April 2010

Some things we did in April.....


Easter! We took a trip out of town for Easter weekend, since Ian had some days off school, and got to enjoy family and have an Easter egg hunt with cousins - it was a very enjoyable trip!


Sewing! My mom convinced me that making my own pinch pleat drapes isn't very hard. So, I decided I'd try it, since I couldn't find drapes I wanted to buy and I could make them for so much cheaper anyway. In December, when my mom was visiting, we got them cut out and started. But then she left and I had to gear myself up for finishing them. It took a few months, but once I started it really wasn't too hard. Just really big. It took me most of two days. But, now that they're done, it's so nice to be able to see out the patio door instead of having newspaper covering it!

The finished product!

Soccer! Ian is playing soccer this spring. The team is all first graders, and they play only first graders. They have four on the field (per team) at a time, with no goalie and no score keeping. He's enjoying it more than I thought he would. He's definitely not the most aggressive player, but he chases the ball a lot and gets in a few kicks here and there.

This is how we spent the first soccer game, and really, most of them so far. He's only had a few games on days that were nice! It's been really cold, windy, and rainy this spring. Perhaps we'll try fall soccer next time.....

Bike riding! We have had a few nice days. They do each have a trike, but they like to play that it's the fire engine. Levi is the driver, and Caleb is riding on the back. Then they jump off and fight the fire, and get back on to go to the next fire. They live in a fire-fighter world many days.

Coloring! They've all, Ian included, been interested in coloring again lately.

Sleeping in odd places/positions. Ian was sick for a few days, one afternoon I told him he should rest and could read books, this is what happened.

Levi, sound asleep. He likes to sleep in the corner! He often wakes up with a red mark on his forehead from sleeping against the bar. It's one reason I'm a little worried about getting rid of the cribs, but it will happen soon!

Caleb. He didn't nap this day, and was sorting the laundry before dinner. I hadn't heard from him for a while (some days he comes out with every article of clothing to ask whose it is), so I went in to check and this is what I found.

And, I just thought this was cute!

March 2010 part 2

Trucks and blocks. What more do little boys need?



I love this picture; earlier this evening I went in their room and Levi was asleep, and I covered him up. Later when I went in, he had his bear "Teddy" in his arm. He loves Teddy, he usually makes him a pillow or covers him with one of his blankets.

I made job charts. They've always helped do some jobs, but I realized Ian has been doing the same jobs for a couple of years, and it was time to let his brothers do those jobs and Ian do harder ones. The way I made it, I can customize it to each day- if I do laundry that day, then the laundry jobs are put in, on garbage day, the garbages need to be taken out, etc. Ian was really excited at first, he's getting less so as he has to continually do the new "harder" jobs. Caleb isn't excited at all, except to play with the pictures, and Levi sometimes is willing, sometimes not, to work.

One day as I was feeding Levi and Caleb chocolate ice cream, one of them (I can't even remember which) said, "what if the whole bowl was made of chocolate?" So, one day, I made chocolate bowls. This is what happens when the whole bowl is made of chocolate - chocolaty boys! But they were good.

Levi and Ian were so proud of the city they built, they needed a picture taken. They built buildings and roads, and the bandannas are concrete that has just been poured.

St. Patrick's Day biscuits!

Imagination is always running freely around here! Our house has turned into a fire station, our van is the fire engine, if I ask them to get their shoes on, they tell me they aren't shoes, but fire boots. And of course, the stairs they are sliding down is the fire pole.

Ian at the science fair with his display of "what makes pancakes fluffy?" There were some neat projects. I should have been taking notes for ideas for next year! They had a scavenger hunt kids could do, where they find a project that uses rocks, plants, electricity, etc., and there was a drawing for several science-related toys. Ian won one! He got a dinosaur fossil he gets to excavate out of a brick and put together. He was so excited he won.

This isn't the greatest picture, as I took it out the window so I wouldn't scare away the birds, but this was taken out our back window. We've always had a pheasant or two wandering in our yard, but I hadn't yet seen so many together; they were just strolling down the neighbor's driveway.

March 2010 part 1

At first I didn't think too much had happened in March, but looking through pictures there were a lot of things we did! So, this is in two parts.



One thing I don't have pictures of is our Spring Break adventure. Some people in our ward have gone for the past few years to an indoor water park during spring break. So this year we went too. There are no pictures, as I was keeping track of little boys, but it was fun. Ian went down one big slide with me, and John had him in the wave pool most of the time. Levi and Caleb had to stay in the kiddie pool, it had slides too and was very shallow (up to their knees). They had a lot of fun and I had to keep taking them out to warm up because they were shivering.



