Recital rehersal ---videos

So many dances the boys were involved in this year.  The theme for the recital was shopping, they broke it into different sections you might find at the mall.  To start off with at the top was Sam's ballet number done to chop sticks (food court)

This was Gabe's Jazz number.  It was Rock around the clock (The clock shop)

Sam was a teachers assistant this year.  He helped in a class of 3 and 4 year old girls.  They loved their Mr. Sam.  They preformed a tap number to the pizza song. (food court)

The boys both did Acro again this year.  They preformed to Splish Splash. (house wares)

The boys did a Tap class together this year.  It was a more advanced year so the kids did alot of partner work for the first time.  The song is a Coffee in a Cardboard cup.  (foodcourt)

Gabe's ballet number was jack in the box.  (toys)

The finale was done to shop around.

I hope you forgive for the poor taping.  They are still worth watching though. 

Wishing and Fishing...

I was going to share some pictures of the kids getting back to school, but blogger is being a pain and not letting me.  I can however share some really cute videos of the boys public speaking today.

 First off I wanted to mention the backdrop.  For the longest time the boys hung a ugly old blanket up as a backdrop.   So for Christmas, Rob and I decided to make the boys new back drops.  We picked up twin size flat sheets at Wal-mart for $5 each.  Unfortunetly we have only got one done.  To make this one though we just used up a bunch of our extra felt and hot glued it on.  So the only expense was $5.  The kids loved using this today and can not wait to see the  others that we make.

The Poem was called Wishing and Fishing

from Dirt on my Shirt by Jeff Foxworthy

Wishing and Fishing

I was just wishing that I could go fishing

What I might catch I don't know

A shark or a whale, or a fish with no tail

No matter 'cause I'll let 'em go.

Also make sure to sign up for the mathblaster giveaway.

Pocahontas

The boys are doing a study on Colonial America.  One of the lessons recently was to write a dialogue pretending that they were a colonist needing help from the Native Americans.  They had to thank Pochantos for the help that she gave to them.  The video is a copy of what they came up with.  Sam Designed the costumes too.  Sam plays the colonist and Gabe is Pocahontas.  It is a really short video but super cute.  Hope you enjoy it!

A reason to smile Mimi...

Gabe has been practicing his spanish and wanted to tell you that he loves you!

Happy Birthday Uncle Alan!

The boys made this short little video to wish their Uncle Alan a Happy Birthday.  Gabe is dressed as a monkey because he says that his uncle is a monkeys uncle, LOL.  He also chose Sam's costume.

A little video of Gabe

This was Gabe's public speaking lesson for today.  It was to cute not to share.  Sam video taped while his dad made the "rain".  Hope you enjoy.

Burnin Calories with the Brothers

The boys are so into making videos now, I had to share the latest with you.  It is the latest in workout videos.  Yup you heard me right, they made their own video.  Ahh I love these boys, I never know what they are going to do next.  They made it into three videos if you care to watch them.  It goes in order of warm up, workout, cool down.  They are all under 5 minutes each, but swear you will be sweating up a storm (according to them that is).

I hope that you enjoyed them as much as I did.  If they make more I will try and make sure to share.

Another entry of those crazy boys!

OK I did manage to get back here for another post this week.  Yeah!!!  I just had to share this with everyone.  It is the newest public speaking videos.  This week I let the boys do their own.  I told them that they could set up a stage and use props, they had so much fun.   I hope you enjoy what they came up with.  Sam is actually already working on what he should do for next week.  Lets just say it should be interesting.  One is more than likely going to end up dressed like a sumo wrestler.

Here are the poems that each of them read.  It came from a book called Someone Used My Toothbrush!  The poems are written in the order of the videos, so Gabe is up first.

BELLOWING IN THE BATHROOM

There's a bellowing in the bathroom

Like a mad moose on the loose

Or perhaps it is a rhino,

Or a loudly honking goose.

could it be a wounded bison?

A gorilla's mating call?

It bounces off the ceiling,

And echoes down the hall.

