we took our time easing into the week this time around. monday was a pajamas until noon, relaxing kind of recovery day from the weekend. as my boys get older, they seem to thrive with a little more guided activity than the days of 8-10 hours of farming the living room 80 acres. do not get me wrong, they still spend plenty of time planting and hauling manure with their john deeres. it seems inevitable though that after awhile maxer is making tracks in bear's farm and ayla jo attempts to ride on big tractor causing all sorts of strife. so then i try to have a plan in mind to bond over.

on monday, i was busy being creative in the kitchen. actually i was following a recipe with high hopes that my food critic bradley would not pass his fave judgement on my new recipes "its really good, except you forgot one ingredient babe. taste." so clearly i needed full concentration. therefore i collected every piece of craft materials and some old pasta to allow the boys to really allow their creativity to flow.

apparently they have my creativity. because their masterpieces included a pattern for maxwell and some "lellow" pom poms for bear. personally, i asked him what color he was using multiple times just to hear his pronunciation involving his entire tongue being thrust out his mouth. and baby blue also uses that technique with her l's. she now says "lala" for her own name and it seriously melts me with the cuteness factor. ps- my fam called me la la, and it is a riot having a mini me.

so maybe i dont have the most abstract thinking children, but they sure do know how to make messes and super adorable faces when fiercely focused.

i was whipping up some taters for dinner that night during their crafting exploration and max looked up long enough to notice i was using a mixer and asked to please eat the batter off the mixers. he was way disappointed to taste redskins and not cookie dough.

after only about 8 minutes, the crafts were completed and in that time between finishing his masterpiece and me assisting with the cleanup, bear put one of his lellow pom poms right into his ear. i got it out, but really kid. somehow we ended up with an extra pom pomed noodle that neither boy would claim. bear told me our napping cupcake made it. he may blame quite a bit on the youngest darling.

during our devotions, or god stories as wes calls them, we learned again about god parting the red sea for the israelites. as i knew it to be a familiar story to the boys i asked them to help me tell it with questions like, then what happened. let me just say i learned a lot. maxer told me there were rescue boats to save the egyptian army. i do not recall that part, but max's version would make an action packed mighty machines dvd.

aylaroo spent quite a bit of time riding her horse that afternoon. she is hands down the foxiest little cowgirl i've seen. a natural.

the boys joined in later in quite a different fashion. sister was mesmerized.

one more story to prove may days are hilarious and entertaining galore. while putting laundry away after dinner, i heard the boys shout to me, mom we like beer! when i rushed down the steps they were grinning and sharing my smirnoff cranberry lime drink. woopsy daisy. keep the alcohol out of reach mama!

i enjoy those days way more than the ones spent running from place to place. home sweet home is adventure enough for me!!