Saturday, June 26, 2010
Where Is Home Little Pip?
We were gone most of the day today. Erik and I went to the movies to see Iron Man 2, and Nick spent a few hours at a friends house, then we all went to dinner afterwards. It was a nice peaceful day, ended with the Disney movie Pinnochio (to follow up the book we just finished) and then the story Where is Home Little Pip? . We loved the new story, it is about a little penguin who gets lost from home and learns what really makes home, home.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Finally
Nick is so excited tonight because he can "finally sleep without a shirt". He's been asking me if he could go to bed without a shirt on since the middle of winter, it's finally warm enough now and he's soooo excited!
Owl Moon
Today's books:
We read more of Adventures in the Big Thicket. Still love it, it's a fun book with neat stories. Today we read one where all of the thicket animals come together to figure out how to deal with a grouchy 'gator.
At bedtime we read "Owl Moon". This is a great story! It's about a child (of unknown gender) who goes owling with his/her dad. It's beautifully illustrated and very well told, one of those real life type adventures, the type of adventure a child could really have.
We read more of Adventures in the Big Thicket. Still love it, it's a fun book with neat stories. Today we read one where all of the thicket animals come together to figure out how to deal with a grouchy 'gator.
At bedtime we read "Owl Moon". This is a great story! It's about a child (of unknown gender) who goes owling with his/her dad. It's beautifully illustrated and very well told, one of those real life type adventures, the type of adventure a child could really have.
Photos
I'm having some issues with photos showing at larger than their actual size, so I am going to stop using the current size photos, and instead use thumbnails (see the last post for an idea of how big). You can click on these thumbnails and see the full size photo, it should also make the pages load a bit faster.
And that is why I love him...
One of the things I absolutely adore about Nick is his ability to see things totally differently than anyone else ever would.
This is a picture of him playing with his train station from his Geotrax set. He's made it into an entirely different toy by turning it on it's side. It's his favorite way to play with toys, make them stand on their side and then see what you can do with them. I think half the challenge is figuring out how to get it to stay up, especially if the toy folds in half like most of his imaginext sets.
This is a picture of him playing with his train station from his Geotrax set. He's made it into an entirely different toy by turning it on it's side. It's his favorite way to play with toys, make them stand on their side and then see what you can do with them. I think half the challenge is figuring out how to get it to stay up, especially if the toy folds in half like most of his imaginext sets.
This is why....
This is why you should never let a preschool girl get ahold of a round brush:
For the record... we did get it out and with minimal pain, fortunately she was feeling patient and sat still for me so I could pick the strands of hair out in the order they were tangled!
For the record... we did get it out and with minimal pain, fortunately she was feeling patient and sat still for me so I could pick the strands of hair out in the order they were tangled!
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Books
So, I'm wanting to keep track of some of the super wonderful books we have been reading lately. There have been way to many to list, but here are a few, and I'll be adding more as we find particularly good ones:
We just finished the original Pinnochio book. Boy, is that one strange book! Okay, I don't know that I'd recommend it, it is well written, but I'm not sure what the guy was smoking when he wrote it. Truly one of the strangest stories I've ever read. Highly creepy! Nick loved it though, so we did read the whole thing.
Before that we read several of the Dr. Doolittle books. These were great fun for the whole family. The first book had beautiful pictures which was a double bonus, but the second and third just had simple line drawings. These are definitely a family favorite. I've read the original one a couple of times. These are really good for a read aloud, because there are a few areas where the terms they use for people are less than PC, so reading it aloud allows for some mild term editing.
At the beginning of the year, we read the original Winnie the Pooh series. Another fun set. I'd actually never read them and they were fantastic. Nick especially loved them.
During the day this week, we've been reading "Adventures in the Big Thicket" by Ken Gire, which is a delightful series of stories, all with a moral lesson. Lots of fun and quite enjoyable.
That reminds me, we recently read a collection of stories called "The Children's Book of Virtues" wow, that is an incredible selection of poems and stories. We loved it! There are a few more in the series, but this one was aimed at young kids Nick's age and a bit older / younger.
So, back to this week, a few more books we read:
Bentley and Egg - I love this one, we've read it a couple of times. It's about a frog whose best friend is a duck. The duck lays an egg... frog gets jealous of the egg, but in the end the frog ends up saving the egg from a young boy. A great story, and would be fantastic for sibling jealousy as it deals with similar emotions.
