Week Updates...

We had quite the week. 
Dinner Date #1: A reunion with the Oakdale boys. Here's one of the very first pics I have of Colin and Evan. (Justin and Drew were too little to be roaming around at the time) Crazy how time flies and how much these boys have grown.

Dinner Date #2: At Sophie's house. The school sends us daily pictures of the kids and Justin & Sophie are side by side most of the day. No pictures of the dinner, but some of my favorite moments from dinner included Justin's dinner table conversation about wanting to sleep over at Sophie's house, and Justin & Sophie sitting in a sofa chair telling everyone that they were "just taking a little rest." Justin loves his Sophie time and Colin was a great big brother who stayed out of the 3 year olds' way!

Dinner Date #3: Weekly dinner date with Leela. By this day, I was exhausted and there's nowhere I'd rather be than with Aarti and Leela. Lots of fun, tent-making and christmas ornament exchanging.

Jack spent most of the weekend prepping the rentals, so the boys and I kept busy with errands and cleaning. But we did take a break to make some gingerbread graham cracker houses. First time I made the icing from scratch - easy and so good!

In other home updates: our elf doesn't move everyday, but when he does move, it's always fun for the kids to find him in a new spot. This was my favorite thus far.

Guess who's parking in the garage?! Me, me, me!! We finally cleaned up the garage a bit and Jack built his workbench. Just a bit more tidying up and we'll be able to get Jack's truck in too.

The boys testing out the guest room (with a newly set up TV).

Their new favorite movie is Free Willy. And scenes from the homeless kids to the whale catchers to the whale training has sparked a ton of new questions. 

Colin: (after watching the homeless kids try to find food on their own) "If you guys die, I'll take care of Justin. Then when we get older, we can split up.

me: Do you think something will happen to mommy and daddy?

Colin: I said "IF" you guys die.

me: oh.

Colin: IF means that it might not happen. 

me: Well. IF that happens, then there are other adults who love you.

Colin: I don't have their phone numbers. How will I call them to take care of us?

Justin: (the police car chasing scene) Mom, can you hold my hand?

me: sure.

Justin: i don't want a police car to chase me. that's scary. I just like to look at them when they're not chasing.

me: me too.