Screen-Free Week

This week (April 17-13) is screen-free week. It was encouraged by Molly's school. For this week, Molly and Alex are to completely avoid all TV, video games, movies, and other screen-time.

The kids have not tried to cheat at all, but they have certainly told us plenty how much they are not enjoying screen-free week. Both have said it is the worst week of their life. Really? Ha. :) I think they know how to be overdramatic.

Alex loves crafts. Mostly, he loves creating his own artwork using tape, scissors, glue, staples, paper, and pens. He uses a LOT of paper and tape. Since he can't play video games, he has been doing even more art work than usual this week. Here are some of his creations:


Balloon animal fish that Alex made, swimming in the ocean that Alex made.

This is a Grandfather Clock with hands that spin. There are numbers on the clock face, but I'm not sure they show up in the photo.

This is a conglomeration of stapled paper, Easter artwork, and a booklet of animals in Spanish and English.

This is Darth Vader. Alex told me that I can know it's Darth Vader because he has a red light saber AND a black mask on his face. He said that there are others with red light sabers like Darth Maul, Darth Citius, and Count Duku, but they do not have black masks like Darth Vader. Good to know, Alex.
(I'm sure I totally spelled those names wrong, but I don't want to look up their proper spellings.)

Oh, did I mention that Alex has become quite the Star Wars fan? He has. I think he loves it more than Mario now.

After I took the photo of Darth Vader on the floor, I turned around and was surprised to see that creation above taped (with a LOT of tape!!!) on my dining room wall. Apparently it is an "Easter suprise for Molly." Hmm.

This isn't part of screen-free week. It is a watercolor picture of Darth Vader that Alex made in preschool.


I think I'm going to have to buy some more tape before this week is over. :)

Spring is here!

We've suddenly gone from winter to spring, and it has been glorious! Molly and Alex have been so happy to play outside in warm weather! Yay for spring!

We decided we needed some play equipment in our back yard that was better suited for bigger kids, but we don't have room for one of those wooden swing sets. We saw the dome jungle gyms at Costco and knew it would be the perfect thing! Molly and Alex were so excited to help Cory build it last weekend. Here they are with it partially assembled.

Finished! They love it. Molly likes hanging upside down from the top.

Funny Quotes and other things

One day after bedtime, Cory and I went to our basement to watch some TV. We walked in to the room and saw all the Zhu Zhu pets in a circle. Molly and Alex normally keep the Zhu Zhu pets in their bedrooms, so it was pretty funny to see all the pets together in the basement. It was like Cory and I walked in on their secret meeting or something. :)

Molly and Alex love these hand-pedaled scooters at Edinborough, and indoor play place.

One day Molly made one of these paper gyrocopters in school. Alex loved it and decided to make a whole family of them in different colors and sizes.

-------- Stories: ---

At dinner one evening, we were talking about all the potholes in the streets by us. Alex said we should ask Jesus to fix the potholes. Then Alex said, "Oh, that won't work. I forgot Jesus is too busy fixing Japan."

---

Cory upgraded his work phone to an iphone recently. Alex was really excited and asked, "Did it come with Angry Birds?"

---

Alex told me he's going to save up his money to buy a solar panel for our house so he and Molly can leave their lights on all the time.

---

Molly's hair cut

Molly's hair was long and beautiful. It's REALLY thick, though. It's hard to brush, tangles easily, and she never wants braids, ponytails, or clips in it. With swimming lessons and then a summer full of swimming coming up, I told her I thought it was time for a shorter hair style. She agreed. Here is Molly before the haircut.

Before

After!

After! She wouldn't smile for the camera, but she loves her hair. :) I think it just took all of her patience to sit still while I cut, and cut, and cut some more. When I wanted to take photos, it was just too much. :)

Castles and Dolls

Molly studied castles in school this year. The 2nd graders had an optional project: to make their own castle out of household materials. This is Molly's castle. She is very proud of it!

---

The American Girl Doll Obsession

After Christmas, Molly realized that almost every friend she knows got an American Girl Doll for Christmas. Really. She had heard of them before Christmas, but she never really cared about them or asked for one. After she saw that all her friends wanted one, she went from not really interested to completely and totally obsessed!

I took her to the American Girl Doll store at the Mall of America one day so she could look around. She was in awe of every thing she saw. For those of you who haven't been there, it's insane. The store is 2 stories tall with a doll beauty salon and bistro inside. They sell historical dolls, the doll of the year, the look-alike dolls, the bitty babies, and 985,739,025 expensive accessories to go with the dolls.

Molly wanted all of it.

