Jocks and Nerds

We're on snow day # - Oh! Who am I kidding? I've literally lost count. And if what the boys did on the grass today is any indication of slickness of the roads, we aren't going anywhere for a while. So how do you pass the time with a houseful of rowdy boys? (Besides playing the most complicated board game ever?) Well, if you're Ryan, you resurrect P.E. Here was today's line up:

Upside-down sit-ups:

Push-up position hold contest:

(Some lasted longer than others)

Resistance band work-out:

It was this point that Ryan wished he would've required protective gear - for himself. It's all fun and games 'till someone gets hit in the sweet spot. 

After supper, the Layton Olympics took a more academic turn, with math races.

The winner of each round (and Max - and the loser, if he snuck off fast enough) got to take a victory lap.

We rounded out the evening with family Zumba and our post-Zumba treat: strawberry puppy chow!

I say bring on the snow! I'm loving the together time with my little mathletes!

Lego Table

If you know our boys, then you know there's not much they like better than Legos. The two bigguns, especially, are obsessed! As a result, we have mountains of the tiny pieces. When Reed started becoming interested in Legos, largely due to an impressive collection at Mrs. Pam's day care, I decided to copy Mrs. Pam's organizational strategy for the plastic pieces: store 'em all mishmashed together on a Lego table. I took two end tables, set them side-by-side, hammered a little trim around the surface and, voila, an instant surface to play and store Legos. 

This did not last long. I swear Legos multiply at night (oftentimes on the floor). We soon had two  large storage tubs filled with the bricks under the end tables. The tabletop was still constantly loaded. The only purpose it served was a good place to aim when putting toys away Calvin-style (chucking them in the general direction of some receptacle).  So, this year for Christmas, I made a new, improved Lego table for myself the boys. I basically copied the table top for my pallet desk. I used two 1"x 12" boards, following the same painting technique I used on the pallet desk (red craft paint, sanding, stain/black paint mixture) to achieve rustic, barn-looking wood. I used mending plates to fasten the two boards side by side. Then, I nailed trim on the outside edge of all four sides so there would be a ledge to keep any rogue Ninjas from jumping off unassisted. The table is about eight feet long, so there's plenty of room for all three boys to play.

Whether there's plenty of room for all of their Legos remains to be seen. We still have the two storage tubs under the end tables. At this point you can see some of the surface of the table, which is more than you could say for the last one. However, they still have Christmas money to burn and I know what they'll spend it on. 

I'm not too worried, though. The boys received about 10 Lego sets for Christmas. Guess where they assembled nine of them?



All over the floor...


Linking up to: Hunt and Host: boys' room tour

Last Hurrah

I sort of considered Friday to be our last official day of summer. Sure, we had the weekend, too, but everyone gets those. Plus, we had an anniversary date planned for Sat/Sun, so Friday was the last day the whole fam would be together under one roof. We decided to go out with a bang.

First, I made our favorite breakfast - oaties (we substitute a few glubs of milk for the bananas.)

The morning was pretty relaxed. Ryan and I puttered while the boys chased each other half-dressed with punch balls rubber-banded to their heads, got a chin injury from running into a dresser, and made a tent under Mom's desk. You know, typical stuff. 

Totally staged, if you couldn't tell - and not by me!

After supper,  I needed Ryan to get the boys out of the house so I could set up our surprise. It was surprise I had promised to do since the beginning of the summer, when I found several fun ideas on Pinterest. A surprise they had asked me about no less than 67 times since I mentioned it. (Hinting at a surprise that wont occur within the next 15 seconds? Amateur mommy move #457)

Ryan had planned to take the boys fishing, but it rained all day. So, he took the boys for a drive. When he told them to load up, he said what all dad’s have to say to their kids at 6:30 at night (right?), “Calvin, put some pants on.” And Calvin replied, “Why?” because wearing pants is certainly bucking the fashion trend around here. Ryan said he would prefer if Calvin had pants on for the drive. Then, Reed inquired if he had to wear a shirt. And Max asked if it would be ok for him to “wear pants and a shirt and socks and shoes,” because that’s REALLY breaking the dress code. Calvin put on pants that didn’t match the pirate jammy shirt he was still wearing. Then, when I told him he clashed (why do I even bother!?), he just chucked the shirt off. Finally, they were all ushered to the car with a bare minimum of pants and shoes on. Ryan drove away slowly, and I started rushing to set up the super-secret Ninja course I’d been planning all summer.