Zoom at Sea - This was a good story, but a bit weird. Nick loved it, so perhaps it just required more imagination than I had this morning. The story is about a cat who goes sailing on the ocean, which is in someone's living room... at least that's what it sounded like. Still, a very well written book. If you figure out what the deal with the ocean is, I'd love to hear!
Flat Stanley - We read this in preparation for our Flat Stanley project. A decent, easily read book. Definitely a "quick" read. Not the best written book, but it's rather amusing to think of what it would be like to be flat.
Harald and the Great Stag - we read this one tonight for family story time (every night we have a story that we all share right before bed). It's a great story with wonderful illustrations. In the story Harald risks getting into a lot of trouble by saving a Stag that is being hunted, and in the process gets to see what it feels like to be hunted. Probably not a story you want to read if you want your kids to be hunters. Harald (yes, this is really how he spells it) is a loving, courageous, intelligent young boy.
We just finished the original Pinnochio book. Boy, is that one strange book! Okay, I don't know that I'd recommend it, it is well written, but I'm not sure what the guy was smoking when he wrote it. Truly one of the strangest stories I've ever read. Highly creepy! Nick loved it though, so we did read the whole thing.
Before that we read several of the Dr. Doolittle books. These were great fun for the whole family. The first book had beautiful pictures which was a double bonus, but the second and third just had simple line drawings. These are definitely a family favorite. I've read the original one a couple of times. These are really good for a read aloud, because there are a few areas where the terms they use for people are less than PC, so reading it aloud allows for some mild term editing.
At the beginning of the year, we read the original Winnie the Pooh series. Another fun set. I'd actually never read them and they were fantastic. Nick especially loved them.
During the day this week, we've been reading "Adventures in the Big Thicket" by Ken Gire, which is a delightful series of stories, all with a moral lesson. Lots of fun and quite enjoyable.
That reminds me, we recently read a collection of stories called "The Children's Book of Virtues" wow, that is an incredible selection of poems and stories. We loved it! There are a few more in the series, but this one was aimed at young kids Nick's age and a bit older / younger.
So, back to this week, a few more books we read:
Bentley and Egg - I love this one, we've read it a couple of times. It's about a frog whose best friend is a duck. The duck lays an egg... frog gets jealous of the egg, but in the end the frog ends up saving the egg from a young boy. A great story, and would be fantastic for sibling jealousy as it deals with similar emotions.
Zoom at Sea - This was a good story, but a bit weird. Nick loved it, so perhaps it just required more imagination than I had this morning. The story is about a cat who goes sailing on the ocean, which is in someone's living room... at least that's what it sounded like. Still, a very well written book. If you figure out what the deal with the ocean is, I'd love to hear!
Flat Stanley - We read this in preparation for our Flat Stanley project. A decent, easily read book. Definitely a "quick" read. Not the best written book, but it's rather amusing to think of what it would be like to be flat.
Harald and the Great Stag - we read this one tonight for family story time (every night we have a story that we all share right before bed). It's a great story with wonderful illustrations. In the story Harald risks getting into a lot of trouble by saving a Stag that is being hunted, and in the process gets to see what it feels like to be hunted. Probably not a story you want to read if you want your kids to be hunters. Harald (yes, this is really how he spells it) is a loving, courageous, intelligent young boy.
Father's Day
Father's Day was last Sunday, and we had a good day. We tried to make it a fun day for Erik. Nick wanted me to show everyone the cookie cake we got at Sam's Club for Erik:
I tried to give Erik a video game (I hadn't gotten it yet because it hasn't been released yet), but he has decided he'd rather go out just the two of us, so we're going to do that (which I'd rather do anyways :) ). Nick insisted that he needed to buy his daddy a box of chocolates, but we couldn't find one he liked so he ended up giving him two bags of truffles, yummm.
I tried to give Erik a video game (I hadn't gotten it yet because it hasn't been released yet), but he has decided he'd rather go out just the two of us, so we're going to do that (which I'd rather do anyways :) ). Nick insisted that he needed to buy his daddy a box of chocolates, but we couldn't find one he liked so he ended up giving him two bags of truffles, yummm.
