Volcanoes Rock! Quite Literally

Braden has been making "subject books" at school and seems to love them. One of his teachers, Mrs Camille suggested them as an at-home activity to strengthen the kids letter writing abilities. So today I had time and I asked the kids what subject they'd want to do. It was decided that we would build volcano books. YAY! Basically I just found a simple volcano picture online. I then found definitions of some of the basic parts of a volcano. In a subject book, each page highlights a different part of the chosen subject. I used the same picture on each page, but a different part of the volcano was colored for each. Underneath the picture was a line where a label could be written to name the part of the volcano that was colored. Unfortunately, I spelled volcanoes wrong on the front. Ha ha. Oh well. I made an example book and let the kids go to work on theirs. Jade just colored mostly, but I did see some more uniform looking scribbles that I think represented letters. It was so awesome to watch Braden as he looked at the example book and then carefully tried to write the labels on his own book. He holds his mouth a certain way when he's concentrating. He did a pretty good job aside from starting on the wrong page (resulting in the labels not matching the pre-written text describing what each part was). He'll get it next time. We'll make more because he started asking me about parts of a flower at dinner. But for today, volcanoes rock! Quite literally.

I had to include this picture simply because I LOVE how Braden makes his "e". I love that it looks more like a tadpole than a letter. It won't always be that fantastic. It'll become small, sleek and boring like it's supposed to be soon enough.

A Totally Rockin' Museum!

I have to blog about the fun we had yesterday. It all started last week when the kids were watching Curious George. After it ended, PBS started giving credit to it's sponsors. I mostly tune these out, but as I turned off the TV, the information somehow registered. Shamrock Farms was hosting a free day at the Children's Museum of Phoenix to promote it's new milk line designed with children in mind. Anyway, I immediately looked up the museum to see what it was like. It looked so fun, so I decided to take the time and the gas money and check it out with the kids. Due to working overtime, and having homework, Spencer wasn't able to attend. I'm so glad we went. It was so fun. It was like a giant indoor playground to the kids. To me I saw activities that taught concepts from art and science. Fine motor and gross motor development, and problem solving skills were also included in the play. I was impressed that a lot of the activities and exhibits were constructed out of other things... reused to build amazing things. I was having a field day with the camera. I always feel this desire to capture things when I'm truly impressed. It's like I want to keep that impressed feeling in a bottle or something. It doesn't really work like that, of course, but I do hope to be able to use the pictures to aid in reproducing some of the ideas they had in our own home. It was a totally rockin' museum!When you take a bunch of light scarves of various colors....
Put them in a maze of tubes with a high powered air tunnel inside them...

And let them zoom around until they fly out unexpectedly...

You get this.

Jade painted a hand on the house.

The robot making table... notice the recycled items?

Noodle Forest... pool noodles hanging from the ceiling = the same fun as a ball pit
without the disgusting aspects (like used band aids at the bottom).

A grocery store. It was cool to watch how some kids shopped, some kids manned the registers, some kids bagged, and some kids restocked. Nobody was telling them what to do, and I didn't see one argument over who got to do what. It was neat.

Jade bought a pineapple for Daddy.

Making "pizza" at the Texture Cafe.

Here is the brick oven.

This whole room was dedicated to balls and tracks.
Some were pre-made and some the kids had to construct.

It's racing time! The pit stop had awesome race tracks.
Notice the cars are made from old skate wheels?

Jade was tired at this point. So she took a pit stop to do car puzzles in the pit stop.

Freaky Looking Pine Cone People to Love and Cherish

Lately Braden has become quite interested in pine cones. Specifically pine cones that are found during recess at preschool. He'll find some pine cones and ask if he can take them home. They usually let him take one home when he asks. So over the last few weeks, we've started to see several pine cones lying around in the kids bedrooms. Usually Braden will set them on the foot board of his or Jades bed to "decorate", but that only lasts so long before they fall on the floor. Anyway, a stroke of brilliance hit me today when he brought home yet another two pine cones. What if we turned them into toys? I had several googly eyes, pipe cleaners, and colors of yarn on hand, so I thought, "Why not little pine cone people?" Heck, with the amount we have we could do a whole pine cone family! So, I pitched the idea to the kids and they ate it up. A pine cone family! No way! So, I used the hot glue and let them pick out their eyes and arms and legs and hair, etc. Braden also decided that they would be much cooler with wings. He knew I had feathers, so he suggested it and I said... "Let's go nuts." Anyway, here is the result: somewhat freaky looking pine cone people to love and cherish.

