Sun and Sand - Day 2

We were trying to do this vacation somewhat on the cheap, so we ate breakfast in the room every morning. The boys don't usually get sugary cereal at home, so crunchberries every morning was yet another highlight for them!

Wednesday morning, we walked down to the beach. We explored the tide pools - the boys were thrilled to start collecting rocks and spotting fish.

After that, we played in the water and constructed the first of what turned out to be many giant holes in the sand!

Papa and Rudy on the "scenic walk" back to the main hotel. You can't really see it, but there is an iguana in the trees behind them.

The boys and me from the rooftop balcony of our hotel tower:

Most days, we would take a drive in the afternoon to give the boys a chance to rest/nap and to get out of the sun a bit. Today, we drove up to the Bolongo Bay resort to check out their beach for future snorkeling.

We had a nice view of our hotel from their overlook:

Rudy was quite impressed with the fact that his window went down and that he could control it himself. (Unlike the minivan.) He insisted that James take these pictures of him demonstrating the window capabilities:

Sun and sand - day 1

We're back from a week in St. Thomas! We used our hotel points to book two rooms and my dad used his miles to book our flights. Traveling with grandparents is definitely the way to go for vacations with kids - they were thrilled to have QT with the grandkids and James and I weren't on full-time duty the whole week!

Even though they're relatively seasoned travelers, the boys were still quite excited about flying, even at 4 am! Rudy could hardly contain himself in the airport and on the flights.

Our flights were slightly delayed, but once we made it to the hotel we didn't waste any time. We changed immediately and headed for the sunset pool - perfectly timed for the first night's sunset.

We had rented cars for the week, but decided to stay at the hotel for dinner that night. Something about driving on the left side of the not-so-great roads in the pitch black after a full day of traveling! The hotel restaurant was right on the beach, so it really wasn't a sacrifice!

The boys were up late every night of the trip. I had packed some glow sticks, which were a huge hit in the evenings. We spent a long time at the beach that evening tossing the glow sticks around and enjoying the warm air!

Adjusting

I know no one will feel sorry for us, but it's a bit of a shock to go from this:

to this:

I'm in the midst of downloading and organizing pictures from three cameras (mine, mom's, and dad's) and will have a long post soon with all of our fun from the Virgin Islands!

Big Strong Guy

Brady pulled his difficult-and-moody-teenager act this weekend and refused to get the mail.

Rudy, pulling his eager-to-please-toddler act, grabbed his stool and lugged it all the way out to the mailbox, telling me he could do it for me because he's a big, strong guy.

Brady Artwork

Brady is still going to his after school art class once a week. He's accumulated so many masterpieces that we were running out of room to display them. I already have a gallery in the upstairs hallway of both boys' artwork, but we still had a pile of projects in his closet. We decided to display some of them in his room, so now he has a border of masterpieces.

This is a flower, made with oil pastels. He considers himself quite the know-it-all about oil pastels after having completed this one!

Watercolor still life, painted to resemble a real display his teacher set up.

This year's self-portrait:

Learning about lines. He's quite impressed with himself
for adding the blimp and the flag.

Learning about warm and cool colors:

Rudy Artwork

It's been a while since I've added the kids' artwork...these are some of Rudy's art class products:

Log cabin in the snow...

This is a whale. With feet. (Isn't it obvious?)

This is our couch. (Again...obviously!)

Mountain Skyline. He did this with pastels - we drew on a silhouette of the mountains and then he used a cotton ball to pull the colors down into the picture. Turned out pretty cool looking!

Various and sundry

I have a few pictures from the past week that I never quite got around to posting...

The weather has actually be gorgeous here the past few weeks. A little windy some days, but consistently nice enough to play outside. Brady even took his first bike ride around the neighborhood. He had to get off and push his bike up some of the hills, but it was an impressive first effort!

Brady and Bella building a volcano:

Brady was violently sick in the middle of the night, so I kept him home from school. He was not at all sick that day, so he and Rudy set up this airplane cockpit with their carseats on the couch. I was busy cleaning every possible household surface, trying to rid us of all cooties!

Rudy and Ben, getting ready to head outside.

Post-bath snuggles with Dad:

Obstacle course, while practicing the proper way to run the football....

What Say?

James was out of town most of last week. He got home late on Thursday night and stayed home for breakfast Friday morning. He was getting ready to go to work after breakfast...