The local college track team puts on a track and field camp for elementary students each year, free of charge, for about 2 hours. The kids were put into groups with a track member as the leader, Ian's group named themselves "Team Cheese," and they went around to different events. At each station track members taught them skills and they got to practice. Not many pictures turned out because I was too far away, but here is the hurdles. They also did shot put, throwing a ball for accuracy, high jump, sprinting, long jump, triple jump, and conditioning, where they made it into a game. He had fun, and got another free t-shirt! He's up to three free t-shirts this year so far, he's going to be outfitted for a while now!

Levi, Caleb, and Daddy watching the track events.

This is how excited Caleb was about watching it a few minutes in......

And, since we hardly got any snow, we decided to put the snow shovels to good use - cleaning up the bark I don't want in the flowerbeds! They did a pretty good job of scooping it into the trash can. We mostly got the front yard cleaned up, I don't think I have a picture, but we took out three trees, a huge prickly bush, and some smaller bushes, plus got rid of all the bark and dead plants.

Ian entered the school district's science fair. He and Daddy did the project, "what makes pancakes fluffy?" They made pancakes, leaving out one ingredient at a time, checked for air pockets, measured them, made charts, took notes. It was pretty fun for them. They then displayed the final project at the science fair later in the month. Only 6th graders were judged for prizes, but a lady came and asked Ian questions about his project. He was pretty proud of it.

The tool men, ready to work.

They helped me put together some shelves in the garage. There is a lot of building that goes on around here, pouring concrete, building, demolishing. Levi asked one day if our old house was demolished since we didn't live in it anymore :)

February 2010

Caleb being a star.

Bob the Builder has become a definite favorite around here! They're usually "'struction guys" these days. Caleb has his tool belt on and they're off to build a house.

We had a fun visit from "Flat Matthew" this month (he came from Matthew, Ian's first grade cousin, based on the book Flat Stanley). Ian got to spend the day showing Flat Matthew around our town, wrote back a letter of his adventures, and took pictures to document the day. It was a fun project!

We took Flat Matthew to the Science Center where they sent each other telegraphs.

And he had fun riding a motorcycle, which obviously needed a backhoe for some power. Or perhaps it was being towed?

The weather has been wonderful around here! Hardly winter at all. There is snow on the ground in this picture, but only because that's where it was piled from shoveling. We cut down a tree - or two or three - and some bushes in our front yard, with lots of helpers to haul off the wood.

Warm enough for the park, wearing sweatshirts!

Caleb was using his telescope (tp roll) to watch for cars.

These are out of order, but we painted Ian's room - he helped some, too. I was ready to have the room brighter and turn it into Ian's room, rather than a room painted for another little boy that Ian was just living in.

This is the purple octopus on the wall before we painted. There was also a whale on another wall. Caleb takes naps in Ian's room and sometimes talks about the "purple monster." I'm not sure I'd want to sleep next to him, myself!

There were fish sponge painted all over too, that wouldn't cover up with primer! Thankfully, oil based primer worked wonders (after two coats of regular primer first)!

The finished product! I painted different patterns of stars on each wall, and then Ian got glow-in-the-dark stars and planets for his birthday to hang on the ceiling. It's amazing what white paint, a new, brighter light fixture, and re-arranging the furniture did to lighten up his formerly dark room! It doesn't feel like you're going into a cave anymore.

Ian

Ian is 7! He was so excited to have a birthday, but the only thing I could get out of him as to why he was excited to be 7 was because he was excited to be in 2nd grade. Too bad he has another 6 months to wait for that! He brought moon shaped cookies to his class for his birthday.

He is really interested in outer space and planets, he wanted a Saturn cake.

Ian has wanted a watch since he was about 4, and he finally got one. We got an update of what time it was about every minute while we ate cake and ice cream :)

I don't think I've posted much about Ian's younger days, since I didn't have this blog then. So here are some pictures of his younger years - I also don't have many good baby pictures, since I didn't have a digital camera then. This is when he was one year old.

Two years with Daddy's hat on

Three years

Four years

Five years, first day of kindergarten!

His sixth birthday, #6 pancakes for dinner.

We are so glad to have Ian in our family, he is a wonderful big brother, is happy, and fun. He loves to read, he reads picture books and also chapter books. He loves school, loves to write, loves numbers. He's a great helper around the house and is able to do so much! He likes to play outside and be a spy or a detective, and use ropes and branches to build things. He likes to build with blocks and legos, but mostly when he's home from school he plays with his brothers, he loves his role as the oldest when he can tell his brothers what to play :)