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.

Snapshot Sunday

Lovely Car phone that became a toy.

Some games and puzzles kept at kid level. The precarious stacking amuses me - it changes daily.

We started some seeds this week!

A Guatemalan doll from my sister. Her backside is where I keep plastic bags.

Visit Sarah to play, explanation here.

Lemonade and Porkchops

Dinoguy and I have been reading the cookbooks he picked out at the library. Reading thru every recipe. The first recipe that caught his fancy was for Lemonade and had a drawing of a lemonade stand. He just had to have a lemonade stand to make money and fill his wallet. (His words.) I told him it was a bit cold for lemonade stands and that he might not get any customers. He was not deterred.
He brought it up and made sure we got lemons at the store and with Grandpa Actuary's help (in town visiting) made up a lovely batch of lemonade and then asked when Fixitman would build his stand. Luckily he accepted a small desk and chair as a substitute. He made his signs and set up shop. It was about 2 in the afternoon on a Saturday, no one was about. Two people down the street emerged and he yelled for them to come buy lemonade to no avail. Not easily deterred, Dinoguy wanted to go knock on doors and tell people his lemonade stand was open. I think he'd be a natural salesman! I didn't allow the door to door solicitation. After about 15 minutes, the pork chops he'd made earlier were done inside and we headed inside to eat them. No sales of lemonade. We talked about it today, and he's ready to wait for a bit warmer weather to try again.

The apple porkchops he made for everyone (both Grandpa's were visiting) were delicious. Mmm... Excellent supper for a Saturday afternoon.

Munchkin's 5th Week

One photo a day

Snapshot Sunday

Monday morning really so a bit late. :) See Sarah to play!