in which mom tries to make up for being pathetic and pregnant

Things have been a little crazy around here over the past few months. This pregnancy has been harder on me than my first two pregnancies were (maybe it's a girl?), which means that my husband, kids and house have had to suffer through more than their fair share of neglect. Sometimes it even started to resemble Lord of the Flies around here. Scary, I know.

So, when I woke up feeling pretty good a couple weeks ago (yes, we've got a major blogging delay going on here), I had to take advantage of it. My first inclination was to tackle the funky nasty mess that our house has become, but I decided instead to whip up some fun for the boys in hopes that they'd forgive me for being so pathetic lately. I think it worked.



First, we made some tissue paper collages. The boys had a blast tearing up the tissue paper and then sticking it to the contact paper that I'd taped to the wall. Contact paper is great for making collages with little kids because you don't have to worry about them smearing glue Heaven-knows-where.









This is the finished product. It looks really cool when the sun is out--promise.














Next up, we made Super Foam-erators. Basically you cut the bottom off of a plastic water bottle, cover the resulting opening with a damp piece of terry cloth (I cut up an old dish towel) and secure it all with a rubber band. Then you dip it in some bubble solution, blow through the top and find yourself with some super cool, super long foam snakes. This would have been lots more fun outside but it was cold and rainy. Would probably be fun to do in the bathtub too.






And finally, the winner of the Sweetest Kid in the Universe award: Daniel. Every Saturday, the boys take turns going on an outing with Joe, we call them turn outs. It's something Joe learned from his dad and the rules are pretty simple.
#1- kid gets to choose the activity.
#2- no distractions (i.e., no radio, cell phones, etc.)

Lincoln usually chooses to go on a bike ride with Joe and Daniel usually chooses to ride the bus and go to the "candy store" (the candy counter at the BYU bookstore). But a few weeks ago, when Joe asked Daniel what he wanted to do for his turn out, his reply was, "Go look at flowers and bring some home for Mama." This was completely his own idea. When they got to the store, he insisted on buying blue flowers, to match his blue eyes (which are still a very vivid blue), so I ended up with some lovely delphiniums and a rose that had been spray painted blue. Is he a Ladies' Man in the making, or what?!