Could it be a brontosaurus

Roaring at full power?

No, it's just our dear old dad,

Singing in the shower.

THE MEDICINE CABINET

Our medicine cabinet is full of junk,

Squeezed-out tubes of nameless gunk,

Little brown bottles of ancient pilld

To fix some long-frogotten ills.

Sprays for noses, feet, and pits,

Half-a-dozen cures for zits.

Barettes and scrunchies, mousse and gel,

Ointments with obnoxious smells,

Thermometers and toenail clippers,

Rusty razors, nose-hair snippers,

Cough drops, syrups of all sorts,

Patches to get rid of warts.

Wipes and swipes and salve for sores,

Two small plastic dinosaurs,

Sunblock, sunscreen, sunburnlotions,

Tiny jars of mystery potions,

Bandages and dental floss,

Fake tattoos and old lip gloss.

Safety pins and dye for hair --

Open up that door with care,

For if you don't, then you will chance

A medicine cabinet avalanche.

I hope that you are enjoying the shows that they put on as much as they are doing them.  I am so proud of these two videos because they did them all on their own and are very funny serious and well done.  No all joking aside I thought that they did a great job.

Public Speaking

I am pretty hit or miss on my entries latley. When I do post it is very little about the schooling any more, so  I thought I would share a little public speaking today.  The boys have one day a week where they work on public speaking for English.  I pick out a different poem for each of them to do and then they read it aloud working on emotion and pronounciation of words.  Well this week I put each of them on video after they worked on it a little.  Please forgive the poor taping.  I had not used the video feature on my new camera yet, so a few things to work out still.  Enjoy it other wise though, each video is around one minute long.

I got the poems this week from A Burst of Firsts.  It is a great book of poems, make sure to check it out.  Just in case any one could not understand everything I thought that I would include the poems each one read, starting with Sam and then Gabe's.

First Person to Create Blue Jeans

Levi Strauss - San Francisco - 1873

First, coal miners wore the pants.

(Denim came from southern France.)

Cowboys followed, then came teens--

Half the world is wearing jeans.

You decide which pair you want--

Zipper-fly or button-front,

Loose-fit, wide leg, classic kind...

Half the world's been redesigned,

Sew it seams, on its behind.

First Time the Sound Barrier Was Broken

By a Brontosaurus -- About 100 million years ago

A Brontosaurus tail

Could cause a frightful gale.

THE SNEEZE! The sudden lash,

The wind -- and then the CRASH!

What first broke the sound barrier?

A Brontosaurus derriere.

I am going to video tape the boys each week for their public speaking so I will try and share it with you all.  I hope to get back here soon, who knows though.  Got a lot of work to do around here right now, a certian little boy around here turns 8 on the 12th.  Hope to see you all soon, hacve a good one.

Some video from the park

We went to the park with our grandmother while we were visiting here for thanksgiving. I got some video of all three of my boys playing. Incase any one asks, I did join in on the fun. I just refused to let there be a video of it. It would not have been pretty.

Animal Charades

Today for gym class I had the boys play charades, animal charades that is. They had so much fun doing it. It is a definate do again for them. I did take a video of them playing, I just can't put it up here because of it size. If you would like to see it click on this link. It is 4 minutes 15 seconds long. They did play it for like a half an hour or so it is just a clip of what they did. I hope you enjoy it. Make sure to tune back in tomorrow for our pictures of the chariot. Have a great night everyone.

A JUMPSTART REVIEW AND A CONTEST...

Recently I recieved an e-mail from our friends at Jumpstart. They wanted to know if we would be interested in reviewing their new game for the Wii.

It is called Escape from Adventure Island. As soon as Sam heard the name he was so excited because that was his favorite land on their website. So of course we jumped at the chance. They were kind enough to send us a free copy. It arrived the other day and the boys started playing on it right away.

The game is great. There is so many different skills that they can learn on all the different subjects. Dh played it too and he said it is really good because the kids can grow with it. The challenge can increase with each level.

