Enjoying Painting Outside!

The boys have been busy painting up a storm! Grandma and Grandpa got them them this fantastic easel by Mellisa and Doug! I love it! Highly recommended, it's sturdy, very adjustable, attractive and has so many other great features!
After they are done painting their picture I hang it on this rack that usually has cloth diapers on it but we are without a washer and dryer right now so disposables for us:(

Then to get cleaned up I put out a tub of soapy water and they rinsed their hands and then started washing their cars:) PS the tub fits perfectly in our Radio Flyer wagon(Thanks Grandpa Drake!)

Just incase...

anyone else is curious I decided to answer questions in a post. Some asked the boy's ages and they are: C- 38 months(3 in November) D-26 months (2 in November) and Jack is 10 months.

The other question is about how to teach a child to use scissors. This is how I do it but that doesn't mean it's the right way;)

In the beginning I let them try it however they want and then when they start to struggle and say it's not working I ask if they would like to see the way I hold them. I then demonstrate with my own pair of scissors. I never put my hand over his or anything because at our preschool we let them self correct and all of them eventually got it. Also, I never force the boys to learn anything, if they aren't interested in cutting then why have them cut? Instead find some activities that strengthen the muscles they will need when the start cutting (ex. transferring with tongs or tweezers, using play dough scissors with snakes of play dough, those little castanet musical instruments). Make it fun.

Our first day back to School!

I just rummaged through my boxes and came up with a few activities for C to do yesterday and to say he was excited would be a huge understatement!

Me: Hey buddy I was thinking we could have some school time today!
C: School time!!!! SCHOOL TIME! Oh Yay school time!
Me: Is that a yes? :)

I let C choose the activities he wanted to do and he chose cutting first and then gluing.

Then he chose his "workbook".

I Poured out some of these stones out on the table and asked C to sort them. I didn't give him any other instructions because I wanted to see if he remembered how to sort:) It's been a month after all! He did remember and he put them in little lines so when I asked him to count them it was easier:) We also talked about which color had the most and least:)

Then he used stickers to spell his name:)

All of these activities were so simple but he loved them!! He was so happy to be doing these activities and we are going to start a little school time each day again! I can't stop now after seeing how much he missed it!

Two Things...

1- We are in our house!!!!!! We are so happy but working crazy hard so I'm still not ready to go full Bloggy again but I want to so bad! Caden and Drake are really missing "school". (Random shot of the backyard :) I got a super cute pick of all of us infront of the house but I'm can't post it due to saftey:)

2- We are expecting baby number 4!!!!! I'm so Excited and so glad that we are in a house now so that we will have room for a new baby! I'm due August 31st:)

Frustrated and a Good Idea:)

So I'm frustrated because there were some glitches in the paper work so we had to postpone our signing and moving. This would have been frustrating no matter what but to make things worse...I've already packed the whole apartment!!!!! I have been trying to get the boys out of the apartment as much as possible and there have been a lot of computer games and movies:( I will be moving next weekend instead of this weekend and I wanted to find some ways to practice reading with Caden with what I had not packed yet(yes, I had packed all of the books including his BOB books!). I hadn't packed this drawing thing because it was in the car so me and Caden snuggled on my bed and I wrote out the word cat. He worked on sounding it out and we talked about the "AT" sound. Then I slid the slider bat and just erased the first letter and replaced it with an H. We sounded out all of the "AT" words I could think of and he really liked it. I didn't talk about rhyming but I plan to the next time we do this activity:)

After we were done Caden practiced writing his name at his own request:)

P.S

I am so grateful for this blog! I love all of your comments and I have really missed blogging! I know now how important it is to me:) While I am on my break I will be working on updating my labels list to the side:) I've neglected it for months! :)

Not back Yet...

I just felt like posting:) I guess this is kind of a review. The boys have been loving their IKEA train set. We bought our own set and then Grandpa got some more so we have plenty of them! The picture was from FHE where we all worked together to build the tracks and then you mega blocks to make tunnels and land marks. The boys had a ton off fun and so did me and Nate! When Caden works on the trains himself he builds very long and it never connects back together but he can build the "special parts"(the raised parts) all by himself now. I recommend this toy because it is quality built, very affordable, and it will be a good toy for years! Caden has been playing since he was a year old! Anyway, gotta get back to packing:)

I'm still here!!!

We have been so busy around here! We are packing up to move in to our new house this week and then we will be busy fixing it up! In the new house I will have a school room so there will be plenty of wonderful ideas coming soon! I hope everyone is having fun and winding down after the holidays! We had a great time and are soooooooo ready to move in to our first home! Thanks for reading!
-LHBW