Five on Friday

Here Are Five Reasons I Am Loving My Boys This Week . . . . .

1. We recently went to the beach for the weekend. I let each boy pack their own book bag of toys to take. Bryce carefully chose several trains and some train tracks. This is what Evan ended up with . . . . very interesting . . . . .  he makes me laugh!

2. Mema pulled out John's old school Lite Brite out of the attic. We took it home and plugged it in and it still worked!! The Lite Brite was definitely a hit! (. . . .  and a great fine motor activity too!!)

I told Bryce I loved his lite brite snake. He said " Mama, it is actually a chinese dragon!"

3. We made playdough, but it was way to sticky, so we got some extra flour. The extra flour eventually turned into a massive snow storm for all the cars and trucks to drive through. It it was a holy mess, but well worth it!





Bryce has requested this activity every day since. I am still trying to convince him this is a once every 6 months to a year activity!!! I was cleaning flour up for hours!!! Big Mess = Big Fun with these two!!

4. Sweet Brother Love Makes My Heart Smile!!





5. We enjoyed a fun birthday party at Country Adventures! We climbed trees, rode ponies, picked pumpkins, ate hotdogs, and roasted marshmellows. Oh, and Evan found a donkey he was very fond of!

 

cousins

 

 

 

John is quite the story teller. He tells a story to the boys at night about The Three Little Donkeys and The Big Bad Wolf. I think this is were Evan's affection for the donkey may have come from! The donkeys names are Honky Donky, Bonky Donky, and Tonky Donky. They love the story and I must admit it cracks me up everytime I listen to it. There is something quite charming about a daddy than can tell a good story :)

 

the rough and tumble cousins

 

Cowboy Bryce

 

Cowboy Evan

 

finding the perfect pumpkins!

 

Happy Pumpkin Picking, Friends! ~j

 

 

 

Five On Friday

Five Reasons I Am Loving My Boys This Week . . . .

1. Sweet boys licking sweet batter off beaters . . .  yummy!




2. We enjoyed a fun play day with cousin Austin. I sure enjoyed seeing these boys all playing together and know my mama would have loved having them all under one roof playing and talking and laughing even more than me!







3. The boys first day of school with fresh haircuts!

4. We made a trip to the doc this morning to have an eraser that Evan stuck up his nose removed. Thank goodness it was low drama and he is fine!


This is Evan waiting in the doctor's waiting room with his favorite new accessory - head phones! They are from our car and no sound is coming out of them . . . .  it is just a fashion statement, I guess! Funny boy!


5. In true "Bryce Style", Bryce wrote his name for the first time all by himself. We worked on this all summer and I could not get him to write anything more than a "B" and then he busts out the other night and writes his whole name! This is the way Bryce does everything and you would think it would not suprise me anymore, but it does . . .  every single time!!

He wrote it with a dry erase marker so it got a little smudge as we danced around and celebrated how awesome he is! I think it is perfection!

Enjoy your weekend and the wonderfully cool temps! ~j

atlantis 2011

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Where Did July Go?

July flew by! Here is what we have been up too . . . .


Roller Skating


A visit with Aunt Cheryl at Edisto


Aunt Cheryl's New Edisto House!!

Edisto holds a special place in all of our hearts and souls. It is were my mama grew up going to the beach. It is were mama and daddy first met and fell in love. It is were we grew up going to the beach as kids. It holds lots of wonderful memories of family and friends. Edisto seems to keep calling us back. John grew up going up there with his family as well. So, there is just something special that bonds us to this simple, little island. We look forward to making memories with family and friends for our kids there! . . . and we have already gotten started!


Bryce tippy toeing threw the sea shells on Jeremy Cay


Bryce


buddies



sippin' cool drinks on the beach





Edisto Beach breezes were perfect for out first kite flying adventure! Thanks Auntie Em for the awesome kites! They were a hit!


Sunset on Jeremy Cay


. . . . no better way to practice those prewriting skills than in the Edisto sand - right?? Their work is their play and their play is their work. Just the way it should be.








