First Ultrasound

That's it! Nothing too exciting, but it was great to see the little girl/guy wiggle around in there!

5 golden rings!

Our countdown to Christmas continues...

We've faithfully been using our advent calendars, but I don't think the boys understand the whole "counting down" part. 

They just like chocolate. 

We're still moving... it's taking forever! Snow, and the end of our school semester really made this move tedious! Hopefully it'll be over tomorrow!

Things are still chaotic here, but the boys are loving it! We've been taking multiple baths a day... it's like a swimming pool to them!

And don't you love the claw foot tub? 

Me too!

Everything is going pretty good!

Santa!

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas....

It's a winter wonderland out there!

Seriously, it's crazy how much snow we've been getting. 

But it's the perfect weather to stay inside and decorate the tree

and drink hot chocolate

Or to venture out to visit Santa and tell him what you want for Christmas!

Gavin: Dinosaur man

Jared: mumbled something, we have no clue what he's talking about. 

And go sledding!

David randomly decided one morning to take them sledding and let me stay home with a blanket and hot tea - it was amazing!

Aw Geez....

Haven't posted in two months.... whoops!

That doesn't mean I don't have anything to write about!

Two things I will update on:
Having a new baby in June
Moving into our new apartment this week.

carry on!

Out of the Mouths of Babes

...come some crazy things!

I asked Gavin to tell me a story today and this is how it went . It's a pig story.

G: "Once upon a time, a pig found a leaf!"
M: "Oh, yeah? Wow, then what?"
G: "then... he found some popcorn!"
M: "Did he eat it?"
G: "Yeah he eat it."
M: "Then what?"
G: "Then the pig found.... a door!"
M: "Where did it go?"
G: "It goes in!"
M: "Ohhh did he go inside?"
G: "Yeah he's in!"
M: "What was in there?"
G: "A cave, the pig was in a cave."
M: "A cave?!? No way."
G: "Yeah! And then he found... a scary wolf!"
M: "There was a scary wolf in the cave! Oh no! What happened to the pig?"
G: "The pig hit him! He went yah yah yah (insert karate chops) and the wolf just rolled with the punches."


Where does a three year old come up with the phrase "roll with the punches"???

Also, he is exclaiming after just about everything, "You kidding me?!?!" and gets this really concerned look on his face.


On another note, Jared got a potty today! I'm not sure how this will go - but I'll update soon!

Bad Mommy

This was on the bulletin board my whole life. My own mother tore it out of a New Yorker a million years ago.

I looked at it almost everyday, never laughed.

It's hilarious now. 

Animal Theme

Well, September is over, time for a new theme! October's theme is music, I'll post more about that soon.

Here is the breakdown for September:

Activities

1. Feed the ducks (***)
2. Act like an animal game (***) For this game, I just call out the name of an animal, and they act it out. 
3. Chalk paw prints
4. Petting zoo (***)
5. Ocean in a bottle (**) Get and empty two liter bottle, put colored water in (ours was blue) then a few small fish toys, then fill the rest with oil. 
6. Animal bingo (**) http://gavinnjared.blogspot.com/2010/09/animal-bingo.html
7. What do animals eat? (**) Simple questions, but fun!
8. Make dog biscuits (***) I used this recipe: http://www.dogtreatkitchen.com/peanut-butter-dog-biscuit-recipe.html The boys loved giving them to the dogs we know!
9. Stuffed animal hunt (**) I just hid all of our animals, and send the boys to find them!
10. Balloon jellyfish (***) http://gavinnjared.blogspot.com/2010/09/jellyfiiiiiiissssh.html
11. Make puppy chow (***) They ate this like it was their last meal. 

Art Projects

1. Hanging fish (***) http://gavinnjared.blogspot.com/2010/10/omg-why-would-i-give-him-glitter.html
2. Hand print lion (***)http://gavinnjared.blogspot.com/2010/09/little-yellow-hands.html
3. Paper plate owl (**) http://gavinnjared.blogspot.com/2010/09/preschool-at-home.html
4. Dog paper bag puppet (**) http://gavinnjared.blogspot.com/2010/09/elephant-eats-guys.html
5. Spiral snake (***) I gave them a green piece of paper to color, then I cut it in a spiral. We added eyes to one end, and tied a string to it. They dragged them all over the place!
6. Cotton ball sheep (**)
7. Animal coloring pages (***)

I rated these on a 3 star scale, depending on how much the boys liked it!

