March 2013

March was a busy month!  The weather was still not warm, but we managed to get outside quite a bit. We got to go to Portland to visit cousins.  That was a lot of fun and we spent time in museums and around the house with them.  From Oregon we flew to DC to visit Dad.

The month started off with snow!  There wasn't enough to do much in it, but the boys took advantage of the last snowfall before getting ready for spring.  It's just fun to play in I guess.

The boys made a little "house" on the corner of the deck.  They have fun playing with random things they can find in and around the yard.

Transporting snow in the truck.

A variety of pictures the boys made one morning.  They enjoy paint.

Patterns!  If Justin does it, Ryan wants to do it too.

Once again, Ryan must do what Justin does.  :)

Justin has trouble with these words for some reason.  Maybe a bit of glitter glue will help glue them in his head.

I would explain this picture, but I don't know that I can.  Justin has made up some sort of game.  He loves using dice, spinners, game boards, and random toys to make all sorts of games to play.  Creativity can be a bit of a mess sometimes.

At Justin's school the boys participated in a balloon race.  Note: do NOT overinflate the balloons.  When they pop, it can scare everyone!

Ryan, Justin, and I went with my mom to the Mobius Science Museum in Spokane.  We had gone there with Rob in January.

St Patrick's Day is as exciting as other holidays.  The boys spent days working on their leprechaun traps.  This was our second year trying to catch a leprechaun.  We were still unsuccessful. :(

One of many leprechaun traps.

Yet another trap.

A simple trap with a note promising treasure.

Justin sorted 3-D shapes by color and shape.  He then multiplied to find out how many there were all together.  Ryan, Justin, and I looked for 2D and 3D shapes in the environment and they took pictures of some they found around the house.

Tinkertoys are always fun to build with.

Justin sequenced the "I have, who has" cards using his math skills.

We went to Oregon to visit our cousins.  They played a little ball in the backyard.

Justin found that he likes marshmallows beter straight out of the bag.  It's nice to sit by the fire though.

We made paper rockets and shot them off of a pvc pipe launcher attached to an air compressor.

October 2012

Rob arriving from Namibia was the highlight of the month.  The boys were thrilled that he got here right before Halloween so he could see them in their costumes and go trick or treating with them.

The end of soccer for both boys.  Here is Ryan playing one of the warm up games with his teammates.



Raking up the pine needles!  The leaves came later.

Bags and bags of pine needles!

The boys needed winter hats so I let them choose out their favorites.  Angry Birds was the winner hands down.

This was Justin's favorite part of the Mobius Children's Museum.  He loved to move the panels to different positions to divert the water and move the boats.

 

The boys had fun creating flying toys and out of control bubbles over a sideways fan.



Playing in box fort complete with garage for the trucks.

Still warm enough to play baseball.  Good pitch, Justin.

We read The Button Box and then sorted some of my Grandmother's old buttons.  We even found a Mr. President button like in the book.



Climbing all over Dad.  The boys were so excited when he arrived from Namibia.



I love the ghosts the boys made out of paper plates and tissue paper.

We played the game "Don't Eat Pete" and it was a winner!  Have one person walk out of the room.  Place one piece of candy on each character and choose one to be Pete.  The person walks back into the room and begins to eat one candy at a time.  If he tries to take the candy off of Pete, all of the players say, "don't eat Pete!" and that person's turn ends and another person is chosen to leave the room.

On the tractor ride to find the perfect pumpkin.  It was the windiest day we had experienced all month.

I think we walked up and down a million times before we found the pumpkin that was just right for each boy.



Our jack o'lanterns and painted pumpkins BEFORE the deer came and had them for a snack.

Justin made some Halloween themed pictures.





The boys had fun making a polka dot pumpkin with the drill.  Papa helped supervise.





I thought these skeletons were cute.  We made a simplied version of a design I found online.

Riding around as a police officer at the children's museum.

TP mummies. 



BIG leaf






Ready for trick or treating!  The boys got quite a haul.




Kitty game.  Ryan is the owner, Justin is the pet cat.  Ryan set up paddle balls, jump ropes, and a few other things for Justin to bat at with his claws.

 

Painting little birdhouses.