Mornings with Colin

Colin goes to afternoon preschool four days a week, which means he gets to spend his mornings at home with mommy. 

Lately he's enjoyed being a helper, loading the breakfast dishes in the dishwasher (he beams with pride when he tells me he's all done). 

Last night while Seth was getting his lunch ready for the next day, Colin decided he wanted to pack his lunch too.  Colin eats lunch at home before school but he didn't let that stop him.  He pulled it out of the fridge today, beaming with pride once again.  It wasn't neatly packed like mommy would do it...but all the necessary elements were there. 


A few days ago, he drew this picture to cheer me up after I hurt myself bringing fire wood into the house. 


"It's Mommy and Colin" he said.  It did make me feel better.  I love his curly hair and that his hands are over his eyes for some reason. 

And this morning while I was getting ready for the day, he kept walking in and out of my closet, flipping the light on and off and saying hi to himself in the full-length mirror.  I finally asked what he was doing.  "Looking at how pretty I am," he replied.  Oh, of course. 

This kid makes me smile. 

He Did It!!!

Seth has been asking for a Nintendo DS for years.  He has friends that have them and he wanted one.  We felt strongly that it was something he needed to work for.  We sat down with him and worked out a way for him to earn money (folding laundry, bringing firewood into the house, vacuuming, etc.).  He's felt different levels of motivation along the way.  Sometimes he was ready to do whatever he could to earn money and sometimes he complained and told us "none of my friends have to do this" (something every kid says to every parent in every house).  The chore/savings chart sat waiting for him whenever he felt motivated again and we held firm.

We've had many conversations about the value of hard work, the value of money, and the value of accomplishing goals.  It was a life lesson hard learned but HE DID IT!!!


We are so proud of him and I think he's pretty proud of himself too.  That smile is the result of a job well done!  As he was getting ready for bed last night he kept whispering to himself, "it was worth it...I can't believe it...I did it".

The only downside is, I'm going to have to start folding my own laundry again.  

Winter at the Zoo

We were blessed this Christmas with the gift of a family membership to The Kansas City Zoo.  We took advantage of warmer temperatures last weekend and headed out. 






A big thank you to the generous friend who helped us enjoy our day!  We look forward to many more trips to come.

Happy Anniversary!

While my parents were here for Christmas we got to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary.  We had a "fancy dinner" out...little boys included.  I wasn't sure how well the boys would do but after some initial complaining about having to wear fancy shoes...they did great!

Waiting patiently for everyone to get ready.

Mom wanted a family picture.  I won't tell you how many takes it took to get this one.  It is a handsome bunch I must say.

We got the boys to behave for the initial 15 takes by telling them we'd do a goofy one at the end.  John ignored the instruction.







Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad.  We love you.  Thanks for loving each other all these years!

How We Survived the Polar Vortex

With temperatures below zero for several days last week, we decided to camp out in the warmest place in our house, the basement.  John worked hard to keep both wood stoves burning so our heater didn't have to work so hard.  We turned the thermostat down and hunkered underground.

A warm fire, sleeping bags in front of the tv, and hot chocolate.  Sounds like a perfect Polar Vortex plan to me!

While not necessary (our appliances were working just fine), we thought it would be fun to pretend to be pioneers and made pancakes for dinner on the stove downstairs.
 We survived the sub-zero temps just fine and even had a little fun along the way.

Christmas 2013

We enjoyed a quiet Christmas morning, just the four of us.  My parents arrived later that night and the family fun began.

This year the boys bought presents for mommy, daddy, and each other.  Colin got daddy a calendar and notebooks.

Seth made us a picture at school.  We got a kick out of the reindeer.



John got a straight razor.  So fancy!
We enjoyed being able to relax and take our time opening gifts.  They both asked for their own six-pack of mini "diet cokes" (the term diet coke covers all carbonated beverages) from Santa.  And Santa delivered.  They also got lots of craft supplies which kept them busy most of the day.

We joined my parents and sister at Kelly's house for our traditional Christmas Eve soup.



Grandpa gave the boys straw glasses (see below).  They were a hit!

Grandma gave the boys new pj's.

Can't help being goofy!

We gathered at our house the next morning for the Robinson family Christmas.  Grandpa made a big yummy breakfast with all of our special requests (lil' smokies for Kelly and orange rolls for me).  The aforementioned straw glasses made their debut. 





John and Colin reading The Night Before Christmas

This was arguably the best part of the day.  Seth read Luke Chapter Two almost by himself.







It was a very Merry Christmas indeed!

Christmas Baking Extravaganza 2013

My sister, Kelly and I spent a Saturday baking up a storm this holiday season.  On this year's list of goodies...honey cookies, popcorn balls, peanut brittle, peppermint bark, and 24 loaves of pumpkin bread.



Seth decided to join the fun.  He was in charge of coating the honey cookies with sugar.
For recipes see this post from previous extravaganzas.

Thanksgiving 2013

We spent Thanksgiving with John's family in Oklahoma.  The boys had fun helping Grandpa feed cows and fix fences.  They were also able to play with cousins when John's brother and family came up for the day. 

The boys decided to build their own beaver dam.  There are a couple beavers who call this pond home so the boys wanted to build one on this side of the pond too.

Colin is testing out the integrity of their new structure.

Uncle John helped cousin Sophie fish.  He would cast out the line, and she would reel it in...over and over and over again.  Every time the bait came up to the surface of the water she'd say, "I got one."
And here's a bonus "funny thing the boys have said":  Colin overheard me talking on the phone to my parents about our plans to return home after Thanksgiving.  I said that we planned on leaving after church on Sunday and grabbing some lunch on the road.  Colin quickly turned to me and said, "Mommy, eating on the road is not a good idea.  It is very dangerous."  Uh, yes...Colin.  Yes it is.  We indeed did stop to eat some lunch on our way home and Colin was relieved that we could eat inside the restaurant and not in the middle of the road. 

Catching Up with Pictures

Okay, so maybe it's taken me a bit longer to get back in the swing of things than I thought it would. All is well...just haven't kept up with this little corner of the world wide web.

So here's the start of an update on the last couple months. The boys both finished their first Tae Kwon Do class. They were able to do it together which was great fun. Seth, as expected, took to it like he's been doing it for years. He could do a snap kick on day one and never looked back. Colin, on the other hand, had different goals. Their grand master (instructor) had high expectations and when those expectations weren't met, push-ups were required. Colin's goal was to do fewer push-ups than the week before. He actually did quite well as the youngest kid in the class.

By the end they both earned their white belts and made their parents proud.

(The pictures are out of order but having just spent the last two hours trying to get the pictures to load - curses on you blogger - that's just the way it has to be.)

Colin receiving his white belt from Grand Master

Colin bowing and shaking hands with other instructors
Colin breaking his first board.  He did it on the first try!

Seth's first board.  Grand Master complimented Seth on his skills and hard work many times. 
Seth receiving his white belt