When they pulled in about 20 minutes later, I ran out to greet them, frantically asking for help because somebody had kidnapped Ruff Ruff and Giraffey and Sunny and Chocolatey (favorite stuffed animals). Reed almost started to cry. Calvin was ticked. And Max was completely clueless, but mirrored my upset face. They ran up to the porch, where they were met by Ninjas (balloons with washable-markered-on eyes and mouth), who could be defeated by “spraying their faces off.” The boys decided to kill them, too. 

Inside, there were more Ninjas, but swords were close at hand. They enjoyed the rotating Ninjas hanging from the ceiling fan the best. These enemies just got some good solid whacks until they were on the ground. 

The last obstacle was the laser-trapped hallway. Reed took the warning, that lasers would zap you if you touched them, very seriously. Calvin tried his best, but was in more of a fun mode than a danger one. Halfway through, he said, “Thisth isth awesthome!”  Max tried to follow the photographer down the other hallway, and when he was ushered back to the laser hallway, he just barreled through. 

When they emerged safely from the laser tunnel, they met the final bad guy. He was pretty vicious. Max was trailing behind, pretty ticked off about the laser zappage, but once he got untangled, he was the one to deliver the fatal blow to the big bad guy. He whacked him pretty hard with his sword, like only a two-year-old with no inhibitions can. Bad Guy went running, and Max chased down for the kill, while the two bigs untied the poor kidnapped animals.

Bedtime involved loud and excited conversations about the Ninja course and what we could do to make it even better “the next time.” It also involved a lot of trips through the hallway and a good bit of unauthorized laser repair. 

After the heroes were finally clean and jammied, we ate a “midnight” snack of ice cream. Calvin snuck off and grabbed a stool to help him hang a new Ninja from the ceiling for "tomorrow when we do it." 

Saturday night, Ryan and I had a hot anniversary date, while my sister and her husband kept the boys overnight. It was blissfully quiet. Today, we went to our old church and ate out with an old friend. It was ridiculously noisy. Max had to have a time out in the bathroom hall of the restaurant. He yelled at me for the first two minutes. Then we visited a nursing home. Don’t need to tell you how that went down. 

But if I’m honest, I’m gonna miss the chaos a little.

Clothing Optional

As I look at past blog posts and reminisce, it occurs to me that our boys rarely have actual clothes on. They're either in jammies, shirtless, or wearing nothing but their skivvies. In fact, just for fun I went back and labeled all posts illustrating this phenomenon with "clothing optional." Click on the link to this and at the time I type this there are 24 such posts.

So, since I choose to post pictures for the world to see of my kids looking like they live in a third world country, maybe I owe an explanation for why my children are hardly ever fully dressed. Here it is:

- Cuts down on laundry
- No tan lines
- We're just going to strip down to play in the slip-n-slide anyway
- We've got tight little abs to show off
- Stains come out of skin easier than clothing
- It's easier to do tick checks.
- We have to wear clothes to school and day care 5 WHOLE days a week for 9 WHOLE months! Isn't that enough?
- We can chase each other faster without the wind resistance of shorts and/or shirts
- Calvin doesn't have to worry about matching or getting stuff on inside out, backwards, or upside down
- It takes a whole week of near-nakedness to recover from being forced to wear fancy clothes on Sunday (fancy clothes = polo shirts and jean shorts with tennis shoes - pretty high-falutin, I know)

As for me, I just wear T-shirts and shorts for 24-36 hour time periods. I'm assuming you figured out that this list didn't apply to me after reading the fourth item.

