February

Every good Minnesotan must talk about the weather a little more than is interesting for anyone including herself. So I'll start with all the snow we got in February. It was a lot. The alley was a mess and our neighbors who haven't lived in MN very long had a hard time driving. But these boys played in it as much as their mama had energy to get the gear on and get them out the door. And of course Papa got them out as much as possible after work and on the weekends.

Here's a snow lantern they built with Daniel:

You can't see him, except for maybe his legs, but this is Daniel going back outside after putting the children to bed in order to continue working on a gigantic snow lantern:

Here's Thomas shoveling for us on his no-school snow day:

The Armor

I think this all started with receiving "The Tale of Desperaux" from Brad and Kari, a story where the knight-mouse saves the human princess from the evil rat colony. There were one or two scary scenes where Lukas was likely to be found under the table where the computer was sitting with his ears covered, but every since we're real into being knights and heroes and having armor. Daniel has made some very nice things with him. He and Theo sword fight and joust. Sword fighting is what it sounds like, and more successful than I anticipated. Jousting is an upstairs activity where one boy starts at one end of the hall and the other at the other end. Two hands are raised in front of them and they charge at each other. Theo falls before Lukas can get to him, Lukas tackles him, they get up and they switch ends. Sometimes Lukas lets Theo win... very rarely... 

We got to go to one of Caleb's basketball games. The next day everything was Lions basketball. We wore all red, we carried our clothes to change into after we got too sweaty, and we put basketballs in hoops.

Auntie Mercy gave him lots of sugar.

Gale Woods Farm is a nice place to visit in one of the local park systems. Lukas had a class there all about chickens. While he was in his class, Theo and I walked all around the farm and enjoyed the sheep and cows. Theo's moo is cute, in a very low voice he says "Mmm".

Waiting for Papa to come home.

"Papa's home!!"

This one loves the buckles and anything mechanical.

He also likes to get up on the changing table and take matters into his own hands. 

And he likes to make elaborate buildings with his magnet shapes. Sometimes they are 6 stories tall. Sometimes they are very long and artistic. Sometimes they provide shelter for animals. Often they are very suddenly destroyed.

Because we are looking forward to the arrival of another family member, we sold this very fine car to a young lady very excited about it's manual transmission and excellent gas mileage. Mama was thankful for that. 

Now we drive this very fine machine. It seems to be a very good car, and Lukas can stand up and walk around in it, and it currently has two double strollers and Lukas' 1,000 lb bike in the back trunk. Cargo space is a welcome improvement to the compact car.