Where A Kid Can Be A Kid

Whilst in Colorado, Dash and Liam went on their first visit to Mr. Chuck E. Cheese.

Oh there were so many things to see! They'd just wander around and sit on things for a few moments, then hop off toward the next new thing.

Cars were a particular favorite. As long as they were standing still.

Once they started moving... let's just say there was a little anxiety. Their adventurous attitudes were a bit hesitant.

Skee Ball was a big hit. When all those balls rolled down the row, the glee! the excitement!

The idea of rolling the balls was a bit lost on them, though.

But I've got to say, they have pretty good arms.

Plus, they'd always roll back- endless fun!

Adults had fun too. Sean got schooled by Austin in basketball. Ha ha.

And the boys were enthralled by the singing giant mouse.
See for yourself:

(Check E Cheese1 from Katie Bradley on Vimeo.)

Love the little dance moves. Can't stand that song.

We capped the night off with father son bonding over airplane dog fights.

(Airplane Game2 from Katie Bradley on Vimeo.)

Such fun. Thanks, Chuck, for the memories.

Blanket Rides

Who doesn't want a free ride?

Front Loader

Pompa and Mimi bought Dash and Liam a couple new construction vehicles.

Little did I know the toys were really to serve as vehicles of snack dispersal.

Cheerios are tastier that way. Just so you know.

Play Me A Song

These boys know how to get groovy.

The Art Room

We've had a breakthrough! While Dash and Liam will chant Pompa's name all the day long, poor Grandma was assigned anonymity. They can identify her fine, just wouldn't say her name. So we've been trying out Meema and just last night, Dash morphed it into Mimi. And it stuck. Oh boy it stuck. Well, it did for Dash, Liam is currently saying Teetee. Which is, you know, really funny. But give him a day or two and I bet he'll come around. Grandma/Mimi couldn't be happier! Grandma Zechiel is going to want to jump on the bandwagon.

Mimi is an art teacher but neither Sean nor I had seen her art room. We took advantage of a teacher workshop day to go pay a visit.

She has all sorts of elementary level art books that the boys enjoyed.

Liam's learning about animal anatomy.

Dash is finding shapes.

And here they are identifying chiaroscuro in a Caravaggio. Maybe. Maybe not.

There was a warped mirror that these little men quite enjoyed.

Wow, it's like there's twins! heh.

There was yarn to play with...

And the color "boo" to identify. As usual. Though they've also been repeating "gn" and "puh puh" and "[tongue click]" for black and "rrrruh." Correctly identifying the color is not yet in the picture. Last night, Liam was repeating color names in a really silly way and laughing at himself. He knew he was being funny. I love them.

They can be very organized boys, organizing their crayons and their cars and such. So orderly.

Then there was lots of coloring. Of course! It's an art room!

And then Liam hugged his shadow goodbye.

Snow

Finally finally finally, the boys got to experience some snow!

I bundled them up in all sorts of mismatched gear- jacket and winter coat, hat and two hoods, a second layer of pants, gloves, and plastic over their shoes (which made things so very slippery). That didn't prevent them from getting very snowy and very happy. Happiness came in the form of sledding. See for yourself.

Loving it.

Loving it.

Loving it.

Loving it.

Loving it.

Loving it.

And then...

We let them sled on their own.

They loved it. Their mom about had a heart attack.

There was also snowy swinging.

And snowy trampolining.

And Pompa smooshing. All in a snowy day's work.

The Ramp

There is no shortage of toys at the Bradley Grandparent's house (either grandparents', truly) but Pompa spoiled them anyway with a new wall-mounted ramp. Oh the fun it has wrought!

Pile-up right out of the starting gate!

The cars work in any ol' spot on the ramp so it's like a new toy every time you try it!

Can you tell Dash has a face of joy and exhuberance? He does. We should mount this to the window so I can take a picture of their faces while they're playing on it.

The best part: it's so big they hardly every fight over it. Blessed, blessed toy.

Colorado Again

We're in Colorado.

The relaxation and fun is soooo lovely.

And that's all I've got to say today.

The Importance of Being Heated

Saturday morning Sean and I awoke to some early rising kids. When we tumbled out of bed, we noticed it felt rather cold. I checked the thermostat, which was set normal but the house temp read low. The heater was even running but the air wasn't warm. After Sean checked out the pilot light and such, we couldn't figure out what was wrong, so we called a repair company. The dude came out, looked at our furnace once and remarked how amazingly old and dangerous our model was, then looked again and saw that it had three cracks. He immediately told us he could not work on it because of the danger and shut off the gas. And told us to get a new furnace. So we did. And it was an all day affair.

Once the installers came, Dash and Liam had to be around to keep an eye on things. But we had to keep them plenty occupied so they wouldn't scurry up the attic ladder themselves (which they proved they can do quite easily...). Out came the touchpad.

Sometimes they play so well together on it. And sometimes they play so horribly together on it.

Sean kept up his studying while keeping tabs on the workers.

The boys liked to follow the workers' progress as they went out to their truck.

There it is, the 40 year old furnace that is no longer.

They spent quite a bit of time telling me how the truck is blue. In fact, they spend quite a bit of time every day telling me how everything is "booo," even if it's yellow or green or red.

And then Liam reacted to the sound of the drill:

Ha ha ha, now that's a face.

They got to wear their jackets all day. Dash was sooo happy when he remembered he had a hood he could wear.

They also had loads of fun playing with the stair gate that had been temporarily translocated to the guest room. Such simple things, such fun.

The installers were there for about four hours- quite an ordeal. And it didn't end there. The boys slept fitfully through the night and I discovered why the next morning- it was broiling in their room. Sean looked around and saw that the installers knocked a duct loose. But they came and fixed that on Monday, so we just turned the heat really low until then. Phewf! How unexpected.

And that is the story of the furnace.