A simple night

What a great night... Went to the library to return some books and pick out new ones. Ate dinner (which everyone ate well and was well behaved) and then went for a long 45 minute walk while waiting for daddy to get home from an overnight business trip. The weather was wonderful. Didn't sweat at all. Reid had fun on his scooter, listened so well, didn't complain about being tired at all. Was thrilled to see a yellow "Gamaro" that looked just like Bumblebee (actually, it was a Mustang, but he thinks all Mustangs are Camaros, or "Gamaros"). Blair pointed out every flower (which she says "shower", all f's come out sh's), excited to announce every color she saw. Sloane just sat along for the ride. Friendly Reid stopped every person with a dog and asked to pet it. He always asked what the dog's name was and then asked what the person's name was. And then ran after the dog trying to hug it while it and its owner were walking away. We got home as Jeremy did, and it was cute how excited the kids were to see him. Jeremy brought us some of our favorite liccorice that we always get when we're on the road. The kids had some and then got ready for bed (brushing teeth and going potty) when asked the first time and no one had to hound them to get it done. We read our new library books tonight...Blair "read" the Fat Cat book, half "reading" what the pictures showed and half "reading" the letters, pointing at each letter saying "HIJKLMOP". That's the first time I've seen her really take the initiative in "reading" books. And Reid sat very patiently and listened while she completed her book. Reid really loved his Bug book and soaked in everything we read and learned about bugs. It was so much fun sitting with him being so still and so attentive. I love to watch him learn. It's almost like you can SEE the information flying right into his brain. I love that. And so did he. He thought it was hysterical when I compared myself to a mama scorpion, asking him "Can you imagine ME holding 30 babies at one time!" He made me say it again, just so he could laugh all over again. Finished with Reid's book and rounded up Blair, who was sitting with Jeremy watching Star Wars. They love watching Star Wars with daddy. Then off to bed for all. Simple joys.

Homework

Reid and Blair love doing homework. Reid is the one that really loves learning things and figuring things out, but Blair is the one that always asks to do "homework" (activity sheets). I think it makes her feel older, like her big brother. Sometimes she'll sit and listen to the directions and try to complete the worksheet; other times she jumps down from the chair just a minute after she climbed up there. But in any regards, I found a website that has great learning activity sheets for all grade levels. It goes beyond the usual letters and numbers activities and covers things like drawing wavy lines, cutting straight lines, greater than/less than, follow the steps (for preschool) and even covers science for kindergarten kids.
Check it out! www.tlsbooks.com

This is one groovy gal (in a swingin' skirt!)

I made a dress! Yes, a real honest-to-goodness dress, using a pattern and everything! It promised to be really simple with mostly straight lines and only take an hour, so I decided to go for it. If you can't tell, I'm quite impressed with myself. :) I mean, I've done a bit of sewing (usually just Halloween costumes), but never with a real pattern. Mostly, I just scribble something out, sloppily trace it on to fabric, cut it out, start sewing, and hope for the best. And they always turn out fine, but only for one night's use. But with this dress, we may actually get more than one wearing out of it! Now Blair is requesting one, so another trip to the fabric store is in our future.




For more cute dress patterns, visit www.ManiMina.etsy.com.

This week's show: All about Schponge Balls.

Sorry, couldn't resist...the term Sponge Balls makes me think of a certain Saturday Night Live skit. (I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. If not, email me and I'll send you a link to it!) :)

Anyway, here are the directions for Schponge Balls:
(or click here for the directions in Family Fun magazine)

--3 regular rectangular kitchen sponges (had to get them from the dollar store--walmart doesn't carry regular old sponges, just 'fancy' ones)
--scissors
--twine/string

1. With each sponge fresh out of the package and still slightly damp, cut each sponge lengthwise into 5 strips.

2. Stack the sponge strips into 3 layers of 5 (5 strips on the bottom, 5 strips in the middle layer, then 5 strips on the top layer).

3. Tie a piece of twine very tightly around the middle of your stack and knot it. The strips will fan out like a starburst!
4. Now soak it and go throw it at someone.














Oh yeah, I almost forgot, we had another crafty project the same day! I made bows! Not bad for my first effort, I guess. It was fun and now I get to go find more cute ribbon!



A special thanks to my fabulous models for showing off these fine creations! :)

Water Day, Fire Fun, and Trains

Saturday was a busy day! Jeremy was out of town, and I was really tired of being indoors, so we needed things to keep us busy. We started with Splash Day up at our church. It was a morning of water fun for the kids to run around, burn off some energy and play together. We had kiddie pools, a sprinkler, water guns, bubbles, sponge balls (I'll explain those later), buckets, as well as the regular playground equipment. (Watch out when you get water on that slide! Wish I had gotten a picture of that-the kids were rocketed off the end of the slide about 3 feet!)
The kids played

and played! (Reid's the one being drenched!)

Check out this bikini babe!


