early start

Ethan and Judah have been waking early lately - they had a brief trial run of sleeping past 7...that lasted about a week. We're back to 6am now. sigh.

Anyways - I've been trying to embrace their early rising and using that time to be productive (in the past I would lay on the couch and moan and groan as they played...) So, yesterday when they got up early we headed to the grocery store - we were at Rainbow by 8:30; home and unpacked by 9:45; at the YMCA by 10:30! whew.
This morning I decided to have Ethan try some of his worksheets for school...HE LOVED THEM. (I found them on www.schoolexpress.com) I had 2 prepared for him and he asked for 'more and more' so he ended up doing 6-7 I think!
He had to connect the matching pictures - I was impressed with how well he did (aka: he got them ALL RIGHT on his first try on his own...)
My studious 3 year old:) He wanted to do more and more! Good thing I am taking this afternoon to get all the rest of my supplies for activities! I think we're going to start our reading sections (I'm using Sonlight 4/5 for that) next week after Labor Day.

While he was busy on those I found a promising recipe using rolled oats (we get those on WIC) in banana muffins and whipped up a batch. So, here I sit at 8am - wide awake, muffins in the oven, Ethan a happy student and Judah playing wonderfully. Here's hoping that all our school days will run so smoothly:) disclaimer: I am full aware that they won't. :)

Pizza, 'brunette' moment and break dancing...

...is a summary of the past few days here:)

Pizza: On Saturday I planned an interactive dinner: making homemade personal pizza's! I think I was just as excited (if not more) than the kids on this one:)
My boys hard at work on their masterpieces...
hmmm...topping options: cheese, pepperoni, red-green-yellow peppers....hmmmm
FINISHED product! Don't they look delish? They were. :)
Enjoying our pizza! p.s. doesn't Judah look so old? I guess he is.

Brunette moment: I'm calling it brunette because I have my hair dark currently so saying 'blond' moment doesn't seem to fit...on with the story....

..I went out to Cub tonight to do some banking and pick up a few groceries. Since Joe stayed home with the boys I took his car - no biggie. I went to Cub, did my banking, got my few items and checked out. Out to the car I go; get into the car and try to start it. NOTHING. oh man. I must've left the lights on....nope. hmmm...

...I call Joe and ask if there's any reason why his car wouldn't start. There shouldn't be. I try again and again - it's not even turning over. Getting rather frazzled on how this will work (nearing kids bedtime, carseats are out of the van, etc) I sit back and listen to the music....wait - the music is working? That's strange if the battery's dead....I tell that to Joe and as I'm talking about it I look down and realize what I did....

....I turned off the car when I was still in DRIVE. duh. I simply shift into park - turn the key - and I'm on my way. I rock. seriously. not.

Break dancing: because this is a rather random post I want to share an AWESOME youtube video a friend showed me (thanks Marie!!)



My kids LOVE it! They request it often and dance like crazy! Ethan has been trying to emulate the break dancing moves; that's some serious cuteness. You need to listen to it! I walked down the aisle in my wedding to Pachelbel's Canon in D -- I wish I had this rendition then! *halfway joking*

Happy Monday!

Chop Sticks

A while ago I took these of the boys trying to be like daddy....(Joe likes to use chop sticks with Chinese food - or anything of that sort)
I love how Judah is studying Joe across the table trying to figure it out; Judah actually got a few bites in his mouth!
Ethan prefers the stab method - I'm with you on that one bud! I can't seem to figure them out personally...

I think we may give the kids chop sticks at more meals; both boys ate wonderfully that night!

10 on Tuesday

Happy Tuesday everyone!

1. I am obsessed with getting my home school stuff ready. Obsessed. In a good way:) It's letting my perfectionista-type A personality get out...she's a fun one:)

2. Judah is obsessed with something else...Joe's deodorant. Yep. My littlest man will walk into the bathroom every morning without fail and open the drawer and take out Joe's Old Spice deodorant - and then proceed to take off the top and smear it all over himself. I don't mind it - my little baby smells like my big baby all day then! I personally think Judah misses daddy in the morning (Joe leaves for work before Judah wakes up) so it's his way of smelling him:)

3. Speaking of Joe...he'll be done with school this December! That went by so fast! Yeah Joe!

4. The other night we were driving home and Ethan saw the moon (which was almost full) and said to us "why is the moon a circle and not a crescent?" - he's way too observant. I love it.

5. When we go grocery shopping Judah is now wanting to be in on the helping action. He LOVES to hold the milk next to him in the seat and will pile food on his lap until he can't hold anymore.. and then cry when I give the next item to Ethan. At least he wants to help...

