sleepover party

to say we are blessed to live within twenty minutes of our entire immediate family would be the understatement of the year. not very many people can call up their sisters/brothers/parents/in-laws/grandmas for an impromptu get together in half an hour on any given day. but we can and oh, how sweet it is! the only downfall is that we have never gone to go stay at nana and papa's for the weekend...you know, have a sleepover. we were determined to change that. I packed up the boys and met my dear sister and her son at my parents for the weekend. kyle thought my quest for a real sleepover at my parents' house was bordering on insane, so he opted to stay at home...alone. not a bad gig either, I guess. although you'd miss out on this:

we had a blast watching the boys stand next to the big tub as it filled with oodles of inviting bubbles. I'm not sure what's cuter - the picture of the naked buns or the cuddly little burritos sitting on nykki's changing table. you be the judge:

beth and I stayed up late and chatted in our jammies after we had the babies tucked in for the night. henry slept at the foot of my bed and woke up a little earlier than I had planned. I'm not gonna lie: it was heavenly to scoop him up and snuggle with him as the early morning light began to creep into our room. eventually we heard the rest of the house begin to stir and so we made our way to the basement to say good morning to beth and josiah. I just love how extra happy the little ones are in the morning!

the little guys gobbled up stacks of papa's blueberry pancakes and played in their pjs until at least noon. as we indulged in a yummy lunch I wondered why we hadn't done this until now. what a great memory to make with my boys...I think we'll be planning another sleepover very soon!

good morning sunshine!

cupid

in preparation for valentine's day, we got out the paints and created masterpieces that we could eventually turn into adorable little handmade valentines. the martha stewart inside me decided to only squeeze out puddles of "valentine" colors onto the palette. so I dug out the white, red, pink, and even a little purple paint and set my little picasso free.

after one round he caught a glimpse of the crayola box and requested some blue and green and orange and maybe some brown mommy??  who am I to resist such a sweet request? I'm not one to squelch creative genius now, right?  so our version of valentine's became a puddle of every color under the rainbow. unfortunately when you mix them all together the result is a muddy shade of brown. oh well.

when the big day arrived, my little cupid and I took advantage of henry's morning nap and donned our aprons for some good ol' cupcake baking. I just love having a sous chef in the kitchen!

now had I been more on top of my game, those above mentioned works of art would've actually been cut into hearts and fashioned into adorable handmade valentine's. but, alas, the martha stewart in me didn't show up on february 14th, so we settled for a box of toy story valentines and delivered them to all of our favorite valentines.

distracted

the blog has been neglected as of late. to all of my faithful followers (and I know there are TENS of you out there)...I apologize and will do my best to get this thing back up and running. but in my defense, I've been distracted by these two:

I am working on playing catch up, so be sure to visit again soon and scroll down to catch up on the busyness of our lives. ciao.

circle of friends

there is a sort of comfort that comes with being surrounded by good friends. knowing that you can drop your bags in an empty guest room and proceed to take over their house with loads of books, little people, sippy cups, bibs, and mismatched socks warms my heart.

this year's annual superbowl soiree was held in west bend. it was our first official road trip with a potty-trained two year old. frightening, you say? perhaps. but somehow we escaped the four hour trek with just two stops. one in a restaurant and the other on the side of the road...in sub-zero temps...at 10:30pm. a mad-dash to the nearest rinky-dink county road, some yellow snow, and a 10-minute detour to go back to scrape Super Why! off of the icy road later...we were on the home stretch to casa de bansemar.

his newest fake smile face - love it!

we spent the better part of saturday morning venturing to the Betty Brinn Children's Museum in milwaukee and meeting up with the maio family. the kids had a blast! henry was in a "I-have-a-fever" funk (more on that later), but managed to eek out a smile or two.

the wheels on the bus...

pretty little alana

one of the few smiles from henry-bug that day. curses molars, curses!

trying to figure out the conveyor belt

ethan: future foreman

you might want to count your change...I'm just sayin'

harms family morning show

an all bread sandwich for GG and an all meat treat for ethan

my little momma's boy

good to see that he's already taking time to read the labels

henry and the guys

we wrapped up our little field trip with lunch at the maio's. a special thank you to matt and sarah for the classy dining experience. seeing as though you were days away from moving to a new house, we'll let it slide this time.

the maios joined us in the WB on saturday and sunday nights and all six of the little kidlets amazingly got along and there were few (if any) tears over who was playing with whose toys. just give that a few more months, right?

"you're FUNNY uncle matt!"

every kid loves the tiny dvd player

super ethan [cape compliments of pip and bean]

nice, matt.

story time with uncle shawn...who'da thunk?

the "big kids" - ethan, miles, and genevieve

we woke up to a fresh dusting of snow on sunday, so we hauled the babies outside for a sled ride. don't alana and addison totally remind you of ralphie from a christmas story? so cute!

mush, miles...mush!

game night was in a class by itself...at least for mr. maio. to quote chanandler bong, "could he BE any more excited?" and, although humerous, we had all seen enough of the "championship belt" dance to last a lifetime. in case you're wondering, our family owns little (if any) MN Vikings gear so you can bet that we did not bust out any green and gold for the pack. we were, however, good sports and tried to be as supportive as possible...for the fans' sake!

bellied up to the bar...my favorite spot as well!

go vik...er...I mean, go packers!

a toddler's attention span to sit and watch football is far shorter than an attention span for signing time

the black eyed peas will be ringing geeg for a backup dancer gig any day now

this circle of friends we have made is strong. despite the hundreds of miles that separates us, we can always count on one another to be there for the highs and lows of life. our circle has grown and that makes me smile. so far the adult to child ratio {4:3} is still in favor of the grown-ups, but I'm certain we will be out-numbered shortly.

addison (16 mo), miles (2 3/4 yrs), geeg (a.k.a. genevieve - 2 1/2 yrs), alana (16 mo), henry (12 mo), ethan (3 yrs)