An ode to the frogs...

The Toad Poem

Toad, toad the magical toad,
the more he watched TV
the more he knowed.

Frogs, Frogs the magical Frog
the more they watched TV
the more I had to post on my blog.

The boys had their frog and toad watching a Bob the Builder show with them..(On my coffee table)















Zack put a little sponge in his cage for a couch , and the other one is resting on top...=) only my boys....


Nick sat content for a half hour watching TV, and the silly frog never moved....

Time has flown by.... where did it go..

This is my cutie pie Nicholas being silly... I can't remember what he was doing, but he sure is a silly boy...

Silly boy..

JOSH'S 10th Birthday.. I usually try to do their cake in their theme.. Can you guess what he got for his birthday this year.. Yep.. A Shiny new red minibike.. This cake was a small replica (almost) of the one he got....

I came down and had balloon men sitting at this birthday table, just to be fun before he outgrows balloons, if he hasn't already....

Josh's 10 birthday signs....

Daddy got josh this gift.. I didn't even know what it was until he opened it, and when he opened it, his first reaction was huh. then he realized what it was for...See the smile below..

This was what was in the box, Motor oil for this new mini bike... Of course Zack was THRILLED, because Josh getting a new one, means he gets his older and littler one..

Here the are, the roadsters, ready for action around our little lot.. The neighbors must hate us as we ride around and around...The parents can even ride Josh's new bike..

For Josh's birthday also, we went to an awesome circus.. In this cage were two, not one motorcycle riders going around and around..

Here's the 4 muskateers getting into circus trouble.. This circus was phenomenal, the best acts I have ever seen at a circus..

Zack lost his tooth and wanted me to take a picture of this big boy...

A typical wintery day in Minnesota

So this is me, an ordinary mom, three boys, a husband, a cat, a few friends (which I call them) a house, a job and other than that, same ole, same ole..However, I had a bright idea that would make my days in February, during the most boring month in Minnesota.seem a little more bright . You see those who can afford to escape in Feb. are gone, and for those of us who can't, well let's just say "We hibernate" We get grouchy, we want to knock down walls, move furniture, my gosh watching my cat play is even entertaining..Sad, I know. So back to my idea.. I was all excited, they were calling for a fresh 6 inches of snow.. Yeah, something new.. So I decided to head down to the old farmes weed and seed to get some bird food. He suggested I needed water, the greatest attractant to birds..So I ran to walmart as he suggested and started with a terra cotta round bottom pot to start with. I didn't want to start out with a rush, buying the warmer and all, I just wanted to know if the birds would even tempt to drink near a house that has 3 boys and did I mention the cat. So I filled it up and within 5 minutes a large robin was gulping it down for 2-3 minutes.. I was so excited and then 5 minutes later, it was FROZEN!!!!!!!! A day in Minnesota...

This is me all excited to see birds drink..
Here is the frozen stinkin bird bath..Atleast they can use it as an ice skating rink:)

Who says below zero and the winter froze zone is no fun...

This is the St. Paul Winter Carnival Festival at the Fairgrounds... They were giving away adult prizes , firetruck rides and prizes for the kids....Below is a maze castle that was realllllllllly solid and fun for the kids, most states have hay mazes, we have snow mazes...

The castle

We all got a firetruck ride with the St. Paul firemen, they were really fun and friendly.. We had the Bydlons and Anna Metraus with us..

A beautiful snow sculpture of evergreen

The Viking

Zack in the snow maze..All the kids, mine and everyone else looked alike..All the kids were so bundled up and so many had the same jackets, it would be easy to grab someone else's child..The whole time I thought I had my eye on my child and it wasn't. Even Chris was lost to me in the crowd of bundlers...

The kids are digging for poker chips, each color won a different prize. The white ones were worth the most, go figure. they blended well.. They had a blast digging in the subzero temps for prizes..

You cant read the sign, but it says "Heated bathrooms located by the main gate"You can only imagine how cold these ones were...

Below is the Ice Scultping in downtown St. Paul

The fishermans day..

The ne is a guy resting on a hammock in Jamaica or some island, and on the nightstand beside him is a cell phone, a pitcher of water, a beer.. It was soooooo authentic and real..

Because of the sun, you cant really see this, but it was amazing and captivating.. It is the last supper, and I wish you could see the faces, almost scarry how real and lifelike they were.

The Shark ...Or maybe a catch from some fisherman's tale.

The boys studied Greek Mythology this year in Tapestry and so to see some of the greek god's and for them to know their names was kind of cool...This is Zeus...

The cat..

