Brooke's Thr3e Kids

A new project

2009-06-26T09:33:00.003-05:00

I promised Hannah some time ago that when Leah turned two years old, we'd turn the toy room into the girls' bedroom and they could share a room. Well, Leah will be 2 in just a few weeks, so the process has begun!

Of course, I decided the project MUST get started during the time that Pete is teaching his intensive 12 day summer course... he didn't even come home last night because he was busy grading papers. Therefore, all painting must happen after the kids go to sleep.

The kids and I trekked to Lowe's yesterday and bought painting supplies. That was a blast because Leah decided she needed a nap, and I had to carry her limp, sleeping body through the store while pushing the other two in the huge basket that holds three kids. Thankfully, the paint section was right up front!

We inherited a twin mattress which will be for the top bunk of the not-yet-bought-bunkbeds (full size on the bottom)

I failed to take any pictures before I took stuff off the walls, here's the 'before' picture of the north wall.

Many toys are already packed up in those gray boxes... 'before' pic of the west wall.

everything moved to the middle!

We had a church activity last night, so the kids got to bed late, and I didn't get started until even later. I didn't get to open the can of paint until 10pm, so I didn't get too much done...

but it's a start, and Hannah was VERY excited about it this morning!!

Wii Fit Hula Hoop... irl

2009-06-20T22:07:00.002-05:00

Hannah learned to hula hoop today, and she thought it would be funny if people tossed hula hoops at her like on Wii Fit. Unfortunately, the best one happend BEFORE I got the camera out.

What's Missing?

2009-06-15T16:25:00.003-05:00

Elijah got this card in the mail today. I smudged out the addresses since you never know what kind of wacko will come across your blog... Do you notice what's missing??? I didn't see it at first, but I was looking for a postmark (it took a week for a card to get from OK to IN, so I wanted to see how long it was from NJ)... No stamp!!

Elijah's 4th Birthday Party

2009-06-13T16:06:00.003-05:00

He wanted a Mickey Mouse party... so I put a few decorations on the cake (the Mickey candle broke when I took it out of the package)

Daniella

Leah was completely freaked out by the animatronic Chuck E Cheese... she was fine as long as we were away from the eating area.

Rodrigo & Elijah

Ben

Evan & Max

Connor

Kelly

Connor, Max, & Calvin

Rodrigo & Elijah

Zack, Ben, Ty, and Rodrigo

Kate, Kelly, Hannah, Daniella, & Connor

Hannah, Daniella, and Connor

Max & Calvin

Daniella and Hannah

I was lucky to get this picture... There was very little warning, and I was in the right place at the right time!

Mmmm, cake

A freaked out and exhausted Leah being held by Ted

The gifts...

Aack!! There's a TRANSFORMER in my house!!

Two Wheeler!!

2009-06-05T21:10:00.002-05:00

Tonight I took off Hannah's training wheels! Wow... what a big girl!!! Now she just needs to learn to take off without help, and umm.... use the brakes!

Catching up!!

2009-06-05T20:50:00.002-05:00

I can't believe I haven't blogged in about 3 weeks!! It's been pretty busy, so I'll catch everyone up with lots of pictures.

Hannah finished kindergarten!! Here she is with her teacher, Ms Beth.

Elijah refused to smile for his picture with Miss Sarah, so this is the best I got...

Hannah, however, was willing to smile and sit in Miss Sarah's lap!!

The grandparents came to visit and Grandpa took lots of great pictures of the kids.

Hannah was VERY happy with the fairy necklace Ms Beth gave her for kindergarten graduation.

The Double Paci...

Memorial Day picnic with Zack and Walker

This is what happens when you stand up on the moving merry-go-round when there's a GIANT mud puddle surrounding it... He was more upset about being dirty than falling off.

We saw these silos on the way home from the picnic and had to take pictures!

Walker's mom took a couple of pictures at the Chuck E Cheese field trip on the last day of school. Here are Hannah, Walker, Mason, and Elijah.

Hannah, Daniela, and Walker... We will certainly miss having them in class with Hannah next year!!!

Elijah counts... beyond infinity

2009-05-11T15:18:00.002-05:00

Elijah is obsessed with numbers right now, and he spends an awful lot of his time counting. One morning during the 2 minute drive to school he managed to get up to 250 or so. The other day he asked what the biggest number was and I told him infinity. I tried to explain the concept that there really isn't a biggest number because you can always add one more, but it didn't really fly with him. Later, when he was trying to tell a kindergartener in his class that infinity was the biggest number, he was told, "no 'and beyond' is the biggest number!" (someone has been watching too much Buzz Lightyear...). Elijah decided that he would count to the biggest numbers... so here it goes (transcript below)

"a google [a 1 with 100 zeros after it], triangle infinity, infinity 1, infinity 2, infinity 3, infinity 4, infinity 5, infinity 6, infinity 7, infinity 8, infinity 9, infinity 10, infinity 11, infinity 12, and beyond, mooseton, a thousand google one, a thousand google two, a thousand google three, a thousand google 4, a thousand google 5, a thousand google 6, a thousand google 7, a thousand 8, a thousand google 9, melmo-filloby!!

