Santa Sighting

We love Sean's company for lots of reasons, but one of them is their family-centeredness (is that a word?). The boys went to the annual Santa party at the office and got to tell the Big Guy what they were wanting this year.  You'll notice their lists are made on recycled office paper.  Gotta love having an environmentally friendly Dad! ;-)

 Cookies in the lobby.

 Santa's here!!!

 Talking things over with Santa.  They always get a book and a "stuffie" from him.  So sweet!

Loved this view of the church across the street as we were leaving the office. Beautiful scene!

Christmas Cookies

I promised the boys we could do Gingerbread cookies before Christmas & boy did they enjoy it!  Any excuse to use frosting and candy to be creative is a hit at our house.  Lots of sampling was done along the way...for quality control, of course.  

 Concentrating hard.

Ta-da!

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

Who doesn't love "The Cat in the Hat"?  The boys reluctantly modeled the hats they made at school to celebrate Dr. Seuss's birthday last week.  I loved those books as a kid and it is so fun to see them enjoying the same stories.  

Silly pic!

Date Night

While Aunt Christy was visiting us recently, she got to go on some fun dates downtown.  Carter thought she looked SO pretty before her night out at the Symphony!  While she was out Friday, we went to Joe's Crab Shack for a fun family date night.  :-)  

Crabs+bibs+strawberry smoothies=a great night in the Suburbs!

Food Fun

Carter requested paw print design with waffles and pancakes for breakfast today and Davis wanted his picture with Mom's carb creation.  Ah, the simple pleasures of being a kid!

 This was just too funny to ignore.  Davis has been wearing my old "going out" boots and Sean's snowboarding helmet as part of this crime-fighting get up that he invented.  He says he's "Invisible" when he wears it to fight the bad guys.  I captured him today eating chocolate pudding while taking a break from defending the universe.  Love the mustache!

I Love Mondays

Mondays are the start of my "weekend" and four days at home with my boys!  Carter's Preschool is closed on Mondays, so we have a full day of  doing things on our own schedule.  It is wonderful!  Some of our favorite ways to spend our lazy Mondays:

 1) Getting Happy Meals and eating them with swim goggles on.

 2) Playing with Play-Doh on snowy Spring days.

 

 3) Wearing our favorite blankets as hats.

 4) Playing with Legos.

*Davis is showing that not everyone is a Monday person, or a morning person for that matter...

Build-A-Bear

Last week we took an unexpected trip to Build-A-Bear.  I had intended to take the boys to Jump Street to burn off some energy, but failed to realize that all the schools were out for President's Day.  The line to get in was so long & the place was packed, so we moved on to Plan B: Build-A-Bear (across the street).  Carter had been once before, when he was a toddler, but Davis had never gotten to do this so it was quite a treat!

 Think they had fun?!  Sean & I were laughing that the boys' choices of animals/outfits.  Carter chose a German Shepard and picked plain khaki shorts & a plaid button-up shirt.  Davis chose a black bear with bright multi-colored stars and dressed him as Woody from Toy Story.  Their personalities are clearly defined: "Mr Conservative" and "The Wild One". Gotta love it!

Nature & Science Museum

We headed to the museum after school this week and the boys surprised me by being good listeners, which made the trip delightful.  The highlights were the "Space Odyssey" area and the "Discovery Zone", which is geared for younger kids.  There is a table full of magnetic blocks and shapes that literally kept both boys occupied for over 20 minutes.  I've never seen anything like it...  I was in heaven!  

Carter playing with the magic magnets. (Notice how they are too big to put up your nose?)

Sand table in the Outer Space area.

Fun with wind!  

And, just FYI: On the free days, they offer memberships at 20% off.  They will not honor that discount on any other day, as we discovered when we went on the day after the free day.

Beilman Boys Learn to Ski

Aunt Christy was in town for a visit last weekend and she helped Sean take the boys skiing!  It was Davis's first time on skis and Carter's first ski school experience, so it was a busy day.  I was working, but Sister kept me updated via photo texts, so I felt like I was sort of there. From all reports, it was a great day!  Davis was so happy that he finally got to ski like "Tarter" and Carter was proud of being in ski school all by himself.        

Guess I will have to get some new boots and dust of my skis if I'm going to keep up with these guys!!

Sean & Davis

 Ski School!

 Go Carter, GO!

Sister & Davis

In-House Entertainment

I'm not sure if this video is actually funny to anyone besides me, but the boys were cracking me up the other day putting on a "show" with the robot puppets they made.  Davis has been making up voices for inanimate objects almost since he started talking.  It is one of my many favorite things about him and always makes me laugh.  Carter played his natural-born role of being "the boss of Davis" and Davis played his usual role of going with the flow.  A perfect pair, these two.  

Dance Moves

These boys can really break it down!

Thomas Comes to Colorado!

Sean took the boys to see Thomas this weekend and it made quite an impression on Davis.  Carter remembered seeing Thomas before but, to Davis, it was all brand new.  When I came home from work, he was still smiling from ear-to-ear as he told me all about seeing Thomas and Sir Topham Hat.  What a day!

Waiting to see their favorite engine...

 Sean said Davis kept waving and saying "Hi Thomas!"

 Our turn to ride on Thomas!

Bye, Thomas!  See you next year!

I Feel Safer Already...

Carter is obsessed with Super Heroes.  It started with a $15 Iron Man costume at Costco for Halloween this year.  I didn't even realize he knew who Iron Man was, but apparently he does.  He has decided that his brother will be Spider Man for Halloween (costume pending, thus the Buzz Lightyear from last Halloween) and that next year, he will be a Power Ranger.  Now, that's some planning!

I am a little out-of-touch with Super Hero stuff, being a girl and all, but I can tell you that when I was five or six, I had Wonder Woman Underoos and I was In. Love. With. Them.  Anyone else remember those!? This girl totally gets it. I was Wonder Woman for Halloween that year, complete with a red cape my mom sewed for me and it is still one of my fondest childhood memories. 

Today, Carter woke up from nap and saw that I had gotten him a light/sound gadget ($5 at Wal-Mart) for his Iron Man costume and he got so excited.  He hugged me and told me "Mom, I'll protect you."  So, so sweet.  He totally meant it, too, people.  As in "Let me get this suit on and I will defend you to the ends of the earth."  Where do little boys come up with this stuff??  I have no idea, but I'm sure glad that they're living at my house...

 Who is that?  Buzz and Iron Man?

"No mom, it's just me, Davis!"