Thankful Day 9

One thing I am always Thankful for is the time spent on "projects" with Parker. Yesterday when he woke up from nap I asked if he wanted to help me make some "special" Playdough.

Helping Mommy in the kitchen is always fun when he gets to stand on his stool and mix!

Our first batch - green Playdough!

He got to help add the color for the second batch...blue!

Working hard with his "special" Playdough.

When Riley woke up from nap about 15 minutes later we put her in her chair and gave her some Playdough to play with. The first thing she did was put it in her mouth...

"Mommy! That silly Riley is eating the Playdough!"
Well, Parker that is ok, because it is made of Peanut Butter!
Parker was much less interested in playing with it once he figured out he could EAT it!

We decided it was important to round out our snack with some Graham Crackers, because the idea of the kids eating a cup of peanut butter mixed with two cups of powdered sugar and half a cup of honey made even my stomach hurt a bit. 

We saved about 75% of the Playdough for another day...

So Thankful for my little ones who love our DIY projects at home - especially when the result is so tasty!

Thankful Day 8

There are a lot of things to be Thankful for living in this area. And one that we continue to always be Thankful for is our ability to go on such great adventures and spend time in some amazing museums. Yesterday we decided to go and visit the dinosaurs at the Natural History Museum!

First stop - the metro. Checking out the "snow pushers" that are getting ready for the winter. Anything looking somewhat like construction equipment is a big hit!

 The metro by myself with two kids is always an adventure. Add in some "track problems" on the red line that caused quite a backlog all morning, and it makes for a little bit of a stressful experience. Once we got off the train it was time for a quick snack before we go exploring!

Although all the bones are interesting, the dioramas are what really interest Parker.

 Hands-on display of fossils, dinosaur teeth, and footprints!

 Time for a quick stop by the fish tanks. We love all the fish - especially the Nemo and Dory ones!

On this adventure we did something extra special - went inside the butterfly room. They have over 50 different species of butterflies flying all over the large, hot, humid room.
We had to make sure we didn't step on any butterflies...
But we got to watch some eat fruit nectar from melons and pineapple.

Parker kept asking me if all the butterflies were real - they are. Hundreds and hundreds of them. Everywhere. Landing on you. Flying by your head. Have I mentioned I don't like bugs? Especially flying ones. But it was really interesting, and some were really pretty.

Parker really liked the ones that would land on the floor or on the rocks and just stay still flapping their wings. He would blow on them a bit to make their wings move...

Out of the butterfly room and playing by the mammal skeletons. Riley was happy to be out of the buggy and climbing around. I keep telling her if she only would learn to walk she wouldn't have to hang out in the BOB all the time!

It was a great adventure topped off with a great lunch date with Daddy. As always, you could spend hours in any of these museums and never feel like you saw everything. I am sure we will be back many more times. So I am also Thankful that admission is free!

Thankful Day 7

I am very Thankful that we have found such a wonderful preschool for Parker. He has such loving, wonderful teachers and he looks forward to each school day and playing with friends. I really love when he comes home with little gems like this one:

It reminds me of a video we have of Uncle Jim singing his own Turkey song at Grandma Sterr's house...

Thankful Day 6

Today I am Thankful for Bathtime Silliness. Who doesn't love a good bath at the end of a long day of playing. At our house bathtime can be quite an adventure. 

Now that Riley is big enough to play in the bath Parker likes to play with her, so they will often take a bath together. Parker calls this the Baby Bubble Cone Hat...

But, if babies don't need baths he will take one up in his bathroom, and if Mommy is in charge there is sometimes bath paint. It is always fun, until the end when the water is a murky brown of mixed paint colors.

More baby cone heads. This is a common occurrence, poor girl.

No standing in the tub Riley!

Sometimes we even get the special treat of a tub with friends, always good to have someone new to play with. And it is a lot calmer without those crazy boys!

 Boys can have their own bath - and do all that dumping that the baby sisters don't enjoy as much.

And on some very rare occasions she gets the bath and the bath toys all to herself. Although sometimes she looks at me like "ok, is this all? I need some more excitement in here" Who wouldn't love to get to spend 30 minutes every night playing in a bubble bath? I may not get to lounge in the tub, but spending bath time with these little ones does make me very Thankful.

Thankful Day 5

Today I am Thankful for wonderful Fall weather. We have had a bit of a cold snap here the last few days, but we can't let that keep us from getting out and playing! The time change has also made us have to change our routine a little bit - no more staying at the park until 6PM if we don't want to be walking home in the dark! But, we were able to head down to the Fire Park for some play yesterday after nap.

Riley is getting big enough to check out what this Fire Truck thing is all about.

Parker rode is scooter to the park, but asked me to carry it on the BOB on the way home so he could kick the leaves. The picture is a little blurry because I was rushing to keep up!

The best part about Fall weather? The beautiful fire built by Daddy for us all to enjoy. Our first fire of the season and it was toasty warm in our house all evening!

Thankful Day 4

Parker's preschool is a little over a mile and a half from our house so I have started to run there on school mornings when the weather cooperates. It is a great opportunity to get some fresh air and get a workout it before the crazy parts of the day take hold. Today was our first really chilly day. The morning news said our temps were 34 degrees with a 28 degree wind chill. I think they were exaggerating, it didn't seem that cold. But we bundled up nice and warm for the BOB ride down to school.

So today I am very Thankful for my run buddies. They keep me entertained on cold mornings and don't complain about the slow ride to school. 

And an extra thanks to Eve for the great hat and mittens for Riley and Cole for the "fast" shoes for Parker, they make the ride much more tolerable.

Thankful Day 3

Around the Culver House Sunday is always Funday Sunday. Sometimes we venture out on an adventure, and sometimes we just find fun at home. This weekend we had some chores to do around the house so we stayed home for Sunday Funday. Amazingly, the Fall Back of daylight savings time did not effect our little ones. They still slept until 7:45 (which would have been 8:45 the day before) and everyone got an extra hour of sleep! Yay!

Good morning Riley! Please don't mind my snot - I have a bit of a cold. But still a happy baby! Who wouldn't love Panda pjs?

The boys had some wood chopping to do. Daddy and Mr. Andrew from next door collected so much wood this summer that we see many fireplace nights ahead!

The wood chopping man chore rules: Daddy chops, Parker stacks.

What a great helper! Daddy bought a new wood rack and Parker helped him put it together. Now we have a nice big stack of wood drying in the patio so it is ready for our first fire night.

In between his stacking duties Parker took some time to pedal around on his bike...Super Fast of course.

Trying to help with man chores...sorry little lady, we have lady chores inside to attend to...

Riley decided she would rather read to Chance than help with chores. Oh well, I don't think laundry is that exciting either.


So, on Day 3 of our Thankful project I am so very Thankful for my little family and our Sunday Funday adventures. Even if we are at home doing chores, we are still making memories.