Batman... Oh the boys loved this one...

Tapestry of Stress (oops, did I say stress, I mean) Tapestry of Grace....

At the end of each Unit in Tapestry, we have a feast or gathering to celebrate all we have learned.. We just finished unit II where we learned about ancient china, india, mayans, greece, the promised land and so on.. Here the girls represent china, india and greece..

Zack in his toga..

Here is Jennifer in her india costume, Olivia is from China and the rest had togas on..

Nicholas is arm wrestling his buddy Brian Donohoo.. It was sweet to let them join our Pentathalon. We were supposed to have 5 events that were the original events in Mount Olympus.. Running, jumping, wrestling, javelin, discus throw.. For the javelin, they were to toss a chopstick and for the discus,a butter lid... Instead of wrestling, we arm wrestled.. Being so cold up north, we had to make do inside.

Zack is arm wrestling a 10 year old, Jonah.. I was scared that he would go right down, but surprisingly it was almost a tie...

Josh barely beat Jacob the first time, but Josh did end losing to Jacob, but won first place in the long jump...

Ahhh. My football player stuck in a toga... He had fun at the olympics and was happy they included him and Brian, the two kindergartners.

Josh in his toga..

Halloween,Birthdays and Christmas, OH MY!!!!!

LOTS TO UPDATE, LOTS TO TELL, LOTS TO SMILE AT.....

Milkshake asleep all cuddled up with the stockings I was about to hang.. Who can resist such a cute face, I had to let her get her beauty rest.....
Nick with the final outcome of our tree. He is wearing his hulk shirt, which he is VERY proud of and wore for 4 straight days...:)

Nick helping dad figure out how to fluff the tree that we slaved getting in the cold ,harsh, garage..

See, these men worked hard to get our tree, by the sweat of their brows did they cut, I mean assemble the tree. Yes I am being facetious, I like real trees..

YIKES.. I had a hard time watching Nick and the boys swing sooooooo high only to be safe as to not fly off from swinging in and around, hanging by two little chains 3o feet in the air, you could see all the moms cringing, the dads smiling.....

We took a break from swinging to have lunch at the Rainforest Cafe..I wainted in line, while Chris took the boys for more rides, eating at Rainforest Cafe on a Saturday, at the mall of America On December 6, during Christmas shopping and Santa being there.. What can that spell...DISASTER.. But we were pleasantly surprised to only wait 40 minutes in line..

Zack loves the rainforest cafe, especially when all the monkeys start drumming and the cool thunderstorms, their eyes were huge..

AAAHHHH.. another scarry ride.. Nick and Brian go up and they drop down, go up drop down, They loved it..

From Left to right, Vitaly Brown (Our friend from Russia, who was adopted) The back of Josh's head, Nick and Brian in one cart, (Brian was a little too short to reach the peddle, but he is older than Nick) and Zack looking a little confused why a girl would hit him...:)

I'm not so sure about this mom...It's OK to bump people with this car..OK

That was fun, they only got scared once..

Nick with his proud shirt of Hulk..

At the Friday Night party, we had given the boys 5 minutes to come up with the most creative lego creation they could. this was Vitalys..

Zack's Creation...

Brian's Creation....

Josh' Creation..

And Nicholas creation....

The boys couldn't agree on the cake or what superhero it should be, so the lady at Walmart made a cake from both their favorite hero..She did a great job....

Here's HULK right in my own home...

We spent the "Cold" and rainy and wintery mix of a day on Nick's birthday at the Bydlon's eating, playing games and having cake... He is six now.. :(

Nick was so happy to get his Hulk costume...Nick got Hulk and Zack got spiderman the blue suit and the black one...

Here he is, SPIDEY...

Zack's shirt lit up, it was cool...

He turned eight years old... So Sad...

Here is Zack with Milkshake on his Birthday.. He is growing up to be such a sweet, and Godly little boy.. He plays peacemaker alot.. He does not like strife in the house.

Our little friend found the lid off the bucket of bird seed. He was in HOG heaven.. Then he invited all his little buddies to feast with him...It was fun watching this close out our patio window.

This is what the battlefield of carving pumpkins looks like when you leave them unattended for any length of time....

Nick is helping Mommy paint pumpkins for our harvest party at the Browns.

One of the pumpkins the kids carved...

My Creation ... I got the idea from a magazine and twisted it a bit. I was fun painting the whole pumpkin white and then addiing what looked quilty to me...

Another creation, first I painted it white and gold, glued leaves, then put a thick coat of sheer shine on, cut the top and used it as a vase..