Still Sick...

The sick days have gotten progressively less fun as we’ve switched from “Have to entertain the kiddos while they miss a few days of school” to full on survival mode of all family members - two of which still have to maintain employment. The boys are overall still in good spirits, but seem to be a more down in the dumps than before. 

After this went on longer than I felt was reasonable, I finally took Thomas in to the doctor. I had called them last Monday after about a week and they told me to call back if it went on another week or they got worse. 5 days later, I felt it was getting worse and took him in. After waiting over the weekend for the lab to be open, we got back the test results - turns out he has Rotavirus.

Rotavirus is super contagious, so the standard procedure is for infants to be vaccinated against it. We follow the standard schedule of vaccines and both of the boys are vaccinated against it. Apparently we have super bad luck, because they both got it and passed it along to us. I read up on the virus and it is not the easiest thing in the world to kill and likes to hang around on any surface it touches. So a full scale house decontamination was in order. All the toys got either a bleach bath / spray or dousing with lysol. Everything that I could got washed in super hot water. The rest was put in a corner in “quarantine” until the surface survival period had passed. 

In doing this, we realized the kids toys have gotten a bit out of control. So we’re going to take it as an opportunity to clean out some toys - especially the ones they don’t play with or had outgrown. The upside to the sick days is that Thomas got a new movie - The Lego Movie. I had rented it when I needed to distract him while working from home and he loved it! The movie even came with an Emmett that lights up. Thomas was a little bummed he didn’t fit on his duple Legos, but he found a way for Emmett to ride on the train anyhow. 

A bit last minute I realized that Easter was this weekend (in my defense, it’s been a pretty distracted two weeks!), so we decided to make some Easter cupcakes. I let him pick the cupcake mix and the liners, but that was all the help he got to provide this time. No reason to risk more contamination than necessary… “/

And since we are all feeling bad, I figured a little hot chocolate might perk up our moods. I asked Thomas if he wanted any and he immediately starts negotiating with me to get whipped cream on it - ha! I at first told him we didn’t have any, but apparently we had a whole can left over from the ski train waffles, so he lucked out (big time!). Look how proud of himself he is! He did lose the negotiations to put the whipped cream on by himself. 

Henry again missed out on the hot chocolate, but was more interested in the goldfish anyhow. I gave him a pretty large pile to snack on and had no idea why he was so upset a few minutes later. Apparently he wanted more and the fact that he could see the box right behind him was just too much torture! Look at that poor face!!

On the other hand, Thomas has pure satisfaction all over his face. Can’t blame him, that was a pretty good cup of hot chocolate. We had intended to make enough to share with Matt, but somehow there was none left when he got home. No idea how that happened…

Luckily the boys finally seem to be improving, so hopefully the boys will be back to their normal routines soon. We’ve managed to make it work even though we’ve both had tons of stuff going on at work, but it was not the most enjoyable two weeks. Can’t wait for the normal level of hectic versus the super crazy levels we’ve had…!

Sick Days

I think it's just a given when you have kids in daycare, they are going to get sick. I think it's also a given that when one kid is sick, no matter how careful you are, the other one will catch it. Because they loooooove to share germs! I bet you know where this is going...

They are both sick. Sick enough that they can't go to school, yet not really feeling sick, so they are in great moods (99% of the time). Matt and I have been taking turns staying home with them - Tuesday and this afternoon were mom time. We decided today to switch mid-day because if I go in super early and he stays late, we can practically both get a full day in. 

It also means that we had such a fun day yesterday! We couldn't really leave the house thanks to what they have, but I was pretty darn creative in entertaining them anyhow. Henry decided to sleep in, so Thomas and I made breakfast together. As soon as I started pulling out the ingredients for his "can-cakes!", he ran to go get his red spoon to help me. Don't judge on the Bisquick, I bought so many different mixes to test out waffle recipes that I am going to use them. Also note the laptop - had to try and stay up to date with work since we are in between drilling sections - Thomas didn't seem to mind the occasional interruption (whew!).

Henry finally decided to join us after we finished off our breakfast. Luckily there were still plenty of pancakes. And Thomas was super absorbed in his magnet play set that he's only allowed to use at the table (because stray magnets terrify me with a baby that tries to eat everything).

First order of business was to build a slide with the couch cushions in the front room (aka the kids playroom). We did this yesterday afternoon when I got home and they had a blast. This time I took a little more time in set-up so there weren't any gaps or slides that would topple over.

Thomas had a BLAST!!! He climbed up, jumped / slid off over and over and over again. I think he spent a good 20 minutes going at it. Like I said - they are not acting sick, they are full of energy for some reason...

Thomas decided the slide was "too dangerous!" for his little brother and was trying to keep him from climbing back up on to the couch. Henry did not appreciate the "help". These two are going to be wrestling opponents and best buds if today was any indication.

Luckily Henry never stays mad for long! :)

On to the next activity, which was me pushing the boys around the house in the laundry basket. First it was Thomas, then Henry, then they both wanted in, then they wanted to switch front and back (I say they, most of this was dictated by the vocal one...). I figured I wasn't going to get a workout in anyway, so I did as much pushing as my legs could take before I gently dumped them over and claimed the basket was broken. So sad. :(

I made this awesome dinosaur headband while Henry was eating breakfast, but Thomas had to wait for the glue to dry to wear it. He was convinced I was making him Christmas trees when I was cutting out the spikes and would not listen to my explanations of "cool dinosaur hat". He wore it and seemed to like it, but then Henry was trying to touch it, lost his balance and ripped it in half. I'm sure you can imagine the chaos that ensued...

I fixed it up for Thomas, but he refused to wear it the rest of the day if his brother was around. In related news, I think I might make myself one!

As you can probably guess based on previous posts, I had switched to ideas from Pinterest. I swear, that website has the most creative craft ideas. I scoured my list to see what else was feasible with the limited (ok, endless... don't judge!) craft supplies on hand. And I found the Rocket Balloons! 

