day brightener

this moment {light brite}

little van goghs.

I needed to change & feed Luke so I set the other two boys up with art supplies in the kitchen. Left the room with my fingers crossed, hoping for the best. Am thinking that must be the mantra for moms of three. 

Came back shortly after to my little van goghs and their creations.

{noah's art}

Max had a different interpretation of ink and used the time to create his first tattoo.

{max's ink}

If you think his arm tattoo is impressive, you should see the work he had done on his inner ears.

At least this little van gogh still had both ears attached. 

Our backyard.

Our backyard was what we fell for first when we found our home. It was bigger then we had hoped for. Lined with trees and with plenty of space to build and create. We didn't know at the time that we would be raising 3 boys here. And for that, I'm thankful for our backyard. This haven for our boys. With grass they can tear apart, trees they can climb, and the space for them to run and just be who they are.


"What I love the most about my home is who I share it with." Tad Carpenter

Weekend.

We had plans to go out of town this weekend, but Geno was called into work. It left us with an empty weekend calendar and ordinary days. But with little ones it is not hard to find beauty, even in the ordinary days.

Max learned that he could pull a chair to different locations in the house and reach previously uncharted territories. {Goodbye favorite spot for my candle}.

With his new friend, the chair, he is now my sous chef in the kitchen.

We made homemade waffles for breakfast.

And Monte Cristo sandwiches for dinner.

We made a trip to Costco. Where Noah insisted on bringing along his sword and shield. Understandably. Costco can be a war zone at times with peoples' lack of spacial awareness and tendency to hit you with their cart. But the sword was quickly relocated to our cart after he tried to take out an innocent shopper with a jab to their kneecap.

We had our fill of play time.

And played some computer games before bed.

{Tiny Trax for Max and Cooking with Caillou for Noah}

I am grateful, for ordinary days.

Boys & toys.

Meet the other boys in my life.

Aren't they dashing? We spend most afternoons together. Usually from 2-3 while Max is napping.

Hello friends.

Sorry to say, they are not my favorite friends. 

Thinking we spent a good 30 minutes of quality time together this afternoon I glanced at the clock and noted it had only been 8 minutes. 8 really long minutes.

But I carried on conversations with these little people for another 30. 

Because, simply, it is Noah's favorite way to spend his day. 

He loves lego people. I love him. The things we do for love.

These guys here are my favorites. Boba Fett, Red Ninja, 

and the creepy guy in black manning the cannon ball. 

I never get to be them though. I usually get designated to be swamp thing. (The attractive looking one 4th from the left). Sigh.

My light at the end of the long lego tunnel afternoons, is the smile on this boy's face. And the sudden moments he stops playing with his lego guys, looks at me playing beside him, and tells me he loves me.

Love you too buddy. 

 Even though you now have 30+ lego people... 

and you still make me be swamp thing.

The things we do for love.

A Rainy Day

We built a village.

With windy roads that led to a dungeon. That held all the bad guys in the world.

{story told by Noah}

There was a train that soldiers traveled on to check on the bad guys.

And in an interesting twist, a whole team of football players that came traveling down the track. Maybe they took a wrong turn from the stadium but they too ended up in the dungeon. 

Just outside the dungeon you  could find the dinosaurs, caged and heavily guarded. Notice the 2nd guard has lost his head. Don't get too close to the cages.

All was well and the village was operating smoothly. Until, horribly, King Kong {Max} destroyed the dinosaur cage and together, they destroyed the village.

The village left in shambles, there were a few tears from the creator followed by verbal threats made to King Kong. But with a cookie and a hug, both moved on to other things. There will be more rainy days, villages for him to build with his stories to tell. And my challenge of keeping King Kong and his demolition crew at bay as long as possible.