Flat People
We've decided to do flat people for homeschool this year, and we'll be keeping track of their travels on our blog here. So, what is a flat person? I'm glad you asked :) Flat people are paper people that go travelling and stay as guests in other people's homes. Ideally people in other parts of the state, other states, and even other countries. The hosts take the people with them when they go places, take pictures with the flat people, and write a little journal for the flat person (or an e-mail home, which is what we're hoping for). When they are done they send it on to someone else or return the flat person to it's home. This is a great way to expose kids to geography and make distant places a little more real. So, we've got our flat people decorated, I'll post pictures of them soon, we've got some ummmm interesting "people", including some real aliens! If anyone is interested in hosting one for us, please let me know!
Here's Nick working on one of the flat people he decorated:
Here's Nick working on one of the flat people he decorated:
Take A Kid Fishing Day
A week or so ago, we had the opportunity to participate in Idaho's annual "Take A Kid Fishing Day". There were local events, but we decided to make a day out of it and drive out to Island Park for the day. It was windy and a little chilly, but absolutely beautiful. Nick has always wanted to go fishing and we had not yet taken him out so this was a great opportunity. We didn't catch anything, but we all had a lot of fun.
Just Nick and Daddy:
If you take a close look you can see how crowded this little pond was, it was crazy, I'm sure that didn't help with catching anything.
Pondering life? Maybe or maybe just pondering how serious mommy and daddy were when they said not to throw any more rocks in the pond :)
Later we stopped for a picnic lunch and watched the wildlife at the Harriman State Park Wildlife Reserve, and then we went for a drive up by the Mesa Falls, where we hope to go camping sometime this year.
Just Nick and Daddy:
If you take a close look you can see how crowded this little pond was, it was crazy, I'm sure that didn't help with catching anything.
Pondering life? Maybe or maybe just pondering how serious mommy and daddy were when they said not to throw any more rocks in the pond :)
Later we stopped for a picnic lunch and watched the wildlife at the Harriman State Park Wildlife Reserve, and then we went for a drive up by the Mesa Falls, where we hope to go camping sometime this year.
Science Experiments
Grandma sent Nick a super fun Energy Science Kit a couple of weeks ago. She sent some other things too, but this was really what caught his attention. He was so excited, we had to do this one right away. The idea is to light the LED using a variety of liquids and some metal plates. We tried a few different liquids. Water didn't light it up at all, water with vinegar lit it up pretty good, as did salt water. Surprisingly lemon water didn't light it up very well at all, just slightly better than plain water. In retrospect I should have tied this to our energy science lessons that we had before, but I didn't even think about it at the time... maybe next time :)
Here's Nick checking out the light to try to gauge how bright it is.
Tada:
Here's Nick checking out the light to try to gauge how bright it is.
Tada:
A Trip to the Circus
At the beginning of June we took Nick to the circus. It was a great night and we all had a ton of fun. I tried very hard to capture his excitement on camera, but it just wasn't possible to get the full level of his excitement. At times he was actually jumping up and down and pointing, it was great. Five is definitely the ideal age for the circus.
Have some cotton candy?
Are you sure?
A little glimpse of the wonder:
We really wanted to get Nick a souvenier, this was what he chose. This light up sword ended up being the hit of the night, and we're trying to figure out if daddy can make a "real" lightsaber thatlights up on both ends like this.
This face says it all:
Isn't this cool?
A wonderful night full of wonderful memories!
Have some cotton candy?
Are you sure?
A little glimpse of the wonder:
We really wanted to get Nick a souvenier, this was what he chose. This light up sword ended up being the hit of the night, and we're trying to figure out if daddy can make a "real" lightsaber thatlights up on both ends like this.
This face says it all:
Isn't this cool?
A wonderful night full of wonderful memories!
A Farewell To Boxie
Nick said goodbye to a faithful old friend today.
Several months ago, Erik got a sand blaster which came in a very large cardboard box. Nick has played with that box for months (literally). It has been a house, a restaurant, even a turtle shell! You name it, he's done it with that box. The box has finally had it, so he said goodbye, and then wrote goodbye on the box (so that boxie wouldn't forget he loved him). So here is a final salute of farewell to Boxie:
Several months ago, Erik got a sand blaster which came in a very large cardboard box. Nick has played with that box for months (literally). It has been a house, a restaurant, even a turtle shell! You name it, he's done it with that box. The box has finally had it, so he said goodbye, and then wrote goodbye on the box (so that boxie wouldn't forget he loved him). So here is a final salute of farewell to Boxie:
Great times with family
While we were in California we got to spend lots of time with family. Before the wedding we spent time at the country club that the wedding was at with Erik's family.