This one is where you put a straw on a string, string it up, then attach the balloon to the string and let it rip! It worked so well on the first test string, that we strung a longer string across from the front to back of the house. The boys loved it!! I did too, I got dizzy from trying to get more and more air into the balloon. :)

I even rigged up a clothespin to shut the balloon so that Thomas could get in on the fun. We didn't quite manage to make it to the front door, but we did get to the tile entry! Also note the change in balloon. Thomas was trying to help me by blowing up the balloon for me. When I went to get a new balloon, he was all concerned.

"Momma, what happened?"

"You tried to blow up the balloon and got germs on it. I love you, but I don't love your germs."

"I love my germs momma!"

Ha - no wonder he is so happy to share them with Henry...! :)

Today, when I was hanging out with Thomas in the bathroom, I noticed the roll of toilet paper was empty (imagine that...). So while I was giving them a snack, I looked up ideas for the toilet paper rolls I collected around the house. And I found two activities that I combined into one awesome color sorting / fine motor skills pom-pom / tube activity. They both loved it, though Henry was much more interested in trying to tear it down. I need a little more adjusting on the tubes to get them to fall back into the box, but it wasn't bad for a first attempt!

The blocks even got some play time today. They never seem to want to play with them unless I start playing with them, so I pulled them out and started making a "castle". They, of course, both wanted in the castle. Henry waited until I took Thomas to the bathroom and bull dozed the castle. After rebuilding it, I instituted a 4 minute time-limit in the castle. Thomas loves having a timer going when I tell him he has "a few more minutes" and he doesn't argue when it goes off (please let that last forever!). After his four minutes, I put Henry in the castle fully expecting to have to rebuild it all over. I was shocked, he just sat there and enjoyed his time in the castle. He pulled off a block or two to hold, but otherwise left it alone. Awesome! After a few rotations, we called it a day and headed over to eat dinner. 

All in all it was a fun day (and a half) with the boys and while I am sorry they are sick and not loving the crazy hours to make up for them being home, it was a great time hanging out with them. So glad they are such happy little guys! :)

And since I was on a Pinterest craze, I have a few photos from older activities that I never got around to posting, so these are some other things we've tried recently!

Getting ready for some footprint art! Thanks to daycare, he loves doing handprint and footprint art. And there are *so* many ideas out there. Plus it's usually pretty easy. Win-win!

He was pretty proud of his painted foot! I actually had to do both feet, but did them one at a time. I do not need a stray foot covered in paint dangling around, thank you very much.

Footprint dinosaurs! So if you look closely at the inspiration photo on my phone, I totally did the footprints backwards. Whatever, Thomas loved them even if his toes were in the wrong spot. :)

Truth be told, I was trying to do footprint hearts for valentine's day and was failing miserably, so we changed it to dinosaurs. Hey, dinosaurs can be romantic!

Nothing says "I love you!" like a green dinosaur face full of teeth! Also, it's really hard to get all of his toes on the paper, I don't know what he does with his feet when I am holding him up, but it usually looks like he is missing a toe. Silly Thomas!

The activities for babies are much more limited, especially a baby who will try to eat everything. So I decided to try a sensory bag, which are all the rage apparently. The first one was a huge fail - not surprising that baby oil and colored water was more exciting to me than the baby. So I gave it another shot with pom-poms and water (much safer for leaks!). Also side note - who knew pom-poms had so many uses??

He wasn't too sure what to think of it, but I thought it would momentarily be a good distraction while I was trying to finish the laundry. He didn't immediately throw it on the ground like the paint bag, so that was a plus. 

But I think this photo sums up his feelings about it. "Nice try, mom. I'm not impressed." Ha - it did at least manage to keep him distracted for me to fold the load of clothes and get back to real playing. Babies... so hard to please!

Birthday Cake, Take 2!

I apparently missed the memo on how cake smashing is all the rage these days for baby's first birthday. After Henry's birthday, my friend Theresa started asking for cake and prop ideas and she sent me to all of these cute photo shoots online. Argh! How did I miss this?!?

Then I decided that there was no shame in having a second birthday cake for Henry and trying to get him to smash into it! Second child, second chance cake - makes total sense! (Theresa's youngest, Meredith, turned one in the mean time and the photos Theresa got were so awesome - way to set the bar so high, dear friend!) So after some plotting and planning, we gave it a go this weekend:

I debated the most over color choices, and settled on something colorful - it is almost spring after all! And I figured soft and tasty was the best call for icing, so I made a cream cheese icing for his yellow cake - yum!

As soon as we plopped him down, he got his foot in the cake. Icing all over the toes! He immediately reached for the icing. I was pumped, this was going to be the best cake smash!

Ummm....

Or not. He took off! 

We picked him up and put him back. I had read several places that people had trouble getting their kids to even try the cake, but once they had - they tore into their cake!

So I scooped up a bit of icing and put it in Henry's mouth. He looked a little confused as to what was going on. And took off again...

This time when we put him back, he accidentally got his hand in the cake. Oh surely this will lead to more smashing!

Nope.

As you can tell by the floor, it mostly led to finger painting with the icing. Maybe if we gave him a fork? He doesn't generally use one, but maybe...?

Nope.

I didn't want Thomas to feel left out, so I made him his own tiny cake too. Maybe if we let Thomas show his younger brother how to do it, Henry would go after it!

Instead, Henry went after Thomas' cake. I'm sure you can imagine how well that went over with Thomas - you might notice he's pushing his cake out of Henry's reach. :)

We told Thomas he was welcome to smash into his cake. We even told him there was a surprise in the middle (strawberries!) My mother-in-law gave me these cool mini cake pan that you can use to make a cake with an indention in the center. I was going to use two pans to do a double layer with a big cavity in the center, but ran out of batter, so he just got a single layer... Sorry Thomas!

Thomas declined to get messy with his cake - he's a pretty tidy little guy, so I wasn't all that surprised. He was pretty excited about the strawberries in the center though!