Elijah earned a dollar

2009-05-03T13:01:00.003-05:00

Elijah's class is having a behavior "contest"... Poor behavior earns you tally marks, and if you earn 8 tally marks, you are out of the contest. Elijah has no tally marks at school, but several of the boys are already out.

Because Elijah is obviously motivated by this system, I decided to give it a try. We have our poster board with Hannah's and Elijah's names, and if they are asked to do something (or stop doing something) they have until the count of 3 to start (or stop). If I get to 3, they get a tally mark. Elijah was doing so well, that I decided to throw in an extra incentive... if they went a week w/o getting any tally marks, they would earn a dollar. This is just free money for Hannah, but Elijah had to work a little harder.

the flash hurts his eyes...

Random Leah Pictures & Hannah's Solar System

2009-05-03T12:51:00.003-05:00

This started off as chocolate ice cream...

Shoe thief!

Hannah drew a solar system poster for our pretend classroom

Swimming Pool

2009-05-03T12:45:00.003-05:00

Last weekend it was quite hot, so the kids and I went to Walmart and bought a wading pool. It was a big hit!

Elijah wanted to earn a dollar, so he attempted to clean the toy room (a BIG job, and definitely worth a dollar!!). However, he'd been up late 2 nights in a row because of the school play AND he played in the wading pool for an hour... this is what happend instead :)

These flowers are blooming in my backyard, but I don't know what they are. We have several bushes of them though... Anyone up for a "name that flower" game??

I am SOOOO proud!!

2009-04-27T13:16:00.003-05:00

Elijah is reading, and he brought home his first reader from Montessori today!!! Strangely enough, Hannah just read me the last (#40!!) book in this series this morning...

How to use a rotary phone

2009-04-24T10:45:00.002-05:00

My parents had rotary phones until I went to college (1992!), which is way later than most people I grew up with... But my kids have never seen one.

I thought this video was pretty cool.

Earth Day Projects (Tackle it Wednesday!!)

2009-04-22T21:11:00.003-05:00

After the ice storm, we had our electric line run underground. They cut a 20 inch trench out of our patio... I'm not in the mood to pay for a new patio, so I decided I could fix it myself. I also wanted to get my container garden ready for the herbs and veggies I'm planting this year.

The dogwood is in bloom, so I have the requisit photo of that :)

It's hard to tell, but there is hardly ANY sand in the kids' sandbox... that will soon be remedied! However, I forgot the after photo, so just pretend that it's now brimming with sand :)

Leah and I trekked to Walmart at 8:40 this morning and bought 10 pavers, 10 bags of playsand (4 went straight into the sandbox), and 8 bags of organic potting soil.

Last years' containers were emptied into the trench along with 6 bags of sand. This is all a lot of fun with a toddler sitting on your supplies :)

Little Miss Can't-Keep-Her-Shoes-On

Elijah was very interested in the 'helicopter' seeds from all the maple trees (those things are like WEEDS!)

Typical of Leah...

Practically DONE! I still need 2 more pavers because I didn't bother to measure :) The containers are ready for planting! My plants will arrive in about a week (I buy the veggie plants from the kids' school fund raiser). I even bought 7 foot stakes for the spiral tomato cages I ordered (talk about exciting!!).

Hannah and I planted the herb seeds this afternoon. We planted basil, cilantro, and oregano (a perrenial!)

We transplanted a few daisies and mini-sunflowers we started inside. I imagine we'll have some more to transplant soon. We also started some BIG sunflowers that we will be planting along the fence line. Apparently honeybees really like sunflowers, and we want to do our part to save the honeybees!!

Family Night

2009-04-22T21:01:00.003-05:00

We've been having Family Night on Mondays for the past 4 weeks, and the kids think it is the BEST thing ever! We read some books, sing some songs, play a board game, and eat something sweet that is usually made special for that night. The kids rotate what they are in charge of. This week Hannah picked the book, Elijah picked the game (and helped me make the brownies), and I'm not sure we sang a song :)

Elijah picked Go Fish for the game...

Yay!

Yay!!!

Then the sun came out from behind the storm clouds, and there was a GORGEOUS rainbow.

Then the storm clouds gathered in the dining room... This is what typically happens during our Family Night, Elijah gets mad about something. He was mad that he didn't win (only he really DID win, but apparently he wanted to be grumpy about something!).

For Grandma and Grandpa

2009-04-19T16:16:00.002-05:00

Easter Cuties!!

2009-04-19T15:17:00.003-05:00

Today the kids got to wear their Easter clothes to church since I was sick last week. They looked SUPER cute!!!!!!

