Tradition Driven...

Just a year or two I remember agonizing about creating traditions for my kids.  I wanted to find just the right things that my kids would remember and do them in just a way so that they would want to do them the following year.

What I'm now finding is that traditions just happen.  Kids must be hard-wired to seek traditions.  As we approach Christmas time this year it is amazing to see what they remember and what they want to do. 

I think this is the first year we have had our decorations up before December.  Rich and I are both procrastinators, but it looks like our kids will be helping us move past that.  They were begging for the tree, lights outside, their Little People Nativity set and the Christmas book countdown.

When we put the kids to bed Thanksgiving night Xander asked if we could start getting ready for Christmas now that Thanksgiving is past.

So this weekend we set up our tree and hung our lights!

Even Treyton got into it and thankfully in the best kind of way and hasn't been demolishing the tree!

Of course, his super fat lip (complements of Keegan) may have had something to do with his subdued manner. (I'm adjusting to the fact that blood-spilling is going to be a regular part of my life with boys.)

I'd love to hear about some of your Christmas traditions, current or from your childhood.

For Grown-up's

I love picture books.  There is something about beautiful or creative illustrations and a fanciful story that just has me hooked. 

Today we read one that was a hoot.  It mostly went over Xander's head, but he enjoyed it as well.  I couldn't help but think of my mom and her love of art when I read it!

When Pigasso Met Mootisse is a parody of the relationship between the great modern artists Picasso and Matisse.  The puns were hilarious and Nina Laden's artistic interpretations of some of their famous paintings were hilarious.  It proved to be a great lesson in appreciating differences in personality and taste when it comes to artistic expression.

From one of our favorite pages:

Mootisse called Pigasso an "Art Hog." Then Pigasso called Mootisse a "Mad Cow."

Mootisse quipped, "You paint like a two year old." Pigasso retorted, "You paint like a wild beast."

Mootisse raged, "Your colors look like mud."  Pigasso spat, "Your paintings look like color-by-numbers!"

Then things got really out of hand...

Xander liked it because paint was flying everywhere in the illustration!

So thankful for what I find in my random library catalog searches!  We will definitely be checking this out again when we study art history!  I can totally see the boys wanting to do their own Picasso or Matisse renditions in a few years after reading this book...

Makes me curious to try another book of hers: Romeow and Drooliet.

Breakfast Bliss

100% enjoyment and interaction with breakfast

Pilgrim Learning, Part 2

This last Wednesday we had our monthly co-op get together and the theme was Thanksgiving, naturally.

After reading, Pilgrim Cat, one of the boys favorite Thanksgiving related books, we did some corn planting of our own, Squanto style.  A few goldfish, popcorn kernals, sand and globs of glue later, they proudly showed off their neat rows of newly planted corn!

Next we went on a hunt for game.  Each child took an imaginary bow or musket outside for the hunt.  Turkeys, deer and rabbits were found and brought in!

Next we talked talked about how thankful the pilgrim settlers were for God's provision throughout their first tough year in the new land.  To help them start thinking about things they could be thankful to God for, we played a fun game.  The boys have been clamoring to play this again, so I'm guessing we'll have several family rounds of this in the next week!

Materials needed: a hankerchief of some kind.

Everyone sits in a circle and passes the hankerchief around while chanting:

Thankerchief, thankerchief, around you go --

Where you'll stop, nobody knows.

But when you do, someone must say,

What they are thankful for this day. 

The player holding the "thankerchief" when the poem ends, must say aloud, one thing for which they are thankful. This continues until everyone has had their turn.

Once we had ideas flowing on how many things we have to be thankful for, we revisited our Turkey Countdown from last year!

The boys have had fun filling in something they are thankful for each evening as we count down the days until Thanksgiving!

Part 1 found here.

Boys at Play

For some reason, watching little kids lost in imaginative play fascinates me.  I could sit and watch my kids play all day long.  Well, if it weren't for the fact that I actually need to get boring but necessary things like cleaning done...

Recently, Keegan re-created Noah's Ark with the blocks and was having the animals board and re-board the boat.

Xander has been spending his private play time with these cowboy and indian dollar store gems!  Sometimes they are who they appear to be and other times they double as opposing football teams playing each other.  Any guesses which side usually wins?

Treyton does not sit still for any reason...  At these times, he is usually running laps around the backyard.  He sleeps well at night!

Live History!

