Thursday, May 31, 2012

My awesome three


  • I love all the little drawings Carter has been leaving around the house.  He makes treasure maps with pictures of people and dotted lines to the treasure.  I've also been finding lots of cards and letters.  Usually he likes to write the same three letters {t, e, r} over and over in different orders.  I also found out today he knows how to spell Ava's name. 
  • Tonight after we put Ava to bed, we heard her up in her bedroom singing at the TOP OF HER LUNGS.  At first we thought she was yelling for us, but nope, she was singing her ABC's.  I think she may be following in her cousin Riley's footsteps.  {Riley girl LOVES to sing.}
  • Everyday Dawson surprises me with new words and ways to communicate with us.  He loves listening to music when we are playing in the toy room and will point fiercely at the CD player and sing little made up tunes until I turn it on for him.  {This makes me so happy, studies have shown that children who enjoy music have a head start when learning to read.}  He is also becoming a huge scavenger.  If I slack off a little and leave dishes with food on the table, he climbs up onto the chairs and starts eating the remaining food.  I'm still finding him sitting on the table on a regular basis.
Not too much else is going on right now.  Ava has been feeling under the weather today, but I'm hoping she won't pass it on to her brothers.  

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Butterflies


Lately we have been watching the butterfly life cycle.  We started with three caterpillars:  Dragon Ka Kragon, Jen and Nemo.  Nemo unfortunately never grew and never made a chrysalis.  Jen is in her chrysalis right now.  Dragon Ka Kragon just left her chrysalis, but we have some problems.  Her leg and wing on one side of her body are deformed and she really can't fly.  For a period of time we thought she was dead, now it's pretty clear that she is going to be bird bait as soon as she is released.

This has made for some interesting conversations, including genetics, death and  predators.  My little Carter boy wants to fix it and scoured the backyard for butterfly medicine.  He came back with a piece of clover, which we did put into the butterfly garden, but there have not been any miracle fixes as of yet.  He has also discussed making a new wing for our butterfly out of paper and tape.  It's pretty hard to explain to him that this won't fix the butterfly.  

Jen should be leaving her chrysalis any time now, so I'm really hoping we'll get at least one decent butterfly!



Monday, May 28, 2012

Memorial Day Parade

Today we went to a Memorial Day Parade.  We were lucky enough to have Grandma join us, and the kids had a blast.  It was a wonderful parade, the kids were able to see military vehicles, fire engines, police cars, horses, Shriner's cars, motorcycles, bands, the works!  I hope that by taking the kids to events such as these, they realize the importance of honoring our military servicemen.



Dawson's language interpreted:

wee-oo wee-oo = sirens {usually a fire truck or police car}
boom boom = vroom vroom {usually a big truck or tractor} 




Carter wore his cousin Brendan's hand me down military flight suit.  Despite the heat he wore it, and received many compliments and even special candy. 


Baby Dewey stayed on my hip most of the time.  His second favorite word right now is Dewey, so we have decided it's a new nickname.


Our little Roover girl

In the car, Mike told me how cute Ava is at parades.  She is very focused on waving and saying Hi to everyone.

Carter's favorite?  The candy.  But I wouldn't accept this as his favorite, so his second favorite was the Humvee.

Ava's favorite?  The princesses {pageant girls}

Dawson's favorite?  The boom boom's  

Happy Memorial Day!


Happy Memorial Day!
We made sure to start it off right, by grilling out.



Sunday, May 27, 2012

Dirt can't hurt. Right?

Yesterday we had a load of dirt delivered for my garden.  You would have thought the kids died and went to dirt heaven.  Seriously, a pile of dirt is the best baby-sitter we could have asked for!


Ava was digging and scooping.


This boy had a ball.  We all know he is a mountain climber, and it was so much fun to have a mountain he was allowed to climb!


Then he started smearing dirt in his hair.


Then some dirt may or may not have been consumed.  Total sensory experience!


Dirt is a boy's best friend.




Thursday, May 24, 2012

Hunting Pictures


Hey guys, do you want to go up and play in the woods for awhile?

OF COURSE!  But, we have to get our hunting gear on first.




Mom, these aren't snow boots, they are hunting boots.


Hunting vest, check.  
Nerf blaster, check.
hunting {snow} boots, check.


Another picture from a totally different day.

Mom, come quick, Dawson looks like a cave baby.
What?
Ok, now that makes sense.


Note to self: time to do laundry when husband starts putting baby in 4 year old's shirt.




Sunday, May 20, 2012

May Birthdays

Thank you to Meme and Grandpap Bob for the wonderful weekend.  We spent time in Sidney to celebrate all the May birthdays in our family {Meme, Grandpap Bob and Uncle Patrick.} 


Uncle Patrick picked us up an extra special palm tree sprinkler.


After a short walk in Tawawa Park we stopped at Sidney's main attraction:  the big rock.


Cute baby.  But oh so clingy lately.  Not even Daddy can suffice.



Don't worry if you knew Uncle Patrick, you wouldn't be worried about this.




Happy Birthday dear Bob Bob....and Meme....and Uncle Patrick


I love ice cream cones!!


Dawson, I have photographic proof of the fact that you can be happy with people other than me.  Thanks Sara for all your help this weekend!


Just a little boost.

Nana told me a funny story..... Carter came to her and said "Nana, this book ripped, but I didn't do it.  It was just my hand."

Thank you everyone for the wonderful weekend, and Happy Birthday everyone!