M is for Marbles and M&M's

Every other Wednesday we have some friends over to do some fun crafts and play. This one was an easy one. I didn't get any pictures of them doing it, too busy helping, but it's so simple.

Put a piece of paper in a box (or you could use a pan, just something with high sides) put drops of paint in it and then put marbles in and let them swirl it around. They have fun wiggling around watching the marbles roll through the pant and it looks pretty cool if you have a good color combo.

Later in the day we had made a marble run which the boys have loved playing with.

Though this time Max freaked out for some random reason. Who knows.

I'm horrible, sometimes I just love to take pictures of the pouting, it's so funny! What silly faces. Just realized it was M day, maybe he was trying to show me what MAD looked like.

Just. Can't. Help. Myself.

The next day (many times one letter is done over 2-3 days) we did an M&M counting game I found online where they graphed how many of each color M&M's they had in. They dug it and actually showed some self restraint until they were done when the sucked them up as fast as they could.

M words for the day: Mat, max, mom, moo, men, man, mill, mix, mop, mad, mitt, mow, mug

S is for Slide, Sun and Strawberries

The sun finally decided to make an appearance so for S day we made sun pictures which were really easy. Just took a piece of construction paper and found some leaves and other items from the yard and left them in the sun for a few hours. Afterwards they left a 'shadow'. Very easy and very cool.

 After that we picked some of our strawberries from the yard. For some reason it's so much better when you grow it yourself. Probably not really in a side by side test but it sure feels like that.

Then the day we've been waiting for, SLIDE!!!!!!!  Jason has been working hard on getting the fort made and ready to go but was kind of stalled because we were looking around for a good deal on a slide. Turns out they're not easy to come by because firstly you can't find many slides on craigslist or other places that's not attached to an already existing structure. Most slides are made for a typical 5 foot structure (we needed 7 which is harder to come by) and they just are hard to find.

So because we couldn't find a used slide at a good deal and things were at a standstill (you need the slide to figure out the other parts) I told Jason if we didn't I was just going to buy one new cause I'd been save for such an occasion. So we ended up going with the higher quality nicer, more durable slide. I knew the boys weren't going to be easy on it. We actually found the best deal on amazon and they told us it was arriving in a big truck. The boys were very excited to see it.

When dad got home he set it up so the boys could test it. Yeahoo!

 

That night two of my best friends from high school were visiting and one brought his son Sawyer. Isn't he cute?

S words: sun, sit, sat, sam, same, six, sad, so, sill, said, soap, saw, see, set, son, she

Through the Decades

 A couple weekends ago we went to the beach to celebrate Cheryl's 50th b-day. Everyone was there so I took some family pictures out on the beach.

 I love these brothers.

 We found found a moat thing someone had started and decided to finish it up. The boys loved it and Levi kept talking about building homes for creatures and that they were going to love it!

 Meanwhile back at the ranch, I mean cabin......Emily had put together a fun evening with an event for every decade Cheryl's been alive (also each family had a decade they were supposed to dress up as. We were the 60's and the boys and Jason were in a band which is why the boys had matching shirts and originally dark pants and sports coats. They looked dashing)

I'm not sure which decade it was but there was fondue and it was great. Mmmm. Sophie thought so.

Max agreed (at least to the chocolate part, he doesn't care much for marshmallows)

 I took his picture then showed him this one.

 His reaction to seeing his picture (oh gosh!)

 The big boys even liked it. Oh, Monte's outfit was the best. I think he was 90's and had super baggy pants and boxers hanging out.

 

70's are back!

Hipster Seth.

For the 80's there were classic video games

 

Guess who dressed up for this decade?

 90's. One word. Tae-bo. Yeah! 

 The boys loved it,

 Then the kids made up their own moves which mostly involved them wiggling around and rolling on the floor.

Happy Birthday Cheryl, we are SO happy to have you in our family and I'm always amazed how sweet and wonderful you are with the boys, how you are constantly thinking of us and how many of my dishes you have done. We are all so lucky to have you!