I did find a couple of things that I did not actually care for on it. The first one is the amount of players that they have. It is only a one player game and that makes it hard when you have two or more children. I hear alot of "Mom has he played long enough yet, I want to play now" (they really love the game). You can get past that though by putting time limits of course. The only other problem that I found was the spot that you can save the game. It only has enough spots to save three different players games. Which is ok in my family because I only have the two kids but with familys that have more than that it can be difficult.

With that being said I LOVE the game. It is a game that is filled with wonderful learning oppurtunities. Being homeschoolers I do try to fit the game in the lesson. I mean when you have to learn about rhyming words would you rather do a worksheet or ride on a jet pack blowing up mines that do not rhyme with your words. Even if you do not homeschool I still recommend the game because it is such a fun way to learn.

To end I included a video from each of the boys about what they like and do like so that you can hear straight from them. Just a note though, in Sam's video he mentions the thing that he does like that the game controllers freeze up. I was watching and it was not doing that. I think that it was an issue with our controller (low battery).

Now to the contest. Jumpstart is running a contest over on their site. All they want from you is to know how you use your imagination and escape from your everday life and turn it into an adventure. Check out this prize list:

This is the grand prize:

1 copy of JumpStart Escape from Adventure Island (rated E by the ESRB)
1 Nintendo Wii console – to escape boredom
$250 in SpaFinder® gift certificates – to escape stress
1 Flip™ Mino HD video camera – to record your adventures
3 lifetime JumpStart memberships – 1 for you, 2 to share with friends
500 JumpStart.com virtual coins – to keep your kids’ online adventure exciting
JumpStart gear – to dress for adventure

If you do not win this maybe you can be one of the 50 winners that will recieve a copy of the game. Pretty cool if you ask me so hurry on over and sign up between now and November 16th. Good Luck to everyone that enters.

AIR BOYS......

Well I am in a rythym giving new post. I hope that you are enjoying my new post. It is not just the post that I have found a new rythym we have with the schooling to. Everyday the boys are finding something that they are loving with the school work. I am trying to capture all of the things that they are having fun with. Today the thing that they loved was their sensory lesson. It was kind of a combination sensory and science. They took three different items that blew air. Then they tried to see how different item s moved using them. It has already been requested to go back on the schedule again. I included a short video of them during the lesson. Hope you enjoy.


I will back tomorrow with a review. See you all then. Have a good night!

Day Of The Dead Crafts...part one

We started our unit study of Mexico with the start of November. This timed out nicely because November 1st and 2nd is the "Day of the Dead" celebration there. The boys are having so much fun doing the crafts for it.
This is Gabe with his monkey. One of the projects that I wanted to do was decorate some skulls. I found some Paper Mache Skulls at Michaels . I painted them white in preperation (they were tan).
Then the boys started painting them.
Daddy even joined in and painted too. *smile*

Gabe thinks that he is scary with the mask so he has been working on that scary creepy laugh. Too funny, the kid cracks up people more than he scares them. LOL

Here are the completed mask. Sorry about them being turned. I tried to fix it but the computer would not agree with me.. This first one is Sam's Mask.

Second in line is Gabe' s mask.

This is DH's finished mask.

Last but not least here is mine.

Gabe also found a project to make a skeleton from a book of crafts (shown below).

I also have included a couple of videos of Gabe playing with some of the projects.


This video is of him trying to scare us with the mask.

Here he is showing you his skeleton that he made.

Now the books that we used to honor this holiday...

First is Clatter Bash! This book was so cute. It shows how the festivities go. A very easy read, great for younger kids, but my boys even enjoyed it. Great for all ages in my opinion ( I kinda Liked it too) LOL.

This book is filled with a lot of great ideas for kids to make.

I am going to post the rest of our projects tom... stay tuned for the sugar skulls....

A summer camp update

I would love to say that last week went so wonderfully that we accomplished everything. That would be telling a story though. We did have one day that went really though. It was a day about monkey's, so of course it was a good day.

I printed out some monkey mask for the boys to color. They loved doing this. Gabe is in the picture above and Sam is below.

