Good Mornings

Some days I come up with good projects for the boys, and by good projects I mean anything that keeps them from fighting and keeps the TV off.

We bought these lego candy blocks at Suckers Candy Store months ago. So far Jett has been content to eat just one block per sitting, which is why, months after buying them, we still have enough to play with.

I can't really claim this as a project that I came up with, but trying to walk in Charlie's boots occupied Kai for a while. Really I'm just mentioning this because I needed a reason to add this picture to the blog. It's a classic - diapers and all!

This was the best project by far. We had some interesting packaging that looked like castles. So we got out the paint and did some home (I mean castle) improvement. It finally dawned on me that if I gave the boys only two colors to paint with at a time, the paint would actually mix together prettily and not turn in to a big brown mess. So they started out with blue and yellow, then red and yellow, then blue and red. Smart move, Amy!

The only problem with these castles is that now that they've painted them they don't play with them, but when I tried to recycle them they threw a fit. Now they sit on our kitchen table and I have to move them every time we eat. Still, one peaceful morning is totally worth it.

Packer Weekend!

It started with a Friday morning play date with a Bears fan.

JP has been known to call Charlie just tell him, "The Packers are going down!" I had to prep Jett for this play date by explaining to him that talking smack about your team is fun, not fighting.

Saturday morning we drove up to Green Bay for a little bowling.

Strike!

For the most part Jett refused to use the sled, and instead opted to throw the ball down the lane himself. Once he rolled a strike. Once he threw the ball so hard it caught air and got stuck between the bumper and the other lane.

Finally it was game day!

How did a Bears fan make it into this family?

The cutest fans.

Go Packers! And......

Happy Birthday, Grammy!

Cookie Party

The holidays came around and I got the itch to host a party. But hosting a party for adults seemed sort of overwhelming. What to serve, how to decorate, who to invite, and where were they all going to sit? Then I had a fabulous idea: host a party for the kids!

So a few days before Christmas I hosted a cookie-decorating party for Jett, Kai, and about 15 of their friends. I was really excited about it. We started making snowflakes to hang on the windows. I bought cookies and frosting. I baked. I sent out the invitations. Realizing that kids were going to be decorating and eating cookies on the ground, I furiously scrubbed my floor. Three days later we had a party.



We had 5 stations: pretzel sticks (dipped in chocolate and rolled in sprinkles), decorating tiny gingerbread men (Jett insisted on having gingerbread men), decorating big cut-out sugar cookies, frosting Nutter Butters to look like snowmen (complete with coconut to look like snow), and cutting out Rice Krispy treats with holiday-shaped cookie cutters. Thankfully every parent there was willing to man a station as the kids, for the most part, traveled from one to the other.

We did the Rice Krispy treats on the floor because I ran out of tables.

My most brilliant idea of the day was to give each child a paper plate and crayon and have them write their name on a plate as soon as they arrived. Every time they finished decorating a cookie, an adult would take their cookie and put it on their plate for them. The plates were set throughout the room wherever we had space - on top of the TV, on our fireplace mantel, and on the window sill.

Just a few samples that Jett made.

At the end of the party we moved the tables to the side and all of the kids sat down for cookies and milk. I would have loved to have gotten a picture of this, but Jett, who had really enjoyed the party up until now, was at his wits end not being able to get a break from so many people in our house, so I sat with him and ate a cookie instead.

That's the one thing about hosting a party: I kind of lost track of my kids. I didn't realize that Jett was losing it until he had already lost it. (He recovered quickly). Kai roamed around from table to table eating all of the goods. Well-meaning parents handed him cookies to decorate at each table. He took each cookie and stuffed each into his mouth. While I refilled bowls of sprinkles and washed cookie cutters I caught glimpses of Kai out of the corner of my eye, walking around from table to table, mouth full, cheeks covered in crumbs, clutching a cookie in each hand. He didn't decorate a single one, and he loved every minute of it.

The boys and I had so much fun, we can't wait to do it again. The clean up wasn't so bad either because 1) some of my friends found a way to sweep up the floor even though there seemed to be a million little toes standing on it and 2) all of the remaining sprinkles left my house on everyone's socks. Perfect!

.....and then it's morning.

Last night Jett asked me to sing him a lullaby while he fell asleep.

Laying on his back on his bed, Kai wrapped his arm around my neck, pulled me closer to him so that my cheek rested on his and said, "Mama, I want to feel your cheek."