Henry is now making a bigger mess with the icing, but still no eating. I decided to cut a piece of the cake out to see if that would help. Maybe he was just having trouble breaking through to grab cake. You can see it off to the side of the cake where Henry just ignored it. 

Then we had the brilliant idea to take his fork away, so he would pay more attention to the cake!

He was not impressed with that idea! Poor guy was devastated without his fork!!

We obviously gave it back after that reaction! And I pretty much gave up on him eating his cake. As long as he was having fun, it was a win in my book!

And he certainly had fun playing in his icing! He had bits of orange icing smeared all over himself and the floor. 

And possibly he was enjoying smearing it on the backdrop as well. His finger painting skills are improving, no matter the medium of choice. ;)

Now there's a happy Henry! I should also point out that some of those finger paintings are in chocolate icing - he did manage to lay hands on his brother's cake at one point. Our baby wrangling skills weren't quite up to par today... whoops!

Oh and he is a standing up pro these days! He even took a few steps to me at daycare the other day. I was crouched down as he was walking while holding the gate in his room, then he just let go and kept walking. I didn't even realize what he was doing at first because he was so steady! He only made about 4 steps, but I was still super excited! Yay for Henry!

Off to the bath with you, little man! You may not have tried your cake, but you certainly accomplished the messy part of it. Happy Birthday again - you really are growing up too fast!

That's the end of the fancy photos! Theresa posted a few behind the scene photos on her post, so I thought I would do the same. It really was an entertaining photography "session"! But if you just visit my blog for cute photos of the kiddos, it's ok to stop here. ;)

The backdrop. I originally was going to go with plain white and ran out of time to order a fancy vinyl backdrop online. So I went to Michael's to see if they had any large rolls of white paper. They didn't, but I found some wrapping paper I could splice together to make a wide enough span. But then I found poster paper rolls and this super cool cloud pattern! I thought that would be way more fun!

Until I unwrapped it this afternoon and realized my clouds were sideways to the direction I needed. Argh! Turns out I was going to get to splice paper anyway. Luckily the width was perfect that the splice ended up right at the floor and not visible in most of the photos. (The photo above is pre-splicing, the final product reached down to the floor and out about four feet.)

I didn't have any fancy frames or stands to use the paper with, but I realized that the upper counter in our kitchen was about the same height, so I taped it up there instead. It was perfect for the lighting and I had plenty of room to maneuver around with the table out of the way. 

I had a lot of late nights this week with work, so I hadn't had a chance to make the cakes until last night and they weren't iced. So when I put the boys down for a nap, I had to make the backdrop, the banner and ice the cakes. And as soon as I started, I realized I didn't have enough powdered sugar! Double argh!!

Luckily I read somewhere that you can make your own by blending the sugar until it is the same powdery consistency. I've never done it, but figured if anything could do it, the Vitamix could. It wasn't perfect, but it was pretty darn close! Whew!

There might have been a mini-bundt cake for the adults. I conned Heather, Brittney, and Duncan into coming over for the cake smash, so I figured I should have a cake for them that wasn't covered in baby or toddler germs. This thing got devoured!

Brittney helping with cake placement. We thought moving it closer would entice him to eat it.

Duncan returning the runaway Henry. I can neither confirm nor deny if this was right before Henry's hand landed in the icing... ;)

Henry near the end of the session. He was must more interested in attacking the paper than the cake. You can see the seam in this photo right at his knee level. It would be easy enough to edit it out in Lightroom, but it was pretty unobtrusive it was for the most part. I might edit it out for photos if I was printing them out. And the nice part about it being paper was that clean-up took seconds. It took longer for me to get Henry clean than for Heather and Brittney to clean up the whole area.

Thanks for all of the help, I don't think it would have been possible without you all! :)

Ski Train!

We heard about the ski train shortly after we first moved up here. It is an all day event run by the Nordic Skiing Association up here that charters a trip up to Curry, AK via the Alaskan Railways once a year. We had been through Curry once before when we did the Hurricane Train trip - it's a ghost town a little bit north of Talkeetna. There's not much there, but that also means it has a ton of undisturbed snow. And luckily for us, there was even new snow on the ground - woo!

Last year was the first year in a long time that a group of people from work didn't go on the train. Luckily for us, it picked back up again this year! And it was spearheaded by the most enthusiastic person I know. She (and others I'm sure, but the emails were from her) picked a theme, organized food sign-up and bought a huge vat of cheesy puffs for the train ride. 

There was a ton of orange in our section. We even had orange tablecloths! Heather (the planner) is the one standing to the left. But pretty much anyone in orange was with us. Unfortunately the train started boarding at 6 am (too early!), so the morning photos are all a bit dark, because it was still dark outside!

Luckily that meant I got to sign up to make breakfast food (my favorite!). I watched a video from a previous year's ski train and saw someone with a waffle on a plate. Well, if there is the option to make waffles on a train, I am going to take it! Haha - the smell of waffles cooking drew so much attention and we quickly became known as the Waffle car! Yay! Also note the whipped cream, maple syrup and sliced strawberries in the background - I didn't leave anything out. :)

A plate of waffle goodness! Funny story - there was a film crew on the train and one of the camera women thought it was amazing that we had waffles and wanted to film us making them. Sure - no big deal, we figured it would be a good promotion for the ski train next year.

Except it turns out the film crew wasn't from the skiing association. No, the film crew was from the Discovery Channel and they are doing a series on Life Across America (or something) and this segment was all about the Alaska Railroad. She said it was mostly for freight hauling, but the ski train was way more exciting! So my waffles might be on the Discovery Channel. That would be pretty awesome...!

The sun finally came up in time for us to see some gorgeous sunrises over the mountains around Wasilla. But honestly, my favorite part about this photo is Brittney's bobbly headband. Too cute!

But then, there was a flurry of excitement and people standing up to stare out the train windows! What could be getting everyone so aflutter??

Haha - it was moose! Several moose, actually. You would think we would get used to seeing them all the time, but it's still exciting to see them out and about. I had to turn this image B&W because several of us were wearing bright orange leis and the reflection from the train windows was pretty bad. But it makes it easier to see the moose!

