The Gingerbread House

My sister gave us a gingerbread house kit for Christmas. Zeke was super excited to make his own gingerbread house, but Aaron and I were so sugar-overloaded from Christmas that we couldn't even think about taking on that project until about mid-January. We finally did it at the end of January on a Sunday evening. Zeke was the architect, Aaron was the contractor, I was the supplier of building materials, and Nora was quality control. 

Right after I snapped the pictures, Zeke bumped the table and - earthquake! - the house collapsed. And the eating commenced. 

Supplier's note: your house is only as good as your materials, right? When you start out with store-bought gingerbread that is shelf stable for months, well, it tastes like it's shelf-stable. However, the frosting was homemade (I just couldn't bring myself to use the toothpaste-consistency 'frosting' glue that comes in the kit), so that helped the taste if not the structural stability.

February 'Photo Album'

Just moved the February pictures from camera to computer and realized there are a bunch of good ones that don't really have their own blog post, so they all get to share a blog post. 

Some serious static electricity!

Zeke says 'Take a picture of me sleeping on my puzzles' and lays down like this. I take the picture. Then he doesn't get up, and really goes to sleep on his puzzles.

Nora and cousin Brielle playing with dishes.

This totally looks like a posed picture. And it so totally wasn't. Silly kids.

Out playing in the cold.

Angry Birds

We all enjoy Angry Birds at our house, Zeke in particular. One day he was building houses out of blocks and I suggested we make our own game of Angry Birds. He loved that idea and quickly set up the blocks on the table. 

Then we found a ball to be our 'bird' and knocked down the towers.

And some people say video games aren't good for kids. ;)

Ribbit Reader

Zeke has been talking about getting the 'penguin book' from preschool for a few weeks now. I thought he meant a penguin-themed sight word book (he checks a new one out every week). But this is much more special. The 'penguin book' is a 60 page book all about the world around us, and it comes with a plush frog named Ribbit Reader. Along with making friends with Ribbit Reader and reading the book together, the other part of the assignment was to take Ribbit Reader on a special outing, and then to draw a picture of the adventure. 

We took Ribbit Reader on a trip to Costco, and to do some window shopping with Thomas toys. 

Here is his picture. We were drawing this late the night before it was 'due' because Zeke just couldn't draw the picture before we finished the book! He decided to draw Ribbit Reader. It was the first time I have ever seen him draw something from a model, and he kept consulting Ribbit Reader to make sure he had it just right.

Of course this learning experience wasn't just for Zeke, so I have to add some mom commentary. I had a lot of little realizations through this process, particularly with the book. It was a mini children's encyclopedia, including everything from the solar system to weather to animals and more. Most of it was new information for Zeke. Some if it he had never heard of before, like the earth rotating around the sun, and some of it built on concepts he already knows something about. I could see him making connections and thinking about some new ideas. If it was brand new, he was usually quiet and just listening. But if it was something he understood some of, he told me all about it. I love being able to watch my kids learn.

Donuts for Breakfast

Last week Aaron went to a meeting and brought home the leftover treats. He got home late, after the kids had gone to bed, and they were surprised and happy to see donuts the next morning. There really wasn't a question about what to have for breakfast because they dived right in.