Sunday, September 30, 2007

Even Peep would be proud!!!!
My youngest is a huge fan of the show Peep. He loves exploring the things around him which is why he is a big fan of the show. Here is an impromptu exploring session. He was playing music on the different levels of water. The colors were compliments of silly old mom.

He was having so much fun that his big brother joined in. The music session ended but the fun kept on going. After the boys decided to pull out their test tubes and make their own colors.
I mentioned on the last entry that we are under a boil water order. Well we are trying to save on dishes to use (since we have to boil water, ugh), so we have been using the grill to cook supper. This was a picture of Gabe helping daddy clean the grill off. He was so proud that daddy showed him how to brush the grill. I thought that it was really sweet.

Friday, September 28, 2007

O.k. so I just posted a bunch of new entries. This week we have been a little crazy starting with Daddy being home for the first couple of days, to today ending with a boil water alert for the whole weekend. An interesting week to say the least. I tried to include different ways of him learning, to show him that he can learn anywhere. Things such as the mall, I gave him a map and he had to lead us around to different stores. Then seeing how leaves in a puddle can move with a different current. Wow where did the time go. I believe that I am all caught up for now. There should be more by the end of the weekend. I included some pictures of Sam working on his landform cards. I found these here. He loves the cards and had a great time actually making the Landforms. Of course being the amazing mother that I am (Now that is a funny statement) I did give him the blue water for it. There is a picture below that shows one of his completed forms.

We ran an errand a little late the other night so the kids supper was a little bit late to. Well to tide them over we gave them a little bag of cookies in the car ride on the way home. This is what Gabe looked like when we got home so I had to share.
Sam wanted me to share this picture. He helped his Dad and together they built this marble run. The boys love it. They play with this all the time.
Sam was back into recreating other paintings this week. This one was called "Farewell" by Sandra Peters. He started off following the painting real well. After a little bit though things changed because his little brother wanted to help, so we will say she is the inspiration for this. I thought that the boys worked so wonderful on it together. Below is a picture of how it turned out. I think that it is amazing. Enjoy!!


A Spelling Lesson---
We have been working on new ways to do spelling lessons with Sam. The poor kid hates doing anything involving writing. So I have been trying to come with new and fun ways for him to do the lessons. The top picture was of him doing the spelling in shaving cream, he hated it. So the next day I gave him corn meal to write in and he is flying through the lessons. He finds the corn meal to be much neater.

My child is so silly. I had to share this with everyone. This is my youngest idea of a party. He kept asking everyone if they wanted to join his party. He took every ones pillow and his blanket. He got a bunch of books and that was his party. Now that is a great party, unfortunately I had to move him because he was blocking the hallway. Such a sweety.

Monday, September 24, 2007

Book List #6----


Ok so we are up to list #6 now. I have been having so much fun working on these books. When I go to the library I usually only go to the Easy Reading section and choose the story books from there. However this week I was wondering looking for a certian book dealing with the World studies. I came across a wonderful section that I have never noticed before. It was the cultural stories from around the world. This is where most of the list came from that I found.

88.) Stone Soup by Marcia Brown
89.) How Chipmunk Got Tiny Feet by Gerald Hausman
90.) King Arthur -- The Sword and the Stone by Hudson Talbot
91.) Lancelot by Hudson Talbot
92.) Excalibur by Hudson Talbot
93.) The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush by Tomie dePaola
94.) Chicken Joy on Redbean Road by Jacqueline Briggs Martin
95.) The Magic Nesting Doll by Jacqueline Ogburn
96.) Michael's Golden Rules by Deloris and Roslyn Jordan
97.) Building With Dad by Carol Nevius

Sammy really loved the books dealing with King Arthur. He read the whole Magic Tree House Series and a lot of the characters are the same in those stories so he was able to connect the two stories together. I hope that everyone is still enjoying the list. Look for more soon
Well I did not add any more pictures on the blog from our trip to the children's museum. This is because my husband was so kind to set up the flicker account. So if you want to see more please check out the flicker badge on the side. I wanted to start adding some pictures of the boys that are my absolute favorites. I wanted ones that captured them doing the things they love or that is just so sweet. This one is my entry for this week. It was actually taken a few months ago while we were visiting my brother. Gabe loves the water and he loves swimming with his uncle Alan. I did not actually have the privilege of taking this one, it was taken by their uncle Anthony. So I hope that everyone enjoys this picture as much as I did.

Friday, September 21, 2007


A Family Outing---

My husband took a few days off from work, so we decided to take a trip down to the Miami Children's Museum. I have included a few of the many pictures that we took there today. The boys had so much fun. The first picture is of the sundial that was outside the museum. I thought that this was a really cool mosaic.