She brought home a catalog and poured over it each day. She really wanted a doll. We ended up telling her that we'd give her a doll for her birthday (in August), but we weren't going to go out and buy an expensive doll in January just because she wanted it. We also told her she should start saving up her money so she could buy the accessories she thought she needed.

A few weeks went by. Molly still poured over the catalog almost daily. She tried to figure out ways to earn more money to put toward the things she saw in the catalog. She started reading all of the American Girl books from the library. She even borrowed a doll from one of her friends a couple of times. She told us all the time that she couldn't wait to have he own doll. Molly had decided that for her first doll, she wanted Kanani, the 2011 girl of the year (only available in 2011).

One day, she started writing a list of the things she wanted from the catalog. When I found it, it was 6 pages long, front and back! Here is her list:

Then, in early March, she got invited to a friend's birthday party. It was a tea party, and the girls were asked to bring "a very special doll or stuffed animal" to the party. Molly read it and looked at me with her big brown eyes. Then she said, "Mom, you KNOW all the girls are going to bring American Girl dolls. Is there ANY way I could get Kanani before the party?"

I still didn't want to just go buy the doll for her, but I wanted her to have Kanani for the party. I helped Molly figure out how much money she needed to be able to buy the doll. Then I helped her figure out how to earn it. Molly sold a Wii game to a friend, a gift card she had from Christmas to her Daddy, and some other things, and eventually she wasn't far from her goal. She got close enough that we told her we'd cover what she was short and let her pay us back later. She was in heaven! She was SO EXCITED to go buy her doll.

Here she is in the store, picking out her doll. 

Molly at home, ready to open the box. :) I didn't get a photo of Molly with Kanani after opening. Molly wasn't in the mood for posing and just wanted to play! She was so excited to have her doll. She did bring Kanani to that birthday party, and guess what? Molly said that every single girl at that party (8 of them, I think) had brought an American Girl Doll. I'm so glad Molly had one too. :)

Winter fun!

We only got out ice skating once this winter! It seemed like most of January and February were just brutally cold. I'm definitely a wimp when it comes to cold weather, too. I'm glad we got a chance to skae once, though! We went on a beautiful, sunny day. It was actually too warm, and the ice was quickly turning to slush.

Alex is just figuring out how to balance and skate. Molly has it down, though. She's fast, and she has no fear!

Snowman! We got some great snowman snow and had to take advantage of it! Molly and Alex loved making the snowman with me. :)

Finished snowman! He's as tall as Molly!

Random fun photos

In early December, we went up to Lake Superior with some friends. Our friend Pete took this family photo of us at the lake.

I just thought this was sweet. Molly fell asleep reading. She reads every night before bed. Usually, we have to remind her when she's supposed to have the lights off or she'll read until 10 or later! She loves reading. One day we went in to say goodnight and found her like this: cuddling her stuffed baby doll with the book still open. :)

Cory had a fun work party in January, so we had a nice excuse to get dressed up.

Alex. We have a couple of huge baskets of random dress up clothes. One day he ran upstairs dressed like this. I couldn't stop laughing!

Merry Christmas!

We had a very Merry Christmas this year. We enjoyed celebrating with our kids, our extended families, our church family, and our friends. Here are some photos of Molly and Alex from Christmas. :)

December Snow Storm

On December 12, we got a huge snow storm. I think it was officially 17" of snow, but it seemed like more. This was the storm that caused the roof of the Metrodome to collapse. I just couldn't handle the weight of all that heavy snow.

Shoveling!

After shoveling our front sidewalk, there was a huge hill of snow in our front lawn. Cory, Molly, and Alex had a plan! A front yard snow fort was soon to be hollowed out of this hill. :)

 
Check out all the snow!

That is Cory's lower half sticking out of the snow fort. I think he had fun digging it out. :)

Happy Birthday Alex!

Time to catch up on the blog! Alex turned 5 on November 19. He asked to have a Super Mario Brothers birthday party. He was so excited! 

Here are the mushroom cupcakes I made for his party. Aren't they cute?

The kids loved hitting the Yoshi egg pinata!

The birthday boy had a great time playing Mario-themed party games with his friends. The cupcakes were a hit!

We gave out packs of stick-on mustaches to all the party guests. They were so funny! Here is the whole crew, doing their best Mario impressions!

---

Alex is 5! We love our boy! He's so much fun! Alex loves video games, especially anything with Mario in it. He's crazy good at them for his age. He's also a math whiz who loves numbers. He's not really interested in letters or learning to read, though. He loves making crafty things out of paper and tape. He's very creative. Alex loves justice, rules, and enforcing rules. He loves his sister and can't wait for Molly to get home from school each day. He is very extroverted. He hates being alone and always wants to be playing with friends. :) Alex is awesome!