sous chefs

I offered to bring dessert to our New Years Eve party tonight. I did not have to ask the boys twice if they wanted to help. Jake loves to help me bake he asks all the time to make yummy treats but since I do not want to eat them we only make them when I get to take them to someone else house. Normally I just buy something but since they are so in to helping me and enjoy it so much I could not say no. Not to mention it was fun bonding time. We spent most of the morning baking. Jake requested pumpkin bread, then we also made brownies and my new favorite thanks to Therese are theses Oreo truffle cookies. So yummy and easy. 

little helpers

The boys love to help me do things around the house. For them laundry is fun, I wish I could say the same but at least they are enjoying helping me.

robot garage

We went to scope out the Robot Garage this morning. I have heard great things about this place and wanted to see if it's somewhere Jake would like to have his birthday party since he is very into legos these days. Yes, I know I am planing ahead but finding the right place is never easy. They had an entire area with just duplos, Jake would have liked to plan with the smalled legos but was fine planning with duplos since they were better for Nathan.  I wish they would have given us directions since building is not my strong suite. The staff was very friendly and helpful. We will be going back again, but next time we need David to come and help us build. 

happy everything

My parents as usual went totally crazy with gifts this year. Jake and Nathan are two very loved and adored little boys.  Unfortunately they boys were not feeling up to themselves, especially Nathan. They both and had runny noses and Nathan had a fever.  Jake got a leappad and Nathan got a innotab. Nathan also received tons of Thomas the train stuff. 

merry everything

hanukkah with the Schwartz family

Every year we have a little Hanukkah party with the Schwartz family. Jake and Lily were very excited to be able to light the candles by themselves this year. You would never know it by these pictures but as the night went on Jake cheeks started to get very red, we took his temperature and sure enough 100.2. You would never know it by the way he was acting, but our night got cut short and we left before dessert.  Jake got lots of board games and Nathan received a vtech karaoke machine and Thomas the Train phone. 

heading to dinner

I had to bribe them with cookies to sit for a few pictures, but atleast I was able to get a few cute ones before we headed to dinner.

good intentions

Last night David and I stayed up late to put together the kids big gift, a new ride train. We had in all set up ready to go for the big reveal in the morning. When David went downstairs to take it off the charger he realized that it was not working.  After much frustration we realized that something was wrong and it was not going to happen. We quickly boxed it back up and gave the boys different gifts  instead. They had no idea what was going on, David and I were both very upset and disappointed. Our entire morning was lost dealing with this silly broken train.

back to kids gotta play

Jake has been asking to go to Rainbow Recreation aka Kids Gotta Play for a while. It finally worked today since he started his winter break. We meet up with Sara and Macy, even little one month old Lilah tagged along. We kept our distance though since Jake has a runny nose.  Jake loved pushing the little ones on the tire swing. 

pump it up

We meet up with our buddies Enzo, Brady and Logan for a little holiday celebration. We decided instead of exchanging gifts we would plan a fun activity since it so hard for all us to get together with every ones crazy schedules. We headed to Pump It Up in Wixom, we lucked out, they were not busy at all. Jake has not been boucning in a while, he could not wait. He did not want to go to school in the  morning he was so excited to go to Pump It Up. The boys had a fantastic time bouncing and hanging out with each other. After bouncing we headed to dinner at Red Robin and meet up with David, Tony and the Ostrofsky crew. It was a very fun night. 

my little chef

Sometimes I have to let Nathan make a little mess so I can get a few things done. Luckily the dogs do a very good job of cleaning up all of the cheerios.  He is happing as can be when he is cooking in the kitchen.

the finished product

Jake has amazing attention span when it is on his terms. I was so impressed how he helped and watched the assembly of the lego spaceship. However, we have learned a very hard lesson the completed legos are not to play with, the brake apart very easily!  Jake will be receiving a few more lego sets this holiday season and I hope is as excited to put them together. 

lets just say legos are not for 2 year olds

our first night of hanukkah

Even though Hanukkah does not actually start until Tuesday night, we started our Hanukkah tonight because we have a very busy week with many social obligations and David's crazy work schedule.  My parents joined us for our little celebration. While Jake was distracted in the kitchen with my mom I brought all the presents up from hiding. The look on Jake's face was priceless when he saw all of the presents. He asked if Santa had brought all of them. There had been alot of talk at our house lately about the being on the good list and the naughty list. So I guess he was a little confused. I was going to let each boy open two gifts tonight but after Jake opened his Lego spaceship that was all he cared about. Daddy and Jake had immediately got started on building it during dinner.

Nathan first gift was a pirate ship

Jake was very excited to give daddy the gift from him and Nathan