Speaking of getting photos from the train. PJ told me that Denali would be just around the corner and he thought there might be places between the cars where I could get a better view. Well there weren't any open spots - which was probably a good thing since it was currently -16F. I did find a window without much glare, but it was covered in frost. So I used my hand to wipe away a big enough section of frost to get a photo through and saw.... trees. Lots and lots of trees. After repeating this for a few minutes I gave up and went back to our car.

Where I had apparently missed the Polka band's arrival. The party was going without me! Everyone was clapping and dancing along!

Matt was even getting into the groove with his improvised cheesy puff drum. (Also notice the nice glare on the window...)

Heather was jamming along in her nicely color coordinated maraca! 

PJ apologized for sending me for photos of Denali too early and made up for it by managing to alert me the next time it was visible. Denali always looks so impressive in person and less so in photos. It's just hard to capture the sheer awesomeness of first seeing it when you get a break in the trees. Trust me, it's breath-taking!

We finally arrive in Curry after the slight scary safety briefing (Watch out for frostbite on each other's noses! Don't be left behind!) and geared up for a short trek away from the train. We supposedly had to leave the train for long enough for it to turn around, so at minimum we would be out and about for 45 minutes. In the end, the train didn't leave and we were gone for much longer because we had so much fun!

A few people in our group were cross country skiing, but the seven of us that headed out together were all snowshoeing. Matt, Brittney and I were novices and rented snowshoes at REI the day before. So after getting some help putting them on, we headed up the hill!

We made much faster progress than I was expecting and it wasn't nearly as challenging as I was worried it was going to be. Wearing the snowshoes affects your stride a little bit because they are so big, but you catch on pretty quick to not step on the other snow shoe (I fell quite a few times doing just that) and they really do a great job of keeping you from sinking in too much. 

Matt and I both had this idea that you would be floating on the snow as you walked, but that wasn't quite the case. If you were blazing the trail, you were definitely sinking in. If you were the fourth or so person in line, you had pretty easy going. But blazing the trail was actually pretty fun, you feel like a pioneer!

We paused to stop and enjoy the scenery and stay hydrated. Plus Heather and I* both kept pulling out our cameras for photos. Something about it didn't happen if there aren't photos for proof? Luckily everyone was a good sport about all of the photos. Tiffany and Alex don't look like they mind smiling, do they?? Plus they are pretty much adorable!

*Brittney brought her camera as well, but we got worried about how fast the batteries would die, so she put her battery inside her coat to keep it warm. We luckily can share batteries, so we figured that way we would have pictures throughout the day!

PJ was by far the most excited to be outside! Whenever we would stop, he would run up or down the nearest hill just because. It was pretty funny trying to keep tabs on him. Plus he was all in black, so he looked like a snowshoeing ninja - ha!

Brittney, Tiffany and Heather walking up the hill. I power walked up the hill to get far enough ahead of them to get photos. Don't they all look so colorful?? There were several tracks up the hill - the widest and flattest was the one that the cross country skiers were using. It was much easier to walk up, but we were super aware of when a skier was coming and would let them pass us. They definitely got up the hill much faster than we did!

I am so not colorful... I look like one of the guys - all of the other females I saw were in some sort of bright color. Pffft! Ironically, I have to thank my parents for keeping me warm. My gloves got lost a week or so ago and my back-up pair was missing a glove! I was in a panic last night of what to wear. Then I happened to go in our guest room closet and find the stash of cold weather gear that my mom keeps here. Which includes a really good pair of gloves! I figured she wasn't using them, so I borrowed them and my dad's ear flap hat I bought him last year. It didn't end up being cold enough to need his hat, but I figured he would appreciate the photo - and I definitely needed the gloves. Thanks mom and dad!

When we all started getting hungry, we deviated off the beaten path and found a nice spot to eat lunch. The train looked so far away - what a sense of accomplishment! It was an amazingly nice day and it didn't feel anywhere near as cold as it was. Until we stopped moving to eat lunch... Our drinks froze into slush as soon as we opened them and we all got pretty chilly after sitting for a few minutes. So we got back to trailblazing pretty quick!

The best part of being out in untouched snow? The chance to make snow angels! It was a little challenging with snowshoes on, but Heather and I gave it our best attempt!

I kinda destroyed the base of my angel trying to get up... It's really hard to stand back up when your feet are an extra foot or so longer. But look at how awesome the wings look! I was so proud of them! And you can kinda tell how deep my back went in when I fell backwards. I went a little bit further than I expected, but the snow was so soft and cozy!

Brittney was the first one back to train level and she was pretty proud of herself! She didn't fall once, so she deserved to be proud of herself. I think I fell more than enough for the two of us. I kept looking around instead of where I was going. But can you blame me, it was a beautiful day in the Alaskan woods!

See? There's the train! It's pretty hard to miss. Going off trail meant a little more negotiating of hills and such, but it was actually pretty easy to navigate down with all the fluffy snow. :)

The clearing we came down had some pretty large piles of snow on the side that opened up perfectly to a view of the engine. We, of course, all had to take photos in front of it (because otherwise it didn't happen - ha!).

Brittney in her "I did it!" pose. Duncan was originally supposed to be on the ski train with us, but thanks to well schedules, he had to be in town for the drilling activities. There was definitely no cell service in Curry and that's not really a good thing when you are on call. Luckily that same well hasn't hit the section that needs a geologist or I would have missed it too. Sorry Duncan - next year! And Heather and I would like to reassure you that we kept our promise to make sure Brittney had a blast (and didn't get hurt)!

See? PJ, the Snowshoeing Ninja! But what is he crafting out of snow with his ninja-abilities??

He made a snow heart! Awwww!!!! Aren't these two are the cutest couple ever? (They are!)

The train patiently waiting for everyone to be done having fun for the day. I just love the bright colors the railroad uses. It stands out so well against the snow. Although honestly, it looks good in the autumn colors as well. It's just a good color combination!

