Painting with marbles

I saw this idea in FamilyFun magazine and had to try it with the boys. What a hit! We taped a piece of paper (we used thicker, sketch paper) to the bottom of a plastic container, squirted some paint around on the paper, then picked the container up to roll the two marbles around. This occupied the boys for AN HOUR AND A HALF. Miraculous. I only had one container, so they had to take turns. The paint was super easy to wash out in the sink in between paintings. Sam said he loved it so much he wanted to make twenty paintings. Eventually, after they lost interest, I got a turn to make one too. :)

Funny conversations with kids

Conversation #1
Isaiah: Grandma said she doesn't like her life.
Me: Grandma doesn't like her life? She told you this? (getting concerned...)
Isaiah: Yeah. (trying to convince me) Me and Sam don't like Grandma's life either. We like her apple jacks much better.

Conversation #2
Sam: Mason didn't get too many presents for his birthday.
Me: Sure he did! He got a transformer costume, a set of tools, and he got the gift card from us so he can go to BounceU.
Sam: I don't want Mason to bounce me.
Me: You're not going to be there. It's just for Mason to go to BounceU.
Sam: But I don't want Mason to bounce me.
Me: (realizing he thinks we're saying "bounce you"). Honey, that's just the name of the place, Bounce and the letter U. Mason's not going to bounce you.

Happy birthday, Cubbie

Isaiah has had a great time going to Awana Cubbies this year at Mars Alliance Church. They have a simple lesson for parents to do at home and a short scripture for the kids to memorize. There are two Cubbie bears that the kids get to take home for a week when it is their turn. Isaiah got his turn this past week. And then when Awana was cancelled Wednesday because of the snow, Isaiah was so excited to keep Cubbie for two weeks. We're supposed to send in pictures of the things Cubbie did at our house. So I thought I'd share them here too. Cubbie enjoyed a bedtime story with Nana. Goodnight Moon.

Isaiah decided that Cubbie needed a birthday cake. Here are the boys, watching the brownie bake. (Isaiah loves playing "robot" with the stool around his belly... in case you were wondering...)

We decided that Cubbie was turning 4, since the Cubbie kids are between 3 and 5 years old.

Cubbie, wearing his birthday pin.

Christmas baskets

This Christmas I decided to make baskets filled with homemade goodies for our family. Here's what I included:

Perfect Pancake Mix in a jar

Hot Chocolate Cones (I made extra of these to give to the ladies in the office, etc.)

Herbed Rice Mix

All About You Book

This Domino Ornament that said "Merry Christmas from the Borcherts"

Corn Muffin Mix (unfortunately the site is no longer there)

Cinnamon and Applesauce ornaments that the boys made

Candy Cane sticks

These baskets are a great idea if you have more time than money on your hands, like I did this year. (I would rather have time than money anyway.) So I spent about $37 for five baskets.

New Year's in DC

Dan and I had a great, relaxing getaway to DC over New Years' weekend. We booked our Megabus tickets early enough to get $3 tickets on the way out and $15 on the way back. Can't beat that! With a 15-20 minute stop each way, we made the 5+ hour trip to DC in about four and a half hours. The bus left on time each way and arrived well over an hour early each way. We had a great time and definitely plan to travel Megabus again.


When we arrived, we walked a block to the Metro (we packed lightly, only taking a small rolling suitcase), and traveled about 20 minutes to our hotel, which was about two blocks from a Metro stop. We planned our entire weekend around the Metro stops and found that it was freeing not to have a vehicle. We stayed in at the hotel on New Year's Eve, ordered room service for dinner (because it was late and most restaurants were closed), and were asleep before midnight. Haha!


We woke up early the next morning, enjoyed a delicious breakfast at the hotel, then headed out to explore the city. We were about the only ones around, so it was odd, but nice. We started out at the White House, which you can see very faintly in the background below. (My camera has issues... wrong dates often, and very washed out photos.) We walked around the ellipse to see the national Christmas tree, then headed to the side of the mall with the war memorials. We had visited DC in April and visited some of the Smithsonians on the other end of the mall.

The view of the Washington Monument from the WWII Memorial.

Vietnam Wall. Seeing all those names is always so sobering.

Lincoln Monument at the far end of the mall. Lincoln is a lot bigger than he looks on the back of the penny. =) I was probably in late elementary school when I saw this last.

"Freedom is Not Free" at the Korean War Memorial.

Jefferson with the "We hold these truths to be self-evident..." speech in the background.

