Random Fun with the Boys

One of my favorite parts of the day is just hanging back and watching this pack of boys as they walk home from school with their friends.

Sam's first soccer season was a smashing success. He's had a lot of chances to practice with his older brothers in the back yard, but since they have always been bigger than him he was convinced that he wasn't very good at soccer. It took a bit of pushing to get him to even go on the field for his first practice. But once he got playing, he realized that dribbling around these kids was way easier than trying to get past Ellis! In the end, he scored in almost every game of the season, and was the Sharks and Minnows champion of his team.

Ellis' main accomplishment this season was perfected some of his goal celebrations. And luckily, he scored quite a few goals so he could put them to good use!

The medal is cool, but Sam's mostly in it for the snacks.

I just like this picture of Sam.

And we can't leave Henry out of the fun! One of the best parts of kids getting older is that they start to become capable of putting together their own snacks. Here is Henry with his chicken nachos on a Sunday afternoon.

Rather than finding a way to get RSL players to sign his hat, Ellis decided it would be cool if he just signed it himself. Nothing could be more Ellis than that!

Newsies 2016

One would think that the Iversons would be over their Newsies obsession by now.  But one would be wrong.  Ellis and Sam spent approximately 6 hours of their Spring Break rehearsing for this production.  Ellis has memorized every step of choreography from the 1992 movie, and he has taken extreme measures to make sure he and Sam both duplicated it with exact precision.  Then they put careful thought into costumes, props, scenery, and which room of the house would be appropriate for each song (in the first song, they move rooms!).  This is a long clip - 12 minutes - but I couldn't cut too much out, because I know how much Ellis has fretted over every detail, and he will notice if something major is missing.  And there is so much here of my little boys here and now that I need to preserve.  I love the way each boy's personality comes out in this project, as well as the complex dynamics of their relationship.  :)  Enjoy!


Newsies 2016 from Ben and Jenn on Vimeo.

Sam's Art and Gymnastics Class

This fall, Sam needed something to do besides just pre-school and play dates.  He has insisted for a while now that he is going to be an artist when he grows up, and he is by far our most active and sporty kid, so when Jenn found an Art & Gymnastics class for 3-5-year-olds it seemed like the perfect fit.

It totally was.  Each week, Sam couldn't wait for Tuesday to roll around so he could go do art for the first hour and then gymnastics for the second hour.  When he was finished, he literally skipped out the door with Jenn, so full of excitement at what he had learned an done.  For the rest of the day he would keep practicing his "jumps" that he learned, or come up with his own art creations.  It all made him so happy.

They really have a full gymnasium that the kids got to play in, complete with rings, balance beam, and, most importantly, a foam pit!

His snowman painting.  He was super proud that it turned out to look a bit like a Jackson Pollock.

colorful snowman

Some of his other art projects, including an odd pilgrim clay concoction that is half creepy and half cute.  But mostly I love the classic Sam face with the half-smile and hat.  Even though Art and Gymnastics has been over for a while now, he still dreams of it wistfully.  We'll need to find another of those classes soon!

About a Boy

Sometimes (usually) Sam-o wants to play a game with me.  Sometimes (usually), he chooses the classic game of War, and sometimes (usually) he totally cheats to win.  He slyly selects certain cards to play at certain times.  He refuses to give up certain cards when I beat him.  He will even go so far as to look through my discard pile and blatantly steal my "lucky cards."  I'm usually okay with anything that will speed up the War process.  :)

Sometimes (usually) he wears accessories, if not full costumes.  He loves wearing this Nerf bullet bandolier.  All the time.

On this particular day, he scurried to get into this "Animal Power Suit" before going to pick up the brothers from school.  He needed a plain white shirt WITH A POCKET, black pants, the bandolier, and Ellis' moose jacket that is a few sizes too big, and of course, the helmet and scooter!  The brothers were thoroughly impressed.

Sometimes Sam-o will ask for a taco at 10:30 in the morning and will announce that we can go ahead with our coloring because he'll eat it while we color.  After every few squiggles with the marker, he will pause, set the marker down, pick up the taco for a few bites, and say, "I'm just in it for the taco breaks."  True story!

Sometimes Sam and Ellis will go all-out on the costume requirement for the Blue and Gold banquet, such that there are no costume items left for Cub Scout Henry (who doesn't seem to mind).  Worth it, because have you ever seen two cuter cowboys?

A Birthday Fit for a Knight

If you know Sam very well, you know that his favorite thing of all time is his birthday.  He thinks about it, dreams about it, and talks about it for about 364 days before the big day finally comes!  He has been scheming about his birthday for months and months, trying to come up with the perfect theme for his cake and party.  These are some of the theme ideas he came up with:

Cheese party

Mummy party

Beaver party

Thanksgiving party

Skunk party

Balloon party

Clipboard party

Hair party

Show party

Wii party

Snack party

Lego party

Pirate party

Bad guy party

Alien party

Bug party

Food fight party

After discussing in detail with Henry and Ellis, however, Sam realized that the party theme may heavily influence the type of gifts people might bring.  This made it easy to decide.  If he wanted people to bring him Knight & Castle Legos, he should have a KNIGHT PARTY.