Nick spent a lot of time playing with Grandpa, it was fun to see them have so much quality time together. They slayed "dragons" together while riding their trusty steeds. Grandpa's horse was "Lucky" and Nick's was "Champ". They had a wonderful time together.
Grandpa even tried to teach Nick a little golf (not that grandpa is a golfer). Golf is now Nick's favorite sport, because Grandpa taught it to him :)
--------------------------
After the wedding we stayed an extra couple of days so we could take a trip to Disneyland. We haven't been in years, so it was a lot of fun. My sister, her husband, and kids, and Erik's parents all came with us. We even got Nick onto a fast ride, the Matterhorn. When he went on, my neice Ashley, who is about 9 mos younger than him, turned to him and said "I'm so proud of you for going on the fast ride" isn't that sweet!
Here's Nick on the A for the California Adventure Sign:
Nick and Ashley on the Finding Nemo Submarine:
and Squishy too (just a little bit after his 1st birthday here)
Oh No! Thrown in jail by Uncle Carlos :)
Oh No! Locked up again? This time on Tom Sawyer Island
Can he get the Sword In the Stone Out?
Nick spent a lot of time playing with Grandpa, it was fun to see them have so much quality time together. They slayed "dragons" together while riding their trusty steeds. Grandpa's horse was "Lucky" and Nick's was "Champ". They had a wonderful time together.
Grandpa even tried to teach Nick a little golf (not that grandpa is a golfer). Golf is now Nick's favorite sport, because Grandpa taught it to him :)
--------------------------
After the wedding we stayed an extra couple of days so we could take a trip to Disneyland. We haven't been in years, so it was a lot of fun. My sister, her husband, and kids, and Erik's parents all came with us. We even got Nick onto a fast ride, the Matterhorn. When he went on, my neice Ashley, who is about 9 mos younger than him, turned to him and said "I'm so proud of you for going on the fast ride" isn't that sweet!
Here's Nick on the A for the California Adventure Sign:
Nick and Ashley on the Finding Nemo Submarine:
and Squishy too (just a little bit after his 1st birthday here)
Oh No! Thrown in jail by Uncle Carlos :)
Oh No! Locked up again? This time on Tom Sawyer Island
Can he get the Sword In the Stone Out?
Wedding
This post is wayyyy late, but we've had a busy couple of months, and I haven't done good about keeping the blog up to date. I'm hoping I can get it caught up and do better with it now.
At the beginning of May, we took a trip to California for Jason and Page's Wedding (Erik's brother and his new wife). The wedding was beautiful, the trip relaxing and a lot of fun. There was only one problem, Erik was sick as a dog for the wedding, he didn't even get to stay for the reception he was so sick. He did manage to pretty much make it through the wedding although he did have to sneak out and sit down for a couple of minutes. Here are a few of our pictures from the trip:
All dressed up for the wedding:
Before the wedding, and before Erik started to turn green (although he was already feeling pretty sick at this point)
At the reception, Nick shows off his missing teeth. It was amazing how good he behaved for the wedding, he was so well behaved, I couldn't have been prouder!
Nick and his grandpa:
Dancing with Grandma:
At the beginning of May, we took a trip to California for Jason and Page's Wedding (Erik's brother and his new wife). The wedding was beautiful, the trip relaxing and a lot of fun. There was only one problem, Erik was sick as a dog for the wedding, he didn't even get to stay for the reception he was so sick. He did manage to pretty much make it through the wedding although he did have to sneak out and sit down for a couple of minutes. Here are a few of our pictures from the trip:
All dressed up for the wedding:
Before the wedding, and before Erik started to turn green (although he was already feeling pretty sick at this point)
At the reception, Nick shows off his missing teeth. It was amazing how good he behaved for the wedding, he was so well behaved, I couldn't have been prouder!
Nick and his grandpa:
Dancing with Grandma:
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