Chalk it up to Marital Discord

Yesterday, I blogged about my unending love for my wonderful, amazing husband. Today, I had a knock-down-drag-out with the jerk. It all started when I innocently came out to see if he was ready for lunch just when our entire flock of sheep snuck past him into our yard. I assumed he knew they were out since he was standing right by them. Well, you've probably heard what assuming does to people. And boy did it! Over the next hour or so, the following may or may not have happened (in no particular order) 

- All five family members managed to herd the sheep in nine different directions at least four times before they finally went through the gate. Some of us were giggling. Some of us were not.

- I yelled, “Just TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT ME TO DO AND STOP TALKING TO ME LIKE THAT!!!!!” loud enough that I’m sure the farmers, who were working at the neighboring barn, had to have heard.

- Max told me, “I want you to talk nice.”

- Ryan called me a stupid idiot who doesn’t know anything about animals (well, that’s from the QTV* translation, but it's the most reliable version I'm told)

- I illustrated my animal shepherding logic on a chalkboard to prove that I was NOT a stupid idiot. (If you look closely through the kid-scribbles, you'll see my "strength in numbers" theory being explained with vigorously-drawn arrows)

- I admitted that I HATE animals, and that I always have and always will.

- I asked Reed, “Do you REALLY want to talk to me right now? Really!?” when he started to tell me a story about ___(I don't even know. Insert stupid boy obsession here)______.

We finally cooled down and life went on. Right now, Ryan's kayaking with some friends. I'm sitting on the porch enjoying the 70 degree July weather.The big boys are jumping on the trampoline and play "block the frisbee," which is really just a version of fetch wherein Max is the dog. 

The time apart is precisely what we all need. Summer togetherness is a double-edged sword. 

Just a few minutes ago, though, I was doing "combinations" on the tramp with the scamps. Calvin's combination provided the comic relief we all needed, even though the fight has long been over. His combination was, "Something from real today:"

- Sheep getting away (crawls exaggeratedly across trampoline). 

- Dad yelling for help - (HEY! GET OVER HERE! in manly, slightly disgruntled voice)

- Momma sheep knocking over baby sheep (whacks and rolls)

- Baby sheep gets up and runs (more animated crawling, this time with cute baby sound effects)

- Mom writing on the chalkboard (scribbles in the air and shakes head vigorously)

We had a lot of fun performing that combination! And I can't wait until Daddy gets home so I can tell him about it, and we can have a laugh together!  

*Queen Tobi Version

You Made Jelly Out of WHAT?!

 When my mother-in-law had me try this jelly, I was nervous. Not because she told me what it was made out of. That might have kept me from trying it. No, it was the knowing, expectant look in her eyes and the little green flecks in the jelly that had me skeptical. I was expecting something really weird like jalapeño or something. But it was really good—and normal. Just like peach jelly. Then she told me what the main ingredient was. I couldn’t believe it. Then I saw that it also takes 5 cups of sugar. Pretty sure you could add 5 cups of sugar to broccoli and it’d make a sweet jelly.

Freezer Jelly

6 cups peeled, grated zucchini or squash (yep. Sounds nasty, but you’d NEVER guess.)

2 T lemon juice

1 can (15 ½ oz.) crushed pineapple

1 pkg Sure Jell (fruit pectin – probably in the canning section)

5 c sugar (I started to text my MIL just to confirm this, but it’s fer real)

2 boxes Jell-O

Optional: chunks of fresh fruit

-          Mix zucchini, lemon juice, pineapple, and fresh fruit and cook on low for one hour.

-          Run mixture through blender until smooth.

-          Add Sure Jell and sugar

-          Stir constantly and bring to boil for 3 mn

-          Add Jell-O, return to boil

-          Pour into jars or plastic containers

-          Let your kids help you clean the dishes

-          Leave at room temperature for 24 hrs to set

-          Freeze extra

I’ve made peach, strawberry, and cherry almond (HEAVEN!  Just add almond extract at the end.)  Yum Yum! They're really good in jelly rolls.