The Birthday Boys

Somehow this month our boys turned five and seven. I'm not quite sure how that happened, but these boys are just awesome. (And our tribe of family and friends - who have been there to celebrate so many of their birthdays - are pretty awesome too (we love you guys!).)

Canaan, Age 7
Loves his friends, playing legos, basketball, riding his bike, foot races, playing board games, and optical illusions.

Ezra, Age 5
Loves blankets (mounds of them), playing with Canaan and Lainey, making secret (or not-so-secret) hideouts behind the chair in the master bedroom, being silly, hugging his momma (swoon), and FOOD. The boy loves food, and and he'll be the first to tell you that his favorite foods are tomatoes and broccoli. Strange, but true. :)

Art Museum

A few weeks ago, my friend Jess recommended we visit the new Van Gogh exhibit at the Cincinnati Museum of Art, and so last week we headed there with the kids. This was the their first experience at an art museum, so there were plenty of quick, "oh my goodness don't touch it!"s and other quite important bits of education on how to be in an museum filled with priceless works of art. I am always impressed at the collection we have right here in our own back yard, and I just swoon over the impressionists. :)


We've been studying some art masters this year - Van Gogh and Claude Monet in particular, and we're working on paying attention to detail and learning to appreciate the incredible talent (and the amount of work) that went into each piece.

Lainey, my little artist, spend most her time drawing. Drawing here, drawing there, drawing everywhere. 

We visited the kids creative area next, which included a immersive room-sized version of the van Gogh painting that they had just seen in the exhibit. It. was. amazing. The kids were able to add to the scene my creating flowers and velcroing them to the wall. This was by far their favorite part of the museum and we will definitely be back soon!