Colorful noodles!

We were playing with friends the other day and she showed me this great new trick-coloring noodles. They make great stuff to move with construction equipment, and if Mommy gets her way, counting, spelling, sorting...:)

The process is really simple, but I must warn you ahead of time to have LOTS of food coloring.

It may not look like the color is getting onto the noodles, but after lots of shaking, set it aside for a while and the color will deepen.

You will need:

Dry Pasta (I used several different kinds, the boys like the bowties the best)

Food Coloring (LOTS!)

Rubbing Alcohol

Ziploc Bags (Not the cheap kind for this!)

Paper Towels

A Pan or Tray

You will do:

Put desired amount of pasta into a Ziploc Bag.

Add 1/8 cup of Rubbing Alcohol to bag for every 1/2 cup of pasta.

Add desired amount of food coloring.

Shake the bag around until pasta is colored evenly.

Once your pasta has been dyed to desired color, drain the bags in the sink and dump the pasta onto a paper towel covered pan or tray to dry. (Takes about 2 hours to dry)

What kid could resist playing with these?!?!

And I just think they're pretty:)

You can see the original recipe here.

What we've been up to

Sadly, I went to upload pics today to discover that I haven't kept up very well on the picture taking. Oops! Well, I do have good reasons, which I shall go into later. But for now, I'll show you what we have been up to.

Forts! Noah has always been into building forts. but even more so lately.

And what's better than building the fort? EATING in the fort!

(This picture just goes to show that gone is the toddler that use to be Breven. He is now a full fledged boy with lots of attitude and opinions.)

And speaking of growing up, I think this one's just aged a couple of years recently. He's getting so independent and I think he's counting the days until preschool starts.:) Have I mentioned that I'm not ready for that yet?!?!

I love how willing he is to help out when we ask and he's not afraid to talk to anyone. He'll start up a conversation and keep the person talking, well, listening really for way longer than they ever thought:)

And the boys definitely have to have some boy bonding experiences, and whats better than a little guitar hero.

Starting their own rock band:)

I love the look of concentration. The guitar can't be played with the game, but B's gonna make it work for him anyways!

And finally, do you notice anything unusual about this picture? Yeah, thats right. That giant, huge, white cast my poor husband is sporting these days! A lot of our time is spent right here, in the middle of a big pile of legos!

Wednesday night hubby went to go play basketball with the boys at church and came hobbling home several hours later. Turns out he tore his achilles tendon. (and for those of you counting, yes, its the second one he's torn!) The bummer this time is that its on the right foot so he can't even drive the tractor, much less the car.

The boys were troopers through all of the drs. visits, the 4 hour wait while Daddy had surgery Friday and even still as Daddy can't do all that he normally would be doing.

It will be a long road of recovery for Aaron, but we're choosing to look on the bright side...tons of family time, a completed kitchen before all this drama and a little bit slower summer:)

(BTW-Breven wanted to show you his latest creation...Egg men!)

Visit from Nonni and Papa

(This post is pathetically late, but I'd still like to post it anyways...)

After Nonni and Papa followed us back to Indiana, we had such a relaxing great time with them. This was the first time they were here and we didn't have a huge agenda, and I think we all enjoyed it.

The usual Papa/boys snuggle time on the couch...

My Mama and Me

Breven LOVES to swing this way. He won't hold on to the chains, but he'll cling to us for dear life.

Aren't they adorable?!:)

Look, Mama. No hands!

Breven wouldn't go down the slide unless Papa or I were right there to go with him.

And what better way to end the trip to the park but with a tromp through the woods

Something tells me he sees me doing a little too much of this-cleaning. He insisted on cleaning this part of the playground.

I take back what I said earlier. We did have a big agenda...playing with Legos. I think Papa and I spent a whole day building Legos:)

And Papas are so much better to help. We asked him to look at something for us and as soon as he started in on figuring it out, the boys were right there to help:)