It’s been a week for late nights. Big L and I enjoy staying up together– playing card games or practicing language or whatever. But, the past few days, I’ve been busy, so our late nights have been filled with doing. Reed’s birthday is tomorrow, so I need to bake his cake + school cupcakes and make his birthday shirt.

I made Reed and Lena their first birthday shirts before they were even home, because it seemed like a cute, Pinteresty thing to do. Now, the kids love them and still want them each year. Last year, when I did Reed’s birthday shirt, I told myself I’d just start buying birthday shirts off of Etsy. So, it seems like a great idea and that’s what I did for Lena this year, but I couldn’t remember to order one for Reed in the midst of the holiday season.

Cue making a shirt at 8:30 the night before.

I haven’t been screenprinting much lately, so I didn’t have everything set up to do that quickly. Painting by hand it was.

I made my own little DIY lightbox, small enough to fit inside the shirt. I just took a clear plastic storage container and put my phone + another flashlight inside to make this little lightbox, then I put the printout between the box and the shirt. Super easy.

It worked really well!

Big L played cards with Aaron, then came and sat across the able from me, working in an ESL workbook.

This is the almost finished product. It made a final pass over the black outline to get it a bit cleaner looking.

We had a rare, quiet afternoon here. I called my mom and said “everyone is occupied!” That’s not common around here. Well, occupied peacefully, without anyone yelling at anyone else for more than 5 minutes. Reed’s birthday is on Tuesday, so Aaron took him on a special birthday outing to a science museum today. Gus was napping. Lena has strep, so she was hanging out on the couch with the remote and Big L spent her afternoon skyping with her cousin and then joining Lena on the couch.

My mom wanted to make an e-card for Reed and I said “make a video one where you put his face in!” We quickly found jibjab and realized how fun it was to make cute videos with everyone’s faces in them. While we chatted on the phone, I made one to “Happy” with all of the kids” and she made one with the Can-Can for Lena and one with Gangam Style for Big L. I hung up with her and asked the girls if I could show them something, and I played the Happy video.

They could not stop laughing.

We Facetimed by mom for her two videos and the girls just kept on laughing. It was a great time. I even made a few more and we played them all for Aaron, Reed and Gus later.

Yes, that’s right– two blog posts in one day! I’ve been meaning to blog about our adventures from last weekend, but now I’m getting my first chance. I’m still going to try to post my 365 photo tonight as well.

Last week, we went to Maxwell Wildlife Refuge. You might remember that we took our hosting chaperone there last year, but we arrived later in the day. This time, we signed up for a tour and came in the morning.

A tour involves going out into a little tram with a tour guide who tells you about the bison, elk and Maxwell Wildlife Refuge in general.

A friend said “how much of that is zoom and how much of that is being REALLY close to them?”

For photographer friends, this was shot at 200mm, and cropped just slightly.

So, we’re pretty close.  They have a feed truck that they drive up and around the tram during the tour, so all of the animals come running to get their food. Bison are apparently quite dangerous, so you are not allowed to touch them or get down with them. However, they told us that if they had been able to separate the bison from the elk better that day, we would have been able to get out and walk among the elk.

Another photo for perspective.

A mom and her baby.

And, the elk. They were more shy, because the bison were scaring them off.

What is a moose in America is an elk in Europe. Did you know that? Moose = Eurasian Elk. We don’t have moose here on the Great Plains, just what we call elk.

The only child who wanted to cooperate for this next picture is the little girl hugging the elk. The boys were cold and whiny and the big girl was giving me that “I’m too old for cheesey family pictures” look. No, kid, you’re not.

We grabbed lunch and over lunch, Aaron and I discussed what we’d do with our afternoon. Go see an atomic cannon or go to a WPA-built castle? Both, Aaron said.

Castle first. This was my third time here.

I wish we lived closer. It’s such a fun place for children to explore. Imagination can’t help but run wild here.

There are gorgeous views from the top.

But, I really love the lighting inside. The way the light streams in from the small windows is incredible.

We hadn’t planned on coming here, so I hadn’t really dressed my kids for photos in a castle. (Is there a proper attire for that? Of course there is.) And, no one really wanted to model for me.

Gus was having a moment and decided that he wanted to hide between this table and bench. All I could think was dirt/bugs/who knows what! But, he’d yell at anyone who tried to remove him.

Example:

Some little “brothers” were feeling a bit more loving.

I cannot wait to come back here again, a bit more prepared for photos.

Aaron and the older kids finished off the day with a geocache, while I took Grumpypants Gus back to the car for some music and rest time.

If you think he’s holding a snake, look at his right hand. It was a geocache, taped to a fake snake.

We never did make it to the atomic cannon. I can’t say that I was too disappointed.

We’re getting a bit of snow tonight. Not a whole lot, but since we’ve only had one other little snow so far this year, it’s exciting. It’s also the first snow since Big L has been here.

Both Big L and Gus currently call snow/snowing “snowman”. “Mama, is it snowman outside?” It’s pretty cute and I love that they both do it.

We have a streetlight right in front of our house, and the snow looks so beautiful coming down in front of it.

I asked Big L if she wanted to come out with me, because 1. she likes snow and 2. I’ve barely taken any photos of her this time.

I used a flash, which is why the sudden drop-off from her black clothing into the darkness behind her. The flash reflects off of the snow, which I kind of love.

Big L can’t just be out in the snow or anywhere without writing me a sweet note.

She is such a sweet kid. Also, notice that she’s wearing Aaron’s shoes. 🙂