Jelly Fish Saturday!!

Daddy had to work this morning and I was wanting to do some sewing. So I gave the boys a craft to do. I gave them paper plates cut in half and cupcake liners glued in half. Then we cut strips of colorful scrap paper and bent them all up. I had them glue the scrap paper to the straight side (not the curve) of the plates and liners. They then glued on googly eyes and colored them with crayons. They made about 4 big and 6 little Jelly Fish!

During that time I was able to make two 4th of July tutus for my nieces. When daddy came home, he distracted them enough so I could make my first dress!!!! YAY@!! I've made plenty of skirts and pants but never a dress. The biasing(is that a word?)/neckline scared me. But I had a good guide. I followed the dress directions from the book Simple Sewing for Babies by Lotta Jansdotter. http://jansdotter.com/shop/item.php?serial=504
I really enjoy this book and can't wait to make more of the things in it.

Oh man I really wish I had my camera. Tomorrow we go to the Aquarium and I'm said to not have it. :(

Tonight I have some more books to read to the boys related to our theme. Our week has been all jumbled up. But I'm really excited to read Curious George goes to the Aquarium!!

Wish my luck on finding my charger so I can post more pictures!!! I know that's what everyone comes here to see. ;)

Octopus Thursday!

Yesterday, Wednesday I had to do some cleaning around the house and we also had to go to the grocery store. Add in two wild behaving boys, we didn't get the chance to settle down and read/do craft.

Today we did get a book and craft in. We read the book Herman the Helper by Robert Kraus. Gavin loved the book and even read it to Daddy when he came home from work.

We then made our own Octopus. The boys colored paper bags, we filled the end of the bags with rolled up newspaper and then taped it off to make a head. We then cut the bottom of the bag to make eight legs. It was adorable!

Herman the Helper - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0671662708/ref=cm_rdp_product
Our source for the craft idea - http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/2008/04/under-sea.html
Many of my craft projects come from this very talented Momma! Her blog offers wonderful book reviews as well.

Swimmy day!

On Tuesday we went to the pool!
Gavin decided he wanted to swim in the deep pool and not the small kiddie pool. That meant I had to actually pay for Gavin and I ($3 each so no biggie). The boys brought their lifevests so I felt comfortable with it. Teagan loved it right away. Gavin not so much. He got in for a couple minutes and immediately got out. He sat out for about 20 minutes with me pleading and begging him.
Finally he wanted to try again and I would not let him back out until they blew the whistle for break. So I'm swimming around with two little boys in lifevests hanging on each arm. It was a blast. After a while Gavin got the courage to swim on his own and he did great! He was actually following Teagan and I around the pool where he couldn't touch. He was super excited. After about 2 hours of this, we took a snack break and then went to the kiddie pool where Teagan had more freedom. There were a few kids there his size and he could actually crawl on his hands with his butt floating. He loved doing that. We spent about an hour on that side with Gavin begging the entire time to go back over to the big pool. Well, it was getting late so I decided it was time to get going. We've been there for 3 hours and we still wanted to go get ice cream. As we were getting our things together a life guard comes over and tells us that the pool is closing because someone got sick. They were giving everyone a raincheck! How awesome! So after we changed we were given a free pass. I know I could have passed on it since we were leaving anyway, but heck, it's a free swimming day.
After all this we meet daddy at the PX for some ice cream from Baskin Robbins. Teagan fell asleep as soon as we got in the car so he missed out on that. He even slept the whole ride home and 2 more hours at home. So I say it was an awesome day!

ETA: Still no pictures. I have no clue where my charger is. :(

Monday Fish!

After two weeks of visiting family and getting back to our schedule, I'm ready to get on a roll again! We are doing an Under the Sea/Aquarium theme this week.

We did Fish on Monday! My camera battery is currently dead and I, for some reason, can not find my charger. So, for now there will be no pictures. :( I kow I'm very sad too.

We started the day with the boys playing outside in the water. It has been getting really hot here so I make them go outside early before it's unbearable. They had pancakes and applesauce for brunch. I tried to get Teagan to take a nap and he refused so we started our theme.

I read to them About Fish: A Guide for Children by Cathryn Sill, Amazing Fish by Mary Ling, and Fish, Swish! Splash, Dash! by Suse Macdonald
While I was reading, they decorated their own Fish! I let them each choose which color of foam they wanted to use and then cut a fish out. I also let them choose the color of the fins. We glued the foam fish and fins to plain construction paper. They glued a bunch of random craft supplies to their fish (pompoms, confetti, google eyes, etc.) I also gave them some shells from when we went to the lake to decorate the paper to represent where a fish lives. They both did a great job!

http://www.amazon.com/About-Fish-Guide-Children-About/dp/1561453358/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1245762337&sr=8-1
http://www.amazon.com/Amazing-Fish-Eyewitness-Juniors-Mary/dp/0679915168/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1245762433&sr=1-2
http://www.amazon.com/Fish-Swish-Splash-Dash-Counting/dp/141693605X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1245762513&sr=1-1

Happy 2nd Birthday Teagan!

On Sunday June 7th around noon, we had our party for Teagan. We did a Curious George theme since he is my monkey. We were very lucky to have Aunt Leanne, Uncle Darren, Cousins Ethan, Elise and Austin, Aunt Retta, Uncle Joe, and Grandma attend. We also have some friends of the family.

