Monday Feb 23 gardens and zoos

I think it takes a great amount of faith to plant a seed and believe it will grow.We planted seeds in our new garden box - Fixitman and the boys finished building it on Saturday.

Radishes, beets, spinach, lettuces, and peas. Cool weather crops to grow before it gets warm.Planting seeds and watering them is so easy for the boys. They seem to just know that the plants will come. I wish it were so easy for me.

I worry about if I will get the right amount of water to them and if we planted them too deep or too shallow. In short, I make it a bit stressful for myself. The simple act of planting seeds becomes a growing experience.

After we planted seeds it was off to the zoo for a last trip before our membership expired. I marveled to watch my boys at the zoo, how much they've grown in the past year. Munchkin happily slept while we saw the hippos, the giraffes, elephants, rhinos, monkey, goats... They knew where the animals were, and which ones they wanted to see.The meerkats were out on watch duty. They are adorable!

Dinoguy gives a baby elephant statue some love.

Trainboy and Munchkin in the stroller. All the direct shots of Munchkin were eaten by the memory card again. Argh.

These baby lion cubs don't look so small in this picture as they did at the zoo in comparison to their parents. I thought they were adorable. Then the dad started roaring in the next habitat over; it was very interesting to hear. It didn't sound like a roar like the Lion King as much as one would think.

Sunday update

The boys like their photos taken too. Here they are one day this past week:



Then this afternoon I thought this was cute. Popcorn, candy & carrots make an excellent snack while playing memory on the Superman computer. I should have gotten a photo later in the day when we had Spiderman and a Power ranger crawling around in blankets and having all sorts of adventures. They are good friends, these boys.

Dinoguy loves to hold Munchkin. Trainboy does too, but Dinoguy is asking all the time. He is a loving big brother.

This post was supposed to be photos of the boys - but look what she decided to do this evening while Fixitman was reading to the boys. Her neck muscles are getting stronger!

Week 8 baby photos

Can you stand more photos of Munchkin? I missed 3 days from this week, here's what I did get.

Dressing up my baby girl for church is just fun. I have approximately 40 photos of her in this outfit, but this smile is irresistible.

Baby naps with daddy are classic photos.

It's probably a sign I take too many pictures of my baby when she seems to recognize it when I bring it out.

Going outside with Dad. I have a photo with him actually smiling, but you can't see her face. Sorry Fixitman - or not - stop grimacing at the camera.

This Sunday's photo. Again - she is so stinking cute!

Legos

Sometimes play is a quiet activity full of imagination and concentration.

7th week

(Missing day here)

Snapshot Sunday

If you can't find a toy, it's probably in Dinoguy's bed.

Remains from making chocolate pretzel sticks for V-day!

Leave a post for Sarah if you decide to play. Details here.

Arty art Art

Making art at the art museum

Experiencing art in the art museum

Artfully painting home depot treasure boxes

Finished art masterpieces

Trainboy and Lego Starwars

Trainboy has been really figuring out how to play Lego Starwars lately. It has been fascinating to watch him learn and problem solve and play and enjoy it. When we first got the system, this game was beyond his capability and he mostly took his character off cliffs a bunch. Then he learned how to make R2D2 fly and how to open locks with him and he was always R2D2. Soon he learned how to use the force as the Emperor and put everyone in choke holds. Driving vehicles became fun and he would find them and drive them around all over. Eventually gathering the currency pieces and buying characters was popular. The traditional goals of the game have not been his goals until recently. He is very skilled at the game now and will tell me who to turn my character into and what to do to help his character. He knows where to go for all the kit pieces, to find extra coins, to find missing characters...he is mastering the game and it has been fascinating to watch. While Dinoguy and he used to be quite conflicted in playing together because they had very different goals in mind, they are playing together quite well now and the only arguments are when one boy opens a door or builds an object in game that the other wanted to do.

Concept-wise, Trainboy recognizes many words as a result of the game and his mathematical quantity skills are getting a workout. "I wanted to do free play, not story!" "How much more do I need to buy Boba Fett? Do I have enough yet?" "Mom help me turn bounty hunter rockets on!" It's been fascinating to watch him on it. And even as it is one of his main interests right now, it has not become all he does. He paints, builds with legos, plays outside, et cetera. And even with just one TV in the house, we haven't had sharing problems between TV watching and video game playing. It's all worked out quite nicely actually.

6th week photos

One photo a day

Blessing Day

Both Grandpa's were in town for Munchkin's blessing. My mom made her a beautiful blessing gown. I neglected to take pictures of the Grandpa's holding her in her gown, something I regret. Alas, none of our whole family either.
I did get a few cute photos of her at least.

Here she is with her second cousin afterward. He is such a cutie.

Here is the whole dress perspective.

Playing games with Grandpas

Dinoguy decided he wanted to teach DinoGrandpa how to play backgammon while he was visiting. (This involved me sitting there and explaining the rules to both, since Dinoguy only vaguely remembered the rules from the last time we had played.) Then I played backgammon with Trainboy.

DinoGrandpa & Dinoguy then played Battleship while Trainboy & I played Blokus Trigon and then switched to Trainboy playing battleship with DinoGrandpa and Dinoguy & I making designs with Blokus. Playing Blokus with the boys involves a lot of free play and design making. Trainboy's game of Battleship quickly became him playing individually with the ships, since he liked to sail them around his board, making guessing where the ships were doubly hard. Here is a photo Dinoguy took of his picture he made on the blokus board.Of course the boys played Hide & Seek with Grandpa Actuary while he was here - they love to use their new best hiding places in games with him. The boys loved having their Grandpas visit, even for a short weekend.

Bowling fun

The boys were very excited to go bowling with Grandpa Actuary. We played for 2 hours as part of a package deal that included pizza; the boys were having so much fun they didn't want to leave - last time we went bowling they didn't even make it thru an entire game. Dinoguy studied and attempted to emulate his Grandpa, which led to many interesting tosses. Trainboy got help from Grandpa each time and used a granny throw style. The background of the bowling screen was changed multiple times; looking at the different animations was part of the fun. I bowled while wearing Munchkin, she slept soundly thru it all.