February 2012 Stuff

Once again, no particular order to the pictures.  Just a few reminders of what we did this month.

Grandma sent these little bear kits.  The boys loved making them.  They decided to give them to Miss Estelle, their swimming teacher.



These are the valentines that Ryan gave to his friends at our Valentine's Day party.  Not a great job coloring the flower part, but he had a lot of fun. :)




I let Justin choose what kind of valentines he wanted to make and he chose these out of several online possibilities. I regret giving him the choice.  What a pain!  I ended up havng to do all of the folding and gluing because they are pillow box alligators,




We made valentine mailboxes at a previous playdate.  Ryan (left) and Justin (right) had fun creating them.



Probably the same books as last year, but here are the valentine books we read this month.

Justin working on a valentine bear photo frame project.  Tanja had purchased these from Oriental Trading Company and had plenty for everyone!



Here are Ryan and Justin's finshed bear frames.  I took the picture of the playgroup on a previous day so we would have a picture to put in our frame.  Getting a decent picture of seven kids is not easy.





We ate heart cookies, red heart jell-o, apples, bugles, and other treats for our snack.  Grandma Pat had sent enough valentine cups, plates, and napkins.



Justin and Ryan have been really into courses.  I think they are meant to be race tracks or obstacle course type things.  Various cars, action figures, or other items try their best with the challenges put in their paths.  In this picture I outlined a course for each boy using blue masking tape.  They set up obstacles as they wanted.  The tape forced them to stay in their own spaces rather than have their courses overlap and cause fighting.



The boys go through SO much paper with their various projects.  I am glad that they don't mind using the back side of previously used paper.  This is a rainbow that Ryan made.



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Justin made this for me to do.  I had to cut out the objects on the line and glue them in place.  At least I could figure out how to do this one.  So many of his things are hard to understand.

 

Ryan was very proud of his giraffe.  The boys built a lot with Duplo since I put their legos in time out.  That's what happens when Mommy has to pick them up!



Ryan was more anxious to eat than to graph.  Those valentine candy hearts are pretty tasty. :)

Hard to see with the glare of the sun, but here are the finished valentine conversation heart graphs.  Ryan was very proud of his work.

We went to the train/transportation muesum at the train station.  Basically it contained things that they used in the past at the train station--typewriters, phones, ticket punchers...  I think it would have been a five minute visit if we had gone alone, but we went with Leah and her mom and the boys thought it was the best museum ever.  Guess a lot depends upon the company.

November 2011 Activities

 I was trying to figure out why I didn't have more pictures for this month.  Then I remembered that my camera got broken and I had to wait for a new one to arrive.

Ryan has been really into his name.  He has been practicing writing the letters.  Here he is with a slate and some letters from Handwriting Without Tears.  He doesn't have a good grasp yet, but he can build letters out of sticks and curves and has an idea of how to form capital letters.

Here is Ryan using a handwriting app that I like.  It is called Write Words.  I like that it requires you to form the letters using the correct formation AND it gives you some leeway, but not too much as to the boundaries.  He is getting good.  I wish Justin had had this when he was Ryan's age.

Lots of walking on our vacation over Thanksgiving weekend.

My boys love boxes.  They don't have any toys you know.

Packaging material is as much fun as the boxes.

Ryan is able to sort by color and size.

Justin's corn cob printing/painting.

Ryan's corn cob printing/painting.

Ryan really likes to get into his painting.  Why use other tools when you have hands available.

Justin doesn't make QUITE as much of a mess with paint as Ryan.

We colored turkeys and then cut them out and put them in order big to small and small to big.

I don't know what happened to the other turkey.  This one is Justin's.

Cardboard Box

I am amazed time and time again by how kids can have fun with the simplest things.  My boys love empty boxes.  I saved some boxes and today when I was tired of trying to deal with my cranky boys I pulled them (the boxes, not the boys) out of the back room and told the boys to have fun.  What can you do with a few empty boxes?
Push them.  What is more fun than pushing around an empty box?  Better than an expensive toddler push toy anyday!

Throw them.  Hey, my boys like to throw just about anything.  Why should a box be an exception?

Race with them.  Pick up the box and run.  Who can make it around the living room first?

Climb on them.  Ryan climbs on everything.  Boxes aren't quite as much fun as shelves, tables, kitchen counters...

Stack them.   Stacking is the best because it leads to knocking them down.

It lasted for about an hour and then they were at each other again.  I put the boxes away for another day.  Perhaps there is a whole new life for them outside.