I should have gotten a photo on arrival when all of the gear was lined up on the ground - it was impressive how many skis and snowshoes there were. Even more impressive is that this whole thing is all run by volunteers - a huge thanks to all of them! 

Everyone was playing around on the hill next to the train to kill time. And this guy in a dinosaur head made out of duct tape walked by right when we were getting photos of Heather and PJ up on the hill. He was my favorite of the crazy outfits. :)

Although buffalo/hot dog guy was a close second...

Look how graceful PJ looks sliding down the hill - like a swan! Haha - looks are super deceiving in this case, he has the right form, but kept getting stuck every few feet on the snow pile building up in front of him. The people on sleds were much more successful...

Heather tried going down on her butt to see if that was any better. You can see how far she made it... ;)

Back on the train to Anchorage. Part of the safety briefing was a worst case scenario - if you get left out here, do not try to ski out. They left two large duffels full of emergency gear to help you survive the night and someone would come get you the next day. Yikes! But awesome that they left the gear. As far as I know, everyone made it...!

Best part of the ride home was all of the delicious food people had made. There were crock pots cooking all day and all kinds of sides and desserts that people brought along. Don't these three look super colorful? We all gorged ourselves on food after working up big appetites all day. 

Of course I signed up to bring dessert as well. It was actually the birthday of someone in the Cheesy Puffs group, so I made him the most chocolatey cupcakes I could. He loved them - and everyone was pretty impressed with the adorable dinosaurs on top. I have gotten more use out of that chocolate dinosaur mold than I thought I would. (They were a little wet because they were cold - no one seemed to mind.)

Everyone was super stuffed by the time I brought the cupcakes out, but I managed to convince Ted to try one since it as his birthday. Most people were trying to get rid of food at this point in the train ride. I, on the other hand, told people I didn't care if they took them because I would happily take the rest home and eat them. Yet somehow, I only came home with two... Guess they looked too good to resist. ;)

All-in-all it was a great trip and I am so glad we were able to go (a huge thanks to both of the babysitters for the boys, a teacher from school and their Aunt Heather - it wouldn't have been possible without you two!). It was the first time this winter that I've really been able to go out and do something that felt Alaskan, so it was extra awesome in my case. Glad I didn't have to go all winter without so snow play time. (Goodness knows there is no snow in Anchorage for the foreseeable future!) Looking forward to doing it again next year!

Bouncing Birthday

The daycare was closed today for teacher inservice, which meant that most of the parents had to take a vacation day or work out some other arrangement with work. It also meant that all of the kiddos were free for a birthday party and one set of parents took advantage of this. When else can you throw a party on a weekday and get most of your son's friends?

The birthday boy was actually one of Thomas' good friends at school. With the recent classroom moves, they haven't been in the same class which was a huge bummer to the boys and to the parents. They see each other at outdoor playtime, but it's not the same as all day play time. 

And since the daycare is closed, Henry also got to come along to the party. Luckily he had a friend there as well - one of his classmates is the sister of one of Thomas' class mates. So many friendships and siblings to keep track of! I have most of the kids figured out, but I have no clue on most of the parent's names... 

But back to the party! They had the party at Bouncing Bears which is chock full of inflatable pieces they kids can bounce, climb and slide on. Unfortunately, it was also spring break, so the place was packed! My kids were super overwhelmed when we first got there. I found a little slide in the midst of the chaos that I thought Henry would like to hold on to and let them chill there to warm up to the excitement. 

As you can tell from the photos, they both were a bit in shock. After 10 minutes or so, Thomas finally slid down the slides. Then he finally started seeing his friends running by and having fun, so he got on a few of the slides and such. He was really getting into the swing of things, but Henry was stuck with his momma. There weren't really any small things for him to play with that weren't swamped with kids, so I made him chill out with me. Poor guy gets no fun!

Then it was cake time! Thomas was super jealous of the cake - he loves Cars! Obviously the birthday boy does as well, as soon as he finally got all three candles out, he grabbed Lightning McQueen off of the cake. Personally, I'm a Mater fan, but to each their own!

Henry was super worried he wasn't going to get any cake because he was cruising around the table instead of sitting at it. Don't worry, I shared some of mine with him. His brother certainly wasn't going to be sharing! ;)

After cake time, most of the classmates headed home, but we ended up staying to hang out with Thomas' best friend (one of two I think...). He was so wired on cake and frosting that he was all over the place. He did have a small incident in the first half when he got brave and tried to go down the biggest slide in the place, but apparently got scared. I finally noticed the pile-up of kids trying to climb the slide and saw a toddler near the top trying to work his way down. After retrieving him, he steered clear of the big slide and even got all panicked when he thought his buddy was trying to climb up it. But other than that, he had a blast! 

Henry had a ton of fun after the party as well because he found a plastic bottle to play with. He had so much fun with that thing - remind me why we buy them toys...? All in all a great time was had by both boys and I am sure we'll be frequenting Bouncing Bears once Henry is a little bit older and steadier.

Pinkalicious!!

Way before I had kids, I had friends who had kids and I loved all of these kids. My friend Sonja, had three kids who I adored and I think adored me back because they bought me the book Pinkalicious because they all thought I would love it. And I did, because it's a book about a girl who makes pink cupcakes with her mom and then eats so many she turns pink! "I cried because I was so beautiful" is quite possibly my favorite line.

Thomas has read the book several times before, but has recently been on a Pinkalicious kick. He's even got big chunks of it memorized so that he can read along. What color do you want your cupcakes? "Pink! Pink, pink, pink!"

So I promised him we would make some pink cupcakes this weekend and he was pretty excited!

I'll admit that we used a box mix because I thought it would be easier and I wanted him to be able to help more than he usually does. So I measured out all of the ingredients and he poured them in for me. He was so happy to have such big tasks to do! And he was so careful not to spill.

He got excited when I pulled out the blender, but then got all worried when I told him he could turn it on. He usually covers his ears, so he wasn't sure how to turn it on *and* protect his hearing...!