This morning Jett woke up and crawled into our bed. Kai woke up and went straight to the cupboard and pulled out of bag of dried fruit. Jett heard him struggling to open it, got out of bed, and opened it for him. Then he got them both bowls, poured the fruit in the bowls, laid blankets on the floor, and turned on the TV.

Thirty minutes later one was mad and the other was crying. But the previous 12 hours were heavenly.

The New Year Celebration

My whole family came in to town for New Year's Eve and the boys were ecstatic to have everyone at their own house. They were thrilled that their cousins Megan and Owen were spending the night crammed into our cozy condo. Even Uncle Nathan made it, much to Kai's delight!



We ate dinner at Hackney's on Lake and then spent the rest of the night swimming in the pool at the hotel where my parents were staying. Aunt Heather showed Jett how to blow water out the end of a noodle, so he spent the majority of his time in the pool trying to splash all of us in the face. Thanks, Aunt Heather! When Kai got splashed in the face he took it in stride, thank goodness. He spent most of the time in the water trying to get Owen with the noodle. I spent most of my time in the water looking longingly at the hot tub.








We swam until way past the boys' bedtime, and then had snacks and champaign in the hotel lobby until my boys started asking to go home at about 10:30.

The next day we drove back to the hotel for more swimming and then opened Christmas presents while we watched Michigan State get clobbered in the Capital One bowl. Sigh.



We spent the rest of the evening playing games and eating pizza.




Kai's favorite game was hiding his new dominoes in his shirt.







It was a great start to the new year.

Christmas 2010

The boys were really excited about Christmas this year. Jett in particular LOVED counting up everyone who he would be spending Christmas with: Grammy, Papa, Uncle Chris, Sabrina, Uncle Dave, Megan (soon to be Aunt Megan!), Aunt Jenny, Uncle Brian, Ellie, Baby Colin, Uncle Will, Mama, Daddy, Kai, and Jett. That's 15 people. FIFTEEN! Fifteen is his new favorite number. He loves his Johnson family and he loves counting to high numbers.

However, Jett had only 5 items on his very first Christmas list:

1. Iron Man Costume
2. Hot Wheels Race Car Track with 4 Loops
3. DVD
4. CD
5. Violin

This race track was the favorite.



He and Kai made a big and loud impression with their Iron Man costumes. In the photo below Jett is posing for pictures in his costume. While their cousin Ellie sat quietly rocking her new babydoll, Jett and Kai ran circles around the house playing superhero. For those adults who could stand it, it was actually pretty cute. Kai developed his own "superhero run". He bends his arms to the side like you might see in a cartoon, eyes you with his mischevious eyes, flashes a grin, and pounces.



We also got the boys The Incredibles DVD, and now Kai's new favorite expression is "That'd be AWESOME!", while Jett runs around our couch pretending he is Dash. It's too bad we didn't get him the violin instead.

We would like to get Jett a violin, and as a former piano-player, band geek, and orchestra failure I'd love to see him pick up a musical instrument, but we didn't have time to figure out lessons and sizes and stuff before Christmas. I didn't know that violins come in different sizes so they can "grow with you". How confusing. Plus that bow would be a weapon in our house. We're going to have to hide the super hero costumes before we bring a violin and bow in to the mix.

Anyway, we didn't just open presents on Christmas. We also did some arts and crafts. One of the 11 fabulously-attentive adults in the house must have helped him with this one, although Jett does wield some wicked cutting and gluing skills.



Of course the cousins lined up to watch Frosty!



But you know Christmas isn't only about presents, artwork, and TV specials. It's also about Advent. Waiting.

Waiting until church starts to need a diaper change. Waiting until the the last hymn of the church service before you can eat that last cookie your mom stashed in her purse. Waiting until your mom says it's finally morning. Waiting until everyone wakes up to open the presents. Waiting until it's your turn to open your present. Waiting to get the batteries in to the race track. This was the first Christmas Eve that Jett really understood that he was going to be getting a lot of presents the next day, and so this is the first year that I realized how much patience this holiday demands of kids and their parents, and perhaps every adult within hearing range. All the kids I was with that day did great. I was so proud of them and so relieved and once they finally went to bed I even relaxed.

It was a noisy, happy, entertaining Christmas to share with the 15 noisiest, happiest, and most entertaining Johnsons I could ever be a part of. I hope your Christmas was wonderful too.

Quickie

A quick picture and a promise of more to come.

Also - Congratulations to you two!!!

Happy New Year, Everybody.