Gorgeous day outside!

Yesterday the weather was absolutely glorious!  After many weeks of cold and wind and clouds, it felt like a little bit of spring in January.  (Of course, being Kansas, today started out at 65 this morning and is supposed to end with two inches of snow tonight.)

We took full advantage of the nice weather by walking to and from preschool for the first time in a long time.  After naps, we went to our favorite playground and stayed there for an hour and a half.  We all desperately needed the outdoor time!

Sesame Street Live & Science City

I know, I know, it's been awhile since my last post.  To tell the truth, we haven't been doing anything too exciting except trying to stay warm and well.  Dan's been fighting off a cough but so far, none of the creeping crud has hit us.  Knock on wood for our good luck to hold out!

On Sunday, my parents drove up and we all headed to the Sprint Center in KC for Sesame Street Live.  Although we don't have TV, Dan and Ben know who most of the characters are from books and the PBS Kids app.  They seemed to really like the show and I even found my feet tapping for a few of the songs.  Dan said that his favorite part was Oscar the Grouch in his trash can and Ben said that he liked Big Bird the best.  All in all, it was a fun outing.

Yesterday morning, we went into KC again to hit Science City.  My mom came with us and the boys loved showing her all their favorite parts of the museum.  Zach even got in on the action by riding the sky bike across a suspended cable.  (He has forbid me from putting the pictures on here, unfortunately.)  My dad came up too, since he's retired now.  Dan loved following him around the house as he did a lot of little handyman jobs for us.  It was great to have them here and we're really looking forward to hosting Granny Rash in a couple of weeks!

Discovery Center

Last Saturday, I took the boys for a mini-road trip to Topeka to check out the Kansas Childrens' Discovery Center.  The plan was to meet up with my aunt and cousins but a combination of sickness and ER visits conspired against us, so it ended up just being Dan and Ben and me.  We'll try to get together there sometime soon because the boys loved it and can't wait to go back!

It's a small place but every little area is something that the boys are interested in--digging, changing tires, a play restaurant, scarves in wind tunnels, a real carpentry area, etc.  It was like a very scaled-down version of Science City and I really appreciated not having to chase them all over the place.  It was small enough that Dan and Ben could be in different areas and I could still keep an eye on both of them.  I highly recommend a visit if your travels take you to the capital of Kansas.

More sledding

I had a great video of Dan going down the hill and then wiping out but the boys accidentally deleted it before I put it on the computer.  Ooooops!  Ben really wasn't into sledding this time around so he mostly just wandered around the yard and jumped off the brick wall a hundred times.  Dan loved the sledding even though it made Layne nervous to see him careening down the hill toward a storage shed and a barbed wire fence.  So she stationed herself at the bottom of the hill, just in case.

One of the funniest parts of the whole trip was when Unc came out of his small barn and said in his slow Oklahoma drawl, "Zach, have you done much welding?"  Lauren, Layne, Jesse and I almost died laughing at the thought of Zach having welding experience.  Well, he now can be considered a welder because Unc gave him a mask and put him to work.  Zach said he welded two pieces of metal together into something he likes to call "art."  I don't think Unc will be turning over full welding responsibility any time soon.

Dan's reaction when we tried to take the sled to a steeper hill in the yard.  Change is hard.

Dramatics after a snowball in the back.

Sledding is hard work.

And that's it for the Christmas posts!  Hard to believe that next Christmas we'll have added a 7-month-old to the mix.

One final picture of the boys in their superhero sweaters and hats from Aunt: