Today at the Henry Vilas Zoo in Madison, while Matthew was watching a hive of honeybees, he excitedly said,

Look, Joel, they're making honey! The bees go buzz buzz buzz. They can play and have lots of fun. They play with lots and lots of toys, and they can go to Blockbuster and pick out a DVD!

Matthew and Joel wrote out shopping lists for me the other day while I was menu planning, and here they are (in no particular order)...

Matthew's was (quoted verbatim) "spinach, carrots, spinach (that's a lot of spinach!), mangoes, pineapple, bananas".



And here's Joel's (he didn't tell me what he wrote but I can imagine it was something like green smoothies, hummus, guacamole, multigrain tortilla chips, Wasa crackers, bananas, clementines, ketchup, and black-olive pizza--to mention a few of his favorites)...

Matthew to me at breakfast this morning: "Mama, you need to get a shower. You're all messed up."

(I'm not including a photo in this post because I think he's right.)

Matthew is now just about 43 inches (109 cm) tall and Joel is 34 inches (86 cm). Won't be long before they catch up with me.

Birthday quotes--

Joel: "Happy birthday to you, Matchew!"

Matthew: "Thank you for a happy birthday!"

Here with the yogurt marmalade cake he and Joel helped me make this morning...


And Saturday night at a small gathering we had for him...


His favorite place is Culver's for fried cod (with ketchup) and mashed taters, so before our little gathering Saturday evening we stopped by here for supper...


One of the bean's favorite books at the moment is Tiddler, The Storytelling Fish, so we had fish for dinner (hopefully it wasn't anyone Tiddler actually knew), fish hanging from the chandelier...


...and a blueberry fish on his cookie cake...


And Stephen's creative idea for a present--have a puzzle made exclusively for Matthew with pictures from his homeland, Japan...

The four beans are moving to Seattle on April 7!!! Felt strange and exciting to be buying yet another set of one-way tickets.

Matthew, looking out the front window: "Mama, there's a truck in the mist!"

------------

Joel, glancing over at Stephen's empty chair at the table: "Hi, Daddy's chair!"

Walking our local nature trail the other day with some neighborhood friends (and one hiding in a pouch)...

Talking back to the crows...




Mmmmm...fresh snow...

• I asked the boys if they'd like tomato soup and cheese toast for lunch, and Matthew replied, "I want rice and nori!" And Joel concurred with "Rice and nori, too!"
  
• Matthew, seeing my netbook open on the table, reached for it. After I asked him not to touch it, he said, "Mama, I need to do some work."
• When Joel got to the bottom of his soup bowl and couldn't get the rest out, he turned to Stephen and said, "Daddy, tricky!"
• Joel, on the phone with his cousin Ethan this morning, said, "Ethan, come back. Over here. Play! Come back!"
• On our (very cold) walk this morning, we went down the local nature trail. Later this evening when I asked Matthew what he saw on the trail this morning, he answered, "Dog poop." [He's right--it was an unbelievable amount.]
• When we were playing this evening and Joel accidentally whacked me on the head with a small metal cement truck as he was trying to do something else, I yelped and held my hand to my head. Joel's immediate reaction was "Ice, Mama!" So I went and got some, and yes, it did help. Dr. Joel to the rescue.
  

From The Jesus Storybook Bible, by Sally Lloyd-Jones:

God is my Shepherd

And I am his little lamb.

He feeds me
He guides me
He looks after me.
I have everything I need.

Inside, my heart is very quiet.
As quiet as lying still in soft green grass
In a meadow
By a little stream.

Even when I walk through
the dark, scary, lonely places
I won't be afraid
Because my Shepherd knows where I am.

He is here with me
He keeps me safe
He rescues me

He makes me strong
And brave.

He is getting wonderful things ready for me
Especially for me
Everything I ever dreamed of!

He fills my heart so full of happiness
I can't hold it all inside.

Wherever I go I know
God's Never Stopping
Never Giving Up
Unbreaking
Always and Forever
Love
Will go, too!

Roofing in Snow Country...


Clear off the white stuff first!


Our friend Jake...

And his mama, Yuki...

What's wrong with this picture?


Our friend Maggie's birthday party...

Good times and good eats!

Joel's cute hair always does this flyaway thing, especially when he goes down slides (seen here at Beansprouts Cafe about a month or so ago)...


Some creativity with pipe cleaners the other day--instead of making animals by stringing the Cheerios on the pipe cleaners and twisting them into figures, Joel decided he'd stab the cereal with the cleaners and munch on them.

If anybody can guess what my creation was, leave a comment and I'll let you know if you're correct!


In Barney guitar love...


Riding a moose at our Canadian friends' home (let's not even talk about that hockey game!)...


What's Joel been up to lately? In a word: climbing. Everything. Always. Without fear.

OK, two words: climbing and talking.

Oh, I just can't stop: He's into climbing and talking and hugging and dancing and building and singing and grinning.

Jammin' with Pop...


Grinnin' (this happens a lot)...

Buildin' (this happens quite often, too, so just admire his smile and try to ignore his bed hair, poor little guy)...



Huggin' (his buddy Kazu recently moved away--sadness!)...




Waitin' for his first swimmin' lesson (you can't tell from his expression but he was so impatient to get in the water), sportin' the shark swimming trunks he picked out...



I wish I'd had my camera with me today for his second lesson--he really got into it even more (if that's possible) and wore goggles, practiced floating on his back, and jumped off the side into his teacher's arms. He's a water bean and grinned the entire lesson--he worked out not just his arms and legs, but his smile, too. I think he probably swallowed half the pool.

Some recent Maffa quotes:

• "Mama, I need to go to Culver's!"
• "We will fly over the trees, over the sky, over the air, and fly all the way back to Japan!"
• "Mama, I love trees, cars, pickup trucks, the sky, the snow, red lights, yellow lights, green lights, and all kinds of stuff."
  

About a month ago, my mom was off on a Monday so we headed for Devil's Lake (I don't even want to know why it's called that!).

See that clubhouse in the background? That's on the edge of the land. Devil's Lake is not so much a lake now as it is a very cold giant playground.


Yes, those are tire tracks on the lake!


And yes, the ice fishermen haul their trailers out there, and may I repeat, on top of a deep, cold lake.


We are wimpy Floridians, but we figured if cars and trailers can stay afloat, so could we. And I live to post the tale.