June Happenings!

In addition to selling things, donating things, or throwing them away we have done a few activities this month. :)  The boys are still VERY much into Super Mario Brothers and like to watch people play it on the wii, play it on the wii themselves, play with their Mario figures, watch Mario videos, hear Mario bedtime stories...

We made our own liquid watercolor using markers that were too dried out to use as markers anymore.  I got the idea from this blog: http://mrspicassosartroom.blogspot.com/2011/04/liquid-watercolors.html

Here are pictures we made using the blue liquid watercolor.  We sprayed it from a spray bottle onto paper and then used green glitter glue for seaweed and sea shapes macaroni (THANKS, ALICIA!) to make an ocean picture.  It is not gorgeous, but they had fun. 

We went to the earth science (or whatever they call it) museum.

Dino from the earth science museum.  This is actually one of the most museum looking museums in Windhoek. It was a pleasant surprise. :)

Duplo legos!  We aren't taking them with us to Armenia so we got a lot of good play time with them before we sold them.  We are moving on to the "big kid" legos. :)

Justin has developed a love for Scrabble.  He plays it his own way, basically just creating a crossword of words.  He is very excited about the point aspect as well.  Good for practicing spelling AND math skills.

Magnets!  Cut up pipe cleaners and magnet wands.  They loved scattering them and cleaning them up again.

Playing with trains is fun too.  Somehow they managed to incorporate their Mario figures and dinosaurs into the trains as well.

Went to what my boys call the "Gingerbread Church" to take a picture.  This is a major Windhoek landmark and we were doing a Flat Stanley project for a friend of mine.

Practicing right and left with Twister.

Also practicing our balance skills with Twister.

Aren't we attractive?  We played Ring a Round the Nosey.

Pick up the rings with your trunks.



We made funny cloud pictures after reading "It Looked Like Spilt Milk" together.

June 19th was probably the coldest day of the year, but we had fun playing at the playground with our friend Leah.

And, of course, eating with Leah was good too.  Any wonder why Ryan outweighs his older brother?



Justin is having a great time on the trampoline.

Ryan loves the slide.

January/February 2011

 January continued to be a rather relaxed period.   So many new things to play with since the boys have Christmas AND their birthdays in December.

We took a trip to Swakopmund on the Namibian coast.  The boys loved the water and the playground.  The snake house, crystal palace, and other more typical tourist attractions were not as exciting for them.

The beach at Swakopmund, Namibia.  Ryan LOVED the waves and the sand. Justin was a bit more cautious of the ocean.

Ryan and Justin LOVED the bouncy castles and various other inflatable climbing and sliding structures.  Justin must have gone up (and down) the water slide a million times.  I think this was his highlight for the trip.

  

To help celebrate my birthday, Justin and Ryan made birthday crowns for everyone.

February still pretty laid back.  Justin is more interested in doing his own thing rather than doing a lot of structured activities.  He loves all of his games, old and new.  He plays them the correct way and also his own creative versions.  If I am playing, I would rather stick with rules I understand. :)

There are a lot of different spins on the traditional three bears!

J was more creative with his valentines than I am.

Ryan's version had the whole word to match rather than individual letters.  Good practice cutting, something Justin really needs.

Activity related to Mama, Do You Love Me? book.

One of the robot valentines we made for friends,  Body is a Hershey's mini candy bar.  Justin really enjoys folding the paper for the arms and legs.  Ryan is all about the wiggly eyes.

Some of the Valentine books we read over and over and over...

Even more Valentine/love books

Ryan "writing" his alphabet letters.

Justin and his writing.  He needs to work on appropriate grasp and letter formation, but doesn't want to hear about that from Mom!  I get in the way of his creativity.

Watching the video show how to make the letters is better than listening to Mom.  If it is on the TV it HAS to be good, right?  This is from the Waterford early education series.

We taped markers to Thomas trains and drew on some of the paper that was used as filling in packages we received in the mail.  A great activity for a rainy day.

We had MANY trains available for drawing/racing.

We have to drive by this church regularly and, though a major tourist attraction, had never gotten out of the car to look at it.  We FINALLY did.  Justin calls it a gingerbread church and Ryan says it is a castle.  Although it was supposed to be opened, the doors were all locked.  I have read that the inside is nothing special, but the boys were a little disappointed.  At least now when we drive by I don't have to promise that someday we will stop to look at it.  We finally have!

