Lego Men

Christopher and Michael have always enjoyed building things with Lego's but I've always been so scared of getting the really small ones because I worry about a little child choking on one.  But recently we have bought some Lego sets for the boys to build different cars and trucks out of and they love it.  Christopher is particularly good at following directions and building complicated projects.  His latest was this red race car.  It had 278 pieces and he did 99% of it himself.  Every once in a while he would ask me if he was putting it in the right place and he usually was.  It was fun to watch him tackle a project and follow a plan and be successful.  We've just had to set up a few rules about where we build them and how we play with them so parts don't end up all over the house.  :)  Michael enjoyed making his sea plane also.  His had about 120 pieces and he helped a lot with it.  I think as he gets old he will be great at building the more complicated models also.

Look what we got!

Our landlord is such a nice guy.  He came by tonight and asked me if I wanted this for the kids.

Uh, ya I wanted it.  I told him he could sell it on Ebay for quite a bit, which he knew, but he wanted to give it to our kids.  It's the original Fisher Price Farm in REALLY good condition.  It is missing a few parts, but he says they are probably rolling around his truck somewhere and he'll find them.  :)  My kids are going to love it.  It makes the "moo" sound when you open the door and all the little animals are so cute.  They just don't make toys like this anymore.  I'm tempted to not let them play with it to keep it nice but, really, what would be the fun in that.    Our landlord is quite the collector and has so much fun stuff in the garage out back.  He is most famous for this :

The Batmobile....the original TV series one that runs and everything.  It even has the "bat phone" in it.  He takes it to charity events and parties all the time, but is also nice enough to let the neighborhood kids sit in it.  So, I have the farm set up on the table for the kids to see in the morning.  I bet they will play with it all day!

Play Kitchen Phase 1 - Demo and Sanding

 I've been putting off making the play kitchen because my idea of what it should be keeps getting bigger and grander.  I actually would prefer to make the whole thing from scratch based on some plans I found on this website.  http://www.knock-offwood.com/   But since I don't have a lot of space to build things right now I figured I better just go ahead and make a small version...since the kids ask me every day if we can start making it.  I think I will still make the other one some day when we have the space.   I went ahead and picked one of the two night stands we have in the house (we're not crazy about either of them so we don't mind using them) and got started.  The kids have helped me sand it down and we took the drawer apart and took out miscellaneous parts we didn't need.  Sanding takes a while even with a power sander.  :)   Here are some pictures along with my plan for the finished product.  The kids are so excited.  They are under the impression it will really cook food when it's done.  Hopefully they won't be too disappointed.  ;)

Annie looks like she is sanding in her sleep. :)

What's new?

Our first experience with a self imposed hair cut was......drum roll.....Michael!  I didn't get a before shot, but we gave him a nice short hair cut to fix it all up.  He didn't cut a lot, but the section he did cut was pretty short.  He likes his new hair cut and it will be nice and cool for summer.

Annie is really into using scissors right now.  It takes all my patience to just let her go for it and make a mess like this.....and even more patience to convince her that she needs to clean it up afterward.  :)

Jacob loves eating real food.  I love this stage where they will eat anything you put in their mouth...and ask for more.  Then they grow up and get opinions....silly kids!!   I just feed my kids whatever we are having so the other night Jacob had some spaghetti cut up in the baby food grinder.  He loved it.  He also likes bananas, rolls, oatmeal and applesauce and ritz crackers.  What a good baby.

Christopher bought me some nice flowers at the Mother's Day sale at school.  We went to Home Depot and bought some pots and dirt and had fun planting them.

                                                   

We Heart Teachers

This week was Teacher Appreciation week so we made some goodies for Christopher's kindergarten teacher and her aide.  I found this cute idea online somewhere (sorry, I can't remember where).  It's the fixin's for s'mores and it says, "The world needs s'more teachers like you".

Then I made them a decorated clipboard with matching pad of paper and Christopher wrote them a card and drew them a picture.  It's fun to recognize teachers for all their hard work because I don't think they get enough praise. 

Spring Soccer

Soccer season has begun in Secaucus and let me tell you....it is FUN!  This is our first experience with having a child in city sports and Christopher is really enjoying it.  I wish Michael could have done it this year, but they seem to start all the sports at 5 years old.  But we all enjoy going to the games and watching all the kids play.  Since they are all learning, right now they don't even use goalies, so you'd think it would be pretty easy to get a goal.  But, like I said, they are learning and so many balls get close to the goal and don't go in. :)  Christopher has had 2 games so far and the second one was a lot better than the first so I'm sure they will all get better as the months go by.  It's not about the goals though, it's more about the fun they are having and the skills they are learning.  I really like his coaches.  They are so nice and calm with the kids and really coach them.  The other teams coach this last week was way to intense for 5 year olds, in my opinion, so I'm glad we have the coaches we do.  Here are a few pictures from his first game 2 weeks ago.  Christopher is #11.

Posing for the camera instead of watching the ball.  :)

Michael had fun kicking the ball around too.

Annie slept through most of the game. :)