Goodnight Moon

We took the boys to see Goodnight Moon at the Dallas Children's Theatre this weekend and they had so much fun! It's definitely one of their favorite books, and they were really intrigued by the play! I would say it was a little bit long for not-quite-two-year-olds, but they did so well sitting in our laps and watching the singing and dancing and silly fun. We will definitely go back to see another show in the future!

 

Gigi & Poppy visit

The boys love visits from Gigi & Poppy :) Here are a few pics from some of their recent visits:

 Watching kids at the fountain outside at lunch - what little boys!

Nerve-wracking! But they thought this was so much fun when Poppy & Aunt La swung them in the laundry basket. :)

Scribbles & Dribbles

We LOVE the Perot Museum! We have a family membership and have been a couple of times to see the exhibits, and we are also enrolled in the Scribbles & Dribbles class, which the boys are crazy about. I am hoping to get a picture of them next time; but we were late to our first 2 classes so there was no time for pics. :) Silly me thought signing up for a 2:00 class would work out, even though the boys usually nap til 2:30. Anyway, we already signed up for the spring class -- even the instructor remarked on how much Ben & Jack seem to enjoy creating! They go straight to the easel to paint when we get there, and had to be talked into finger paints (they must be mine; I always hated to get dirty as a child) but now they dig right in, and know how to wash their hands off afterwards too! Jack loves making handprints and Ben likes blending colors. We also love that a couple of our friends from LECPTA are in the class so we get to see friends.

First day fun :)

Collage day - Aunt La came with us this day to help :)

The children's area is really neat and the boys enjoy running around checking everything out and playing.

They are also wild about the race track, where they can race a cheetah or athlete (we aren't brave enough to try the T-Rex - he's pretty scary). So far they haven't beat either one, but we have several years to work on their record. :)

We discovered the Engineering hall last time and the boys were pretty intrigued with the exhibits, like the wall that tracks your movement in color while you dance. So fun! They also love the dinosaurs, and Jack was able to spot a tiny reference to "Dinosaur Train" in one corner of the fossil room. Borderline obsession. 

Anyway, what a great place for family fun in Dallas to encourage learning and creativity. We're so lucky it's close and so glad for the opportunity to go so often.

Update: Jonathan went with us last week, so we snapped some pics!

 

 

First night away

The boys spent the night at Honey & Papa's house for their first night away from us - or rather, my first night away from them. It was hard! We had a nice date night, celebrating our seventh year anniversary, and it was nice to sleep in, even though I had to make myself go back to sleep and sort of missed being able to get up to see my babies in the morning! We are grateful to have family so close who are willing and able to keep our sweet boys overnight when needed, and the good news is that Ben & Jack had a great time and did fine.

Here are a couple of pics of the boys with their g-parents and great g-parents:

Christmas break fun

Since I have been contracting these past couple of months, Christmas break was actually a work break for me! I've joked that looking forward to breaks is one of the things I miss most about work - but it's true! I love school breaks so it was nice to have this one to enjoy with my boys.

I planned lots of fun activities for us since there was no MDO, no nanny Mercedes, no gym class or Kindermusik or playgroups, but the time really flew and I didn't even get around to many of our activities (like baking cookies, which makes me sad). Some of them I even remembered to capture on film, like our stuffed animal walk. I stole this idea from school, and since I didn't get to see the boys do this I wanted to do it at home and it was so cute to see them walk their animals around the house!

 

We spent a lot of time playing with new toys:

Watching our new favorite show once a day (so long, Sesame Street; see ya later, Daniel Tiger - we cry if mom attempts to start either of you, because we only want to watch Dinosaur Train!) - sometimes sans clothes and with our hands down our backside. ;)

Having dance parties:

Trying on mom's shoes:

And being cute:

Gigi & Poppy gave the boys Are You My Mother? for Christmas and it is Ben's favorite book - he looks through it every night and usually asks us to read it each morning and each night before bed. The boys fake cry "Mama" when the baby bird asks sadly, "Where's my mother?" and on the last page when the mother bird returns and asks "Do you know who I am?" Ben will answer, "I'm your mama!" -Or "I your mama" :) He loves, loves, loves it. I told him he's too young to memorize a book, but J reminded me that Ben has already memorized parts of Moo, Baa, La La La and 15 Animals, so I guess he proved me wrong already. My Benny bear loves to read! My Jack loves reading too, but he doesn't look through books quite as much as Ben - he's far too busy to sit for too long. :)

NYE 2012

We celebrated new year's eve with some of our very favorite people, Luke & Sami! We are so thankful that they are willing to come over and spend the evening with us housebound with babies that go to sleep at 8:00! We grilled and had Sami's yummy desserts with fondue and played games until the ball dropped. They stayed the night then we got to start off 2013 together with breakfast out! It was fun and we were glad to ring in the new year with friends.

 

The boys were VERY excited about the train set that Godfather Luke & Aunt Sami gave them for Christmas :)

Pics from a week or two ago when we went out to dinner - Ben was giving Sami hugs all through dinner and the boys really liked to feel Godfather Luke's beard :)