Marches

I'm sure it comes as no surprise to anyone who knows us that we like music a lot. We have a huge CD collection and the boys have tons of musical instruments (which get played an awful lot around here!).

Last summer, Gene decided to make a CD of marches (mostly John Philip Sousa) to celebrate the Fourth of July. Well, we had no idea how that would change our lives. Will fell in love with marches and we listen to that CD every day. There are at least four copies floating around the house, and it's Will's favorite bedtime CD. How many people can fall asleep to marches? Will can, and does, almost every night. In fact, Will suggested that we listen to marches on Christmas morning, and my bewildered brother-in-law just asked, "Why would we do that?" Of course, Will's answer would be that marches are always appropriate music for any occasion.

This week, Gene and I went to see The Band of the Irish Guard at Jones Hall. They were amazing! The band members were out and about before the concert and during intermission, and I was not the only one to have her picture taken with a member of the Guard. They were good sports.

The concert was really good, but I watched the whole thing through Will's eyes. I so wish my little boy had been able to come with us. He would have been so excited to see a real live marching band, but a 7:30 pm concert just doesn't work for a three-year-old.

Since we couldn't take Will to the concert, we took the concert to him (via a program and a new CD). I have to say, we weren't sure how Will would like the CD, mostly because he can be very particular about his music, and he doesn't always like new things. So we are very excited to report that we now have a second marching CD to add to our rotation. In this picture, Will is showing that song number 2 is playing.

Henry enjoyed flipping through the program.

And of course, we can't have all these marching songs without having our very own marching parades around the house.

I'm not sure if I'll be a soccer mom, but I'm pretty certain I'll become a marching band mom one of these days!

Pillow Fight!

Have you read If You Give a Pig a Party by Laura Numeroff? It's a current favorite at our house.At one point in the story, the little pig and all her friends decide to have a pillow fight.
After reading the story, Will decided that we needed to start our very own pillow fight, but he didn't quite know how it worked. When I first threw some pillows down on the floor, Will jumped up on them and started stomping around. In the book, the animals are literally flying off the pillows and I think Will thought he could manage that too.
Since there will be no flying at our house, I try to keep the pillow fights rather tame. I just toss the pillows toward the boys, they catch them, and then they usually run around and fall down on their own.

I guess it's less pillow fight, and more pillow play. That is, until Daddy gets involved. As you can see, Gene plays a bit rougher than I do.

The boys just love their pillow fights. Can you guess what game I'll be playing after dinner tonight?

Nature Boy, Take 2

Will had his second Tadpole Troopers class at the Houston Arboretum on Saturday. This is special Will and Daddy time, but Will hasn't been super into the class just yet. He's warming up though. This time he even got his name tag on, entered the classroom, and went on the nature walk.

Do you remember the sad face Will made during his first class? I wasn't too sure how this day would go, so I was very happy when Gene sent me this photo of my smiling boy.

During Saturday's class, the kids examined weird insects. Will got to hold a beetle and see a hissing cockroach! He still refused to do the craft, but we're making progress. After class, he explored the hands-on area at the Arboretum.

Can you guess where Will wanted to go for lunch? Yep, Kim Son, just like last month. He loves that orange chicken. And the fortune cookies. His fortune read, "Your curious nature will take you somewhere special." Ah, how appropriate for my curious little explorer!

And now he knows they serve lemonade at Kim Son too. Lemonade is a special treat at our house. I think this was the third time Will has ever had it. Apparently one of the little boys in his class has lemonade often at snack time. Will just says, "I guess his mom doesn't know it's special."

But this was a special day, and it definitely called for a tall cup of special lemonade.

Forked

Have you ever seen the TV show Chopped on the Food Network? It's a reality cooking competition in which four chef contestants are given baskets of mystery ingredients and only thirty minutes in which to prepare first an appetizer, then an entree, and finally a dessert. The mystery ingredients can be quite strange and don't always work together. For example, what would you make with watermelon, canned sardines, zucchini and pepper jack cheese? Hmmm, I don't know either! So, you can see how Chopped can be quite entertaining to watch.

The logo is a huge cleaver sticking out of the word "Chopped." After each round, one contestant is chopped, and as they walk out of the kitchen, there is a huge cleaver sticking out of the wall. Yikes.

In our house, no one gets chopped after cooking a mediocre meal (thank goodness!), but we do, on occasion, have a utensil sticking out of the kitchen table. Do you see the fork?

Fortunately, in our case, it doesn't mean that Will disliked the food (as it would in Chopped). It just means he got tired of using his fork and needed a handy place to put it.

So, if you've ever wondered why we are still using Gene's ancient Ikea table with mismatched chairs, wonder no more. It's because we've been forked.

