BBQ cups

I had made some shredded BBQ pork.
I made them into cups by taking cheap small biscuits (that come in a little tube of 10) and flattening and pressing them into cupcake pans (then you just fill them with meat, top with cheese if you want and bake for 10min)
I didn't need all 10 biscuits, so I was fine with letting Will "help me"
He had 4 biscuits he made and had the best time doing so. It was kind like playing play dough for him.
He was proud of his biscuits and ate 2 of them

I was thinking, even if this wasn't what I was making for dinner, it was a cheap way to keep him entertained during dinner making time (the store brand cheap biscuits are only like 50 cents)
We might do this more often!

Speed "Skating"

Paper Plate skating is a favorite at our house (step on cheap paper plates, skate around on hardwood or tile floors)
Today we put a twist on the classic.
We saw how many times Westley could skate back and forth through the living room before the timer went off.
Will liked setting the timer for him

Milk Jug Hats

We use milk jugs with the bottoms cut off for a ball toss game (it's a lot of fun) but will always puts it on his head, so I though we should make hats out of them!
So we did.
Knowing things wouldn't glue well to them, we used stickers and I helped them tape on feathers.
They were really proud of their hats!

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Today Will and I made Aunt Cheryl's famous Oatmeal Cookies
They are not healthy, low fat or anything, but they are really good, and easy to make!

Here's the recipe:
1 pound (4 sticks) of butter
3 cups of packed brown sugar
2 eggs
4 1/2 cups oatmeal
3/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tbsp baking soda
3 3/4 cup flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup golden raisins(adding nuts or chocolate chips optional)

Melt butter in sugar (can be down in microwave)
add all remaining ingredients and mix together.
Back at 350 degrees on a greased cookie sheet for 12-15 minutes.

It makes a lot of cookies!

Packing Peanut Collages

I bought somethings in the mail that came packed with a hundreds of packing peanuts. I didn't want to just throw them out, so I planned to collage with them.
The boys enjoyed being able to use as much glue and peanuts as they wanted.

Westley started gluing his together in a stack, trying to make it tall
However, as time went by Westley discovered his tower was shrinking.
Turns out that these are the newer biodegradable packing peanuts.
So, we had a little lesson on what dissolve means and dissolved a few in water (which was also fun for them)
We will follow up with another activity/lesson on dissolving things sometime soon

Marshmallow Test

I did a version of this with Westley when he was still 3 he made it a few minutes. The original experiment was done with 4 year olds, so I wanted to do it again to see how he would do.

I have Westley one Lucky Charms Marshmallow. I told him he didn't eat it, and sat and waited 10 minutes, I would give him two more. (see video clip with some footage - it's only 2 1/2 minutes)

Westley did it! He waited the whole 10 minutes. A very proud mom moment for me :)
Like other children who "pass" this test, he used strategies to resist the temptation. He avoided looking at it, he sniffed it, put his hands around it without touching it, even sang a little song to put his mind on something else.

Longitudinal research on the children in the original experiment showed that the children who were able to delay gratification and wait (about 30%) had less behavior problems, more self control, were more popular, dependable, and were better at keeping academic goals, and better educated. They had higher self esteem, less relationship problems and less drug use.

Bean Bag Dance

There is an old CD called Kids in Motion by Greg and Steve.
I may have mentioned it before when we did freeze dance. But there are a lot of good movement songs on it
Today, with lots of plain old silly dancing too, we did the Bean Bag song/dance.
Here you see them when they are to put the bean bag on their knees
I'm pretty good at this one :)

36 holes of Mini Golf

Today Kevin and I each took one boy (Kevin got the short end of the stick as he had to handle Will and the  puppy). Westley and I went just the two of us to Legoland, mainly to play mini golf on their little 18 hole golf course. We always walk past the course but have never played there. It was enjoyable, no crazy rude  older kids running around like at Boomers, and for pass holders, it was only $2.50 per person (regular rate is $5).

Westley loved it, and wanted to go two times. He did without losing stamina or attention. He wanted to go a third time but I said no.
Turns out Westley and I are at about the same level in mini golf.
He isn't bad at all, got most in the holes within 5 tries. He even got a hole in 2 on a par 4!

