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.

What 3 Year Olds Do

Today, in typical three year old style, Sam did some scissor practice on his HAIR.  I can't complain; it could be much worse.  His timing was pretty good too since he is due for a summer buzz cut.  I had a hard time not laughing while I was giving him the whole, "scissors are for paper only" lecture.  When I asked him why he did it he even had an answer: "Well, I just really didn't want Papa Truck (my father in law) to do it this time."  And then the poor little guy became very sad (after giving me a goofy smile for the picture above) when I told him he couldn't do another page from his Kumon Cutting book.

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!)

Zz is for...

Last week was Sam's last week of preschool!  Since we were following along with the letter that they were doing at school we are also done (but moving on to other things; see a post later in the week).  We were also just having an off week (hence the late posting of our activities) so, we didn't do too much.

Here are some letter Z activities:

Watercolor painting of  Zebra (from his preschool):

We made a geoboard (tutorial coming later this week):

Zebra and Zoo dot art from Make Learning Fun.
Zebra size sorting from Confessions of a Homeschooler.
Sam has been on a playdough kick lately so, lots of that.
Planting in the garden.
Painting the word, "zero" also from Make Learning Fun.
Lots of talking about his cousin who's name starts with a Z!

Do You Know What We Are Doing?

Do you know what Sam is doing in these pictures?

He is doing Vision Therapy.  In a former life (before kiddos) I actually worked as a vision therapist which is coming in pretty handy now that Sam's eyes need a little bit of a work out!  Curious about it? Read more here or feel free to shoot me a question in the comments.

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! 

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.

Xx is for...

 Letter X has been the most difficult to come up with activities for.  Nonetheless here is what we have been up to:

Sam (42 months) and I made a (short) list of X words: X-ray, Xylophone, Exit, Fox, and Box.

Xx as in fox do a dot art from Making Learning Fun.  Sam chose to use circle garage sale stickers instead of markers this week.

We have been reading, "Fantastic Mr. Fox", aloud this week. This is the first time that I have read a chapter book to Sam and I was excited that he was attentive and able to answer questions about the plot and make predictions when I stopped reading to ask him.

 

We used the xylophone color by number, lacing card, and size ordering from Confessions of a Homeschooler.

We checked out these library books:
Fox by Kate Banks
Crazy Like a Fox: A Simile Story (I'm showing you the picture of this one because I really liked it and will get it again when Sam is actually learning about similes.)

 

A Fox: The Sound of X
Jessica's X-Ray
We colored a picture of Swiper the Fox and watched an episode of Dora.

Mike, my husband, made a treasure hunt for Sam.  Sam had to follow clues that lead to a "X" (marks the spot) piece of paper.  The paper was a note from my husband telling Sam how proud he is of him and a dollar for his piggy bank.

I also found a template to make a fox mask but we never got around to that.

We have also been doing lots of colors/elephant activities which you can read about here.

Share your ideas and get great ideas at Tot School and Preschool Corner!

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:

Slate Run Farm

Yesterday, we took a trip to Slate Run Farm which is about 45 minutes from our house.

We saw horses.  These two are Marcus and Maude.  There were two more (Sailor and Kate).  The boys and Mike were a little afraid of them but I was eager to pet them!  This of course led to Mike making fun of me for being the girl in elementary school that drew horses, read about horses, went to horse camp and had a Lisa Frank horse trapper keeper (yes, I did all those things!)

Saw lots of 3 week old lambs.  One even came out to play with us; it was leaping and having a good time.  The farmer put it back in it's "play pen" just as Ray was about to tackle it!

We also saw lots of piglets.  These were Rays favorite.  They were very active running around in circles.

Inside the farmhouse the boys loved playing with the marble track.

We packed a picnic lunch but ended up having to eat it in the van because it was VERY windy!  Our plates were blowing away even when we weighted them down with bananas, the peanut butter jar, etc.

This was a fun trip and I'm sure we will do it again sometime.  If you are in the area I highly recommend it.  To top it all off it's all FREE!