Reading in Bed

First of all, my kids are great sleepers. We are blessed with a 7:30/8:00 am wake up call from them.... shhhh, don't tell them that could wake up earlier.
Recently, Howie has been enjoying a reading session with Johnny to start the day. Upon getting permission, he goes in the room and climbs (literally) in bed with Johnny. They enjoy reading Johnny's books for 15 minutes or so until I am forced to go get things moving to start our day.

Lollipop Concert

We get to explore music with our friends at the Lollipop Concert. The children get to touch the instruments before the concert and see some people playing the instruments up close. After the experience, Howie said he wanted to play the french horn. We have fun watching the Cincinnati Orchestra perform Carnival of the Animals as students from the Creative and Performing Arts School come on stage to recite poems they have written. At the end, we walk out of the building as we are offered lollipops.... of course!

Explorations

A new friend who is wedding photographer showed me some things about my camera to help launch me from being completely "automatic" to playing with the manual settings. Now, I am no wedding photographer, but I have been enjoying some play time with my Nikon. I keep hearing over and over, "Just play with your camera and take lots of pictures."

So... today I experimented with taking some outside photos on the manual setting. I learned a lot in the quick 10 minute session with the boys... I mostly learned what NOT to do and took a lot of pretty bad pictures. But it was so rewarding to get the good ones!

I found it amusing that while I was experimenting with the camera, they were experimenting with the bubbles I had bought them at the grocery this morning. We were all learning stuff together.

Here are some of the better pictures I got. I wish there was audio with these images, Johnny was laughing so hard he was shrieking. And Howie was delighted with the bubbles he was working so hard to produce. Naturally, the session ended with Johnny dumping the container of bubbles out on the deck and saying, "Uh oh."

Mask Making

Auntie Sarah came over the other day and made herself at home with Howie's art supplies. Much to delight of Howie! She showed him how to make masks and together, they created several masks for Howie's doggie. Howie has gone on to make many, many masks for his various creatures... and loves every moment of it. Thank you Auntie Sarah!

Rick or Johnny?

Here are two pictures of two boys in the same shirt. One was taken in 1979, the other in 2012.

Can you tell which one is Rick and which one is Johnny?

Buddies

Isn't it the best to have a good friend? Especially one that likes to play all the same things you do? Yah, that's the best.

Snow!

We get our first snow of the season. The boys and I suit up for about 45 minutes (double hats, gloves, snow pants, coats....) and head out to brave the cold. We were rewarded with lots of wonder.

Happy 2012!

We rang in the new year with a beef tenderloin dinner with Nonnie and Paw Paw. There was plenty for all! The UC Bearcats football game kept us company as we enjoyed good eats.

We share our New Year's resolutions. After telling Howie what a resolution is and giving him some examples, he responded, "My resolution is to exercise more." And then, "But now my resolution is to go poddy," as he hopped down from his seat and ran over to the bathroom.

My resolution is to live life more. So often I get caught up in email, cleaning tasks and texting people back. While these things are responsible choices, I can find myself missing out on time with my family. So this year I am making a commitment to do more puzzles, get on the floor for tickle time more often and to give out more attention to the child activity around my feet.

Happy New Year Everyone!