I enjoyed my one-on-one time with Westley. He seems more grown up when you have him alone, and there was no sibling fighting!

I came home and said we should do this more often! Kevin just glared at me. I guess next time I get Will and the puppy. Or at least Will.

Car Track Painting

I don't know what took us so long to do this preschool classic!
Make sure to wash the cars you use right away

Breaking the Ice

Literally today's activity was Breaking the Ice.
I had a bag of ice in my freezer that was just taking up too much room. It was all chunked together.
Since today was decently sunny, I put it out on the cement and told Westley to try and get it to melt. They had fun as they chiseled away at it a bit, and then found pouring cups of water on it melted it even faster.

Meet Major!

We have volunteered to raise a puppy for Canine Companions for Independence - a non profit agency that trains and matches service dogs to  physically assist and provide emotional companionship to children and adults with disabilities.

Today we received an 8 week old male lab named Major. We will provide basic training, care, and love for 18 months. At that point we will give him back to the organization where he will go through 6 months of advance training. If he passes, he will be matched with an individual with disabilities.

Westley and Major are getting along very well. Will is not very interested in him (yet).

I am sure we will have many adventures with Major

 over the next 18 months!

Getting ready

Getting ready for our new addition,
cleaning a crate we bought used (boys were really into it)

Will, trying it out

Evening at San Elijo

On our way home from LA, we kept driving and met Grandma and Grandpa at the beach where they were camping.
The weather was beautiful!
Just wanted to share a few pictures

Travel Town

While in LA, we went to Travel Town in Griffith Park.
It is a Train Museum with many big, real old trains some of which you can climb in. There are also some old cars on display.
The boys had a great time checking out the trains, and were very excited for our little train ride.
It was a beautiful day, and a neat, inexpensive place to go with kids!

Weekend in LA

This weekend we went up to visit Kevin's relatives in LA.
The boys loved all the extra attention.
We brought and tried out Westley's new Yahtzee Jr game, it was fun
The boys  got to play games and sing songs with Aunt Angie, Nicole, and Kristin.
They even got to pet and feed the neighbor's bunny.

Manana Iguana

We borrowed the book (with the cd reading) called Manana Iguana from the library.
I had never read the story before, but we all enjoyed it. It is kind of like the Little Red Hen who had to do everything.

I realized we had an Iguana puppet, and then found other characters - a turtle, bunny, and a snake - the main characters of the story, so we played the reading and read the  lines aloud acting it out with our characters

Homemade Tortillas

 A student in my Health Safety and Nutrition class last summer made these Homemade Tortillas with a child for her nutrition assignment. I saved the recipe and we finally got around to it!

I was really skeptical about these turning out as it just seemed too simple, but they turned out great!
Will has always refused tortillas, but he ate 2 and liked them!
Westley and I liked them too.
We will definitely make them again.

Here's the website with the recipe and step by step directions with pictures (love recipes with pictures)

            We made a heart shaped one for Dad :)


UPDATE: Will will now eat regular tortillas too!!

Germ Lesson with Flour

Lately my boys have been finding it funny to lick things. I have been trying to tell them not to because it spreads germs.
So, I gave them a little germ lesson using flour.
I showed them how flour is made up of tiny specks, some you can barely see.
Then I pretended to sneeze and flicked flour on Westley, explaining that is a way germs spread.

I also allowed them to cover their hands in flour and then wash them to see if they got it all off.

I hope at least a little bit of the information sunk in with Westley. Regardless they both thoroughly enjoyed making a flour mess in the kitchen!

12. Garbage Trucks

Will got two garbage trucks for Christmas, one from Grandma Kathy and one from Grandpa.

                        (Will looks kind of scary here. He is saying "cheese")

They both have trash cans that dump into them. They both have lights and sounds, but the sounds are pretty realistic and not incredibly loud or annoying.

He's enjoying playing with both of them! And with two, there is plenty of opportunity for Westley or I to join in the fun.