The bigger boys and I went to the annual American Heritate Festival this last weekend!  It was a celebration of our heritage and the sacrifice required so that we can be free today! 

The boys LOVED getting to see the soldiers from so many different era's.  For all of Keegan's bravado and obsession with the guns, he did not enjoy the Revolutionary war re-enactment.  Being only 10 feet away from about 8 soldiers firing muskets scared him just a bit.  He sat there desperately clinging to my hands and holding them over his ears!

We enjoyed trying on civil war hat replica's in the 'costume tent'.

                                               

Checking out a teepee!

Checking out the 'wares' from a trapper.  He had quite the collection, coyote, mink, fox, beaver, ermine, bear.  I learned that beaver pelts were in such high demand because they used the underhair to make felt for hats.  I've only thought of felt as being made out of wool or synthetic materials...

The boys were also quite enamoured with the blacksmith.  This is a real-live 3rd generation blacksmith that works out of Mesa, AZ.  We watched him make a spoon out of a rod of metal.  ok, ok, I was pretty enamoured too.

We'll definitely be visiting this again in the future.  It will be fun to see what they take out of it as we begin to study American history more!

Mayflower Living for Wee Folks

Despite our rocky start, our Mayflower day was still fun.  My goal was to give the kids a small, prek/k friendly, taste of life aboard a boat...

Families tacked up blankets to give themselves a little privacy aboard the Mayflower.  Although we couldn't mimic the crowded conditions aboard, we did decide to set up some "living quarters".

Our quarters were a bit fragile (playing football in and around quarters, as well as a 20 month old on the loose has a way of doing that).

After some finagling we were set for our day.  To get in the mood, the boys decided to dress the part! 

As I mentioned before, I ended up putting together our meal all by myself.  Did little pilgrim boys not cook?  They seemed to think so...

Due to 'severe' (imaginary) storms, we had dinner in our living quarters below deck.

We dined on stale biscuits, dried meat and cheese.  In a departure from historical accuracy, we didn't go for worm-infested food... No one really complained, except daddy.  But I don't think any of us would be thrilled with a diet of this and very little else.

Later that night we bedded down for the night in our tight quarters.  They had a blast and think living on the Mayflower would be lots of fun.  Mommy, on the other hand, is so thankful for modern day comforts like a dry home, soft mattress and SPACE!  One night of my feet sticking out of our living quarters and little limbs smacking me was enough.

Maybe in the future, they will grasp how hard life was on the Mayflower and how incredibly easy we have it nowadays...  For now they enjoyed stepping into another life for a while.

Part 2 of our Pilgrim learning adventure found here.
Measuring - A lesson in comparison - Noah's Ark vs. the Mayflower.

Favorite Thanksgiving/Pilgrim/Mayflower Books of ours:
The Story of Thanksgiving ~ This charming board book is the perfect introduction to Thanksgiving for the 1-4 year old.  We loved reading it last year, but were unable to get it from the library in time, this year...
Pilgrim Cat ~ This is one of their favorite pilgrim books.  It follows a pilgrim girl and her cat during their Mayflower trip as well as first year in Plymouth.  Keegan had me read this to him 5 or 6 times the first day we had it.  It introduces several key Thanksgiving story themes in a very relatable way.  The boys were running around taking turns being Samoset and Squanto.
On the Mayflower: Voyage of the Ship's Apprentice and a Passenger Girl ~ This charming book includes photographs from a reinactment aboard the Mayflower II.  The boys found the photographs mesmerizing and loved the perspective being from the young boy and girl.
You Wouldn't Want To Sail On The Mayflower!: A Trip That Took Entirely Too Long ~ Interesting tidbits about the trials of life aboard the Mayflower.  For kids a bit older, but easily adaptable down to this age.
. . . If You Sailed on the Mayflower in 1620
Off to Plymoth Rock! ~ This lyrical, rhyming book is the first book Xander ever received.  When my mom gave it to me at the Thanksgiving of 2003, none of us knew that Xander was growing inside of me!  The hopeful grandma had signed it - 'from Mom/MIL/sometime Oma.'  Subtle mom, real subtle. ;)
Squanto And The Miracle Of Thanksgiving ~ A beautiful telling of Squanto's story and how God brought him to the aid of the Pilgrims.
Samuel Eaton's Day: A Day in the Life of a Pilgrim Boy ~ The photographs in this book are captivating for my boys.  The text is a bit advanced for a 3 and 5 year old, although there are times that Xander enjoys it.  We will definitely get this and the girl companion book as the kids get older. 
Sarah Morton's Day: A Day in the Life of a Pilgrim Girl
Tapenum's Day: A Wampanoag Indian Boy In Pilgrim Times

Expectations...

