My Boys and Their Trains

Greg is really into railroads and trans.  It seems genetic because Jonathan has always enjoyed trains and spends a lot of time drawing track plans for his dream model railroad.  Jonathan has always enjoyed playing with his geotrax.  He and Greg have spent many hours building tracks and I have even been known to build one or two.

This is the latest layout.  Building a new one is the only thing he will willing clean his room for.  Oh yeah isn't the rebel shirt nice?!?!  They have been trying to sell off old uniforms and they gave up and started giving them away to the elementary kids.  This is an old basketball warm up jersey.

Andrew also has an interest in trains.  I am not sure if it a real interest or if it is because Jonathan and Daddy have the interest.  He has a wooden train set in his room and enjoys having help building a layout.  Greg was busy helping Jonathan with his layout and it was getting late so I helped Andrew with his layout.

He thought it was pretty cool that I even had bridges.  He gets frustrated though because he train derails because he wants to put all the train cars he has together into one train.

They all really enjoy spending time with their trains.

More Snow

Last week we got more snow and then more snow.  I wasn't sure it was ever going to stop.  Then the wind started blowing and the snow piled up even  more.  Madison, Jonathan and myself had three snow days last week and Andrew had two.  The kids enjoyed helping Greg shovel the snow after he was done with the snow blower.  It took Greg three hours to get us dug out.

 

It was below zero wind chill so I made the kids wear their scarves over their faces and they were really bundled up.  Our terrace box and the garden usually make a great sledding hill for  the kids.  They enjoy being out in the snow and hate it when it is so cold I won't let them go out.

Snow

We had gotten some snow and it hadn't really upset our schedules much.  It was the light powdery snow that you can't do anything with.  Well then one day it started melting and became wet snow.  The perfect type for snowman building.  The kids were outside one night after school playing in the snow and I looked out the window to check on them and this is what I found.

It is kind of hard to see and sorry about the funny lines, I was taking pictures through the window.  They were rolling huge snowballs and building snowmen.  They are hard to see but there is one next to Jonathan (yellow and black coat) one next to Madison (purple) and one next to Andrew (black spot on ground).  They were so proud of their snowmen.  Unfortunately Madison's didn't survive.  Someone must of taken it because it just disappeared and there was no evidence of it being smashed.  She took it well though.

Christmas

Christmas seemed to come and go so fast this year.  Maybe it was being sick, or having so much to do I am not sure but it did seem to fly by.  This year we celebrated Christmas with Greg's family.  His sister Becca was here with her family and the kids enjoyed spending time with their cousins that they never see.  We spent Christmas morning at our own home opening presents.  The kids really enjoyed opening their presents.  Here are some pictures of Christmas morning.

 Jonathan really wanted train pictures that Greg had taken.  So Greg put together a book of some of his pictures and had it printed.  Jonathan really enjoys this book and often looks at it especially when he is needing to calm down.

 Andrew for his birthday got a imaginext space shuttle.  We had been looking for something that was just his and not something the other two already enjoyed playing with.  We gave the imaginext line by fisher price a try and he loves it.  So for Christmas he got a fire station and several parts of the space station type things for Christmas.  He loves to play with them and he even lets the other two play as well.

Madison had a Barbie Christmas.  She really wanted Barbies so that is what she got.  She also got a microscope that caters to her love of science.

I got some great piano music from Greg which I love.  I just need to find the time to sit down and learn it.  I also got a book called The Daily 5.  Which is a classroom reading instruction/ management type book.  It is a program our school district is using and I have learned a lot about and really like it.  When I student teach in the fall I will need to understand the program because every district around us is using it.

Greg got some new sweaters and books as well.   He enjoys the sweaters and wears them often as our house gets chilly.