Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Spring Update



I wanted to take a few minutes to update you all on Nicholas and Daniel. There seem to be so many new and fun things that they're into nowadays! Despite the challenges of some bickering and wrestling that often results in tears, we're enjoying this stage in their lives.

Nicholas: He has matured in so many ways the past few months. He loves playing Uno and creating things with his legos. School goes smoothly on most days, which is a big change from the fall, when he would often fight me on the reading/handwriting lessons. I think his confidence in learning new things has greatly improved, and he looks forward to our school time now. I am really excited about what next year will bring, when we really get down to business!

Above are photos of him with a reading incentive chart that I downloaded. Every day that he does "his best reading," he gets to color an arrow on the chart. After about five arrows, he earns a small treat. Today, we completed the chart and were able to go out to McDonald's for lunch and ice cream!

Daniel: Daniel is our little extrovert. He is soooo verbal! Chris and I often have to be careful about what we say around him, because he will ask about things he's overheard, even several minutes or hours later! Like Nicholas, he is also taking an interest in board games and puzzles, but story time is still his favorite. Daniel's favorite place on earth? Busch Gardens! (McDonald's might be a close second.) He absolutely loves to look at the map of the park, and point out all the different rides and attractions.

Daniel will attend an at-home preschool one morning a week in the fall. My friend who is teaching it is very artsy-craftsy and great with his age group, so I'm sure he will love it. This will also allow him to socialize a bit more and give me more focused school time with Nicholas that day.

Andrew: Not too much to say here except that he seems to be a very active little guy who enjoys ice cream as much as his mama! I'm sure we'll have plenty of stories to tell about Andrew in the coming months...

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Nicholas Turns Five!

Our sweet guy turned five years old last Sunday. We celebrated by going out to lunch, then to Toys R Us to pick out a "big boy bike." Later in the day, we enjoyed a Nicholas-requested dinner of fish and mac-n-cheese, followed by earthworm cake. (If it looks familiar, that's because I made him this cake last year, and he wanted the same thing again!)

Today was his party. Six little boys and one brave girl came over for Star Wars Jedi training. Chris taught them some Jedi light saber moves, then the kids used them on him (as well as some other good-natured dads)!



Our Family Celebration



Running away from Jedi!


Chris gives a lesson in light saber moves.


Daniel finds a battle partner.


"Cupcake Ice Cream Cones"


Opening Gifts...


Sunday, April 4, 2010

Happy Easter!


Chris reads to the boys about the Resurrection Egg for that day. If you are not familiar with them, each plastic egg contains a small item representing something from the Easter story (crown of thorns, stone, etc.). Each day leading up to Easter, we read a portion of scripture and opened one of the eggs. The boys loved it, and learned a lot.




We had a great time at the church egg hunt on Saturday!




My serious little man, trying not to drop his plastic egg on a spoon.




Nicholas, concentrating on the beanbag toss.




Daniel got a sheep painted onto his face.








We let them dig into their candy (which proved to be a mistake based on their activity level later in the morning...)



Handsome boys




My three sweet sons!


We have enjoyed a weekend full of Easter festivities, and are so thankful for the resurrection of Christ our Savior. Happy Easter! He is risen!