A bit of drawing time

Jude
Our budding artist
Who really needs a haircut

Jude's Shoe Obsession

 This is Jude....
He has opinions...
Strong opinions...
One such opinion is about shoes...
Shoes!
He will not wear boots. Either the boots that fit or the boots that are slightly too big.  I gave up on boots this winter.
He would wear his blue Croc shoes all the time if we let him.
Blue shoes!
His previous favorite shoes were pink Croc shoes that I had picked up at a rummage sale.
Pink shoes!
Crocs!
Well, the favorite blue shoes are growing worn and I fear they won't last through the spring, let alone the summer.  The stores are already gearing up for the summer months, so sandals are all out and on sale currently.  We decided to go ahead and pick up some shoes for the boys for our future beach adventures (as soon as the weather warms a bit).  We found some off-brand croc-like shoes.  Tamlin picked out a pair of red ones.
And Jude?
Well...
Jude picked out the pink alligator / triceratops ones.

Brian and I looked at each other and shrugged.  I told Brian that I didn't mind our son in pink shoes if he didn't.  It certainly isn't a battle I care to fight and I have to problem letting him express himself as long as he wears shoes. Brian didn't care about the color either.

So Jude now owns pink alligator shoes.

We needed cookies

 We needed cookies in the house.  I had raspberry Hershey kisses that were just screaming to be used.  The boys helped with adding the ingredients and working the mixer.  Tamlin is getting good at actually helping.   Though sharing the tasks evenly between two boys can be difficult...especially if both want to dump in the same ingredient.  However, being the clever momma, I now divide the portion called for in the recipe into two so that each boy can add some.  Takes a bit longer, but way less fits.  Tamlin did want to add sprinkles, but I didn't think that was needed this time :-)

Just a simple sugar cookie with the kiss in the middle.  Next time I think I will try a chocolate cookie to compliment the kisses.

They were gobbled up quickly!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Mom Sale

 First Mom Sales of the season...and my first Mom Sale in our new area.  I had the Saturday off so I decided to take Tamlin out to sales.  We were going to hit two sales, the first of which was a "big kid" sale, only 5T and larger.  (I was pretty stoked to go to this one).  I decided to have Tam come with me as an outing for the two of us.  I gave him his little jean bag and $6 to spend.  Tam is gaining the hang of snagging the deals, so I was confident in his price saviness.  He's become so trained that he is always looking for sales at the stores too..."Look, mom,  this toy has a red arrow and sale sign, can we get it?"  or "Oh, mom.  I want this one...oh, no sale...maybe next time, mom"  (too cute).

How did we do?
Total score!  $50 and about 50 items...included needed shorts and summer pajamas, several books, a couple of transformers, a few cars,a video game, and ...
A bucket of hexbugs (Tam's score)
and...
A telescope! (my score).
The lady selling the telescope said her daughter only used it a couple of times when she was around 12years old.  I scooped it up, figuring even if it didn't work or was missing a lens, $8 wouldn't be too much of a loss.  Well, the telescope totally works wonderfully...we just haven't had a clear night yet to actually look at the stars instead of just our trees.

The hexbugs were sold by a lady that didn't know their worth.  Just one of those little beasties is sold for $5 at the store...and here was four bugs and a bunch of track.  The concept of these is simple...little buggies that jitter around a little course that you can modify easily.  Simple as they are, both boy really enjoy playing with them.

Can't wait for the next sale!

I love that little Jude's tongue sticks out when he is thinking really hard.

Walk

We took advantage of the spring thaw and went for a walk to the beach...first trip walking there this year.  The weather was still a bit chilly, but the sun was out and the snow was melting.  Tamlin had been hoping to see our neighbor boy, Liam, for the past few weeks so we stopped by his house to invite him along.  Liam is almost a year and a half older then Tamlin, but the two boys play really well with each other.  I led this gang of boys down to the water...slowly as the boys insisted on riding their toys.  Jude is getting much better at the blue plasma car.  Tamlin and Liam rode their scooters...though Liam's scooter had some mechanical problems mid-trip.  I had the fore-thought to pull the wagon, just in case little legs got tired (and they did).

The road was rough with many potholes formed from the winter/ snow / plow cycles.  The upside was that the holes were full of muddy water, perfect for jumping into and running scooters into...which the boys all did...repeatedly.  

Oh those boys...

Imaginations were rampant...scooters kept running out of gas, or having rocket boosters, or participating in races or needing tires replaced.  Both big boys were soaked to the thigh just from the walk to the beach.

 The beach looks quite different now than it did last summer or fall.  Here's the breakwall and the frozen water all around it. 

The rock here lies about 6 feet or so into the water when at high tide.  Tamlin called the rock his pirate hide-a-way.  The frozen water let the boys walk right up to the rock...which they thought was pretty awesome.

 Again, the boys found the biggest piles of snow to attempt to climb and they found where the snow was soft enough to sink into.  These sink-holes were deemed their "traps" to keep all the bad-guys at bay from their "hide-out."  So, after playing on the frozen beach, both boys were now wet up to the hips.  Jude hates to be cold. He was quite a bit more cautious in the snow and avoided getting wet.

After the beach, we rolled up to the playground for a little bit.  Jude loves the swing, but there were huge puddles under them.  I could lift Jude over the puddle and into the swing.  Tamlin and Liam attempted to board the swings...can you guess the outcome?  Liam ended up soaked through and through.  Tamlin didn't fall into the puddles, but was very bummed not to swing.  The two boys tried the playground too...However, Liam's a bit big/old for the slide and Tamlin is a bit young/small for hanging from the monkey bars.  They realized they had more fun together riding the scooters.

We slowly made our way home...wetter, muddier,...after having poked a dead squirrel...redder in cheeks...and happy.  The boys slept well that evening.