Songs

1. Old McDonald
2. Mary had a little lamb
3. Little bunny foo foo
4. Ba ba black sheep
5. Three blind mice
6. This little piggy

Books

1. Velveteen Rabbit
2. Very Hungry Caterpillar
3. Lady Bugatti
4. Elmo's Zoo
5. Over the Meadow
6. Do Pigs Have Stripes
7. Gallop
8. If You Give a Pig a Pancake
9. Pigs Rock
10. Baby Bird
11. Where's the Green Sheep?
12. Animal Sounds

Videos

1. Milo & Otis
2. A Bugs Life
3. Finding Nemo
4. Peter Rabbit
5. Dumbo
6. Lion King
7. Tarzan
8. Baby Animals

Snacks

1. Ants on a log (celery, peanut butter, raisins)
2. Marshmellow & pretzel animals
3. Fish jello bowl (small bowl, pour blue jello in half, let it set, place some gummy fish on and fill the rest of the bowl with jello.)
4. Animal crackers
5. Cup of worms (pudding, crushed oreos, gummy worms)

OMG why would I give him glitter?

Yes, I gave my two and three year olds a bottle of glitter.

It was a crazy mess.

But... they loved it!

And I needed to vacuum anyway... 

I cut strips of paper about five or six inches long and an inch or so thick.

I put a line of glue on the strip and let the boys pile on sequins and little jewels.

Then they added a few shakes of glitter, and we let them dry.

Then I cut slits toward the end of both sides, and folded them into fish.

Our "fish tank"

Update

I'm busy.

Isn't everyone? 

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First, we saw blue clues live! They loved it, of course!

Poor Steve was tired and sweaty, but all the kids were in awe of him!

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David and I went on our "minimoon" finally. We went to a hotel with a water park in it, and it was wonderful. A whole two days with no kids - unbelievable! 

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School is going well, my drawing class is great - I'll post some pics later.

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Gavin is going potty all by himself now, tell me to "stay der". He also demands to get dressed by himself now. That's why is pants are on backwards.

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Jared is talking so much! And everything he says is so clear, well, except for the little lisp he has...

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Bad Mommy Award:

I just realized I have yet to take back the library books (they're like a month late...)

and Jared has scribbled IN PEN in the front of one.

sigh.

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I was playing with Jared today, he had a plastic tiger and I had a plastic giraffe. His tiger roared as me, so my giraffe said "ah! You're scary!" 

Jared now thinks that all giraffes say "ahhhhh scary!"

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Gavin told me to have patience today. I'll try.

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Another Day in the the Life

I gathered up the left over popcorn from the birthday party, and we were off to feed the ducks down by the river!

Actually, there were less ducks, and more geese. No seagulls amazingly. 

Geese make me incredibly nervous, but these are so tame, David almost got them to eat out of his hand. 

This has become one of our regular activities lately. September is our animal theme month, and also the last really nice month - it only gets colder from here!

Jared wanted to eat the popcorn off the ground right along with the birds. Tragically, we didn't let him. 

He enjoyed the bench swing though!

Typical family picture, the little one tries to escape!

Awesome tree for hugging, 

taking pictures by, 

jumping off, and of course

climbing!

David is just a monkey, he just leaps right up there, I really have no idea how he does it. Seriously, the man climbs trees all the time. 

Jared was right with him. Gavin and I looked on. 

He wanted to keep going!

I love this weather because I love little boys in sweaters. And I love the soft light. 

The love each other so much. 

I just cannot picture one without the other.

From there we went to Jollay Orchards and met this little guy:

Cutest little pig ever!

He was so cute and hungry - we couldn't stop feeding him!

And the goats, who were almost busting out of their pen to get to the food!

And sheep!

There's so much to do there, and it's a really great setting for learning about animals. 

"Can I go in my bee house?"

This is probably Gavin favorite part, it's a little creepy if you ask me. A little house where the inside looks like a bee hive, and there's giant bees everywhere - yikes!

What a cutie pie!

They had a blast - and took and awesome nap!

How'd you get to be so sweet?