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.

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!