Obviously it wasn't on that high. We just needed to puree the strawberries for the frosting. After he realized it wouldn't deafen him, he was pretty excited about the whirling red mess inside of it!

He even scraped out the strawberries that were sticking to the side. And a side note - I shot all of these photos with the new 20mm lens. This sort of shot were I am holding the camera and shooting close enough in to see my hand and still get all of Thomas would have been impossible with my 35mm. Also note that my new Fitbit is huge on my tiny wrist! Good thing it's totally a thing that everyone is wearing them these days...

Pink cupcakes are done in the oven and waiting for their frosting. My sister gave me the Frosting cookbook and I thought we would try the strawberry one since it was already pink and we had put enough food dye in the cupcakes... "/

Thomas was on powdered sugar duty and did such a good job. I think he made less of a mess than I usually do... (Sorry I make such a mess, Matt!)

Henry got tired of watching from his high chair, so I let him roam free. Which of course means he wanted to be right in the action. Such a cute little guy, huh?? 

And since he helped with so much of the work, Thomas got his first introduction to the best part of baking...

Licking the beater!!! We used to fight over this one as kids - my dad usually won though. I obviously don't let him lick the batter (raw eggs are for adults only - ha!), but I figured the frosting was safe. Thomas did not mind this part of the day!

Then he helped me decorate them. I did get him to help me squeeze the icing on a few cupcakes, but obviously didn't get any photos. He was more interested in the sprinkles anyhow.

Though he only put them on two cupcakes... He was more excited to talk about the sprinkles, I think. But look at our awesome assortment of cupcake wrappers. I had so many patterns with just two or three left, so we used them all. We even have a skull and crossbones hiding in the back. 

After we were finished I tried to get a photo of him with the book and he decided he just wanted to read the book to me instead. I finally got him to pose with a cupcake and he sat there and told me over and over again that he wasn't going to put the cupcake on the book. He was really concerned I wanted him to ruin it I guess. It's my book kiddo, I won't let you destroy it. 

(I say that, but it does need a page repaired at the moment. Someone was too vigorous with their page turning the other night..."/)

After dinner we dug in to the cupcakes. Henry ate all of the frosting off his half-cupcake and threw the cupcake on the floor. I honestly don't blame him. The frosting was the most amazing frosting I have had in a while and the cupcake was just kinda "ok" in comparison. I just want to be alone with a spoon and the rest of that frosting. Alone because otherwise two boys would be trying to steal it. I know this because Thomas was leaning over and scraping the leftover frosting from Henry's tray with his spoon and eating it. Gross!

No wonder they *both* have a cold. 

It's not like we didn't give him a full cupcake. He devoured it and wanted more. And like in the book "You get what you get and you don't get upset" wasn't quite good enough for him. Haha - Natalie is in the background staring him down, apparently she didn't mind the box-mix cupcake and was hoping for another one to hit the ground.

Sonja, Joey, Eleanor & Ben - Thanks again for the lovely book you gave me years ago. I still love it and now my boys love it too. Natalie mostly just likes the cupcakes though... ;)

Fur Rondy!

After not doing anything exciting last weekend, I was determined to get out and do something fun with the kids this weekend. As soon as everyone was done eating breakfast, I was packing up coats, boots and snacks - then I finally got around to telling Matt we were going to Fur Rondy downtown. I was still waffling as of last night because if it was cold, the kids might get tired of it fast. But my neighbor randomly brought me a pass to another company's hospitality suite where we could warm up if they got cold. Perfect! 

Fur Rondy is a 10 day event, but part of it is the ceremonial start of the Iditarod Race. Which meant there were dogs everywhere! Thomas was pretty excited about all of the dog teams. There was a slatted fence up around where most of them were getting ready, but it didn't really hamper the contagiousness of their excitement. :)

We ended up at the far back when we first got there. It was where the sleds were lining up and still pretty far back from the start line, but the dogs didn't care - they were just ready to get running! And given all the hoopla about measles cases this year, I think it was awesome that almost every lead dog was wearing an Immunize Alaska's Kids jacket. Please do, Alaska!

Thomas was excited too, though it's hard to tell from his expression... He mostly just wanted to watch the dogs and didn't really care if mommy wanted a photo of him and Dada. 

Henry was *not* excited. It was a few blocks from the parking lot to 4th Avenue, so we put Thomas in the stroller for speed's sake. Which meant I had to carry Henry. We haven't done that in a while and not in all of his winter clothing... He was not impressed. Matt had to clip the hood on the carrier up because Henry just kept dropping his head back in protest and Matt thought he looked super uncomfortable. 

Let's be honest, carrying a 27 pound irritated infant isn't exactly a picnic, but I'm smiling about it. Just enjoy it, Henry! ;)

We finally made it to the starting line! It's not the "real" start, it's just the ceremonial one, so they line up a team, introduce the team and then the team takes off. A minute or so later they repeat it with the next team - it really is more for show. The real start (restart as they call it) is usually in Willow, but due to the awful snow conditions this year, it was moved all the way to Fairbanks!

This is a pretty good demonstration of the "trail" conditions. The city piles up a 10' wide swath of snow along the city streets for the sleds to run on. Note the bare pavement to each side of the trail. I think this year they had to put snow down for the whole run to Campbell Creek Airstrip. I think most years, the snow is required for the streets (obviously the city keeps the streets plowed!), but not for the off-road parts. 

This is one of the teams running by. I don't know all that much about the Iditarod, but I read online that people "win" the chance to ride in one of the sleds for this part of it. And there is some requirements for who all has to be present for the start, so most teams had to have two sleds at the start. The dogs really didn't seem to care about number of people or trail conditions, they were just happy to run!

We finally found a place to watch without the fence. Thomas enjoyed the view much more without it!

The trail down 4th Avenue. It's really cool to see the Iditarod going down the city streets. It's got to be more fun than waiting for the finish in Nome. Apparently it can stretch for days when people arrive, I would get cold waiting that long! ;)

A bunch of people were using the parking garages for a better vantage point. Smart!