Once they decorated the mask they played like monkeys. I got a video that I was thankfully at able to post. It is at the bottom.

Of course I have to add in another picture just because Gabe loves to give me a reason to use my camera. We bought this bucket for the boys to move toys back and forth from the living room to their bedroom. DH put wheels on it to make it easier to move. As you can see though Gabe had other ideas on what should be moved in it. He actually put his foot through the bottom. silly boy.

This weeks school has gone alot better. We seem to be getting everything done. This is one of the projects that the boys have done. They made an ocean play set for themselves.

I also wanted to share a picture of one of the boys new favorite things. This rug, the boys play on it everyday. They play school. How cute is that. I first saw it over here and knew that I had to have it for them. If you want it too check over here.

So that has been a little bit of what we have been doing. What has everyone else been doing with their summer?

Dance Mania

Ok I spent most of the day (and yesterday) trying to upload videos from rehersal. Well I finally gave up and went over to youtube. Then I could not figure out how to transfer them here. So I settled for links if you want to look at them just click below. I will not tell you what dances they are. I will just surprise you, just know all three of my guys have videos. Here are a few pictures for you to.
This is my boys with their awards for finishing another year. If you are wondering why Sams is smaller it is just because he is a first year. Gabe is on his second year.

My little Gabe haming it up for the Camera as usual.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBqiOB64XVI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CrPIBmp2so

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cv9cIyd-8EY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxanhV0EWAA

A Lion Dance....

So things get really busy around here and unfortunetly the blog losses my attention. It is a shame because I really do love working on my blog. It is a want a not a need when it comes to things needing to be done, so it is one of the first things that need to be cut. I am going to spend some time today to set up some extra entries, hopefully. Until then I put a video on of one of the many fun and wonderful things that we have been doing. Our friend is of chinese descent and had a 100 day celebration for her son recently. During the celebration they have a lion dance to get rid of any bad spirits. This is a video of the Dance, I hope that you enjoy it. I have one more video to post but blogger is not letting me. So later then.

A high flying kind of day.....

The easter bunny had left the boys a kite set this year, so we decided to take them to the park this weekend to fly them. It was a wonderful beautiful day. While they waited for daddy to get their kites all set, They explored a little bit.
Gabe proudly showing off the pine cone he found.

The silly easter bunny was very excited to find a package set of kites with their favorite transformers on them. However that silly bunny forgot to read the package and see that one of the Kites was really tiny. Ooops!!! ;)

I think I need to be worried. He is only six and is trying to take the care. yikes!!

While his little brother was trying to go for a ride, he lent his kite to Sam to try a bigger one.

Working together on trying to get it up.

Success. It was a great time flying kites.

My boy always in love with nature and watching the water.

Sam was comforting his little brother after he ran into a spider web. A great big old spider web went right across his face. He cried pretty good about that. Sam poured some water onto his face to wash it away then gave him a nice hug. I love brotherly love!!!!

Of course the spider web was forgotten over a big bowl of Ice cream. Yummy.

Sam was so proud of his Vol-cone-o. It was such a great day.

I hope that you all have a great Earth day today. We have a nice surprise planned for the boys. I will let you know tomorrow about it. Just don't want them reading this and finding out early. :)

I hope that you enjoy this video of Gabe. He had so much fun flying his kite.

Bowling time

Wow I did not mean to leave the blog again, at least that it was not as long as the last time. LOL. I had good reason though. Dh had the end of last week off so we got busy doing things as a family. It was great. We surpised the boys on Friday and took them bowling. It was so much fun, they wanted to know so bad where we going. We kept teasing tem and saying things like oh it is a Science Field Trip. They never figured it out until we pulled into the parking lot. They were so excited.


We had bumpers put up for the boys (ok me to hahaha). I got some videos of each of the boys trying on their own. Sam was really excited that he got his first strike. However though his little brother did beat him. He was okay with that though since Gabe did not get a strike. LOL. Gabe did great though because dh has had to help him in the past, this time all on his own.