polar bear, polar bear

what do you see??



i see 2 crazy boys looking at me.

sudsy smiles

why oh why is the bathtub the only place i can get a picture where all 3 boys look at the camera (at the same time) and smile :)

who needs a bed ??

if you're just thinking about buying your kids a nice bed ... you might want to think again.

a comfortable mattress .... don't need it.

nice coordinating sheets ... don't need them.

down comforter ... also not important.

a cars sleeping bag that lays perfectly in the middle of the bedroom floor ... now we're talking!

for the past month or so, this is where ben has spent about 90% of his nights.

top bunk - doesn't interest him.
bottom bunk - doesn't interest him.

every night when we're getting ready for bed, the first thing he says is "i want to sleep on the floor tonight!"

and come 8:30 ... having him sleeping is my main priority.

so ... sweet dreams little ben.

as long as the floor does it for you, it's doin' it for me!

we're wearing him out!

up until a few weeks ago, alex was a very picky sleeper.

he would only sleep in his crib or the car. that's it.

he's always been a snuggler, but, he would rarely fall asleep in your arms.

and he would NEVER, EVER, even consider just laying on the couch or the floor and crashing.

well, times have changed ...

apparently adding fun to his life has more benefits than i expected!!

good investments

you know you've made a good investment when ..
you buy something for your kids and it keeps them busy all day!
they use them to "explore" the house ....
and to play in the dark.
they wear them while they watch tv ...
and while they play wii.
they fall asleep wearing them ...
and then put them on first thing when they wake up!

the bottom line --

3 adventure head lights - $15

having all 3 kids kept busy for hours on end - absolutely priceless!!

when teddy grahams just don't cut it.

man, did i provide the entertainment for the people shopping at the gap outlet today!

not only did they get to "enjoy" watching as i pushed around an 18 month old who was at his shopping threshold. oh, it was SO much better than that!

i was also being followed by a 6 year old who would not stop talking about ancient greece :)

now, as excited as i am that drew LOVES the magic treehouse books ... and as excited as i am that book # 16 has added to such a fun obsession - when child A is crying and removing any article of clothing he can, while in the middle of the gap, it is not really a good combo to have child B quizzing you to see what you know about plato and olympic stadiums.

while standing there laughing at myself and the situation ... i came to a few quick conclusions.

1. thank God we stopped at starbucks.

2.. stacey was probably getting a lot more done than i was :) (he was shopping next door with ONLY ben.)

and

3. i had definitely lost control of the situation. it was time to step up and put an end to the craziness !!

thank you burger king for providing the #1 distraction of the afternoon! your FABULOUS flavorburst ice cream cones ROCK!

what brothers are for - part 2

to push you around in a toy bucket, of course!

who's bossin you around?

on wednesday nights i am a small group leader for our church's elementary midweek program. i have 7 first grade boys (drew included).

while in our group tonight we were talking about our memory verse. i asked them if they knew why it was good to learn memory verses and i got quite a variety of answers. this led to one of the kids saying "so that you can not be bad and so you can go to heaven." to which i responded "well, is that really what gets you into heaven?"

thus began our talk about what you have to do to get to heaven.

NOW .. what i love about it is that i sat there and was able to keep my mouth shut for a lot of the time. these little first graders were so passionate about what they knew. they took the time to talk and explain things to this little boy. they basically fought over who got to tell him. "you have to ask God to be the boss of your life." "you can do that." "you think with your head and believe with your heart. do you know that?" ... and on and on it went ...

it was so powerful. i sat and thought to myself - i want that passion. i want to be that excited to share what i know. i want faith like these kids have.

then i realized, maybe that's what it takes. to think like a first grader. to think about it the way they think about it. in their terms.

is God the boss of my life? i mean the REAL boss of my life? the day to day, minute to minute, second to second boss of my life?

it's definitely something to think about.

SWM 6 years old seeks wife

drew told us this morning he is concerned that everyone knows who they are going to marry and that he does not have a wife.

we told him to give it a few years :)

... i have a dream ...

drew informed us today that he is going to win an award like the one they gave martin luther king jr.

he already has it planned. he has a helicopter created in his mind that can save all of the polar bears that are dying because their habitat is getting destroyed.

he also informed us that all of the polar bears in the world would be much happier in our zoos.

he told ben what a continent was.

he informed the rest of us that the north pole is not really a continent because you can't walk on it.

AND he informed us that 'y' is a vowel, sometimes.

did i mentioned that this was all just on our drive TO the y?