What a great idea! Why waste time at the bar?!

You might as well start drinking as you drive.

GH learned a new word

This morning while he sat at the table watching me make breakfast he said "cookie". I thought I misheard and that he was just babbling. Again I hear "cookie". I think to myself "Did he just say 'cookie'?" Before I could even complete my thought I hear another very clear request for a "cookie".

I have no idea how he would learn the word "cookie". Captain Awesome and I are total health nuts;) The kids only eat organic:D How did this happen? Hahaha

Our trip to the zoo

The aquarium was a big hit as always:)

Big Dog usually has a pretty strict "Don't touch weird things" policy. But, surprisingly enough he touched lots of interesting things in the Touch Tank at the zoo. Rooster was completely grossed out.

It's hard to be a lefty in a right handed world.

Rooster loved seeing all the birds. We were in the sensory garden in this picture. She loved the toucan, macaw and other assortments of parrots.

Time to pose with some statues.

If you have older kids I suggest taking Skyfari. It looks like a great way to see the rhinos, elephants, giraffes, and birds. I think Big Dog was more interested in the people being flown across the sky than the animals in the exhibits. Maybe next summer we will try it.

Were the otters able to entertain GH?

Nope, they were otter failures:) That's a little Penguins of Madagascar joke. GH did have a great time at the zoo. He seemed to really like the aquarium. He loved the jellyfish. He also enjoyed the jungle.

My thrift store find of the week

I got this spelling board for 25 cents. A lot of people are probably thinking, "You paid a whole 25 cents for that thing?!" Although it's old, it's really awesome. The flashcards have several words written on them that the child can spell out. We haven't done a lot of work with it yet. When things are new it's hard to get the kids to concentrate. They want to try it out on their own and do what they want. So I'm waiting for the novelty to wear out. I think I'm going to get our big flashcards out. The big flash cards have just one word on each. But, the big colorful pictures should help Big Dog focus more.

Answer: Two hours and fifteen minutes

Q: Amount of time it takes to find a missing wet diaper in our home. Nice!

Update

Big Dog- Whenever, Big Dog finds himself in hot water he blames the dog. Reagan aka "Trouble" is Big Dog's "scape dog". This afternoon after I found Big Dog covered in blue paint he tried to blame Reagan. Now, I love my kids and I always want to give them the benefit of the doubt. But, I highly doubt Reagan got out of the backyard, came into the house, went upstairs into the boys room, got paint, then attacked Big Dog with the paint. It's far more likely that the other dog in our home (aka Big Dog) got a little curious and wanted to help mom out.

Big Dog's handy man skills aren't limited to painting. Although, he did a lovely job of painting in the bathroom. He has began plunging the toilets even before a clog is discovered. He has also been weeding the garden. He actually does a better job in the garden than I do;)

Big Dog is also beginning to express himself through fashion. He has been putting on hats before we leave the house. These aren't baseball hats. He wears military hats and cowboy hats for the most part. He's totally stylin'. The other day we watched him wear his cowboy hat while he ate an ice cream cone in his car seat. It was adorable.

GH-- After I painted the boys room I put the furniture back. I decided to move GH's crib into the corner. It moved about 4 inches from it's previous location. But, those four inches were enough to send him into a tissy. He looked at it, grabbed the crib and tried to pull it away from the wall. FYI-- A 15 month old is not strong enough to move a crib. When he came to the realization that he couldn't move his crib he grabbed the rails and started shaking them. Ahhh....what a lovely sound. It's the sound I wake up to every morning:)

His favorite words are "hi" and "daddy". I guess mama isn't super cool anymore. This might have something to do with not being cool with finding smashed eggs in the open refrigerator. No one enjoys being lectured. Not even babies;)

Rooster--She is super excited about her birthday party this weekend. Hopefully, everything will be together by the party. I'd hate to disappoint her. She really enjoyed the zoo yesterday. Her favorite part was the jungle and aquarium. She has really enjoyed playing dress up recently. She also likes to dress her brothers up. And sometimes they don't mind:)

Me-- I've realized I am not a painter. Don't get me wrong. It won't stop me from painting. I just have come to the realization that it's not going to be perfect......Well, it's not going to be perfect if I do it:D

Krimsin, Crystal and parents with older kids will have to check this out

I saw a great blog listed on 10 Kids and a Dog. I immediately thought of my nephew Presto and Logan K. I think they would love the activities on this blog.


http://kidswhothink.blogspot.com/

My favorite Post Secret from this week

We had no plans today.....

But, we ended up having a lot of fun. We decided to hop in the SUV and have an adventure. Our first stop was to the Platte River State Park. It was beautiful. The kids loved the horses. Can you blame them? They are beautiful animals. I can see why people fall in love with horses.


Rooster was very impressed with the horses. I really hope Rooster doesn't ask for a pony. If anyone is getting a pony around here, it's gonna be me:)

We saw a lot of turkeys. This really impressed me because I'm not a country girl. These were the most turkeys I've ever seen at one time. We found a wishing well.

