The Auntie Who Loves Toys

A few weeks back we visited Auntie Mandy for a whole day. She works a lot, so the boys hadn't seen her in awhile. Doesn't Henry look a little devious in this picture?

My sister loves toys more than any adult I know.

Do you see her collection of Lego Minifigures? Henry kept trying to climb up to get them. (He didn't.) Auntie Mandy, though, was prepared and had a whole box of mini figure pieces that Henry could play with. He loved this as he's kind of got an obsession with Lego guys (as he calls them).

We had fun putting together all of the Lego people in hilarious ways.

My mom stopped by for awhile and helped the boys make hats and build a fort.

Yes, my sister has two, count 'em, two fort-building sets in her house.

Here's what they built.  :)

I would've loved one of these when I was little. Every time we get a run of bad weather, the boys want to build forts out of everything.

Auntie Mandy had Lego books, too!

On the way home, the kids wanted to know why I didn't have toys of my own at home.

I told them, "Not everybody is as cool as your Auntie Mandy."

Did you know. . .

. . . that the DuPage Children's Museum opened a branch in the Fox Valley Mall? I guess there was pretty bad flooding at the regular location and they're temporarily closed. That's too bad, but the new space in the mall was a lifesaver for me when I took the boys shopping.

It was the perfect space to stop and take a break between stores. Needless to say, shopping is not their favorite activity.

Building ramps for these balls to roll down? Now, that is a preferred activity. They spent a good hour building with these ramps.

Both boys got frustrated when their ramps didn't work right, but Henry had more patience than Nick.

With only a little help from me, he built a ramp that worked, at least for a little bit.

Giant tinkertoys, anyone? Nick designed this cool spider thingie.

Henry accepted the challenge, for he is a strong little man!

This new museum branch has these cool trains for kids to sit in. Nick said he was driving with his feet. Hey, he wins for creativity, if not for accuracy. Also, I'm rather glad he won't get his driver's license for at least ten years.

Henry wanted to know how to turn it on. He was disappointed, to say the least, when he found out it was only a statue of a train.

We will be visiting this ultra-cool space in the mall again soon. On days when it is too cold to go outside and the kids are bored, this is a great way to keep them occupied and learning at the same time. Oh, and the shoe shopping? Despite Henry's desperate pleading to buy him "these shoes," I got both boys Converse instead.

I love the way Converse look on little boys. Heck, if it weren't for my foot problems, I'd likely wear them myself.

Happy Valentine's Day 2015!

We've gotten away from chocolates for Valentine's Day around here. Not that there's anything wrong with chocolate, but books last longer. Each year since the boys were born, we've gotten them books as Valentine's Day gifts.

They seemed to appreciate the new books, anyway. I love reading them new stories, and our story time this evening was extra long. I found them these extra-cool Lego Movie t-shirts, too, though shirts aren't a traditional Valentine's Day gift.

They're holding money because Nick lost his 2nd tooth and the tooth fairy visited him. Henry was jealous and searched around until he found 2 dimes. He didn't quite get that 2 dimes do not equal 2 dollars, and was rather upset when there was nothing he could buy for $0.20. Don't feel bad for him, though, because he helped himself to at least 3 servings of chocolate cake today while I was in the shower. I heard the fridge door beeping. . .

. . . and found this little boy denying that he'd eaten anything chocolate. The trail of chocolate crumbs, however, led straight to him. Plus, the chocolate goatee kind of gave him away. Nick was mad that Henry hadn't shared any with him. Not one bite.

Greg and I had our Valentine's Day on Thursday night for two reasons: 1.) We had a babysitter then, and 2.) No crowds. We ended up going to a nice little Italian place in Downtown Plainfield called Capri Songo. Decent food, nice ambiance, and best of all, no worrying about if our children were going to embarrass us.

Greg went classic with his gift--I've been wanting this diamond necklace for awhile. You can never go wrong with jewelry, in my opinion. I bought Greg a nice new winter coat, which isn't very romantic unless you think about it as keeping his heart warm

The best part of our evening was the tiramisu. Greg ate his all in about three minutes. I had some Thursday, some Friday night, and I am just finishing off the last few bites now. Mmmm.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Greg's 41st Birthday, in Pictures

In honor of Greg's birthday, here are some pictures from this weekend's celebrations.

Daddy checking out the cool card we made for him.

You can definitely see Nick's signature. But can you see Henry's? He was writing upside down, but there's a very clear "HE" at the top.

The boys are very "into" the Lego Movie lately, so we made a Lego Movie card. Nick drew a building with Lego guys and snowballs.

Greg requested a special chocolate chocolate chip cake (with cream cheese frosting) from Nothing Bundt Cakes up in Naperville. I had forgotten how yummy these cakes are, and I'm so glad I went for their biggest size. We'll be eating chocolate cake all week!

Tonight we went to Meson Sabika, one of our favorite restaurants, for more celebration. Grandma Toni, Aunt Sarah, Uncle Jay, and Sophie all joined us.  Sophie, of course, was the main attraction.

Nick kept snuggling with Sophie every chance he got.

Besides the great food, there were (of course) giant cream puffs, one of which had a birthday candle for Greg.

You just can't beat birthday tapas.   :)

Blizzard Fun!

This morning we woke up to lots and lots of snow. I felt bad for the people who were trying to get their cars out of their driveways, because you couldn't really tell where the road was under all that snow.

It kept snowing all through the day; in fact, it's still snowing now. A little before noon we decided to go out and shovel.



Winter is not really my thing, but I can't resist the cuteness of kids playing in the snow.

The boys "helped" with the shoveling. It's days like today that we wish we had a snow blower. Greg did most of the shoveling, though I helped a bit. I'm not sure we can call what Henry was doing shoveling, but hey, he was trying to help.

Nick's technique was slightly better, though I don't know if any more snow was moved.

This snow was wet and very heavy. However, it wasn't too cold out, so the boys stayed out for well over an hour.

Every time I would put Henry's gloves on, he'd take them off. "I don't like wet gloves," he said.

Besides shoveling, there was also some snowball-throwing.

I snapped this picture just seconds before Nick got me with a big old snowball.

It's a very good thing they cancelled school for tomorrow, because plows have yet to visit our side street. Our street is a cul-de-sac, too, so they always plow us last.

I don't think the boys will mind one bit getting another day to play in the snow. Especially if they can play like this. . .