Easy-Peasy Cereal Box Marble Run

I recently ran across a fun DIY game that took me 10 minutes (literally) to make and required supplies that I had already around the house. I can't keep that one to myself, can I? It's a cereal box marble run and my older two kids have loved it, especially Isaac (once I convinced him that I would not tolerate throwing the marbles all over the toy room, that is). It isn't nearly as fancy as the marble games that Ryan's dad collects, but we do what we can :). It is a special toy that they get to play with when baby brother is sleeping, since the marbles are too small for his safety at this age.

Here is the link to the easy-peasy-make-it-yourself-toy. Hope your kids love it as much as mine do.

 

Broken or Spoken?

In this video Isaac and Maddie are singing the primary song, "Love is Spoken Here." It is their current bedtime request, so they hear it just about every night. Isaac sings "love is broken here" instead of "love is spoken here." I'll try not to read into what that means about how he feels about his childhood...and poor Maddie sounds like a barking seal with her horrible cough.


Here is a video of Big D. He loves to stand on his own but prefers to belly flop when he gets tired or excited instead of trying to take a step or two.

La Casita

Upon coming back to Iowa for these last four months before Ryan graduates, we found a little house that has been perfect for our family, and the landlord was even willing to let us sign a short-term lease.

I can't tell you how much I love being in a house! I am trying to live it up since we have no idea what our living arrangements will be during residency. Here are a few pictures of my favorite things about our new casita:

Our little baby blue house.

The kitchen nook is one of my favorite parts of the house. During the day I love to pull up all the blinds, and I can't wait to open up the windows when it gets warmer.

There is a mudroom as you walk through the front door. The kids love keeping their shoes on all the benches.

This little runny-nosed guy loves racing his cars all over the house. Like most crawlers, he loves the bathroom and makes a b-line for the potty every time the door is accidentally left open (which is all.the.time).

I spend a lot of time in the kitchen, so I love that this one has so much cupboard space. I'm pretty sure that dishwasher you see was the very first model ever built. It sounds like Cape Canaveral throughout the entire house every time we run it, but it washes dishes like a champ. Quite certain it isn't energy-efficient. 

From the Mouth of My Babe...

Last night Isaac said the following prayer with Ryan before going to bed:

 "...and thank you that Jesus died for us so we can be happy, and thank you that Lightning McQueen is a really fast race car..." All in one breath. Love it.

Ike on his sister's pink scooter. Thank you 50 degree Iowa weather. Feels like 70!

Handprint Hearts

My friend Megan introduced me to this blog recently, and I loved the handprint heart idea. I am not into painting much, but I decided I needed to branch out and give this one a try. It turned out to be a lot of fun and the kids were big fans of finger painting, so it looks like we are into it now.

Here is Maddie, prepped with her apron and ready to crack open the paint. Not sure why but I love this picture of her.

Ike's favorite colors right now are red (think Lightning McQueen) and pink (think pink is almost like red and red is like Lightning McQueen--don't tell him pink is only for girls...). Since he got to use both colors for his heart, he was thrilled.

They are currently decorating our fridge. I wrote things I love about them around the outside edges. 

Maddie finger-painting after we finished the hand prints. 

Helping decorate mini cupcakes for some of Maddie and Isaac's Valentines.

This week we attempted what I once thought would be completely insane: Putting all three kids in one room together. So far it's actually working out! Ike's old room is now the toy room. We did this for two reasons: 1) The toy room gets really cold at night and we found ourselves piling tons of blankets on the poor boy in hopes of keeping him warm, and 2) we wanted a room where the kids can play and keep the toys (somewhat) contained. They love sleeping in the same room and I love having the extra room for the kids to play. Win/Win, baby.

 Crossing my fingers that this one keeps working!