The wishing well had a dirt bottom. So Rooster wasn't very impressed.

Do you see the indifference?
I made them pose for a million random photos today:)

We took a trail to find some tee-pees.

They were pretty impressive.

GH was peeved when we left. He screamed and went into a full body temper tantrum. I guess living in a tee-pee down by the river is appealing to him.

Rooster also liked the tee-pees, just not to the degree GH did.

Then we headed over to the Gretna Fishery. They had this nice geological site.

They had tons of ducks. GH kept saying "da, da, da" and followed them around.

The fish were huge so the kids could see them. The kids liked the little museum they had there. The fishing nets were interesting.
I really like this picture:)

Then we went to the aquarium. But, it was so much more than an aquarium. They really packed a lot of interesting things in a relatively small area.

Rooster enjoyed seeing the turtles in this exhibit.

That fish has my baby!!!!!

Rooster and Big Dog were screaming as they ran from tank to tank. They really liked the fish and turtles.

They have an awesome sensory area. People are encouraged to touch items that they wouldn't normally have a chance to experience. There were so many different types of things to touch in this area. (Pelts, wood, rocks, antlers, feathers, jaw bones and teeth). It was awesome.

Big Dog wasn't impressed with the art display;)

While the boys wasted time looking at photographs. Rooster was busy conducting important research:)

Captain Awesome wanted this picture. We're lucky GH didn't lose an eye:)

Rooster liked the bird observatory area. We saw a lot of bluebirds today. But, we weren't able to get good pictures:(

Sweet Dreams Big Dog

cool

The kids loved the new sprinkler ring we got them. Unfortunately it got a big hole in it by the time we were done. Tell me we aren't the only ones who struggle with this.

GH is very proud that he can now climb into this car without help.

Rooster wanted to make sure that Trouble didn't get dehydrated. So she kept bringing Trouble "soup".

GH thought the yard needed to be mowed. I don't see the rush. Creeping Charlie has taken over our yard.....and thats a super short weed.

Afternoon Activities

We went to the library this afternoon. I completely hit the jackpot. One of my favorite finds was a series of books by Julie Merberg and Suzanne Bober. They take a series of paintings from an artist and write a story to go along with the paintings. In my opinion it is a fantastic way to expose young children to art. Rooster is completely in love with Dancing with Degas. I might have to buy that one.


Rooster worked on addition and subtraction puzzles. She did really well on the addition puzzles.

I recently purchased a book about teaching Montessouri at home. I saw a completely cute idea. You give the child a bunch of different sized bottles and matching lids. Then have the child match them up. Rooster loved this activity.

Sorting Living and Non-Living. I completely understand why this activity drives Rooster nuts. Something like this would have driven me nuts as a kid too. Sorting living and non-living doesn't make sense when you work with representations of the objects (like these cookie cutters). None of them are truly alive. Ok...maybe it still bothers me even now:)

The letter of the week is H

We spent some time lacing a heart. Since Rooster is left handed I gave up before we were done. It is so difficult to teach a lefty when you are a righty.

We had to make play hopscotch on the porch since we ran out of room on our sidewalk.

Captain Awesome is the voice of a generation

He's just like Kanye and P Diddy;) He "writes" music too. Well he kind of copies everyone elses music and passes it off as his own. Captain Awesome is currently working on what I'm sure will be a masterpiece. I know he will truly capture the voice of our generation. It is sung to the chorus of Pina Colada.

"If you like sleazy Obama
Whatchin your money go down the drain
If your not into Socialism
If you have half a brain.
If you hate stayin up til midnight
to complete your taxes."

To me it captures the confusion of our times. It's just a start...but, when he makes some additions I'll let you all know:)

UPDATE: Captain Awesome wants to make this additional version public

"If you like pleasin Obama
Flushin your money down the drain
If your not into saving
If you have half a brain."

He likes to change it up. You know...keep it real.

Magic Marker Monday

Big Dog was excited to work with magic markers today.

The following are some of Roosters pieces of artwork from today.

Rooster titled this artwork "Submarine".

Rooster titled this one "Mommy and Ruzenka".

Rooster titled this one "Monster":D

Umm sorry thats a duplicate

Letter of the Week is H....H is for

Haiti, hippo, helicopter and horse.

Tour de France

The other day we colored bicycles and started documenting the path of the race. How exciting.....sort of:)

This morning

The kids spent a good 20 minutes looking out the back door. This gave me time to fill up sippy cups for today and cut a bowl full of strawberries. Talk about lucky for me. The boys really enjoyed watching the contruction workers tear off the shingles of the house next door. Rooster kept saying "What a mess....clean it up"


We went to the park this morning. The kids had a blast. Before we left I had to put a hat on GH. He has really delicate skin and can burn even when he has sunscreen on. Doesn't he look cute? Of course he does:) Well, Big Dog thought he needed to wear a hat to the park too. So guess what he picked to wear................:D

I told GH this was his sensory box for today.