This is a picture of the boys standing at the information stand of the sundial. They are holding up the flat travel friends so that they can see to.
Here is Sammy with the flat travelers at the giant mouth in the dentist office.
Gabe would not let me brush his teeth with the giant toothbrush, sometimes he can be no fun LOL. He did have some fun brushing the big teeth though.
We went into the Miami Heat Safety room. Gabe was getting a helping hand from Daddy sliding down the pole like a fireman.
Sammy had his turn with some help from Daddy to. Alot of fun

My two little motorcycle policeman. So Cute.
I am going to try to add some more pictures tomorrow. Hopefully I can figure out how to set up a Flickr account, because as I mentioned earlier I took alot of pictures. So check back soon and check out more of our little adventure.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Recently I have been seeing on some other blogs about taking a classic painting and have the kids recreate them. My oldest son is a budding artist so I thought that this would be a really fun idea for him. We had an art book from the library called Cave Paintings to Picasso by Henry Sayre, He chose a photo from there to recreate. I thought that I would share a picture of the original so you can see how much a like it is. The photo in the book was cut a little shorter so the wall and hands were not in there. This is why in Sam's it is missing.

The Son Of Man

Rene' Magritte

1964

Son Of Man

Sam Gottfredsen

2007

Book List #5
I tried slowing down a little bit on our books this week. We were going so fast it was getting kind of hard to keep up with all of the books. Here is the next list for everyone that is interested--

78.) The Pickle Patch Bathtub by Frances Kennedy
79.) There's a Map on my Lap! All about Maps by Tish Rabe
80.) Tiff, Taff, and Lulu by Eva Montanari
81.) A Second is a Hiccup by Hazel Hutchins
82.) You Read to Me, I'll read to you-Very short fairy tales to read together by Mary Ann Hoberman
83.) HURRY! HURRY! by Eve Bunting
84.) The Giant Of Seville--a "Tall" tale based on a true story by Dan Andreasen
85.) Zoopa --An Animal Alphabet by Gianna Marino
86.) Blackbeard's Last Fight by Eric A. Kimmel
87.) Mrs. O'leary's Cow by Mary Ann Hoberman

I hope that everyone enjoys my latest entry of books.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Flat Travels....
We recently joined the Flat travelers group. Our first ones arrived yesterday. The Girls traveled all the way from Australia so they were a little tired and relaxed.

Sam even took the time to read them a story last night before bed.
Today the were well rested so Sam had some fun during craft time with them. Very silly kid.
What do you do on your head?
My little guy decided to stand on his head a lot yesterday. I have no clue why he was doing this. This was going on while his brother was reading a story next to him.
These two were when he was watching t.v.. Some time this kid makes me wonder. He is so silly. LOL





Monday, September 17, 2007

Oh were did the weekend go. I was so busy yet I feel Like I got nothing done. I did manage to get a few pictures taken this weekend though, so I thought that I would share.

This first one is of Sammy. He has been behaving so well latley and doing a really good job on his school work that we decided to give him a reward. He had been asking for this coloring book for a while now so we finally got it for him. I mean how can you say no to an eduacational activity. The rule for it is that he has to finish the school work each day before he can color in it. He is so excited when he finishes now.
This one of Gabe he was helping Daddy with hanging up the Laundry. Daddy was so nice and patient to, what a good daddy.
Gabe is very much into the "I am a big boy and can help you phase." so as you see we get a lot of good help from him. He was helping Daddy make some Meatballs for the Volcano Meatball Subs that we were having for supper that night. We got the recipe from Kraft. Here is the recipe if any one wants it. He had a lot of fun making it.
I just thought that this was really cute. We keep our DVDS up high for 2 reasons, one it keeps the kids from playing when ever they want and 2 we have no other place to put them. This makes for a problem though when Gabe wants to pick out his own video. We end up having to give him a little boost.

Friday, September 14, 2007

Here is a picture of Gabe doing some of his pratical life skills. He folded up some wash clothes today. He had a lot of fun with it. When he finished he kept out one of the wash clothes as a picnic blanket for his little people.
His big brother even took a little break from his lessons to join in on the lesson.

Sometimes the simplist gifts are the best....
The picture above is a gift from my grandmother for Sam. While she was out for a walk one day she saw this piece of birch bark on the ground and thought that it would be something good for a lesson for him. He was to look up some of the different uses of the bark. He thought that this was great, because we live in the city and he does not see this tree much. Here is a list of some of the uses that he found- pot holders, napkin rings, coasters, charcoal, canoes, pulp, toothpick holders, paper, boxes, and furniture. Below is picture of a basket made out of birch bark that he found and thought was very beautiful. The name of it is Dona Look Basket.


Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Random Shots....
Ok the boys have been building like crazy with the fort supplies. The top picture is of one that the created themselves. It is a barn with a swimming pool attached. I love the look on Sammy's face, he is pretending to swim in the pool. The bottom one is one that they followed the directions on and built a ship. They did such a great job on these. I am so proud of my little guys. They did add something to the boat that was not supposed to be there originally. The purple sheet in the middle is a trampoline. Unfortunetly for stuffed animals only, no mommys allowed :(.. LOL
This is a picture of my new best friend for schooling. I know you are all saying she is so crazy, That is just a timer. Well your right I am crazy but this has changed our lives around here. Well Let me start from the begining. During our school year last year Sammy had a really hard time completing his work. He would start after he finished his breakfast and go straight through till bed time, with breaks for meals. He just would not focus to get it done on time. Well our school year started out really well this year that we thought that was all behind us. We were wrong. Hey it happens. This past week was really rough on trying to get him to accomplish things. So not wanting to fall into last years pattern again, His dad and I started thinking. We went and wrote out the order he was supposed to do his work in. This was because he would do all of the things that looked fun to him first. Then he would fight doing the rest. So on the list we mixed it up and added things that were fun at certian times. Then we also choose a time limit for each activity and wrote that down. We would set the timer for him at the begining of each section and it helped him focus. He knew exactley what was expected of him. And boy did it work. He became so eager to get things done he was beating the timer. he cut his work from almost 12 hours down to 3 to 4 hours. He has improved his focus so much with it. That is the story of why this timer is my new best friend.

Sunday, September 09, 2007

CASTLES AND ROCKET SHIPS....

Our weekend was full of many fun things. The boys pulled out their fort building set and first a castle was built. Gabe had a loot of fun with this. It was nice to see that he was actually building it himself. He did have some assistance from daddy on the high parts. After that was finished the boys moved into their bedroom and made a ....

Rocket Ship. They flew to planet states and brought home a large state (wyoming). It was very cute the even put on a little story to go with it. Later they even decided to open their own ....
Gravel Company. As you see the started outside moving lots of gravel around and having a good time.

When it was time to come back inside they wanted the fun to keep going so they layed out the mat and expanded the company size. I really love seeing their imagination at work. It is so much fun.
Here is a couple shots of Gabe playing in his room. He decided that he needed some shelfs and the ladder up to Sammy' s bed was going to be it.

So the monkey boy was asked how Sammy should get up to his bed. He decided to show him. I stopped him before he got any further than this. I really think that he would have tried flipping over and up into his bed if I let him. Crazy kid. LOL!!!
We also went to the library. Even though Gabe loves going to the Library he much prefers to play outside while we are there. Here he was using the tree supports as a ramp for his cars.
His brother was a little different though. He loves getting all of the books. Look at that smile on his face. Daddy was pretty happy to. LOL!!!!!



Saturday, September 08, 2007

Book List #4
Ok so I made my weekly trip to the library today. Well we got a bunch more books. The boys are really getting into the challenge of reading all of the different kinds of books that when we get to the library they are running to the shelves to pick out all of the new ones. We really do get all of the books read during the week to. So it has been alot of fun. I think that it is going so well though that I am going to have to up the amount on our list from 500 to 1000, otherwise we will be done this list way before the school year is up. So here is our latest list--

59.) Atomic Ace (He's Just my Dad) by Jeff Weigel
60.) Sixteen Cows by Lisa Wheeler
61.) Swim for Cover! Adventure on the Coral Reef by Sue Vyner
62.) Chewy Louie by Howie Schneider
63.) The Silence in the Mountains by Liz Rosenberg
64.) Things that I learned in Second Grade by Amy Schwartz
65.) Way Up High in a Tall Green Tree by Jan Peck
66.) AlphaOops! The Day that Z went First by Alethea Kontis
67.) Everybody Makes Mistakes by Christine Kole Maclean
68.) Pet Detectives by Betty Ren Wright
69.) Six Hogs on a Scooter by Eileen Spinelli
70.) ABC POP! by Rachel Isadora
71.) The Popcorn Dragon by Jane Thayer
72.) Shark in the Park by Nick Sharratt
73.) Pizza for the Queen by Nancy Castaldo
74.) Alphabet Adventure by Audrey Wood
75.) Alphabet Mystery by Audrey Wood
76.) An Undone Fairy Tale by Ian Lendler
77.) The Midnight Unicorn by Neil Reed

I hope that everyone stays with us through the year to share in our book adventures. Hopefully we will make it to the new goal of 1000. Something tells me though that I think that we will with ease.

Thursday, September 06, 2007

I wanted to share with everyone a couple shots of what it is like to do school with my youngest these days. He has become a bit of a handful. The lesson here was giving me the matching picture to the word that I told him and was on a card I showed him. He was fighting it the whole time.
Here is a close up of when I pushed for him to finish up with this lesson. Are they born with the drama gene or something. I mean where has he learned this from. I had the last laugh tho. I told him that if he was to tired to do his school work he needed to go down for a nap. He did not like that. LOL
So that was a look into some of the more "tiring" times of our day. How does everyone else deal with these days?