A Big Long Summer Fun Post

Summer has just begun, but Steven starts summer school tomorrow so we have squeezed a lot of fun into a few days.  Here are some of the highlights.

We have gone swimming in the little pool in our backyard.

    

We have made playdough creations:

 

 We had a paint party where the kids painted on canvases and rocks on the back lawn.  It was messy, but fun!

 We made a fort under Elise's bed and Elise and Steven had a slumber party in it:

There is still a lot of summer left, and we hope to fit in some more good fun.  We have been off to a good start this week!

Look Who Turned Two!

I can't believe my  baby turned two this week.  I guess that makes him a toddler and not a baby.  At two years old Cameron has definitely entered the terrible twos.  His two favorite things to say are, "I don't like it," and "Go away."  He is very verbal and is talking up a storm, and he lets you know when something is not going his way.  He is fairly stubborn and likes to do things his own way, like put the strap to the Mickey hat pictured above under his nose instead of his chin.  If I try to correct him he has a little tantrum and tells me to "Go away."  Yep, still wondering where he picked up on that charming little phrase.  He loves the water, loves Mickey Mouse, and adores the show "Jake and the Neverland Pirates."  He will bring me the remote and say, "I want Jake," all the time.  He is constantly amazing me by the things he learns and picks up so easily.  He can count to ten, sing most of the alphabet song, knows tons of words, and speaks in sentences.  He loves to sing - his favorite song is Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.  However, unfortunately for him, he can't even come close to carrying a tune.  That's okay, it is still fun to hear him attempting to belt out a song.  He is a fantastic snuggler and has figured out the art of charming people to get his way.  When I put him in his crib at night if he wants to stay up he will tell me, "No, I don't like it... I want to snuggle."  Who could resist that?  He loves his milk, his binky and his blankie like no other.  I think the binky needs to go soon but I think taking itaway might actually be more painful for me than for him, so we will just have to see when I get to that.  He has a great laugh and is a fun boy.  We love you Cameron!

Love These Kiddos!

You're A Block Head, Charlie Brown!

This kid makes me laugh.....seriously.

A Plan Gone Bad

Elise never eats her lunch at school.  Never.  She would rather go to recess.  She has a bowl of cereal for breakfast and then doesn't eat again until 7 hours later when she returns home from school.  Unless, of course, I put cookies in her lunch.  Then she eats those and nothing else.  I have tried everything.  I even ask her what I could put in her lunch that she would eat, but it never works.  This bothers me for many reasons.  The first is obviously that this can not be healthy, and I'm sure her hungry brain couldn't possibly be functioning at it's best.  But beyond that, I get tired of making lunches everyday which don't get eaten.  In a moment of frustration this morning while making her lunch I told her that if she didn't eat her peanut butter sandwich for lunch today then she would be eating it for dinner tonight.  And guess what?  She didn't eat it.  So I got it out at dinner and put it on her plate to which she exclaimed, "Yes! I'm so glad I didn't eat my sandwich for lunch!  Now I don't have to eat a yucky chicken quesadilla!"  Yep, I think I just rewarded her for not eating her lunch.  What I failed to consider was that my picky little eater loves peanut butter sandwiches, and cries about what we have for dinner at least 80% of the time.  Maybe I should have saved it until Monday and put it in her lunch again then.  Three day old sandwich can't be good.  But then she probably wouldn't eat her lunch Monday anyway so she probably wouldn't even care.  Maybe I should save myself some trouble by making her one lunch per week and just letting her take the same one all week long.  Do you think someone at the school would report me for some sort of strange child abuse or neglect?

Steven, The Bear Slayer

Okay, maybe he's not so much bear slayer as he is a bear chaser, but either way it's pretty impressive for a four year old.  Let me explain.  On Friday Steven asked if he could go check the front porch for mail.  I told him sure.  he went out the front door, and about two minutes later he came in saying there was a bear out there.  Steven has a good imagination and we hadn't seen a bear around our house in two years, so I was certain there was not really a bear out there, but I humored him by saying, "Really, come show me where."  We went outside and there was no bear, so I asked him where he saw the bear.  He pointed right next to our front porch next to the big tree in front.  I told him I didn't see a bear, and asked him where it went. He said, "I chased it away!"  I laughed and of course still didn't believe him, but playing along I told him he was very brave.  About twenty minutes later it was time to walk down the street to get Elise from school.  I started down the street and noticed a police car parked in the middle of our street.  Then I noticed the animal control vehicle parked on the side of the street.  Sure enough, there was a baby bear in a tree at the bottom of our street.  Hmmmm..... now I'm wondering if Steven really chased it away or if he made that part up.  I guess I'll never know, but it makes for a good story.  We have since had several conversations about what the appropriate response would be should he see a bear in our yard again.  Which by the way, is not petting it as he suggested when I asked him what he thought he should do if he saw it again.