We were a little crazy and decided to walk down the Potomac River to see the Jefferson Monument. The weather was so perfect, 58 degrees and overcast. We were able to peek into the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial that is being build and walk through the Roosevelt Memorial on our way. I had never been down that side of the tidal basin before. The Lincoln and Jefferson Monuments are just so immense. Pictures can't capture it. They are so hollow and cavernous, yet so full of history.

By this time we were really feeling pain in our feet from so much walking! We walked back around to the Smithsonians, because I hoped to eat lunch in this cafe that overlooks the skating rink and sculpture garden. Unfortunately, the cafe, skating rink, and garden were all closed for New Year's. Since it was almost 2pm, we just caught a quick lunch in the cafe at the Museum of Natural History.
Next we tried to take a tour of the clock tower at the old post office, but again, it was closed for New Years. We rested our feet at our hotel for a while, then headed out to Old Town Alexandria. We ate dinner at a delightful little french cafe and walked down King St. to the marina. After we ate, we walked up and down King Street, window shopping and enjoying the sparkling Christmas lights. A man was playing water glasses on the street. He had such a unique talent!

Sunday we woke up, enjoyed breakfast at the hotel again, packed up our stuff, and checked out. We headed out to Eastern Market, meandered through the locally handmade goods (with our suitcase! Ha!), and got a coffee at a local coffee shop. We had just enough time to walk the streets of Chinatown and eat lunch at Tony Cheng's, before heading over to our Megabus stop.

I loved this Starbucks sign in Chinatown.

By this time it was raining and cold, and we were really too early to get in line. So we headed over to the next block to the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The extremely nice security guard let us store our suitcase in a closet instead of paying for a locker. We had about an hour to check out the portraits of the Presidents and a few other exhibits before heading to our bus.

The travel over the weekend went so smoothly, and we were able to see many more sights than we had planned. It was nice to get away and very nice to get home.

Christmas Day

The stockings were hung and ready. (Notice the date is actually right on this picture... my camera has been having major issues lately, so this is amazing.)

The boys in their Christmas pjs their grandma made for them. Ready to open presents!

This was Isaiah's gift to the family. He did this all on his own. He cut a big piece of wrapping paper and drew our family's favorite things: School and the gym for Mommy, the Lighthouse for Daddy, and DVDs for Sam. Haha!

The boys with their gifts.

We got this drill set for Sam. It's really fun because there are different colored screws and pattern cards you can use to design different pictures like boats, fish, a dog, etc. Super fun.

Another group shot... =)

Duct tape

Last night at dinner, my mom was over and she was describing some ingenious preschool craft where you glue jello. After some confusion, we realized she was talking about jello powder. We said maybe she should duct tape jello in her next craft. This was turning into a weird conversation! Then Sam blurted out, "We can't use duct tape! We're not ducks!" Once the laughing was over, so was the conversation. Haha!

Christmas 2010 Pics

The boys with my sweet little nephew.

OHMYGOSH. This is my first favorite Christmas photo. Aren't babies just so cute!!

Group shot.

Favorite Christmas Photo #2. K just LOVES Isaiah. And he loves her back just as much. They are major buddies.

Fab five.

All the kids and Nana loaded up to see the lights at Hartwood Acres.

We attempted to get a picture of all five grandkids. The kids were tired from church and not really in the mood. This is about the best we got. Haha!

Celebrating my sweet niece's second birthday. Also, in the background, a glimpse of our kitchen/dining room makeover.

Christmas Goodies

Every year we bake cookies with Dan's family. Isaiah and his cousin really got into it this year. The boys and Dan enjoy making the press cookies. As far back as anyone can remember, the color of the press cookies has alternated between red and green with the passing generations. Dan's mom rebelled against her mom, who liked red, by choosing green. Dan rebelled against his mom by choosing red. Isaiah is continuing the rebellion by choosing green. Dan demonstrating the proper cookie placement on the cookie sheets. Isaiah, watching to learn. Lorrie, watching to make sure Dan's doing it right. Lol! We take our cookie baking very seriously. =)

And we couldn't forget goodies for our winter friends. I found this idea in a magazine (can't remember if it was MomSense or FamilyFun). We spread peanut butter all over several mini bagels. Then the boys stuck crushed ritz crackers, cheerios, and raisins on the peanut butter. I'm sure you could use other types of cereal and crackers, even cookies. Whatever you have in the cupboards that's going stale. =) Then I threaded twine through the bagels. It would have been MUCH BETTER to thread the twine through BEFORE we slimed peanut butter everywhere. That part was very messy!

Then we hung the bagel snacks outside for the deer, chipmunks, birds, and squirrels. The first day, one disappeared. The boys were so excited. Then, by the time we all got back from being away this past weekend, all four were gone.