Fabulous Snow Trip

I got to go snowboarding this week. I went with Spencer, Kara, and Bryce. It was a ton of fun even if I did have a rude awakening about how out of shape I am. We headed out around 5AM and made good time. The roads were surprisingly favorable on the way up and we didn't have any incidents with ice. We did see a very near accident happen in an intersection right in front of us, but luckily the car slid to a stop about 1 or 2 inches away from the other car. Yikes! We got up to the resort with about 20 minutes to get our gear on. It was ideal. The first thing we found out when we got there was that the lift that Kara and I normally use was temporarily shut down. This meant that our first run of the day was a blue versus a green. It went well with no tumbling, but I had the "brakes" on for most of the run and could feel the burn in my thighs. It felt great to have the wind blowing past my face. After the first run, the boys went one way and Kara and I went to the green since the lift was now operating. We had several good runs, but both of us felt some exhaustion since neither of us really know how to switch to toe side and carve. It makes for a lot of muscle fatigue when you've got your toes up the whole time. Anyway, right before lunch I was feeling pretty confident and decided I wanted to take a blue trail off into the trees. The snow hadn't been groomed and the first thing I did was peg the nose of my board directly into a drift and then face plant into the powder. No harm was done, but it took a lot of effort to get out of the snow. Once we got out of the trees and back on the green, I took a major fall forward and my legs flew up above my head. This totally knocked the wind out of me and gave me some nasty whip lash as I bent in half. I just laid in the snow for a bit trying to breathe. Once I made it down I decided I needed a break, so I stopped about half an hour before our designated meeting time and took a little snooze on a bench. We had a nice warm meal for lunch. Kara and I wanted to learn toe side so we asked the guys to teach us on the run after lunch. So they went down the green with us. I have to admit, I was too tired at this point to care about toe side. It was pretty lame, but my legs were so tired that I kept falling. I felt like I was getting worse not better. It was kind of a disappointment. I did a few more runs and pushed myself because I really do love that sense of flying down a mountain. I called it quits about an hour and a half before closing time. I was bummed that I wasn't in shape enough to last the whole day, but I enjoyed the time I had. Kara and I took our time getting out of our gear in the car and then took some pictures of the scenery. When it was close to 4, we went up toward the lift the guys were using and took a couple pictures of them finishing up. We had dinner in Flagstaff at a restaurant called Grandma's Closet. It was recommended by Bryce and we had to have a lot of faith in him since the name of the restaurant sounded like a stale thrift store or something. Ha ha. It ended up being quite good and it felt great to get something warm in our bellies. I drove most of the way home and relied heavily on singing to keep me awake (to everybody's doom, I'm sure ha ha). Toward the end of the trip we played name that tune/band to a bunch of 90's music that Bryce had on his I-pod. It was crazy how much I couldn't remember about the songs I knew in high school. Anyway, the trip was pretty much awesome and I couldn't have asked for a better crew. Thanks to everyone who made possible such a fabulous snow trip.

24 Hours

This last weekend my parents took the kids to Peoria for a little sleep over. I got about 24 hours without them and although I missed them by the end it really was nice to just do whatever came to my mind whenever I wanted without a big production of socks and shoes and jackets and babysitters etc. So what did I do with 24 hours of freedom? On Friday, I cleaned both bathrooms, swept the floor, did a couple loads of laundry, and cleaned the kitchen and dishes. Then it was play time. I went to several craft stores and got some supplies for some projects I've been wanting to do. Then I met Spencer at home and we went to Arby's for dinner and just did a little casual thrift store shopping before meeting some good friends (The Lovell's and Dopp's) for dessert at BJ's. We had pazookies and good conversation until the waitress seemed a little bit eager to get rid of us. We were still having fun, so we decided to break off and then meet up at the Dopp's for games. It was so fun. We played a couple fun games and talked a lot. Nicki showed me how to make a cute little tutu for Jade while we were there. We had brownies and stuff and before we knew it, it was some time after 1 in the morning, so we went home. The next morning I enjoyed sleeping in until about 7:45. It was nice. Then I headed out to get a few more supplies I needed for my projects. When I came home I worked on baby headbands and had so much fun just creating. I then made a quick chicken salad for Suzanne's baby shower (with a lot of help from Spencer) and took off. After the shower I watched She's The Man while making Jades tutu. It turned out so good! She totally loves it. Spencer was out mountain boarding, so I spent the rest of the afternoon doing things I'd wanted to do but hadn't had the chance. I went and visited the cemetery where my Grandfather and cousin are buried. I enjoyed just taking some time to think about them and what they might be doing now. I went and walked around an antique mall after that just because I could. Then I went to downtown mesa Main St. and shot some interesting pictures. It was fun. I met Spencer at home and we went and met up with my parents and the kids at the Gurney's where Jacob and Joni were opening their gifts. Hopefully my parents and children can say the same, as for me, I had a lot of fun during those 24 hours.

Good Time

I forgot to post about zoo day. Braden's preschool class along with their moms and younger siblings went last Thursday. It was only $4 a person. I had Kara come along with me and we both had a lot of fun taking pictures of animals. She was very helpful with the kids too. It's always nice to have an extra set of eyes. The kids liked the visit, but unfortunately, they were both coming down with colds. This resulted in a slightly obnoxious and obstinate Braden, and Jade got tired really quickly and started asking to go home. For the most part, they really enjoyed the animals. Someday when they are old enough to walk all day, I want to take them to the San Diego zoo. I'm in love with that zoo and feel lucky that it's where I got to go on field trips when I was a little girl. The Phoenix zoo is pretty cool, though. The kids favorite exhibit was Sting Ray Bay. They got to pet the sting rays and watch them swim all around the huge tank. We had a really good time.

Perfect Wedding Weekend

By the way, the wedding went beautifully. The ceremony was amazing and I know these two will be just fine if they can remember and implement the advice that was given. I love Jacob and Joni so much. I love how they are better together. The whole weekend was really awesome. I got to be with my cousins that I haven't seen in a long time. I enjoyed great conversation and loads of fun. It was a nearly perfect wedding weekend.