messed up drawing contest

for FHE tonight we told the story of the good Samaritan by each saying a sentence and then passing it on to the next person...  we got through the story with several laughs and (I think) a good moral at the end.  We learned to never leave a dying man on the side of the road... and never include your superhero-obsessed 3 year old in a retelling of a Bible classic, unless you want Hulk, Captain America and Iron Man to beat up all the bad guys... which actually might be a better version than the original.?

We were still feeling the pass-it-along vibe into our activity and decided to have a drawing experiment.  We took 5 sheets of paper and folded them each into five sections.  Everyone started out drawing a head (only) and then folded the paper over and passed it along to the next person.  They couldn't see the section above, but had to continue drawing the next body part by only connecting the last lines of the picture.  After passing it five times, we each drew a different part of the body on all five papers.  Fortunately, out of all five drawings only one weenie made it's debut.. (along with a fart, a man who peed his pants, a couple of big booties and 4 hairy legs.)

The green head is Ben's (we made him change to a pencil after the first round.)  The peace sign is Zack's along with the weenie.. he's learning about how to be 'appropriate' in his art..  and the stinky balernia feet (slash Medusa slash chewbacca) are Luke's.  Simon was busy drawing on paper of his own.. he would not pass his drawings... (still learning to share :)

We got a good laugh over these crazy characters and after it was all said and done, the boys asked, "Can you please put these in our family yearbook for 2012?"  Yes, yes, I will.  And thank you for noticing how well I document your lives, dear children.

tennis with the Newsomes

My perfect night includes good friends and conversation.
Aaron's perfect night includes tennis.  He prefers to be playing it, but doesn't mind watching... as long as it's past world champions (namely Jim Courier, Michael Chang, John McEnroe and Andre Agassi.)
Lucky for us, our perfect nights collided!  The Champion Tennis Tournament was in Vegas and so were the Newsomes.  We've had this night planned for months.  So grateful nothing came up and we were actually able to make it happen!

Phyleen and Jonas are friends from high school.  They didn't really date, but I had a class with Jonas and he would always talk to me about how Phyleen was the perfect girl for him.  I love to see a true love story come to pass.  I adore this dear friend of mine.  She is sweet, funny, real, confident, down-to-earth and beautiful (inside and out.) We talked and talked and talked and got in trouble, even though we were whispering with our heads together.  We watched a little tennis too, but the conversation was just to good to sit and be quiet.

  

 Our husbands are both huge tennis fans and they are soon going to be BFFs too.  We sat on the 4th row and saw sweat dripping off of the tennis players faces.  It was perfect (but just a little cold, I had to wear Aaron's jacket like a snuggie.)

Andre Agassi is a Vegas hero.  We have seen firsthand the changes he has made to the community and worship him like the rest of the world.  He is amazing.  This is the third time we've been privileged to watch him play.. He is not an old man on the court..  

 At the end of the night, Andre was struggling in the last match, trying to outplay Jim Courier.  On match point, Phyleen yelled out "Finish him!" Everyone laughed, but Andre turned in our direction, looked and Phyleen and said, "I know, right?"  Her proud husband was beaming.  It was a perfect end to the best date ever.  Can't wait to hang with the Newsomes again soon (Indian Well tourney, here we come!)

Color Me Rad

we ran a the Color Me Rad 5K this weekend with our kids. 

It was perfect weather and such a great family fun time.

All of our boys loved it, especially Simon.  

We brought a jogging stroller for Roma and thought Simon would ride too, 

but the kid is an athlete and went the distance!  

Zack Luke and Ben could have done another 3 miles if it meant they could get sprayed more.

We definitely want to do it again.

We came home and made a big blueberry pancake breakfast... and then showered.

(Our kids were THAT hungry.)

Everyone cleaned up quickly and it was so nice to shower!

I had major colors in my cleavage (tmi?) 

It was a busy Saturday, but that's just the way we like 'em!  

*more pictures to come, for some reason, my computer won't upload...

nap time blues

After a day of hiking (yes, he did everything the big boys did with a little help from his brothers) Simon was exhausted on Friday afternoon.  *this was one of my favorite moments of the hike-- watching Ben and Luke carefully get Simon down the mountain.  I was right there to help, but they stayed behind and made sure he was safe.  Love my boys!

I thought he would fall asleep on the drive home or easily on his bed after lunch..  wishful thinking.  This kid will go and go and go until you physically sit on him and tell him to stop.  I had a screaming baby and an overly tired toddler, which is actually something I deal with often.  Instead of laying down next to Simon, I stayed at the top of the stairs and told him he needed to stay in his bed.  Roma was crying in her crib and he just couldn't stay put... which escalated into a full-blown tantrum.  I decided to pull out my phone towards the end of it because I knew I would want it documented. So glad I did.



This might look like a silly tantrum, but it's in fact a very wise debate on the part of my little man trapped in a three year olds body.  He wanted to go downstairs and he explains that if he doesn't go downstairs three things could happen:  #1 he could get lost, #2 he might have to die, and #3 he will run away and never come back.  What is brilliant about these consequences is that they are all things that Simon thinks would make ME sad.  He knows they would pull at MY heart strings... and this is exactly why I am laughing while talking to him.  I admire the way he debates.  None of them were valid arguments, as I try to point out, but I just love the way his mind works.  Manipulative little boy, but also very cute.

forest school

to say we are having a good time at home during school hours is an understatement..

for several months ago, Jane brought up an idea of starting a forest school with our boys... "an innovative educational approach to outdoor play and learning."  And because I was already planning on having the majority of this school year's curriculum from the boy scout merit badge requirements, I thought it would be awesome to combine the two ideas.  We invited a few of our neighboring homeschooling friends and before we knew it, my van was FULL of little boys (+Roma) and we were on our way to Red Rock Canyon.

We spent the first hour in a "classroom" setting, meaning we sat in a beautiful meadow without any classroom walls and talked about ecosystems, biomes, animal habitat and the food chain!  Each of the kids brought their own outdoor journal, and took some quiet time to write in it and enjoy the perfect outdoor weather.  I set a timer on my phone and told the boys not to talk while we listened to the sounds around us... and was amazed at how quiet they could be (aside from Simon who announced when he's quiet, his tummy gets sick.)  Jane took the little ones aside and sang songs and kept them occupied.. it was exactly the kind of classroom environment I want for my kids!  At the end of the hour, we hit the hiking trails and mountainous rocks!  These little boys were in heaven!

.
(for some reason my pictures aren't uploading... coming soon.  My laptop is having issues....)

Can't wait for our future outdoor adventures in forest school!