Unfortunately, the lighting isn't as good as I like to get... It was raining quite hard this morning, so opening the door wasn't the option it usually is. Leah and Elijah weren't terribly cooperative either, and I'm actually amazed that we got a good picture!!

Leah's Skirt

2009-04-18T22:29:00.003-05:00

I finished up Leah's skirt that matches Hannah's. I think it turned out really cute, and it has fewer mistakes than the first skirt did. It went super fast because it's SO tiny!!

I thought the nap picture was a classic, and couldn't resist taking it or posting it.

Leah's turning out to be quite the ham when I get out the camera!

If only she'd had her eyes open!!!

Food Chain costume pictures

2009-04-17T09:31:00.001-05:00

[note to grandparents: I will mail you a 5x7 of both kids]

Playdate with Jed

2009-04-16T20:58:00.002-05:00

First off, my azaleas are in bloom, and they are SOOOO pretty!! I love them!

Yesterday, the kids were playing Winnie-the-Pooh, and I happen to have Tigger and Piglet costumes... The Tigger is 18 months size, and Piglet is a 2T. Elijah wore the Tigger and HANNAH wore the Piglet w/ the legs unsnapped. The sleeves came to her elbows and the legs came to her waist. Anyway, when the big kids were done, Leah wanted to try on Piglet as well.

Today I watched Jed for 90 minutes while his Mommy had a doctors appointment.

Jed is about 6 months older than Leah, and as always, they had a good time. Lots of parallel play going on with these two!!

Leah was posing. She loves to see the pictures on the camera display.

They had a grand time looking through the mailbox at each other.

Jed couldn't resist the John Deere! Too bad it wasn't outside and it didn't have the battery in it. I'm not sure I trust a newly 2 year old's driving skills...

Songs for the school play

2009-04-12T15:41:00.000-05:00

Hannah's song for the school play, Food Chain, is The Panther Song.

Elijah shows what he remembers of his dance for the school play, Food Chain. Then he gets distracted and starts singing Hannah's song, The Panther Song.

Happy Easter!

2009-04-12T13:10:00.003-05:00

We didn't make it to church because I'm sick, so no pics of cute dress clothes... They'll wear them next week.

We colored and decorated eggs yesterday

The kids really enjoyed that

I'm not sure we can eat 18 hard boiled eggs this week though... We've eaten 3 so far :)

The Easter baskets. Elijah got a Wii Diego game, Hannah got a couple of Reader Rabbit games for the computer, and Leah got some Sandra Boynton board books... as well as candy and bunnies

The egg hunt starts

I had them go one at a time

and limited them to 10 eggs each turn

That way Elijah would actually get to FIND some of the eggs!

I love this action shot... he just spotted an egg!

Elijah did better than I expected... he's typically not a great finder

Leah woke up at this point

Chocolate for breakfast!!!

Here Leah, have some M&M's

Leah picked up on the egg finding pretty quickly

See the azaleas out the window?? Pretty!

empying the loot from the eggs

that's a lot of candy!!!

Winter Quarter Montessori Pics of Elijah

2009-04-08T10:40:00.004-05:00

spooning glass beads

Labeling the parts of a volcano

matching cards

J helps Elijah learn about the teen board

mixing colors (maybe he'll be a chemist like Grandpa!)

Map of the world

more teen board work

red and blue rods

even more work on the teen board (did I mention he can now count to 100!)

identifying initial sounds

word building !!!! He is SOO proud!

Amazing!!!

2009-04-01T10:07:00.003-05:00

During the January 28th ice storm our beautiful crabapple tree lost about 2/3 of it limbs. We considered having the entire tree removed, but I couldn't do it. Surely, it could survive! It's now in bloom!! The most amazing part is one of the limbs that fell (and we haven't gotten rid of yet, but we're working on it!), is ALSO blooming!

This last one is actually attached to a live branch (see the leaves?). There are no leaves on the "dead" branches.

I'm pretty sure there's a powerful metaphore in here somewhere!

The Skirt

2009-03-28T15:33:00.002-05:00

I used this tutorial to make Hannah's skirt, but I didn't follow it exactly :) It turned out pretty well, but with a few mistakes (of course!!). I learned a few things that I'll do differently for the next one. 1) I'll follow my Mom's directions for gathering the skirt instead of the tutorials (basting stitches at 1/4" and 1/2" w/ a seam allowance of 5/8") so the basting stitches don't show. 2) Add a few more inches on the top tier. I only added 3" from Hannah's waist measurement, and 5" would have been better. When I make mine, I'll have to measure my hips to see just how large I need it to be.

The Wedding Party

2009-03-27T13:30:00.002-05:00

Uncle Wayne is getting married in July, and the kids are all going to be in the wedding party. Their clothes arrived yesterday, so we tried them on and took some pics to share.

Elijah was mad that he was barefoot... He will be wearing a black bow tie, but I don't have it yet.

I'll have to have his pants hemmed, but I won't do it until July because he might grow!!