Stinky Alligator

The boys and I started a new game a couple days ago when they were stalling for bedtime and I had a rare bout of evening patience and played along. We take turns calling each other something stinky. They crack up after each one, sometimes genuinely and sometimes with this painfully forced cackle.

Some excerpts from tonight's ride home from dinner...

"You are a stinky... SNAKE!"

"You are a stinky... DOOR!"

"You are a stinky... SIGN!"

"You are a stinky... CAR!"

"You are a stinky... GATE!"

"You are a stinky... LEAF!"

When we'd pass a gas station: "You are a stinky... GAS! HAHAHAHAHA!"

Then things got a little risqué: "You are a stinky... BUTT!"

"You are a stinky... BUTT TRAIN!" (Heh?)

"You are a stinky... BUTT BUTT BUTT!"

"That's enough with the butts, we don't say butts."

And finally: "You are a stinky... LOTS OF THINGS! HAHAHAHA!"

Spring!

Spring is definitely upon us, and it's been a wonderful couple of weeks lately, spent with windows open and pollen flying.

So we spent a few days learning a little about spring around here. For all the days, there was a "word of the day" that we learned, illustrated, and copied with magnet letters.

On the first day we discussed spring in general, read some springy books...
Word Bird's Spring Words

The Seasons of Arnold's Apple Tree (one of our favorites)

Arranged some beautiful flowers I picked up at Publix...

Made some pretend bouquets...

And took a spring walk, during which we sang about the signs of spring and searched for them. It was warm, the birds were singing, green leaves are on all the plants, and we collected many flowers.

On the second day we discussed seeds and how they grow into plants. We set up carrot and bean sprout experiments (nothing yet), planted some apple seeds we had saved from an apple earlier (not holding out much hope for those), planted some herbs from a Christmas-gifted kit from my mom...

These have actually started sprouting - well, the basil and thyme have...

Played with beans, peas, fake leaves and flowers, and "rain clouds" in a sensory bowl setup...

Did a flower petal counting game/craft project I made up, and had an educational popcorn snack that night. They thought it was so cool to learn about the corn seeds exploding into our snack.

On the third day we learned about rain. We read some books about rain...
Word Bird's Rainy-Day Dance

I Love the Rain

Did a little experiment with a sponge "cloud" making rain, made cloud pictures, and jumped in chalk rain puddles on the patio.

Finally, we were supposed to discuss wind. But we got a little lax and only read the books, which are very cute.

The Wind Blew

Curious George Flies a Kite

Look what came in the mail today!

Nana sent a surprise follow-up to Anna's quilt! It's a very adorable little pillow, and Anna really seems to love it. Thank you again, Nana!!

Why does her head look so huge?

Maybe because I put her in a dress two sizes too small because I'm not ready to let it go...

I also recently finally ordered these cool thingamajigs to hang our plate collection with. The shockingly blunt yellow walls in the kitchen are begging for some balance. Excited about these!

RAW(e) Distraction

I've been wanting to join in the RAW(e) photo challenge fun on Sami's blog for a couple weeks, but never got around to working on it in time.

This week, the theme is distraction. Since when I read the theme I was up waaaaay too late for my own good and the good of my kids and my devotion time, with the desk covered in most of my selfish distractions, it was the perfect time! I couldn't wait all day today until the post was up to link to.

My distractions are many, but the main ones are the computer, planning the kids' homeschool (way overplanning, they are in preschool, for pete's sake!) because it's so fun, and crafting. I let these things override far too much of my time that should be devoted to time with God, or providing more attention and structure for the boys.

Anna's Special Quilt

My sister and I both have special quilts made by our Great-Nana B. Mine is been partially demolished by the family cat, but is still something special to me.

The boys each have their own that my Nana made them a couple years ago. They are very sweet - covered with embroidered and colored images of sweet little boys and girls. I think there's a name for what type they are, but I'm drawing a blank. And they are tucked away in bed with the boys for the night, so I'll have to post a picture later. The center block on each has a really pretty stitched monogram.

The boys haven't been using them for more than a year, because I just wasn't ready for them to wrestle with them like they did with the rest of their bedding. But we busted them out in the last few months, and the boys love them a lot. They are their top blankets every night.

Well, Anna received hers in the mail this week. I love it! It's sweet shades of purple, with lots of adorable Precious Moments images nicely painted on. I let her check it out when the package arrived, hoping I'd get a great pose of her on it. Pshh! That girl doesn't stop for a second, unless it's in my lap. So this is the best I was able to get. She really does seem to like it a lot, and it's laying on the spare bed in her room. I can't wait for her to cherish it as her pretty keepsake from her Great-Nana!

Thank you Nana! We love you and are so thankful for your craftiness and love!

God Bless You

Baby Bear has been paying attention these last 4 weeks of illness in this house. She recently picked up fake coughing. She enjoys it, but doesn't seem to do it for the thrill. It seems like she thinks it's the thing to do in this family.

Tonight she started fake sneezing. It cracked me up. We were out at IHOP for dinner, and one of the boys did a double sneeze. She just sat there and kept eating while doing several stinking adorable "choo"'s. Again, she didn't look like she was doing it as a hilarious show, just trying something out. The boys and I were so amused.

Just another note to ourselves. :)

Old men are the cutest

So two weeks ago was Brandon's big 3-0! We had several mini-celebrations over a week and a half, and I think it added up to a fun birthday for him. Of course, I took too long to document it, so I've forgotten a lot of the details... Honey, feel free to fill in the gaps in the comments.

There was a small celebration at our house, involving a teeny-tiny ice cream cake and two necktie-shaped bookmarks, coated with many layers of colored pencil and marker illustrations and gobs of stickers.

I'm pretty sure one night we had dinner out somewhere and called it his birthday dinner. (We ate out about a hundred times the last few weeks, so it's all a blur.) And he got himself his gift for me one night when we were out with the kids. At least I picked it out. Wait. At least I decided which thing he'd recently told me he wanted I'd get for him.

Most exciting of all, we went to the Monster Jam with the boys and Dawn and Matt. It was "for the boys", but I distinctly remember being told it could count as his birthday present last month when I was being convinced to splurge on the tickets. It was really great fun, and I think we all discovered a new passion. Unfortunately, we didn't prepare the boys well enough for the very cold evening, so there was plenty of guilt involved. I took over 600 pictures, so I'll have to set up an entire post devoted to that outing.

Say what?!?!

We ate out with my family another night. It was funny because the staff had to sing happy birthday to at least 8 tables while we were there. Apparently once it happens a couple times people start getting silly and claiming birthdays left and right. Ours was real, yay! (Dimly lit, so I have no good pictures, boo.)

Finally (I think), we had dinner at his family's house. I kinda ruined it by being really sick and droopy, but the food was good, and I'm told the cake was yummy. The boys "helped" daddy blow out his trick candles. There was an entire layer of boy-spit covering the whole thing by the time the last candle gave up. It was hilarious.

I am so proud of the man that my man is becoming. So manly. :) For a few minutes, this celebration sent me into another tailspin of panic about being 30 myself. It wasn't as real when I was still married to a 20-something-year-old stud. Thanks for being my stud, you sweet geezer.

Big Day!

The boys have been progressively getting more independent in dressing themselves. And today was the big day! They managed to completely get whole outfits on all by themselves! This is just a note to ourselves to remember this day. For the longest time we have let every milestone go unmarked, so I wanted to hop on and make this one official.

Woohoo!