Is It A Bribe Or A Reward?

Last week Cole came home from school with an assignment where he had to write the numbers 1 to 100 in a grid.  When I asked him to sit down and do it, you would've thought I was asking him to donate his kidney or something.  He was squirming in his seat, whining about how he couldn't do it, and just generally displaying that this request of mine was pure torture for him.  He took several minutes to complete the first line of 1 through 10, so we gave up for the day.  The next day we tried again with similar results.  I mean, seriously, he should've been able to complete the project in a handful of minutes.  But noooo.  I can't even describe the level of angst he was experiencing.  I was actually worried that maybe he just couldn't do it.  So after he took what felt like a lifetime to finish 11 through 20, I had a moment of inspiration that I'm slightly hesitant to confess.  A few days earlier we had walked to the treat store with Gammy and Poppy, so I had some candy on hand.  Now some may consider this bribery, but I prefer to think of it as a reward for good work.  I told Cole that if he finished the next few lines doing his best work and without complaining, he could have a piece of candy.  And wouldn't you know it...that kid whizzed through the rest of that assignment like it was the easiest thing in the world - mere child's play.  I can't even express how quickly he finished it - and he did it happily!  It was actually quite hysterical to see the complete 180 degree turn he did for a piece (or two or three) of candy.  Now, is this a bribe or a reward?  I say lets not get hung up on semantics...it worked!!  And now that I know just how capable he is of sitting down and doing it, I won't be so inclined to dangle a piece of candy in front of him next time.  

He looks pretty pleased with himself in this picture - I'd like to think he's proud of his hard work, but I think truthfully he's just super happy about his "reward".

Mad Scientists

When Cole asked me yesterday morning if he could get out his science kit, which is normally reserved for times when the little guys are napping, I thought SURE...this might make for some interesting P365 pictures.  (By the way, P365 girls, how DID you get interesting pictures every day?  I'm only in February and I'm starting to become concerned about monotonous pictures.  Some days nothing interesting is happening in our house.)

This super cool science kit that Cole got for Christmas comes with 12 different experiments and everything you need to conduct them.

The experiment we conducted yesterday was called Magic Oooooze:  is it a solid or a liquid?  It involved water, cornstarch, and in an unprecedented 'what was I thinking' moment -I added food coloring.  I thought some colors would make it more interesting, which it did, but also quite a bit messier.  However, the kids loved it.  Who knew that some water and cornstarch would yield over an hour of entertainment for the boys!

Chad and Cole will be participating in the science fair at Cole's elementary school in a few weeks.  More to come from the mad scientists of the Boyd house...

A Beary Special Day

Cole got to go to Build-A-Bear with his BFF, Carter, so I thought it'd be a very special treat to take Chase on a date, without any brothers, to go build a bear of his own. We invited Ethan, Carys, and Molly to join in our fun day.

We began our adventures at McDonald's in Bellevue.  I'm specifically pointing out the locale because...drum roll please...I drove us there (on 405!) like a real woman!  Everyone that knows really anything at all about me knows that I am deathly afraid of driving on I-5 or I-405, or anything with an I in front of it.  Deathly afraid.  Cotton mouth, sweaty palms, rapid heart rate...deathly afraid.  But I did it!  I'm trying to get over said deathly fear because I don't want to be stuck in a five mile radius of my home for the rest of my life.  I felt like an Olympic champion when we safely arrived at our destination. Even just typing about it gets me giddy again...yeah  for me!  But I disgress.

Happy meals and happy faces...especially mine after successfully tackling the freeway!  (Yeah for me!)

This is Chase's less than happy face because he doesn't want his picture taken anymore. 

After lunch we headed over to Build A Bear.  Chase picked out the exact same bear that Cole chose...sadly it wasn't one of the cute ones, but what can a girl do?   I wanted a cute, fuzzy, lovable looking bear, but they both chose an electric blue bear with multi-colored peace symbols all over it.  So not cute...

