Kindness Tree

To help certain members of our family (who shall remain nameless) get along better and be kinder to each other, we started a kindness tree. Whenever we saw someone doing something kind we would put a leaf on the tree. When the tree is full we get a family prize. It worked AMAZINGLY well! The kids have been really excited about doing nice things for each other and for us and have been good at noticing when kind things are done and awarding leaves to each other. I had no idea how motivating a colorful piece of paper could be!

When we filled up the tree with leaves we watched our new movie Toy Story 3.

We got into our jammies and ate popcorn and rolls- for dinner. Not very nutritious, but very fun!

The tree was such a success that we decided to do it again. This time we added snowflakes onto the tree to match our newly snowed on tree outside.

This time when we got all the snowflakes on we decided to go to Denny's for dinner. (It may or may not be a coincidence that we finished on kids eat free day at Denny's!)

They have always drooled over this claw game, so we decided to let them play a few times.

See that purple giraffe on the left? Scotty really, really, really, really wanted it.

He didn't get it. Miles gave him an informative explanation about how claw games are supposed to make money, not make little boys happy. It didn't help him feel better.

Grant had a great time!

Scotty was still bitter about the purple giraffe.

Collin thought the big pancake was much better than the little pieces Mommy cut up for him. He also loved reaching over and stealing hashbrowns from my plate.

I wonder how long we can milk this kindness tree idea??

Cupcakes with Grandpa

Grandpa Steve (Miles' dad) invited the boys up one evening to decorate Halloween cupcakes and cookies. He had lots of fun decorations for them to use and let them do, and eat, whatever they wanted. They had so much fun. Steve loves to bake cookies with his grandkids and they love it. He has more patience for the mess, broken egg shells, and spills than I do!

Scotty really enjoyed decorating.

Grant decorated a few and ate more.

I think Collin was the official taste tester!

Cutie!!

Enjoying all their hard work.

Here's Scotty with his work. We were so impressed with his decorations! He wanted to sell them to people in China and in our neighborhood! I have no idea why he was talking about China.

Thanks for a fun time Grandpa Steve!

Muffin Tin Monday

No theme for MTM today.

For lunch the boys had Fresca, pretzels, corn, a ham and cheese sandwich on Bagel Thins, pears and applesauce with sprinkles.

Notice the grass outside? It's white with snow! Scotty was apprehensive about the sprinkles in the applesauce so I told him that they were Christmas sprinkles and then he was excited to eat them. And then he wanted to make the corn and pears be snow and we decided that the pretzels are sleds. We were all excited when it started snowing so they wanted to make their lunch snow themed.

Stop by Muffin Tin Mom to see more fun MTM posts.

3 little monkeys

We were so excited to buy this monkey costume for Scotty's 2nd Halloween. All 3 boys have worn it now and it has been so cute on all of them.

Scotty found a play banana at Gma Kath's house just before Halloween and insisted on keeping it. He carried it in his pumpkin bucket.

Grant HATED the costume at first! But as soon as he figured out that he was getting candy, he forgot all about the costume. He was also a little bit too big for it so we had to cut the feet open.

Collin loved the banana on his head and kept patting it saying na-na. When he would see his picture on my computer he would pat his head.