Beach Races


Popping off shrimp heads . . . . a little boys rite of passage

Evan jumped right in and could not wait to pop the head off that little sucker. He squealed as he did it - not sure if it was a squeal of delight or fear! Bryce watched cautiously and then got his "pinchers" ready and gave it a try too.




Pictures of our fun trip to Atlantis on Paradise Island, Bahamas to come soon!! ~j

Fun with Letters

As I mentioned before, I am working on writing with the boys (especially Bryce) so while E was napping today Bryce and I had a little letter fun! I managed to work a few cognitive concepts and fine motor strengthening into the lesson as well. And most important, as far as he knew, we were just playing and having fun. Tricky, tricky mama ;)

First, we did some drawing on the white boards and he very proudly taught his bunny (his fave lovey) how to draw. Then we practiced the letter B. We rolled playdough into balls and practiced the concept small and large with the size of the playdough balls. Next, we rolled them into snakes and placed them over our letters. To finish up, Bryce calls out any letter he wants, I write it and then he writes it.



















Good Job, B!




~j

Five On Friday

Five Reasons I Am Loving My Boys and My Life This Week


1. They make me smile . . . . .  and they make each other smile!

The first year of Evan's life Bryce would not even acknowledge Evan's existence. Bryce was never mean to him. He just COMPLETELY ignored him as if he was not even there. I was a bit concerned. Slowly but surely, once Evan started walking and talking, a sweet brotherhood started to emerge. I find so much joy in watching them grow together and learn from one another. The brotherhood they have is truly something special. They love each other so! (and just to keep it real . . . as I type this they are whacking each other with foam swords, not play whacking but really whacking, and I must go intervene before it gets ugly . . . brotherly love in action, right?)

2. My school goal for the boys this summer is for them to be able to write their names. Of coarse, they could not be less interested in a writing utensil and a piece of paper. So, I am getting creative and relying on my teacher and EI days to "trick" them into writing. We tried out some shaving cream fun! Check out Bryce's "B"! It looks perfect to me! He will not write it on paper yet, but as long as I know he can do it, I am good to go! They threw me for a loop and both had completely opposite reactions to the sensory play than what I was expecting. Evan (usually a mess from head to toe) touched it several times after much encouragement and then screamed and insisted his hands be washed. Bryce (timid and neat) dove right in all smiles and had a ball and did some great pre writing practice as well! Yay!

3. It has been a monumental week! Evan found a sword in a picture that he really wanted. I told him he could have it if he sent his ba ba (aka passy) to the babies. I completely expected him to drop it after I said that, but he said OK! So, I jumped on the opportunity and quickly looked all over the Internet and finally found it and ordered it. A few days later it arrived and we put our plan into action! We wrapped up his passies in a box and put them in the mailbox for the mailman to take to the babies at the hospital and Evan proudly danced around the yard with his new sword! He has done amazingly well considering how addicted he was to those things. We have had a few bumps along the the week, but he is ba ba free! Unbelievable!

this is the face he makes when i ask him to smile, o well.

4. And . . . . we have passports! Edward Jones rewards hard work with amazing trips. This has created the reality that our 3 and 4 year old kids need passports to travel. John and I find this amazing. We will get to take our kids places we never imagined thanks to Edward Jones and John's hard work! They are so excited about their passports, their first plane ride, and our upcoming trip to Atlantis in the Bahamas!

5. I stepped back into the classroom this summer for several weeks to teach a preschool autism class. Thank you to Mema, Missy, Natalie, Papa, and Papa Ted for your babysitting services, so I could do this and know the boys are happy, safe. and spoiled rotten!  It has been a great experience! I had forgotten how much I enjoy the classroom and working with such special little people. It also made me more grateful than ever for the gift I have had to stay home with my boys. I love teaching, but being a mama is my most favorite job of all!!

Have a Happy and Safe 4th of July! ~j