Chase's recorded message is "I love you, Dad."  So sweet!  (Although it'd be even sweeter if he said something like, "I love you, Mommy."  Or, "Good freeway driving, Mommy.")

Here he's stuffing the bear using the foot pedal while Carys and Ethan wait patiently to have their turn.  Notice that their bears are cute!

Admiring his bear's stuffing.

Now he's "fishing for hearts" while he waits for Carys and Ethan to work on their bears.  Did I mention their bears are cute?

See the skateboard he's holding?  He chose a skateboarding outfit for his bear (which I admit, is actually very, very cute!), but when it was all said and done, the skateboard is the only thing he cared about.  And to this day, it remains the only thing he cares about.  So basically I spent $50.00 for an $8.00 skateboard!

We finished our day with some ice cream.  More happy faces!

(Isn't Carys the most beautiful girl! I will confess, sometimes when she's at my house we look in the mirror together and I pretend she's mine.)

I had such a wonderful time with Chase and our friends. In a house with three boys and one mom, it isn't often that I'm able to share one-on-one time with any of them, so it was very special. (And also special because I drove on the freeway! Yeah for me!)

A Dinner & Movie Date

We had our cousins over on Friday for a dinner & movie date.  Unfortunately, there weren't too many photo opportunities with five busy kids who had absolutely no interest in being my muse.  (Don't think I didn't try!)  But here's what I got:

Thursday we prepared for our date night by making brownies for Lissy and Zach. 

We gathered our ingredients...

...watched the mixer do its thing...

...and licked our spoons!

Here are a few pictures that I took of the kids watching their movie. 
You can tell by their faces that there wasn't much love for my camera.

Aw, there are some cute smiles!

Thank you so much to our cousins for a fun night!

Family Photos by Summer Dawn Photography

It was a freezing cold, but beautiful day in December when we had our family photos taken at Lake Wilderness.   My pictures came yesterday and I LOVE THEM!  There were so many to choose from that it was difficult to narrow them down for blogging purposes, so here are just some of my favorites. 

I wanted to get a few pictures of the boys without their winter coats on, but you can see from their faces that it was way too frigid to tolerate the icy cold weather without coats. 

Caden is just so joyous, he was the only one that didn't mind the cold - he was just so happy to be outside!

After only a few minutes, we gave up on trying to get pictures without coats.  Some of us, I won't say who, (Cole), were tearful about being too cold, so we bundled up and had some fun in the park.

You will probably notice that Chase looks a little grumpy in most of the pictures. There is a story behind this, and it involves Chad giving him eggs, which he is allergic to, and then a Tylenol/Benadryl cocktail to ward off an allergic reaction right before pictures. Because of said cocktail, Chase basically had the same energy one possesses while sleeping, or perhaps during a drug-induced coma.  At first I was really sad that we didn't get any pictures with a  happy Chase face, but now I love them for the story they tell.

Thank you, Summer Dawn, for the beautiful family photos!

♥Valentine's Day♥

Here are some of the little ways we celebrated Valentine's Day...

♥HEART SHAPED PANCAKES♥

♥KISSES♥

   

♥HUGS♥

 

♥SNUGGLES♥

♥LOVE NOTES♥                                                        ♥TREATS♥

♥GRAMMA'S COOKIES♥

Happy Valentine's Day to all my boys...I love you!!

"Her Birth Is Definitely Something To Celebrate"

All of my Twilight lovin' friends will appreciate this title. The rest of you might think it sounds a little crazy, but that's cool...I'm not ashamed of my devotion to Twilight.  (Well, I might be mildly embarrassed about it from time to time, but not enough to stop talking about it.)  Yesterday was my girl, Shanna's 29th (plus a few more years) birthday, so we celebrated her birth at The Melting Pot.  Please notice that Edward's beautiful face makes a cameo in this post - because that's what Shanna deserves on her birthday!  (By the way, that picture is not from me.  One of her birthday gifts from her husband was the New Moon DVD...way to go, Chris Welch!)

Happy Birthday to my Shanna love!