Making Apple Pie!

Today the guys and their friend Mei Zhen made apple pie together! We have a library book all about making an apple pie and so the boys have been talking about wanting to make one for quite some time.

Dylan, Mei Zhen and Cole are all ready to start! They all have their little aprons on and are ready to roll.

They all took turns rolling out the dough and sprinkling flour on the rolling pin. They all did such a great job of taking turns.

Cole liked to sprinkle and roll.

Once the crusts were all rolled out we got the apples ready. Here Mei Zhen and her Mommy, Lynn, are turning the apple 'peeler, corer, cutter' device that we have. We all had fun watching the apple skin get peeled in one long piece!

Then they all took turns measuring the sugar and cinnamon and sprinkling those on the apples. Then it was time to stir! We only had a few flying apples.

Looks good for 3, 2-year old chefs!Then the best part of the morning was getting to eat the apple pie! Mommy had to cut them off after their second piece. Dylan said it was the best pie ever!
(Notice how Mei eats so daintily and even holds her hand under her fork to catch crumbs! I didn't put up the picture of the boys shoveling pie in their mouths with their bare hands! Is that a boy-girl thing? I thought I was teaching them eating manners!?)

picnic snacktime

The other day it was almost nice outside. I mean the sun was actually shining and everything!

So we decided that we should have our afternoon snack as a picnic out on the deck.
Yummy animal crackers!

After Cole thought it was funny to hold his animal crackers in his mouth they both started doing it!

Dylan likes taking little bites of his animal crackers while saying that he just ate the animals toes, then legs, then forehead, then body.

Wacky Bouncing Cousins!

This past weekend we had some wacky visitors...Auntie Cindy and cousins Amy and Paige!

While they were here it was rain, rain, and more rain...so we went to an indoor play area that had big blow up bouncy fun!

Cole is zooming down the slide.

Daddy took Cole on one of the BIG slides that drops you into a tub of balls!

Dylan and cousins Amy and Paige were having so much fun jumping on this giraffe that would crumple under their weight.

Balls!...

...and more balls!!

The girls and Dylan spent a long time reading books in the boys room. The boys were so excited when they realized that the girls could read their books...they kept asking for more stories!

All the kiddos playing with a puzzle.

Happy New Year and Jingle Bells!

Happy New Year!

The boys have really been interested in listening to holiday music this year. For your enjoyment, and perhaps your last Christmas song until next year...
here is Dylan and Cole playing and singing Jingle Bells!

Christmas fun

The boys had so much fun on Christmas. They walked out into our living room on Christmas morning and saw presents under the tree and stockings filled. Cole said "what?" (it actually sounded more like 'what the?'). Then "PRESENTS!". Then I said "Did Santa come?"...and he shouted "it's Christmas!!". I didn't think they would quite get it, but they sure had fun!

Cole had fun dumping out his new blocks.
Dylan and Cole got special baby dolls from their Nana. They love carrying them around and giving them bottles.

Daddy is reading one of their new books from Santa. They can't wait for new books in the house. We have to go to the library at least once a week to update our reading materials!
The guys love dressing up in costumes, so they both loved their Captain Amazing outfit from their cousin Paige. Dylan puts it on with his fireman helmet and says he is a fireman.
Cole especially loves the wrist bands. He'll come out in the morning and ask "where are the wrist bands?" and put them on.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

crafty boys

With all the snow and bad weather we have been having we have had to find new projects to do around the house. The other day we pulled out some beads and pipe cleaners and got busy!
I was surprised at their concentration level.

Cole is showing how well he can put the beads on...

...and Dylan is showing how they pulled the beads down the pipe cleaner. We ended up making bead wreaths ornaments that we put on our Christmas tree.

We really do turn the heat on in our house...the guys just love wearing hats!