After midday naps, I made the mistake of asking, "What should we do this afternoon?" Reid piped up right away, "Let's go to the fire station!" You see, all summer, Reid's been begging to visit a fire station. Every day, he's asked. I've kinda wanted to take them, but at the same time, I didn't want to bother the firemen, get in their way, and have my rambunctious kids running around and touching every tool within reach. Well, that afternoon, I just decided to go. I called them up and they said come whenever you want. So off we went. The kids were about as I expected--so excited with everything there was to see and not wanting to stand still and listen as the firemen explained parts of the truck to us. So they ran from here to there while I wrangled them back every few minutes. Reid's main mission was to find the firepole, but to his disappointment, there wasn't one. (They're starting to build fire houses without poles because too many people were getting hurt, in case you were wondering.) But I enjoyed the visit, so at least one of us was attentive! I only have one picture from the fire station because I felt like a dork taking pictures.

Then after the fire station, we still had time to fill before dinner, so we made one more stop to play on the train at a local train-themed dentist office for kids. Outside the office, they have a train that you can climb on and play around.

It has realistic train sounds, a bell to pull, and knobs to turn, and the kids absolutely love it.


I actually think it's pretty neat too. So that has become our new favorite place to kill time! We don't use them for dentist appointments, but we do like the train!

The fiasco that is family portraits

We had family pictures taken yesterday. First and foremost, we were there to have Sloane's 1-year pictures taken. Then we also wanted to get some of just the kids. And then lastly, we haven't had family pictures done since Reid was a baby so we wanted to do those too. I scheduled our appt so that it would be at JUST the right time for the kids--late enough for Sloane to get a morning nap, early enough that they wouldn't be hungry for lunch yet, and that we would have just enough time to take the pictures, order them, and then go eat lunch at the normal time and then get home for naps. One big seamless flow, right? Wrong. We got there at 11, our appointment time, and it appeared that someone else had just started their photo session. We ended up having to wait half an hour, which got us dangerously close to lunch time and that much closer to Sloane needing another nap. Not to mention Jeremy was using his lunch hour to meet us there, so it was wasting his time as well, which didn't make him too happy. We finally got to go in at 11:30 and started with the family pictures. Thank goodness we started with those because we worked up a major sweat trying to wrangle Reid, Blair and Sloane for their pictures and keep Reid and Blair out the shot for Sloane's pictures. A big job to say the least! We had some tears, hungry kids, restless kids, tired kids, one who kept wanting to hold a basketball in every picture, one who seemed physically unable to keep her thumb out of her mouth, and one who just wanted to crawl around and not stay put for any shot. You know, pictures with 3 young kids. But all in all, we did end up with some cute pictures, so all was not lost.
(yes, we realize Jeremy's posing for his senior picture--we didn't like the pose, but it ended up being the best family picture)

Just some stuff...

One of the reasons I started this blog was so that I could jot down things the kids say or do, things that make me laugh, things I thought I would like to remember years and years from now. Well, I haven't been doing that great of a job of it. There's always things I tell myself "I want to remember that" but then I can't even remember it at the end of the day, much less next week or next year. So, I need to do a better job (assuming I can actually remember these things at the end of the night when I finally have some quiet time!). They may be boring to outsiders...well, you read my disclaimer above so read if you want to. Or don't. :)

The kids and I were talking about families today, and I was explaining relationships like sister, aunt, uncle, grandma/pa, etc. Reid looked a little puzzled when I told him that Grandma and Grandpa are Aunt Melissa's mom and dad, just like they're my mom and dad, and that I have 2 sisters just like he has two sisters and that I am an aunt, just like Aunt Melissa and Aunt Denise are aunts. He had a look of amazement on his face when I further explained that I am a sister AND an aunt AND a daughter AND a mom, and I told him that he is a brother AND a son and one day he would be an uncle. He would be Uncle Reid. And I turned to Blair and said, "And Blair, one day you'll be an aunt. You'll be Aunt Blair," to which she vehemently refused, saying, "No! I be Aunt Barbie!" ...sigh...that girl and her barbies...

On the same note, we went to the park the other day and of course, Blair wanted to wear her barbie (read, pink princess) dress. But she also insisted on wearing her tiara with it "so she would look special". And she was very upset when it fell off her head in the car and she couldn't find it because then she wouldn't "look special" at the park.

I've mentioned before how friendly Reid is... Well, today, we got family pictures taken at the mall. Reid immediately hugged the photographer (whom he's never seen before in his life), drew her several pictures which he insisted she put in her pocket and take home, hugged her before he left, asked the waitress at the restaurant what her name was before she could even get our drink order, asked the bus boy what his name was as he was setting down our chips and queso, shouts "HI!!!" at people walking down the street. I have to admit, it's a trait I love about him. And it goes to show how much babies learn from those around them, especially other kids. Twice now, when Reid has yelled Hi to someone walking past our house, Sloane has yelled "Hi!" and waved too! Her second word! (And I think it might have been Blair's first word when she was the same age, as she shouted Hi and waved to our neighbor.)