The Valentine Box

Every year is so much fun for Valentine's Day. It was tradition when we were kids to make a valentine box for school. There were always competitions and we would try to make the best. My dad would come up with the best ideas. I am so uncreative in this area. Every year now I let Nico choose what kind of box he wants to make (pasts boxes; T-Rex and a giraffe). It is always something quite challenging. This year proved to be no different. I enjoy helping him create them, but they are always his idea, Mike and I just help with cutting shapes, etc. This year though, Nico was able to do most of it himself. Don't look ahead and see if you can figure out what he made by looking at each picture. He asked for help with the painting and holding boxes together, but that was it. Here's the start...taping a series of boxes in a certain order.
Spray painting it gray...thanks to daddy for having the gray primer spray paint, this would have taken forever to paint by hand.
Adding some fine details.
Adding even finer details....you probably guessed it by now!
And here it is in all it's glory...the Empire State Building...complete with King Kong, the girl, and the airplane. He really wanted to make the airplane fly around the top...but we didn't have all the parts to make that happen this year. Nico stands about 45"...so you can see how tall this is. I am hoping it rides carefully in the van to our Valentine Party with our homeschool friends. (We have two of them to attend).

We don't have competitions anymore, but Nico has fun creating and showing his work. He is going to be making a box for Luca to bring as well....not near as elaborate, but sure to be adorable! Pictures next week!

Just the Run of the Mill

I feel so bad not getting my blog updated, but not a whole lot has been happening. Since Christmas we are just in the mode of school work, cleaning the closets, and organizing the house.

Nico is doing fanastic on his lessons and it makes the days go by quickly. Luca is doing better keeping himself occupied (in a good way) while we are doing lessons. He likes to sit and watch TV more (only educational shows) and he likes to draw. He will come in the school room and say, "Draw" and pull out his special box of crayons. He'll sit at the table and draw. He is now drawing small circles vs the big round scribbles. He will say, "round, round, round; see mommy!" Of course, we praise with great voices and clapping. He also likes drawing on the dry erase board. We plan to start preschool (at home of course) in July when our next school year starts. He will be 3 in May! He is already doing school type things anyway, but we will officially start organized activities for a couple hours a day. He also loves puzzles and is very good at them.

We are excited to be going to Kansas City, Kansas the end of the month with my friend from work (and her husband). We are headed to the Great Wolf Lodge which has an indoor water park. I am so ready to get a break and go somewhere. The kids will have a blast. We are hoping to go to a couple of other museums or such in the area as well. Just quality time away from home will be fun.

I am hoping to post pictures soon. I haven't taken a whole lot since Christmas. Nico did make an amazing Valentine box this year and I will post pictures of that.