Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! 

Kaysen was a birdie

Caleb was a rocket ship

Steve was dead (a zombie)



And me?  I was an Extreme Couponer!

Happy Birthday Kaysen

My little Kaysen turned 2 a few days ago.  Here are a few pictures from his day.  Happy Birthday Kaysen.  Mommy loves you!

Happy Birthday Caleb

My little baby celebrated his 3rd birthday this week.  Here's some pictures.

Books

Not much to say today.  I just popped in to update my books that I'm currently reading/finished with over on the right hand side of the blog.  I can't keep up.  I think I've read 5 books over the past 3 weeks, which is CRAZY for me.  Don't get me wrong, I love it and it helps me stay focused on the things that really matter in life.

Until next time...

Happy September

It's September...and the leaves are starting to fall already due to a cold front that is swallowing up the Chicagoland area.  Today is in the lower 70's, and I think it's simply wonderful outside.  I don't have much to say right now.  I have been spending some much needed time by myself to just think.  That's all, just think.  And after I check in with this blog, that's what I'm going to do again...think.  It's amazing how much you can sort out in your head when you take the time to do it.

They are getting Too Big

What ever happened to the days that they used to ride in the wagon?  Better yet, what happened to the strollers?

Caleb's Beach

This week wrapped up our unit about the beach.  I wanted to share Caleb's beach that he made himself here at home.  We gathered rocks and stones and nestled them inside sand.  Everything was collected at the beach when we went on our day trip last week.  Then we found some toy animals that are found in the water and put them in there too.  Caleb had so much fun creating this little replica of what he saw at Lake Michigan.

My Flowers are Blooming

My beautiful, beautiful flowers are blooming on the bushes out back.  Normally this would make me excited, and it does.  But it also reminds me of a goal I set for myself.  These flowers bloom in late summer.  It was a goal of mine that I set back in early April to have our house sold and gone before they opened up.  I did not want to see them bloom this year, even though they are so pretty to look at.  Maybe my next goal should be "before I see snow on the branches".

A Day at the Beach

It's days like this that I hold close to me forever

What's happening in our World?

Things don't really change around here, do they?  Another day goes by and the boys get a little bit bigger.  Steve has the day off tomorrow and I'm so happy that he does.  We need a nice relaxing day as a family.

This week I started implementing preschool activities into our day to day routine.  We are doing themed units which include art, music, reading, large motor activities, and a few day trips.  This week we talked about how the big kids are going back to school and riding in a school bus.  We made a few art projects and read books about school.  Tomorrow we will be starting our unit about the beach.  Steve and I are taking the boys to Lake Michigan to kick off the week and to have some get away time. 

Caleb loves all the fun, new activities.  I think he would do activities all day long if he could.  Most of the themes are geared toward his age group, although Kaysen does like to join in on the fun.  Today we painted with potatoes.  We talked about how the potato made a yellow circle when you stamped it in the paint.  Kaysen does not like getting messy so he painted and stamped away until the paint touched his fingers.  Then he was done.  But Caleb was occupied for about 15 minutes and even helped me clean up.

We also made a quick trip out to the park to have a picnic lunch.  I remembered to take my camera.  Plus, I want to add a picture of last week at the fair when Caleb came face to face with a Big Digger.  He was so happy!

Our Trip to the Zoo

Has it really been almost 2 weeks since the last time that I've wrote?  Wow, time really does fly when you are busy with the family, doesn't it?  Last weekend was dedicated to family time.  Just me, my husband, and our two babies!

Saturday we went to the zoo.  The kids had such a good time watching the animals, naming familiar ones that they've seen in books, and copying noises.  These little guys are fascinated by everything and they are at such a wonderful point in their development.  Everything is special to them, which in return makes it special to us.


Our first stop was the bird area.  The boys got to feed and play with parakeets.  They giggled and squealed the whole time telling me where each bird was.  There was even a bird that was mimicking their movements.  When the boys stood up, the bird lifted up.  They squatted down and the bird lowered its head.  Very cute!

 Here's my little Caleb just being oh so very cute!  He really is such a good little boy.

 My little Kaysen causing trouble.  You can't tell in the picture but at the moment he was very angry with me because we were waiting on his brother to go to the potty and Kaysen wanted to see more of the zoo NOW.  This picture was snapped after a fit.  He was walking away from me as if he needed space.  That's ok, baby, you still are so stinkin cute!

This was at the otter exhibit.  There was a tunnel that you could crawl through to see the otters swimming up and under you.  Caleb was a little hesitant to go through but finally did and had fun.  Kaysen was too nervous.  Maybe next time.

We almost made it through the entire zoo without a problem.  The last 5 minutes Kaysen fell over his own feet and scraped up his head.  Poor baby.  Things like that always happen to you, don't they?

Let's Scoop Beans

They boys love to play with beans.  It's one of their favorite things to do.  I brought them out the other day and took some pictures while they were content.

Kaysen had a Little Lamb

Kaysen found a stuffed lamb.  It's a small, cute little thing with a teddy bear that attaches to it with velcro.  Really cute and cuddly, but also very annoying!  We found it a few weeks ago at Target marked down to 30% off.  But still too expensive in my opinion.  Today was the day that Target put their clearance toys 75% off.  The lamb was ours.  You should have seen this little boy's face when we picked it up and gave it to him.

About the annoying part, the lamb "BAAs" at you.  Over, and over, and over again.  That's all it does is Baa and it does not stop, even when you put it down.  *sigh*  At least Kaysen likes him, right?  It's the little things that makes them happy.

A Beautiful Afternoon

What a beautiful afternoon.  It was the first perfect-weather-kind-of-day in over a week.  Decisions, decisions, what to do? 

Mow the lawn?  Pull weeds?  Work outside?

None of the above.  How about a nice afternoon at the PARK!

Running around the play ground kept them busy for at least 20 minutes.  What did we do after that?  We brought out the little trucks and let them create new roads on all the equipment.  That's what my boys truly love to do, drive trucks around and around.

Just another day...

We've been hanging around the house the past couple of days.  The weather has been too hot to do much outside so we have been playing, reading, and just trying to pass the time.

Yesterday Steve had the day off of work.  He created a huge train track for the kids to play with.  It lasted for a few hours until Caleb decided that he would rather play ball and couldn't roll it around with the play set in the way.  I managed to capture a few pictures before it got destroyed.

 

This morning I set up playdough.  Kaysen is still in his "I want to eat everything I touch" phase.  It took at least 4 attempts (and rolling fits on the floor) before he realized that this playdough was not food.  But once he understood that I was not going to let him eat it, he had a fun time.

Caleb made a tree out of a leaf that he found outside this morning.  We also had fun making puzzle pieces out of shapes. 

Just another simple day around our home.