Steven standing in front of our house with animal control and a police car across the street.  This picture was taken after the geniuses scared it out of the tree at the bottom of the street causing it to run back up the street and down the alley towards the elementary school  just as all the kids were pouring out and many were headed down the alley towards their homes (including us!).  The officers chased it back up towards our house to keep it away from the kiddos.  Smart.

Animal control guy across the street with his useless bean bag gun.

Steven on our front porch watching it all with his other bear friend.

 A really  bad picture of the bears bum as he ran away, taken with my phone.

Quiet

It is 7:05 and all of our kids are actually in bed.  It has been a rough afternoon.  Hopefully tomorrow is happier... maybe if everyone gets a good night's sleep there will be less weaping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth come 4:00pm tomorrow.  We can only hope.

The Newspaper Business

Elise just told me that when she grows up she either wants to be a newspaper writer or a newspaper thrower. At least she has it narrowed down to something in the newspaper business. Maybe we should encourage her to work on her writing skills.

One Down, Five to Go

Day one of Spring Break is checked off our list. We still have five more to go (I'm not counting weekend days as they would be home those days even when they have school). I sort of like not having a schedule for a few days. The kids get up early no matter what so there is just no sleeping in ever, but I can turn on a cartoon in my bedroom and then lay in bed vegging for as long as I can convince them that they are definitely not starving and imminent death is not near if they don't get breakfast NOW. On Friday I got to lay in bed until 7:45 - it was lovely. However, some things are good about being on a schedule too so I am sure I will be ready to send them back to school in a week.

Yesterday we had Outside Day. We had a scavenger hunt outside, which included collecting dead roly polies. Yuck! To be fair, the list just said roly polies, not dead ones, but dead ones were all my kids could find so they picked them right up and put them in their boxes. It is amazing how Elise is afraid of vegetables, but dead roly polies don't even seem to phase her. Cameron ignored the check list and collected lemons from the tree to roll down the slide and dump out of the back of his dump truck.

We had a picnic on the back lawn and ate In N Out. It was fun. We even had shakes. Yep, shakes for lunch. I'm not sure Cameron took a single bite of anything else once I gave him a shake to work on, but I guess that's okay once in a while. And it's not like the fries he was ignoring were such a healthy alternative anyway.

We also played on the slip in slide (it was a little chilly, but the kids insisted), blew and chased bubbles, and did art on the driveway with sidewalk chalk. Fun! All in all, it was a good day. I didn't get much done, but that's okay. There's always next week for that.

Okay, here it goes... are you ready for way more pictures than you ever wanted to see of my kids? I finally got my camera out and I think I went a little crazy with it.

Spring Break Already?

Where does the time go? I can't believe we are so close to Spring Break. Tomorrow is my kids last day of school. They have Friday off for Cesar Chavez (who helped the crap pickers, by the way, according to the essay Elise brought home from school today. Ha ha.) Then they have all of next week off, and after that it is all downhill until we hit summer. Sheeesh! I am not ready for Spring Break yet, let alone summer.

We aren't going anywhere for Spring Break this year, so I decided to plan some fun theme days to keep my kids busy and make sure that we don't waste the whole week away in our pajamas doing nothing - don't worry though, I did plan one day for that :-). I've planned six themes for our six days off, and I thought I would share them because then I am more likely to follow through and actually do them. You know how that goes. So here they are, but they may not end up in this particular order. If I wake up one day and don't feel like getting dressed, then that day could become pajama day. And if something better comes up, we might even drop an entire theme. I like to live on the wild side - a little flexibility is good.

