happy birthday dr. seuss

We were a little early, but the weather was beautiful and I had a sick kid and needed something fun for both boys to do outside, so we celebrated Dr. Seuss' birthday with some oobleck.

I consider something a success with my boys if it entertains them for at least 5 minutes.  This wonderful green goop kept them busy for a good 15, and talking about it even longer.

 Neland preferred to use a spoon while playing.

 Teague would put just about anything in to see what happened.

 Needless to say, it was everywhere (and can still be found) on the patio.

After playing we read Bartholomew and the Oobleck. Which is a very long book and doesn't rhyme, but Neland enjoyed it (I however needed a breather when done, and tissue... the boys have been so sweet to share their germs with me).

haircut needed stat!

This was Tman's hair at bathtime on Monday.

 Luckily it curls up beautifully, but in all honesty, it's out of control!

We liked to put it in pigtails because he's so darn cute.

He's always mistaken for a girl (without the piggies, those are a just around the house for mom and dad kind of thing)

So today, I took him for a cut.  He's never not liked having his hair cut, but today he FLIPPED out! Usually he hates the apron they try to put on and goes without, but he's in a current penguin obsession and the apron had penguins so that was a good turning point.

(He also caught his brother's cold/cough and is in a huge momma phase now, so he was saying over and over, "Mommy hold you, Mommy hold you" poor guy).

And here's how it looks now!

 curls - check
cuteness - double check

thank you pinterest

Sometimes I feel like pinterest has made me a much better (or more fun) mom, other times I feel like it's sucked me away from the kids to the computer.  Here are a few fun things we've done thanks to the addictive site!

 We made a street for all our matchbox and autoblox cars. Neland wanted to make a few signs like "no trucks" which was great because it worked on shapes and cutting as well. Then we added a parking lot, where I'll incorporate the idea of parking the cars into certain spots. I'll add some high frequency words (we're up to 21 now) to the spots and assign a word to each car so they can park in their assigned spot. The bridges idea came from the High Five magazine that came last week (keeping Teague away from them was quite a challenge).

 We made a cave out of the dining room table, which we've done before, but this time we added lights. On pinterest, they had a cardboard box, with holes for the lights. We tried that a few months ago and it really didn't work for us and fitting 2 kids underneath, so thanks to some painters tape, we had enough room for all three of us. We colored, we read books and we almost had lunch under there.  

Not a pinterest idea, but just them being artsy with shapes (seriously such a change from before last summer when Neland thought coloring more than a line was tiring). Here they are making robots with squares and rectangles and decorating them with stickers (I couldn't believe Teague could get the stickers off, it can be such a challenge and takes some great fine motor skills. Neland wasn't quite there at this age).

planet of the apes

brought to you by Teague (as no one else claimed to have done this)

jump!

Last week Teague learned to jump.  He's been trying for a least a week. He'd walk around saying "jump" over and over and kind of galloping. He was so determined. Then last week, while we were at preschool during the teacher appreciation luncheon, there in the lobby, he jumped. Since then, that's pretty much how he travels. He is so proud of himself.  And sometimes, he gets on all fours, jumps and says ribbit.  That kid cracks me up.

happy valentine's day!

We made cookies.

Valentine's Day Playdate and Party

In true playgroup fashion, we celebrated Valentine's Day. We kept our bowling tradition alive and headed to Sports Connection. Neland was escatic.

Last year we didn't realize they had these ball "chutes". The boys had gone an hour and we were just a little half way through the game. Once we found these, the game went much faster.  Teague enjoyed them this year. Neland was super excited to have dinner with his buddies there as well and as a special treat, Chris was even able to make it.

Today we had Neland's Valentine's celebration at school.  We started preparing this weekend.

We painted coffee filters with water colors (among other things, like green snowmen). And then turned them into this for his teachers.

The tag says something like, "You put sunshine in my heart. Happy Valentine's Day! Love Neland".

Most days, this is how we eat dinner.

The table is 1/2 dinner, 1/2 art. The kitchen table is full of art too (mostly drying art).

For the party, Chris and my mom helped me make and decorate sugar cookies.  Look at this cutie!

There is very little that makes him happier than sweets (maybe an airplane trip to California, seeing Grandma and Grandpa, or a new toy... but that's it).

Then the kids played tic tac toe with me (thinking x's and o's are very much hugs and kisses), and got personal sheets to play with friends or parents as well.

Then finally it was craft time. The kids decorated heart frames with foam stickers.

t

 Neland's masterpiece.