R: Where you going?
J: I have to go to work.
R: But I love you.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

We met Brian for lunch yesterday. He brought each of the kids a "foot" of candy - a long tube filled with candy. After lunch, Brady asked if he could have a piece of his candy.

B: I hope it doesn't taste like feet.
K: What? Why would it taste like feet?
B: Because Daddy said it's a foot of candy.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Rudy was talking to Papa on the phone yesterday, which was Valentine's Day.

R: We're going to a party tonight.
P: Are you going to see your girlfriend?
R: What girlfriend?
P: Your girlfriend...are you going to see her?
R: Which one?

Musical Mornings

I guess weekend mornings bring out the musicians in the kids...

Preschool Drama

Brady's preschool class was learning about mail this week, so they had mailboxes set up for each of the kids. The kids were encouraged to write notes in school or bring them from home to put in their friends' mailboxes.

Brady came down from quiet time last week with these two notes:

They didn't make much sense to me at first, either. Apparently, Andrew always picks Curt when they play duck-duck-GOOSE. Curt doesn't like it and starts to cry. Brady is very concerned by this, so he wants to know why Andrew always picks Curt and he wants Curt to start having fun playing.

Coming soon...2008 Picture Movie

I started making these picture movies in 2004. I'm less motivated now that I've got the blog as a record for the boys, but I can't really stop with the picture movies at this point! They're still fun to watch, and much less painful to make now that I have a new(er) computer.

The 2008 edition is a work in progress still. (Hey...I just finished 2007 this week!) It's HARD to narrow down 3000 pictures, even into a 30 minute video!

I have managed to find and load the previous year movies though, so here are the links. Be warned - each one is about 30 minutes, so they take a bit of a time commitment!

2004
2005
2006
2007

Music class

We got to observe Brady's preschool music class today. It was pretty cute, and good to finally hear the whole songs. He tends to come home with only bits and pieces and can't remember the rest! (Except God Bless America, which is one of his bedtime songs and he knows in entirety!)

Adventures with Flat Stanley

Brady has been talking for weeks about Flat Stanley. Apparently, they read the story at school and hi preschool class is taking turns bringing home Flat Stanley on the weekends. Flat Stanley has his own journal, where we're supposed to document his activities.

We got our turn last weekend. It started off well. Flat Stanley came with us to volunteer at the SPCA. We got to visit "our kitties".

That night, we realized that Flat Stanley forgot to pack his pajamas. He had to borrow some of Brady's baby pjs.

The next day, we took Flat Stanley to run errands. He was so good that we took him out for ice cream after.

Unfortunately, things went poorly for Stanley on Sunday. Rudy tried to steal Stanley out of Brady's hands and managed to nearly decapitate poor Stanley. We called around to all the neighbors until we found someone with a piece of posterboard. We created a Stanley clone and took him to be laminated.

We did not write about Flat Stanley's demise in the journal!

Climate Change

Monday morning, we had a picnic outside for lunch, because it was about 65 and sunny. We had all the windows in the house open until about 2, when it started cooling off.

Tuesday morning, we woke to a couple inches of snow on the ground. After we took Brady to school, Rudy and I built a snowman.

By the time Brady got home that afternoon, it was in the mid-50s. We had a snowball fight in the "warm" sunny weather.

Dollars and Sense

A year and half ago, when Brady started preschool, we started giving him a small allowance. We explained that it was his "job" to go to school and do his best, so we thought he might be old enough to get "paid." However, we also said that he had to remember to ask for his money on Saturdays. If he forgot, then he wouldn't get it that week. We also decreed that a portion could go in his new wallet for spending but some would also have to go into savings and some into charity.

He enthusiastically collected. For about 2 weeks.

Sporadically after that, he would remember or we would remind him. Between Christmas and his birthday recently, he had a fair amount of cash in his wallet. I took him to the bank to deposit it, explaining that we could get it out if he found something he wanted to buy but that the bank would keep it safe for him.

Last week, I asked him he wanted his allowance.

K: What day is it?
B: Saturday.
K: What happens on Saturdays?
B: What?
K: Do you want your allowance?
B: No.
K: If you don't get it today, you don't get it this week.
B: I don't want to.
K: Why not?
B: I don't want to give any away.
K: What do you mean?
B: If I get it, I have to give some away and I don't want to give it away.
K: What?!?
B: I don't want to give it anyone. [I assume he means the bank and/or charity.]
K: But you still get to keep some. If you don't get your allowance, you don't get any money.
B: OK.

Apparently, we're not quite there yet!