6. My tattoo is completely healed and looks awesome! One of these days I'll do a post on the verse that inspired it and why I chose it. One of these days... but here's a pic!
7. Every morning during the week I make eggs for breakfast; on weekends I'll branch out and make pancakes or waffles but Mon-Fri the boys want eggs and it's easy:)

8. I'm having a hard time believing it's almost State Fair time (starts Thurs!) - that means summer is almost over. boo.

9. I gave Target brand diapers another chance a few weeks ago and I think they changed their tune since I last tried them (like 2 years ago with Ethan) - I now like them and LOVE the $$ we save:)

10. Judah starts ECFE in a few short weeks - I feel like I just pushed him out...when did he grow up? Is there a pause button for these kids? They seem to grow too fast:)

Home School!

I am so excited to start preschool with Ethan! Joe and I have decided (God willing) to home school our kids and the time has finally come to start; I'm going to do a 3 day (give or take) preschool with Ethan and mr. Judah gets to come along for the ride if he so pleases:)

I'm doing a morph of Sonlight curriculum and the Montessori approach - so lots of storytimes and hands on activities! Sounds like a fun preschool to me:)

I tried out an activity I read about with the boys this afternoon and they both loved it - stringing cheerios on uncooked spaghetti. Sounds easy enough but you have to be careful to not break the fragile spaghetti and keep the cheerios on! Ethan got the hang of it quickly and (believe it or not) Judah got a few on himself! The look on Judah's face when he was concentrating on threading the cereal on was PRICELESS- pure determination and focus. I wish I was quick enough to get a snapshot of it!

I think these two will be great preschool buddies!
And don't worry all you 'home-school-kids-are-sheltered-and-have-no-social-interactions' people out there...my boys have PLENTY of social interactions - they are both social butterflies! They LOVE going to the KidStuff at the YMCA, Sunday School/Nursery at Church, ECFE (Judah's in it this year and Ethan in sib.care) and playing with their cousins! They have NO shortage of social time with peers their age.

All this to say: I am excited for the school year! I've been talking to Ethan about his school and how I am his teacher and he is joining me in my excitement:) I'm going to try and document some of the activities I do with the boys (either Ethan or both) on here so I can remember them on a rainy afternoon....and if anyone wants to try them out too!

Here comes the adventure called home schooling!

Coloring Fun

A while ago I remembered we had some poster-sized coloring sheets so I brought them out...

THE BOYS LOVED IT!
I taped it down to our kitchen table (our new nook I've referred too; isn't it awesome?!) and set out an array of coloring tools. We had crayons, markers and watercolors with q-tips.

They worked out the project for a good long time - and even let me help!

Gotta love craft time:)

10 on Tuesday

1. I'm getting old....well 1 year older:) My birthday was yesterday! I had a wonderful day:) I'm now closer to 30 than I was to 20 (code for: I'm 26)

2. My boys must've known it was my birthday because they slept in! Ethan: 7:15am Judah: 7:30am BEAUTIFUL way to start the day!

3. Yesterday I had a great friend from college over (we're still great friends; we just met at college!) she loves playing with my kiddos and they love to play with her! She even brought me a Starbuck's Raspberry Mocha Frappachino for my special day:) Love you Heather!

4. In the evening Joe brought me out for dinner (kids were dropped at my parents) at Noodles and Company...yummm....I had a coupon for free noodles for my b-day which made it even better!

5. Joe then surprised me by bringing me down to IKEA! I had mentioned how I would LOVE to spend time just looking around and getting ideas and NOT having a time frame to leave....so that's what we did! We walked around for almost 2 hours!

6. I ended up finding a perfect shelf for my homeschool stuff and we got it! Along with baskets and folder things and an easel with chalkboard/white board/paper for my homeschooling adventures! Can you tell I am excited to homeschool!! That will be a whole new post about all that...

7. We were able to plan a short notice sleepover for the kids so Joe and I had the night to ourselves! very nice:) Then I slept in till 8am!

8. We went to the Farmer's Market today (I love it when Ethan says "let's go to the market!") They had apples for $5/3 lb bad and I only had $2...I asked if they would give us a smaller bag and he ended up giving us the SAME number of apples just the 'sample' size that were smaller; win for us - the kids LOVE the smaller size!

9. Ethan and Judah are becoming such good buds....so cute to watch! They give each other high 5's; hug each other; make the other laugh; say 'it's ok' if there's an owie and the list goes on! They know each other so well that they also know what BUTTONS to push on the other to make them mad.....argh.

10. Last Saturday I got some more ink! I already have a tattoo on my ankle and I just added the Greek word for 'content' on my shoulder-blade. Once it's healed I'll post a pic and the story behind the Greek word choice:)