March 2013

March was a busy month!  The weather was still not warm, but we managed to get outside quite a bit. We got to go to Portland to visit cousins.  That was a lot of fun and we spent time in museums and around the house with them.  From Oregon we flew to DC to visit Dad.

The month started off with snow!  There wasn't enough to do much in it, but the boys took advantage of the last snowfall before getting ready for spring.  It's just fun to play in I guess.

The boys made a little "house" on the corner of the deck.  They have fun playing with random things they can find in and around the yard.

Transporting snow in the truck.

A variety of pictures the boys made one morning.  They enjoy paint.

Patterns!  If Justin does it, Ryan wants to do it too.

Once again, Ryan must do what Justin does.  :)

Justin has trouble with these words for some reason.  Maybe a bit of glitter glue will help glue them in his head.

I would explain this picture, but I don't know that I can.  Justin has made up some sort of game.  He loves using dice, spinners, game boards, and random toys to make all sorts of games to play.  Creativity can be a bit of a mess sometimes.

At Justin's school the boys participated in a balloon race.  Note: do NOT overinflate the balloons.  When they pop, it can scare everyone!

Ryan, Justin, and I went with my mom to the Mobius Science Museum in Spokane.  We had gone there with Rob in January.

St Patrick's Day is as exciting as other holidays.  The boys spent days working on their leprechaun traps.  This was our second year trying to catch a leprechaun.  We were still unsuccessful. :(

One of many leprechaun traps.

Yet another trap.

A simple trap with a note promising treasure.

Justin sorted 3-D shapes by color and shape.  He then multiplied to find out how many there were all together.  Ryan, Justin, and I looked for 2D and 3D shapes in the environment and they took pictures of some they found around the house.

Tinkertoys are always fun to build with.

Justin sequenced the "I have, who has" cards using his math skills.

We went to Oregon to visit our cousins.  They played a little ball in the backyard.

Justin found that he likes marshmallows beter straight out of the bag.  It's nice to sit by the fire though.

We made paper rockets and shot them off of a pvc pipe launcher attached to an air compressor.

November 2012

November was a busy month for travel!  Rob arrived from Namibia right before Halloween and just got time to settle in before Kathryn and her parents left for Brooklyn.  Meredith married her partner, Jordan, and Rob was left behind in Idaho with the kids for a few days.  When Kathryn returned to Idaho, she did laundry and packed for the family trip to Seattle to see Grandma and Grandpa Weber.  From there we drove on to Portland to see Cho, Amy, and cousins.  

 

Fast food is still a bit of a novelty after being in Namibia.  Ryan loved his Burger King crown and the Mario moustache "prize" from his meal.

Justin finally found a tree that he could climb.  Grandma and Papa have a lot of trees, they are just primariliy really tall pine trees.  The cherry tree is a cinch to get up and down.  The boys thought climbing was more fun than raking.  Who can blame them?

Yep, we ate out again.  Ryan wrote IHOP on the back of the kids menu.  IHOP is a favorite with the boys.

We stayed near the Space Needle in Seattle.  The boys liked riding the monorail.  The driver let them sound the horn before we left.  They thought that was cool.  Grandma Weber joined us in Seattle and then we drove out to their house in Port Hadlock, WA.  The boys enjoyed the ferry.

The dinosaur exhibit at the Pacific Science Center was one of many cool exhibits.  We spent many hours at the museum and the boys would probably move in if they had the opportunity.

Seattle Aquarium is not really worth the visit in my opinion.  Perhaps we have been to too many really good aquariums.  The boys loved playing with the aquatic themed flannel board more than checking out the exhibits.  There were a few interesting things though.

I thought that the boys would enjoy seeing the diver cleaning the giant tank in the aquarium.  They wanted to move through at a rather fast pace.  A bit surprising since aquariums are generally popular with them.

Justin enjoyed the window seat Grandma and Grandpa Weber have in their living room.  It would be fun to have a little reading and writing nook for him to settle in.

In Oregon the boys enjoyed playing Pokemon with their cousins.  They really enjoyed just about everything as long as they could be with their cousins.  I wish we lived a little bit closer.

Cho and Soup at the OMSI.  Science can be a hair raising experience.  We go to the OMSI almost every time we go to Portland. 

Krispy Kreme is always an important stop when we visit cousins in Portland.

My kids don't like pizza, but they love Out of This World Pizza, which they call Pizza Planet.  It has so much for them to do and the pizza is decent which is nice for the adults. :)

Back in Coeur d Alene I took the boys out for an eagle watching picnic.  We saw a few eagles and had a great time despite the cold weather. 

August 2012

     Here is what I just found (Oct 7) as my August draft.  I guess I will just post about the pics I have here rather than get further behind assuming I will catch up sometime.

     We arrived in Idaho the first of the month and enjoyed a lot of time just hanging out, watching TV, and enjoying the summer with Grandma and Papa. :)

 

Liquid watercolors on paper and large coffee filter.  The boys had a lot of fun.  They especially enjoyed having glitter in it.

We went to pick peaches at an orchard in Washington.  The peaches were absolutely delicious!  I couldn't believe how many the boys would try to eat.  Mean ole Mom limited them somewhat.

Cousins came to visit from Oregon!  That was the highlight of the month.  Here are Soup and Ryan on a swing at Fernan Elementary School on the playground.

The kids had a blast at the beach.  They swam, they ate, they played in the sand, they splashed...  Here Ryan is looking a bit like a beached whale up on his float while Justin works in the sand.