I am a visionary.  I love to plan, dream and throw myself into making those dreams and plans a reality.  But there is something that keeps getting in my way...
...other people.

In this case, little people!  Have any of you guys ever had in your mind how a day would turn out, only to find it takes a different turn?

I had planned for today to be our "Mayflower" day.  But the kids just aren't as in to it as I had envisioned.  I just have to laugh.  I had visions of little boys excited to help make 'hardtack' for our meal, help with building our Mayflower living quarters/fort, etc. 

Instead, they are more interested in playing outside... 

So I'm adjusting my expectations and we'll just roll with what the day brings. 

Thankfully, they are coming around, now that they have all of their wiggles out and are thouroughly dirty.   The dirt is fitting, since I doubt they had many baths during the 6 weeks on the Mayflower!

Of Measuring and Comparing...

Now that the craziness of the last month has died down, we are picking back up with normal life!


With Thanksgiving quickly approaching the boys and I are spending time studying about the first Thanksgiving.  It seems like every year I pick up something new.  That's the fun part about learning.  It never ends.  I'm thankful for the excuse to dive in and discover more with the kids!

This week we have been reading about what life was like on the Mayflower. The boys have also both been learning about Noah's Ark. So today we grabbed our trusty tape measure (and what boy does not like one of those?) and set out to get an idea of the length and width of these two ships. (Mayflower 95ft x 27ft, Ark 450ft x 50ft)

Xander and Keegan both had fun making markings every 100 ft.

We set up cones to mark the dimentions of both ships.

And of course pretended that the cones were guns and shot at minivans driving by...  (they did not get this from me, they did not get this from me. :sigh:)
At dinner that night, Xander excitedly told his dad about what we did. He now has an idea of just how small the Mayflower was for the number of people and supplies aboard and how BIG the ark was. It is not the cutesy little boat with animals spilling over that is often depicted in children's illustrations.


Next up: Mayflower day. We will be spending time getting a small taste of what life on the Mayflower was like. Stay tuned for an update and a list of some of our favorite books on the pilgrims!

It could have been ugly...

Whew. Treyton woke up early from his nap today. I was trying to let him stay up there in hopes that he would go back to sleep, but he kept calling me. m(low gutteral sound)ommmmmmmmmmm. m(low gutteral sound)ommmmmmmmmmmmm. So I gave up on him going back to sleep and went to get him.

I walk in to the nursery to discover that he is naked from the waist down and the room reeks. In his hand is a neatly folded diaper that he is holding out for me. I'm soooooooooooo thankful that he didn't play in it, do an art project or sit down. His little hiney was covered in poop, but there was none on the sheets.

A miracle.

I'll thank God for that and will dress him in onesies, super glued together from now on! ;)

...and we all lived happily ever after.

Maybe this is a sign that he'll potty train earlier than the other two!
 
Hopeful. So hopeful.

Hooked!

Xander auditioned and landed a part as the youngest (on-stage) child in a recent production of Cheaper by the Dozen. He and I had so much fun spending every Monday afternoon 'practicing'.

Finally, he found a healthy use for his 'lack of an inside voice'. His voice is loud, even when he is trying to whisper. While that can be challenging in many environments, it is a definite asset on the stage.

He loved all of his co-stars and they were all so kind to him!  He loves hanging out with the big kids and being doted on - basically being the 'baby' of the family!

He was thrilled that it was socially acceptable to wear make-up!

He had one scene where he had a good deal of lines and loved every minute of it!  During his last performance he kept running back stage and proclaiming that he had "stole it", the show that is...

He even had a few friends who came to watch him!  He loves Mr. Paz and was super excited when Paz presented him with congratulatory bubbles!

Yup, he has the acting bug, or at least loves the social interaction, applause and encouragement to be dramatic and loud!  I'm sure more acting will be somewhere in his future!

If At First You Don't Succeed

I'm so thankful for the age of the digital camera...

Getting a quality family picture where EVERYONE is looking at the camera can be quite the challenge.

ok, I guess we'll use this one...