Since nothing is more fun than getting ready for a birthday party, Sam chose to spend three hours of his birthday helping/supervising me with the cake.  Yes, there were specifications to be met.  During lulls between frosting tasting and sprinkle rolling, he checked the iPad to see which "guy" we were listening to at the moment (he requested the Bach station on Pandora and was totally intrigued by which musician came up next).

Like I said, specifications.  Sam made pretty much every decision about this cake - starting with the four Pinterest pictures we fused together and ending with chocolate, chocolate, and more chocolate!  This might be the most time I have ever spent on a birthday cake...but he was there with me for every detail, and I couldn't go with less-than-perfect for my knight's castle cake!

We got to take a few breaks during the day to do other important birthday things.

We had presents and cupcakes with the brothers on the night of Sam's birthday.  His party was the next day.

Okay, so the castle cake totally leaned backwards.  But who cares, right?

I prepared this sword in the stone the night before . . . totally underestimating the amount of corn starch (and drying time) I would need for the air dry clay.  Meh, Sam didn't care!

Table decorations, picked out by Sam exactly 6 weeks prior to the big day

All of the lucky knights and princesses eating their evening meal.  We regretted that we don't have room in our dining room for a giant round table!

Um, they pulled out the sword and broke the stone on the first try.  

But they all had fun pretending to keep trying to get the sword out while Ben held it together!

Andrew was pretty happy about it.

The kids decorated their own shields.  They also had sword training and catapult practice with Ben.  It was really pretty low key, since I was still recovering from the PTA event.  All of it went according to Sam's plans though, and that made him happy.

And I'm going to post all four of these pictures of my boy, because they all capture different aspects of his adorable personality.  

My baby is four years old.  I can't believe it!  I love him so much.

Repenting . . . and Kings of the House

Hello there.  Yes, I know it has been a while.  I feel major guilt and have absolutely no intentions of deserting this lovely little place.  I know we probably only have two readers left anyway, but we have found that the main reason to keep up this blog is for record-keeping.  Our boys live for the stories re-told in our printed blog books.  And for now, that is the best way to continue our family history.

And so I repent.  And attempt to catch up.  And vow to stay up-to-date forever more.  I know, famous last words.  Please bear with me.  

It's interesting to see how some fun things become expectations, and then perhaps expectations become traditions.  I believe this is what is happening to our "King of the House" day.  It seems to be the thing the boys look forward to the most about summer, and hence it has become a tradition.  And you know what?  I think it's a pretty good way to knock off some of the things on everyone's summer bucket lists.  So, with no further ado, here is the low-down on the King of the House days.  From August.  I know, I know.

 #1. Ellis.  As luck would have it, his mouth decided that his King day would also be the day it popped out its first tooth.  As you can see, he was delighted about this and is so very proud.

His outing of choice: Navy Pier.  You can see that he was delighted to be there.  I'll admit that there were a lot of threats about "lose the attitude, or lose your crown" that day.

 On the famous Ferris Wheel!

 Sam was terrified about the Ferris Wheel, but with a bit of force, his "Blue Na-Night" and his mom, he lived to tell the tale.

 More rides.  Looks like Henry forgot his sunglasses.

It's kind of nice to be the brother of the King.  Side benefits. 

 Mini golf under the Ferris wheel!

 And eating like a king at some lovely donut shop (Glazed and Infused? I'm getting them all mixed up because there are SO many good ones, and we keep eating them!)

 #2: Next up, King Henry!  He's a pretty natural and peaceful king.  He chose to venture to the Field Museum of Natural History.

 We convinced Ben to join us . . . and then convinced him that we might as well buy a membership to the museum!

 Ben and I had ulterior motives for encouraging this outing.  We had both recently read Devil in the White City (awesome book) and were very curious about this 1893 World's Fair exhibit.  Very cool.  It seems to me that the Field Museum is more or less a modern version of things that would have been marvels at the World's Fair.

I wish I had been alive in 1893 to witness it!  But apparently Elias Disney attended, and the Fair is said to have been part of the inspiration for Disneyland.

We found this contortionist in the endangered species wing.

 Henry ate everything up, from the animals to the bugs to the dinosaurs to the gems.  And of course, he educated us all with little-known facts about all.

 Spotted: the Bradysaurus!

 Food of choice: burgers and milkshakes with Dad!

 And then some time with Mom and Dad playing a game he got from Tanner.  We love special game time with Henry after the other boys are in bed.

 #3: Last Up: King Sam!  He was pretty pleased to have Apple Jacks for his royal breakfast.

Then we drove downtown and had lunch - grilled cheese sandwiches from Panera - in front of Cloud Gate, more commonly known as "The Bean" in Millenium Park.  It was kind of perfect. 

Then, to my delight, Sam's outing of choice was to the Chicago Art Institute.  We were lucky to be able to view this incredible Magritte exhibit! 

 (which was a perfect match for Sam - as he and Magritte both enjoy covering up their eyes).

 Unfortunately, no photography allowed in the exhibit, but it will be forever etched in our minds as some of the most stunning, mind-boggling, surrealist artwork.  I loved it.

 Sam, on the other hand, kind of pulled this face the whole time.  But I think he enjoyed himself.  

 The boys enjoyed completing their art scavenger hunt and seeing some pretty amazing art.

Then we came home, and King Sam wanted to make some artwork of his own.  And then eat some Star Wars pancakes, of course.

I love my little kings!