Silly boys with their hats

Having fun painting...

Quad the fun

Round and round... First it was my brother and I riding motorcycle quads and now it is my boys' turn...
The yellow one was my brother's- mine will be fixed when we visit Grandpa again in about 2 weeks.

Wrapped in love

At our May FRG [Family Readiness Group] meeting, the boys got to choose a blanket from Project Linus and Solomon picked out a wonderful quilt that seemed to have been made with him in mind and Cyrus picked out a really soft blanket with a Zebra out in the safari on it. The boys are loving their blankets and I wanted to say a public "Thank you" to anyone who is involved with this wonderful organization [I hope to be a part of it in the future].

It is not Spring until you can play baseball...

and Mom is the cheerleader slash sports-photographer!

Another family succumbs to the Wii's powers

The Wii is really a great family system that has kid friendly games...

Happy St. Paddy's Day!

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
Just like the ones I used to know
Where the treetops glisten
And children listen
To hear sleigh bells in the snow.

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
With every Christmas card I write
May your days be merry and bright
And may all your Christmases be white.

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas
With every Christmas card I write
May your days be merry and bright
And may all your Christmases be white.


-Irving Berlin "White Christmas"

Still snowing...

















And when it is 20* outside and the roads are terrible to drive on then the best thing to do is to have a cup of hot chocolate [each marshmellow is worth about a thousand "brownie points" for mom given by the kids so layer them on]:


Portland has been covered by snow for a grand total of 8 days and there is about a foot of snow outside right now so I think we'll be having a White Christmas this year...

Snow Days

Other than snowfights and the other usual fun things to do with snow- Cyrus loves to eat snow...

It is beginning to look like Christmas...

Movie

We took the whole family to see the new release: Bolt! What a great movie and afterwards the boys came up with their top ten for the year [who cares about what comes in December] and in no particular order:
Bolt,
Wall E,
Kung Fu Panda,
Journey to the Center of the Earth,
Star Wars: The Clone War [not as good as the Cartoon Network version by creator Genndy Tartakovsky from Samurai Jack],
Horton Hears a Who [Cyrus is such a HUGE Dr. Suess fan],
VeggieTales: The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything,
Narnia: Prince Caspian,
Nim's Island [we didn't see it in the theatre but bears mentioning here],
Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium [which was released in 2007 but we didn't see it until 2008].

I have to mention that I loved Penelope and the kids liked it enough but it wouldn't make their list but I would recommend it to my readers.

Library Reading Program

So the boys participated in our library's summer reading program. We just turned in our reading log [I kept forgetting to turn it in for 3 weeks] and they each got a free book: Green Wilma [Cyrus's pick]
and Tuesday [Solomon's pick]. They each get a discounted ride bracelet for our almost year round amusement/carnival place that we'll be going to tomorrow! Then a surprise both kids got a free admission ticket for a Trail Blazers game [which if you don't follow sports- is a pro-basketball team based out of Portland and almost the worst team in the league for years] so we're planning on catching a game in November. Who should we see the Blazers play against: New Orleans, Sacremento, or Houston that will also be aired on TNT?

Birthday Presents

With Dan out of town so much that I haven't had the opportunity to get Cyrus anything and wrap it up beforehand so we went shopping at one of our local toy stores, Green Frog. He had gotten some birthday money from Mimi that he could spend as well as a gift from Mom. He settled very quickly on a cape, shield, and these foam like swords. However, just being a knight is not as much fun as being a knight and fighting another knight and asked so nicely if he would have Solomon get knight stuff to wear too. It was so sweet that he wanted to share his birthday with Solomon. The pictures show that I said yes...



Sir Cyrus and Sir Solomon

Tigers

In honor of poetry month:
William Blake. 1757–1827

The Tiger

TIGER, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies 5
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder and what art
Could twist the sinews of thy heart? 10
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand and what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? What dread grasp 15
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears,
And water'd heaven with their tears,
Did He smile His work to see?
Did He who made the lamb make thee? 20

Tiger, tiger, burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

Creatures

Cyrus is very much into pretending to be a squirrel and at our favorite place: OMSI, there is a forest play area and Cyrus can dress up as one- store nuts, and otherwise being "squirrely"

Solomon getting "bug eyed" [glasses that allow kids to see how a bug sees]:

A Saying

I don't know where he heard it but when Solomon is pleading for something he wants he'll say, "Pretty Please, With a Cherry on Top."
How cute is that! I get to smile when saying no- at least he is trying to be clever!

Dinosaurs!!!

Dinosaurs came to OMSI! They had skeletons and dinosaurs that moved to be more realistic- pretty cool! I forgot to take a picture of the Rex- next time...

Valentine Day with city background

Because they are cute!

Nothing cuter than Solomon doing his homework!

Dan after his last drill 2 weeks ago with Iggy! Isn't Iggy is adorable!!!

Cyrus playing in the sand box at OMSI. Don't worry he and Solomon both got haircuts shortly after this picture as you can see in the more pie post below...