is Benjamin's modern dance. It was his favorite class and he can't wait to take it again next year.

Peeps party

It wouldn't be Easter without our peeps! After a great (and filling) dinner (and dessert), we made s'mores and played Peep War for the second time! Alexander and Benjamin tied - we had to stop early since there is school tomorrow.

Gretchen and her son Jonathan tried them. Jonathan thought we were a bit strange, I think. But it was fun!

Barb and Dad get into it, with Brian coming down the steps.

More sugar!!! More sugar!!!

Easter pictures

After opening their baskets, here they are showing off their new Star Wars figures.

Pictures before church

Benjamin wants me to change my profile picture on Facebook which is why we took this one!

Jonathan's room!

After lots of trials and tribulations, we have finished painting both boys' rooms! Jonathan chose this color - "butter up." He was limited to yellow, since that is what it already was and we were doing no more than two coats. But he loves this color, and it's a lot less obnoxious than the previous yellow.

All the Hess trucks, lined up in a row. This is where his dresser will go, once it's cleaned up and out of the garage.

We're hoping to get down to IKEA next week and buy him a new bed. It's a half bunk, with plenty of room underneath to store all of his "stuff."

Painting, painting, and more painting...

This morning I woke up, knowing I had to do the woodwork in the boys room. Note to self - next time, paint the woodwork the same color as the walls!! What a pain. I found a great wedge brush, though, and the painting went faster than I expected.

While waiting for the paint to dry, we began washing ALL of the walls in the house. Now there's a fun job. NOT. It was tough for me because of my allergies, and Chris ended up doing the lion's share of the work. After awhile, I went and starting putting the boys' room back together. They have just fallen asleep in their new, green and blue room. These pictures show what happens when you let pre-teen boys choose the colors for their room. It actually turned out better than I expected, now that the furniture is back in.

No pictures up, yet, but that will come later. I'm sure they'll decide some of the pictures are too babyish now.

We put two bookshelves in their room, and they are almost full.
When we took the bookshelves out of Jonathan's room (which is now a horrible mess), we discovered that all the walls are marked up horribly. (look at the picture!!) So guess what we'll be doing tomorrow?? You got it, painting Jonathan's room. His Grandma took him to Sherwin Williams, where he picked out a nice yellow called "butter up." We limited him to yellow so we wouldn't need to do more than two coats of paint. At this rate, I'm going to need a spring break to recover from my spring break!!!

Cooks

Benjamin and Nikki

Nikki did the mac and cheese, Benjamin did the kielbasa.
Alexander and his string beans

Yestersday I took Benjamin, Alexander, and their friend Nikki to the paint store (more about that later) and the Museum of Arts and Sciences. On the way home, this was the conversation:

B: You're going to stay for dinner, right Nikki???

Me: Excuse me??

B: Nikki can stay for dinner, right?

Me: What are you cooking??

B: Okay, we'll cook. We'll make macaroni and cheese.

Me: And what meat?

A: Kielbasa!!!

Me: And what vegetable?

B: Oh. What do we have?

Me: String beans and brussels sprouts.

B: String beans.

So we stopped at Publix on the way home to pick up the kielbasa, and the three of them made dinner. Not quite what I had planned, but hey, I didn't have to make it!

Slow but steady progress

We made some serious progress on the boys' rooms today. I spent just about the entire day going through their toys with them. Jonathan especially was willing to weed out the toys he no longer uses. His room now looks like this:


We have a basket full of toys to give away...

And this pile of things that need to be put in their proper places. I found all sorts of goodies - dice, yahtzee jr. pieces, barrel of monkeys, and tons of battleship pegs. We also threw away any toys that were remotely broken.

I sorted through the piles of outgrown clothing and now they are in neat stacks waiting to be put away in the garage.

Benjamin and Alexander's room now has a complete floor you can see. They played in it all afternoon. We also walked to Home Depot to pick out paint colors. They want bright red, bright blue, bright green, and bright yellow. Good thing this is not a democracy and we have the final say!

A house in chaos

Being spring break, we decided to take advantage of the time and get some housework done. Specifically, we are changing the boys' rooms. We have two bedrooms to work with. Currently, all three boys reside in one, while their toys reside in another. As of tomorrow, Benjamin and Alexander will share one, while Jonathan will have the smaller room to himself.

This changing involves quite a lot of chaos. Our first task was to disassemble Jonathan's bunk bed, which is a task in itself. It is now sitting in our garage and listed on Craig's List. Then we began the task of going through all of their clothes. Another gigantic task. Now there are clothes all over the house in different piles, waiting to be put away.

This is the pile of outgrown or unwanted clothes from Benjamin and Alexander. They have an exorbitant amount of clothes. It's almost embarassing. They have gotten many either as gifts or hand-me-downs, but it got to the point where Alexander couldn't fit his pj's into his drawer. He probably had 15 pair - WAY more than he needs, for sure.

Tonight we are going through the stuffed animals. How three boys ended up with four laundry baskets of stuffed animals, I'll never know. But after tonight, I guarantee you there will be many many less!!

Full of Rage!!!

Tonight Jeff Wedge came over to play Rage, a fun card game that can really piss you off! Which explains the title.

Jonathan has "played" with us before, getting his own hand of cards and throwing some in. Tonight, however, was different. He played on his own for the first time. He even bid for himself. Despite a disasterous bid the first round, he rallied and WON the game. Yup, he beat his parents, his brothers, and Jeff. He was very proud and we have the pictures to prove it. Here he is holding the score card!

Jonathan and Jeff