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:)

Trip to the farm

One of my aunts and uncles in Kansas own a large farm with lots of farm equipment. When we were on the farm a few years ago, Noah was in seventh heaven. And we knew he'd fall in love all over again.

(Have I mentioned how much N and B love tractors and construction equipment?!?! We were planning a Daddy/Noah date night and when asked what he wanted to do, he requested that they go watch the construction equipment. At least he's a cheap date!)

His only bummer was that the Combine wasn't there.

He asked lots of great questions and I would love to have seen all the tracks he made if this would have been on Family Circus. (you know, all those tracks that follow Billy around)

Just look how tall I am, Mama! I can fit under here with Daddy!

But its even better how high I can be up here. Anyone seen the keys for this thing?

One day I'm going get me one of these.

Look, the truck is even my favorite color!

Think there's room to park this in the garage too, Mama?

Back in 2009 when we went to Kansas the first time, we took this picture and knew this year we needed to recreate it...

Think he's grown just a wee bit.

What's that you ask? Where was B during all of this fun field trip to the farm?

Yeah, he was sacked out in the car.

Our family trip part 2

So the whole reason we went to KS for the weekend is for my cousins wedding. And man do they know how to have a wedding. My mom made the cake...and judging from the size of the cake, can you just imagine how many people were invited?!? (or how long it took my mom to decorate!)

My dad with his 4 sisters and his mom.

I love watching how my aunts always manage to dress similarly for every wedding without even trying!

And after the wedding, we took a few minutes to get some pics of the family...

I'm so in love with these three!

Drat the big fuzzy circle! Our only good family photo

(you don't even want to see the one with Noah's tongue sticking out!)

We enjoyed a great day of driving with Nonni and Papa following behind us. And another great night at the hotel, including lots of great swim time in the great big "bathtub":)

I think B knows just how to make himself at home (away from home:)).

Noah got to be a big boy and stay the night in Nonni and Papa's room. It was a little strange having just B with us, but we enjoyed some quality time with him. And he enjoyed some quality time with the window watching all the cool cars and trucks drive by.

And I have no doubt that Papa was soaking up all the little boy attention

Trip to see Family part 1

We spent our last weekend of April on a special trip. My cousin was getting married in Kansas and we wanted to go and celebrate with her. We spent our first day on the road for 12 hours and surprisingly, it was a great day.

We were all pleasantly surprised with how fast the day went by and how much fun we had hanging out together.

Although I do have to admit that I was eating my words all weekend. Before kids came, I couldn't understand why people needed DVD players in the cars and decided that I wouldn't have on in my car. And let me tell you that that was just plain dumb:)

While I don't endorse letting them watch throughout the entire drive, having the occasional movie to break things up a bit and help them relax makes the trip much happier on everyone involved.

Hey, you'd be pretty upset if you had to sit in the same position for 12 hours straight too!

We spent the night at a hotel and got a chance to get some wiggles out at the pool. The boys loved it although Breven decided he much preferred the hot "bathtub" to the cold "bathtub":)

We let the kids set when we would take off for the last leg of the trip and when they were awake and entertaining each other at 5:30, we decided to go with it.

We got to my grandma's nursing home/old apartment around lunch time and went to go and visit her. I was so bummed to see I didn't get any pictures of us with her (she's 99!), but I think there was enough going on without getting a camera in her face too. And the highlight of the trip to visit Grandma was...

her rising recliner.

Even Daddy got in on the fun!

After a visit to my Aunt and Uncle's farm (post coming later), we got to meet up with my 2 brothers, their wives and my niece Lily! The boys had fun entertaining her and playing together.

Love the big baby blues!

And the boys loved having Uncle Robb to play and wrestle with again.

And at one point in the weekend, Noah had gotten some gumballs and was convinced that Uncle Robb needed one. He spent quite a while trying to get Uncle Robb to open his mouth until finally Uncle Mikey took pity on him and helped him out. I think it surprised Noah just as much as Robb when the gumball finally made it into his mouth.:)

Saturday morning, my Aunt and Uncle were gracious enough to host Noah when he decided he had had enough sleep and wanted something to do. Rather than waking us up, he went upstairs until he found someone awake (Aunt Fern) and proceeded to charm her into everything a four year old could desire first thing in the morning-cinnamon rolls and a movie:) He also thought it wise to tell her that when he wasn't feeling well (like he said he was then), M&M's helped make him feel better! Sneaky little boy!

And thanks to my Aunt Fern and Uncle Galen, we were able to all hang out together and get some good time together.

Boys

Daddy never knew he'd get this kind of workout

The true challenge lies in finding a way to get out the door

And it looks like we have the start of our own motorcycle/bicycle gang