Then to top it all off, I had dinner with Buzz Lightyear.

and this guy

Can't wait to share Valentine's Day with these guys (and my big one) tomorrow!

teacher appreciation

This past week was teacher appreciation week at school. Tuesday, I ignored my boys for the entire day so that I could make 72 mini cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and some fancy toppings. I also packed the kids up and took them to Sam's to pick out a crazy number of flowers, and then turned our kitchen into a florist office while giving them an apple for lunch (but in all honesty they'd eaten 2 blueberry muffins, a bowl of oatmeal and a bowl of cereal for breakfast, with some berries, so it wasn't like they were super hungry). Teague missed his nap from this chaos and dinner was butter noodles. And honestly, I'd do it all over again today. I love our preschool and I love Neland's teachers! (and I have to admit, the boys were AWESOME, they played all day, watched one movie and there was hardly any whining over who had which toy - even a friend who came by was in disbelief)

homemade corsages for flower day

We had conferences last Friday. They showed us Neland's work and we talked about our decision give him another year of preschool before kindergarten. Chris and I really wrestled with this decision from this past summer up until we made our decision around December. Neland surprised both Chris and I with his assessments - he even read a word of it to his teacher! And when they asked him to draw a person here's what he gave them:

and they said he made of point of including a mustache and telling them that is what it was.

Since November I've been touring preschools looking for a transition kindergarten for him. The first tour was great. It was our church and I loved the set up. It is so similar to where he is now, but there's a bunny in the room and they have a dedicated art teacher/room, a spanish teacher and music weekly. When I walked into the 4/5 classroom (they don't have a true TK), there were 2 kids at the writing center, 2 kids on the floor working with the teacher, and 1 child doing a puzzle with the other teacher. The other half of the class was at art. When the other half returned, the children played (keyword here). I would have sent him here in a heartbeat if it hadn't been a 30 minute drive there and back 5 days a week with a 2 year old in tow.
Then I toured three more schools. I found out that most schools here aren't play based. I saw 2 year olds sitting in chairs in a circle going over flash card shapes. I saw TK's writing words on the board one at a time. And if I asked about centers or being play based, they looked at me like I was an alien.
After the last school tour, I was so discouraged that I came up with a plan to homeschool Neland for one year and then send him to kindergarten. I even started to email our school's director but discarded it before sending. As I was coming up with my plan, about an hour after our tour, I received an email from our director. The subject was, "Dreams do come true" and the body was a message telling me that she was offering Neland's class an opportunity to move to the 5 day 4s class next year. It was relief and tears all at the same time. Such a perfect answer to a prayer!
So my little guy, who is very smart but not very focused, who is very sensitive and tends to follow the crowd, who loves to explore words but is easily discouraged, gets one more year to grow, one more year to  gain some confidence, one more year to create a foundation that isn't quite set and it all will happen in the same school he's grown up in (all 4 1/2 years). We are so blessed.

So when teacher appreciation comes around next year, I'll make cupcakes, I'll put together flowers, I'll even make special favors, and even then I'm sure I'll feel it isn't enough.

favorite songs

My boys LOVE to sing. Neland has always loved music. He can hear a song once and know the tune. Teague seems to appreciate music as well. We sing in the car a lot. Neland's 2 current songs are "If You're Happy and You Know It" and "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands". Teague sometimes joins in as well.

Here is one verse that always seems to make it into the first one,
"If you're happy and you know it, go to Target.
If you're happy and you know it, go to Target.
If you're happy and you know it, then your face will surely show it,
If you're happy and you know it, go to Target"

Here's another verse that catches my attention, from the second selection:
"He's got Target and the Icee's, in His hands,
He's got Target and the Icee's, in His hands,
He's got Target and the Icee's in His hands,
He's got the whole world in His hands."

A few Sunday's ago, we were attempting to get home from church (we can always make it there, but somehow getting back home is much harder) we passed a Target we've never been to. Neland saw the sign as we were driving by and starting chanting "Target" to which Teague started chanting "Icee". We did not stop. Target sure does train them young.

welcome february

This week we welcomed February with a sick little guy! On Sunday, we took two very happy boys to Panera for breakfast, to church afterwards and then to the playground near church.

It was a beautiful day. We arrived home, had lunch and then headed to play. While playing, Teaguie decided to climb on the couch and snuggle himself into it. This is not something Teague would ever, or has ever done. We knew something was up. Sure enough, he had a fever. We put him down for a nap and let him sleep for four hours. He woke up grumpy and hot.
He was like this for almost three whole days. Not hungry, grumpy and just wanting me. He also didn't sleep. His fever left, but then a crazy rash appeared. It was on his legs, then appeared around his mouth, on his hands and on his toes. The rash is still there today, but it is slowly going away. He didn't eat much through the week and is still constantly wanting me, but he is starting to play and as always enjoys being outside. The weather this week was beautiful. We had lunches outside and tried to enjoy the outdoors as much as possible (although it started with NJ making a bear cave out of the dining room table and cutting up snowflakes to drop around it - I was worried he wouldn't appreciate the warm weather with all his snow wishes).

On Saturday, Tman gave us some smiles as he happily ate an apple (always in an arms distance of me... we're not over the momma phase yet - thank goodness).