Advice from one brother to another...

Do not drive a truck into Daddy's butt. He will stop building the rocket ship.

Superlative Place : Largest Indoor Playground in Oregon

Bayley has been looking forward to mini-golf for weeks. It's too bad the one closest to us is...well...not nice. We had a coupon (shocker) and trekked to Safari Sam's to try out their course on the first sunny day of Srping Break.


We get there and find out it's indoor! AND, boasts the Largest Indoor Playground in Oregon. PLUS it has video games so they boys were able to play skee-ball, race cars, stomp turtles, and try and get a mechanical arm pick up candy. Most of the games spat out tickets, which the boys exchanged for a lovely collection of bouncing balls, google eye stickers and army men.


After games and golf, they set about climbing the massive play structure, where we learned Bayley can climb a rope. Who knew? This place is twice as great as Chuck E Cheese. We're going to have to take Eddie there.

Haircuts!!

For some reason the boys WANT haircuts now. They both decided today was the day (actually, yesterday was the day, but we were booked). Hayden insisted on 'spiky' which is too cute, and Bay pointed to a kid on the wall and said "I want that one."

Afterwards we went to Costco and they bemoaned the travesty of having the same DVDs with different Thomas trains as the 'free train'. It's just wrong, I tell you!

Insectarium & Sculpture Park - Zoo with the Trasen Brothers

Who knew we could knock two off our list with a simple zoo playdate? Lucky for us, the zoo has both an Insectarium (check out the hissing cockroaches...or don't. Your choice.) and Sculpture Park. Now, why this is always a bigger hit with the kids than the animals, I don't know.

You think you're cute?

Hayden, it's time for naps.

(HUGE CHEESY GRIN)

You think you can just smile and change my mind.

YES.

Oh really?

YES. I AM SO CUTE, JUST LIKE CURIOUS GEORGE.

Let's put some perspective on just how much snow we had...

When we woke up on Tuesday, the snow was still coming down and so powdery it couldn't be made into snowballs. It made perfect snow angels, though!





The boys had fun sledding and made up their own sport...snow triking!







Once Dad got home the boys had their hearts set on building a snow cave in the piles of snow scraped off the driveways in the neighborhood. However, our neighbor had an even better idea, and they all started building the snow fort.

Bayley decided that it was his job to keep everyone else in line, so he supervised while Daddy, Damien & Tristan built the snow house, complete with snowman guards and a window at Hayden's insistence. The boys wanted to eat in there - like a real house - so they were able to take their snacks in there all the way through Friday. The house was assessed for structural support and found drippy, so it met an untimely demise today.

Snow Daze

We had a great snowstorm hit - four inches on Tuesday meant no school for the boys. The flakes were powdery and light, perfect for snow angels and sledding. Then came Tuesday night when Jeff came home and he & Damien made a snow fort for the boys. They've had their afternoon snacks in the little house (complete with window & roof) every day since. They snow was wetter, and the sleds kept getting faster.

By Wednesday the schools were still closed, and the boys had perfected the art of sledding down the street! Thursday schools were only on delay, but even today they got out to snow stomp. Great timing too, we were going to take the boys up the mountain this weekend. Now we don't have to.

PTA Roller Skating Night

Bayley's school PTA had a fund raiser at the skating rink tonight, and I think everyone from the school showed up! Not many of the kinders, but Bay did find one of the boys from his class.

This was his first time on skates...and Jeff's. He was sure he'd been on skates at some point as a kid, but he has since changed his mind. I on the other hand had forgotten how difficult it is to skate slow. I almost fell once trying to stop, Hayden couldn't stay up without someone holding him up, and Bayley...decided skating rinks should have a rubber floor!

I'm counting this as a skate park because parks can be indoors, and the idea of my boys on skateboards is horrifying.

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!