DAY 1: OUTDOOR FUN DAY

1. Decorate shoe boxes to keep treasures in, and then have an outdoor scavenger hunt. I think Elise's list will be in words so she can practice reading, and Steven's will be in pictures. Cameron can just grab whatever the heck he wants and throw it on in his box because there is just no controlling that little monkey.

2. Pick up In N Out for lunch and eat it outside as a picnic.

3. Sidewalk chalk and bubbles.

4. Play on the slip in slide and in the little pool.

5. Clean out the car and wash it.

DAY 2: RACE AWAY DAY

1. Hot Wheels Races in the driveway (maybe make a trophy first to award to the fastest car).

2. Bike Parade and Races: Decorate bikes and then set up a course in the driveway for them to follow. Count how many laps they can each finish.

3. Make this Easter Bunny Race Car Treat seen here. Only I will make mine more Gluten Free diet friendly for Steven by using a candybar instead of Little Debbie Swiss Roll.

4. Clean My Room Races: Race to see who can have their room cleaned up the quickest.

3. PAJAMA DAY

1. Watch a "Drive In" movie like they did here in cars we'll make out of boxes like these. We'll make some popcorn, and probably some sweet chex mix to eat while we watch.

2. Build forts inside with sheets and pillows.

3. Make dreamcatchers like these.

4. Have Brinner (Breakfast for Dinner).

5. Change all the sheets and help kids practice making beds.

4. FIELD TRIP DAY

1. Visit my kids' favorite place, Jump 'N Jammin at the Santa Anita Mall.

2. Visit the library for some books and stop off at Library Park for some fun.

3. Walk to 7-11 for slurpees.

4. Field Trip to the basement for some Laundry sorting and clothes washing.

5. GAME DAY

1. Visit Chuck E Cheese for some fabulous games (we have about 50 tokens left over from Steven's birthday to use up so I don't even have to buy any - score!)

2. Play Cooties and Simon Says outside.

3. Twister

4. Hide and Seek

5. Contest to see who can clean up their room the happiest. Prizes will be awarded. Maybe I'll even turn on some music.

6. ARTS AND CRAFTS DAY

1. Dye Easter Eggs

2. Sidewalk chalk (yep, it's a repeat, but you can never have too much sidewalk chalk. Maybe we'll do it on game day too and make hopscotch.)

3. Make T.P. roll bunnies like these seen here.

4. Color the HUGE coloring pages I got at Target this week.

5. Clean up rooms and hang up a cord with clothespins to display their favorite artwork and school work.

Wow, I think that took me longer to type than to plan. And now that I am looking at it all typed up, I am thinking it is A LOT of stuff for one week. Hopefully we get through most of it and the kids have a fun Spring Break. If I like it I may try to plan one theme day a week during summer. And maybe I'll even get out my camera and take some pictures of my kids doing some of this stuff and post them. I have been terrible about photographing my kids lately. And even worse about posting stuff about them on the blog. Maybe this will get me going again.

We Call Him "Trouble"

This little boy is getting into a lot of trouble lately. We moved rooms around a few weeks back and put Elise in her own room and Cameron and Steven are sharing (previously Elise and Steven shared and Cameron was by himself). Cameron definitely likes sharing a room with Steven. So much so that when we put him in his crib at night he stands at the edge looking at Steven, saying things like, "Hey Steven! This is fun! Steven!" over and over. After about two nights of that we decided to set up his portacrib in the spare room and put him down there. After he falls asleep I move him into his actual crib - good thing he is a heavy sleeper! That has seemed to do the trick most nights, except for the night that Steven came into our room about 2am to tell me that Cameron wouldn't stop talking to him. I went in to check and sure enough he was standing at the edge of his crib saying, "Hey, Steven! Steven, what ya doing?" He had to finish out that night in the portacrib in the spare room, but luckily it has not since been repeated.

So, for the most part we had our sleeping troubles figured out, until yesterday. Chris and I were playing a game with Elise and Steven, and Cameron kept bulldozing through it. So when he went into his room, I thought it was great because we could finish our game. Things got quiet so I went in to check on him and somehow the boy was INSIDE his crib. I looked at him and said, "Hey, how did you get in there?" He gave me a big smile and climbed right out. Yep, this little trouble maker apparently has figured out how to get in and out of his crib. He might never nap again! Keep your fingers crossed for me that that won't be the case. It's a good thing he is cute, because he sure is trouble!