Kapla Blocks

I bought a 40 piece set of Kapla Blocks for a good price at the store Tuesday Morning over a year ago. I kind of forgot about them but just pulled them out for Westley. They are also sold in huge sets and there are directions of all kinds of cool things you can build. Today we opened these up and followed the directions to make this creation. Usually I'm not really good at building stuff like this, but these were fun.

Westley had a good time with them too and did almost all of this on his own with me talking him through it.  I would definitely recommend these, especially since this set is nice and compact and can just be built with on a table top. Would be cool when he is older to have the 1000 piece set to make huge structures. We'll see about that later on though

Tomato Hornworm Caterpillars

We found 3 large Tomato Hornworm Caterpillars on our tomato plant. We didn't know what they were but Westley and I looked them up online and learned about them.

They are pretty surprising as they are 3-4 inches long. They have 5 pairs of legs plus more "arms" in the font. They have a little red horn on their ends. They can devour the leaves and unripened tomatoes on a plant very quickly (which they did to ours, but luckily the plant was about done producing anyway)
They will "cocoon" in the soil and then come out a moth in the Spring (although our potted plant will be removed before then) The moths are one of the fasted flying insects and can fly 30 mph.

I may have been more amazed than anyone else in the family, but Westley at least acted interested. Will was scared of them and cried and clung to me as we observed them.

After learning about them, I gave Westley paper and green and black to draw one of the hornworm caterpillars as he observed them. He doesn't really like to make representational drawings, but I think after he did so he was proud of it as he immediately hung it on the fridge

Sand Art

We spent the day today at the beach with Grandma and Grandpa, Aunt Lisa and Drew.
I brought an art activity down to the sand.
Most people have done this with gitter, but the sand is easier - especially if you are on the beach or in a sandbox, there's no added mess.

Will slept though this activity, but Drew (16 months) was a willing participant. He was really into it, I think he made 4 pictures and would have done more. His favorite part was throwing the sand onto the paper

Recycling Cans and Bottles

For years now we have been recycling cans, glass bottles and plastic water bottles. We sort them in trash cans (which the boys often help do) and then once or twice a year Kevin takes them to the city's recycling center to cash them in.
This time we all went and took the boys with us. They both did a great job staying by us and helping sort ones that still needed to be sorted.

They got to see how they are weighed and what we get in return for the cans.

Will also enjoyed seeing the trash trucks that come and go as he loves trash trucks!

Kidsville Playtown

Today we went to a new place called Kidsville Playtown that recently opened in the Carlsbad mall.
Westley had a great time. He found another little boy to play with and enjoyed the (really fast) slide as well as all the other toys. Will enjoyed playing too but was a little grouchy. He liked playing with me but didn't want any other kids playing with anything he played with.
Luckily there was lot of space and lots of toys so we only ran into a few outbursts from Will.

They have different little rooms (like the size of a big cubicle) that are themed- there's a grocery store, doctors office, construction room, girly primping room, a theatre stage with tons of dress up,  police/fire station, castle with a slide and a few more. 

We will definitely go back since Westley enjoyed it so much. Thought it would be a good place to go once it isn't so nice and warm outside.


For my local readers, if you read this today or tomorrow there is a coupon offer on circlebuzz which reduces the price from $20 to $9 for two admissions. Make sure you all wear socks (even adults), otherwise you have to buy them 

Great Grandma's Goose

My Grandma used to have this goose outside her door that she dressed for the different seasons/holidays.
When she passed away in May, I inherited the goose as it's something my boys always adored when they visited her.
The goose was wearing a bathing suit all summer, but I thought it was time for change.

Westley helped me pick out the new outfit which we picked for Labor Day and he dressed the goose and took this picture of her.

When we drive away from our house, Will always says "Goodbye Goose!"


Grandma, we are trying to take good care of your goose. She misses you and so do we. We love you.

Beach Ball Soccer

While trying to run out energy in the back yard, we created a new game.
Westley isn't too into sports, but he was excited about this.
I think it helped since the ball was bigger and made a noise when you kick it, and it doesn't roll off too fast.
One fence was my goal and one fence was his goal. The mission was to kick the ball all the way to your fence goal. Then I taught Westley to say GOOAAAL when he kicked it to the fence.
Westley laughed the whole time as we tried to steal the ball away from each other and take it the other direction.
He was actually pretty good at it!