Havurah Shalom

Visiting a place of worship is on our list...and we had a family spirituality class...so it counts! The boys had play time, and the parents had talk time. And listening time. We all chatted about our experiences with faith and our hopes for our kids. It was great to learn we are not alone in struggling with this.

Papa's Pizza & Playground

What is a boy to do with all his energy on a rainy day? Head to the indoor playground and burn it off! Bayley dominated the ball pit, tossing them all out onto the padded floor. Eddie ran laps, chasing everything that moved, and Hayden logged enough time on the merry go round to acheive Guinness status.

And...keep your fingers crossed...Hayd wore underpants there and had no troubles!

Zoo Lights

To celebrate the last night of the festival of lights, we took the boys to Zoo Lights. Usually we go early in the year, right after Thanksgiving. Let me say, it was MUCH more crowded the Friday befoe Christmas. But, it wasn't too cold, stayed dry, they had a live band, AND a miniature train exhibit!

The boys were so good, we even took them out to dinner. It was a great night, until Hayden balked at his Hanukkah present. "Books again! I don't want books! And he tossed them across the room. Lovely.

Bayley lost his second tooth!

Bay woke us up this morning...with his second tooth in his hand! He was laying in bed and realized it could lay on its side, and then it was out! To celebrate we got him Iron 'Arry & Iron Burt trains from Thomas & Friends. He is so sweet, he shared the trains with Hayden.

World Forestry Center

We trekked to the Forestry Center, not realizing there would be an ENTIRE SCHOOL of kids there. We are used to smoke jumping and rafting without a line! At least Jeff and Bay didn't have to wait for the canopy lift. Bay was so excited to strap into the harness and have Dad pulled to the top of the museum with him.

Just Stay Home Days

The babes like it best when I don't try to drag them on errands, so we've spent the last two days having what they call Just Stay Home Days. Today we read 30+ books, did workbooks & art projects. Yesterday we baked muffins & cookies, again with the workbooks, and played computer games. They don't know this is low maintanance...no one tell them!

What's your favorite animal?

Hayden may well be on his way to becoming a journalist, or a psychologist. He's learned that to have a conversation, all he has to do is ask a few simple questions.

What's your favorite animal? (Hayd's is a hippo because it starts with the letter H and throws poop with it's tail)

What's your favorite color? (me too. Odds are, whatever you say he'll claim is his favorite color, then he'll tall you Bay likes orange and Eddie likes purple.)

How does a wolf sleep?

Hayden's new thing is to find out how different animals sleep. He asks constantly. How do elephants sleep? How do giraffes sleep? How do hippos sleep? You get the point.

So at bedtime he asks me, how do wolves sleep? Since wolves are like dogs, I took the easy out and said "just like Rogue."

"On blue pillows?"

He's always thinking!

His First Tooth!

Yesterday, Bay had the world's wiggliest tooth. So wiggly in fact, it caused a blister to form on his gums so every time he wiggled it, it hurt.










Prompted by Gram-mo's promis of $5, Pop-Pop's ante of 3 quarters, Orajel, and Mom's not being able to handle looking at the blister, the tooth came out today!

Burke Brother's First Christmas Tree

I think kindergarten is having a real influence on Bayley. Not only did he demand to see Santa, but he had to have a tree that was exactly as tall as him. We planned on going to a tree farm, but on our way there we found a nursery that had small ones.








That afternoon we got down all of our Christmas stuff and the boys had a great time setting up the tree and looking at all the ornaments Daddy had when he was their age. Their favorite? A set of train ornaments. HUGE surprise. HUGE!