This completes our 12 days after Christmas.
We have more toys and games we haven't focussed on. I am sure they will all show up here at some point.
Thank you to everyone who got the boys gifts. They really are enjoying them all.

11. Kids Table Mate

The boys each got a Table Mate For Kids for Christmas

This is a kids folding chair and fold up table that all fit in a nice bag.
The table can be angled for art/drawing, or flat so it could also be used for eating.

The boys (especially Will) love just sitting in their chairs and their table. Will opened many of his Christmas presents like this and now loves to draw at it.

This was a neat gift, thanks Grandma Kathy!

10. Garanimals Fun at the Zoo Game

Today we opened our new Garanimals Fun at the Zoo Game Aunt Lisa got the boys for Christmas.
Westley loves board games so he was excited to try this one out.

It is similar to Candyland, but is a little simpler and mean to be non competitive. The board is circular and you draw cards to see what color to go to. Difference is when someone draws an animal you everyone goes to that spot on the game board and does what the card says (act like a Monkey, sing Happy Birthday to the Zebra etc.) That part was good for little kids. Then, I guess you are all just supposed to play until you exit the zoo. (since Westley is used to their being winning in games, we made it so the first one around wins)


Westley enjoyed the game. If Will was in the right mood, he might even be able to play through the game too

I think this might be a good game to play before Candyland as it does play a lot faster and there is that little interactive component. Might also be good for a group care/classroom setting.

Garanimal products are usually inexpensive at Walmart. I couldn't find this on Walmart's website though so I used the Amazon link. I am not sure what the price is at Walmart, but $20 is way too much, especially since you can get Candyland for $6. If this is under $10 at Walmart, I'd recommend it for beginners.

Thank you notes

Along with playing, we are working on our thank you notes, (one for Santa too- poor guy gets all these gimme gimme letters and probably very few thank you notes)

Westley is drawing pictures on them, this is new as he has never shown interest in drawing actual pictures.
I love looking at them!

9. Crayola Glow Explosion

Today we opened Westley's Crayola Grow Explosion (thanks Grandma Martha!)
I was skeptical as I pulled it out of the box. I didn't think it would really glow, but it did!

There is special paper, and special markers to use. Then there is a fat clear marker that you color over your drawing/writing with that makes it glow. It is to glow for 4 hours

They must have improved this product since the Amazon reviews. The directions warned that the markers have a distinct smell but said they were non toxic. I didn't notice any strong smell.
There is also warnings that the markers do bleed through the paper, we put a piece of construction paper behind the paper and didn't have a problem.

Since I am sure there are chemicals in the markers to make them glow, I was real careful that the boys didn't mark with them on their skin or put them in their mouth.

They were real excited to see their pictures in the dark. I thought they looked really neat too.
This picture doesn't do justice

I could see this especially being fun for a sleepover of girls who are 6-9 years old.

8. $1 Calculators

I got basic calculators at the dollar store for the boys. They like to push buttons and honestly, I was hurting for stocking ideas.
I am surprised by how much they are treasuring their calculators.
Today especially.
They were the focus of their play for a 1/2 hour. Westley first pretended his was telling him how many minutes he had to save "the people" from being eaten by the "monster"
Will used his as a play telephone.
Both boys spent a long time pushing their calculators around the house in dump trucks.

You would think by now I wouldn't be amazed by the simple things making the best activities... but I still am.

7. Play Dough Mega Fun Factory

Today we opened our new Play Dough Mega Fun Factory (Thanks Aunt Lisa!)

It includes a press to put playdough through, and then has a conveyer belt the play dough goes down. You can stamp pictures into it and cut in on the conveyer belt.

The boys played with this for a long time and requested to play with it again first thing the next day.

I had a shorter attention span for it but may that is because I am 25+ years older than them.

One thing I didn't like was the picture molds given are of things like a Mr. Potato Head, a My Little Pony, etc, but the pictures are too intricate so you cannot really tell what they are. The simple pictures are all of candy. I would have preferred simple shapes, I think it would have been a good aid in teaching shapes and even letters.

This is pretty big, so I would only recommend it to people with a lot of storage space, or maybe for a preschool/daycare, and if it was on sale for $20 or less