Você fala Português?

Jordan was super excited to get this package in the mail last week all the way from Brazil. (His newest effort in encouraging our family to learn Portuguese :)

Landon's take - "I wish it was in English, because I can't understand anything they are saying!" But he did cheerfully watch and mostly follow the entire movie. When I walked in near the end as the house was falling away Landon was saying quietly "It's more important to live than to have things." I love his tender heart. And I love Jordan's excitement in figuring out how to make things like this work (getting a DVD in Portuguese-harder than you'd think).

Little helpers

The last few mornings, Owen has joined the after-breakfast dishwasher unloading party. While Landon puts away all of the down-low dishes (for one cent each), Ellie and Owen have become quite a team in putting the silverware away piece by piece.

First Day of Spring!

The sun was shining all day, melting away yesterday's snow in celebration of the first day of Spring -- I'm getting excited to be spending our days outside again!

Today, I...

- Made flower shaped pancakes (and spinach salad) for lunch to celebrate Springtime.

- Went for a walk with Ellie to retrieve her long-lost and forgotten near the neighbor's house riding toy.

- Ran around delivering scouting for food bags with the webelos

- Played teacher and mother and Cinderella's mother and other pretending games with Ellie

- Read about Logan's downtown plan for the coming years, and went to observe at the city council meeting where they adopted the plan

- Hugged Owen, who has had a rough few days with something so important to tell us that we can't seem to figure out. But oh, he has great hugs!

- Looked at Dinosaur Train dinosaur facts with Landon

- Enjoyed a delicious cooked-by-Jordan dinner of grilled chicken and potatoes.

A happy first day of Spring.

Snow Morning

The kids were delighted to wake up to a snowy morning today. While I made breakfast, they gathered their snow gear and headed outside. This is Landon's favorite kind of day. He couldn't stand to come inside on such a beautiful morning, so he cleared off the play table and ate his breakfast in full snow gear.

Landon in the backyard, enjoying his Frosted Shredded Wheat in the snow.

Abreves

Landon working on his Science Fair project last month ('Which bread will toast the fastest?')

Every once in a while Landon uses abbreviations in his conversation that rival even the best (Laura and Cass). Some have been hilarious -- of course I always forget to write them down, sure I'll remember them... But here are a few recent ones:

Could we make some hot choc?

Mind if we watch some Gar? (Garfield)

Does anyone want to play Monop? (monopoly)

(Monopoly has been Landon's new love this year - he'll play anyone he can get to join the game, or play himself -- happy to have a sure chance of winning :)

I want to pretend - Do you want to pretend?

There was a time in Landon's 3-year-old stage when I thought that another moment of pretending might just be unbearable. ('You're gonna miss those days!') Now Ellie is loving to spend her days pretending. So far, Cinderella is the character of choice with me as Cinderella's (nice) mother. What do you want to do Cinderella's mother?" Now that I know how quickly this is going to fly by, I feel like this is a pretty fun stage. :)

One Man Band

You can imagine the great tunes we hear from this energetic one man band :) Every once in a while Owen joins in on the drum (lego box) or Ellie on the ukelele. Or I'll play the piano (by request, most often You've Got a Friend in Me) while Landon accompanies on the guitar and/or harmonica and Ellie dances in the background. These are happy moments!