It started out with playing in the sprinklers. It was so very hot outside. The majority of the kids didn't have bathing suits so they ran around in their undies. They didn't care. We then had a wonderful lunch of hot dogs, hamburgers, potato salad and much other cookout foods. Teagan opened his gifts while the others went to play again. He got a few trains, books, a shirt and hat, and CD from us. Aunt Retta and Uncle Joe gave him sand toys, a big sand bucket and a My first UNO game. Aunt Leanne and Uncle Darren gave him a Word World Dog and DVD. Grandma gave him some money as some friends did too.

We then did the pinata. It was so filled up with candy that even after the kids grabbed enough for themselves there was still so much on the ground.

Of course, then came the cake and ice cream. It was a wonderful treat after the very hot day.

By this time Teagan was wore out and has had enough. He was really fussy and did not want to do anything else but sleep. After he went to bed, we cleaned up and played some board games or video games.

I still even had another Curious George party game but everyone was getting worn out. So I would say we all had a blast.

As party favors, we gave the kids a Curious George goody bag full of Curious George items, such as stickers, booklets, gel pens, and stuffed animals.

Joel's Graduation! June 6, 2009 @ 5pm

WHEW! What a busy weekend. We left home on Fri. and stayed the night with Joel's sister in NC. Joel had a graduation on Saturday in VA. Then Teagan had a birthday party at my sister's house on Sunday. On Tuesday my nephew had a graduation ceremony from Elementary school. I will be in VA with family until this weekend. We've been having a blast. Daddy went home on Monday and we miss him so much. :(

I'll make a post for each event!

Joel's graduation was fun. He graduated Summa Cum laude and earned an AAS in Networking Security and Managment. He is starting a Bachelors program this July already! The boys behaved fairly well seeing as we had to sit for almost an hour waiting for it to begin and then even longer through the speeches and getting through all the names. I had snacks, crayons, coloring books and small reading books. We made it through wonderfully. It was also great that the two families on either side of us really enjoyed playing with the boys. It was very hard for me to get photos of Joel going across the stage since the kids were jumping on me and it was kind of dark and Joel was walking quickly. We did get photos of him afterward in front of a building outside the Hall.

A funny story: Joel brought a pair of khakis and nice shoes. Well the pants ended up being too tight (he didn't try them on before leaving) and did not look good at all with his shoes. We were lucky there was a mall a block away from the hall and we arrived 1 1/2 hrs. early. We were very lucky to find him a very nice pair of pants that fit and looked good with his shoes for only $20 in Dillards. He was threatening to wear just his shorts and flipflops, lol.

When we arrived at my sister's house, she had it all decorated in Grad paraphernalia. We also attended a big cook out with many family members!

Daniel in the Lion's Den!

Gavin has attended Vacation Bible Study for the past 3 days and loves it. I finally had time this evening to read our books and do a craft. The books we read are I Wanted to Know all About God by Virginia L. Kroll, Jesus Loves Me Illustrated by Tim Warnes (it is the song), The Story of Daniel in the Lions' Den retold by Michael McCarthy and while they were doing their craft, The Lord's Prayer by Tim Ladwig.

Then we made our Lions! We made our lions colorful to represent they were happy and nice (plus it is alot more appealing to the boys. :D )

Very simple and easy. We just used google eyes, pompoms for the nose, marker for the mouth and tissue paper for the mane. Gavin prefered to use just one color and bunch the tissue paper up. Teagan used a variety and just laid it on the wet glue.

Muffin Tin Monday!

Every monday we do a themed lunch. It can be followed through the Her Cup Overfloweth blog (It's on my left tool bar). She is the mother who introduced this fun activity in her blog and everyone shares their images through her site.

The theme she chose this week was the Alphabet. I stuck with A-F.

Ours included: A-Apple, B-Bannana, C-Cheese, D-Dinosaur (peanut butter sandwich cut like a dinosaur), E-Eggs (jelly beans) and F-Fish!

Also, this week we do not have a theme. Gavin has Vacation Bible Study Monday-Friday from 9:30-11:30. At the library on Sat. I did get religous themed books to read with the boys. So I guess you could say we have a Religious themed week, but I haven't found/made up crafts. I may decide to though.

Tybee Island

Sunday morning we work up and drove 3 hours to Tybee Island. We've never been and I've been wanting to go to the beach so badly. The lake just is not the same. We had a blast and afterwards ate at a restaurant called Crab Shack.

Joel and I remebered to lather the boys up with sunblock but missed many of our own body parts. The boys have no traces of sunburn but he and I are both beat red all over.

Another fun part, changing in the truck in the parking lot of the restaurant. I had so much sand in my butt crack, it's not even funny. Ok it was funny.

At first we went to the lighthouse area, there was not many people but there was also no bathrooms or anywhere to eat/drink. So we went and found ice cream. After our lovely snack we went to the other side of the Island. It took us about 45min. to find a place to park. It was awful . But we walked the boardwalk and could see dolphins out in the water.

We went back down to the water again. On this side of the Island it was much more rough so we put the life jackets on the boys. We all went out to were Gavin could just touch and bobbed in waves. The boys also thought it was cool that they could float and let the waves take them in to shore. After a while Teagan got tired (again, he took one nap after ice cream and while finding a parking spot). He and I sat on the beach and let the waves go up over our legs. This is where I got a crack full of sand. LOL.

We went to the restaurant. It was very crowded but very cool. There were a ton of little alligators that you could feed. Gavin really liked that. We ate our dinner (shrimp, crab legs, lobster augratin, potatoes, corn) and then headed home.

We had to stop again to get coffee, apple pies and a kids meal for the boys to share at McDonalds. It was a wonderful day! I can't wait to spend a weekend there!