The Best Daddy Ever

Not only is he a great cook, but Gene is also a topnotch rescuer of flyaway balloons. Will got this balloon at his Valentine's party last week and of course the boys let it float up to our two-story ceiling.

I tried to rescue it with a broom, but gave up very quickly. Gene was a bit more resourceful. He broke out his golf clubs, and slowly but surely grabbed the balloon and moved it along til it could be reached from the top of the stairs.

I had no idea golf clubs had so many uses! I was waiting at the top of the stairs and grabbed the balloon once Gene had moved it far enough along. Will exclaimed, "Mommy got it!" (after all of his daddy's hard work!).
Here's Will, waiting with bated breath, and an enormous spider.

Gene did this not once, but three times. What a good daddy!

Rock My Valentine

We spent all of Valentine's Day with the boys and only had our special dinner after they were in bed. In the afternoon, we caught Will grooving along to his Monkey Music CD (from his first birthday), which I thought was appropriate since he was wearing his "Rock My Valentine" t-shirt.

Henry even joined in with some diaper dancing on the couch!
We had so much fun. Did your Valentine's Day rock this year too?

Valentine's Day for the Three-Year-Old Set

Last Friday I got to attend Will's Valentine's party at school.

They ate "snacks," which was really more like lunch. Mini pizzas, grapes, and pretzels plus juice is just Heaven for a three-year-old!

Their "craft" was decorating (and eating) heart-shaped sugar cookies. I think this was the first time Will had conversation hearts, and since he is a sugar junkie, he just loved them!

Their game involved more conversation hearts. They had to sort them by color, which worked well until Will realized he could also just eat them!

Isn't this hat cute? Each kid had one and I really couldn't believe that Will kept it on the entire time!

Here's all the loot the boys brought home.

They will be eating this for weeks!

The Best Valentine's Dinner

Sometimes a memory is a faulty thing. When Gene asked what we should do for Valentine's Day, I just told him he could cook for me, because in my memory, he cooks for me every Valentine's Day. Apparently he does not because last year the four of us went to Tin Roof BBQ. Delicious, but not my sweetie's special Valentine's dinner. In fact, although I remember Gene cooking for me every Valentine's Day, I can actually only recall the menu from five years ago when we spent our first Valentine's Day in this house. So perhaps I just want Gene to cook for me every year...

We got our new dining room table in last week, just in time for our special dinner. Gene dug out our nice china, real silver, and candles!

The first course: tomato bisque. Yum yum yum. This soup was so velvety and rich. I am so glad we have some leftover. I cannot wait for dinner tonight!

The main course: Chateaubriand with Bearnaise sauce and roasted asparagus.

Chateaubriand -- the perfect meat for Valentine's dinner because it only makes enough for two!

The meat was like butter. It melted in our mouths. Just divine. And the Bearnaise sauce? Rich and creamy, it was perfection (and so well done for Gene's first time!).

And dessert: brownies baked in our heart-shaped ramekins, topped with hand-whipped cream.

Gene truly outdid himself this year. From start to finish, this meal was incredible. And the very best part? I woke up this morning to a spotless kitchen! Thanks, honey!

Turbo

Henry started walking a year ago today. Did you see these pics of his first wobbly steps?

Now he doesn't just walk, he runs!

Or rides. And he is super fast.

At least until he reaches an obstacle.

This little outfit couldn't be more perfect for our turbo-charged Henry!

Getting ready for Valentine's Day

If you know me at all, you know I am not a very crafty person, and that certainly extends to the kids' valentines. Normally their classmates just receive Elmo valentines from the store. This year Will came home with a note from his teacher that made me think I needed to put some extra effort into making cards (or at least that Will needed to actively participate in the process!). We got out the glue, scissors and pencils and were all set to craft away!

First, Will had the list of his classmates and he was supposed to cut out all their names, since the kids are working on "beginning scissor skills." Will did great but I was helping him so I didn't get a picture. But you can see from the end result that he actually did all the cutting himself!

I bought blank white cards and wrote the phrase "No bones about it -- you are top dog!"on it to go along with the Scooby Doo dog-bone-shaped graham crackers I bought. After cutting out all the names, Will signed his name on every single card. He is getting so good at this, but clearly we need to work some more on how to hold a pencil!

Next we glued the names on the cards, which was not as messy as you might expect. I could hardly believe it, but the table was completely glue-free by the end of the project!

This is the final product. Cute, right? And it was so much fun too!

And for Henry's class, I stole an idea from a friend and bought inexpensive flatware sets at Target (love that dollar spot!) and taped leftover Elmo valentine cards from last year onto them with a little note that says "It's Valentine's Day soon. Eat treats with your new fork and spoon!" 

I hope your Valentine's festivities are as fun as ours have been! Happy Valentine's Day!