MFA

Last week it occurred to me that the kids were going to be out of school the whole last week of February and I didn't have a single plan! I headed over to one of my trusty neighborhood Boston library branches to see if there were any museum passes left. To my dismay the only thing they had left (darn you over-achieving Boston/Cambridge parents!!) were gobs of passes to the zoo- way too cold, and a single pass to the MFA. I would have been STOKED at the MFA pass, but the man said it only covered two adults and it was a coupon not a free pass.  I didn't even look at it and put it in my bag. Then my friend Maria told me she heard kids are free this week and there are tons of activities planned for them. I was SOLD! Maria and her kids came with us and her adorable teenage daughter (and friend) was able to help me with Charlie, the stroller, and the green line (the T that you have to step up to hop on that is tricky with a stroller and a million bags!).

I'm still not sure if Charlie got that they weren't mommies. He kept saying "dead mommies." Yeah, other parents are going to be horrified. ;)

It turns out that a lot of the ancient art includes a great deal of nudity. It took me a few seconds to realize that's what these boys were giggling at!! Moving on...

 Charlie was first to spot this one^ (hopefully this trip didn't traumatize anyone!)

 cuteness

 I was a happy camper. FINALLY made it to the MFA--the only museum I really, really wanted to go to here in Boston.

We also brought Autumn, my friend Eve's daughter who was such a huge help and someone Pres totally looks up to.

 I hope my kids are this cute when they are teens!

 Charlie and I took a stroll through the American Modern art.

 Art projects at the art museum = heaven!

 So enormous!

 Stunning. The kids liked this!

 We love our buddies!!
(the hug that will soon turn into a head-lock!)

 Our crew minus Charlie and I

I'm such a huge fan of collage. This one was made from hundreds of encyclopedias. Probably the best use for them in these days of the internet!

Let's see

What can I update with? hmmm. Presley got a CTR ring yesterday at church. Noah got one when he was five and ever since then Pres has had her little heart set on getting one. She said she's never taking it off! CTR stands for "Choose the Right". It's a common Mormon saying kind of like the WWJD fad, but CTR goes way back.

 Noah picked out a cute ensemble today so I had to take a pic. The kiddos are on break for the week and I am excited to not be crazy busy and to just soak everyone in.

Noah is a sucker for one on one time. He loves playing board games with me. He is such a cute little buddy. Today he revealed that the 7th and 8th grade girls always tell him how cute he is when he's heading down from the art room at school. He told me, "only the girls say it, mom!"

 Love, love, love this guy!

 Play doh has been Charlie's activity of choice these days. Josh let him get creative with it the other day. I was biting my lip over the color mixing! 

 He was so proud!

 Maybe when the kids get to college, they will know what it's like to sleep in their own bed, alone! We put them to bed, shut the door, then check on them a couple hours later and find something like this every night.

 It must be approaching the two year mark since I've seen my sister because I'm finding we video chat more and more frequently. Since I've seen her last she has gotten preggers, had a baby, her daughter started kindergarten and is now full blown reading, her baby is feeding himself and turning one soon, and her other son has just gotten more and more darling.

I begged Anora to show off some of her mad reading skills. I love how Jack in the background sucks his thumb and holds his ear. Love, love, these guys too.

In other news, we are waiting and waiting to hear back from jobs. UGHHHHHH! Have you ever read "Oh the Places You'll Go!" by Dr. Suess? It talks about the waiting game being the worst ever. Dang true, I tell you.

So this is love...

Our whole house likes to break into that song because we had a Cinderella movie marathon for a few days straight a while ago. To wrap up our whirlwind weekend, we turned our dining room into the valentine factory this afternoon. It turns out Noah was on board to do valentines this year! I put the most thought into his (since he lets me do the footwork in his creative projects). 

We started out with a photo and added some digital embellishments^^ 

Here is Noah hard at work! He just loves to move fast through these projects. Careful isn't in his vocabulary when it comes to writing out names of friends! He had fun, though:)

The finished products:

Our wireless printer has trouble communicating with the computer a lot of the time, so I had to improvise some of my original ideas. (Does anyone know how to fix that prob?)

Then for Presley's cards we got out the paint. I asked her if she wanted to cut and glue hearts or make a heart stamp. She chose the stamp. To Josh's dismay, she also chose GLITTER! (That Mariah Carey movie must be all about Presley) Presley wanted to do everything herself so I let her have at it. From cutting the paper to stamping and glittering. She was in charge.

Then for Charlie, we made these little numbers:

This was all me. To include Char, I had him add his finger prints. Josh laughs at me and wants me to admit I do this for me more than the kids. I say, whatev. However, I did find myself signing one of Charlie's cards, "love, Terese" dang it!:)

Happy V-Day Everyone!

Valentines Date Night

We had two different offers of people wanting to take all three of our kiddos for a sleep over so Josh and I could have a late night V-Day date. We turned down the first offer because it turns out this is the weekend we were hosting a future Harvard Student to stay at our house for recruitment weekend. My second friend emailed me and I found out we could still do a date night even though we had this student staying with us. Yaaay! The wonderful Walther family drove an hour to come pick up all three kiddos after school on Friday for a sleep over extravaganza!

{This picture if proof that I need a little point and shoot camera to take on outings! We gave the nice camera to some guy to take our picture and his hat kept knocking the flash shut!}

 It was so weird to say goodbye to everyone! I hopped in the car and drove into Boston to get Josh. We parked at his work and walked to Boston Common to start off with some ice skating at the frog pond! (something that would be tricky with all the kids)

Here is ME! Ice skating was so fun! Josh had me laughing so hard with his "graceful" skills out there.

For dinner we headed to Stephanie's on Newberry St. Josh picked it out because it boasted of "sophisticated comfort food" Josh got Shepherd's Pie and I got a salad with warm goat cheese, pears and pecans. So good!

 We were walking all over the city and it was freezing so we stopped for some cocoa at Borders and heard the cheesiest live music. It was fun to see what kind of groupies follow musicians that give you nerdy chills!

After that, determined to squeeze more into our night, we went and saw True Grit! It was so hard to stay awake after 10 pm. We were loading up on candy to keep our eyelids open. The next morning we slept in till 8:30! It was heaven. Thanks so much Jason and Anna! We owe you big.

A Splendid Day

Today we went to the aquarium in Boston for the first time. I never go because it costs an arm and a leg and is one of the few things here that residents can't get a discount on. My friend, Leslie offered to take us with her pass and I was stoked. It was an outing I knew Charlie would thoroughly enjoy. Charlie loves fish or "besh" he calls them and is always thrilled to see any wild life in person.

So serious! He makes these Tom Brokaw eyes when he's concentrating.

I don't know why but I think it is so cute to see Charlie surrounded by little guys that are just his height. They all look like mini big kids forming a posse. I'm so glad he has a handful of little buddies his exact age who live around us.

 

Sure it's FREEZING, but we love it here!

Here is the view looking down into an enormous tank. There was a huge sea turtle and a shark at the bottom. Such a fun day. We came home and Charlie kept talking about the "besh" and telling me it was fun. He always makes sure to tell me if he thinks something's fun. A bonus was that I think seeing that sea turtle eat some romaine helped me to coerce Charlie into eating some salad for dinner tonight. Yay for something healthy before dessert.

Charlie making popcorn