I brought all their cold weather clothing along and then felt silly when the thermometer in the car was telling us it was 45 degrees outside. But then we got out of the car and it was so windy! The wind chill was much colder than we expected. So I was pretty glad we had so many layers. Thomas is missing his glove here because kids apparently can't keep mittens on and he dropped it in a puddle. I was all trying to go under the rope and fetch it with Henry on my back - some good samaritan beat me to it! We told Thomas to pull his hand in his sleeve until we could dry it off a little. 

There were so many people that would get up next to the trail to take photos. I was all, are they going to get in trouble? Are they supposed to do that? Matt kept looking at me like I was crazy - who is going to stop them, honey?

So I did it too! I had the zoom lens, but I couldn't get any good shots without people walking in from of me. But next to the snow pack, it was a great vantage point! And the dogs have the most awesome expressions. Half the time they were acting so weird you couldn't even guess they were running!

The ones that you could tell were running had some serious tongue action. They have the longest tongues! 

And look at the "Iditarider" on this one - she looks so excited. Man, I would be so excited if I got to ride along. Where do I sign up??

After watching several teams run by, we decided to walk down to the carnival and let Thomas run around and ride some rides. He hasn't ridden many, so we decided to go on the easy truck ride first. There were several parents riding along, so Matt went with him.

He did so well that we went to the Helicopter ride next! He had to ride this one alone and we were a bit nervous he might freak out. He did great the first two revolutions, then the ride started moving the helicopters and planes up and down. We held our breath and waited to see what he would do...

He loved it! He was steering his little wheel so carefully and had this super serious look on his face - he was concentrating on keeping that bird in the air - ha!

When the ride finally stopped and he was back on the ground he looked over at me with this look of accomplishment on his face. I love this little serious guy. For the record, he talked about the helicopter all evening! That and the train one we didn't let him ride because it was "too fast" - maybe next year!

Then Matt took him on the Super Slide because we had a few tickets left. They climbed all the way up to the top, got situated on their mat and down they went!

Haha - I knew Matt was having fun the second they started sliding, but I wasn't sure about Thomas...

But when they finally came to a stop, he started smiling too! Yay for Super Slides!

Also in the carnival area was the inspiration for Fur Rondy - it was originally started as a place to sell furs. We were pretty intrigued by all of the furs and some of them were way cheaper than we would have guessed. We didn't buy any, Matt's been talking about getting into hunting up here, so it feels like cheating to buy one. Kinda like me and rocks. ;)

Headed back to the main drag and got to see a few more teams. This trio looked like they were asking each other if they were ready. 

Haha - this guy! He was soon ready and tired of waiting. I feel like if I was a sled dog, I would probably be this ridiculous. Sigh... We can't all be models like the one next to him. :)

Can you tell someone was tired? He was riding on Matt's shoulders so we could move at a decent pace with Henry in the stroller. We were going to the Hard Rock to eat, but it was packed. I ran upstairs to the party we were invited to, but didn't see anyone I knew (and more importantly no empty tables!). So we decided to pack it up and hit the road. 

We figured the two of them would crash, so we decided to drive to our favorite mexican food restaurant in Palmer - La Fiesta. Not a chance, these two were so wired that they messed with each other the whole drive up there and passed out 5 minutes before we arrived. Thomas powered through lunch by leaning on his dada and Henry slept on the bench beside me the whole time.

They obviously had a great day, even if we did wear them out! :)

The Severely Detoured Lens

About a month ago, I got a unexpected "merit reward" at work for covering a well for a coworker over Christmas & New Years that turned out to be the most sneakily problematic well I've worked. It was amazing how many things I managed to catch along the way that were getting messed up  - mostly thanks to some interesting software bugs. Super fun...! 

Instead of just throwing it in the bank account like everything else, I decided to actually use it to buy something I wanted. That way it would actually be memorable instead of just spent at Target or the grocery store. It didn't quite cover the 20mm lens for my camera I have been lusting after, but I had enough credit card points that it covered the difference without it technically costing me anything. Woo for a new lens!!

Except the fact that I used the credit card points caused a major issue I didn't realize until too late. About a week later (on a Sunday) I get a notification from MyUPS that my camera will be delivered on Monday. Unfortunately the notification also shows the address as my old Houston address! What?!!?

The best I can figure is that when I switched to credit card points on my Amazon account (instead of Matt's account, which I usually use - you can now family share Prime!), it defaulted back to the last address I used to order with them. And I didn't notice it when I hit "Purchase" because I was so excited about the lens as I had still been hemming and hawing about it all week.

I call UPS and they tell me they can't change do anything about the shipment because it's a Sunday, but if I call back super early Monday morning, I can get the delivery held. Once it is held, if no one comes to get it in 5 days, they will return it to the shipper. So I email the shipper and tell them what is going on and ask them if they can switch the address to Anchorage once the package is held and I will pay the difference. (Apparently as the receiver of packages, your options are pretty limited.)

I call back super early like they asked and ask the shipment to be held. No problem! The shipper emails me back and says that they cannot change the shipment. They say they saw the notification it was being held and that when it was returned to them, they would refund my money and I could order it again. I really wanted the camera lens for Henry's birthday, so I debate just ordering another one now. In the end, I decide against it - it might still make it back in time. 

A week or so later, I email the shipper again to see what the status is. They email back (why can't they just give me a phone number??) that their records show the package was signed for and never returned. What the what?!? I go back to UPS and sure enough, the package was signed for. Even better, it was delivered right to my old house 9 hours after the confirmation it would be held. 

A few angry phone calls to UPS later and I have absolutely no recourse to get my package back. UPS is all sorry, we screwed up, but there's nothing we can do.  I get the feeling the shipper thinks I am trying to scam them and won't do anything. So the only recourse left is to ask one of the old neighbors to help us get in contact with the new tenants. Luckily, we have great "old" neighbors and I get a phone number!

