Holiday Weekend-ing

For as long as I can remember (and I think even before I was born) my Moms side of the family has gathered at my Aunt and Uncles house for the Fourth of July weekend.  Tents are pitched on their five acres, frogs are chased, rockets and fireworks launched, water balloons popped, games played, shoulders sunburned, baby birds observed, food enjoyed, bubbles blown

and, lawns mowed with an elephants help.

Quirky Kids

I just realized that I never posted Quirky Kids last Wednesday, oops!  Well, here are some quirky things the boys have been up to!

This picture speaks for itself:

Sam went to a graduation party with Daddy for one of his students.  Sam is in love with the graduate, K.  When he got back from the party he wanted us to email K the following questions/comments:
1.  What kind of car do you drive?
2.  I think you are pretty.
3.  Are you coming to my house today or tonight?
When we mentioned to Sam that K could be a potential babysitter he asked if we could leave so that she could come over!

Ray has called horses, "yeahs" for months.  This week he finally started saying, "horse".  Is it wrong that I am a little sad about this?  I guess he is still calling flowers, "butterflies" so, I've got that to hold on to.

We have pretty much been living outside.  Some of the new favorite past times are "squirty fish fights" and putting the edge of the slide in the baby pool so that they can slide right in!

We have been picnicking in the backyard quite a bit.  Of course some funny conversations take place between brothers and the boys both crack up laughing!

Link up to Quirky Kids below but be sure to link back here in your post so that everyone can play along!  You can also grab the button off my sidebar.

Quirky Kids

This week has been a bit of a blur with end of the school craziness and a trip out of town over the weekend.  Usually I keep a running list on the computer (does anyone else love the program stickies and apples?) but I neglected to do so this week.  With lack of coffee this is going to be short. (Wow that was a lot of unneeded excuses!)

The boys were camping all weekend and their cousin H, was there too.  H is 6, Sam is 3 1/2 and Ray just turned 2.  While I wasn't there for too much of the weekend I did do bath duty one night with H and Sam.  Here are a few things I overheard:
H: "I'm six so, I have the bigger one."
H: "Wow, I never knew you could fit this many people in here (two boys in a camper tub).  It's like a hot tub!"

Sam cut his own hair on Friday.  When I asked him why he said, "I just didn't want Papa Truck to cut it this time!"

Ray is really proud of himself when he builds a tower.  He says, "Tah-dah!"

Yesterday, Sam was watering his slide in hopes of making it bigger.

Ray has been telling everyone to walk like an elephant or that he is walking like an elephant.  This consists of walking normally but swinging your arm while making a trumpeting sound.

What have your quirky kids been up to?  Write your own post and link up below or just leave something in the comments.

Quirky Kids

Sam has been talking non-stop! (I think this is pay back for me doing the same as a preschooler. They called me "Little Joan (Rivers)" because I always had something to say about everything.) The other night he spent over a half hour on the phone with my Mom, brother in law, and mother in law.

Sam and his friend, L, played in an outdoor fountain at our local mall after a story time at Barnes and Noble. Sam then declared: "I am soak AND wet, soak AND wet, Mommy!"

Ray was running/galloping around the house yelling, "I want pizza!" in a very deep voice.

Have you heard the song, "Home" by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes? Every time it comes on Ray tried to whistle along and Sam asks, "Why did they just say Jesus' name?"

Ray is saying, "Camel, slide!" and then sliding down my legs. In an episode of The Wonder Pets, the baby camel slides down a pyramid to get to the oasis.

Rays is calling my friend Mandy, "Meany". For example, when she left our house last week he was saying, "Meany, Meany, hug!"

I finished an "I Spy" quilt for the boys. There are 182 blocks. Ray managed to find the elephant in about 2 seconds!

Oh, and a video of Ray's version of "Pat a Cake"


What quirky things have your kids been up to? Link up to share! (Don't forget to link back to this post so that everyone can join in the fun!)

Ray is 2!

Yesterday, was our little guys birthday!  Here are some highlights:

He sang "Happy Birthday" to himself and blew out the candles in one try!:

I'm pretty sure he loves his elephant birthday quilt:

Sam and Daddy made him this cool Birthday sign.  Sam even wrote, "Ray" on it!

We had a great day hanging out with family and celebrating Ray! 

Hard to believe this was already two years ago:

To Do List Helper

Anyone that knows me knows that I am a list maker.  I have an excel spreadsheet grocery list, sticky notes on the computer (not actual stickies but the ones you can make on your desktop - best thing ever!), lists on the calendar, a notebook on my nightstand for the bazillion things I think of as soon as I lay down, etc.

I think this whole list thing is catching on.  Both boys have been carrying a little spiral notebook with them around the house and in the car.  Sam practices letters and doodles and Ray passes it to me at every red light so that I can draw him an elephant, fish, pig or whatever animal he is in love with at the moment.

On Friday, I had a list going and had a helper making sure things were getting crossed off!

  

The elephant on the bottom right of the list should give away the identity of the helper...

Yy is for...

Here is what we have been up to this week for letter Y.

Lots of books about colors especially Yellow:
In My New Yellow Shirt
Mouse Paint
Little Blue, Little Yellow (LOVE this book!)


