Random Kade

When the kids won’t clean up their toys Kris has started getting out a garbage bag and “throwing away” everything they haven’t picked up.   This gets Kade really upset even though almost all of the toys are Jaxson’s.  He wrote Kris these notes the last time he did it.  It says,  dad if you throw a toy away

Then on the back it was this picture of a sad face with tears all over it. 

Then he decided that wasn’t good enough so then he made dad a lump of coal.

The next one was just a straight forward, stop it! thank you!

But just in case dad hadn’t gotten the message he made him one more note.  He drew a picture of a present with a beautiful bow on it.  When you turned the present over . . .

After we were done hiding in the bathroom laughing our heads off we thought maybe it was a little disturbing.

Dad made him apologize before he would play Mario Kart Wii with him.

We went to Star Wars in 3D and when we were parking  Kade said, “Hey I thought it was in 3D.”

Play Group Letter R

For our latest play group we had the letter R.  For snack we had rainbow cupcakes, poprocks, and rootbeer. 

For the activities we made these rainbows out of crushed tissue paper squares.

We also had roller coaster races.  They each got to ride the roller coaster and at the end Jaxson was holding up two pictures.  They had to pick which picture started with R and then tape it up on the roller coaster cars on the wall. 

This was the first play group at our house where Jaxson participated.  He has spent the last two crying in his room.  Progress!!

They spent the end of the day ribbon dancing.  Next time we have the letter Y.  That’s going to be a little bit more difficult.

Play Group Letter L

I had letter L for Jaxson’s play group.  We focused on ladybugs so I made these pretzels for snack and served them with lemonade.

Here is the link for the tutorial for the pretzels.  http://www.beeinourbonnet.com/2011/05/ladybug-party-with-katie.html 

Then we played a lily pad game.  I made a bunch of lily pads with pictures on them and put them all out on the floor.  I chanted this poem while they danced and jumped from lily pad to lily pad. 

Playing and jumping on the lily pads

There were lots of little children who were very glad

laughing and looking Jaxson found

a lily pad with a lllll sound.

Then each child had a chance to find one with a picture on it that started with L.  When they found it they got to tape it to the lake I made on the wall.  I didn’t get any pictures of it before I took it down. 

Then they got to play with these ladybug launchers.  Here is the tutorial for them.  http://www.cometogetherkids.com/2011/09/mini-marshmallow-shooters-or-pom-pom.html  They pulled the knotted part of the balloon and the ladybugs shot across the room.  This was a big favorite of the day.

We also made these paper ladybugs.   Our number for the day was twelve so they glued the number twelve on the body and then glued 12 spots on its wings.

Winter Decor

I told my dad that someday I needed him to go to the mountains and cut me some birch branches.  For my birthday (much to my mother’s dismay) he loaded up their lovely Escalade with lots of very messy branches.  I was so excited to put them all over the house for my winter decorations.  

I wanted one of the thick branches for a kind of pedestal but after 45 minutes with a hand saw I decided it wasn’t worth it, besides Jaxson told me I was making a huge mess on the floor.  Then I remembered my dad had his table saw downstairs.  I have never used one before but I carried the huge branch down the stairs and after I finally figured out how to turn it on I got my pedestal.  I was quite proud of myself so I went to town cutting all sorts of sizes for my baskets.  Thanks Dad!!

Projects I’ve Been Working On

Jaxson got invited to a super hero birthday party.  The mom said not to bring presents unless it was something from home.  I gave Kris the job of picking out all the red, blue, and yellow gumballs from our gumball machine and then I made a Superman topper for the bag.  I also raided Kris’ Pez dispenser stash for a Superman to put with it. 

One of my Activity Day girls was going in for surgery this month so I made these chocolates for her and had all the girls sign a card for her.  I found the tin at a dollar store and wrapped the chocolates with some paper I printed out.

Some how I got asked to do a bulletin board for the hallway at church.  The theme for our ward is Small and Simple Things so this is what I came up with.   This was laying on the floor of our bedroom for a couple weeks as I changed it and changed it again and again and again.

We finally went and hung it up last night, I’m going to have to go back and fix the wrinkles at the bottom but I was so done with it at 10:00 last night.

Valentines Day 2012

Jaxson gave his preschool and playgroup classes these Toad-ally awesome Valentines.  Whenever anyone would call them frogs, he would let them know that they were toads.

Kade gave his class Star Wars Valentines.  We just went to the Phantom Menace so he was pretty excited about them. 

Jaxson has been bringing home lots of Valentine artwork for the fridge.  That is good because I don’t really decorate for Valentines. 

I only keep a few Valentine decorations in the kitchen.

The boys both made sacks at school to carry home all their candy.  Kade is a pro at Valentines but Jaxson was pretty excited with his bag full of sugar.  He had 16 kids in his preschool class and 8 of them gave out Fun Dips.  I had to hide most of them from him. 

We gave the boys these little tackle boxes that say Lure Me In.  They had just as much fun playing with the candy as eating it. 

This was my favorite part of Valentines this year.  Kris took this picture of his wedding ring and put it in my card.

Christmas 2011

On Christmas morning Jaxson woke up in a bad mood.  He was crying in his room and wouldn’t come out.  Kris went in to tell him that Santa had come and to ask him what was wrong.  He said that he was trying to sleep and we were all being too noisy.  I let Kade see what was in his stocking while we waited for Jaxson to decide to come out.

After a few more minutes of crying Jaxson’s curiosity got the best of him and he joined us.

They got to open their Santa sacks before we went to church.  Jaxson got his Luigi car with wings, a pirate, and a black pirate ship. Kade got a Mario Kart K’nex set, an Angry Birds game, and a game called Pop The Pig.

  They also got to open the presents from Grandma and Grandpa which were more pieces of track for the Mario Kart K’nex.

After church we came home to open the presents from mom and dad.   Kade loves games and Jaxson loves “soft things” as he calls stuffed toys.

Kris got me my own Nike sweat shirt.  He had to take a picture to prove I have one so I’ll stop wearing his.  Hmm I don’t think that is going to work.

The rest of the day was spent putting together Mario tracks and playing Kade’s new games.