The guy is super friendly and I am so apologetic about the mix-up. It was actually a two part order, the amazon part they had already sent back (cut-outs to make letters out of icing, you've seen them in use already!), but they hadn't gotten around to shipping the lens back yet. They even offered to take it to the UPS store for me. So I paid for the shipping, emailed them a label and patiently waited...

For some reason I sent it to myself 'signature required' even though I am never home during the day. I missed one delivery attempt and decided to reroute it to work the next day. And it came! I walked downstairs to our receiving department and picked it up - no big deal!

The longest ordeal ever to get a lens and I haven't gotten to play with it much, I just took a few test shots with it at dinner tonight. Obviously it's a totally normal dinner - drumsticks are involved and Natalie is patiently waiting for Henry to drop her food... Hopefully I get to play with it more and will fall in love with it just like my other lenses. And for the record, I have since deleted all of the old addresses out of my Amazon account, I do not need that stress again!

Forgotten Game Night!

I was trying to clean up my photos in Lightroom and realized I missed a series of photos I had fully intended to post. Whoops! Oh well, what's chronological order really matter in the grand scheme of things...? ;)

We have been having a weird winter up here. Weird as in awful - we can't seem to keep snow on the ground. The day after Nonni went back to Texas, she was sending me videos of it snowing in her back yard. We accused her of stealing our snow and demanding she return it. She told us we were more than welcome to come get it. Humph!

But Henry is the optimist! He pushed his elephant over to the window to check out the current conditions. Would it be snow?? Would it be cold, but sunny? He is ever hopeful for good news!

Nope - it's raining! Henry is not happy about this turn of events. I feel you, buddy... I can deal with many things, but rain in March when it should be snowing? Uncool!

With outside activities postponed for the day thanks to the awful weather, we decide to play in the house. We already had quite the collection go these blocks, but then Grandpa (my dad) sent us a bunch more in the mail the other day. He saw this cute video where a dad made his kids a double mountain train track using these blocks as the support. We've not made the train mountain yet, but the kids were pretty excited about the mountain of blocks. Haha - and believe it or not, Henry managed to catch himself in this fall and right himself. The little guy is pretty darn coordinated! (He does not get that from his mother's genetics...)

He's crawling and pulling himself up all over the place. Nothing is safe from Henry's reach...! His new favorite is to beeline for the stairs and power up them before I can catch him. I've let him climb up several times (staying right behind him) and he has no problem hauling himself up to the top. We tried installing the baby gate we used for Thomas, but we're concerned it's just not sturdy enough for a large baby to be jerking on it. Thomas was old enough to not pull on it, so we have got to find another solution for the Hulk baby. For now, it's baby watch at all times!

We finally managed to get out of our pajamas that afternoon because we had invited people over for game night. Thomas was super excited because his friend Abby was coming! I was excited because game night is the perfect solution to a rainy day. And with 6 adults in the house, I had plenty of help with stair watching for Henry - ha!

These two are so cute! They were sitting on Thomas' Elmo couch being so well behaved while the guys were playing Mario Cart. (We needed a quick game while I finished the desserts.) Aren't you impressed by how nicely they are sitting there??

Ha - it's because they thought they were playing the game! We gave them the Xbox controllers while everyone else played with the (correct) Wii controllers. They were happy, we were happy - winning all around! I'm sure I'll hear about it when they are older. :)

And the game night dessert! I like to come up with random reasons to have game night and I resorted to using a food holiday this time. Turns out February 21st is Chocolate Soufflé Day, so it was "CS Game Night". Of course, I set this up weeks in advance and almost forgot why I named it CS night. Luckily I opened the digital invite before I went to the grocery store! I can only imagine the ribbing I would have gotten if I had forgotten the title dish. Talk about never living something down...! ;)

Thirty-Four (12.5) Months!

I have done such a good job with the monthly photos! Which means, of course that I missed the arguably most important one of Henry's first year. So you'll notice the title change - since it was already the first, it was technically on Thomas' month anniversary. So to those who are keeping close track, the 33rd sticker got skipped. Even so, I still think I have done a pretty good job. :)

Look at them scoping out each other's stickers. It's like they know...!

Don't they look super ecstatic to be taking photos again? Ha!

Well Henry got excited about something! I have no idea what and Thomas obviously does't care, but look at how ecstatic Henry really is all of a sudden!

Still happy! Thomas has this expression on his face a lot - this is him in the middle of asking if he can see the photos. As soon as I start taking them, he wants to see them. I can usually persuade him to let me take a few in between having to show him. 

Then it was apparently time to play musical "chair" and walk around while ignoring momma. 

Then Henry tackled his brother's leg and I may have had to separate them for just a few minutes...

Henry looks so grumpy that I spoiled his fun!

For some reason, Thomas looks grumpy too! I rescued you - just a little bit of appreciation here, son!

The neighbors were having a party and it just happened to be wrapping up right when I was taking photos. Which meant that the boys were incredibly interested in all the people walking in the cul-de-sac and not so interested in taking photos any more.

On a related note, look at the ginormous arms on my little man. He had his yearly check-up the other day and is as healthy as a horse. And topping the charts in all the measurements. So he's a big boy, but according to the pediatrician, he's not fat - he's perfectly proportionally huge. Or something like that. :) 

He was done taking photos and I kept putting him back on the chair for "just one more photo". Apparently when a toddler is done, a toddler is *done*. Sorry little man! Thanks for the cooperation for most of the photos. ;)

My mom brought us all valentine's day presents and I was pretty excited about mine It's a light reflector that has four different covers - white, black, silver and gold. I wanted to try it out and since I was down to one cooperative kiddo, I figured it was worth a shot to get a shot (see what I did there?ha!).

Henry seemed pretty impressed by the reflector. He mostly tried to attack it, but I did manage to get it lined up long enough to reflect the light from the window back at him. I really love this guy's pretty blue eyes and the reflected light just made them pop. Thanks for the fun gift, momma!