May 2012

Where has the time gone?  We are almost halfway through June so I suppose it is time to post May's happenings.

Rob and I went to Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe and left the boys behind.  They had a wonderful time on their first sleepover at someone's house WITHOUT Mommy or Daddy there.  They missed us a little, but are still talking about how much fun it was.  Over a month after the trip they still have no idea where Rob and I were.  They assume we just sat around bored I guess.

We made pictures with lemons.  I put paper in shallow boxes and then put globs of paint on the paper.  The boys rolled the lemons around and created the designs you see here.

Justin loves cutting up paper and gluing it.  This is one of many creations he has made.   I would love a project that looks cute or at least looks like something, but I guess if I don't let him do his own thing he isn't expressing his creativity.

We read the book One Drowsy Dragon and looked for all of the words that described how that poor drowsy dragon was feeling.

We filled an inflatable bouncer with blankets, pillows, and stuffed animals.  A perfect little nest for the boys to play in.  They thought it was a great place to curl up and watch TV too.

We went to the Farmer's Market and the boys played with some friends on the school playground.

Ryan walking up the steps to the art museum.

Justin on his way up to the art museum.  We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the museum.

We put some paper in the window to see how the sunlight would fade it.  The red didn't fade nearly as much as the dark blue did.  We did this because they didn't understand in a book we read why Amelia Bedilia had to draw the drapes.

We did One, Two, Buckle My Shoe and practiced counting and writing our numbers.

Nice stairs at the Alte Feste Museum, huh?  Going up wasn't so bad, but I was a bit worried about the boys on the way down. 

The boys running around on the front steps by Alte Feste Museum.  I realize now that there wasn't anything inside the museum that I wanted to take a picture of.  Hard to get a good picture of the boys with the sun's location, but they wanted one.

Statue in front of Alte Feste Museum.

I found some kindergarten math vocabulary cards from my teaching days.  Ryan and Justin enjoyed going through them.  They know quite a few of them.

I have no idea, but he loves it.

We also spent a lot of time this month getting ready for the second big yard sale held by the Embassy.  Great timing since we will be moving soon.

December 6, 2010

Justin (and therefore Ryan) have been really into drawing and coloring lately.  The papers are quickly forgotten and soon after disposed of in the trash.  They haven't been anything special in my eyes or the boys', so out they go!

Our "school" has become very loose and flexible  We have been playing a lot with legos, blocks, and Thomas trains.  We have been busy outside with the water table, dinosaurs, bubbles, and chalk.  Rob put in some grass and the boys are loving it.

Soon we should have some Christmas projects to post.  Going through my school stuff I found that I had more Kwanzaa and Hanukkah stuff than Christmas stuff.  Oops!  Fine to have a balance in school, but I think we will stick to Christmas crafts this year since we don't have any friends here who celebrate Kwanzaa or Hanukkah.

Ornaments from Michael's Crafts that Justin colored.

Christmas story with the Fisher Price nativity set.  Looks like Mary is missing again.  Sigh.

This advent calendar has a scripture to read and an activity (ie, show your brother you care by sharing) for each day in December.

Extend the Christmas pattern with foam beads from Oriental Trading Company.

Justin likes to help me wrap presents and then give Ryan hints about what he will be receiving for Christmas.  Ryan is oblivious.

Some of the books we have been reading.

More books.  Ryan has been into Chicka Chicka Boom Boom so we tried Chicka Chicka 123.  Not as big of a hit for him, but Justin is amused.

Chasing bubbles from the bubble train and drawing with chalk in the shade.

Running through the sprinkler on our new grass. :)

Following directions to decorate the tree.  Justin complained that I started too many sentences with "glue".

Strike!

I made a bowling set for the boys because Justin kept begging for one.  It wasn't hard to make, but it took awhile for me to get it done.  I did, after all, have to drink 10 bottles of Coke Zero for the bowling pins. The sacrifices I make for my children. :)  Once the bottles were collected, I made sure they were clean and ripped the labels off.  I am sure that my boys saw this step as unnecessary, but I figured if we were going to keep them for any length of time they should be clean and not growing stuff inside of them.  I decided to go one step further and put colored bands around them.  I cut strips of red, yellow, and blue cardstock and taped them (glue gun needs more glue sticks) around the bottle.  I figure that this way I can expand the game to ask Ryan to bring me a bottle with a certain color on it.  It could also give Justin the opportunity to count how many of each color he knocks down and then add to find the total.  He can also compare colors of the bottles knocked down and practice using words like more, most, and fewer.  You knew I would try to take a fun game and ruin it, didn't you?

As it turns out, they really enjoy bowling as long as I set up the pins. :(  Ryan takes a bit of a different approach and attacks the pins from above.  That's okay too.  The boys, however, have the most fun picking up the bottles and banging them together, banging them on things, or using them to attack each other as they run through the house screaming.  Oh well.  They are lightweight and inexpensive.