Grayson's visit!

Grayson and his family came to visit and stayed with us from Saturday to Monday.  It was a great visit and the kids had tons of fun.

Many forts were built in the living room.

Grayson tried to teach them how to play Pokemon.

Bedtime snack is always a fun time.

Plus a trip to Marbles!

Then some more fort building...

A little iPad time...

Don't forget bedtime stories and a sleepover!

Some painting at the kitchen table...

And then, oops, Grayson put the toy that mimics burs in Alice's hair. It was a bit of an operation to get it all out.

Then Grayson  and his family left after lunch, and Alice cried for 20 minutes.

Around 7:30 that night, Simon said, "Where's Brie?" (That's Grayson's little sister, that Simon called "the Bay-bay" the whole time.)

Simon's picture story

Simon is really into making "books" right now. He'll do some pictures and then staple them together. Half the time at bedtime he just wants to read his own books rather than actual books. In this case, he just chose one piece of paper that wasn't even a book.

New water bottles!

The kids were pretty happy about their new water bottles they received in the mail from Grandma Cam!

Simon kept freaking out when Alice put her arm around him, so this was her solution.

Zac's birthday #39

I used the ten-frames concept from Alice's math homework to design Zac's cake.  Then Zac took the kids to marbles while I did laundry and wrapped his presents.  Apparently Alice made a friend right away, so the trip was easy.

 

Alice and Parker spent the rest of the evening planning their birthday parties and presents.

Simon's present making

In the days leading up to Zac's birthday, Simon made a lot of "presents" for Zac. He would take paper and crumple it around random objects and have Zac unwrap it. At some point, he upped his game to include tape, but he had a tough time managing the tape dispenser. We would find abandoned wads of tape all over the study.

Science Museum

It had not gotten above freezing all week, and we'd been home a lot due to the snow days, so we were desperate to get out. On Saturday I took the kids to the science museum, while Zac stayed home and cleaned the house since Rob and Kate were coming over for supper.  Alice had money to burn, thanks to uncle Tener's indulgence of Alice's art-selling attempts.  So we spent half the time in the gift shops.  But the bug area was still a hit, as was the discovery room.

I too feel like I have reached the hardened adult stage of my life cycle.

Simon loved studying the bear paw in the discovery room.

And the bugs!

We stayed a long time and both passed out in the car on the way home.

That evening, Kate and Rob came over.  We had Zac's birthday cake with them (a day early).  After supper the kids played "statues" with them, where the kids posed as whatever Kate called out.

Simon's art

He has been quite prolific lately. 

(I had to convince him it was not appropriate to include private parts in pictures)

My favorite

The cat has a lot of whiskers!

First snow of winter

The kids had been back to school for two days when it started snowing late Wednesday night...

And in the morning we had an inch or two. So of course everything was cancelled and closed for the day.

When we all got too cold, we finally came in. Simon built a wall.

Simon's ferris wheel

A uniquely decorated tree

On New Year's Day, we took down the Christmas tree, and documented some of the non-traditional ornaments the kids had put on it throughout the holiday season.

Exhibit A: Magnet toy, unshrunk shrinky-dink bug, clothes pin.

Exhibit B: Glow stick necklace, no longer glowing.

Exhibit C: Present ribbon and decorated clothes pin with rubber band.

Exhibit D: Magnet clip from refrigerator.

Exhibit E: Bracelet given to Alice by a friend at school.

Exhibit F: Picture drawn by Alice

Exhibit G: Lots of ribbon.

The tree has left the building.

Simon and his Lincoln Logs

Simon started off 2018 by building a house all on his own in the morning while we were still sleeping. He was very proud that he remembered how to do it on his own.