 
A Day With No Crayons
The Crayon Box That Talked

Yodeling with Jim Gill
.

Teaching Ray to say, "Yes!" rather than, "No!" to everything!

Sam made some yarn art at preschool by putting yarn between two pieces of contact paper.

Counting with large paper clips.

Lots of watercolor painting on letter Y sight words.  Found here.

A yellow Y collage made out of junk mail.

Spanish words puzzles.

Coloring yellow duck and the other "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" animals found here.

Eating yogurt!

We have had a short week because we have a fun long weekend ahead! 

Finger Play Rhyme (Counting Bees)

We have been working on counting 1-5 with Ray and much to my surprise last night he counted to 6!

Yesterday, at story time we did this cute counting finger play that I had never heard before (Sorry I can't give credit to the original author). It goes like this:

This is the bee hive, but where are the bees?
Hidden inside where nobody sees.
Soon they'll come buzzing out of the hive,
1-2-3-4-5! Buzzzzz!

Here are the actions (Pictures courtesy of Sam):

This is the bee hive, but where are the bees?

Hidden inside where nobody sees.

Soon they'll come buzzing out of the hive, (flutter fingers around like flying bees)

1-2-3-4-5! Buzzzzz! (count to 5 with fingers)

Quirky Kids

(If you would like to link up to Quirky Kids, please see the "rules" here.)

Another week of silliness (especially from Sam)!

Sam: Uh, Mom?  I think you are beautiful but I absolutely love letters.

First thing Sam said when he woke up: "What in the world is that smell?!"
Me:  "Well Sam, your brother pooped and stunk up the place!"

Sam was in the bathroom for about 10 minutes doing his thing and talking to Jesus (out loud).  When he was done I asked him what they were talking about and he said, "Well, Jesus was at his cousins house yesterday and his cousin ate all his candy.  Jesus told his Mom and his Mom said, "That's not cool at all.""

Sam has been playing lots of air guitar and singing his new hits like, "Her House is Full of Monsters!", "Think About It!", and "Like to Eat!".

Me:  Sam when you were in my belly I ate a lot of Cocoa Pebbles.
Sam: Mommy, when you were a little baby in my belly I ate a lot of them too.
Me:  Well, actually I was in Nunny's belly when I was a little baby.
Sam: And then when you came out of Nunny's belly you went in to mine.
Me: Oh, okay Sam.  (Some things just aren't worth arguing over.)

Me: (Getting a washcloth out to wash Sam.)
Sam: Can you hand me a minute?
Me: Huh?
Sam: Can you just hand me a minnnnnutttte?
Me: Oh, you want me to give you a minute so that you can play?
Sam: yeah.

We stopped in at my in-laws last night.  On the way Mike called to tell them we would be there shortly so that they could put the dog away (she bit Sam a few weeks ago).  Sam had this to say:
Sam:  What were you talking to Papa Truck about?  To put the dog away?
Mike:  Yeah Buddy.
Sam:  Yeah, the dog needs to be put away so she doesn't act stupid.
Apparently Mike explained to Sam that the dog was just acting stupid when she bit him.  (He told me that was the nicest word he could come up with.)

And one from Ray.  These elephants come to lunch every day.  Good thing they are plastic and can be easily rinsed off after their yogurt bath!

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Space (Rainy Day Fun)

It's a rainy day today.  Staples for a rainy day around here include a "tent" over the kitchen table, flashlights, pillows, lots of books, comfy clothes, and some sort of baked good.

Sam wanted all the lights turned off and then informed me that they were not in a tent but rather, space!

If "space" smells like banana bread and has warm air coming from the oven then, I'd like to go there too.

Teaching Colors With Elephants

If I had to write a philosophy on early childhood education it would definitely include figuring out what your child or children are interested in and running with it!  Ray (23 months) is quite obsessed with all things elephants so we have been using them to teach him colors.

Today I made him these 10 elephants out of fabric and quilt batting scraps.  How convenient that there are 10!  They will be great for counting too. (They were very quick and easy to make: batting in between fabric, zig zag stitch and then cut out.)

We also made up a game where the boys put the elephants in to their houses (envelopes) by matching colors.  Once Ray gets good at this I plan to hide the elephants to add some extra fun.

These were featured!


Rays asks me to draw elephants at least 100 times a day.  Sometimes he likes to color them.

And Ray found this book at the library.  That kid has a super power of spotting elephants!

Good thing we have such a cute baby elephant at our zoo!



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Quirky Kids

Another week in the life with two quirky, silly boys!

I overheard this conversation between the boys:
Sam: "Ray, do you want a chew toy?"
Both boys: hysterical laughter

Me: "Sam, you're my favorite three year old."
Sam: "Well Mom, you're my favorite twenty seven year old."

I had chocolate chip cookies on a cooling rack on top of the kitchen counter then, Ray walked in with an armful of cookies.

Sam was being pretty rude to me all day.  We went to the library in the evening and he said to the librarian, "Excuse me, could you help me find a book about clouds please?"  He then proceeded to follow her back to the books and then said, "Thank you.  Have a nice night."


Not really a quirk but the boys also got haircuts this week: