Will the artist

Will loves anything crafty.  He paints, he cuts, he colors, and his very favorite is when he gets to glue.  So with his party coming up at school he and I worked together to make some little valentines for his class.  He was all about punching out the hearts and gluing them on.  Writing - not so much.  We attached packs of fruit snacks to each one and they were ready to go.  That is until Will wanted a snack later.  He found them and pulled off the fruit snacks because he was hungry :)

I love this last picture.  He does this little tongue bite every time he is working on something that takes some concentration.  It is such a silly little thing, but one of the things that I know I will miss when he doesn't do it any more.

The Black Knight

We were in California when Max's pack had their pinewood derby.  Luckily the pack from our church was willing to let Max race with them.  He was so excited!  He and daddy worked really hard to make the Black Knight one of the fastest cars on the track.  All those You Tube videos Brian watched paid off and Max came in third place!  He is already planning his car for next year - apparently there was a pretty cool pencil design at the race that he loved.

Science Night

What a fabulous night!  We attended science night at Max's school last year and he loved it, so when the sign up came home this year he was all over it.  The kids work in small groups and rotate through classrooms completing different science experiments.

The first experiment was a huge hit - I mean come on, it involved holding a worm.  It was funny to see how different the boy groups on behaved on this one than the girls.  The little boys in our group were pretty much fighting over who got to hold the worm, the girls next to use wanted nothing to do with it.

After the worm they moved on to bubble making.  There were several different bubble blowers and they had to predict how many bubble each one would blow.  They compared their predictions to the actual and then graphed their data.

Lastly they worked to use air pressure to move objects across the desk.  Our whole group was shocked that it was so hard to blow the feather across the table!  At the end they were able to race these little cars across the table.  It was fun, but pretty gross.  Little boys blowing through straws to race cars means lots of flying spit.

There was another big element to science night - the Science Fair!  Max first got excited about the idea when his school hosted a STEM evening.  Then we came up with idea for his project over winter break when he was bored and we looked up paper airplanes on You Tube.  He made five different planes and predicted that they would all fly the same since they were made out of the same paper.  We tested his hypothesis by flying each plane three times and recording the data.  He did found that the Streaking Eagle flew the farthest.  I was so proud of how hard he worked on this project.  He recorded all his steps in his log book and even worked with me in excel to create a graph of his data.  He was super proud of the final result - he got second place!

Adventure Day in San Francisco

 Max was very into the transportation modes we used while on vacation.  There was the bus from the airport parking, the airplane that we flew on, and the Nissan that we rented.  On Monday we added a few more to his list.  We took the Bart into the city for a bit of an adventure.  The boys loved the ride just as we thought they would.  Once we arrived we got in line for the cable car.  It was a bit of a wait but the boys enjoyed watching the cable cars come to the end of the line and turn around. Once we got on he was thrilled.  We were on an outside seat and had a great view of the hills.  We hopped off at Fisherman's Wharf and explored an old time arcade.  I think Brian and his brother liked that part best of all.

After the arcade we headed over to Ghirardelli Square where the boys enjoyed giant scoops of ice cream.  Once we got back to catch the cable car the line was really long.  Someone approached Brian and Andy and offered a ride in a limo to the Bart station.  It was quite the experience and i have to say that I was very skeptical.  But the idea of getting home won out.  Luckily it all turned out and Max was able to add another mode of transportation to his list to share with his freinds at school.

The return flight was a little dicey as Jack and Will were both under the wather, but the overall the trip was great.  Lots of wonderful time spent with family.  It really can't get much better.

Cousin Time

The whole reason behind our visit was to celebrate this little beauty's Baptism.  I feel awful that I forgot my camera didn't get any pictures, but it was wonderful.  She wasn't such a fan of the cold water, but she loved looking at the candle.  It was so fun to hold a baby again.  They grow up so quick!

There was lots of cousin time on Sunday.  We me my cousins, Aurelio and Marichu, for breakfast.  We spent some time at the park before heading out to Happy Hollow.  It was so fun to watch the boys interact with their Uncle Butch and Aunt Marichu!  They had so much fun.  I think Brian liked it too - Butch gave Brian's shoulders a break.

There were also little cousins to play with.  These six were such busy little ones exploring everything!  The fort was a bit hit with it's huge slide and lots of climbing options.

Max in particular had so much fun with Bridget and Sean.  He didn't want to come back home!  Every morning when he woke up he would ask if we were going to see his cousins and he couldn't wait to get there if we were.  It was cute how easily they got along - particularly Max and Sean.  Max can be a bit shy, but he instantly took to his cousin and they played together for hours.

In addition to the fort and few animals, there were ride.  Including this roller coaster.  I am not a fan of roller coasters - at all.  Max must take after me because he had no interest it in.  Will the thrill on the other hand lived up to his name.  He LOVED it!  He threw his hands in the air and laughed as laughed as they raced around the track.   I see many more rides like this in his future.

Land's End

We have a new niece in California so we headed out for a long weekend to celebrate her big day - her Baptism!  On Friday we headed to Land's End lookout near San Francisco.  It was a bit foggy but we were able to see the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance.

 Of course I had to get a picture of all three boys in front of it too.  I'm not too sure what Jack was pointing at but he was pretty excited about it.  

The walk up was really beautiful.  Max thought it was petty crazy the way the wing causes the trees to grow.   The big boys were very into exploring.  Max even read parts of the signs to Will before Will lost interest and he decided he needed to potty.

This was a great way to begin our California adventure.  The views were amazing and the boys loved hearing the water down below and looking out for boats.  Brian and I both thought this place looked pretty familiar and then we realized we visited it last time we were in town. . . for our nephew's Baptism.

Max . . . AKA PIcasso

We received a note in early January that Max's artwork was selected to be on display in the district art show.  It's pretty exciting!

In the craziness of trip preparations I lost the paper.  When I called the school last Tuesday to check the date and time they told me it was that night!  Brian had an appointment, but luckily the girl down the street was able to watch the little boys for an hour while Max and I went to the art show.

He was so proud of his artwork.  He told me each step he did to create the painting.  The clouds were first and he finished things off with some special swirl patterns in fancy metallic marker.  It was so rewarding to see how excited he was to show it off.  He was also pretty excited about the cookie he got before we left.