Top 5 Toys

These are the things that my kids play with the most when we are inside.  No particular order, it varies.

1) Blocks: My mom bought Justin a set of Melissa & Doug wooden blocks and Justin played with them so much that I bought a second set.  Ryan likes them too, but Justin plays with them every single day (unless I have taken them away).  He builds things for his dinosaurs, for the little people animals, and for other figures.  He makes towers, machines, and things that I have no idea what they are.  Great investment, classic toy, last forever.  Gotta have blocks. 

2) Trains: Let me start out by saying that I hate Thomas Tank Engine.  I was able to find some great deals on cars, tracks, etc. and slowly gave in.  Justin had seen them at other people's homes and loved them.  Ryan loves them even more.  Now that we have more track pieces, even Rob and I enjoy putting tracks together.  We often have creative differences with Justin though.

3) Fisher Price Little People/Animals:  We have a few different sets and the boys just LOVE them!  They play with the little people and the animals all the time, often without the main set part (barn, airport, etc.).  Justin acts out all sorts of things with them, while Ryan is more interested in manipulating the objects.  He loves to stick the animals down the silo and watch them fall out the  bottom.  He also likes to collect the "moos" and other favorite animals and make sounds for them.  Best of all is to destroy things that Justin has made.

I know that in the picture below it looks like they are playing nicely beside each other.  Please note that lasted all of about five seconds before Justin just HAD to have things that Ryan had or Ryan HAD to knock over the figures that Justin had so carefully placed in just the right position.

4) Legos:  Usually the Lego creations are not as big as this one.  Justin wanted to make something that was 100 Lego pieces tall.  These are actually Duplos.  There are a few MegaBlocks mixed in (cool TV cartoon characters), but I primarily went with the real deal.  After purchasing a few, I saw how much Justin loved them and bought a ton off of eBay and was thrilled with the deal.  Kids outgrow the larger Duplo faster than the normal sized Legos, so I didn't want to spend a fortune on them.  Justin and Ryan both have a blast with them.  Typically, Justin will build something for the Duplo cats or the Duplo dinosaurs.  He loves to make them little houses or playgrounds.  He will also build other things like towers.  He enjoys taking the basic blocks and making color patterns too.  Ryan was at the stage where he primarily knocks over things that are built or pulls pieces off of structures.  Now he can build things (okay, not really things, he is just hooking them together) and he thinks he is soooo cool.  I think so too.  Justin wasn't able to do that at the same age.  Of course Justin hadn't had the Duplos for long at that point and Ryan has been around them since birth.

5) Stacking/Nesting Cups and Boxes:  Okay, in this picture he isn't stacking or nesting, but he does love the blocks as well as the stacking/nesting cups.  When Justin was this age, he had cardboard stacking blocks.  They eventually came to an end.  I found these wooden ones and thought they would be much more durable.  They are, but they hurt when they hit you.  Justin and Ryan have managed to break one too, but it wasn't hard to repair.  These things are inexpensive, need no batteries or assembly, and provide hours of fun.  They are also fun to fill up with smaller toys or to serve as little garages or houses for things.

Dinosaurs, wild animal figures, cars and trucks, play food, battery powered abc or music toys, stuffed animals and dolls are all fun too.  The boys have lots and lots of toys.  I try to rotate them so that they are not all out at once.  That makes it easier at clean up time and means that they are excited to see something that has been put up for awhile.  I don't put away the top 5 toys unless it is a punishment for misusing them (ie throwing them or using them to hurt each other).  Then they are only up a night or two.  I do rotate the little people buildings and accessories, but leave the people and animals out and available.

Justin is creative and combines a variety of different types of toys.  That's great, but it means I can't really tell him to clean up all of one thing before getting out another.  Chances are he is playing with both (or all)!  Here he is with blocks, beanbags, a scarf, Fisher Price little people, and an empty container.

I have also found that with clearly labeled bins, shelves, and containers, that even Ryan knows where things belong and can help clean things up.  It also speeds up clean-up after play dates as kids and their moms can see what goes where.  You can use actual photos, jpegs from online, drawings, words, etc.